It is a very bright and shinny morning this am. I am so excited to share some fun things that I have been working on. Nothing really important just fun stuff. Well these are the cards that I made this last past weekend while making a draft Valentines treat bag topper for my son. I just have one child this year that is planning on taking Valentine's day treats and cards to school. I guess that should have been expected since my son is in the 8th grade and all.

Since I am really typing this just minutes before I have to head out to get the girls to doctors appointments I don't have the supply list information...but most of it is stuff that I used on the cards are scraps except for the ribbons which the first card is MM and the second one is from Cosmo cricket.

I have actually created 4 cards to send to family and one really cute mailbox/card/treat for my Grandma and I can't wait for it to be posted on scrapourstash's blog so that I can share it on here.

Also I couldn't sleep (yet another night of sinus pressure) so I got on the computer (and off of the internet) and played around in MTC. I can't believe how easy it was to do a print and cut from a clipart/graphic that I purchased from lettering delights. I haven't used them on a project yet, but I plan on doing something with them as soon as I can (maybe this weekend...oh never mind it's our anniversary this weekend). But here are the print and cuts on my notes sheet that I made with details about what I did, mostly so that I can recreate it again when I find out things that I might want to print and cut. Some notes have been deleted because I was noting just some details about the program and images and my steps. But I challenge anyone who has a machine that can print and to print and cut something. Especially if you have never tried it before...which is exactly why I did it.

What an awesome day yesterday was...I just realized that I have been up all night lol. I just wanted to stop in really quick and some cards that I made using my cricut expression and MTC.

I originally started creating this card to make for hubby for Valentines' day but then I thought it was too cute and it would be perfect to send to a female in the family instead. Plus I always try to use his favorite colors when making his cards cause then he really likes them more.

I have made his card, but I can't share that one yet but it should be posting on the scrapourstash.com blog sometime this month.

Well here is the card that I created...

Supplies

Papers- K& Co-Terri Conrad paper pad

Green cardstock-misc from stash

Pink-Bazzill

Digital Diecuts-Lettering delights

Grass, frame-Cricut with the gypsy

Google eyes- Dollar Tree

Ribbon- Target hot spot

I also wanted to add that I printed the greeting from PSE from the PDF of the image's SVG file. This is was another way to get graphics from the same image folder without going through a ton of new things to learn how to do it through MTC. I am going to be working on leaning that asap. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Smiles, Tracy

Good early morning blog readers...it is really early here. I just had to get some things done this morning on the blog that I have been wanting to share these last few days.

First up, I made some cards. Not many but I made a car using a Papertreyink.com stamp that I have. I know that I have made cards with this one before but I wanted to make this one for the baby version of that card. I made it both in girl (only made one) and boy versions (made 2).

I like the boy version better, mostly because the patterned paper makes the cards theme of exploration or a journey into parenthood work much better.

So here is the card

Supplies

Paper

K&Co-Sweet Nector paper pad

Coordinations-cardstock

Embellishments

American Crafts- ribbon

Heidi Swap-photo corners

Studio 18-Rhinestones

Ink & stamps

Colorbox Chalk ink-blackbird, wild honey
Copic Markers-YR04, BG34, YG13

Fiskars-New arrival stamp

Paper Trey ink-enjoy the ride

The sketch that I used for the card was from a stamptv.com sketch#10 (I believe) but I didn't post it for the challenge. My only intention was to make some cards with the sketch that I could use for family and friends. But I am thinking that maybe in the future I will enter the challenge.

Did you notice that I mentioned a paper pad for my supplies?? it is the first that I have purchased in years. I haven't bought a paper pad from any chain or lss for at least 5yrs, I usually purchase paper by the sheet (getting only the ones that I absolutely have to have) but I went into M's to grab another set of mats because I had a member reward of $5 off my next purchase, and so I headed there to get my mats. I walked right by the paper section there and headed towards the mats, but on the way back I took a wrong turn while looking at some stamps on the end cap and bam! there was this paper pad. I have no idea if it's new or old, but it is so my style...bright but not kiddie and it works so good with so many card ideas that I am planning. I haven't found sheet in it that I wouldn't use either the front or the back of the sheet. And that is why I grabbed it. I also grabbed a valentines pad too that was awesome but now I wish I would have gotten the mat stack for this paper pad. There are actually two Sweet Nectar sets but one of them had some papers in it that I didn't like at all but the map paper made me jump all over this set! And I honestly don't regret getting a paper pad! I don't know if I will be getting more but to not have gotten one in so long it was so worth getting this one.

