Cricut 360° Blog Challenge #6 ... Refreshing

It's Friday and time for another Cricut 360° Blog challenge. It's been crazy hot so we're going to try to cool things down with some refreshing projects!

For my project, I tried to recreate one of my favorite things: an Olive Garden Italian Margarita. My, oh my ... they are yummy!

There are martini glasses on a couple of Cricut cartridges, but no margarita glasses, so I used my Gypsy to make my own. I welded an oval from Plantin Schoolbook to the top of the martini glass from Smiley Cards to create the margarita shape. I cut it two times, one from white cardstock and one from frosted Shrinky Dink material. I used a Copic marker to ink the frosted side. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but I inked the stem of the glass with a light blue Copic marker. I used Glossy Accents to adhere some clear Martha Stewart micro beads to the rim. Then I used more Glossy Accents (just on the side edges) to adhere the Shrinky Dink layer to the card stock layer.

I like my margaritas 'on the rocks', so I used more the of Shrinky Dink material to make ice cubes. The rounded squares are from George and Basic Shapes. I used my Gypsy to weld three together to form a base. Then I cut three separately. I inked the frosted sides with a light blue Copic marker, and then embossed them with the Tiny Mosaic Cuttlebug folder. I used clear dimensional dots to attach them to the base and slipped them in between the Shrinky Dink material and the cardstock. I like how they look like they're floating. Of course, every margarita needs a straw ... I used a pipe cleaner (slipped behind the white cardstock) to make mine!

The orange slice is from Preserves. It looked a little flat, so I glossed it up with a thin coat of Glossy Accents. For my sentiment, I used Thickers from American Crafts. They're actually yellow, so I inked them with the same Copic marker I used on the margarita.

Oh, and I guess I should tell you my card is a 6" x 6" square and the designer paper is from Stampin' Up. I hope you join us for this week's challenge ... I'd love to see your refreshing ideas!!

Thanks for stopping by ...

Cricut 360° Blog Challenge #2 ... Thank You

 I am so excited about the response we had to our first Cricut 360° Blog challenge! It was wonderful to see everyone's entry ... you all are seriously talented. After such a great first week, it's appropriate that our next challenge is to create a 'Thank You' card. The only rules: create a circle shaped card and, of course, use your Cricut. Here's what I came up with for this week:

I got my inspiration for this card from Michele Kovack. She is one of the design team members for the Circut Circle blog and she recently did a tutorial on using your Cricut to cut felt. The trick is to stabilize your felt with Heat & Bond or Wonder Under. Then you place it, felt side down, on your mat and cut using a deep cut blade. Two more tricks: tape the edges of the felt to your mat and keep your cuts simple. The felt will shift a little, so intricate cuts won't work well.  

So, to make my card I used my Gypsy and Elegant Edges to create the base out of a cream colored cardstock. Then I cut two mats, one from a peach colored cardstock (using the shadow feature) and one from a patterned paper.  The next layer is a doily that I inked with distress ink and spritzed with Glimmer Mist. The peach is from the Preserves cartridge, cut from three colors of felt. I did some embroidery stitches to dress it up a bit and added a button to the center. My little tag is from Tag, Bag, Boxes & More and my sentiment stamps are from My Pink Stamper (You're a Peach!) and Papertrey Ink (thanks). The felt and cardstock are also from Papertrey Ink.

So, there's your challenge ... I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all create ... and remember, we'll use random.org to select our weekly winner. This week the prize is a paper pad from Echo Park. Also, you just might be chosen as one of our weekly Top 3 and be entered in our monthly giveaway. Have fun creating!!

Thanks for stopping by ...

Fresh Fruit Basket

This is a peck size fruit box … the kind you get at a Farmer’s Market or a U-Pick-It orchard … that held some very tasty peaches. I knew I could put it to good use instead of just throwing it away. I entered this in the Cricut Circle Infomercial Contest. It wasn't selected, but I still love it!

Here are the details:

1.      1. I used the Rectangle3 image from George and Basic Shapes (sized using my Gypsy) to cut strips of cardstock to cover the box, both inside and outside.

2.     2. Then, I used the Argyle Icon (shifted) image from Wild Card to create the “lattice”. Using my Gypsy, I sized and welding three images together to create lattice strips and wrapped them around the box.

3.     3. For the chalkboard, I used the Rectangle4 image from George and Basic Shapes to make the frame (sized and welding using my Gypsy).  I used a textured cardstock and rubbed it with distressing ink to make it look more like wood, and then attached it to a piece of black cardstock. 

4.     4. I used the Loop Dee Loo font from Lyrical Letters to create the “Fresh Fruit” … sized and welded with my Gypsy.

5.     5. All of the fruit images are from Preserves (cut from the cartridge, no Gypsy):

a.     Watermelon1 – 6.75”

b.     Blueberry1 – 2.75”

c.     Lemon – 3”

d.     Orange – 3.25”

e.     Strawberry1 – 2.75”

f.      Pineapple2 – 5.75”

g.     Grapes – 5.75”

6.     6. I attached the images to the box with pop dots (various sizes) to add dimension.

7.     7. For finishing embellishments, I added a crepe paper ruffle around the top edge of the basket and wrapped ribbon around the handle.

Strawberry Shaped Card - Preserves

Here's another shaped card - this time using the Preserves cartridge. I used my Gypsy for the layout and welding. The images on this cartridge layer together so nicely ... that really makes it easy to create a cute card. The card stock I used is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment stamp is from PaperTrey Ink.

Shaped Cards - TBBM

Earlier this week, Robyn at My Pink Stamper posted a video showing how to make a really cute shaped card using Tag, Bags, Boxes and More. You can see this video and all her other great videos here.

Basically, using Design Studio or Gypsy, you weld two tags together to create your card base. I increased the width of my tags to make my card a little wider.

My images are from the Preserves cartridge, cut at 3". I really like this cartridge ... there are some awesome images and they layer together very nicely.

The sentiment stamp for the watermelon card is from My Pink Stamper's Everyday Occasions set, and the stamp for the blueberries card is from Papertrey Ink's Mega Mixed Messages set. The papers are all from Stampin' Up.

Cute, quick and easy. Hope you like them.