Donate to help a family in need....

My Cricut sister Kymberlee has twin daughters who lost everything in a house fire and she's holding a Flame Free Party to help them out.

Proceeds from any size Scentsy order will be matched and all orders will be entered to win one of two $25 gift certificates.

She is also doing a drawing for an Imagine and a $5 donation will earn you one entry for a chance to win. Please visit her blog, The Paper Midwife for all the info.

Thank you!
Maria

A Onsie With The Imagine

This onsie was made for a challenge that was to use anything but paper. It was made using Heat Transfer paper and the Imagine. The heat transfer paper works by printing an image on it then ironing  it on to your fabric. When you select your image, remember to flip it before printing. The printed side is placed down on the fabric for ironing and if  you don't flip the image, it will be backwards on the garment. This would be ok with some images, like the one I chose, but not so good for letters! The transfer paper I used is Jet-Pro SoftStretch that I ordered  from an on line retailer. You can also find it in stores that carry printer paper. The brand I have is supposed to be used with a heat press, but my iron worked just fine for the process. The image is from the Imagine Nursery Tails cartridge.

There is one spot on one of the leaves on the bottom left that didn't transfer, but overall, it worked great. I also made a rosette with some lace and added a big pearl-like button to the center. The lace was white, but I colored it with a Copic marker, R01, pinkish vanilla. I washed and dried the lace it after I colored it to make sure the color wouldn't run. I like the feminine touch the rosette  adds to the onsie.
If you've been wanting to try this technique, I really recommend it. It was super easy; it actually took me longer to decide on a picture than it did to print and iron it on. I have some T-shirts I want to make for my oldest grandson, but I'm going to let him pick out his own design. He just loves making things in, as he calls it, my making room. Especially when it's something he gets to keep!
Thanks for stopping by!
Maria

Texas Pennant

Recently PC did a contest for Circle members for the Road Trip to CHA. We were to use one of the pennant cuts on Birthday Bash and create a pennant to represent our state or region. Last weekend at the meetup they announced the winners and I'm happy to say mine won 4th place! This was only the second time I've entered a judged contest so I'm pretty excited to have placed.

I decided to create a montage of images that most people think of when they think of Texas. So I came up with the Alamo, a Texas Longhorn, an oil derrick and of course, blue bonnets. The background is the Texas flag. The Alamo was created on the Gypsy in two layers, one with all the details and one with just the outline. The detail layer was first drawn using Cricut markers, then the image was cut using the outline layer. I sanded the ink afterward with an emory board, crumpled it up a little then inked with Antique Linen distress ink. Several carts were used for this:George for the basic rectangles, PDDU for the arches on top, My World for the columns, Christmas for the door and windows and Home Accents for the dome on top. Want to guess what cut it is? It's a pear, well actually two. One was flipped horizontally then the two round ends were overlapped and welded.

The oil derrick is actually a windmill from Country Life. A black strip was added to the center then the top was hand cut. The oil is a splash from 3 Birds on Parade, cut several times, covered with glossy accents then accented with a white pen.

No Texas themed anything would be complete without a Longhorn! This cut is from Old West. It was cut in white then some spots were added with a SU Cajun Craze marker. The outlines were done with a black thin marker and the hooves were colored with a Copic T5 marker.The hooves and horns were covered with Glossy Accents. Then the whole cut was run through the Xyron to cover it with adhesive. After removing the adhesive from the hooves and horns, the cow was covered with off white flocking. I used a large sewing needle to remove the flocking from the black outlines.

The last thing to add were the blue bonnets. These are from the 50 States cartridge. I cut them in several sizes then colored them with a Copic B16 marker. White gel pen was used for the highlights.
All the elements were placed on the banner with foam adhesives in varying heights.  I kept the word Texas simple, figuring the images would speak for themselves. The letters are from Cricut Classic Font. The pennant was finished by adding a border of hemp twine around the edge which was tied in a lasso shape.
This was a fun, challenging project for me and I was really happy with how it turned out. Placing in the contest was just an added bonus! Congrats to everyone who entered and to the other winners!
Thanks for stopping by!
Maria

It's Not Always Pretty!

Paper crafting, that is. Quite often a project turns out absolutely nothing like I planned and sometimes it becomes a horrible mess. That's what happened this weekend when I was making something for a challenge I was doing. The challenge was to create something outside of your comfort zone or try a technique that you've always wanted to try. (It was also a Christmas in July theme) I decided to do a vinyl project using the new Word Collage cartridge. So, my brilliant idea was to put the vinyl cut out on a piece of card stock and then frame it to use a Christmas decoration. I used the E2, and the preset kiss cut, which is supposed to cut the vinyl, but not the paper layer underneath. Well, my first mistake was not doing a practice cut, because apparently my E2 is not set right, so it did cut through the bottom layer, but more about that later.
So, I did the cut at 10.5" and it took 20 minutes to cut (no kidding, I timed it). I pulled the extra vinyl off, did the weeding and all seemed OK at that point. Then I applied the transfer paper and that seemed to go well too. The real problem came when I tried to apply the vinyl to the paper. Apparently, vinyl does not like to stick to paper, not without a lot of burnishing anyway. The transfer paper, however, didn't have a problem sticking to the paper at all! I later discovered The transfer paper I used was made for outdoor vinyl and I think it was just too sticky.