Also I am not going to say that someone should do this but I was looking high and low for the actual die that I have of this stamp, and couldn't find it at all. And I am still not sure where it is, but I needed to cut out the car image, and I didn't feel like hand cutting them so I stamped the image and created a template on my expression. I am in no way saying that you should do this, or steal images, but because I have the actual die (which I do have on an invoice) I figured it would be ok. And honestly I love that it worked out but it took a little time to do, and I hope that I find my die, cause I really wanted to cut some of those cars in felt...and I haven't even thought of trying that out on my expression. I only mentioned it all because #1 it was an accomplishment for me because I did it on my machine and #2 it was a great idea if you are in a bind and you need something that you own but can't find it anywhere!

I am going to be making more cards the next couple of days and I hope to get them done before we start Valentine's day projects here this weekend. Especially because I have made it my goal (because I obviously don't have enough to do) to send all the woman in my family Valentines cards along with some little gift and a card or two from the kids. And so I started the search for digital images that I could purchase and cut...well the search kind of fell into my lap. I was checking out my lettering delights newsletter and saw some of the cutest my fun and lovable designs...and of course since they cost way less than a cricut cart, I surely got them. And since it was from my birthday money it felt good to spend it on something fun. I didn't get nearly what I wanted (I put those on my wishlist) because someone on MTC's site said something about dollar days on letter delights site coming soon...and I don't know when soon is but you better believe I am going to be there so fast to get more images.

So here is the image I got cut all out and added to the bottom of our family calendar. I redid the calendar this month. Mostly because I wanted the writing to be flexible but not the dates and what I learned from last month is that since I have a ton of those calendar grids, I should probably put the dates on the calendar behind the glass because it all got accidentally wiped off last month.

Isn't the little froggie sitting on the mushroom the cutest ever! Love it! I wanna first say, I am not paid by lettering delights but I wanted to share this site because it could be a great alternative to your cart issue if you have SCAL or MTC. You can check it their site out here

http://www.letteringdelights.com/searchprod.php?showingonly=SVGs-4-18

I like carts from my cricut but honestly I haven't seen an image that was cute but nice enough to be used on an adult project that I didn't have to edit to make it not look so diecut-ish...ya know! LOL but I am now going to be searching the internet to find more digital images and more everything else that I can...so if you have some suggestions please share them. I could surely use a fellow crafters resource information...

Good morning everyone. I am sitting here trying to get this post done before our day really starts up here because I won't be able to get anything done then. Well today LeiLani turns 4 yrs old and I am so excited for my little one. She has been talking about her birthday since mine lol and can't wait to actually celebrate it...we have plans on throwing her a very very small party at home.

But I wanted to get on here and show off my latest cards that I have made. There are several family and friends that are having babies and I have decided that this would the perfect time to get cards made since I sold off my entire stock of them before leaving MN.

The first batch of cards will be baby boy and I originally had planned on just stamping images and going with that but then I thought this would be a great time to start using the cricut for cards. I have always loved making cards and using diecuts so why should I start using only stamps since it means that I actually have to test out a bunch of things to get the machine to do what I want. I will admit that I don't love all the cricut images but there are a lot of them that I can make work once you remove some of the tick/cut lines that they put on them for you to follow as details. I don't know why but I consider myself a plain diecut kinda girl although my diecuts don't look plain to me once they are finished. But I love this finished card. I made one to send and one to keep for myself.

What do you think for my first cricut expression card...of course, I still found a way to use my old Big Shot on the card too...lol can't just put it into early retirement...after all its been my loyal tool for over 5yrs now. Also the mouth on the turtle was Ani's idea totally, its from the center of the border that I created. There was all these little curved pieces and she picked them up and said, Mom can you glue the mouth of the turtle on for me...and voila I have a mouth for the turtle! I know that there is a little crafter in the making for sure now! LOL...

