Thanks everyone for sharing which cartridge is your favorite...at the moment anyway. I know that favorites constantly change. As we get closer to Halloween I know that I will focus a lot more on Halloween cards and temporarily forget how much I love Create A Critter. :o)
I didnt get to watch it yet but I will be doing so tomorrow :) My favorite cartridge has to be Doodlecharms ... I love all of the cute things it has on it and i use it over and over again :)
Please e-mail me your name and address info to scraphappypapercrafter@gmail.com and I will mail out some stickers from my stash.
Trying to catch up on all of my blogging info now that I'm done with the big birthday party fun. :o)
I am excited to participate in the Cricut Craft Room Olympic Blog Hop to celebrate the beginning of the 2012 Summer Olympics. I decided to make this page layout for my new Smash Book to disply some pictures of my 3 year old, Meghan learning how to do summersalts. She was SO excited when she saw the gymnastics on the Olympic trials.
I used my old Creative Memories circle punch to make the Olympic rings, but you can easily do this with your George and Basic Shapes cartridge on the Cricut if you don't have two hole punches of different sizes.
I used the Twinkle Toes cartridge to make my little gymnist girl and the Luau cartridge to make the flame.
Cartridges - Twinkle Toes, Luau, George and Basic Shapes
Stamps - K Andrew Designs "Of Mice and Little Men"
Ok here's what I've created so far for my daughter's princess party. Just in case any of you ever plan one these are some sweet ideas.
For the game I'm doing "Pin The Kiss On The Frog." This seriously turned out cute. You COULD use your Cricut for it, but I really wanted to draw a cartoon frog on 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and cut everything out by hand. I seriously love to draw, so I rotate between Cricut love and drawing love...which explains the two different blogs. :o) http://www.thecricutchirp.com/ for Cricut love and http://www.scraphappypapercrafter.com/ for my love of digital stamps. I even made some lilly pad blind folds out of cardstock and ribbon.
I definitely utilized my Xyron sticker maker and found some AWESOME Disney princess images to print in color and make stickers out of. I used a TON of Studio G clear glitter on pretty much every decoration. This turned out pretty awesome on the stickers. I know, I know you NEED to see pictures. I'll post some once I get all of the decorations up and will probably do a video on it too.
I made little Disney Princess coloring books on the computer with free coloring images that I found on www.google.com/images I printed the covers on white cardstock in color and put some more glitter on the images to bling them up a bit. They turned out great!
I did make the happy birthday banner on my Cricut using the Princess Party cartridge. I made the 3d shoe on here too, but Meghan thought it was a real shoe and put it on and broke it......I might still use it. :o) It looked really cute on her little foot. I also cut out a princess from Once Upon A Princess and put some white and pink baker's twin on her to hang up as a decoration.
I made chinese paper lanters to stirng white Christmas lights through out of 12 x 12 scrapbook papers and Studio G glitter. :o) (remember it's pretty much on everything)
I created some large rosettes out of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and white and pink bakers twine to hang them with.
The princess wands turned out awesome. I used wooden cake dowel rods for the wands and glued ribbon to them with Scott's Quick Dry Glue. I glued flowers to the top of each wand and added Studio G glitter to the petals. SO CUTE!
I designed and printed out Princess For A Day certificates to give to all the little girls. I rolled them up and tied cute yellow ribbon around each one.
Ok so INSTEAD of Craft Wars Trivia this week let's do a random drawing for a little fun. I'll pick one lucky winner for some stickers from my stash from the comments below. Here's the question.....
What is your favorite Cricut cartridge and why do you love it so much???
Ok if you've been following along you may already know that my favorite cartridge is Create A Critter because of the diversity that it gives towards pretty much any project. LOVE IT!!!
I did watch Craft Wars last night and it was better than last week. I loved the idea of a chalk board tree and it reminded me SO much of the year my parents had to move quickly and we didn't have a real Christmas tree. I took a piece of dry wall that was left over from redoing the kitchen and I painted a Christmas tree on it and wrapped white Christmas lights around it. That tree is still one of my mom's favorites.
It was kind of crazy that the winner of Craft Wars this week hardly used any of the challenge materials. I did like her tree better, but she didn't particularly follow the challenge of using shipping materials to make a Christmas tree. I liked the ornaments that the other competitor made, but her tree really wasn't all that great looking. It kinda looked like it belonged on a Mardi Gras float. If you got to watch it, what did you think of the episode?
