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.

Thank you for visiting!  Please come again!

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!

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!