My First Monday Made It

So if you aren't familiar with Monday Made It, you should visit Tara at 4th Grade Frolics. I've browsed other's Monday Made It projects for a couple of years, but this is my first tine to actually participate.

So a couple years ago burlap door hangings were the "rage."(They are still popular) I pinned a couple of similar projects then but never made anything. Well since I'm moving to another school/grade I thought now was as good a time as ever.

I started by finding an owl image on my Gypsy and cut out the layers of the owl with my Cricut. I found this owl on Noah's ABC's cartridge.  I then used the layers to create my template and I traced the layers with a sharpie onto the burlap.  I cut out two body layers-one for the front and one for the back.

Then came the paint!  I started by painting the entire front piece with brown paint that matched the color of the burlap.  I let this layer dry overnight, but the acrylic paint dries fairly quickly.  I found that it was easier to add other paint layers on top of a painted surface.  The burlap absorbs a ton of paint on the initial layer. It was easier to paint the base brown so that when I added the lighter colors on top, it didn't take as much paint.

I also used various cricut and svg files to create the chevron backdrop and the name.  I cut these out of plain paper and sprayed adhesive on them.  I let them "dry" so that they were tacky and had a temporary bond when using them as stencils.

When all the paint layers were dry, I used a fine paintbrush and black paint to draw the outline lines.  I also used a white paint pen to add the "highlight details."  I added the wire, bow, and a bunch of spray glitter!

If you have any questions, please let me know.  I'm entered into the #cricut #imadeit contest with this also! Thanks for looking!!!

Baby Thank You cards

Well, today will officially be my first day back to work after maternity leave.  I will miss my little man greatly today.  I wanted to share a thank you card that I put together for my baby shower gifts.  I made two versions of this card, a green and a blue, but I used up all the cards before I realized that I hadn't taken a picture for my blog!!  This is all I had left.

I started by using Stampin Up Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue card stock which are both now retired.  :(  I then embossed each with the Stampin Up Cloud embossing folder which you can currently get on the clearance rack on Stampin Up!'s website.

I then cut the baby on page 43 from the Cricut Baby Steps cartridge.  I did not cut out the face.  I used Peachy Keen Stamps baby faces for the face of the baby.  I also colored in the eyes with a white gel pen.  I added a little pink chalk to the cheeks too that you can't see in the photo because I took a picture with my iphone and I'm not realizing they aren't that great!  I embossed the baby's outfit with the swiss dots folder. The sentiment is a retired SU! set punched with the word window and modern label punches.

I made almost 50 of these and I used all but this one!  Hopefully my day will go well and I'll be home before I know it!  Thanks for looking!

Painted Pillowcases

In our family, we have eleven nieces and nephews that we still do Christmas gifts for (plus a couple).  That's alot!!!  It's hard to buy them toys because kids are into and out of stuff so quickly.  You know me, I love to make gifts.  This year I decided to make pillowcases with each child's name on it.  These are great to bring to sleep-overs and to use everyday also.  I wrapped a few other items inside but this was the "main" gift.

I used a technique that I haven't used in a couple of years--Tulip fabric soft paint and freezer paper.  Since discovering Heat Transfer Vinyl  I don't use the paint/freezer paper technique for making shirts.  I have noticed that the HTV doesn't always do well in the dryer and I knew that pillowcases would need to be washed frequently so I decided to go the "old school" route.  I have a few shirts that I've made with the paint/freezer paper that have washed and dried several times without any problems so I knew that would be ok.

Sock Monkey Card

Some friends of our are expecting their first baby.  I wanted to send a little card in with the package I'll be mailing to them.  The invitations for the shower were in the these colors and had a sock monkey on them.  I thought it was the cutest and that is where I got the inspiration for the card.  I used the cricut B is for Boy cartridge for the monkey and the Base Camp cartridge for the name letters.  I embossed the monkey with the SU sizzix lattice embossing folder and a cuttlebug polka dot folder for the white layer.  Thanks for looking!

Shaker Card

My best friend's little girl turned 5 a couple of months ago and I wanted to make her a fun card for her birthday.  What's more fun than a shaker card?  I used a couple of cricut cartridges to cut the number and the candles.  I used a Stampin' Up! stamp and die for the happy birthday banner.  It was lots of fun to make and she enjoyed it!  Thanks for looking.

