Testing this……

So I just set up a new program and I am testing it out……

A sweet surprise!

Opened up my email just a bit ago to find a comment on my last blog post. It was from a dear friend and fellow blogger, Roe, from Creative Liberties. She had presented me with this beautiful award:

Now it is my turn to tell you about 8 random things about me and then pass this on to 8 more of my fellow awesome bloggers.

1. I have a wonderful 4 (almost 5) son.
2. Scrapbooking pays some of the bills, not all of them, yet.
3. I have 2 Cricuts, and I love them both equally.
4. I have been married for 8 wonderful years.
5. I have been a stay at home mom for a little over a year now and love it.
6. I love crime shows.
7. I hate to cook but like to bake.
8. I am addicted to Facebook

Now to pass this on to 8 of the bloggers I follow and love:

1. DeeDee
2. Paula
3. Diane
4. Janet
5. Susan
6. Bryan
7. Sarah
8. All the girls at Creative Critterz Imaginations

Please take the award and pass it on!!

And be sure to click on the links above to visit these wonderful blogs! You will be glad you did!

A project for the day after the party.....

Hi there! A little note before I get started:
Excuse me if this post sounds a little off. I have had a half a bottle of Champagne to myself. Of course a great project came out of this so just bear with me! ;o)Isn't this just the cutest??

Day after the party:
Step one: Find the discarded cork from the wine or Champagne. If needed, shave the bottom so that it lays flat.

Step two: Create little things to adorn your cork. In this case I used a flower that I made using the new Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge and colored the flowers on my Imagine using the Nursery Tails Cartridge. I added a little ink to the edges for some dimension. I also used a word, "smile," from a chipboard sticker set.
To the back of these items I attached a piece of wire. Using my paper piercing tool, (ouch,) I poked 3 holes in the cork and put in the wired objects.

Step three: Tie a cute little bow around the the cork, and voila! DONE!! Isn't just too cute.

I think this this would make a nice little present topper, or a teacher gift. Something the kids could make for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, a birthday! You could add a little photo to put on your desk at work......the possibilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by!

Does it change anything?

Oh, I think it does.

What in the world am I talking about? The Cricut Imagine of course. It changes EVERYTHING. I no longer have to search for the perfect embellishment, I just print and cut it. Need a particular color card stock? Yep, I just print it right out. With patterns and colors that coordinate completely, and the fact that I can add those colors and patterns to any one of the 1000's of images and fonts on other Cricut cartridges, the possibilities are nearly endless.

Will I scrap like this all the time? As much of a time saver it is, the answer would still be no. I still like the "hunt" for the perfect page finisher. I still LOVE to shop. There are still plenty of lines out there to love, and until I can download them to my Imagine, I will forever be buying.

(this layout was design from a sketch from pagemaps.com)

Both of the above layouts have great dimension to them, but achieved in different ways. One of the reasons I love the Imagine is the fact that the layers can be broken down and printed and cut seperately. In the first layout above I layered the individual pieces with pop dots for dimension. In the bottom layout I used items that already had dimension, such as the Thickers, Chipboard, and the felt border.

So yes, the Imagine does change everything. For me though, everything is never enough!

Happy Scrapping!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Welcome to December, my favorite month of the year. It always goes by way to fast. I love to spend time decorating and making gifts for friends and family.

This year I have discovered vinyl, glass, and etching.....ADDICTION!!!
I made this cute little glass block for a dear friend of mine. I am happy to say she loved it!

I used Design Studio and the font from Wild Card to make the saying out of vinyl. I first cut a large snowflake from contact paper and used it as a stencil to make the blue snowflake in the background. This was created using Alcohol Inks. Then I added the phrase, "Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled." A little ribbon bow and a cute little Snowman riding a sled finished off this cute little lamp. It is lit with a single 50 ct strand of mini lights.

I have made some other cute items, but can't post them until after the holidays.

