Cricut Circle Altered Box Swap

A group of Cricut Circle members got together on the Circle message board and decided to do an altered box swap.  Cricut.com had 7-inch chipboard boxes on sale for $0.99 a few weeks back, and we jumped on it.  We were to alter it according to our Swap Sister's liking and fill it with scrappy goodness.

Here is what I received from my Swap Sister, Cindy.

And here are all the goodies she stuffed inside:

In the front tied with the ribbon are blank cards she made with some beautiful papers.  Her gorgeous Cricut Circle Calling Card is in the lower left corner.  At the top of the picture is a lovely mini album she made for me.  It is beautiful!  Lots of embellies: buttons, ribbons, rub-ons, glitter, some Sizzlits dies...

And our Swap Hostess, Renee, surprised us all with these little boxes:

We each got one that was filled with all kinds of Cricut green things: twine, vinyl emblem, ink, embellies, and two very cool wooden clothespins that we're waiting to hear more about.  Seems like another swap may be in the making!

Coming up: the box I sent to my Swap Sister.

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Milestone Birthday Banner

Today is my husband's fortieth birthday, so late last night, I was up creating this:

You know, banners are hard to take pictures of!  So here are some close up shots of the pieces.

I used the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge for the pennants, and the Varsity Letter cartridge for the, well, letters.  The pennants were cut at 6".  I had to play with the sizes a little, in order to find a size that would be big enough without being huge, and more importantly, would allow me to cut all 15 pennants out of my 5 sheets of green cardstock.  That's one of the advantages of using the Gypsy to do your designing, being able to place the cuts in a particular spot on the mat, so you don't waste paper .  (Actually, I used my Design Studio software, and then transferred it to the Gypsy, so I could use my E2 machine, but that's just a minor detail...)  I didn't realize the pennants on Birthday Bash had a layer to them, and I really like the way it looks. 

The letters in "Happy Birthday" were cut at 3 1/2", the numbers at 2 5/8" and the "th" at 2 3/8".  The letters from Varsity Letters were so easy to layer.  I can see this cartridge becoming a favorite for signs and posters.

As always, finding the paper to use was the hardest part of the project.  I knew I wanted to use the glimmery copper paper, because of the color and its resemblance to burnt orange, the color of my husband's alma mater.  I originally tried to find a solid paper to go with it, but then thought to use a patterned paper.  That really helped to tie the copper and green together.  The yellow of the patterned paper of the letters tied in to the yellow of the patterned paper of the pennants, which then led to the green background.  All in all, the colors look great together and it is a nice, masculine range of colors.

Maybe this close up of one of the letters will help that last paragraph make a little more sense.

I hung the banner on our entertainment center, and my husband discovered it this morning as he headed to the kitchen for his morning cup of coffee.  I guess he was impressed, because he posted a picture of it on Facebook! :o)  I am also submitting this to the Cricut Circle magazine's monthly challenge.  The challenge was to create a banner.

I have been working on another project that I am anxious to share with you guys.  I finally used a new technique I've been wanting to try and I love the way it looks!  I just have to put the final touches on it and then I will share!

Thank you for visiting, and please come again!

Happy Easter!

Matthew 28: 5-6  "And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.  He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay"

I hope everyone has enjoyed a great Easter Sunday.  I wanted to share some Easter baskets I made for my son's teachers at the day care center.  They had their class Easter egg hunt on Thursday, and I wanted to give the teachers a little gift.

I made these using the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cartridge.  I used the fit-to-page option for a 12x12 mat on my Expression 2, so the baskets were cut just shy of 5.5".  The baskets are quickly and easily put together.  There are two pieces to the baskets: the basket itself and the handle.  I used the scoring tool, which made folding very easy.  A little tucking here, a little taping there, insert the handle and you are done!  I then added some Easter grass, a caramel egg, and some jelly beans.  The teachers loved them!

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One Crafty Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was my birthday.  I LOVE my birthday!  I'm like a kid when it comes to my birthday!  I celebrated this year by going to a painting class with some friends.  We went to a local Painting With a Twist studio.  This is one of the teach you how to make a painting places, where the teacher takes you step by step through the painting process, and you supply the food, drinks, and fun.  Here is my final product:

I keep looking at it in amazement!  I am so proud of it.  Of course, it's not perfect, and I have to stop myself from thinking "I should have painted this like that" or "I messed up right there".  But all in all, I think it's quite nice.  Now I just have to get it framed and figure out where to hang it.

I also made my birthday cake.  My husband offered to buy one for me, but I have been in a baking mood for a few weeks, and I finally got to scratch that baking itch.  Here is the cake I made, with the surprise inside:

This was my first attempt to make a checkerboard cake and I think it turned out great (although next time I'll try harder to get the squares straight)!  It was such a fun surprise for everyone!

