A Layout with the Artbooking Cartridge

Hi everyone! This is Maria from Stamp, Cut, Create! here to share a layout with you. I originally had a different project to post, but then my new Artbooking cartridge from CTMH arrived.  I knew the cartridge had lots of cuts for making mini albums, but didn't realize it had layouts on it too. For today's project I used the Friendship Layout found on page 79.

The handbook tells you what size to make your cuts, in this case 11". Remember to have "real dial size" off when cutting the different images to make sure that all the pieces cut out proportionally. I actually made my overlay (the black portion) a little smaller than recommended, cutting it at 10.5". Also, the photo mat cut at 11" was a little too big, so I ended up cutting that at 10.5" as well. Before placing the picture, I added a black strip of paper underneath the right side of the mat.
One of the nice things about the cartridges from CTMH is that they come with coordinating stamps. The arrow was cut at the size indicated on the stamp (1 3/4") then stamped with black ink. When you cut the images for the stamps, you do want to use "real dial size". After I stamped it, I covered the arrow with Glossy Accents.  The buddies tag was cut in white, and then I added a red strip to the back. The letters were also covered with Glossy Accents. I placed some Silver pearl stickers from Michaels on each end. The same pearl stickers were added to the black portion of the picture mat.
I thought it needed just a little something else, so I added three different Washi tapes just below the picture.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. While I am sad that this is the last month for the Fanatics blog, I'm happy to have had the opportunity to be a designer. I am honored to have been included with such a talented group of crafters.
Take care and happy crafting!
Maria

Swim Party 12x12 LO

Hi Everyone!  It's RockinRenee from IcameIsawIcreated.  Today I am sharing with you a layout created using my Imagine and the cartridge The Good Old Days.

 

Cricut Info and Other Supplies Used:

Designed by:  Renee Cooper

Cricut Machine Used: Imagine

Cricut Cartridges Used:  The Good Old Days & When I Was a Kid

Other Supplies Used:

Misc ribbon from my stash

Snap! life bingo card

Smash pinwheel

Gold metal star brad

White thread

I know that everyone is trying to beat the heat.  Hopefully, this layout will help to cool you down!  It's been great sharing with you on the Cricut Fanatics blog.   Thank you for all the scrappy love.  I would love to still share with you at IcameIsawIcreated.blogspot.com.   Come on by.  Until then, happy swimming...and scrapping,
Renee

Gotta Wear Shades

Hello everyone!  This is Erika from http://EKittyScraps.blogspot.com  I can't believe it is July already.  I am very sad to hear the news that this is the last month for the blog.  I would wake up in the morning and read the blog daily.  I will truly miss this.  I will try to post another project or two before the month is over.  Here is my LO for the month.  This is another LO for my Stepson that got married last Summer.  This is Pre-wedding fun with the Best Man, Maid of Honor and Groom. 

All of the pictures have black backgrounds with either brown or cream colored frames.  Gotta Wear Shades was cut at 3/4 inches using the Shadow feature on the Platin SchoolBook Cartridge.  I could not cut that small without using the Shadow feature.  Too much tearing of the letters on the mat.  The shades were cut at 3/4" and 1/2" (square shades) using Paper Dolls Teen Scene on page 56 and (girly shades) Forever Young cartridge from page 47.  The lens's were cut a 1/4 inch smaller to fit the frames better.   

The banner was cut from the Artiste cartridge on page 66 on kraft paper.  I then used my Festive Berries Distress Stain to color the banner.  Only took a minute or two to dry.  I used pop dots on the banner and all of the shades on the LO to add height.

I added song lyrics about sunglasses to both layouts for fun.

I backed the song lyrics with black paper.

I inked "Gotta Wear Shades" with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to help stand out. 

You now can see the pop dotted sunglasses fron this angle.



I hope you like my LO and Thanks for stopping by. 

Materials Used:

Cricut Expression Machine

Cricut Cartridges: Artiste, Forever Young, Paper Dolls Teen Scene and Platin SchoolBook

Silver and Gray Paper from The Formal Stack by DCWX

Kraft paper

Festive Berris Distress Stain

Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Pop Dots, glue 





Girly guns

Hi all, Michele here from www.michelegreen.com! Today I have a layout to share with you that is simple but effective. In this layout, my daughter is shooting her shotgun for the first time in preparation for her first turkey hunt.

