Merry Christmas Banner

I made this Merry Christmas banner for our party using the Cricut. The banner itself was made using the Celebrations cartridge, and the letters were made using the pre-loaded American Alphabet. I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I wish I had used a different color scheme, but I'll know to spend a little more time planning in the future.

Lilly in Decoupage

I love all things Lilly Pulitzer. Well, except for the price! I really do enjoy their vibrant, beachy fabrics, so when I received their catalog I ooh'd and ahh'd over the beautiful clothes, handbags, and accessories. And the price. That pesky price. I had been trying to figure out a simple and cheap project for a cardboard box that was sitting empty in my son's room. So empty cardboard box, meet Lilly Pulitzer catalog. This was my first decoupage project. I'm not 100% in love with it, but it turned out fine for someone who hasn't decoupaged a single thing since third grade. It's sitting on a shelf in my office, and houses a variety of office supplies like glue sticks, pens, sticky tabs, and extra post-it notes.



I definitely could have worked harder to smooth out some of the bubbles, and really, catalog pages aren't ideal for decoupaging because the colors run a little bit when you are trying to do just that. Oh well, it was fun, and I think it's pretty cute!

Rolled Paper Christmas Tree in a Shadowbox

My latest obsession in Pinterest, along with a lot of other people. I have gotten so many fabulous ideas, and this is the first that I actually made. You can find my pin here: .

I have an obscene amount of Christmas crafting/scrapbooking/card-making supplies, because a few years ago, I was going to start making my own Christmas cards ;) So when I saw this post, I knew that I already had everything except the shadowbox frame. When I clicked on the pinterest link, there was no tutorial or anything but a dead link, so I kinda winged it, but I am very happy with the final product!

Materials used:
an assortment of different Christmas scrapbook papers
Christmas buttons
3-D Christmas sticker
gold star brads
large sequins star
double-sided puffy stickers
8 x 10 canvas
shadowbox
glue gun
paper cutter
ruler

This is such a simple project, a kid could do it. I used my paper cutter to cut the papers, using the previously cut paper as a guideline, making each one smaller as I went along. I rolled each paper. I used a ruler to help maintain the same 'margins' on either side. That got a little tricky as the pieces got smaller and the glue gun got hotter :) I affixed the buttons using my glue gun, and secured the brads with glue as well.

Another idea I had, which I did not implement, was to add 'gift box' stickers under the tree. I did lay a few out, and it just looked too busy to me, as I was going for clean lines. I do think if I'd had a larger frame/canvas and a smaller tree, it would have looked better.

I cannot wait until it's time to decorate for Christmas so I can hang this on the wall!

First Cricut Project - Butterfly Wall Hanging

Well, my original 'first project' on my new Cricut was some elaborate (for my crafting abilities anyway) birthday party invitations for my daughter's birthday. When she decided to have her birthday party somewhere other than where we had originally planned, and invite more kids, I temporarily scrapped my idea. Tabled it, if you will. I think I will still make her invitations, but I haven't had any brilliant ideas that coordinate with the new location.

So...moving right along! A few weeks ago, I was going through some stuff in the basement and came across a large framed picture of my daughter when she was a baby. Not one of her better baby pictures, so I decided to remove the photo and make something on the Cricut to frame for her room. So glad I did because I really like the finished product. It is not perfect though, but she will love it nonetheless, and it was so cheap that if I ever decide to change it up again, I already have all the materials.

Anyway, using a butterfly from the Florals Embellished cartridge as my inspiration, I began my journey into the world of all things Cricut. Truth be told, the one pictured here is my second attempt at this butterfly. You see, when I made the first one, I wanted to use only paper that I had on hand, and I tried to copy the FE book as closely as possible, and I just wasn't happy with it. The colors were ok, but they had no texture and it was just sorta 'blah.' So I went back to the craft store yesterday and bought new paper, just enough for this project. Each paper had texture and I like this version so much better. Now, one thing I will say with the Cricut, is that (and perhaps this is because I haven't mastered it yet), it is fickle with textured/embossed papers. I had to trash some paper and ended up using a sheet from my original stash. I am not sure if I was using the wrong setting, though I did try a few different ones before I gave up on the paper. I think it might have be that some of the designs were rather intricate, using small/tiny cuts. Anyway, lesson sorta learned. If you click on the picture without the frame, you can see where some of the cuts were wonky and tore the paper in tiny spots. Oh well.

The other thing I had to do, which is what I'm not terribly thrilled about, is change up the matting. I did not want to go out and buy new matting, and since this was navy blue matting, and I didn't want to hassle with priming or anything, I decided to use coordinating scrapbook paper and basically, cut and paste. You can totally see it in the last two pictures. What I would do differently next time, is either buy a new matte, or decoupage the existing matte. But I just wanted to get it done and with all this said, I still like the way it turned out.

It all began with a Cricut.....

Well, not really. I have always loved to create things. Photographs. Cards. Kid-crafts. Yesterday I received my first Cricut, the Expression 2: Anniversary Edition. I.AM.IN.LOVE. I spent most of today playing around with my new toy, and the rest of the day was spent at the local craft stores stocking up on supplies adding to my rapidly-growing collection of cartridges, pretty paper, and any manner of embellishment you can wrap your tiny head around :)

My first project is going to be my daughter's birthday invitations. I can't say much but I will tell you that I am crossing my fingers that I didn't bite off more than I can chew with this project. I have about a month to complete 15 personalized invitations. And did I mention that my 6 year old is a tough critic?

Other projects I have in mind are seasonal banners for my mantle, framed 'artwork' for my powder room, playroom, and mud room, Christmas cards for my kids' teachers, and gift tags.

I have another goal: To re-purpose whatever I can. Tonight I took an empty tissue box (which happened to have a pretty green and white design on it), cut it up, trimmed the edges, and voila! I can use these 'scraps' for gift tags, or even backgrounds on smaller cards. I know that paper-crafting can be a very wasteful hobby, and I want to do my part to keep the waste to a minimum. Also, all of the paper scraps I ended up with after a day of crafting made their way to a 'scraps' box. The plan is to use these scraps to embellish future crafts. If you have any bright ideas on ways to re-purpose or recycle 'craft' items, please tell me!

Happy Crafting!