Friday, June 12, 2015

Victorian Romance Cricut Challenge

Summer is in full swing which brings lazy days, swimming and cleaning, ha ha
I have had a few days to play and look at the items I'm cutting out and asking myself how I can amp them up.
I took several of the hearts added some bling. The tiny white heart has glossy accents, the bright pink heart has crackle glaze, the light pink heart I added pink Martha Stewart glitter and on the big red and white heart is distress rock glitter. The giant pink swirly heart was just too pretty for me to add anything. My banner needed a little love, I originally cut it out in brown cardstock, and then I added Gunsmoke stickles. I love how it turned out. I also cut out the I Love you in a pale pink. The letters were completely washed out in the banner, so I sprayed it with Heidi Swapp color shine in Primrose. As a result the color and the sheen makes it stand out. Once I pick out or take the photo I'm going to add some more small hearts and maybe a few sequins.
My Cherubs, ugh. I swear the more I cut them out the worse they came out. I changed my blade on my Explore for the first time, since I got it in September of 2014, with this project. The cherub wings still did not cut clean but it wasn't so bad that they couldn't be used.
My next project took me a ridiculous amount of time and I learned several ways on how NOT to hang a mobile. All together I like how it came out.
I cut out 15 balloons in 5 colors and used 5 patterns. Each balloon is 3 sided. I took a coffee stirrer, cut it down and glued it in to run the fishing line through. I'm so glad I did this as I started out with too thick of line. I restrung the balloons and realized it looked empty.
I revisited the cartridge and decided to cut out the cupids. I spent hours moving the lines up and down trying to find a pleasing look. When I finally tied everything up and called it good I noticed that a couple of balloons are close in height. C'est la vie.
I have this hanging in my dining room and as I walked past it during the day I kept thinking, how can I jazz it up? I ended up hanging it from the pull cord to the ceiling fan in my craft room and gently added liquid pearls in Ballerina, Petal Pink, Flamingo, Ruby Red, White Opal. I'm still thinking about adding spray glitter to all the cherubs. I thought about embossing them, I just don't know how I want to jazz them up.
Chelsea is requesting that this goes into their room. Since I want it to last a little longer than a day, I think it's going to go back into my scrap room and I will add a small hook into the ceiling.
To make the mobile I used an 8 inch pink plastic embroidery hoop from Walmart.

What's next??
I've taken to letting the kids pull out the slips that decide my next few challenges. This gives me a little more time to think creatively, lol
My next challenge is using Sports Mania.
I know I will be doing a couple of scrapbook pages.
See you soon.
*Carrie*

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Spring Holiday Cards Cricut personal challenge



This cart is perfect for all those spring holidays: Valentines, St. Patty's and Easter.
That being said, I tried to think outside the box a little. I opened up Design Space and made the cards all 3x5. I then attached either a colored index card or one sided pattern paper and turned them into note cards. I though this would make a cute teachers gift or tucked into a child's lunch box.
I made 3 of each pattern with the plan to make more in brighter colors. We will see if I actually do this, lol
When I created the box, I did a lot of guessing to get it the right size. My other box, snicker snicker, didn't work out. The sides didn't match up so I couldn't glue them together.
I can't stress this enough to NEVER use your best paper on your first try writing. I had my paper on the mat, lined up on Design Space to be squared up. When it began to write I realized that it wasn't centered. I took another piece of paper and realigned to get it as centered as possible. I'm very happy with the results.
I also made some card toppers to fit onto a 5x7 card base.
I must say I got a little bored with this cart because I wanted more of a variety of sayings. But for something quick and easy, and most of my friends would think is cute, this will do in a pinch.
Now these two cards look much cuter in person. I really struggled with trying to find a print background out of ALL my pattern paper. The rainbow card still needs some jazzing up. I'm still debating about outlining all the elements to make them stand out more.
As I look at this picture more, maybe adding a white pen to the you rock card would help.
Always learning, always growing in creativity.

I have a love/hate relationship with stickles. I love all the colors and the glitter. I hate how long they can take, when I don't speed it up with the heat gun, to dry, lol.
I did have one incident where my orange bottle of stickles got clogged. I was using a small needle to get it unclogged and when I squeezed and then squeezed harder, the bottle top actually popped off and I ended up with sparkly orange stickles on my hands and my shirt.
Thankfully I didn't lose too much and I was able to get the top back on. Also thankful for having baby wipes next to me.
So what is my next project??
Victorian Romance Cricut Cartridge