Diecuts

Cricut carts Paisley (turtle), Stand and Salute (border), Lacy labels (label)
Spellbinders-circle nesting dies

Embellishments
Joann Fabric- heart felt trim ribbon (iron on kind, just glued down with glue dots)
Walmart-buttons, white twine

Dollar Tree- google eyes
Target-twill ribbon (was on a set of kitchen towels)

Cardstock

American Crafts and Bazzill

Patterned papers

My Minds Eye-Abbey and So Sophie

Ink

Colorbox chalk ink-blackbird, olive pastel, lime pastel, sour apple, robin's egg

Stamp

Fiskars baby set (cut greeting apart to use it without the image)

And since today is Ani's actual birthday here is a photo of her owl that she helped make to go on a letter that we have to get in the mail this morning for Great Grandma Jessie. She has been learning to write her letters (actually just her name and then we will work on the rest of the letters in alphabetical order) and the inside of the letter just has Ls on it. We haven't done anything else for the whole week but learn to write capital L and spot itin books and listen for things that have the L sound. She has been loving it!!

Hi everyone. Just wanted to stop in and update my blog with a little of what's been going on. Let's see...I have been playing with my Cricut Gypsy and trying to learn so much about it. And I have started to work on a list of a bunch of things that I want to learn. My hubby got my Gypsy for my birthday and when he brought it home it was already open and it didn't have any instructions in it. And at first that kinda freaked me out but after checking the Cricut.com site and also youtube I realized that this is the way that they come from Michaels.



So that means that there are no instructions on it in there and you basically have to do the research to know what you can and can't do. And since I have only had it since the week of my birthday (which was on the 9th) I haven't learned all there is to know but I am learning a lot.

I have to say that there are a lot of videos on youtube if you are wanting information on this machine or even your cricut. I have watched tons of videos and although I know that I am not an expert at all I feel comfortable enough to use it with my expression everything I have done a project so far.



I have also found some amazing videos on youtube that have helped me and I wanted to share a few of those on here in case someone is really new (like myself) and is looking for specific information on what they can and can't do. I haven't found all the videos that there are and I haven't watched all of them but the ones that I have watched have truly been inspiring.



For welding and creating your own frames just using shapes and fonts this video was awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAXdgn2pig&feature=BF&list=QL&index=6 this one is really all about frames but you can really get a lot of different ideas once you see this. She didn't go through each individual frame but she explained a lot of the details that you will be able to use if you a little about your gypsy.

And then there was another one that talked about punches...love these ideas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAXdgn2pig&feature=BF&list=QL&index=6
I can't wait to do my Valentines day cards...I am planning on doing hearts across the bottom of a card, maybe combining the welding technique from the first video to create a nice heart border on a card.

There are a lot of videos other there and there are some that aren't free either and although as a previous small business owner I try to support other businesses I have to say that times are calling for me to be a little frugal. I mean I am trying to purchase a relocate to another home that we are building so I can't even think of purchasing a lot of the things that I want to. My wishlist has grown really long since getting this machine for Christmas and I am not complaining at all.

But one of the things that I said that I wouldn't spend money on is instructions, at least not as long as I can take the time and do the research and watch videos that are free. So if you are putting your self on a budget or are saving or whatever the reason may be, you can always check out youtube and search the web.

We (my oldest son and myself) used the cricut this past week to finish his science fair display board. It was sooooo much easier than pulling out the Big Shot (sorry hun, I still love you!)
I was able to put each title on one sheet of 12x12 cardstock and print to my hearts desire. And because it was his project I had him create and cut several of the titles himself too.

Oh while typing this up...I remembered another video that was awesome too...this one she created a background with several border shapes from a cart and then welded them. This is also the video that taught me how and where the rotate button was on the gypsy...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWo4VBJzoe4&feature=autoplay&list=QL&index=9&playnext=2 this one is really easy to follow. I didn't have the cart that she used but instead I used my stand and salute cart that I got and did the exact same thing...and when it cut I had an entire 12x12 sheet of cut out negative space stars! I love it!!! (no more diecut paper lace pages to buy, I can create them myself in any color cardstock or patterned paper!)