Deadline for submission is Sunday July 29th Midnight
There's just under a week left to submit your entry in the current "Too Sweet To Eat" Cricut challenge. I've really enjoyed seeing all of the entries so far!!
So yesterday I diligently started working on decorations for Princess Meghan's upcoming 3rd birthday party on the 28th. I wanted to do it after she went to bed so she wouldn't see everything and go into an "I WANT THAT" fit. I'll share pictures when I get it all done. :o)
Cricut Cartridge Review - Twinkle Toes
Cricut Lite Cartridge
Rating ***** Ease of Use - Beginner
As soon as I saw the Cricut Lite Cartridge, Twinkle Toes I knew I HAD to have it. The cuts all remind me so much of my three year old, Meghan and I knew the images provided would be excellent to include in projects for my little dance princess. I definitely do NOT regret this cartridge buy as the diversity provided in the cuts is perfect for cards, crafts and scrapbook pages.
I like the fact that there are dancing animals on this cartridge as well as children. The accesories provided are also excellent for other themes. The piano goes along with music themes, the stage goes with theater and there are princess images as well. There are also wonderful sentiments for things other than regular dance, like cheering. The shoes would be perfect for a Wizard of Oz themed project as they look like great ruby slippers. There is so much more that you can do with Twinkle Toes than you may originally think about when you look at the box. The girls, or boy, on the cartridge also don't HAVE TO be dancers. You can easily make these cuts for use on gymnastics layouts as well. You'll see an example of this next weekend.
Here's a fun crocodile card that I made and posted recently.
The reason that I gave this a "beginner" rating for ease of use is due to the fact that each image only ever requires four cuts. The die cuts are super easy to put together and figure out, so this cartridge would be absolutely perfect for a first time Cricut user.
I enjoyed putting some Stampin Up bling on this little dancer card. I do want to mention that I manipulated this cut so I could change her hair color. Since there are only ever four cuts on each image, you may want to cut one more than once if you find that you need a different hair color than the base image, it is very easy to cut out the hair yourself if you recut the base image in the color you want. Otherwise, this little girl would have had black hair, which wasn't what I wanted for this cut. I also used a white gel pen to color in her eyes and added the black dot because I like this look better than just black eyes.
I added these two sweet dancing animals to the baby album that I made for my friend. These cuts show that this cartridge is appropriate for children as young as babies all the way up to older girls that are in cheerleading and dance. This broad range of diversity of use is one of the reasons that I gave this Cricut Lite cartridge a five star rating. The fact that Provocraft provided such a large amount of accesories and that the images are so easy to piece together are two other reasons for the five star rating. Don't forget that this is a Cricut Lite cartridge, so when I say it has a lot of images I mean a lot for a Cricut Lite cartridge. Lite cartridges come with fewer images and cost less money than full content cartridges. The fact that this cartridge costs less and is super easy to use is another reason to reccomend this product to a first time Cricut user as the money invested in the item is low.
I highly reccomend Twinkle Toes as it is now one of my favorites. You'll see some more projects on this one next weekend that I will be entering into a fun blog hop. Let me know if you've used this cartridge and what you think of it. Thanks for following along. Happy Crafting!!!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
I used the Twinkle Toes Cricut cartridge and the K Andrew Fashionable Friends stamp set. I'm having a lot of fun with this cartridge. I might have to review it soon. I am entering this card into the CardzTV challenge this week.
Alright, it's time to test your Craft Wars knowledge again. I was pretty sleepy last night, but I still managed to stay up and watch the show. I was a little surprised about who got booted out of the first round. Were you? I was not at all surprised about who won at the end.
Tell me what the final project was this week on Craft Wars for a chance (US RESIDENT) to win some stickers from my stash. (NON US RESIDENT) or a free digi drawn by ScrapHappy Paper Crafter.
Deadline Sunday July 22nd midnight
Thanks for playing along!!!
Monday, July 16, 2012
So how would you use your Cricut to decorate this crate drawer? This one is going in my craft room.
Do you have a special way to display your favorite cards? I found these little clothespins at Joanns today and thought they would be great for displaying favorite cards.
It was a cute animal abode, aka dog house. The table was really cute. The other house was really well built, she just didn't think outside the box enough.
E-mail me your name and address info to scraphappypapercrafter@gmail.com and I will send out some stickers from my stash. Happy Crafting!
Wow sorry guys and gals blogger is looking pretty wonky today. I'll have to open a ticket and see what is up with that, but let's go ahead with the winners of The Cricut Chirp Challenge 1 - A Smiling Sparkling Sun.