I wanted it to be girly but still "manly" with the hunting aspect so I choose a pink gingham and kraft scheme. Some faux stitching around the edges of the kraft and letters ties it all together.

The title "Shoot!" is cut from Birthday Bash at 2".  The rifle is from the Cricut Lite cart Yee-haw at 3". (This is one of those cuts that you think would be a lot bigger in size but because Cricut measures in height and not width, it is deceiving.)

I hope you all have enjoyed this simple layout and please continue to visit this month, as it will be out last active month here on the blog.

Designed by: Michele Green
Cricut Cartridges Used: Birthday Bash, Yee-haw
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression
Project type: Layout
Other Materials: Paper - Cardstock, Sharpie pen

A Little late for my Post Day

Hello to all,  I hope you had a great Independence Day. 
I am working a second job this summer and have been overwhelmed. 

On to my post.  Do you ever have those photos you just can't seem to scrap?  I found these older photos of my girls a coupe of weeks ago and knew just what to do.  I used Shall we Dance to create these pages.  I cut the pieces from white cardstock and used my chalks to color them.  I also gave one of the "girls"  a hair cut to create a different look.  Even the "Free Spirit" title came from the Shall We Dance cart.  Sometimes we just have to explore a cart to find creative ways to use it.

 

 

A Tiny Treasures Birthday Card

Hello, crafters!  This is Lori from the Singing Shell and today I have for you a child's birthday card.  When I looked through the Tiny Treasures booklet, this happy little bird grabbed my attention for some reason.  Maybe because it was so chubby and cuddly with big round eyes :-)

First, I wrapped some chevon pattern washi tape onto a white sheet of paper. Next, I dry embossed the paper  with Baby's Breath embossing folder to give background some texture without taking the focus away from the fun little bird.  I have wrapped the washi first because it would be hard for the washi tape to adhere to the paper otherwise.

I cut my bird  pieces at 2.5 on the Cricut and assembled them.  I added a little white highlight on the eye so it didn't look so flat. 

I inked the edges with a little Tea Dye Distress Ink because it has a peachy undertone for depth.  I also added Glossy Accents onto the round cut out pieces on the tail to help them pop out.  Without the Glossy Accents the little circles might not pop out enough because of the patterns and colors on the bird.



I used pop dots to adhere the bird to the card.

Lastly, I worked with the heart.  I cut out the heart from Fabulous Findings at .75 inches.  I stamped "wish" with Staz-On ink because I knew I wanted to spritz the heart with some Gilmmer Mist. I used two different types of mists.  When it dried, I threaded the baker's twine through the hole, tied it and added a rhinestone.

So there it is!  A birthday card for a baby or a girl!

Designed by: Lori Sjogren

Cricut Cartridges Used: Tiny Treasures, Fabulous Finds

Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression
Project type: Birthday Card

Other Materials: Paper - Stampin' Up (pattern), Bazille (olive), Recollections (white & cream).  Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist: Iridescent Gold, Creme de Cocoa.  Sentiment - Papertrey Ink Mega Messages.  Ink Pads - Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye, Staz-On Timber Brown.Embossing Folder - Provocraft Baby's Breath. Twine, washi tape from my stash.

The First Few Years layout

Hello Fanatic friends. Cindy here from Scrap-obsessed.blogspot. I recently purchased the new Cricut cartridge called The First Few Years. I am loving the layout ideas and how simple it is to get everything cut out because the booklet tells you exactly what size to cut each piece. I started at the beginning with the first layout.

My son and daughter in law just announced they are going to have another baby girl. She is due in October, so I thought it would be nice to have some layouts ready for her arrival. All of the cuts are from the First Few Years cartridge except for the butterflies. I made those using a couple of punches from Stampin' Up. All of the purple and gray papers are from Stampin' Up. I also used Wisteria Wonder ink to sponge the edges of each piece.

Cut sizes:
Photo mat 9.75"
Banner on top 2.25"
Title 1"
Baby Carriage 3"
Circle under carriage 2"
Tags on the left side were both cut at 2.25"

I hope you like my project today and will stop by my blog for future layouts from this cartridge.

Happy Birthday on 4th of July

Greetings to my fellow Cricuteers !  It's Debbie O'Neal from Scrap Me Quick Designs to show you my final Cricut FANatics Blog project as we are closing the blog as of July 31st.  Please read the farewell details HERE.