I am hoping to add helpful tips like this on my blog because I believe that it is just what someone else might need to know. And if you need to get a video that you can purchase and watch you can get one from aboverubbiesstudio.com. From what I have read and have heard from the experts (and peas who I consider experts) is that there are some really great tutorials on offered there.

I haven't been doing a lot of crafty things this week except purchasing carts, watching videos, and using my machines to help my son with his school work. I am almost done with my inspiration binder. I am creating a new one because the one that I had in MN is gone.

Well I am off to try to get some alone time this am with hubby. I think that he should be coming home soon...I hate that he works on Saturdays. But it is usually only for a couple of hours in the early early am...so I am going to make him some breakfast (and everyone else) and hopefully he will be coming in when it is done!

Thanks Z!!!

I was so super duper excited (and yes I occasionally say super duper, usually not in public lol) when I logged on today and say that there was a message on MTC forum thread I had saying that I was looking for a digital label cutting file.

This label has been on my mind forever and it is the only reason that I have purchased some of the October Afternoon label stickers that I did. The only thing is I didn't have digital cutter until now and I had planned on ordering the spellbinders labels 14 and was excited about it. But then after getting the Cricut for Christmas, I thought wow it would be awesome to have the file to cut from on the Expression then I could resize and use it over and over again and do tons of things with it.

Well last night I just asked if anyone knew if there was a file that looked like that out there...and one super duper awesome scrapbooker made me one. I think that was the coolest thing ever! I mean wow. Now I am new to electronic cutting and I still haven't figured out how to make my Cricut roll over and speak just yet, but I think it would take alot of work to make a digital file.
And even if it didn't, it was the nicest thing. It brightened my day because yesterday I had to return the Cricket 3xs and hopefully this one will work just fine once I figure out what I need to do next. But I just had to come on here and rave about the scrapbooker that is truly awesome because it just doesn't seem right not to! I mean she did after all make an awesome cutting label and then so that everyone could use it....here is the link http://scrappinwithz.blogspot.com/2010/12/label-for-you.html

if you want to download it and if you visit my blog and leave her a message cause it would just be nice to have a bunch of scrapbookers telling her that she is awesome! Thanks Z!!! Smiles

Hello everyone! I know that I didn't post my usual posts this last week but that mostly was because I was sick. I don't know why but we all got really sick these couple of days and have been battling sore throats and coughs. But being sick didn't stop us from having a truly amazing holiday. Everyone has been so happy playing with their new toys. And honestly I am proud of us because we didn't break the bank to get everyone what they wanted. And this year I was surprised with an amazing gift....I am now the owner of a Cricut Expression.

I had no idea that he was going to get one for me and even though at first I only wanted a QK/Life Crafter Silhoutte, I am now glad to have the Expression. I have been up for hours on the computer (on and off cause I still have to take care of the little ones) getting free fonts to add to the many that I already have, looking at other programs to add to the expression. I want more than ever to have it connected to a nice new computer (hint hint Vele, my birthday is in a few weeks...lol) but I am not a cartridges kinda girl.

I need to be able to do much more than what's in a little box and I can't even imagine the cost of each diecut set, most of those are more than QK fonts that I have purchased in the past. But anyways I had been reading about Make the cut and Sure Cuts A lot programs for awhile and since I am now an owner of the expression I thought I better download a free trial and test it out. And first off can I say I was going to download the free trials of both programs and then test each out. But I am not now. I have the program that I am going to get in a little bit. Make the cut is amazing. It is so easy to use! And I have been doing all kinds of things all day on and off welding words, making journaling boxes and not to mention the tons of you tube videos about the expression and MTC.

So before I go on and on about that I just want to say I am very impressed with the Cricut machine and now I can see now why there is such a huge loyal following of Cricuts. I just am really glad to be one of the few that has been won over! So hopefully sooner than latter I will get a chance to sit down and really work on some pages and cards. I can't wait to share those!