School Thank You Cards

My class is taking a field trip next week to the zoo.  I currently have ten parents signed up as chaperones.  I wanted to send them a special thank you for going with us.  I made these cards about four years ago for the first time that our grade level ventured to the zoo.  I thankfully saved the design on my Gypsy so I was able to do a bit of adjusting for my paper and cut them out and piece them together.  I love this bus from the Doodlecharms cricut cartridge.  The road and grass is from one of the paper doll cartridges and the cloud is the Fiskars cloud punch.  All paper is Stampin' Up!

I used the white distress marker to make the lines on the road.  It worked really nice for this project.  (Not sure how I feel about those yet.  I bought a two pack (black/white) from HL and only the brush tips work on them.  I returned them for a second package and the same thing.  Has anyone else had this problem?  I've contacted Ranger twice and they have yet to return my email about the product issues so I don't know what I think about that yet!)

I used this Martha Stewart custom stamp setting kit to stamp out the school's name on the side of each bus.  It fit perfectly and was the perfect size. (I did blur out the first name of the school) I really like this stamp kit.  I noticed that they have a couple new fonts at my Michaels.  I'm going to have to pick up the loop script alphabet set because I think it is so cute.

 

If you have any questions, please let me know!  Thanks for looking.

Baby Cradle Favor

Ok, so I think it was Cricut's January's Hello Thursday release that I really loved.  I have become a "shower queen" and when I saw this cartridge, I knew that I had to have it.  I totally could have used the Bridal Shower cartridge about a year ago when I was doing my sister's wedding shower, but anyway I just stuck with the baby shower one. 

As I said in my Sunday post, I'm helping host a baby shower for a friend at church.  I played this past weekend with a few options and this is another option that I came up with.  This cut in itself is why I bought the cartridge.  I know it's a bit silly to buy a cartridge for really one cut, but I'm in love with this cut for real!!  I know this is not the last baby shower I will be crafting for!!!!

The nursery colors are lavender and coral mainly with accents of chocolate, bright pink, bright yellow, and a pool blue.  I really like how this cuts out and how cute it is.  I still don't know what to put in it though.  Maybe a nice pouch of Hershey's dark chocolate Kisses (because they come in a dark purple wrapper???)

If you have any questions, please let me know.  Thanks for looking!!!

Cupcake Favors

I am helping host a baby shower for a sweet lady in my church along with a friend of mine.  Of course we are making everything that we can and only buying things that we cannot make!

I got into my scrapbook room this weekend (for some much needed therapy) and came up with a couple of ideas for shower favors.  The baby's room will be done in cupcakes which is why our theme for the shower is cupcakes.  The main colors are lavender and coral.  I bought the sweet tooth cricut projects cartridge several months ago and this is my first time to play with it!

 

So, what do you think?  I think this is my favorite option so far.  I still don't have a clue what to put in it????  Later this week I'll post the second favor item that I made. 

Check back over the next few weeks.  I'm sure that I'll have many more fun projects for this shower to show you.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine's Day Banner

I wanted to create a Valentine's Day banner for my mantle this year.  I started out with my trusty, well used banner cut from the Tie the Knot cartridge. 

I layered it up with lots of sparkley goodies and pretty cuts.  I used SU!'s red glitter paper and one of their new sizzlits dies to create the doily (so much prettier in real life).  I used the Tim Holtz rosette die for the center and the Storybook cartridge for the lettering.  

I also used black glitter on the hearts on the ends.  I embossed the pink layer with the cuttlebug houndstooth folder.  If you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks for looking!!!

Vinyl Tile

I made this for a friend of mine who was starting her first year of teaching. This is the first tile that I've done. She had mentioned something like this a while back, so I thought this would be a nice surprise. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:

• ceramic tile (from the hardware store)
• vinyl in various colors
• cricut machine
• cricut cartridges: 50 states, Graphically Speaking, Cursive 101, Plantin Schoolbook,
• Gypsy
• white gel pen (for the stars on the flag
  

Cricut Expression Dust Covers

I made these as Christmas gifts for my two best friends that I scrap with all the time. Actually, they are the ones who bought me my first scrapbooking supplies and I always joke with them and say that "you created this (me) monster!" I bought my original cricut first and they soon followed behind with expressions! I made both of them Gypsy clutches earlier in the year for their birthdays, so I thought that I would make them dust covers for their expressions. Here are their gypsy clutches with their matching expression covers! Thanks for looking!

The red expression cover

The matching Gypsy clutch

The pink expression cover

And the Gypsy clutch to match






























I found the pattern HERE from Custom Crops. It is a very nice pattern! They even created some youtube videos to help you out with the pattern!! You can view them HERE. They also have the pattern for other cricut machines!