Hello my crafty friends...wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted...seems like my evenings are full..busy is good, right?

Now a quick recap...

When I last posted, I mentioned that I was using my cousin's Silhouette SD machine.  I used it to cut my favorite shoe pattern

I made 5 pairs and gave 1 shoe to several teachers at my workplace.  The machine made cutting a cinch.  Now I didn't play long with it but these are my observations on it.  While it cut quickly and smoothly, it was a bit louder than my cricut.  I didn't read any instructions, just plugged it in, found my pattern and started cutting.  Never needed to change the needle, no double cuts, one cut was enough to cut my american crafts cardstock.  I had to download the Silhouette Studio program but that was easy and I'm glad that it's mac compatible. I did manage to download some of their free shapes of the week but sadly didn't have a chance to cut any of them.  While I do love the machine and secretly wish for one, at this point, having invested so much time and money into my Cricut, I don't think I'll ever get one.  I love all the stuff that Silhouette has on their website especially the Kerri Bradford phrases and such.  Love those fonts...and there are a ton of svg. files that can be used on the Silhouette which allows for more creative freedom without having to spend money on a cart because you like one or two cuts on that cart.

Basically, what I'm saying is that while it's a great machine and worth the investment, this girl is sticking to her Cricut.

Now as for my Cricut, I continue to use my E2 on a regular basis but have recently also started to use my little Cricut bug.  In fact, I used it to make these little bags found on the Monster Mini cart

I gave the bags to the men I work with.  

Cricut Craftroom

I'm happy to say that I have been playing with the new Cricut Craftroom. Initially, I did have some issues with it, like a disappearing cursor but with the latest updates that problem has resolved itself.  I'm still having some minor issues but nothing that is keeping me from using it and having fun.  

I'm limited on crafting space, usually I use the dining room table.  My computer table is also small but allows me to plug in my little Cricut bug and use the CCR with it. 

I did have to plug in my carts when I needed to cut but I understand that will change soon.  Here are some pics of the screen

 This is the border I created for the house. 

I'm excited about the new CCR and I'm hoping to use it more often.  I'm glad they have offered some free digital images and hope to use them soon.  

Now onto my crafting....this is my latest project

I made these cute little houses using the new Sweet Tooth Project cart that was recently released.  They were used as party favors for a housewarming party.  Now the house is actually a store if you look for it on the cart.  It also has a few more layers to it but since I was doing 25 of these, I kept it simple and only cut the main image.  They measure about 2.75 when assembled and I was able to fit two houses without roof tops on one 12x12 cardstock.  Assembling them was pretty quick and easy. What killed me were the small registration marks that are supposed to guide you when scoring.  They were so small my poor eyes were killing me when I was done.  I did all my scoring on the bus, during lunch, in the Dr.'s office while waiting for my husband.  I used seam binding at the top along with some leaves I cut from several carts.

I did this in about 3 colors and stamp each one with a background stamp just to give it some texture and interest. 

Here's a closer look....I used my crop-a-dile to punch some holes on the leaves so that I could run some twine through them and clustered them together. This made attaching them to the top of the house very easy.

Inside each box, I put 5 Hershey nuggets wrapped in designer paper:

 For support, each box has a small square about 2.25 all around to ensure that the bottom of the house didn't collapse with the weigh of the nuggets.

The border that is running around the lower portion of the house is what I designed on the CCR (see top pics of CCR screen). It's a border found in the Mickey and Friends cart, one of Daisy's accessories.  

Here's a closer look at the houses

and this is how they looked at the housewarming party, when they were put out for the guest..

looks like a little village...

I'm happy to say that everyone loved them, they thought they were professionally done.  No one wanted to open up their house because they didn't want to damage it.  I even was approached by one guest and asked if I had a catalog she could go over to select a few favors for her clients. Turns out she's a dental hygienist and the office is looking for something small to give the patients during the holidays. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to show her and didn't even offer my number....I think I was in shock at the request...oh well, maybe next time.

Things I will do differently on this project:

• Use a heavier cardstock. These were made with several sheets of the Michaels Recollections and Bazzill cardstock.  I think 80lb cardstock would be better and sturdier....which might eliminate the need to insert a square inside the house
• I stamped my sentiment after the house was assembled and sealed which made stamping difficult.  If you look closely you'll notice the sentiment is not clear...next time I will do this before I assemble
• I glued the top of the house but thinking back now, since I was attaching ribbon to the top, glueing was not necessary.  This way guest can open up the house, take their goodies out and then close it up again.

Well, this is all for now.  If you have come to this point then a sincere THANK YOU for reading and visiting my blog...