I also made some "Thank You" goodies for everyone.  I made the milk cartons using the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cartridge.  I heat embossed the sentiment, which is a Stampin' Up! stamp.  The cartons were filled with purple and white M&M's.

To further scratch my baking itch, I also made these mini cupcakes.  I took some to my office, and my husband took some to his.  The only way I can bake around here is if I can give most of it away so we don't eat it all!  I think all this baking and decorating should hold me for a while.

I ended my birthday celebration by having a wonderful seafood dinner with my husband and son.  My birthday was fabulous, and I wouldn't change a thing!

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Have a Christmas Stamp? Make a Sympathy Card!

Uh, what?  I know, I know.  Crazy title, right?  Well, that's exactly what I did -- I made a sympathy card using a Christmas stamp.  I thought the image would be perfect, and it was.

The husband of my son's first teacher at his day care center recently lost his long battle with cancer.  This particular teacher was very fond of my son and is an all-around wonderful lady.  Even though my son has been out of her class for over two years now, I felt that I needed to send her something to show our sympathy and support.

I also decided to make this card for the Cricut Circle Magazine's monthly challenge.  The February challenge was a sketch challenge: 

"We are so excited about our challenge this month! Sketches are all the rage and there are so many to choose from, especially in the Circle Magazine and on the Circle Blog. To celebrate all of our designer’s sketching ability, we want to give you the opportunity to choose a sketch and create a project with it. You can use any of the sketches from the Cricut Circle Magazine or on the Cricut Circle Blog to create a card, layout, decor item… whatever you are inspired to make." 

I used this sketch from a post on the Cricut Circle Blog way back on December 10, 2010.  It was designed by Jana Eubank.

So with my sketch in hand and my game plan in mind, I set to work, resulting in a complete and utter failure.  The colors weren't right, the sizing was off, I didn't like the images I chose -- it just didn't work.  So I scrapped it and went to bed.  The next day I played with the design using my Gypsy and rethought my color choices.  I ran to Michael's to find the right ribbon and crossed my fingers.  Success!

The background paper is a shimmery steel gray color.  I used silver embossing powder for the image.  The stamp is a Christmas stamp from Stampin' Up!  I used masking tape to block the Christmas sentiment when stamping.  The paper and the image have a very nice sheen to them.  It was hard to capture the shine in a picture, but you can get an idea of it from this image:

I was afraid the gray and the black in the ribbon would be too dark, especially for a sympathy card, but it turned out beautifully!  (I should really work on my photography skills so you can get a true sense of the colors of the card...)  The white center shape is the eyelet shape from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge.  I stretched its size with my Gypsy so that it is approximately 4 inches tall and 6 inches wide.  I left the inside of the card blank and wrote a note from our family to the teacher's family.

This card was nothing like I had originally envisioned.  I didn't put the planned sentiment on the front.  The colors of the paper and the image embossing are different than what I first tried.  And where did that bow come from?!  But in the end, I am very proud of this card and I believe that the teacher will appreciate it.

Thank you for visiting, and please come back again!

Valentine's Day Cards

I wanted to share pictures of the Valentine's Day cards I made for my son's daycare class.  It is very simple, as I figured all that the 3 and 4 year old kids would notice is the candy on the front!

I used my Cricut Anniversary Edition E2 to make these.  The bee is from the Create A Critter cartridge.  I added silver Stickles to the antennae and used chalk to give the bee his rosy cheeks.  The yellow paper has a texture to it that is not really noticeable in the picture.  The wings are made from glitter paper.  The textured paper and the glitter paper are from DCWV.

Here is the inside of the card:

The heart is from the Cake Basics cartridge and the letters are from the Pooh Font cartridge.  The heart is made with the textured paper also.  The "Bee Mine" is cut out of the heart to let the red show through.  I'm glad I figured out that would be easier than gluing the letters to the heart!  After I glued down the first heart however, I realized the inside of the "B" would be lost.  So to fix that, I lifted my "B" from my cutting mat with the inside pieces still in place.  I added glue to the back of the inner pieces and laid the entire "B" back into its cutout in the heart.  Then I removed the "B".  The inner pieces stayed in place and defined the cutout "B".  I used a rubber stamp I had in my stash for the sentiment.

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day.  I enjoyed a delivery of chocolate-dipped fruit from Edible Arrangements.  Boy were they good!

Thank you for visiting!  See you again soon!

WOW! It's Been a LONG Time!

Hello, hello!  First off, I want to thank all of my faithful followers who have stuck with me through my hiatus.  I really didn't intend to be gone for so long.  But you know how it is, once you fall off the wagon, it's so hard to get back on it!

I am going to try my BEST to post at least once a week.  That means I'd better get crafting!  I haven't really made much during my time away.  (Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe I'll start with posting every other week!)  I do have some past creations that I've never posted, so I will share those with you.  I hope you don't mind.

So, without any further ado, welcome back to Riley's Custom Creations!