Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge #22: Once Upon a Time

This week's challenge: Include a fairytale or folklore figure in your project

For this week's project, I had every intention of making a card that I could send off to Card Cupids or one of my cutie patootie godkids.  However, as I played around with the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge, I realized too late that the figure was too big for a standard card.

So, instead, I created a fun place seating for a fairy-themed birthday party.  I'm realizing as I type this that I may be in for some serious crafting once Malena sees this.

Of all the fairies out there...there is none greater than Tinkerbell, so my fairy was dressed very similar to her.

Paper Doll Dress Up
Body - 5.25 inches (this was the setting for the rest of the layers)
Pixy, headwear
Pixy-s
elf, accessories 1 (shoes)
angel-s (wings)
angel, accessories 3 (the cloud) - I "might" have cut this at 2.5 or 3 inches (I forgot to write that down)

Accent Essential
I cut a scallopped square (one of the shadows) - 7.5 inch
circles (on her shoes) - 1 inch

Plantin Schoolbook
1/2 inch letters 

I cut off one of the stars from the cloud -- it was an outlier in the diecut that was sure to fall off from pretty little fingers tugging on it.  I also layered different colored stars with foam dots to give it a little dimension.

I felt the folded scallopped card was too plain underneath, so I layered two ribbons to anchor the fairy and the cloud.  I just stapled them on the background using the Tim Holtz mini stapler.  And OF COURSE I added a little bling!

March = National Craft Month & Asian Heritage Month

This March is going to be a fun month.  My BFF is getting married in Puerto Rico and it's National Craft Month!  Sooooo....my goal is to post something new I've made every night this month.  I may not craft something each night, but my goal is to have crafted enough new projects to share each day this month.

So what to start with?  Well, one of my biggest pet peeve's about the Scrapbooking Industry is the lack of ethnic/cultural variety in terms of paper, embellishments, stamps, etc.  It's the very sole reason why I decided to launch my own custom scrapbook company.  I find that I am often having to create my own embellishments/prints that reflect specific cultures/ethnicities with what's currently available.  Sometimes that's easy to do, other times it's not.

Well, besides being National Craft Month, March is also the month in which we celebrate Asian Heritage.  As someone who is constantly being asked if I'm Asian (I am about 1/16 Chinese or less), and who is the proud ninang to some Filipino-Indian/Kazakhstani godkids, I often feel a sense of responsibility to try and represent them and their celebrations visually.

In honor of National Craft Month and Asian Heritage Month, I made a card that represents one of the many rich Asian cultures (the Chinese) using nothing but Cricut cartridges and some embroidery floss.  This was a relatively simple card to make with a powerful visual impact.  It would be great to give for Chinese New Year or for a Double Happiness wedding celebration.  I've submitted this card to the Cricut Magazine call out for their 2011 card idea book....keep your fingers crossed for me!

I added a string to hang from at the top as if this was a real paper lantern

Because this is a card, you can actually stand the lantern up too. 

See?!  The card opens up for your special message.

Machine used:  Cricut Expression

Supplies
Yellow & Black Paper - Core Color Coredinations paper stack
Red Paper - Martha Stewart Crafts Craftstock Value Pack
Tim Holtz, Distress Ink - Fired Brick (lightly brushed on score lines)
Martha Stewart Scorer - scored every 1/4 inch
DMC embroidery floss - number 727

Cricut cartridges and cuts
Accent Essentials

Accnt48s - 4 3/4 inch

cut once in black (only used top and bottom 1/2 inch)

cut three times in red

Storybook
Florish1 - 1 inch (cut two times)

Ashlyn's Alphabet
Flourish - 1 inch (cut two times)
Flourish, block - 1 inch
Flourish, skinny - 1 inch

Card Cupid Challenge: use buttons and/or ribbons

I think I've talked about the great work that the organization Card Cupids does....they are a relatively new org, but offer a great way for crafters to do something to bring a smile to the faces of some brave (yet sick) kids.

I recently sent off my first packet of cards to their cupid cuties...and hope to send some more soon.

In the meantime, they surprised me by having a challenge with giveaways. It amazes me how many of these crafting blogs/orgs do great service and yet spoil us volunteers with goodies.

Anyway, they offered up a challenge to make a card with ribbons and/or buttons.

I have a lot of both, so I wanted to make sure that I forced myself to use some of my inventory and make a cute card that I can eventually send off to Card Cupids for a special munchkin!

It's not my favorite card, but I was able to use some scraps, a leftover die cut (made with the Tim Holtz line at Archivers) and lots and lots of buttons!

Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge 21: Animal Magnetism

For this challenge your project must include something related to an animal. You can create your project for or about an animal, include an animal cut, use animal print, etc. Project must also contain a tleast 2 Cricut image cuts to qualify.

If you've been a part of my life since I started scrapbooking, then you know two things are true:

1. I overspend on stuff because I do not currently have my existing inventory in any sort of order.
2. Despite the years of scrapbooking, I have YET to make my own scrapbook.

What I love about these weekly challenges is that they are forcing me to create for fun (and possible prizes).  This means I get to play with some of my supply (and organize and I search through it), and I get to slowly build up pages and cards that are meant for no one in particular.  So I may just come out with the beginning of an album for ME!

Anyway, the current and only man in my life is my kitty, Charlie.  Charlie has been a part of my family (used to be mine and Sogol's family before she divorced me to get married) since November 2005.  I rescued him from my dad's coworker's house/barn.  The entire family was allergic to cats and their barn cat had had a litter.  When we visited them, we walked away with three beautiful kittens - two of which have remained in each other's lives since day one.