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Temptations

Just spending some time with my cousin's Silhouette.....

and I'm loving it.  Just downloaded my all time favorite paper witch shoe pattern that I found HERE.  It's the same pattern that I've downloaded from Skip to my Lou on various occasions.  The first time to create Halloween shoes and the second time just recently, see HERE.  I've cut the pattern out by hand but this time I did it using the Silhouette and it was a breeze.  I spent about 30 min. cutting the pieces to assemble about 10 shoes. Not bad at all. Now I just have to put them together...so I will be back with pics...

I have the machine for about a week and can't wait to try other things....loving it!!

Definitely will see how it cuts circles since I know there's been much debate about the Cricut not cutting circles properly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

Just a card

Just playing with my Happy Hauntings cart....having a whoozy of a time putting my witch together but in the meantime, I put this card together.

Nothing too spectacular....here's a close-up of the spider

I used a tiny black button with some waxed thread in the middle....

Thanks for looking...
Will be back later with more!

Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

My Creative Time....Again!

Hello, my dear readers....just popping in to share my submission for the latest challenge at My Creative Time.  The latest Throwback Thursday challenge calls for using a Font cartridge.  Emma's suggestion is that we not only use the fonts on the cart but also check out the shapes/images that can be found on alot of  the Font cartridges.  I know I have quite a bit of font carts and I don't use nearly half of them.  For this challenge I resorted to one of my favorite font cartridges and one of the first ones I bought when I got my original cricut machine.  In fact for this project, I even dusted off my original baby bug and put her to use. It was great.  For the challenge I decided to make another two page layout for my grandson's baby album. As I've mentioned before, the theme for this book is Winnie the Pooh.

I love this cart because not only does it have great fonts but it also has some wonderful images of Winnie and all his friends.  I don't recall where I got the base mat..sorry... The banner is my favorite part because it's not a shape but a font.  I used the wood shadow feature on the cart and selected capital "B", shift.

When you turn it sideways, it looks like a banner.  So I cut this a few times, punched some holes and put in some grommets with my crop a dile, ran some ribbon through the holes to give it more life.  I love my little banner because it was so unexpected.  

I cut some swirls from another font cart, Don Juan.  Another one of my favorites...I put swirls on each top corner because it looked a little empty.  The last font cart I used was Songbird.  It's one of my newer carts and like so many, one I haven't used often.  

I used the perch feature, and cut this little bird on a sign.  On the sign, I stamped my grandson's name using $1 stamps by Studio G. I can't wait to add the pics.  

Well my dearies, this is all for now. Time to get to bed and get some rest.

Don't forget to check out My Creative Time, spend some time with Emma and join the fun. She always has great challenges.

Thanks for visiting...

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Are you the winner

Hello my crafty readers, I'm back to announce the winner of my blog candy.  As I mentioned in my post here, I'm giving away some blog candy in honor of my time as guest designer @ Decorate to Celebrate.  I had a great time and was completely honored to be invited by Rhonda & Amy.

Ok and now our winner chosen by Random.org is:

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1

Max: 12

Result:

7

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Kacee McVic from You had me at Scrap, who had this to say:

 McVic said...

such a cute theme! my kids love this show. you did a great job!
kacee

Congratulations Kacee!! 

And to everyone else..thanks for stopping by and taking the time to visit and leave comments!!

I'll be back soon with more crafty projects...

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

PS...You can also visit Rhonda @ Scrap Happens and Amy @ Love to Scrap

Simple Halloween

Hello my crafty readers,  just popping in to share a small and simple halloween card I made while watching TV tonight.

The card base is from A Child's Year, the skull is from Gypsy Wanderings. 

I popped the skull with pop dots.

The sentiment is from a stamp from Studio G by Hampton Art.  

I drew the lines around the edges with my gelly roll pen in black.  Nothing too spectacular but I think it's the perfect size for goody bags I will be putting together for a Fall Festival at the school I work at.

Well, this is all for now.  I'm looking forward to the long weekend so that I can get some crafting done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

World Card Making Day

Saturday was World Card Making Day and that got me thinking....I don't really make cards to keep on hand.  Since August, I've had about 7 bdays and a wedding and guess what...? NO CARDS from me..to anyone.  I've decided that I'm going to make more cards and be ready for the next occasion.
With that in mind, I made two quick and small Halloween cards...they will either go to students at the school I work at or to my younger cousins..they'll get a kick out of getting them in the mail along with some treats!
Here's a look at the cards:

The images and the card bases are cut from the Smiley Cards cart that is preloaded on the Gypsy.  