 

My final project to show you is for my dad. His birthday is actually on the 4th of July.  When we were little kiddos, he used to tell us the fireworks were all for him !  Can you imagine our wonder that all those lovely explosions in the sky were just for him? As I got older, Dad finally had to fuss up that they were actually for 4th of July, not just his special birthday.  

 

4th of July and Dad's birthday were always special occasions with picnics and watermelon and watching the fireworks together.  It still is when we can get the family together.

 

This year I made dad an extra special card for his extra special 4th of July birthday card as this is his 75th birthday and we are glad he is still here to celebrate with us as he struggles with lung cancer.

 

Okay, now you know why I made what I did, time to show you what I actually made.

 

4th of JULY BIRTHDAY CARD:

 

Using the Independence Day Cricut Cartridge, I selected the Uncle Sam hat image, then WELDED  two of the shapes together to create a card. I cut it out at 5.24 inches.  Tip: be sure and flip one of the images before you weld it so when you close the card, the shape matches up correctly.

Next I cut out the hat layers using glitter paper to give it that special touch. I wanted to add a silver star background to the blue layer piece so I used the HIDE Feature on a second banded piece to eliminate the stars as you see on the silver glitter paper. 

Now that I had the glitter paper cut out, I needed to adhere the layers.  The best way to add glittered layers together is to use score tape.  You can see here how I did that to add the blue band to the silver under layer. 

Next, I added the red glitter paper to the front of the hat.  Then I decided I wanted to stamp a birthday sentiment to the front of the card. But since the shape was curved, I needed to do a little something special to make it look right.  Taking an acrylic block and a wax pencil, I drew the shape of the curve on the block.

 

Next I flipped over the block and added the birthday sentiment stamp letters placing them within the curved shape. I used silver ink to stamp the sentiment.  The sentiment was made using CTMH A1117 A Type Face Alpha set.

 

As you can see below, I also added the word DAD in glitter paper to front of the card. 

I just love how this turned out !

 

On the inside of the card, I stamped a sentiment which says "May this year be your Grandest year yet" which I also stamped in silver.  I used the star negative pieces from the hat band to decorate the inside.  The stamp is from CTMH D1491 Hooray Bouquet.

 

I have a feeling my dad is gonna love his special 4th of July Birthday !

 

Be sure and come follow me over at Scrap Me Quick Designs as I continue my die cutting exploration of not only the Cricut but also the Silhouette. I have lots of things planned with tutorials and tips to inspire you to keep creating !

 

Cricut Info and Other Supplies Used:

Designed by:  Debbie O'Neal

Cricut Machine Used: Expression

Cricut Cartridge Used:  Independence Day

Other Supplies Used: CTMH Stamp Sets, glitter paper, cardstock, silver ColorBox ink, acrylic block 

Blog Farewell Announcement as of July 31st

Happy July 1st everyone !  It's Debbie of http://www.scrapmequickdesigns.com/ and your Cricut FANatics Blog Administrator. 

 

As another year in the Cricut Circle comes to an end this month, it is time to sit back and reflect on all that we have done here on Cricut FANatics over the past year since we started the blog for our fellow Circlets and to inspire other Cricut users. 

 

Since September 1, 2012, the day we opened the blog we have had :

• 340 Followers
• 322 Posts
• 5,340 published comments on those posts
• 92,713 Page Views
• Visitors from around the world...USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, France, Latvia and Australia
• Hosted numerous Challenges to inspire people to actually USE their Cricut machines AND
• Last but not least, some of the AMAZING CRICUT PROJECTS FROM OUR WONDERFULLY TALENTED CRICUT FANATICS DESIGN TEAM !!!

WOW...WHAT AN AWESOME JOURNEY WE HAVE HAD THIS YEAR!

 

It's been my privilege to lead the effort on the blog along with my fellow Challenge Administers, Rebecca Maddux and Amy Sgro this past year.  But all good things must come to an end, right? 

 

I have made the sad decision based on numerous reasons to bring the Cricut FANatics blog to a close and to stop actively posting projects on the Cricut FANatics Blog by our designers as of July 31, 2013.  

 

But don't worry, we are not wiping out the blog, we plan to leave the blog up and available for viewing as all of our projects are searchable by project type, machine, Cricut cartridges so you can still use Cricut FANatics as the project inspiration it was originally intended. 

