Customizing Baseball Gifts Using The Cricut Maker with Video!

Hello! I am so excited to finally have a Cricut Maker!! I was lucky enough to find it on TSC, which is the Canadian Shopping Channel, and I used a 20% off coupon, making it super affordable with their interest-free payment plan! I previously had an Explore, which I loved, but I felt this was the right time to upgrade and take advantage of the new features the Maker has, including the ability to cut fabric easily with the rotary blade! With a birthday present needed for a little boy having a baseball themed party I thought this was the perfect time to break it open and get going. My daughter, Erica, who is 7 really enjoyed helping make this present for her little friend, and I enjoyed the crafting time with her!

Here's a look at the VIDEO where I'll show you step by step how easy it is to create two quick, easy, personalized gifts.

I was surprised and so pleased at how easily the Cricut Maker Rotary Blade cut through fabric! This was a white fleece material and I was a bit worried about how much residue it might leave on the fabric mat, but it came off completely clean. The Everyday Iron-On adhered perfectly to the fleece and we stitched up the pillow in no time.

Erica's friend was so excited to get his new shirt, and she thought it was an awesome gift to give! She was so proud of the fact that she helped to make it.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'd love to know if you have an electronic cutter, and if so, which one? Have an awesome crafty week friends!

Kitty Bee Designs - #136 Love & Valentines!

Hi Friends! I hope you've been having a lovely week so far! I've had lots of fun creating projects lately and here's one more for you!  It's time for the midweek inspiration for Challenge #136 over at the Kitty Bee Designs Challenge Blog - Aloha Friday!

Challenge #136

Love & Valentines

Super big thanks to our sponsor for this challenge

Beccy's Place

For this week's challenge I decided to use the Love theme to create a wine wrap and gift tag set that could be given as a housewarming gift. I used the cute blue house from the My Neighborhood digital stamp set with the sending love sentiment. This set is full of awesome neighborhood images, and you get the precoloured images along with black and white digis and several sentiments. 

I diecut the preprinted house with a Sizzix oval die and layered it on a tag cut from a Paige Evans paper pad. These cool We R Memory Keepers brads added a neat element to the front.

I used some pretty embellishments from Buttons Galore to add some bling and added a little heart stamp on the door. I was able to colour the 'sending love' portion of the stamp by opening it with the Paint 3D program on my PC and clicking on the colour I wanted. A bit of Distress Oxide Ink around the edge adds some interest.

I was easily able to customize the red and green houses by opening them in Paint 3D as well and simply clicking the colours I wanted. I then saved each individually and printed them out side by side in the word processing program I use. 

I diecut a border around the house label and layered it on some papers from a Paige Evans Pink Paislee Paper Pad cut to fit around the bottle. I used a strip of double sided score tape to secure the wrap in place and added some more pretty bling from the Buttons Galore pack. Now I have a gift ready and waiting to deliver to a friend!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out the Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge to see all the inspiration from the other awesome Design Team members - and enter your own project HERE for a chance to win!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Canvas Corp Painted Brush Holder!

Hello! I sure hope you're having a fabulous week! I wanted to stop in to share a pretty gift I gave to my daughter over Christmas using the lovely Canvas Corp Studio Printed Canvas Brush Holder. 

I made a quick video of how easy it is to customize these pretty canvas holders.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out the Canvas Corp Brands Creative Studio blog post for details, supplies and closeups used on this project. I hope you have a very happy and very crafty day!

7gypsies Video - Creating A Wall Hanging!

Hi friends! I hope your week's been great! We've had lots of snowy weather, and the kids have been off the last couple days - so lots of inside activities! I have a video to share with you today over on the 7gypsies YouTube channel - How To Create A Wall Hanging Using A 7gypsies Banner. This was a gift I made for my sister at Christmas, and I really love how it turned out! I used the Vintage Hot Air Balloon Banner, but you could use any of the 7gypsies Vintage Banners for a wonderful handmade gift.