 I spent about 45 minutes working on this before I decided to give up. I had a headache and was feeling a little nauseous at this point! Now the problem with the bottom layer cutting. I could not get that paper off my mat for anything. Some did peel off  in pieces, but some stuck fast and I'm just calling the mat a loss.

But even after all this I wasn't ready to give up on this project. I really liked the way the Word Collage cut looked and decided instead to get a glass frame and apply the vinyl to the glass and just frame the paper. I'm happy to say it was a success! I picked up a frame for 1/2 price at Hobby Lobby the next day, did another vinyl cut after adjusting the settings on the E2, used Provo Craft transfer paper, and this was the result:

The frame is 11X14 and the cut is only 10.5, so I had to add something on the bottom. This strip is from the DCWV Christmas Combo pack and it worked perfectly. I also colored the holly berries and leaves with Smooch inks. I think this is going to be a nice addition to my Christmas decor!
Thanks for reading through this long post. I just thought it would be fun to share the not so perfect side of this hobby!
Maria

It's A Wrap Blog Hop Winner!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the blog hop this past weekend. I really appreciate all the nice comments and am so happy that I gained some new followers. I meant to get this posted earlier but it was just one of those crazy days when you don't have a chance to do anything you really want to. Anyway, I used Random.org to choose a winner and the number was... 36.
The winner of the Cricut Holiday Cakes Cartridge is Lisa, who said:

Ohhhh yummy! now I'm hungry! hehehe! I am amazed at how real looking your treat boxes are, and the dripping chocolate is to die for! Thank you so much for your inspiration!

Lisa

Congratulations Lisa! I'll be contacting you so I can get the cartridge mailed to you.
Thanks again everyone!
Maria

It's a Wrap Blog Hop

Welcome to the It’s a Wrap Blog Hop hosted by Cool Beans By L.B. Do you like to receive gifts? How about give them? Well this hop is all about the outside…the wrapping; Gift bags, boxes, baskets and more. There are 22 wonderful stops on this hop and we hope you will take some time to stop in and see everything we have created for you. You should have arrived here from Brenda's Blog, Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker. If you are just finding our hop in the middle you can go to the beginning at Cool Beans By L.B.

I love giving gifts in unique boxes. The Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cartridge has several wonderful boxes and one of my favorites is the triangle box. A few years ago I saw one that someone had made to look like a piece of cake and I have been making them ever since.

These are really easy and can be made any you size you want.(as long as it fits on your mat) Mine are 4" long and 1 3/4" deep and I was able to fit two on a 12 X 12 mat. I also used George and Basic Shapes to make a triangle piece for the "icing"on top.

Both pieces were cut from Cooredinations card stock. The pink glitter paper is DCWV. The icing in the middle is cut with the Your Story paper trimmer and the wavy blade. Small flat backed acrylic pearls from Recollections were added to the top and the piece was finished with a piece of rosette lace trim.

The icing on this piece is from Papertrey Ink. It was embossed with the Cuttlebug Divine Swirls embossing folder then the embossing was covered with Cinnamon Stickles. Some Liquid Pearls were scattered over the top also. A border was created with a Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch and this was attached to the edge of the cake. A piece of brown ribbon was added to the center.

As part of this hop I am offering some fun blog candy, A Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge. To be eligible to win just leave a comment telling me what your favorite kind of cake is. I'll choose a winner with Random.org and announce it here on Tu, July 19th. Be sure to leave me a way to contact you.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my cake gift boxes! Your next stop is Terri at scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com

I'm editing this to add and apology to my blog hop partners. Apparently when I created my post I didn't do the links correctly. I tried to fix it but it just got worse. I hope you will continue on with the hop as there are many other wonderful projects to see! Again, my sincere apologies for this mess up!
Thanks for hopping along with us today. Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win!
Maria

Movie Night Card

My son lives in NYC now and even though he's all grown up, we still like to send him care packages once in a while. Recently we came across some Blue Ray movies on sale and picked a few up for him. Of course, that meant sending a whole box filled with movie goodies, some of his favorite foods that he can't get up there, and one of mom's hand made cards!

I used the Imagine and the Hopscotch cart for the prints and solid colors on this card. The popcorn is from the Carousel Lite cartridge. The mottled effect on the container was a total accident, but I think it looks pretty cool. I had my Imagine set on Print only when I started and ended up with printed images. Then I changed it to cut and print, and ran it through again resulting in the image being printed twice. After the layers were put together, I decided to spray it with some Pearl Glimmer Mist. I guess the ink wasn't completely dry because some of it ran a little, giving it that effect. Hey, maybe I discovered a new technique!
The popcorn was made by covering the top with Liquid Applique, applying it heavier in some spots than others. After letting it dry for a few hours, I used the heat set tool to make it rise. One spot got a little too hot, but I think it made it look like the popcorn is buttered.
The title is cut with Cricut Classic Font and was created with they Gypsy.
A piece of antique twine was wrapped around the top and tied through a clear button by Stampin Up. The twine is from My Craft Spot. If you get a chance check out her hand dyed ribbons. They are yummy!
Kevin should be enjoying his goodies in a couple of days. Hope he likes the card as well!
Thanks for stopping by.
Maria