A Few Halloween & Christmas Projects
Hello! I know the holidays are long past, but I have a few festive projects to share with you that I created for the Cricut Circle Blog. 
Who knows, maybe a few of you are working on those holidays now?!
First off, some Halloween cards! These cards feature the Pet Shop Lite cartridge . . . I just couldn’t resist dressing up these little critters in their own Halloween costumes! Hehehe! I think it would be fun to dress them up for other holidays, too. Like maybe for St. Patrick’s Day in a few weeks?!
The patterned papers were created with my Cricut Imagine machine. The text paper is from the Imagine Vintage Papers cartridge, the other papers were created with the Imagine Black & White cartridge . . . I just sent through colored sheets of cardstock! FUN! I spritzed them a bit with black shimmer spray. I also embossed the kraft background with my Cuttlebug machineand the Mesh Texture embossing folder. Creepy, eh? The web is from the Chic & Scary cartridge.
To give some texture to my creepy tarantula, I used Black Soot Distressed Embossing Powder by Ranger, and then added flocking to the tan parts of his body. His beady little eyes were created with black dimensional paint.
The tarantula card seemed to be a little too heeby-jeeby for the Circle members . . . LOL! But I also created a whimsical card with the Pet Shop Lite frog. I added a witch hat to his head with the Autumn Celebrations cartridge.
Again, the orange patterned cardstock was created by sending an orange sheet of cardstock through my Cricut Imagine and printing a black pattern on it with the Imagine Black & White cartridge by Teresa Collins. The background is embossed with my Cuttlebug and a folder from the Art Deco Embossing Folder set. All of the embellishments are from a 2010 Noel Mignon Halloween kit.
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How about a Halloween page?
I used a Noel Mignon 2010 Halloween kit to create this page. The title and trick-or-treaters silhouette were cut with my Cricut Expression machine and the Autumn Celebrations cartridge. The bats are from the Teresa Collins Chic & Scary cartridge.
I like to cut the titles out more than once on different patterned papers. I then cut the words apart and layered them together. I cut the whole thing again with a cream cardstock and used it behind as an offset shadow.
When I initially posted this page on the Cricut Circle Blog, I received a lot of sweet comments on the machine stitching in the background. I *wish* I could take credit for that, but the cardstock came that way. Cool, right?! It is a pre-stitched cardstock sheet by We R Memory Keepers.
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Finally, I have a Christmas project to share with you! For the October Hello Thursday projects with the Cricut Stencil cartridge, some of the designers were lucky enough to be sent an airbrush system by ColorArtz to try out. I was one of those lucky gals! I had been wanting to create a burlap stocking and knew that the ColorArtz airbrush system would be the PERFECT thing to add color to the nubby texture! I had such a blast with this!
First, I used the Creative Memories ’Tis the Season cartridgeto cut out a stocking shape that I could use as a pattern for my stocking. I pinned the pattern to the burlap and then cut it out. I used the ColorArtz tool to spray each piece with the lime green and red paint. Worked like a charm!
Next, I wanted to add some design to the top of my stocking. I used the Cricut Stencil cartridge and Cricut Adhesive Backed Stencil Material to cut out to stencils in an argyle pattern. I first painted the red diamonds with the ColorArtz airbrush tool, let it dry (which didn’t take long at all!), and then layered the green ”stitches” on top with the second stencil. I LOVED the way it turned out!
How fun with this be to create rustic pillows for a front porch bench for the different holidays?! I definitely will be playing with this tool again!
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I used the Creative Memories ‘Tis the Season cartridge to create the pattern for the stocking above, but I also used it to create the following Christmas scrapbook page with the adorable Creative Memories Holidazzle papers.
LOVE the titles, holiday icons, and label shapes on this cartridge!
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Whew! Well, thanks for stopping by and taking this little trip down “holiday” memory lane with me! I hope you are having a great week!
Happy Scrapping!
Jana
NEW Noel Mignon Site & Subs and a Cricut Share
Good morning, all! I have some exciting news to share! Noel Mignon has launched a brand new website! Come check it out! Along with the brand new website, Noel has introduced a subscription program!!!! WooHOOOO!
The website and subscriptions are AVAILABLE NOW and you can find out more about them at the following links. Be sure to go to these links for the next little while as the new site gets up and going. Noel will eventually phase out the old NoelMignon.com and all of the new stuff will be contained under that web address. But for now, please visit . . .
