40th Anniversary Centerpieces

I’m still here.  Sorry for the lack of posts, but I was busy making the following centerpieces for a non-profit Croatian Folklore group that I’m involved with:

The group was celebrating their 40^th anniversary with a dinner and dance and I volunteered to make 42 centerpieces for the tables.  Being a volunteer based non-profit organization, keeping cost down was important and I am proud that I was able to put these together at a cost of about 50 cents each for the materials. 

Supplies Used:

Cricut Expression & Cricut CraftRoom Application

Superman Cartridge (font for vinyl lettering on pot)

Hello Kitty Font Cartridge (“40”)

Ribbons & Rosettes Cartridge (rosette and medallion)

Outdoor grade vinyl (scraps from a sign shop) in red and blue

Copic Marker (to outline card stock medallion and the "40")

Red Tissue Paper

Red Tulle from the Dollar Store

Styrofoam balls

Bamboo Skewers

Martha Stewart Glitter and Glitter Glue

Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Recollections brand card stock

Small Ceramic Pots

Hot glue and glue gun

I cut the name of the group and the years from the vinyl first and put in on the pot (double sided so you could read it from either side of the pot).  I cut the Styrofoam balls in half and glued a half ball to the bottom of the pot.  Glitter glue was applied to the skewers and then the glitter.  The rosettes were cut (six cuts – 2 of each of in red, white and blue) from the card stock, folded and glued together with a “40” medallion on each side of the rosette.  I stuck the pointy end of the skewer into the Styrofoam ball half, stuffed the pot with the tissue paper to hide the Styrofoam, used the tulle as the top layer of the pot stuffing and then slipped the rosette onto the skewer.  While I didn’t track my time exactly (no need to as my time was being donated), I spent well over 40 hours making these centerpieces. The most time consuming was the weeding and application of the vinyl on the pots. 

The dinner was a success and one person at each table got to take home my creation.

Thanks so much for looking.

Cricut Earrings

I am not a jewellery maker, so I pushed myself out of my comfort zone by making these earrings:

 Supplies Used:
Cricut Expression
Cricut Circle Exclusive Everyday Cartridge

Lever back earring posts
Headpin Finding
Crystal bead
Silver toned round bead
Halcraft 20mm Peridot shell bead
Sparkly Silver Outdoor Vinyl

I think this turned out kind of cute and would be fun to wear to a Cricut Circle meet-up.

Happy Valentine's Day Charger Plate

We've taken down all of our Christmas decorations and the house looked so bare.  Of course, that means I have to put up something for St. Valentine's Day and I decided to decorate another charger plate.

I picked up this charger plate  (very sparkly - I like sparkly) from Wal-Mart back in mid-December.  The silvery-white vinyl  is scraps that I got from a generous local sign shop and the pink vinyl is Cricut brand.  I used the Lyrical Letter's cartridge for "Valentine's" and the Base Camp cartridge for "Happy" and "DAY"(welded with Cricut CraftRoom).  The Indie Art cartridge was used for the hearts.

Well, it may not do that much for the "bareness", but it's a start.  Thanks for looking.

Welcome 2012 Cupcakes

My dear hubby got me a Cricut Cake for Christmas and I used it to make the toppers on the following cupcakes for our New Years party:

I used a modeling chocolate (which is  a mixture of chocolate and corn syrup) for the toppers.   I searched the web and found the information on Hungry Happenings Blog very helpful to make the modeling chocolate using white candy melts.  The modeling chocolate is sticky enough so that you don't need to use shortening on the mat. Just roll it out directly on the mat and cut.  I let the cuts harden on a cooling rack for a couple of days prior placing them on the cupcakes.

The cuts for the numbers are from the Hello Kitty Font cartridge sized and welded together using  Cricut CraftRoom.  Here's a close up of one of the cupcakes:

Thanks for letting me share and wishing you all a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Dear Santa Shirt

This is a quick project I made that I intend to wear often this holiday season:

The tunic shirt is from Costco. The font is from Lyrical Letters Cartridge and I used Cricut Design Studio to flip the phrase and it's cut from Silhouette flocked heat transfer vinyl. I then ironed it onto the shirt.  Here's a close-up:









The poinsettia is a Dress It Up button I picked up from Michaels.

Easy peasy and the Silhouette flocked heat transfer vinyl cut wonderfully with my Expression.

Snowman Explosion Box - Gift Card Holder

This months Circle Magazine Challenge is to use the Circle exclusive cart Sophie for at least three cuts to create a holiday project.  I decided to make a Christmas gift card holder explosion box:

The large snowflake, the frame around "Merry Christmas" and the border on the front of the gift card pocket are all cuts from Sophie.  For the border, I welded several of the same snowflake cuts using Cricut CraftRoom and cut it out of scrap piece of sparkly silver vinyl.

The snowman in the centre is made with three pompom glued together. 

I used black half-beads for the eyes and a piece of a red rubber band for the mouth.  To make the "carrot" nose, I used  a piece of orange tissue paper with white glue rolled and shaped by hand.  The arms are toothpicks (with the point cut off), ends split into three and coloured brown.The top hat is back duct tape over black card stock cut freehand (to give it a more organic look) and glued together .

The stamped snowman image is the same one I used in a card I had posted in November. This time I embossed a cut portion of aluminium food tray which is sturdier than the aluminium foil I used with the card.







I intentionally made the outside of the box simple to contrast with the overkill of elements on the inside.

Supplies Used:
Cricut Expression & Cricut CraftRoom Application
Cricut Sophie Cartridge
Cricut Ashlyn's Alphabet Cartridge

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders from the Winter Wonderland embossing folders set

Inkadinkadoo Clear Stamp

Embossing Pad and Stampendous Embossing Powder

Ribbon from my stash
Studio G chalk ink and Copic Markers (to outline card stock)

Self-adhesive foam mounts

Self-adhesive rhinestones, confetti, plastic "mirror" snowflakes from the Dollar Store

Aluminium food tray

Solid and sparkle card stock are Recollections brand

Patterned card stock is Anna Griffin Georgette Christmas Collection

Martha Stewart Glitter

Orange Tissue Paper

White pompom - (three sizes), Cotton batting and Felt

Duct tape

Black half pearls

red rubber band

Toothpicks

Ribbon Flower from my stash

White pearls, black pearl, black pin and a thin piece of black plastic punch with a circle to make the snowman stick pin.

Thanks so much for looking. 

Bilingual "Merry Christmas" Charger Plates

I decorated a couple of charger plates that I picked up at Michael's with vinyl scraps that I got from a generous local sign shop.  The first is a [surprise, surprise] Croatian-English bilingual plate:

I used the Winter Woodland cartridge for the font, the Inspired Heart cartridge for the nativity scene and the Wrap-it-Up cartridge for the snowflakes.

The second is a French-English bilingual plate:

I used the Lyrical Letter's cartridge for the font and the tree, the star on the tree is from the Graphically Speaking cartridge (welded with Design Studio) and the Picturesque cartridge  was used for the scrolls.

I think the charger plates are a fantastic quick project that has a lot of punch for a small price.