Rock Princess Birthday Card

Hello.  It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted in my blog.  I blame the kickboxing classes I have been taking, because I haven't felt like writing after having class from 7-8, then having to shower and eat dinner.  Luckily my boyfriend cooks because it means I don't have to cook dinner along with all that!

Anyway, on the 18th my oldest niece (also my goddaughter) turned 7!  I cannot believe that happened, but it did.  If you know any young girls these days, chances are you know someone who is into Monster High.  I can think of at least 3 little girls I know who have had Monster High birthday parties in the past two years.  I knew I wanted to make her a card to fit that theme.

One of the first cartridges I bought when I got my Cricut was Rock Princess, because it has so many similarities to the Monster High line.  It's got hearts, and stars, and skulls, along with many other girly/creepy things.  I knew I would be able to use it a lot for the Monster High fans in my life. Here is the card I made with it:

Last year for Christmas, my boyfriend and I made a Monster High doll house for this same niece [emphasis on the my boyfriend.  It would have never happened without him.  But that is a story for another post].  The two patterned papers were left over from that project, as was the black glitter paper used for the eyes and noses of the skulls.  Actually, now that I think about it I think the hot pink card stock was from that project too.  The lighter pink embossed paper was left from the Nifty Fifties birthday card that never came to be.

Rather than trying to cut, wrangle, and glue itsy-bitsy sprinkles to the cupcake, I used the hearts from where the eyes were cut out.  "But Kelsey," you may say, "you have 6 small hearts and only 4 eye sockets. How can that be?"  Ahh, you see, I cut one of the skulls wrong, it overlapped where something else had already been cut out of white card stock and had to be cut again.  Nothing can ever be simple.

For the inside I used the Cricut Craft Room and the font from the Life's A Party Cartridge welded together to say "Happy Birthday Lauren!"  Short and sweet, in my opinion.

I made a couple of decorations for her party also, but I will get to those in my next post.  This was the first project I made using my new Cricut Expression.  I like how it came out.  Thanks for looking!

Craft Night

Hello there!  I got together with a few people for a craft night last week, and I thought I would share what I made there.  Last month, my boyfriend and I took his son to StoryLand, in New Hampshire.  My mom gave us the trip as a Mother's/Father's Day gift.  I don't have any vacation time this summer, so we pulled the boy out of 3 days of Pre-K.  I figured he wouldn't miss too much since it was the week before school ended.

So anyway, I'm making a scrapbook of our first little family vacation!  I only finished 2 pages during craft night.  I was helping my cousin, also one of my best friends, use the Cricut for her first time to make a baby shower card.  I was going to debut my new Cricut Expression, but I didn't notice the blade wasn't in it so I lugged it over to my mother's for nothing.  Typical me.

In April, I went to Cape Cod on a girls' trip.  I found a scrapbooking kit filled with woodsy papers, cardboard embellishments, and stickers at the Christmas Tree Shop there.  It was only $7, so I bought it 2 months in advance of our trip.  I remembered going to StoryLand as a kid and I knew the theme would fit well for the scrapbook I wanted to make.  I went to the website on the package, but I wasn't able to find it on there.  Here is a picture of all that was included:

The first page I made uses 1 of the cardboard embellishments from the kit, the deer.  The "cherish the moment" sentiment is a sticker from the kit.  I put it on a couple of layers of card stock to make it stand out more.  The paper is from the kit also.  I used white card stock as a mat for the pictures.  You can't really see the photos so well from the picture but I used a photo of the outside sign, one of the inside sign, and a photo of the little guy with a sign that reads "You are now entering a storybook world. Follow this path and it will lead you well." signed Mother Goose.

The second page isn't meant to go with the first.  I have almost 150 pictures from this vacation, so I'm making the pages as I come up with layouts for them.  I'm not doing it in order.  These pictures are all from the first real ride we went on, called Whirling Whales.  He loved it and just giggled the entire time.  You can see in the photo on the bottom left that he's giggling, but unfortunately the photo is blurry because the ride was moving.  I used stickers from that scrapbook kit to spell out the name of the ride.  I used lavender card stock as the mats because I thought it brings out the purple from the whales on the ride.  I could not find whale stickers anywhere, so I cut out 6 little ones using the Cricut Electronic Cutting Machine and the B is for Boy Lite cartridge.  I cut the first layer with the same lavender as the mats but colored them with a blue colored pencil where the water is coming out of the blowholes.  They're supposed to look kind of like they are whirling.  I was nervous cutting something so small, but I'm happy with how they came out.  I used white colored pencil to make the whales' eyes, but I might go back in with white gel pen to make it pop more.

As I have been learning for the past 3+ years, doing anything with an Autistic child is rarely simple.  We were a little nervous about taking our first trip.  It involved a 7 hour drive up to New Hampshire from Rhode Island.  (It should have been about 4.5 hours but our GPS led us an hour in the wrong direction.)  It involved staying in a motel, obviously a strange place for him.  And it involved a busy, noisy place with lots of stimulation.  I'm happy to say he did great!  That's the main reason I want to record the memories in this scrapbook.  It couldn't have gone much better and I want to preserve these happy memories.  I'll continue to post the pages as I make them.  :)

Birthday Cake Card

Hello! It's been a little while since I posted a new entry.  I meant to write a couple of days ago but I've had a small stomach bug.  I am feeling better now.  :)

July 1st was my mom's best friend's birthday.  As I am a craptastic crafter, I've been using every occasion to practice my skills.  (I got my Cricut in January and didn't have a successful project until June. Which I did not photograph.  So craptastic.)  So, I made her a birthday card using my Cricut Personal Cutting Machine and the Simply Charmed cartridge.

I had originally planned on using the bowl of strawberries from the cartridge saying something like, "have a berry sweet birthday."  I just think the strawberries are so cute!  But my mom's best friend has a notorious sweet tooth, so I decided to go with what is near and dear to her heart, and use the birthday cake.  I also cut the "happy birthday" phrase from Simply Charmed.  I already had the pink embossed paper from Michael's.  I planned on using it for a poodle skirt for a birthday party, but got the date wrong and didn't have time to make it. (A very craptastic move indeed!) I used a pink ballpoint pen to add detail.  I especially love how it looks on the yellow cake.  I used a Sharpie pen to go over the small faces in the "happy birthday."  Here is an image of the front:

For the inside, I used the Cricut Classic Font in the Cricut Craft Room on my computer to make the word "now."  I then added it to the phrase "cut the cake" from the Simply Charmed cartridge.  As I've said before, I really, really love this cartridge.  Take a look at the inside:

I'm pretty happy with how this card came out.  I browse a lot of Cricut projects on Pinterest and the Cricut.com forums, and I've noticed they almost always use embossed paper.  This was my first time using it, and I think it adds to the project.  It feels like I'm heading in the right direction.  Maybe some day I'll get a Cuttlebug, so I can just emboss paper on my own instead of having go out to buy it every time.  We'll see...

I'm very excited because I just expanded my Cricut collection!  I won a pink Cricut Expression on eBay!  It came with 3 new cartridges (Pink Journey, Plantin Schoolbook, and Accent Essentials) and a 12x12 cutting mat.  I'm not sure these cartridges are ones I would have bought on my own, but I ended up getting such a good deal.  I won this whole bundle for only $55!  The package came in today, and I'm very excited to play with it.  I'm having a Craft Night with my mom and a couple of friends this Friday, and it will probably make its debut then.  I'll have to share whatever project I make that night. :)