Link for New Site http://noelmignon.webvanta.com/
Link for Subs http://noelmignon.webvanta.com/subscriptions/
The very first kit in the subscription will begin with the AMAZING, Homespun kit! Check out the sneak below!
I have this INCREDIBLE kit in my possession as we speak and am working on an introduction video that I will share with you in a few days . . . so be sure to check back for that!
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Well, I can’t have a post without a crafty share . . . so here is a page I created for a recent Cricut Magazine that I have yet to post here.
GRAND ADVENTURE
I made this page last June after returning home from our summer road trip to the Grand Canyon. I used the My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose Mabel collection. The journaling spot is from the My Mind’s Eye Lush 2 collection. The circle, title and dimensional flowers were created with my Cricut Expression machine. The title is actually from a baby cartridge, Baby Steps. The flowers are created from the rolled flower images contained on the Flower Shoppe cartridge (LOVE the possibilities of that cartridge). Right now the Flower Shoppe cartridge is out of stock on the cricut.com website, but you can purchase the digital cartridge version and use it with your free account at Cricut Craft Room.
I love to cut apart the Cricut titles and pop up every other letter with foam squares. It makes for a great dimensional title!
Have a great day, friends! I hope to see you again soon!
Jana
A Valentine Page with Noel Mignon Charm School Kit
For Valentine’s Day, my daughter’s Kindergarten class learned all about the way a post office works. They practiced learning their addresses by creating their own mailboxes with their house number on it, and then learned how to address an envelope with that house number, stamp, sort, cancel, and deliver the valentines to each “mailbox.” Camryn had such a great time learning . . . I think her class’ favorite part of the lesson was stamping and cancelling the valentines. It was funny to see each envelope stamped a gazillion times on the outside so that each student had the opportunity to experience the postal process.
I love that Noel Mignon kits come with more than one set of alphabets in each kit. I love mixing them for a more interesting title. This time around, I also added a die cut word using my Cricut Expression 2 machine. The word “Love” is from the Victorian Romance cartridge. I also added an image of a postmark from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge to go behind my title and emphasize the theme of this page.
I also cut out a spot for my journaling using my Cricut and the From the Kitchen cartridge. Next I added all kinds of borders, stickers, and tags from the Noel Mignon Charm School Kit. So many fun goodies in there!
Initially, my design was “floating” in the middle of the page. At the last second, I decided to add a strip of patterned paper underneath everything to ”anchor” it down visually. Something I find fun to do is trying out the different options to see how ONE pattern can change the entire feeling of a page. I decided to go with a red strip, to emphasize the Valentine colors of red/pink (to go along with my topic), but another choice I almost went with was the other side of the red paper, with it’s printed Kraft design. It had a softer more monochromatic feeling. Take a look!
Which one do you like better?
See you again soon!
Jana
More Hexagons with Cricut & February Hello Thursday
Speaking of hexagons from my last post . . . Cricut just released another round of cartridges for their February Hello Thursday, and one of the cartridges features LOTS of fun hexagon shapes, including a hexagon shaped box!
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I couldn’t resist putting together that cute box . . .
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room, Cricut Imagine, Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridges Used: Garden Soup, Imagine Greeting Cards Inside & Out (Patterned & Solid Papers)
Other Supplies: Cardstock (American Crafts, We R Memory Keepers), Patterned Papers (Imagine Greeting Cards Inside & Out), Cuttlebug Combo Love Language, Gem, Ribbon, Twine, Flower, Buttons, Adhesives (Scotch), Eyelet, Needle & Floss
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And a scrapbook page, too. I also played a lot with my Cuttlebug machine on this one.
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room, Cricut Imagine, Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridges Used: Garden Soup, Imagine Greeting Cards Inside & Out (Patterned & Solid Papers)
Other Supplies: Cardstock (American Crafts, We R Memory Keepers), Patterned Paper (Imagine Greeting Cards Inside & Out), Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Blooming Bouquet, Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Embossed Tags, Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Labels, Cuttlebug 12″ Embossing Border Sweet Chelsea, Brad (Imaginisce), Twine, Gems, Sewing machine & thread, Binder Clips, Clear acrylic arisan label shape, Adhesives (Scotch), Journaling pen (American Crafts)
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If you loved TBBM you are going to LOVE that there is now a Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2 Cartridge!
TAGS, BAGS, BOXES & MORE 2 Cartridge
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Creative Memories has released another Cricut cartridge called Divine Wedding, with beautiful fonts and imagery.
