How I got into Cricut

Erica at My Cricut Craft Room has asked how we got into Cricut. Someone will win the Cricut Circle exclusive cartridge Sophie.

When I first started scrapbooking, I was at a craft store and saw this neat machine set up inside a plexiglass box. It was the first ever Cricut. I just fell in love with it, but I decided right then and there I would never own one because it was so expensive.  years later (not sure how many) I saw an infomercial for the Cricut Expression. Once again, I loved it, but the cost was very high and I knew I would never be able to afford one.
Then, last year, I was totally surprised when my husband gave me one for Christmas!  After spending some time playing with it, and watching me cut things with it, my 8 year old daughter also fell in love with it and she saved her money and bought her own!  We learned this machine together and both of us has developed a love for card making. My daughter has also discovered scrapbooking.

Please share how you got into Cricut. Go to My Cricut Craft Room and share your story!

Not Just cards

When I was about 10 yrs old, my mom started to teach me how to decorate cakes.  I made my first real decorated cake by myself at the age of 16, when I entered it into our local fair and I got a blue ribbon for it. it was a Barbie doll stuck into the cake (this was before you could buy the top part of the doll and stick it into a molded cake..I had to bake my cake in a bowl and then cut the cake to accommodation the doll...not an easy feat).  I have been decorating cakes for close to 35 yrs.

My last BIG project was in August, when my mom and I  got together and made my sons wedding cake. This past fall, a friend and I got together to teach my church's Keepers group to decorate cakes for their cake decorating badge. 

Well, today, a local hardware store had a good sale on Wilton items. I was able to get some food coloring and decorator tips for a really reasonable price.  I can't wait to be able to use them and play to see what these new tips can do.

Playing catch up

I didn't post last weekend, so, adding it to this weekends cards. 

the first 4 are Aliyah's cards. As you can see, she loves her Cricut!  She has so much fun making cards, and is always looking for some occasion to pull out her expression and cut things out.  As you can probably tell, she does like to somewhat copy what I am doing at the time. She may cut the same type of picture, or use the same paper.  I am trying to encourage her to spread her wings and so her own thing, but she is just not ready for that yet.

This is from some new paper that we got from SEI.  I just finished it off with a bit of pearl pen. This card was given to a woman from our church.

This card I made to be a part of my secret project.....someone has a birthday next week.  The cupcake was cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.

The next 2 were from paper from SEI. The own was cut from the Give A Hoot Cartridge

Announcement

Yesterday, I found out that I have been chosen to be a part of the Design team for Erica's My Cricut Craftroom. You can check out her blog Here.  Needless to say, I am beyond excited.  So, I will be posting more regularly now.

It's Here!..........................

I got a Gypsy!   When I first heard of it, I had just gotten my Cricut Expression. I figured I could do just fine without one.  Plus, they were expensive. Then over time, I decided I really did want one. thinking it would be nice to pick what sizes to make my cut outs. Would be really nice to be able to weld letters together to make my words instead of piecing them together one by one, or hoping one of my cartridges happened to have the word or words I was looking for.  I am still learning this little gem, know it will take time, but.......

                                      

This will be a BIG help. Megan at Above Rubies Studio has this neat little DVD that explains EVERYTHING the Gypsy can go.  I did watch it yesterday, but will need to watch it again and really play with my Gypsy. 

I love Paper Layerz!  They are so cool. You use them with any die cut machine and can make cards and projects using 1 sheet of paper for your die cuts. 

I also bought a PickMeUp.  This will really come in handy when it comes to picking up those little tiny cuts for my projects.  Sometimes, tweezers just don't cut it.

New Haul

I Went to WalMart on Saturday to pick up a few thinks. I hardly every buy scrapbook or card supplies from WalMart, but I just went to check out what they might have.  They had TONS of stuff on clearance. The items below we 20 cents each.  Where I have an 8 yr old who loves to make cards, I thought they would be perfect her her.  

 Aliyah loves glitter, anything that sparkles.  There is also some flocking included. I have never used it, but plan on learning.  Hey, they were 20 cents.

Aliyah loves BLING.  She loves Glitter. She loves stamping. We actually bought multiples of these items and now she can just be free with her creativity.

 These were ink colors that we didn't have yet.  Well, I have white, but Aliyah doesn't

 Aliyah loves ribbon. We are also planning on making Marina's birthday party invitations, so, the red will come in handy.  We have multiples of these as we.

I love SEI kits. Their papers are awesome.  I was getting their scrapbook kits, but felt I would get more use from their card kits. A few weeks ago, SEI had a give away on FaceBook. All you had to do was respond to a post and 1 person would win 3 add on kits.  Then they announced that everyone who responded would get the kits.

This is their card kit for March.

Shopping

I am now on the phone with Craft-e-corner and placing an expensive order.  I will tell you what I am getting when it arrives...so excited!

A Little Surprise

Every Sunday evening, I go to the church for about 90 minutes of Worship and prayer.  While I was gone, Aliyah made this, and had it waiting for me when I got home.

My Secret Project

Yes, I am keeping a secret.    God has asked me to do something for someone. This is the 2nd card of that project. At first, I thought it would be an easy thing to do, but am finding it to be a very emotional experience.

Audition Time......Sort of.....

Sharing my cards is something totally new to me.  I love doing this, and am a bit self conscious  about doing so. So, I am stepping out of the box a bit here.

Erica at My Cricut Craft Room has Design Team call. I started making cards a year ago after my husband bought me my Cricut Expression for Christmas last year.  Since that time I have collected lots of cartridges (but there are still many more I want)

So, her instructions are to create any project using the  Cricut.  Also, she wants us to use Pastel colors. Yellow, Green and a color of my choice. I had originally planned on using pink, but as you can see, blue fit into my card much better, however, a little pink did make it in there too.

The card stock I used was from Close To My Heart.  The sun was cut from Just Because Cards cartridge, and the bird is cut from the Florals Embellished cartridge.  For stamps I used Peachy Keen and the sentiment was from Close To My Heart.

This card is being sent to someone as part of a secret project I am doing.