First projects as a Cooking with Cricut DT member! Woo hoo!!

So, have any of you seen the clip of Kristin Bell on the Ellen show discussing a sloth? If you haven't  you need to check it out. Quite possibly one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time, and it about sums up how I felt when I found out I got picked to be on the design team for Cooking with Cricut. Watch the whole thing...it is worth the 3 min and 43 seconds. I promise.

Anyway, I am overjoyed to be joining the group of crafters at Cooking with Cricut and even more excited that our first project is in Celebration of Dr Seuss and Read Across America.

Dr. Seuss was an interesting challenge - there isn't a Dr Seuss cartridge, afterall!  I wanted to incorporate several different stories into a little treat bag for my kids.

Thing 1 and Thing 1 are cut from a digi stamp from Melin at Paper Crafting World. I had never used a digi stamp before, but loved these for this project (since I often call my kids Thing 1 and Thing 2, lol). I printed her image out on 3 colors of paper, handcut them and layered them.

The bag is cut from Mini Monsters. 

(I used my Gypsy to hide the mosnster face that was supposed to be cut into it as I just wanted a plain bag.)

Next came one of our favorite stories as a family "Wocket in My Pocket". The Wocket is cut from Mini Monsters and is actually a card (Mini-monsters has a card version of each monster on the cartridge). In the middle is what  wocket is really supposed to look like.

Next came the treats for inside the bag. First I made them each a bookmark. This is cut from B is for Boy. I only cut the base layer of the fish and used the gypsy to hide it's scales and face. I hand cut the oval eye and drew in Seuss-Like lines/face to make it look more like the fish from The Cat in the Hat.

And then for my favorite part. Green Eggs and "Hamm". I used my Toy Story Cartridge to cut out Hamm (the piggy bank from Toy Story) and attached it to a bag of green foil covered eggs). I didn't label it just so I can see how long it takes my kids to figure out :)

I hope you enjoyed my project! It was so much fun to make (Can't wait to give it to the kids!)

Head over to Cooking with Cricut to link up your Dr Seuss project or a project that encourages reading!

Once Upon a Princess 3D Castle tutorial

I have been eyeing the castle on the Once Upon a Princess cartridge for quite some time, but it has looked so overly involved I was scared of it. It REALLY was not that bad. The hardest part was figuring out which cut was which part of the castle so I could make sure I had the right color paper for the right cut. Once I figured that out it was not difficult...just time consuming. Once all the cuts were done it took me about an hour to fold/glue/assemble completely.

This is a very "bare bones" version. Nothing extra at all 

(it was my practice before making a very gorgeous pink one, lol).  

I figured I would post  some tips/suggestions I figured out in case others wanted to try making one.

First, I don't know how I would have done this as smoothly and as quickly as I did without my Martha Stewart scoring board. It was a life saver. If you don't have one, take your 40% off an item coupon to Micheal's and get one. I love mine! You have to score each column several times but more importantly, you have to score each roof and the lines would be a bit difficult to fold without scoring I think.

Here are images of my cartridge book with what each piece is written in.

The lower image is the white towers on my castle. 

The shifted image is the very light gray (almost white) wall that completely surrounds the tall white towers.

Sorry this one is a bit blurry. This is the layer on page 65. 

The base layer has two parts:

    The top is the piece that holds the two tall white towers in place. 

         (It is essentially the floor inside that little inner fort that you cut.)

    The bottom is the two outer side walls.

Shift on this layer is going to be the floor that surrounds the little fort (lies between the outside walls and the inner fort). **The little crown looking things on the outside of the castle are actually the tabs from this floor. They pass through a slit in the walls, fold up and glue. So, when choosing the color for the floor make it the color you want those little pieces to be on the outside of your castle.

This is the next page (76). The base image is the front wall and the back wall. The image does not show the arch door, but, the top cut is the front of the castle and the door will cut even though it is not shown.

This is Shift Layer on page 76. This will be all the roof pieces. The top two are for the inner/tall towers. The bottom four are for the four corners (Important if you are going to make them different colors :)

I used my Gypsy to make this. I used a height of "11" as the standard measurement. It took 11 layers/pieces of paper to cut. I have read online people saying the biggest you can make it using the cricut dial is to set the dial at 8.5 inches (that is how I'll do my next one so I can emboss the walls etc; afterwards. I wanted a big castle, but the pieces were too big to emboss).