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CREATIVE MEMORIES DIVINE WEDDING
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I used a title, border, feather image, and dove image on this page about my daughter’s baptism
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room, Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridges Used: Creative Memories Divine Wedding, Cricut Craft Room Basics
Other Supplies: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Cardstock (black), Patterned Papers (Creative Memories), Brads/Transparency Die Cuts (K & Company), Pearls (Martha Stewart Crafts), Sewing machine & thread, Adhesives
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Aren’t they great! I need them ALL!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jana
Hexagon Love!
I am completely head over heels in love with the latest trend of using hexagons in paper crafting, but it can be a tricky shape to cut out on your own. For this page, I used my Cricut Mini machine, Cricut Craft Room, and the digital cartridge, Cricut Font & Basic Shapes.
I scattered the hexagon shapes around my page and added hearts and word stickers to a few of them. This page was created from an older Noel Mignon kit from 2010, and I still love these papers as much as the day I got them!
One of the coolest things about having a view of the Great Salt Lake from my office is to watch the sunsets each night.
Lovin’ the fonts on the Cricut Fonts & Basic Shapes digital cartridge, too!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!
Jana
Happy Belated Heart Day!
How was your Valentine’s Day? We had a lot of fun around here! I made a few more Valentine boxes with my Cricut to match my kids personalities. A bunny box for Maryn and a skull box (we call it the Love You To Death box) for Owen.
We made the kids Valentines to match each of their personalities. (I didn’t get the greatest pics, so bear with me.) Owen is into card tricks at the moment, so we used the King of Hearts card image from the Imagine Greeting Cards Inside & Out cartridge to create his cards. Maryn loves to bake, so we made her cupcake valentines (an idea created by Roree Rumph for the Cricut Circle Blog) using the Sweet Treats and Ribbons & Rosettes cartridges.
Camryn is our little love bug . . . she initially wanted pink ninja, but settled for pink ladybugs instead (Paisley cartridge).
Maryn dressed up for her Valentine Party, Owen gave the girl he likes a single rose and asked her to be his Valentine, and Jensyn received her first roses from the boy she has a crush on!
I had an assignment to scrap a Valentine’s Day page for My Mind’s Eye, so here is Jensyn with her flowers. She was beaming with happiness! I used the My Mind’s Eye Love Me papers for this page, along with some older goodies from my stash (pink glittered chipboard elements are from Making Memories, and the chipboard letters are from Heidi Swapp). The chandelier stamps are from the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found collection, and the rhinestone brads are from the Lush 2 collection.
I also created a few postalette-style valentines from the Noel Mignon Charm School Kit. I used my Cricut machine to cut an envelope. Cut off the sides (choose a design with short shallow sides so that the top and bottom flaps have a nice overlap), and decorate! I used stickers and baker’s twine to close my postalette. So much fun! Opening the card is like unwrapping a little present!
We had a great Valentine’s Day, and hope you did, too!
See you next time!
Jana
Blessings & a Gift Bag
The NEW Cricut Craft Room Exclusives digital cartridges have been posted for this week, and I created two projects to showcase a couple of the cartridges: Photo Corners and European Tour.
BLESSINGS
I used this photo for my daughter’s baptism invitations last fall, but had yet to scrapbook it. I decided that one of the beautiful photo corners from the NEW Photo Corners Craft Room Exclusive cartridge would make an elegant accent for this page. I decided to go with a monochromatic color scheme and pulled papers from all different ranges of My Mind’s Eye collections. I used Fun Day Kraft Day, Lost & Found, and Lost & Found 2. The gems (LOVE the colors!) are from the Fun Day Kraft Day collection.
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room
Cricut Cartridges Used: Photo Corners (Cricut Craft Room Exclusive), Cricut Craft Room Basics (background), Cindy Loo (title), Bridal Shower (Tag/Pocket)
Other Supplies: Cardstock (cream, dark brown), Patterned Paper (My Mind’s Eye), Ribbon (CostCo, Unknown), Eyelet (American Crafts), Gems (My Mind’s Eye), Flowers (Bella Blvd.), Adhesives (Scotch)
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The second digital cartridge I played with was European Tour. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with this cartridge when I first got the assignment because I have never in my life been to Europe (although I hope to someday). After pondering it for awhile, I decided that the images reminded me a lot of travel stickers that you could stick on a trunk or suitcase. So, I created a suitcase with the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More digital cartridge and the Stand & Salute cartridge. The Father’s Day sentiment was cut from the Wild Card cartridge.