You can check out my process to create this pretty banner HERE or watch the link below.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful weekend with some happy, crafty time for you!

Sydney's Superhero Frame!

Hi there!! I feel like last week just flew by, and I didn't get to share as many projects with you as I would have liked to... but I have been working on some fun new projects that I'll be sharing with you over the next couple weeks.

I can't wait to tell you about this frame that I made for my niece Sydney at Christmas! You may remember some great photos and layouts I shared from last spring when I threw a Superhero birthday for her. You can check out some pocket pages here as well as some pics from her party here. Well, since she loves Superheroes, I decided to give her a framed photo from that day - using this 'Super' cool scrapbook paper ;).

I started off painting a wooden frame from Michaels with red Dylusions paint on the back and around the front edges.

Then Erica helped me add Mod Podge to the front of the frame with a paintbrush. You can see we're watching crafty YouTube videos!

 Then we added the scrapbook paper, cut to size, onto the wood frame. I had a left over diecut from her party in my stash and I fussy cut some of the paper and added it on top.

On the back, I covered the paper insert with part of the scrapbook paper and added a little note.

I just love how it turned out, and Sydney loved it too!

Some sequins from SpiegelMom Scraps added that last touch of bling.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope your week is shaping up to be fantastic. I'd love for you to check out my newest video using some fantastic Canvas Corp Brand products - a Street Art Valentine Process Video!!

You can follow me on social media at these links here:

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Linked to:

DL Art - January Linky Challenge

Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper - January Challenge

Wipe Off Memo Board Teacher Gift!

Well, we're almost to the end of June - and that means teacher gifts! We usually give gift cards to the teachers, but I think it's nice to include a little something useful as well.  I saw this cute DIY tutorial on YouTube and thought it would be quick, cute, and within our budget. Erica had 3 teachers this year in preschool, and Amie wanted one for her teacher too!

We started by picking up four pretty 4x6 photo frames at the dollar store, along with a package of wipe off markers. We then chose 4x6 Project Life Cards - I liked these lined ones so you could easily write your message, 

We added the Currently stamp from Pretty Cute Stamps to the top line with black ink, inserted it into the frame and tied some baker's twine through the little hole on the top of the marker to attach it to the frame.

Lastly, we wrote a little note on the memo board before wrapping it up.

Here's a look at the Currently stamp set I used:

Currently

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you're enjoying the last week of June and have some fun summer plans to look forward to!

PDE Friday Linky Party - Homemade Granola and Crocheted Owl Basket!

Happy Friday friends! I'm sharing this recipe for Homemade Granola over at the PDE Linky Party blog today.  This is something that I made as a gift for my sister, including it in a handmade crocheted owl basket with a few other yummy goodies. You can find the recipe online here!

I recycled a jar that I cleaned well and added a pretty hand dyed ribbon along with a label sticker and a circle of patterned paper to cover the top of the jar. I really believe presentation is everything, and even a small gift can be very special with a little effort!

I added the jar of granola to this cute owl basket along with some chocolate covered popcorn and some Banana Bread Tea from David's Tea - one of my fav tea places!

I followed a pattern that was in a magazine, but I did find a free online pattern that looks very similar here. 

After my sister took her goodies out of the basket she filled it with some pretty red ornaments. 

Thanks so much for joining me today! Be sure to stop over to the PDE blog to see all the fun things the other designers have come up with and enter your own creative project in our Anything Goes Linky Party! 

Rainbow Gift Bag and Mini Notes!

I have been so excited to get to play with all the amazing Spring themed stamps that came out with the March Release last week at Pretty Cute Stamps! If you haven't checked out the awesome blog hop be sure to click here for details. Since the New Release stamps are ON SALE until March 15th I just had to share another project using them, as well as the sweet Rainbow Gift Bag diecut project that Lisa created for this release!

