Mother's Day cards I made

Wait until you see these awesome cards I made for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's Day! I cut them on my Cricut using the Mothers Garden SVG Kit from SVGCuts.com. They even have video tutorials showing how to put these things together. I think my moms will enjoy these, especially the way the sunlight comes through that vellum window inside! Have you ever seen anything so beautiful made out of paper? Me neither!

Prickley Pear March Challenge Card

I recently purchased a set of clear stamps and matching die on clearance and had fun playing with them. The die is itsy bitsy and quite honestly I was stumped as to how to use it, so went in search of ideas. Well so far I haven’t found a tutorial or examples for this particular set called Tree Shapes, so the card below is my way of just winging it. I did manage to find the Prickley Pear blog containing some awesome cards using their products. While there I noticed they have a challenge going on and decided to use their sketch to finish my card. This card will be entered in their March challenge. If anyone has this stamp set and matching die or you know where I can find a tutorial for using the tiny die please let me know. The pieces are so small that it was tricky matching up the small stamps to the cutouts.

Ingredients:

Cardstock:  Buff cardstock is from an upcycled file folder (no kidding folks, these were being sent out for shredding until a coworker and I rescued them!). Kraft and red are from my stash.

Diecuts:  Prickley Pear Tree Shapes (aka Four Seasons), EK Success Slim Edger Punch Large Lattice Chain. Spellbinders Lacey Ovals, Leaves from my stash (possibly cut on my Cricut using the Home Accents cart)

Embossing: Designer Frames Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folders from Stampin Up!

Stamp: Prickley Pear Four Seasons

Ink:  Riding Hood Red by Stampin Up!

Lace from my stash

Free SVG file for 3 x 5 Spiral Notebook cover

Yesterday I created a file to cut out covers for 3 x 5 spiral notebooks on my Cricut. I know many people have purchased a special machine to do the cutting and insert the spiral binding, but I'm kind of a cheapscape when there's a way to do something without another piece of equipment to find room for in my overcrowded craft room. If these turn out to be big sellers at Farmer's Market, craft shows and Etsy then maybe I'll reconsider, but for now I'm sharing my poor-woman's file with you so you too can decorate your common little spiral notebooks. The picture I'm sharing is of the upcycled Twinkie and cereal box covers. Today I'll make some out of decorative cardstock with embellishments and will post pics after those are done. Hopefully you can dowload the file by clicking on the green picture below or using this link http://www.box.net/shared/tcycvjb2eb.  If not please holler at me and I'll send the file to you directly. Oh yeah, blogger's comments are being persnickity, but if you click on the contact me form I'll get your note. Enjoy!

I actually removed the spiral binding and replaced the front cover with what you see below. Aren't these little cowboys and waving wheat squares just the cutest things? We don't normally have Twinkies in the house, but dh "got them on sale" and I couldn't resist using those boxes! The back cover is such a nice sturdy chipboard that I left it there and will adhere the decorative cover to it. If you don't want to remove the spiral binding you can always cut slits above each hole and use your fingernail or other object to slip the cover on. Oh and you'll want to round the corners to match the existing covers and paper. I use the small Stampin Up corner rounder and it's absolutely perfect! If you're really good at manipulating files you can probably alter the file to make rounded corners, bit since my paper punch was perfect I decided not to mess with it. Here's what I made yesterday.

Vinyl Sunflower cut to cover an "oops!"

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! After working at the Farmer's Market yesterday I spent most of today cutting out decorative covers for 3 x 5 spiral notepads. I sold one yesterday that was kind of a test product and decided to cover the rest of the two packages of a dozen each that I had bought at SAMS. Tonight I'll assemble some of them while watching the traditional Memorial Day specials on TV with DH. Speaking of DH...

My wonderful husband has caught on to the way crafters think. He wants to sell an old stereo cabinet that we bought second hand a few years ago and thought it would look better if we could cover a bad spot on the lid. The lid is pressed board covered with a vinyl laminate similar to contact paper, so when he accidentally spilled some scented oil on it the chemicals ate a hole about 3 inches in diameter in the vinyl. Kinda makes a person wonder what's in those scented oil plugins, huh? I pulled out some vinyl, fired up my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot and Voila! No more ugly hole! I forgot to take a before picture, so just use your imagination and I think you'll agree that the after picture is much better. Oh did I mention this thing has an 8-track in it??? If you're looking for one and live in the area we're participating in Berryton's city-wide garage sale (which is funny since  we don't live in the city, but they'll have maps to all of us rural folks's homes.) We're doing it the first two weekends in June. Good thing DH is done with the school year because he's got a lot of work to do to get ready!

Pot decorations for fundraiser at work

On Friday we're putting on a fundraiser at work called Spring Fling and will be selling, among other things, gift baskets. One of the themed baskets is gardening, so I immediately thought of that Cricut cartridge that came with my machine called Walk in my Garden. Here are some of the picks I made to stick in the basket and some of the plants we'll be selling. I think they're the cutest things and might just have to make some for around my house! I love how the faux stitching looks, especially the blanket stitch on that purple butterfly! I used bamboo skewers for the sticks and glued them with Diamond Glaze. What fun!

Banner for our vendor booth

One of my projects for today was to cut out the vinyl letters for the banner on our vendor tent for Farmers Market. I had just enough black vinyl in the size needed (phew!). I used my Sure Cuts A Lot program to lay out the letters to cut out on my Cricut. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Can't wait to show you the booth all set up next Saturday!

Free SVG, PNG and SCUT2 file for the Paws in Hearts Design I made

This is my first attempt at posting a file I made to use with Sure Cuts A Lot to cut out shapes on the Cricut, so here goes....

SCUT2, SVG, PNG, JPG and PDF

ps. Please feel free to grab this design for personal use, but I ask that you not use it on anything you intend to sell without clearing it with me first. I'm really new at all this so probably need some kind of standard disclaimer or something. That will come later I'm sure with the help of some of my awesome fellow crafters. I hope that you can bring blessings to someone who either recently lost a pet, got a new pet or is just plain in love with their pets as my husband and I are (go see their most recent romp in the snow on Katie's blog here.)