Mickey Mouse Birthday Invitations

I've had several inquiries on the Mickey invites I posted HERE.  So here are the sizes/cartridges I used to create these:

1. Black invitation base: Mickey Font Cartridge

-Cut the Mickey Tag at 5 1/4"

2. Red "Shorts": Plant. Schoolbook Cartridge

-Cut the circle with shadow feature at 4"

-Cut circle in half with paper trimmer...this provides the front half circle where you adhere the buttons, and the back pocket where you include the party info.

3. Buttons: Wild Card Cartridge

-Cut the button (icon feature) at 9" (sounds huge, but they obviously come out small!)

4. Letter "K": Mickey Font Cartridge

-Cut the white using the "shadow" feature at 1 1/2"

-Cut the yellow in regular mode at 1 1/2"

I glued the front red half-circle on with tape runner and then added the buttons with foam dots to make them look dimensional.  On the back, I used Scotch Quick Dry to put a small strip of glue along the bottom edge of the half-circle, leaving the middle and top open to slide in the party details:

(I used the Mickey and Mouse Deco fonts, downloaded from dafont.com)

At this size, the invitations will fit into a standard invitation-size envelope.  There will be room on each side in the envelope, but the size was needed to acommodate the height of the ears.  You could make your own square envelopes, but who wants to pay the additional shipping???  :)

Sock Cupcake: FCCB Challenge #39 "Gifts Galore"!

I first made sock cupcakes almost a year ago...and I posted some of my first sock cupcakes in an earlier post back in February.  Well, I've been at it again!  This time I made them for Fantabulous Cricut's Challenge this week: "Gifts Galore": Create a handmade gift or gift package!  This has to be one of my most favorite gifts to give...and I made this one in Chrismas colors, just in time for the holiday!!!

For the cupcake wrapper, I have a Design Studio file graciously shared by Rach1Fun from the Cricut Messageboard.  You can find her blog HERE.  It uses the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and cuts this lovely scallop-edge wrapper!  The socks are from the Michael's Dollar Spot and the cherries (which look almost black in the photo, but are really a dark red) are from Target.

To turn this cutie into a gift, I placed it in a cello bag, tied a red ribbon around it, and stamped a sentiment (CTMH) on a circle cut with George and attached to a circle tag to embellish.

Hope you'll hop over to FCCB and enter your own handmade gift/gift package for your chance to win this week's prize!

Happy Crafting!!!  :)

Gone Fishin' Layout: Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #23

The challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut this week is called "The Great Outdoors":  Create a project with an outdoor activity.  We just recently got back from a trip to the river with family and I knew exactly what photos I wanted to use on this project (and what paper I wanted to use...this super-cute fishy paper from 3 Bugs In A Rug)!

The Mess Maker had her first fishing experience, which lasted all of about 1 minute...the moment the fish came out of the water she took off!  Oh well...she takes after her father.  :)

For this layout, I used the Create a Critter cartridge for the fish and Plantin Schoolbook for the title.  I added an eye brad to the fish, and cut a hook and added twine, wrapping the end around the "i" in "fishin'".  The letters in "fishin'" were embossed with the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder. 

To finish, I pleated some fabric ribbon and added brads to secure it.  I threaded several buttons and adhered them randomly.  And I printed the journaling, cut it into strips and then adhered them at the bottom of the page.

This layout is based on a sketch by Pencil Lines, found HERE:

Thanks for looking and be sure to head over to FCCB and check out the prize up for grabs this week!

Happy Crafting!!!  :)

FCCB: Scrappin' Saturday Feature: Custom Shaped Mini-Albums

I am just so proud to be part of the awesome, super-talented group of designers over at Fantabulous Cricut (FCCB)!!!  And I am so excited to announce that Robin has put me in charge of the "Scrappin' Saturday" Daily Inspiration, which will be featured every Saturday at FCCB!

The topic for my first Scrappin' Saturday at FCCB is "Custom Shaped Mini-Albums"...did you know you can make these yourself???  With a little help from your Cricut, of course!  :)   I used the front and back of two ceral boxes in place of costly chipboard and used the George, Plantin, Accent Essentials and Walk In My Garden cartridges to cut the four different flower shapes (and patterned papers to cover each) at 6".  Here are some photos of my project:

Be sure to head over to FCCB to see my original post and information on how to make your own custom shaped mini-album.  And become a follower to make sure you don't miss any of the other great daily inspirations, including:

1.  Challenge Me Monday:  Weekly Challenge Revealed...play along with us!

2.  Quick Tip Tuesday: A great tip on using your Cricut is revealed

3.  Wednesday's Winners:  The winners from the previous week's challenge will be announced

4.  Thursday's Tutorials:  A fantastic weekly tutorial on a Cricut project

5.  Fantabulous Friday:  A wonderful themed Cricut project spotlight

6. Scrappin' Saturday:  Everything related to using your Cricut for scrapbooking

Don't those sound fun?!?!?  Now head on over to FCCB and check out this week's Daily Inspirations!

FANTABULOUS CRICUT! Challenge #1: Birthday/Balloon

This announcement is a little overdue, but I would like to let everyone know that I have been selected as a Senior Design Team member over at Fantabulous Cricut, (FCCB) the brand new Cricut challenge blog!!!