I decided to create six mini 3x3 note cards to fit inside my Rainbow Gift Bag. Since I was on a rainbow roll ;) I made each card a different colour of the rainbow, layered some coordinating patterned papers and then a piece of white cardstock. I used stamps from each of the four new stamp sets - Grow, Rainbow, Spring Flowers and Rain or Shine. I used alcohol markers and paper piecing to colour in my images and then chose a coordinating sentiment to put on the inside of each card. I stamped a little bee and butterfly on the envelopes for each note card, which I made with my We R Memory Keepers 123 Punch Board - love!

Here's a close up of the front of each card:

I stamped a different sentiment on each side of my gift bag before popping up the outer clouds to give dimension. You can see the other sentiment in the first photo. I put my cards inside the envelopes and tied them with some pretty white ribbon, ready to give as a gift to a friend or teacher!

Here's this sweet gift bag:

Rainbow Gift Bag

And a look at the New Release stamp sets!

March New Release Stamps

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you have a lovely, crafty week!

Chinese New Year!

Hello friends! I just wanted to share a gift set I created for some friends to celebrate Chinese New Year, which begins on Monday. We wanted to show we were thinking of our friends and did a little research to find out what would be appropriate to help them celebrate this time of year.

 I first made a card using the Cricut Explore, choosing a symbol that represents Celebrate in Design Space. I used a gold washi tape sticker roll to add a glittery element to the edge of my card and then layered on my Cricut cut. Behind the Celebrate cut I added a paper that I heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

Inside, I cut Happy from a Cricut font and then used a diecut in Design Space for my Chinese New Year sentiment. For the envelope I layered the inside cut of the Celebrate symbol over a stenciled image using a Tim Holtz stencil with red and yellow Distress Inks.

For the children I cut a bag from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cartridge to cut this neat little boxy envelope. I then added a diecut symbol that represents Fortune. I made two and we filled the envelopes with some money and candy.

We wrapped some fruit in red wrapping paper and my husband delivered the gifts. Even though it was just a small gesture our friends appreciated it and knew we were thinking of them.

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope your weekend is full of love, friends, and some creativity!

Linked to:

Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday 

DL Art - Thankful Thursday February Linky Challenge

Word Art Wednesday - AG

PDE Linky Party - AG!

FCCB Christmas Bingo Blog Hop!

Welcome to the FCCB Christmas Bingo Blog Hop! If you came from Michelle's blog you are in the right spot - if you want to start at the beginning visit the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog! Here is your Bingo card-

You can choose to do a line up, down, across or diagonal, completing each square in your line. Example: Christmas Cricut Cut, Hand Colored Christmas Image, Christmas Glitter. You have so many choices!

The FCCB Christmas Bingo hop is sponsored by:

Kit and Clowder Online Craft Classes

A $10 Credit Voucher will go to the lucky winner!

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

For this blog hop, you can submit up to three projects. Each project is one entry into the drawing for the prize shown above. You can link up at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog.

 For my project I've used the bottom line across of the bingo card - Christmas Glitter, Flowers and Embellishments. I chose the pillow box cut from the CTMH Art Philsophy Cricut cartridge and the poinsettia cut from the Christmas Cricut cartridge. After I cut and assembled my box I sponged some Distress Ink around the edges and then tied on some silver wire edged ribbon before gluing the poinsettia cut on top.

I added some Christmas stickers and attached a holly brad to my tag and then used red and white bakers twine to tie on my tag. Of course I had to use Stickles to add glitter to my tag and the centers of my flower cuts!

This turned out to be the perfect gift holder for some coffee gift cards as a teacher gift this year. I love dressing presents up - the plainest of gifts can look so awesome with a little extra effort!

Be sure to visit each Design Team member and leave a comment - those will be put into a drawing for the following:

Your next stop will be Sara's blog.

So here is the line-up:

Michelle
Karla That's Me!
Sara
Liz
Christina
Diana L.
Marie
Lynn
Cindy

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you're having an awesome week getting ready for Christmas, and taking some time to enjoy this wonderful season.

Linked to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy

613 Avenue Create - AG

Crafting From The Heart - AG

DL Art - Thankful  Thursday December Linkup

PDE Linky Party - AG!