Crazy May....

WHEW! I am so glad to get back to my happy little blog world. This stretch of May is a beast in our family. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and graduations galore.

So a few months back, I bought the Cricut Cake Mini and at first I hated it. Well let me rephrase, I hated having to figure out how to make the actual edible substences work with the machine. As much I hate to admit it, I'm way more kitchen/cooking fail then anything else, but I was determined.

Then I stumbled onto a brilliant product, Wilton Sugar Sheets. These little babies cut amazingly, but the only down side is the $4.00 per sheet price. That's actually a little less then the cricut cake sheets, AND since it's wilton, you can use the discount coupons on them. So $$$ worries solved! I use SCAL or my Gypsy when putting together a design, so I don't waste, then any that you don't use can be sealed back in its package to be used later. It's rather genius.

Here are what I have done so far with them...

Caleb's 3rd Birthday Cake



For my little brother who loves the Rangers

Memory Box

One of my favorite projects as of late is a memory box (or some call it an exploding box). There are just SOOOOO many ways you can take this and make it your own.

One of my bestie's lost her mom last year, and we just passed the 1 year anniversary of her passing. I wanted to give her something and this is what I came up with. I just wanted something simple and elegant

I used SCAL to weld the words together and then cut them out of cricut vinyl. The swirl is from the objects library in SCAL too.

Materials

The basic bones of this album is only 4 12x12 sheets of cardstock + embellishments as you desire.

• 4 Sheets of `12x12 cardstock (the thicker the card the sturdier the box)
• Paper trimmer or craft knife and metal ruler
• bone folder
• Adhesive
• Pretties...

The box 1. Take your 3 sheets of cardstock and trim them to size as per below: Bottom layer (box) - 12" x 12" (thick card stock like bazzill linens are preferable for strenth) 2nd layer - 11" x 11" (Ok to use patterned scrapbook cardstock for these 2 layers) 3rd layer - 10" x 10"

2. Now score 4 folds on each card layer as per the measurements and diagram below. Score the Bottom Layer 4" in from the sides Score the 2nd layer 3 ¾" in from the sides Score the 3rd layer 3 ½" in from the sides

3. Cut out the corners from all 3 sheets. They should look like this when they are layered on top of each other.

4. Embellish each of the four side panels on all three sheets as you wish. You may embellish both sides of each panel or just the top sides. Create pockets for tags, photo matts, use quotes, ribbon, brads etc. Adhere the bases together when you have finished embellishing the box.

The Lid. Trim a the last piece of cardstock for the lid to 8"x8". Score folds similar to the first sheet above at 2" from each side. Do not cut the corner squares at this stage. Score four more diagonal folds as marked in the diagram below. Fold each corner up and adhere to the side to form the lid. Embellish as desired.

Mother's Day Frame

So I don't know about you other mothers, but my little boy LOVES LOVES LOVES his grandmother. She keeps him for us while we work, and I'm pretty sure Caleb (my son) thinks the sun rises and sets with her.

As such, I wanted to make her something special for mother's day, so this is what I came up with.

The cut files are from SVGCuts.com and can be found below.

Hummingbird

Swirly Frame

I made a couple changes to the frame though. The top layer has another little swirl that comes out right into the middle of the oval, and it was obsuring my sons face. So I just cut it out with a pair or scissors. I also created another layer for the back using SCAL. I needed some way to attach the pipe cleaner so it wouldn't show through the back. So in SCAL, I took both layers of the frame and placed them on top of each other. Then I selected them both. Then on the right hand side in your tool panel, under appearances, you can change the style. I changed it from Normal (which is the default) to Shadow Blackout. This will give you a background for both layers, but notice it is still in 2 pieces. Select both pieces, then up at the top click on path. Then slide down to union, and VOILA! A background for the entire frame.

For the humming bird, he comes in a few pieces. So be sure to import them all into the dame page in SCAL. Then you can select all, and size to suit. That way you can be sure all your pieces layer correctly. The eye of the hummingbird was a really tiny circle, so I just used a white gel pen instead.

Hope everyone was able to enjoy their mother's day!

welcome!

Welcome!

So I get very inspired by those crafty women all around the web, and decided I needed to become one of them. I love all kinds of crafts, and decided to share that love with you!