This bag would also be a lot of fun to hold a mini album or photos of your travels to Europe.
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room, Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridges Used: European Tour (Cricut Craft Room Exclusive), Tags, Bags, Boxes & More – Digital (suitcase box), Stand & Salute (suitcase layer), Cricut Craft Room Basics (Circles), Wild Card – Digital (sentiment)
Other Supplies: Cricut 12 X 24 Cutting Mat, Cuttlebug Houndstooth Embossing Folder, Cardstock (cream, gray, red, lt. blue, dark brown, kraft), Stamps (Glitz Designs), Ink (Ranger), Gold buttons (American Crafts), Twine, Ribbon (Close to My Heart), Adhesives (Scotch)
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The other digital cartridges released this week are: Bookmarks – Classics, Zombies, and St. Patrick’s Day. Stop by the Cricut Blog to see what the other design team members did with those images.
Have a great weekend!
Jana
Pretty Paper Dolls with the Cricut
One of the things I love about my Cricut machines are all the fun projects my kids and I can make together. Last summer, my girls and I were thinking of things they could take with them on a LONG road trip in the car. We decided to create magnetic paper dolls using the Once Upon a Princess cartridge.
I used the magnetic disks by Basic Grey as the means for attaching the clothes to the dolls. One doll had the + side of the magnet and then all of her clothes were the – side. The other doll was the opposite. That way my daughters knew which clothes belonged to which doll and they wouldn’t argue over which dress belonged to who.
We had so much fun sifting through my patterned paper and cardstock scraps to find different combinations for each outfit.
We dressed some of the clothes up with stick-on gems, . . .
. . . my Cuttlebug Machine and Swiss Dots embossing folder, buttons, and pearls! We even added a bit of vellum to one of the skirts.
My girls have had so much fun with these sets. They also like to take them to church to play with while listening to the speakers in Sacrament meeting. The magnets are perfect, because they are QUIET. I have tried to use velcro on projects like this in the past, but we could never take them to church with us, because they were just too darn loud. Hehehe!
Another great adhesive option to use with projects like this are the Scotch Reusable Tabs for Lightweight Mounting. They are clear adhesive squares that do not tear paper and can be reattached over and over again. You can even trim the squares into smaller pieces. When the stickiness starts to wear off, you can rinse them off, let them airdry, and they will be good as new!
If you have a little girl, this might make a really fun gift to surprise her with for Valentine’s Day morning. I think she would love it and I promise you will have a blast creating this project!
Have a great weekend!
Jana
My Mind’s Eye CHA Projects
Hi, Everyone! I had so much fun playing with the new papers by My Mind’s Eye for the Winter 2012 CHA booth. I had the opportunity to play with the Miss Caroline Howdy Doody and Dolled Up collections, as well as the Out of the Blue collection. If you told me to pick a favorite . . . I don’t think I could. I LOVE them all! How fun are the barnwood papers mixed in with the other patterns. WOW!!!! 
And in true My Mind’s Eye style there are also tons of delicious new stamps, decorative brads, twines, and buttons . . . there are also NEW wood shapes, rubons, and stickpins! Woot! Woot!
ISN’T SHE LOVELY (Miss Caroline Howdy Doody Collection)
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THIS IS LIVING (Miss Caroline Dolled Up Collection)
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ARCHES NAT’L PARK (Out of the Blue Colleciton)
Lots of cute die cuts with this collection. The brads, buttons, and mini circle letter stickers are from past My Mind’s Eye collections. I used my Cricut Expression 2 Machine and the Destinations cartridge to create the Delicate Arch shape. The title was created with the Street Sign cartridge. I used a pen to outline each image to add more definition to the shapes. The Kraft base paper with the slight pattern on it is from the My Mind’s Eye Kraft Fun Day Everyday collection.
Have a great day!
Jana
My Cute Stamps SALE
Hi Friends!
I know I already posted this morning, but I just found out about a SALE of one of my very favorite stamp companies . . . My Cute Stamps. She is having a 50% off EVERYTHING sale for a Limited Time. I don’t know when this one will end (I just discovered it myself), but I thought I would share it with you in case you love her stamps, too.
I used to be on Holly’s My Cute Stamps design team a couple of years ago and here are a few of the projects I created.
Have a great day!