I, along with three other Design Team members, resigned from Just Buggin a couple of months ago, and I am so excited to be taking part in this awesome, FANTABULOUS new challenge blog!  Fantabulous Cricut will have some super-fun, informative and interesting tutorials, tips and challenges each week, so make sure you check back daily for a little crafy inspiration.  And be sure to head over today to take a look at the other DT members' creations and take part in the very first challenge!!!  :)

Challenge #1 at FCCB has two criteria (in addition to using at least 1 Cricut cut on your project):

1) use a balloon shape

2) use the word "birthday"

(neither of these have to be the Cricut cut)

My project (photo above) is a birthday card for a little boy turning 2.  For the balloon shape, I used three small balloons tied together and embellished with a glittery button and turquoise ribbon.  I printed the sentiment with my computer (including the word "birthday") and cut each word out separately.  I used the number "2" in place of the word "to". 

I used the following cartridges on this project:

Card base: George (circles welded together in Cricut Design Studio)

Scallop circle: Storybook

Number "2": Plantin Schoolbook

Black arrow: Street Sign

To get the glittery look on the number "2", I coated the surface of the number with liquid glue and sprinkled it with turquoise glitter.  I used a scrap piece of paper to press the glitter down, then shook off the excess glitter and let it dry.  Then I matted it with a black shadow for dimension.

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!!!  :)

Live-Laugh-Love Wall Hanging

The front of my fridge is not magnetic (why?  I have NO idea!)...so I wanted to make something to put on the front that would attach with a suction cup.  And this is what I came up with...a three-framed wall hanging showcasing one of my most favorite sayings:  "Live, Laugh, Love".

I found these square chipboard frames at Michaels in the paper mache and craft aisle.  I inked the edges and covered them with patterned paper that coordinates with my kitchen color scheme.  I hooked them together with some CTMH metal hinges and matted the openings with taupe cardstock.

I used the Cricut Home Accents cartridge to cut the words "live", "love" and "laugh" using the shadow feature for dimension.  I adhered them onto the taupe mats and then stamped a flourish in the open space.

The flowers are an idea by Marta Gladden, who posted her original flower designs on the Cricut messageboard.  She was kind enough to email the instructions to me and I got to work creating some of my own!

I used the following cartridges to create my flowers:  Walk In My Garden, Plantin Schoolbook, Accent Essentials and Storybook.  I cut several layers in various sizes, embossed them with my Cuttlebug, inked the edges and raised embossed designs and then curled the edges of the petals.  Then I attached the layers of each flower together with a brad.  The result is a very dimensional and beautiful paper flower!

To finish, I adhered a ribbon on the top, hot glued it to a suction cup and covered the top with another paper flower.  That's it!  Now I FINALLY have a fridge decoration!  :)

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!!!

Sock Cupcakes!!!

I've been meaning to post these for a while, but I just forgot about them until tonight!  "Rach1" on the Cricut Messageboard was SOOOOOOO kind to send me the DS .cut file for the wrapper.  THANK YOU!!!  You can check out her blog at Rachie's Scrap Spot.

All it takes to make this is your Cricut, a sheet of paper (this is a print by Sandylion) and a pair of fluffy socks (I got these from the M's dollar bins!).  Oh, and a pom pom for the cherry on top.

Simply roll up the sock, toe first, and place inside wrapper.  Gently pull the inner-most part of the sock up and adjust the layers as needed.  Then pop a pom pom on top and ta-da!  What cute, inexpensive gift!

Top view:

I plan to put these individually into some cello bags, wrap a cute ribbon and a tag on them and give them to teachers, friends, etc. when I need a last-minute gift!

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!!!  :)

Valentine Mail Boxes

These plain white mailboxes are from the dollar bins at Target...aren't they fun?  I bought one for the Mess Maker and one for the Noise Maker for Valentine's Day to put some treats in.  Now that I think about it, what kind of "treats" can a 9-month-old really have???  Hmmm...

I covered the body of the mailboxes with this cute paper from Three Bugs in a Rug.  I used my Cricut for everything else.  The frog, turtle and "xoxo" are from the Paisley cartridge, and the names are from Plantin Schoolbook.  I added some white swirls (hard to see in the photo) to the pink part of each animal with a white opaque pen.  To finish, I tied a red ribbon on the flag.

Thanks for looking!  :)

Layout: "Don't Laugh With Food In Your Mouth" (Friday Scrapsketch Challenge)

This layout was made from yesterday's Scrapsketch Challenge...I found three photos of the Mess Maker that I just had to put on a layout and I thought this one was perfect for them! 

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I didn't have the scallop-frame paper, so I cut a piece of 12x12 patterned paper with the Cricut (Storybook).  Then I matted it with brown and orange cardstock. 

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I made an orage scallop-edge border strip and pulled ribbons through the holes.  I cut a 1-inch strip from some packing material (brown ridged cardboard) and inked the edges and top and then sanded over the inking.  I inked another green strip of patterned paper and placed all three strips together in the center. 

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I cut the title with the Cricut as well (PS and OA).  I matted the words "in your mouth" with cream cardstock strips. 

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The flower embellishment is also made with the Cricut (AE).  I tied a ribbon through a button and centered it

in the flower.

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Here's the original sketch:

TFL!!!  :)