Chosen by Random.org is #7 Becky F
Becky you can e-mail me your name and address to scraphappypapercrafter@gmail.com and I will get your prize pack mailed by the end of the month! :o)
The head soloist award goes to Paws To Scrap
You can grab your Head Soloist award blingee to proudly post on your blog on my side bar....or bottom bar as blogger is really weird today. :o)
Special Mention
Crafting With My Chis
Crafted With Love By Karen
We will do another recipe challenge at the beginning of August. Thanks for playing along. I LOVED seeing ALL of your smiling sparkling suns!
Thanks for joining in on The Cricut Chirp Challenge #2. We're really looking forward to seeing your excellent Cricut creations!
The Challenge - Too Sweet To Eat
Make a card, layout or home decor item using any sort of sweet treat cut like a cupcake, cake or candy.
(Create A Critter)
Submit your picture of your challenge entry into the linky tool below by midnight on Tuesday July 31st, 2012 to be entered into the drawing to win an RCK prize pack from The Cricut Chirp Challenge Blog. If the winner is chosen from outside the USA you may choose your own personalized digi theme from ScrapHappy Paper Crafter.
Challenge Rules*You must use at least one Cricut cut on this challenge, after all this is a Cricut challenge blog.
*Let us know which Cricut cartridge that you used. If we really like your project it's nice to know where you got the cut from.
*Prizes can only be shipped to US residents due to shipping costs.
*If the winner is chosen from outside the USA you may choose your own personalized digi theme from ScrapHappy Paper Crafter.
*HAVE FUN.
*Feel free to enter as many of your own card creations into the challenge as you want.
*No back-linking. Please create a new project for the challenge.
So I think that the Simply Charmed cartridge is probably my second favorite Cricut cartridge that I have, and there are quite a few so it will take me forever to review them all. I love the diversity of Simply Charmed, but most of all I love that it has something special for every season that you can use on scrapbooking projects, card layouts, and home decor items.
Another really fun thing about this cartridge is the fact that it has a number of "couple" cuts for boy and girls. So, if you maybe wanted to do a wedding or anniverary card with penguins or even scarecrows, you have boy and girl cuts for both of those themes. They also have the more traditional bride and groom that you could go with, but it's so much more fun to do animals.
This little guy, believe it or not, is the groom from Simply Charmed. I created the bagpipes on my Gypsy by finagling items from the George and Basics Shapes cartridge and hand piecing the kilt and hat. My husband is a bagpiper, so this was a fun card to make for him for St. PatricksDay. I Designed the paper myself as a free digital file on my sister site http://www.scraphappypapercrafter.com/
The cartridge also has a number of excellent cuts for birthdays as well. Much like the Create A Critter cartridge, Simply Charmed also has some great accesory items that you can do along with the die cuts. Due to the diversity, ease of use, and sheer number of AWESOME cuts on this cartridge, I gave it a five star rating. Simply Charmed has great beginner to intermediate cuts to piece. The cuts are not too super small and most of them are very easy to figure out, so if you are new to Cricut this is a good cartridge for you to either start with or get as a second or third addition to your die cut inventory.
Many of the simply charmed cuts already come with faces on them, but if you have a tool like the Gypsy, you can easily remove the face and ad your own on with a hand drawing or face stamp. Here is an example of a fun pie card that I drew a face on and an easy tutorial on how to draw similar faces yourself.
I love using Simply Charmed for Christmas cards as the cuts are seriously cute and fun for holidays. Here are the great Santa cards that I made recently for my Christmas in July project.
To be honest the reason I ran out and got this cartridge was because of ONE diecut that I saw and I absolutely had to have. Here he is.
Oh and he's on an action wobble too, so he's AWESOME!!!!! This orange sparkle paper is just perfect for his hair.
In closing, the Simply Charmed cartridge is simply amazing and can be used any time of the year. Here are a couple more great projects that I've used this wonderful cartridge on.
I made this thank you card using the Twinkle Toes Cricut cartridge. I love how this little dancer turned out. Isn't she adorable! I also used Twinkle Toes on a baby album I just finished for a friend, so I will have to share that project as well.
Don't forget, the deadline for the current challenge is coming up on the 15th. I LOVE all of the "smiling sparkling sun" projects that have been posted so far. One of the reasons that I love crafting SO much is that I get the chance to make something that makes someone smile.