 

I am encouraging our CURRENT CRICUT FANATIC DESIGNERS...PLEASE POST YOUR PROJECTS THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF JULY as a great final send off of Cricut FANatics.  Feel free to post more than one project if you want...the more the merrier.

 

And readers, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LEAVE SOME LOVE FOR OUR CRICUT FANATIC DESIGNERS BY POSTING COMMENTS TO LET THEM KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HAVE APPRECIATED THEIR WORK.

 

Again, it has been an incredible journey to start this blog and hopefully you will follow me  over at Scrap Me Quick Designs where I inspire die cut inspiration with both the Cricut and Silhouette electronic machines and manual die cutting techniques as well.

 

Happy Die Cutting my friends !

 

Debbie O'Neal

www.scrapmequickdesigns.com 

     
   

Whisking You Well

Hi There,

Yvonne here from Ink-spirations. Today's card is for a friend who recently graduated from culinary school.

I recently added a new cartridge to my collection. Wild Card 2. I really like this cartridge. It comes with a font, envelope, card, phrase and icon features.

The envelope and card were cut at 5" and the phrase cut at 1.25".
The pattern paper from Kate's Kitchen as are the co-ordinating colors. Cream cardstock Stampin' Up.

Tim Holtz distress inks for shading. Weathered Wood, Barn Door, Vintage Brown, Antique Linen.

Congratulations - Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake - .75"

Creative Cards Happy Birthday Card

Welcome to another project at Cricut Fanatics!  Diane here from the blog http://happyscrapperdiane.blogspot.com with a quick card project. I created a card using the new Creative Cards cartridge. I had to wait till I could put it in my Gypsy to use it. I customized  the card in Gypsy as well to be the size I needed.

I size the card base in the Gypsy at 10 x 7 inches.  This is the 9th card on the brochure instuctions.

I folded the card at the marks.  I did not add the layer piece so that I could use the white front.

I cut the flowers for the outside at 4.84 x 5.00 inches and the leaves at 5.21 x 5.00.  The flower for the inside is cut at 2.34 x 2.41 and the leaves at 2.51 x 2.41.  I put the flower on the front together with fabric plaid brad and used a jewel on the inside flower.

The black strip was cut at 7 inches to fit the front of the card and is one inch wide. I attached the flower

The banner on the card with the stamped Happy Birthday is from the 10th card and I cut them at 3.5 and 4 inches.  I am not sure what the stamp is, but had it in my stash. 

I added a strip on the bottom of the card to match the front and stamped a verse from some Close to My Heart stamps. The pattern paper was something in my stash and not sure what it is. The card stock is Michaels.

Best in Class Celebration

Good morning Cricut Fanatics! Hope you are enjoying your summer so far.

This is Rita from Rita's Paper Obsession. Every year my boss recognizes our work unit with a luncheon celebration.  She comes up with a theme and it's my job to create her vision.  This year's theme was "Best in Class".  She wanted to see our accomplishments recognized with blue ribbons.  Here's our accomplishments highlighted on our conference room wall.

The project had to be quick and simple as I had a limited amount of time so I made the rosettes for the banner and ribbons using strips cut from card stock. 

The banner and letters were cut from the Birthday Bash cart.

I cut the leaf wreath on the ribbon from the Sweathearts cart and the stars are from George and Basic Shapes from gold poster board.

Our celebrations must include party favors.  My boss wanted everyone to have a blue ribbon.

I found 1 1/2 inch blue lollipops at the party store and decided to attach a smaller version of the blue ribbon to them.  The "Best in Class" was a computer image that matched everything perfectly.

Thank you for stopping by today.  May you have a wonderful summer full of memories worthy of scrapping!

Designed by: Rita Poteat
Cricut Cartridges Used: Birthday Bash, George and Basic Shapes, Sweethearts
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression
Project type: Party decorations

Thanks Teacher

 

 

 

Hello this is Terri from www.scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com. Where oh where has the year gone. I can't believe it's JUNE already. I must admit I almost missed the post for today - as the month totally got away from me.

 



So we all know I love love love playing with vinyl. So a few months back before school was out for the summer I made these. My daughter went  2 years to the same preschool. While, I was a little nervous about her going 2 years ago my daughter's teachers put me at ease. They were simple the BEST. They genuinely loved kids. So I wanted to make these fun flower pots for them as a HUGE thank you gift.

