10/31/14

Treat bags with my friend Karen

I had a procedure on my back on Monday and while it was easier than I thought, it put me behind a few days.  I mentioned on FB that I needed to do 50 bags for a staff party on Halloween and I didn't know if I could sit that long yet.  So my high school buddy Karen said "I'll come over after work, lets play!  True to her word, she showed up and we pounded these out in about 2 hours give or take.  That included a dinner break.   She was so proud of herself, she has zero cutting experience, machine or otherwise.  I was so happy for her.  We loaded up 2 bags per Mat and set it for 26 mats.  She folded and glued them all.
 The frankenstein was for her step-son and was full of m&m's.  Our original idea was to make 50 of those.  Uhm... NO.  Too much glue.   So while she assembled bags, I cut the tags for the front.  After the bags were assembled I filled them with treats while she ran the lil tags thru the zyron to get glue on them. She was so excited about how easy it was.



Here's some more Frank bags - I did a few of those for the treaters we get this year. Normally only a handful.









Before Karen got here, I decided to play around a bit with the candy bar wraps and this is the result.  I did have trouble with the Goblins & Ghouls tag.  It kept tearing no matter what kind of paper/card I used.  I finally changed the blade and that worked but it was odd because I've only cut Cardstock about a half dozen times.

These candy bar holders are in the Design space project gallery.  I already owned the cartridges used so that was not an issue.  Next time I would like to make the sides a little larger to hold a Reeses cup or thicker candy bar.


That's it for me.  I hope you guys are enjoying the posts.

Hugs and Happiness!

10/30/14

Scoring with the Cricut Explore!





So, one of the cool new things is the ability to score and cut at the same time.  I'm finding myself needing the score ability quite frequently.  You should see me trying to hand score something - I'm never 100% accurate.... like ever.  So here is the handy dandy score tool by Cricut.


 So Yesterday I needed to make about 50 treat bags for a staff party at work on Halloween.  The first couple of bags I scored by hand. Oh... bad idea. They were crooked.  So I'm eyeballing the score tool holder thingy.  I had ordered one via amazon but it wouldn't be in until the next day, Me? Wait? NAH!  So I'm looking around my tool drawer and I find this embosser I bought many moons ago to use with Brass Stencils.  I put it in and shut the clamp thingy and away we go!  Y'all!!!!!!!! It worked.  Holy cow it worked.  You can see the score mark below.  How exciting is that!?

Today I get home from work and my new score tool is waiting for me.  Except I left it in the package. For now anyway.

Tell me what you think, has this already been discovered and I've been in the dark?  I'm so proud of myself I had to share!

Happy Halloween!


Hugs and Happiness!

10/26/14

Second Project using Cricut Explore

Hello Krazies!

Today I got to play with the Explore for a bit.  Of course first I HAD to straighten up my craft area and that took a coons age.

I wanted to do a few Vinyl projects but decided to try another 'free' project.  Once I get the hang of this, I'll start doing cricut cartridge projects again except I'll use the explore.  Fun Stuff.

I have my back procedure tomorrow, if all goes well I'll play a lil more the next day or two and of course post my results/findings/failures.  You know, if it has more than one step, glue, glitter or ink, I WILL screw it up.  But every once in a blue moon, I'll get it right LOL.

I went to the project library and chose a cute Thank you card.  "Floral Thank you Card"  it has a lot of teeny cuts and uses the pen as well so I wanted to see it all come together.

You use the mat twice, once for the bottom layer (just a mat) and the 2nd for the fun cutting and writing.  As you can see, I had trouble getting it off the mat.  I think my card stock was thinner than normal (just grabbed from my scrap pile). I'm thinking had I chosen "Light Cardstock" and used my spatula, I would have had much better luck.  So of course I cleaned it all up and tried again.



This time I did choose the thinner card stock and everything worked out as you can see above.  The darker cardstock is the 'mat' which really helps the detail in the cuts pop.  All in all not bad, but I did have a few issues to figure out.

1.  You are supposed to have a score tool - I have one, but it's for the Expression and I could't figure out how to get the marker holder that was preinstalled to come out.  So I skipped it.  In doing so, I completely forgot to load the pen, so the "Thank you" you see is actually a stamp from Jaded Blossom.  The ink is Stampin up.

2.  Glue was an issue. Or perhaps I'm rusty as all get out.  I tried a zig glue pen and a stampin up glue pen. If you look closely you can see parts that aren't that great.  Also by the time I got thru the vines and leaves, the other side was drying.  Boo.

I printed off a great list of markers that can be used in the Explore from www.withglitteringeyes.com I'm hoping to find some on Amazon to play with.  Of course I have tons of Zig markers and Fiskars Gel pens.  I can't get those to work.

See you next time!





Hugs and Happiness!

10/23/14

Cricut Explore - My first impression.

Howdy!

So, on Tuesday my Explore arrived.  I bought it through Amazon (oh how I love Prime and 2 day shipping)!  It arrived exactly 5 minutes before I was leaving for a doctors appointment which bummed me out.  I didn't even get to open the box.