If you haven't gotten the chance to submit your project for the challenge, you can find the post under the current challenges tab at the top of the site or by clicking HERE.
So did anyone watch Craft Wars last night??? I know, I didn't remind you it was coming on, but I definitely watched it. My husband and I are really getting into the show and critiquing what people do and who we think will win. I have to say that I was a little surprised at the final outcome. You definitely can't guess at the beginning of the episode who will win based on the work they've done before.
I did like the SUPER GLITTERY project that the winner made. Tell me what this project was in the comments below for a chance to win some stickers from my stash. You have untiil Sunday the 15th to respond, JUST IN CASE you recorded the show and haven't gotten to see it yet.
congrats to.....marilyn our craft wars trivia winner. email me your address info and i will send your stickers out. scraphappypapercrafter@gmail.com
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Some more Christmas in July.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Is anyone up for Christmas in July? I used the Simply Charmed cartridge on this fun Christmas card.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
I made this cute card for the Operation Write Home project. I used the Sesame Street Friends and Wrap It Up cartridges. I cut Cookie Monster at 3.5 and the hat at .75 on my Gypsy. I would recommend cutting Cookie Monster at 4" or bigger though because some cookie parts were way too small.
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Wednesday, July 4, 2012
I used the Paisley cartridge on this fun bee card. I think I'm a little spoiled with my Gypsy since I can search through all my cartridges to fine every bee image I have and choose the perfect cut for each project. The sentiment is from K Andrew Designs "Southern Sayings" set.
I'm looking forward to another crafty and exciting episode of Craft Wars on TLC! Let's play a game!!! I'll send one lucky participant (USA RESIDENT ONLY) (chosen from random.org) a couple packs of scrapbooking stickers if you are chosen from the list of comments below.
Tell me what the FINAL project / task on Craft Wars tonight was. You'll have until Sunday July 8th at midnight to answer below, just in case you had to record the episode and watch it later.
10pm EST 9pm CENTRAL
Monday, July 2, 2012
I used the Independence Day Cricut cartridge and the K Andrew Designs Sweet July stamp set on this 4th of July card. The fireworks turned out really cute with all of the Studio G and red Stampin Up glitter. I drew the fireworks on first with a white gel pen and then went over them with the glitter glue.
I used the K Andrew stamp set Food For Thought and the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge on this cute card. The background paper is embossed with the Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder.
I really enjoy working with the Cricut cartridge, Country Life.I gave it an intermediate level of difficulty for a number of reasons.When you look at the images above you will find that there are many intricate cuts that could make these images difficult to cut on the Cricut at small sizes.There are also layers of small paper piecing required on each image, which can be difficult to figure out for first time Cricut users.You’ll want to make sure to look at the book carefully before piecing your die cut together.
I gave this cartridge a four star rating because it does have many images that you can use on multiple projects, but it’s missing the extra fun accessories that would give it a five star rating.There are also several that, even though they are very cute, you might have trouble finding a use for them on your projects.
I love the country style on this cartridge. The images would be perfect for a country chic kitchen. The above sentiment came from Mary at CardzTV and was perfect for this card. The basket and grass came from Create a Critter while the eggs are from George and Basic Shapes and cut using my Gypsy to get them this small.
I love this great rocking chair image with the cat. It looks so relaxing like it belongs on a nice country porch somewhere.
Believe it or not, not all cute animals come from the Create A Critter cartridge. I love this sheep because of the little swirls that are cut out on it. You could lightly rub some Tim Holtz Tea Die distress ink or this to give it more definition, but I hadn't discovered that technique yet when I did this cut.
This shadow box is by far my favorite project that I used the Country Life cartridge on. The sewing machine has quite a few details to glue and cut, but when complete it looks great. I got the scissor and dress form cuts from Wall Decor and More. I copied my measuring tape on my scanner and printed it out, so no I didn't cut up my real measuring tape, which was the first thing my husband asked me. :-) The plan is to hang this up on the wall by my sewing machine, if I can ever find the nails.
In closing, over all this is a very cute cartridge with great style. If you don't own it yet I would definitely reccomend it. I hope that this review was helpful. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know or see about this cartridge.
Can you believe that it's July already? The year is more than half way over now. On this card I used Create a Critter and the Independence Day Cricut cartridges. Studio G glitter added some nice bling to the hat and tires and the K Andrew Designs "Sweet July" stamp set gave me the perfect sentiments. The cute star buttons from Joanns added the perfect touch to the little red wagon.