The thread on this card is waxed linen thread in black. The sentiment is a Studio G clear stamp from Hampton Art and best of all, it only cost $1.  I bought a few of these. I used white craft ink to distress the edges of the card.  I stamped the sentiment in black Staz On but it's barely noticeable.  I also sprayed the card base with Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist but it's not noticeable on the picture.  It's my first time using  glimmer mist and I only have the one color, Fully Purple. I have to keep playing with it and see how I like it.  Ok, now on to the next card,

Now, this is an oval shaped card, about 3.99 by 2 something.  I used the same type of stamp for the sentiment, just a different series.  Actually it's supposed to run straight across but when I realized that it wouldn't fit, I cut the stamp in half and placed the words one above the other. I like it better this way.  I stamped it using white ink and it just looks a little smudgy but it's easier to read than the sentiment stamped in black on the other card.  The twine on this card is from Doodlebug designs ~ it's in orange, white and black.  The card bases are both cut on purple cardstock from the Recollection set at Michael's.  

Well my crafty friends, this is all for tonight.  I'll be back with a layout later this week. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by:)

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Challenge me Monday # 79

Hello my crafty friends, just stopping by with  my entry for challenge #79 @ Fantabulous Cricut.  The theme this week is Leaves are Falling, basically do a project with leaves on it.  Well, I recently hosted a dinner party to celebrate a 46th bday for one of my favorite cousins.  While waiting for dinner to be served, his lifetime partner made these great roses out of napkins:

I thought they were so cool looking and halloween-ish so I decided to keep them and put them in a glass vase.  I added some black glitter on the tip of the roses

I felt it needed a ribbon or something around the neck of the vase and when I read the challenge this week, I knew exactly what I would do. I decided on a string of leaves!  I cut several sizes and styles of leaves from different cartridges and then added glitter to the edges.  For the leaves I used black, orange and green glitter from MS that I bought on sale last year.

Here's a look at the end result ~ 

On the dining room table

On the window ledge

My kids think they look awesome.....now all that's left to do is finish decorating the rest of the house!

Well, my ladies...this is all for now...

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Blog Candy....

Happy Monday everyone....just stopping by to post pics of my first ever blog candy.  I'm a guest designer over at Decorate to Celebrate for Challenge #9 ~ Celebrating Baby's Birthday and in honor of this I've decided to give away some blog candy to one of my lucky guests.  All you have to do is leave a comment ~ I will pull a name on Oct. 7th...

Here's a look at the blog candy:

It's a designer paper pad by K&C Company ~ Halloween paper of course and 3D stickers

                        

Well, enjoy your day and make sure you stop by Decorate to Celebrate and join the fun.  You still have time!! Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win!!

Thanks for stopping by:)
Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

Guest Designer @ Decorate to Celebrate

Hello my crafty friends, I have an exciting new post today. The ladies over at "Decorate to Celebrate", Amy and Rhonda have invited me to be a Guest Designer this week.  Wow!! I was completely taken by surprise and so honor to be invited.  The theme this week is 'Baby Birthday'.  Not a problem for me, since I just celebrated my grandson's first bday.  The party was actually held at Burger King but I had a few favors for some friends who stopped at our house later that day.

I cut these boxes from the Wrap it Up cartridge.  They were actually graduation boxes but I hid the cuts in the middle of the box.

The boxes were cut at 8.78 x 6.97 using my gypsy. I was able to get 2 from a 12x12 sheet.   The tags were cut using the Alphalicious cart but I didn't make note of the size.  Each box was tied with a different color ribbon.  Attached to the ribbon was the tag and a cut of a Backyardigan character.  These characters were actually small playing cards and I used my nestabilities to cut them out.  The theme at home was Backyardigans, one of my grandson's favorite shows. 

 Each box contained a small cellophane bag with  Strawberry puffs from Gerber.  I figured since the guest were all under one, this would be more appropriate for them. 

For the mommies in the house, I put oatmeal cookies in glassine bags.  These were also tied with a color ribbon and a tag and character cut out was attached.  

Here is the set all together.

Now, I decided since the important guest were all little people, I would decorate a half wall which faces my dining room...to resemble a photo op spot.  

The idea was to have my grandson take pictures with his little friends.  Well, that didn't work because none of them would stand still long enough to have a picture taken.  I still have the decorations up in the hopes that I'll at least get a picture of my grandson standing in front of it. 

The banner was cut using the Jolly Holidays cart at  22.77w x 10.08h.  I attached rosettes and spelled out his name using the Don Juan cart.  The word 'birthday' is from Gypsy Wandering - I hid 'happy' before making the cut.  Lastly, is the number '1' which was cut at 9.40w x 18.38h. 

I had a lot of fun putting this together, everyone enjoyed the favors and I can't wait to do more of them.  