After the doctors, hubby and I were having lunch and I broke the news to him.  "Babe? Ya know how I asked you if I could drop 300 bucks on something no questions asked and you replied sure?"  He says "uh.... what did you do?"  Me:  I uh, bought the cricut explore.  He sat there and shook his head.  "You said you'd never give them another dime"  you are correct fine sir, I did say that.  BUT, I said "I will never spend a dime of YOUR hard earned money on them, I work now, so I spent mine"  I won't tell you the conversation that led to LOL.  We share an account but I somehow justified it in my head.  He's a good man, he supports whatever I do and was just kidding.  But seriously, I couldn't spend it back when it was just him working. He comes home dead tired and sore every day and I would have felt horribly guilty.

Ok enough of that dribble, so on to the explore.  Later that evening I finally got a chance to take it out of the box.  It was VERY well packaged.  I was impressed.  I put it on the desk and wondered where I should set it up.  You guys, my craft area is a disaster.  It really needs organized and re thought out - but any of you following me know that it's an annual thing with me.   Anyway I plopped it right in the middle of the desk pushing my sewing machine to the side.

Husband jumps in shower.  I set up the machine, (easy peasy) and update the firmware.  I was already rooting around the Design Space so it logged me right on and I was ready to try it out.  I did the card below:

This is one of the 50 'free' projects that you get.  There is a video on how to do it, but if you've used cricut you really don't need to watch it.  The black card stock, greenish mat and the silver pen all come with your machine.  I loaded the project from the design room, it immediately told me how many mats I needed (1 in this case) and had me load the pen.  Loaded the mat and away it went.  It was super fast and wow it was super quiet.  I unloaded the mat, closed out of the program and put my laptop away.  Folded the card and was looking at it when hubster came out of the bathroom.  I proudly held it up and said "Look what I did in the 15 minutes you were in the shower!"  I was impressed. Very impressed.

Things I'm not impressed with at this point but may change after I really get to play with it for awhile:


  1. Projects not being included in the subscription service.  Some are 99 cents, others I saw at 10.00,  Sometimes you want to just do something quickly and I think the prices are a tad high on a one time projects.
  2. The Mat was bent. (you can see it at the corner of the card on the right side)  I sat something heavy on it all night and the bend is still there.
  3. You get an email giving you 25% off at the Cricut Store on any purchase.  I filled up the cart with tons of things, added the code and got an error "Doesn't apply with these purchases"  Annoying but not really a deal breaker.
Things I AM impressed with so far:

  1. The speed, the quietness and the precision.
  2. The overall design is sleek and handsome
  3. The little compartments for tools
  4. All of my cartridges were already there under "My Sets" - I didn't have to link any of them!
  5. Came with a few materials to get you started.
It comes with a bag, albeit a little cheesy and not really something I'd trust to travel with.  I think it would be helpful to come with at least a hook to get a newbie started but I was able to slightly bend the mat and take off the card. I needed my spatula to take the bits off tho.

I'm looking forward to trying out my SVG's and there are a few questions I have and will have to root around for the answers when I have time.

  1. Can we share projects with friends?  
  2. How does the Ipad app work?  Can I design on the go and hook it up later?

Overall I think Cricut is really stepping up their game.  Am I upset about the gypsy not being supported? No, time moves on and so does technology - I never used mine except to store my cartridges.  Am I upset that my Imagine is just a shelf I sit my tv on in the craft room?  No, I got that for 40 bucks at a Walmart.  

What am I going to do with my Expression?  Keep it, I love that thing.  
Cameo? Keeping it.... for now.  
Pazzles?  Getting rid of it the first chance I get.

Am I full on Team Cricut now?  No.  Will I be?  Probably.



Hugs and Happiness!

10/20/14

I said it would never happen..., I was wrong.

Holy cow time sure does fly!

I'm sorry I've been MIA for almost a year!  Loads of stuff happening from a new grand baby to a new job and loads in between.

Tomorrow there is some excitement happening I wanted to share.  Y'all know I've kicked Cricut to the Curb and have been using my Cameo.  I kept my Imagine (cause you can't give those away these days) and I kept my Expression cause well....it's the best thing that ever happened to me!    I made so many friends, traveled, spent too much money and made a little too.

I've been on the fence with trying the new Explore.  I've really been struggling with it for the last 6 months give or take.

Tomorrow my Explore and wireless adapter arrive. Thankfully I have the day off as I have to go get a procedure on my back.  I hope it's still numb enough for me to play for awhile tomorrow afternoon/evening.




I've pinned a lot, surfed a lot and watched a lot of videos. I've seen friends who swore off Cricut go back to them because of this machine and because of the new direction Customer support has taken.  Everyone I talked to feels like they matter, feels like this is truly a good thing.  So many so that I have to take the plunge and I think I'm ready.

I've played around in Design space a little the last few days and I'm lovin the 'canvas' choices - they even had my Kitchen Aid Mixer!  One of the first things I'm going to slap vinyl on YAY!

Wish me luck!  Please leave me a comment and let me know if you've gone with Explorer and what your experiences have been.




Hugs and Happiness!

Backpack and T-shirt’s

Back when Ragan was starting preschool, she wanted a Hello Kitty Backpack. The only one I could find was way out of our price range. So, I m...