Before the Imagine

Before this machine I was a simple scrapbooker. It was pretty much all I did. Maybe a few cards here and there. The Imagine has opened up so many new ideas! I love this machine! I have used up all the printable vinyl that came with.....did you know you can get water proof printable vinyl? How cute would some of these images be on your car?? You can also get Temporary Tattoos, window cling material, and Iron on transfer paper. Oh yeah, and even rub-on transfer paper....

This is what I did tonight, it literally took me less then 20 minutes start to finish.
Print and cut from the Best Friends Cart. Set mat size to 8.5x11 and Fit to page.

What do you love about your Imagine??

Imagine Attitude

My Imagine Attitude: I can't say enough about this machine. I absolutely love making layouts and cards. Having everything that coordinates right at your finger tips is a definite time saver and it all looks so well put together. I no longer have an excuse for scrappers block! I love it!



Last night I created this adorable layout of my kitties in under 30 minutes!

Everything on the layout except the background card stock was print and cut from the Imagine More cartridge and Plantin Schoolbook.

I love that I can use different layers from different images to create what I want. Only two pieces from the above layout are from the same image, the 'cat-ti-tude' title and the cats. The other back grounds and accents are from other layered images on the cartridge. I also use the Roly Poly font from Plantin Schoolbook and colored them with the Imagine for the 'm&m'

What's your Imagine Attitude?

Thanks for stopping by. Please take a look at my other Imagine creations in posts below!

My New Addiction

Ok after looking around the Cricut Message Boards today, I was totally inspired to give the printable vinyl a try. There were so many fantastic applications with this material. I wanted to start simple as I only had 1 12x12 sheet. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I hate decision making! LOL

I have been in the process of totally taking over our office in our house in an attempt to make the whole thing my scrappy safe haven. I have started taking my husband's things down and adding my own little touches. Bye bye NASCAR, hello little cute critters!

For my project today, I used the Nursery Tails Imagine Cartridge. In order to use as much of the page as I could and still get a few images I changed the paper size to 12x6 and only had the bird and branch on my screen. Then I clicked the 'fit to page' and it resized it to fit with in the 12x6 area. Then I did the same with the pond and the frog together so the relative size would stay the same for them. Next I cut the scraps down from the

usable vinyl that was left and had a sheet that was 5x3.5 and added the butterflies and dragonfly and again used the 'fit to page.' This worked really well and I would say that I used about 90% of the vinyl sheet.

I can't wait to have some more fun with this great material. Off to find somewhere cheap to get me some more! If you have a link to a cheap place, please share it here!

Just Imagine...

Just Imagine a layout coming together in minutes instead of hours. Just Imagine having everything you need to complete a layout in one place. Just Imagine everything coordinating perfectly. If you can Imagine all that then you have used the Cricut Imagine!

I love this new machine. I attempted my first layout last night using ONLY the Cricut Imagine. It can be done, and with awesome results! I used the Nursery Tails cartridge to complete this layout:
I cut the scalloped background from one of the images that come with the machine, and filled it with a patter from Nursery Tails. Then I cut the scalloped mat and also filled it with a color from the machine. I cut the "Sweet Dreams" out in layers at 3 inches, and multiplied the sheep x5. Next I cut the tag at 2.5 inches. I popped out a few of the pieces for added dimension. A little ribbon and a couple buttons and I was done. Literally in under an hour!

Can't wait to play with this amazing machine some more!

Imagine That....it's here!

Finally, it came. I have been Imagining this day for a couple weeks now! My Cricut Imagine is here. All set up and ready to go. I guess I was one of the lucky ones as I had no issues with set up. The only bump in the road is the mat, which kinda curls and can get stuck behind the rollers before it cuts. I just gave it a little roll in the opposite direction and that seemed to fix the problem.

So here are my first two cards using this amazing machine!

Both cards were cut with the Cricut Imagine using the Imagine More cart and images from the machine its self.