 

I used pots I found from Michael's. They were 50% off when I bought them.  The one teacher likes purple and other green/blue. So I thought these were perfect.

 

I cut the words from white vinyl. I used billionaire and welded the words together. The words are just over 1.12".

 

The saying, "Thanks for helping me grow". The teachers loved them so much.

 

I know it's a super quick and easy project but the result and gift was fantastic.

 

I kiss cut the vinyl by turning my blade to 3, pressure to 3, and speed to 3 or medium.

 

I then used washi tape to transfer the words to the flower pots.

 

And I leave you with my love of this fun little project. Lots of people know I love my Blackhawks. My hubby is a true Chicagoan - me a transplant Chicagoan (I grew up down state IL). I love watching hockey. My MIL a few years ago bought my daughter this hockey Jersey and I had to make a photo layout with it. I used PKS face on the little hockey girl. The  girl was made from paper dolls and she is 3". As you can see this is from 2010 -- so with them winning the STANLEY CUP I guess I should make another layout of her w/ a 2013 cup....

 



Designed by Terri Szymanski

 

Gypsy and Expression used

 

Cartridge: Billionaire cut at 1.12"

 

Supplies: White Vinyl

 

 

You're A Hoot!

Hi everyone! It's Colleen from Col's Creative Corner here today with a cute idea for home décor. I am going to be a Great Aunt in August and I am beyond thrilled about this baby. Even more exciting is that we will be welcoming a little girl into our family! This is a big deal because I have a son and my brother has 4 sons, so little girls are in short supply in our family. LOL!

The theme for the baby's nursery is forest animals, owls are the focus. I ordered the crib set and curtains that were on the baby's registry, but decided to make the wall art with my Cricut. There are many owls to choose from on the cartridges I own, but I wanted to make the art as close to the pictures from the registry as I could. The owls are from Taggies and this is what they look like.

They are very cute, but were expensive. That gave me the idea to fire up my Cricut and make my own version for the baby's room. I looked for a match to the background in the craft stores, but couldn't find any. A Circle member suggested that I use my Imagine to re-create the paper, and that is what I did. I actually used the CCR with my Imagine to make the paper. I used Creative Memories Holiday Tags and Frames for the circles and colored them with colors from Wrap It Up. It turned out great!

 

 

 

I chose the owl from Create A Critter for my owls. I wanted my owls to look as close to the Taggies owls, so I used the hide contour in the CCR and hid the markings on the owl's belly. I replaced them with flowers from Art Philosophy and Create A Critter. I also hid the sleepy eyes and replaced them with the flower from the Zebra layer on Create A Critter. I cut 2 extra white shadows of the owl and trimmed away most of the owl so that I would have white eyes. After I did that, I realized I could have just cut two pieces of white scrap paper and got the same result. LOL! I also cut an extra blue top layer and a pale green shadow layer. I cut away the body from the blue layer and the head from the pale green layer. Here is how the blue layer looked trimmed. In my haste to piece the owl together, I forgot to take a picture of the light green section.

 

I layered them over the bright pink shadow and added the eyes, feet and beak. Then I went to work on the branch. I found a branch I liked on Wall Décor and More. It comes from the owl cut on that cartridge. I cut the leaves away and added hearts that I cut from Doodlecharms. I inked the hearts and branches with Stampin' Up inks.

 

I got a couple of frames in Michaels to frame my owls. They are shadow box frames, but they give you an option of how far back you would like to place your art. Since the picture was flat, I used all three spacers that came with the frame. Here are my owls.

 

 

 

                                                                                 

The pictures didn't come out very good. I think I should have taken a couple before I framed them. Here are a couple of close ups of the owls.

 

 

I really hope that the baby enjoys the owls from Aunt Colleen. It was so much fun making all the baby things for the Baby Shower today. I will be posting more of my baby room décor that I created on my personal blog later this week. Stop on by and visit me!

 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

 

Designed By: Colleen McCauley

Designed With CCR 

Machine Used: Cricut Expression AE2 and Imagine

Carts: Wall Décor and More, Doodlecharms, Art Philosophy, Create A Critter.

Imagine Carts: Wrap It Up for Circle Colors and Creative Memories Holiday Tags and Frames for Circles.

Extras: Stampin' Up Inks and Adhesives.