Hopefully this is helpful to anyone thinking of trying the castle. It's super cute now that it's finished and I love that I can make it not so girly and my son loves it as much as my daughter!

Addicted to Create a Critter

Seriously, every time I go to make a new project my only criteria is "I will NOT use Create-a-Critter". I feel like I use it way too often and am neglecting all my other beautiful cartridges. Yet, every time I come up with a project and the picture I need to have just isn't on any of my other ones. (Well, usually the image I MUST have I don't own and a new cartridge gets added to my amazon wish list!)

I have a baby shower to attend and wanted to make a card but had "writer's block". So, I decided to check out some ongoing challenges and got some inspiration from those. I've often looked at the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge ,but have never entered it. Today their cupcake was perfect for my project!

I am also entering this project into the following challenges:

 2 Sisters Challenge Blog (use stitching). One day I might try real stitching - not quite that ambitious yet!

Crazy 4 Challenges (use stripes and polka dots). 

Desert Island Crafts Challenge (I used # 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). At first I thought you had to use all the items on the list, and was relieved when I realized you didn't. I LOVED having a recipe to follow - really helped pull my project together! I was using all browns, but added some green for the challenge and love it!

Where do you all find the challenges you participate it? Do you keep a list? I have just depended on a list my sister (Crafting Misfit) has on her blog. Does anyone else have a good link to different challenges?

Create-A-Critter Valentines

So, I have been MIA for quite some time and have been longing for a reason to use my cricut. However, when my 6 year old asked me to help her make handmade valentines for all the kids in her class I instantly lost motivation or desire to do it. She hates the gypsy and likes to do it the "old fashioned way" of pushing each button. Let me tell you, it takes a lot of patience to make a class-full of valentines with the assistance of a 4-year old and a 6-year old who are sharing a rolling office chair as they assist you. Nevertheless, I got over myself and enjoyed the time with  my kids and came up with cards she chose and I just added my touch too. I have to say, I'm not patient enough yet to let her use the tape runner or glue stick for everything, but I did let her do the corner rounder.  These were all made from create a critter.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I am entering these valentines into several diferent challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge  Blog
Card Makin Mamas
Cute Card Thursday
Crafty Catz
CES Challenges
My Sheri Crafts

Baby Name Sign

I haven't been crafting much lately. I think I made so many projects for the craft fair (not nearly all of which made it onto this blog I now realize) that I needed a bit of a break. However, I have had a project in mind for a while now and it's a framed piece to decorate my new, adorable niece's nursery. Her name is Harper (which I think is so cute). However, finding things with the name "Harper" on it will probably prove to be a challenge for her, so I was very excited to make her something. When we did a shower for her I used Create a Critter to make the invites and my sister in law loved the animals so I stuck with what I knew she loved. Here is the finished product (The nursery theme is baby animals and the walls are purple). The printed papers are all from Nana's Nursery.

Long Note Pads

Here is another craft fair project. I'm not sure how much I can sell these for, what do you think?

i heart post it notes

Let's face it. I love post it notes and any other office supply. When stressed I have been known to get a starbucks peppermint mocha and go to staples just to look and decompress. Yes, I realize I'm a geek/dork/loser lol, school supplies really do bring me joy. So, when I saw this project at kerryspapercrafts.com I knew I had to do it! My sister and I are doing our first craft fair this year and I'm a tad intimidated that my projects are going to look like the "dollar bin" next to her creations, but here is what I came up with!

I was very excited to find post-it notes on sale 12 pads for $5 at staples last week. The acrylic frames are 3.5 x 5 photo frames from The Christmas Tree Shop for 69 cents.  I had a ton of pens that I got for free at target using coupons over the summer and just wrapped them in scrapbooking paper.

The stamps are from papertreyink and the birds are cut from one of my favorite Cricut cartridges, StraightFrom the Nest.

I have lots more projects to take pictures of and post, too :)