Charlie and Sol....the most playful and loving brothers ever.  I just love to watch these guys together.  This was a moment in time captured early in their lives, and it's fun to realize that you can still find these two sitting just like this!

I used some left over scraps from a bin of paper I have under my desk to make a contrasting background.

The cartridges I used to complete this page were Heritage (my newest addition) and Ashlyn's Alphabet.

heart from Ashlyn's Alphabet

Trying to make sure I date pages when I can...I'm terrible at this!

Also made a conscious decision to journal...I don't want to take for granted that I might not always remember who these two fellas are!

 

Cricut Magazine call out for submission to future Bday Idea book - Celebratory Cubes

Celebratory Cubes

Friends who scrapbook with me often tease me for my "simplicity."  They say that I often find designs that are simple at first glance but when you start to piece together what it will take to make one of my items, you often realize that it's something with lots of little details....so patience and a willingness to deal with tedious repetition is often needed to finish one of my projects.  This is one of those examples.

I'm really proud of this card...can't believe it translated from my head onto the page :)

The letters on the banner were really hard to cut out because they were so small.  Some of the thinner parts of the letters didn't come out clean, so I embellished the letters with glitter domes to add dimension and hide any "imperfections."

I followed the visual triangle rule and repeated the glitter domes in the corner embellishment.

• Used Cricut Expression machine

Non-Cartridge Supplies
K&Company 12x12 Suzy Ultman Designer Paper - Lion Sleeps
5x7 card
Mark Richards Glitter Dome White Crystal stickers
Embroidery Floss in Dark Brown
Paper Source solid paper - Chocolate, Eco White


Cartridges (with cuts)
Accent Essentials

Accent27s, 1 inch (26 times in various colors)
Accent 27s, 3.25 inch
Accent 27s, 3 inch

Storybook

CrnrSwrl, Fancy/Corner (shift) - 1.74 inch

Plantin Schoolbook

letter for banner - 1/2 inch

Celebrations
girl - 1.5 inch
tribanner, blackout, shift - 1 inch

Cricut Magazine call out for submission to future Bday Idea book - A Plaidtastic Bday

I was inspired by a plaid table cloth I once saw used at a gentleman's 40th bday celebration.  I thought the soft hue and color combination was great....not the stereotypical blackwatch plaid.

 

I love that these Stampin' Up! stamps come with certain words separated (like Feliz) so I can use it in multiple ways.

• Used Cricut Expression machine

Non-Cartridge SuppliesKraft paper
Bazzill Basic Paper - Maraschino, Sunbeam
Die Cuts with a View paper - Green #2
Coredinations, core color pack - Turquoise
Adirondack Lights Acrylic Paint Dabber in Sandal
Ranger Tim Holtz Distressed Inks - Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick
Stampin' Up! Frases Basicas - Feliz, Cumpleanos (stamps)
Dimensional adhesive foam (for balloon)

Celebrations (with cuts)
Shadow

blin1 - 2 inch
blin2 - 2 inch
blin3 - 2 inch
blin4 - 2 inch
blin1-s - 2 inch
blin2-s - 2 inch
blin3-s - 2 inch
blin4-s - 2 inch

Ashlyn's Alphabet

brace - 1/2 inch

For plaid weave
Cut 1/2 and 1/4 inch strips and weaved them together.  I then used the acrylic paint to 'distress" the strips and edge of the card.

Cutest Baby Card - design from Cricut Magazine

Here I go again...I'm about to write another glorious post about my Cricut Expression. If you're tired of hearing it - you're gonna have to get over it because I am more and more amazed by all the fun things I can do with it.

My co-worker is a new aunt (yay!), and she had asked if I would make her nephew a card.  Of course I said yes....I think I was just as excited to await his arrival.

Well, I recently joined the Cricut Circle blog and subscribed to the magazine.  O-M-G....the Feb/March 2011 issue has such cute ideas, and I saw a card in there that I knew I had to produce in my own version.

How cute is this card?!  

Side note, my inspiration was on page 22 of the magazine.  The person who designed it also did some stitching on her version, but I'm not very comfortable with using a sewing machine on paper yet.  However, tomorrow, I am getting a cool stitch guide from Stampin Up! that will let me create a cool stitching effect.  Can't wait to pick that up!  I curse it out everytime I've used it from friends because it takes so long, but the look is incredible.

So what was involved in this cute creation?  Two cartridges:  Plantain Schoolbook and New Arrival.

Plaintain Schoolbook

The base stars are 5.5 inches (roly poly item).  

The top printed star is 5 inches. 

I think made a small star (I think it was 1.25 inches) 

and a small tag (1 inch).

The word boy came from the New Arrival cartridge (the whole cutout says "It's a Boy!"  I think this was a 2 inch size.

To attach the two green stars, I just had to score the top "point" of the back star and adhere the top star to that portion.  This allows for the card to open up and lay flat for writing.  Who knew that's all you needed to create such a fun effect.  I can't wait to try the same technique with another shape!

Also, I'm eager to make some cards this weekend.  Cricut magazine put out a call out for submissions for future issues.  So I've got to get creative.  I think I'm going to try and make some Spanish cards to stand out from the pack!

One of my goals this year is to get published in a national scrapbooking publication - so why not start here!