Make sure you visit Decorate to Celebrate were the rest of the design team has put together some fabulous projects!! Thanks for stopping by....make sure you leave a comment because one lucky person will win some blog candy in honor of my first post as a guest designer!!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Throwback Thursdays @ My Creative Time

Hello my crafty friends, it's been a while since I posted.  I've been busy with family time...I love spending my weekends exploring new places with the hubby and the last two kids left at home.  We spent Labor Day weekend at Atlantic City, shopping, enjoying the beach and a little conservative gambling.  Now we are all back into the swing of things with a new school year underway.  My daughter is a sophomore and my son finally started high school and is loving all the new challenges ahead but most of all he loves the school cafeteria.  Big change compared to his elementary school....according to him, it's like being in a fancy restaurant.  But anyway, enough of that....let's move on to my latest project.

I love visiting blogs and finding inspiration and being challenged. Over at My Creative Time, the latest challenge for Throwback Thursdays is to make a card using orange, green, purple and black and most importantly, it has to be Cricutless.  Yes, ladies, it's back to basics!!

 It doesn't have to be a Halloween card but with those colors, I couldn't help myself and it's exactly what I made.

I love all things Halloween.  Every year I buy new things, last year I was really good and didn't buy any new decorations but I did buy a ton of Halloween designer paper pads.  I have so much Halloween paper I don't know what to do with it.  Definitely will have to find more challenges and projects to work on!  Now back to my card...it measures 4.5 x 5.0. I used paper from a 6x6 paper pad from Michael's Recollection. The base is American Crafts black cardstock.  

Ribbon is from Michael's Celebrate It brand and the skull dimensional stickers are from Jolee's Boutique.  I believe it's a new collection this year. 

 

I used my new Martha Stewart drippy goo punch which I'm happy to say I bought at Michael's for 50% off the original price.  I've been dying for this punch and every time I tried to get it, it was sold out. So glad to finally have it!  The sentiment is from Ikadinkado All Hallow's Eve stamp set.

Well, my friends, this is all for now but I'll be back soon with another project.  Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit Emma over at My Creative Time and join the fun.  You have until tomorrow evening! 

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Bridal Shower Favors

Well, it's almost back to school for me, just a few more days with the kids at home and quite time at the office.  I didn't craft as much as I had hoped to during my time off but I did get a few things done here and there.  While visiting some of my favorite blogs, I came across Challenge #7 at Decorate to Celebrate ~ the theme is Wedding, Engagement, or Bridal Shower.  This fits perfectly with what I was doing recently.  One of my younger cousins decided to get married recently.  Now we were all happy for her but the craziness of it all was that she planned this within 1 month.  She announced it at the beginning of August and her poor maid of honor only had 2 weeks to plan a shower for her.  These are the favors I put together

The pillow boxes are from the Wrap it Up cart.  The corset is from the Tie the Know cart which I "bought" with my reward points. I made about 25 of these.  

I put Hershey mini bars wrapped in designer paper inside the pillow boxes.

Here's a closer look at the finished pillow box.

Make sure you visit Decorate to Celebrate and enjoy the fun.  The projects these ladies put together for every challenge are awesome.  I can't get over the talent!!  The challenge runs until Sept. 6.  Leave a comments for the DT for a chance to be enter in their monthly drawings!

Well this is all for now. I've been busy cutting letters for my office bulletin board, maybe once it's completed I will post a pic.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Old West

Hello crafty friends, just stopping by to post my entry for this week challenge at Cricut 360.  It's challenge #7 and it calls for using the Old West cart.  I put this quick 8x8 layout of my cousin's son who just celebrated his 3rd bday.  She's an old Texan girl living in NYC and missing her home state!

Nothing too exciting....especially since I waited until the last minute to get this done.  Oh well, at least I finally got around to using this cart.

Nighty, Nighty all.....thanks for visiting!!

Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

Bugging out!

Cuttlebugging that is....hello, my crafty friends.  Nothing new to post.  Between celebrating my grandson's 1st bday and celebrating 17 years with this wonderful man

I haven't taken a moment to do any crafting.  I do intend on getting some cards ready to be delivered to our local VA hospital on Tuesday and with that in mind, while watching Warehouse 13 this evening, I cut some cardstock to make mats for the blank cards.  I embossed the mats with several folders that I had.

Here's a quick look

I love the texture....the card blanks are all white and I'm using red, white and blue as background mats.  Hopefully tomorrow evening I will get a chance to use severals of my carts to cut several things out and attach them.  Once the cards are completed I will post them.

Thanks for stopping by and to those of you that take the time to leave comments, a million thanks! Your words of encouragement are always appreciated!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette