Ladybugstamper's Craft Site

Cross Stitch Update

2011-12-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hi!

Since I've been less active, due to an injury to my Achilles Tendon, I've filled my sitting around time with Cross Stitch. I purchased the supplies for 3 smaller pieces, 1 very large piece and 1 extremely large piece at the same time 4 years ago, and I've not completed any of them. So I committed myself to putting aside the 3 smaller pieces (Maggie the Mess Maker, Frederick the Literate and Leonardo) for a time. I put aside the extremely large piece as well, (The Sistine Chapel) and focused solely on the large piece (Noah's Sub). This has turned out to be a good idea, the Noah's Sub is almost finished in terms of stitching, I should have all the stitching done my Monday, then I can go back and outline. I should have the entire piece ready for framing before Christmas. Yeah, then I will focus on The Sistine Chapel. The 3 smaller pieces will become traveling pieces, and pieces I work on when I need a break from the big piece.


Center Scene, Creation of Eve, 1/2 done, Joanna Lopianowski-Roberts design of The Sistine Chapel. When finished it will be 40"x 80" if done on 14 ct Aida, I'm using Antique White Linen 28 ct.

Noah's Sub by Stoney Creek Collections, from the original artwork of Stewart Moskowitz, 320wx220w Stitches, done on 18 ct Aida

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hi!
Just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope you are able to spend the day with people who make you happy and are thankful that they are in your lives..

I am very Thankful that this year I am able to host Thanksgiving at our house with my husband, our 3 children, and two of our children are bringing a guest. We're hoping to have to additional guests later in the day, they had another place to be but are hoping to come by for part of the day, I hope so. We'll spend the day watching the parade and football games. We will also play pool, ping pong and some board games. I hope to get some Cross Stitch done while the games are on if possible, or maybe even some Cricut work, who knows. Of course, we'll be having tons of food to eat, which will also be part of a new tradition for our family, spending the day together.

Another tradition we're adding today is combing through the Black Friday ads, in search of a plan for tomorrow. So far, we're going to one store (Bass Pro Shop), possibly a second store (JoAnn's). We're not going to be there when the stores open, we're thinking around 8 or so. Who knows, if this turns out to be fun, maybe we'll do 3 stores next year, LOL!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Haven't been crafting much

2011-10-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

So, I've damaged my Achilles Tendon and I'm trying to adjust to life in a walking boot. I haven't been able to do much stamping or scrapping because I'm overly tired when I get home. I also need to be off my feet every evening, so I've been able to get a lot of Cross Stitch done so that's a good thing. Photos this weekend of my progress on Noah's Sub.

I remember - September 11

2011-09-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

My fix for the error on Word Collage - Cricut Cartridge

2011-09-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hi!
It has been discovered that there is an error on the Word Collage cartridge, part of a word is left off, it should be - will - but it was accidentally put on the cartridge as = wil =.

I seriously considered not purchasing this cartridge, but life is full of mistakes, and I make plenty of them myself. The sale at JoAnn's enticed me and I purchased the cartridge because of the other cuts on the cartridge. Since I prefer to look at mistakes as something to overcome, not something to stop me, .......

I got to looking at Word Collage and the Rock-a-bye Baby cut on my Gypsy.

I discovered a couple of things.

I could use my Gypsy and "fix" the error.

1. You can use the hide feature and remove words from the cut. So I hid the "wil" part.

2. Then I used Plantin Schoolbook and added the word "will"

3. I grouped Rock-a-bye Baby and "will" and it all moves around and cuts as one piece.

I think it came out pretty good.

I left the dot on the i from the original "wil" on this sample as a marker for where the replacement word is. I then went back and hid the dot. Next time I need this I will have a correctly spelled saying. I just saved the file on my Gypsy, and I'm sure you could do this on Design Studio or Cricut Craft Room.

I hope this makes sense.

Cut 8" x 8" square

New Samples

2011-08-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I've been trying the stuff I purchased while on vacation.
Here is my trial run of the Sew Easy System by We R Memory Keepers.

Lazy Daisy Stitch

Vine

These are samples from the Cricut Cartridge Flower Shoppe. I simply cut 1 of each design from patterned paper, just to see how they'd come out. I love that it's so many flower shapes and the matching leaf shapes. All samples were cut at 3 inches. The centers are spirals with varied edges, coiled and glued down.

These samples are from the Cricut Cartridge Sweet Tooth Boxes. I didn't want to mess with fit-to-page, so I used the sizes listed in the hand books.

Ice Cream Cone and Cupcake Boxes

To Go Box and Take Out Box

Store

Cube Boxes

The Inside of the cupcake and ice cream cone, the inserts will hold a cupcake or an ornament, but do not have to be added if you don't want to.

Stitching Update

2011-08-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I was actually able to get a lot of stitching done while on vacation. I focused on the detail part of "Native Wolf Trio" when sitting around, and did the background half stitches while DH was driving or we were on the plane for 6 hours each way.


Native Wolf Trio, this is the top of the piece, after I finish the dark blue half stitches for the sky, I'll work on the bottom of the piece. The bottom adds two more wolves, a bit more costume and no background made up of half stitches. This piece is for my son.


This is my progress on "Pledge of Allegiance". Not all that far, it has a total of 7 flags, and the entire Pledge of Allegiance and a border. This is being stitched on linen, and the fifth (5th) time I've done this piece, and hopefully, the last time I ever do this piece. This piece is for my daughter. It's my take along piece, since it's so simple to work on.


This is Noah's Sub, I'm down to the last 1/4 of the pattern to stitch, and then the back stitching. I like to do the back stitching last, it's quick and I can pick up any stitches I missed. I find this piece complicated by all the color changes but fun to stitch. This piece is for me, because I collect Noah's Ark stuff.

This is as far as I have gotten on "The Sistine Chapel". I'm embarrassed to post I haven't made any progress, and I've had it in my stash for 3 years now. I seriously need to get stitching on this piece, it's actually easy to sew, no back stitching, just really, really BIG. LOL!!! I'm stitching this piece for a few reasons, one, it just calls to me, I've actually been to the Sistine Chapel many years ago, and I've always wanted to challenge myself to do something really large. This counts as "really large" and I'll never take on that challenge ever again.

Vacation Shopping Haul

2011-07-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Okay, we're back from our two week trip to Southwest Indiana and Chicago visiting family. We had a wonderful visit. I was able to visit a few crafty places I'd never visited before, however, suitcase space severely limited my shopping. All in all it was fun, and I have new to me stuff.

Colorful Bling purchased from Big Lots in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Kassie's Brocade and Grace's Frame Embossing Folders from Hobby Lobby, also in Terre Haute, Indiana. Being in Hobby Lobby was a paper overload, so many paper packs, I've never seen such a variety before, wow. Too bad there aren't Hobby Lobby stores in California, although it's good for the wallet that I don't live near one.

I actually found the Archiver's store, it's an amazing store, I want to live there. DD would just laugh at me for walking around the store in a daze trying to take in all the stuff they had in the store. I also found out they have an on-line store, so that will be nice.

I picked up this quilling/petal roller tool to work with flowers and such. I also picked up the punch for the same reason, to make flower centers. I have plenty of flower choices on my Cricut Cartridges, I just wanted a little something for the flower centers.

Our daughter runs Cross Country and Track so finding these stickers and embellishments is awesome. Finally, stuff for her sport.

She likes this paper, we bought all they had, and to get the paper home in our suitcases, we bought a mailing tube, rolled the paper and stuck the tube in our suitcase. No bends, or wrinkles. This paper will be great for her running photos.

This Sew Easy set is for me, a complete indulgence and I can't find them locally. I'm looking forward to using these on my layouts and pages. I'm known for all the cross stitching I do, so having sewing on pages will just be "so me."

Happy Birds

2011-06-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hi. Just got home from the bird store. Fred, Barney and Little Guy need nails, and flight wings trimmed. Fred need a beak trim too. Now they are back home in clean cages and a new toy. They are Happy Happy.

This is Little Guy (Conure)

This is Fred (on the right, he's an Orange Wing) and Barney(he's on the left, he's a Blue Front)

Some new things

2011-06-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Well, I purchased a Yudu machine on clearance, along with additional inks and such. Oh my this actually works and is entirely too cool. I have plans on doing more than just this sample shirt.

Then, I went to Joann's and took advantage of their open stock cardstock sale and picked up a lot of paper at 5 sheets for $1. My supply was woefully thin, now I have plenty. There was also a nice selection of Tim Holtz signature distress colors, very nice. All paper is the Coredinations line, and I bought a mixture of smooth, canvas and textured cardstock, I was shopping by color, not by type.

Just so you know, 260 sheets, stacked on top of each other, measure 3-1/4" tall.

All these colors are now sorted by color, and filed away so I can start using them this afternoon. Have a creative day.

Cricut Class Samples

2011-06-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I've been busy the past few days making samples for my "How to use the buttons on your Cricut Class"
I do have a sample board of the different buttons like fit to page, fit to length, etc. I thought some samples of what this machine can do besides cut letters would be helpful.

This is the same basic box from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. Done in 3 sizes, fit to page using a 12x24 mat, a 12x12 mat and a 6x12 mat

Heart Closure Box from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, cut as big as I could fit on the mat, 8.29 inches

Again, Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, cut on a 6x12 mat.

This open box is from Cindy Loo, and the letters are from Lyrical Letters, this was cut at 7", slanted to fit on the mat

This is a pillow box, cut as big as I could fit on the mat, I stamped a pattern on the cardstock before cutting. I used the Easter 2010 cartridge and my gypsy to omit the rabbit cut out. Several cartridges have a pillow box cut.

I used the Gingerbread cartridge for this cut. The point of this is to show a cookie, an ornament, bookmark, package decoration feature. One simple cut can be used so many ways.

A basic card from A Child's Year, I just let the Cricut cut out the card and the flowers, I put pearlized paper behind the cut outs, and it will make a great all occasion card.

This card and matching envelope are from Damask Decor. The sentiment is from Beyond Birthdays

Recipe Card made used From My Kitchen and the cherries from Preserves

All cuts were from Freshly Picked. This would be a great gift card holder for a gardener.

I used the Nifty Fifties cartridge and vinyl to decorate this water bottle.

This is a cupcake holder from the Cricut Lite Cupcake Wrapper Cartridge, the wrapper was cut at 3" as was the daisy to go on top of the cupcake. I sponged some pink on the bottom ruffle edge, although it didn't come out as nice in the photo as in real life. I used some self adhesive rhinestones for the center of the flowers.

These are pokes, I used them in a sucker bouquet for last year's Father's Day barbecue, these I borrowed from my husband to show. Sports Mania for the football and helmet, Beyond Birthdays for the sentiment

This is my first banner, ever, I made it using Mini Monograms, about a 6" circle, layered light pink under dark pink. I used the 5 petal flower from this same cartridge, cut 5 times at decreasing sizes, and lightly rolled the petals

This is our cat Rex, she was tired from helping me make all these cuts, so she took a nap in the sunshine.

Some pages I've done lately

2011-05-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing fancy here. The alphabet page is a "CASE" of a page done by Above Rubie's Studio and the music page is something I created on my own. Just trying new layout styles

Musical Sympathy Card

2011-05-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hi!

This is a musical sympathy card I made for a beloved man from my church. He played the clarinet and made band so much fun. He was so sweet when I was first getting back to playing my violin in the church setting. He'd tell me that even the bad notes are music to God's ears, he didn't lie, but he could sure stretch the truth mighty thin, LOL!!!

The scan leaves out the black border on the right hand side. I hope the family likes the card. In order to make this card I purchased a Cricut Cartridge, Quarter Note, at full price (I know but I had no time to wait for a sale) in order to make this card for him.

Panda Pop-Up Card Style 2

2011-04-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hi!. Pop card, style 2. This card needs you to cut into the card stock to make the pop-up part. It's not harder, it's just more steps.

Supplies: Two pieces of card stock, any color, I used A-2 size card stock. Of course, you'd use pretty coordinating paper, I just white to show the steps. You will also need die cut images (the Panda is 3" and the hearts are 1"), glue or tape, bone folder, ruler, exacto knife and a pencil.

On the back of the inside piece of card stock I drew the pop-up lines. The wide lines in the center support the Panda, and are 1-1/2" long and 1" wide. This size will vary depending on how far into the card you want the image to pop and how big the image is. For the hearts, I used used 1" long lines and 1/4" wide.

Use the exacto knife to cut along the pencil lines. You use the bone folder to score a line to connect the lines. Don't cut where you score, if you do, you will have empty space. Just try again. Been there, done that, LOL!!!

Push the pop ups into the card. See the photo, you're making little steps. Again, make them any size you need to support your image

I attached one heart to the bear, and I'm getting ready to attach the Panda and the other hearts.

First glue on the images in the back, which are the hearts. Make sure they are just a smidgen above the card stock, so when you fold the card the hearts don't wrinkle. Then attach the Panda, the same as the hearts.

The back of the inside of the card

Attach the second piece of card stock so that it hides all the cuts. That way you can stamp and decorate the outside of the card.

Side view so you can see the hearts don't stick out as far into the card as the Panda does.

Front view.

Panda Pop-Up Card Style 1

2011-04-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hi! With the release of Cricut's Pop-Up cartridge, I thought I'd share how I make pop-up cards. I learned how to do them this way over 15 years ago when I was a Stampin' Up! demo. We made due since there wasn't as many gadgets or tools back then. Okay, here we go.

Supplies: Piece of card stock, half of a sheet of 8-1/2"x11" card stock, folded in half, foam pop dot (optional), glue pen or tape, bone folder, score board (optional), Image (I used the Panda from Pagoda, cut at 3"), additional images (optional - I used a heart from George and Basic Shapes cut at 1"), lastly 2 strips of card stock cut 1/2" wide and 2-3/4" long.

	Assemble your supplies. I didn't try to camouflage the pop-up strips, if this were a card I was giving to someone, I would decorate the card stock, and use paper strips that blend into the background.
Supplies

Score the strips at 1/2" (this attaches to the card stock) then at the other end 1" and 1/2" (these will attach to the back of the Panda)

Strips attached to the Panda, I only used 2 strips, you can use more or less depending on the size of your image.

Use glue and attach the strip to the card stock. Dry fit first to make sure the Panda stays inside the folded card. If your strips are too long, shorten them. There isn't a set length, just use strips that fit your design. I attached a pop-dot to the heart. The Panda just sits on the bottom part of the card, it's not glued or attached, it needs to move so it can lay down when the card folds.

Finished Assembly

Jeness Project

2011-03-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Hi! These are some cans that were converted into table center pieces. My job was to turn them into something other than a tin can. Another lady will add stuff inside the cans, arrange them on the tables and they will end up being fabulous. The original plan was for 25 center pieces, they only had 18 cans for me so I did what they gave me and gave them extra cuts to make more cans if there is a need. I will be unavailable to make more cans for them. I had a short time to get them done, and considering what I started with they came out pretty cool. Thanks to my family for pitching and helping me glue and assemble and ignore them for long hours, I couldn't have gotten it done without their help and understanding.

The empty cans and plastic coffee cans, on the right is the sample, they will all end up looking like

The insides of some of the cans were a bit "old". I covered the inside of the cans with black paper too.

Stage 1, covering the inside and outside of the cans with black paper.

Stage 2, adding a dripping border, using the Martha Stewart paper punch


Stage 3, finished cans. School Bus, truck, car and dump truck are from Everyday Paper Dolls, the road is the lower case letter "L" cut and glued down, we cut over 100 of these little shapes. The Curvy Road sign and Man at Work is from Street Sign. The Cricut was such a big help making all these cuts.

Spring Fling Layout

2011-03-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

A very kind crafter posted in her blog a video of a two page layout and encouraged us to copy and share. Here's my version. I taught this page in my SDU class and it was a big hit. Thank you Tammy at www.scrapcavecreations.com

What I've been working on.

2011-01-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Hi!

Book, Fabric & Floss

I've been doing a lot of stitching. I need to clear out a project or two so I can finish this project. It's a reproduction of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When I saw the finished piece and saw that I could purchase the pattern it was a major "I have to do this." For several reasons, the first reason is my faith, it just calls me. The second reason is that I was there, DH and I were in Italy and toured the Sistine Chapel back in 1984 and that was before it was "cleaned" and it was amazing. The third reason, I've never done anything this big or fabulous, and it'll be the last big piece I ever do. So that's what's up with this piece.


I started in the center of the piece,		this is the beginning of "The Creation of Eve"

Progress to-date

Thanksgiving 2010 Card

2010-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi!
It's that busy time of year, lots of stuff going on to get ready for the holidays.

This is the Thanksgiving card going out in tomorrow's mail. I made 6 of them. I used the Cricut Create-A-Critter cartridge. I added dimension with 3 Cuttlebug embossing folders, Swiss Dots, Argyle and Herringbone.

I used my Gypsy to weld the shadow feature to make a shaped card. I used scraps of orange and red paper for the feathers, beak and waddle. Two shades of brown were used for his body. I had to add wiggly eyes and a bit of bling to the hat band, which is just thin orange ribbon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Cricut Happy Hauntings Haunted House

2010-10-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's done, it's rather cute, it's a bit of work, and yes, I'll do it again.

This is the Haunted House from the Happy Haunting Cricut Cartridge.

I have heard different times some of it days, some many house and some hours. Well, I started cutting out around 7 pm last night (while the Giants and Braves game was on), and I stopped working on this at 10:30, I did not work straight through, I stopped and made ice cream. I have one of those ice cream makers from Costco, it's the Cusinart machine, through in the ingredients and it runs for 30 minutes and you end up with 4 cups of fabulous ice cream.

I did exactly what each page did, one page at a time. It's why it takes so long, I went slow and just did what they marked. The dotted white lines are score lines, the tabs slip fairly easily into the slots. I'd dry fit before gluing, but it worked really well. Patience is the key. I did take a white gel pen and labeled the back side of each piece before cutting the next set of pieces, 1 for the house, 2 for the house, 8 for the porch, etc. This helped me keep them all organized. Don't mark the porch or the window balcony because the fold puts the back on the front and you can see the number, oops. The window cuts are weird, but they work. All the pieces on the first cut go on the first house, the cuts from the second part of the house go on the second part of the house and all the roof pieces. You'll figure it out it's easier than it sounds.

During that time I got all the pieces cut out, and picked out all the little black cut aways from the windows and the fences. I cut all the pieces at 7", I glued the vellum to the windows, let it dry (started the first batch of ice cream). For the entire project I used the Scotch Scrapbooker's two way glue, it's clear and it's a wet glue. Then I went and did all the scoring, put in the second batch of ice cream.

Then I went back and did all the small piece assembly. That was it for the night, I put the pieces on a tray and left them on the dryer overnight, in the garage, I have 3 curious kitty's who would have had to check out the little pieces.

Got up this morning and it took me an hour to assemble. It's a bit fussy, the designers did a good job with the building, but they got a little sloppy with the roof, and it works, but that was the struggle. I finally just held the pieces a little at a time until the glue set before moving to the next part of the roof.

I think I'm going to go back and add little witches and goblins around the doors, balconies, porches, etc. Just a little more would be nice. It's being lit by one of those Costco 3" battery candles, the candle is 5" tall and runs on double A batteries.

Any questions just ask. Thanks for looking.

***************************
This is just an estimate.

All pieces were cut at 7"

To cut out, maybe 30 minutes. There are 8 12x12 pages to cut out. I used my Expression, 12x24 mat, 6 - 12x12 black cardstock, 65lb weight, and 2 vellum (I only had 8-1/2 x 11" vellum so I had to do 2 pieces of vellum. Otherwise, it would have all fit on one page). I laid the 7" pieces out on my Gypsy so I could get the least amount of paper. Some pieces take an entire page, others can be put together.

I'd guess 30 minutes to cut out.

30 - 45 minutes to score all the pieces

30-45 minutes to glue, let set long enough to let go of the pieces.

I let the glued pieces dry overnight.

An hour to do the assembly in the morning.

I was doing lots of other Mom and wife stuff while cutting so I didn't time myself. I basically started when the Giants/Brave game started Friday night, and was done at the end of overtime. I was doing stuff between steps.

Just go slow, follow the pages, they make sense if you don't look ahead. Just do each page just like it says.

Cupboard, many thanks to the designer

2010-09-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I found two layouts a long way back done by one person on the Cricut Message board. She made a cupboard out of the desk on the Sentimentals cartridge, pieces from other cartridges, welded and shaped into an adorable cupboard. One layout featured Baby stuff, the other was Kitchen stuff. I finally got the Sentimentals cartridge and I've been looking for her to give her credit for days now. With the move to the new message board I can't find her, Please, if you're reading this say who you are so you can get credit. When I find out I will post her info.

This is my poor imitation of your cupboard and I just love the idea. Thank you.

New toy, all dressed up

2010-09-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I purchased one of those Scotch ATG, Pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. Today I was able to "Bling" it up. I really do like this tape gun, so nice and it lasts a lot longer than the little tape runners.

Greetings - Continued

2010-08-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi!
So after 3 visits to the court house, I was released from Jury Duty, until January of 2012. Now it's time to get back to crafting and High School Football Season is here, we're going to our first game tomorrow night. Granted our son doesn't play High School Football anymore, but we still love going to the local games. I teach my first SDU class one week for tonight so I need to get some studying done too.

Greetings

2010-08-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing fun or interesting to post. With school starting I went back to work on the 11th, lots to do to get ready for a new school year. Then the kids started today, Aug. 16th. I had to report for Jury Duty today and I will have to return one day next week for the actual process to see if I get excused or picked for the trial. Jury Duty is always an interesting process. So once school becomes more routine and the Jury Duty stuff is done, I'll get back to posting pictures.

More Vinyl Work

2010-07-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

John's Designs

This is the walls about our oldest sons' bed. He's into learning Japanese, so using the Pagoda Cricut Cartridge, and black vinyl, this is what we have. We used one of Fancy Font from Storybook to say the meaning to the words. A bit of red vinyl was used as an accent for the dragon.

Bathroom Wall

This is the small wall space between the window and the shower, the goal as a view out a window at the beach. We used mostly the Life's A Beach Cricut Cartridge for the images. A lot of layering of different colored vinyls and accent colors with Permanent Markers (Sharpie and Bic). The Sand Castle sort of blends in, maybe too much, not sure yet. The sand bucket does blend in too much, I'm either going to recut it or color with a marker, not sure yet. The kids said we needed a sun with style so I picked up the cool red shades.

A fork in the road has been reached, a new direction for my Cricut Crafting Adventure

2010-07-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

I am not in the Circut Circle, but I am a huge Cricut Fan and consumer. I have a Baby Bug, then upgraded to an Expression, I was gifted with a Gypsy from DH and a Cake from our kids. I also have Design Studio and a 90+ cartridges.

I have been disappointed with what PC has been offering since June. The Lites being exclusive and hard to find at all sorts of Wal Marts that put up what they wanted when they wanted. To date, my closest Wal Mart only offers 12 of the 24 cartridges. : (

The Cricut Circle, don't have the money for that program, and so far it's not as smooth running as advertised, hopefully it'll get better. I'd never spend close to $300 for a "club" and not know what I'm getting in return.

Then the Martha Stewart Cake, so close to the PC Cake that the only major selling point were the Martha Stewart cartridges. Except, those are exclusive to HSN only, which is not someone I'm paying that kind of money to.

Now this, the next big thing, really. I'm so not interested. The price is ridiculous, $600. I don't believe that this Imagine is really aimed at crafters at all. It's aimed at die hard fans (of which I'm no longer that die hard) and computer user/lovers. It's advertising says PRINT, COLOR, CUT, that screams computer not crafting to me. GLUE - that's my job, LOL!!!

As far as I can see this machine takes the Imagination out of the "Imagine" The images are preselected, precolored and prepatterned for those of use that aren't "sure" of what to choose. Then there is the option of custom coloring like "real artists" do? The only paper it takes is ink jet quality white paper. It doesn't cut chipboard or anything like that, paper and vinyl only. I am not crazy about ink cartridges and at $35 to $39 each, that's a lot of money, especially if one of the colors runs out before the others.

I have watched many of the you-tube videos, the ones featuring the engineers/men are the most interesting. They don't know the price of the new mats, should be the same or a bit more than the current mats. The machine comes with 1 cartridge, although 24 more will be available at release date (image carts and pattern carts that only work with the Imagine) at $89.99 each. Then during his demos he'd push a button and then say, well this feature isn't finished yet, it'll be ready at release date. This "will be ready by release date" or "available in the future" is being said a lot. No 12x24 mat, no idea if custom colors, and patterns for an image can be saved, not many good answers except "in the future."

Guess what? The release date is 45+ days away, don't count on all the features to be finished. I went through this with the Gypsy, I didn't get my Gypsy until October, we finally got the hide feature recently and there are still bugs and glitches. PC keeps saying it'll be fixed in the next update, and then that date is missed or some other problem happens. Ugh.

My next purchase is going to be SCAL and as many of the green Cricut mats (which I know work) as I can find until the new Imagine mats replace the green Cricut mats. I'm making a choice to no longer "grow" with the Cricut Family, this Imagine machine has me Imagining life without purchasing more Cricut Products. I'll stay on the groups and the PC forum because I'm always looking for ideas for what I already have. Now's as good as anytime to join the "Use what I have" group, I have plenty to use for a long time. I'll continue to post my work on my blog.

Okay, thanks for hearing me out. Off to pick up the house, fix dinner and work on a layout this evening.

Vinyl Wall Art - Part 2

2010-07-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Wall above the sink. Light House - white and red vinyl. Pelican and grass white vinyl, hand colored. Post Brown Vinyl

Wall above the shower and door. Dolphin is blue vinyl layered on white vinyl. Nothing added to the submarine or whale.

Sorry it's dark, it's the little space above the window over the shower and the ceiling, The ducks were hand colored.

Cartridges used were Splish Splash and Life's A Beach

First Attempt at Vinyl Wall Art

2010-07-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hi!

This is the adorable octopus from the Splish Splash Cricut Cartridge. I colored the white vinyl with a purple sharpie, let dry, then layered the light purple on the dark purple. It's a large piece 11" square, the legs kept wriggling on me, so I need to go back and smooth some of the wrinkles. For now the Octopus will stay and I'll practice on other cuts for the other bathroom walls. Thanks for looking.

Cricut Cake Birthday Cupcakes

2010-07-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Our Youth Pastor Dan's Birthday was actually today, so I volunteered to make the "cake". These are simple yellow cupcakes, from a box, and chocolate buttercream made from scratch. I went with cupcakes so they'd be easy to serve and I used the Cricut Cake to cut the fondant. I tinted the fondant orange to get close to the Giant's colors, I was happy the Giants don't have a fancy design included with their name. The cupcake in "A's" color is for Gabe, another youth leader, who is a die hard A's fan, and well, we wouldn't want him to not be able to eat a cupcake. I used cake coloring straight from the bottle to color in the stitches on the baseballs using a food safe paint brush. One planning error was not making any orange buttercream or royal icing to stick the S & F together, I ended up using the orange in a tube frosting, not the best choice. I'll plan better next time. Cartridges used were: Sports Mania for the base ball, San Seriff for the S & F and the A's, Mickey Font for everything else. This Thursday the youth group is going to watch a Giant's game, that should be fun.

Cross Stitch WIP Update

2010-07-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about my Cross Stitch work in awhile. So here's what's waiting to be done. I can't look at or consider starting any more projects until these are done. Okay, more done than they are now. LOL!!!!

We like cats. These pieces remind me of our 3 cats, once out of the package they are small enough to be take along projects. Which means I will carry them in my purse and work on them when waiting at places. I always have a project with me. I'm working on Leonardo right now, Frederick the Literate and Maggie the Mess Maker are waiting to be worked on.

This piece is for me. I really like Noah's Ark stuff, the different the better. It's called Noah's Sub.

This is the piece I'm doing for my son, it's a Fractal. I don't have a photo anymore more of what it's supposed to look like. It was a large free pattern, many pages, but not too big when finished. He's into math, he thinks it looks neat. Thankfully there isn't any back stitching involved, just lots and lots of grays and yellows.

I haven't done much on this piece. It's the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, this portion is called "Creation of Eve" and it's the center panel. Much more needs to be done. I'll get to this piece during football season, which starts next month. It's rather wrinkled, so it must not have gotten put away right, so I'll get it ironed and stored properly.

My Crafting Space

2010-07-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hi!
This is where I do most of my crafting, except my cross stitch, that's done on the couch in the front room. My space is in the family room, it's a small room that passes through to the patio.

Yes, DH says I don't need to go to the craft store anymore, it's all in this room.

I share this space with our 2 Amazon Parrots (Fred & Barney) and our Conure (Little Guy). They do come out of their cages a lot, just not when I'm working with paper, they love to munch on my paper. Fred is starting to imitate the Cricut noises, I'm waiting for him to get the "Chirp" down. LOL!!!

We saw Eclipse

2010-07-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

The movie was just like the last one. I find them boring sometimes, the characters do too much whining about the same things, but that's how the story was written, I keep waiting for the more interesting parts which do come. There were some funny lines in the tent scene between Edward and Jacob, the violent ending to the newborns was less graphic than I expected. The Bella's father's character is getting more interesting and more on the background to Rosalie and Jasper was interesting. In the earlier movies Bella's mother comes across like she doesn't care, she's moved on to her new fella sort of thing. In this show you see that she is sentimental and they miss each other, the movie also makes it seem like Bella's father is still pining for her. Odd. I do find myself more and more interested in all the other characters and less and less interested in the 3 main characters.

DD liked the movie, a whole lot. I am sure she'll see it again in the theater before we are able to purchase the DVD.

However, the whole experience at the theater was a rip off, and I don't see paying to do that ever again. We bought our tickets on June 7th for theater 2, 12:02 air time. We were in line for an hour +, the people around us were pleasant and at least the wait wasn't full of line cutters and foul language. We didn't walk through the theater doors until 12:00 and then we find out they are not paying attention to the theater assigned to the ticket. Basically you got in the door and it was up to you to find a seat, people were saving seats, etc... We ended up with not very good seats either, 3 rows back from the screen. It was not fun, the movie didn't even start until 12:35, because they had trouble getting it to start, the previews kept stopping and restarting.

Once the movie starts you do get absorbed in the movie, so it was worth the wait.

We got home at 3 am. Standing in line for 3 hours to see a movie to get better seats isn't going to happen again anytime soon, at least not for me, I wouldn't do it to meet a movie star, President or the Queen of England, so why would I do it for a movie. DD will undoubtedly want to do this again, I'll just wait until she's a bit older and can go with her girlfriends.

Eclipse is here!!!!

2010-06-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

DD and I are less than 7 hours from Eclipse.
I made this to mark the occasion.

Tools - New to me at least.

2010-06-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

While going through the process of getting certified to be a SDU instructor I got to see some a lot of tools. (I haven’t heard if I’m actually certified or not, but I learned a lot and passed the test). Some of the tools are duplicates of my SU stuff, like chalks and such, but others were new to me. Wow, I need to get out more. I also did a little shopping, JoAnn's was having that big 40% off sale and I picked up some stuff and a few things I ordered on-line.

Here's the new stuff that I bought that are new to me:

Zig Writers - I have a full set of SU markers and love them. I am noticing color issues since mine are older SU colors and I'm not fully matching some of the non SU papers I have. I bought their bullet/fine tip pens, Carnival Lights colors.

Zig Calligraphy - Last time I looked for calligraphy pens there were only black, blue and brown. I bought a set of 8 primary colors.

Pigma Micron Pens - Like the markers and the calligraphy pen, these new to me. These fine point pens will be a great tool addition. I just bought black pens, 3 different sizes to add a little punch and zip to my lettering and work.

Gelly Roll Pens - My only white pen is starting to fade out on me. These were nice to find in a 3 pack, and a 50% off coupon made them very inexpensive.

EK Powder Tool - It's basically a stencil brush attached to a refillable bottle that holds baby powder. Seems silly, but adding powder to make things not sticky is sure easier with this. It does the usual, makes stickers not sticky, etc. But the ease of use is sure nice. It was only a few dollars so it was a fun purchase.

EK Centering Ruler - This is a neat flexible ruler that has a 0 in the middle and goes out to 8" each direction (and has metric). Flexible to wrap around a can or pot to find that center point. Lightweight and clear with easy to read numbers. I also learned through SDU training, and it says so on the package, that you can stick stickers on the matte side of the ruler, so they hang off the edge, and use them to line up your letters before putting on the page. I’m seeing lots of use for this ruler with Cricut letters and such.

Cutter Bee - Honey Bee Scissors - Wow, nonstick blades. I have the little yellow Cutterbee scissors and I love the sharp point and how well I can get into small areas. These Honey Bee scissors are exactly the same size, and work just as well, except the blades are non stick. That means I can actually cut a glue dot in half and it didn’t stick to the scissors. I was able to cut mounting foam and other pop dots with the same non stick. The ability to cut smaller pieces of sticky foam, wonderful.

Cutter Bee Retractable Knife & Blade - Okay, it’s another craft knife, but it’s a craft knife I can use and save money on bandaids. LOL. I purposely bought this for travel purposes and it came in so handy during VBS at my church. The fact that I can retract the blade is wonderful. During VBS I was able to walk around with the knife and a small cutting mat and make the cuts for each kid. We were working with kids from 1st through 6th grade, and we had 70+ kids each day. A few times the kids would pick up the knife thinking it was a marker, but since the blade was in the barrel no one got hurt. It comes with extra blades and the refills aren’t expensive either. That knife got quite a workout this past week, well worth the investment.

Studio G - I hadn’t really seen there stuff until a trip to JoAnn’s. I picked up these cute little alphabet stamps and the Glitter glues for $1.00 each. Not bad, and I love sparkly stuff.

Madeline's 13th Birthday Cake

2010-06-06T20:30:00.001-07:00

I can't just make a cake just to test designs, I am sort of end project sort of person. I haven't made a multi layer cake in a good 20 years, as you can see I need a lot of practice. Honestly the cake isn't leaning as much as it looks like in the middle picture. weird how it came out in the photo.

So Madeline and I finished the cake together and we'll use it for her 13th birthday. We like it.

Buttercream cake with Roses & stuff

2010-06-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hi!
This is the last cake for the interview. I was able to make better looking roses, I made the royal icing stiffer and I think they look better. The basket weave part was fun, I haven't done that in a long time.

Tim's Cake, and Madeline Helped

2010-06-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

Tim used all the leftover colored fondant and just made stuff. This is his cake. Madeline helped, she made the multi colored piece and gave artistic/supervisory input. Tim worked, and she said, "Yeah, that's nice." ROFL!!!! Pretty cool cake, it's for dessert tonight.

Flower Fondant Cake

2010-06-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Here is the first of two cakes I'm making for the interview. This is a chocolate cake covered in white fondant. The balls were hand rolled. The leaves were hand cut and shaped. The flowers are blossom cookie cutters, notched, hand shaped and dried on the floral molds. Those U shaped ones. I used a texture plate to give a little dimension to the flowers. Let me know what you think. It took most of Saturday to assemble. So worth it, I like the way the cake turned out. Thanks

Roses

2010-06-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I'm so rusty at making roses. I probably should have practiced on something easier. Oh well, taking a break and going to go back to practicing after dinner. Let me know what you think. Thanks

It's Done - Yeah!!!!

2010-06-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I've been making these flag samplers for few years now. This is the 4th one, they are all exactly the same, just for different people. I carry them around in my purse throughout the school year, it's my take along project that I work on, when on breaks, waiting to pick up someone, and such. I'll do the last one when school starts again in August. I will pick up Noah's Sub this evening, I really need to use some different colors besides red, white and blue, LOL!!!!

Actual Decorated Cake

2010-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi!
This is our first real cake. We decorated for our niece who graduated from High School. We like the way it turned out and received a lot of compliments. Our niece was happy and that's the best praise.

Ladybugstamper's Crafting Club House

2010-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I'm not so great about posting photo's of my work. As president of this club, I promise I will do better but for those who aren't sure what PC's new "Circle" is about, here's a free alternative to join a "club house". ROFL!!!!

Cookies cut and decorated with the CC

2010-05-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

We made cookies this time. One important trick, the dough has to be really, really cold. Next time I will pre-roll the dough onto parchment paper, chill/freeze the dough and then cut. The warmer the dough the rougher the cut. Working with fondant was far easier than anticipated. We used some Wilton Cake food color and my Kitchen Aid mixer to blend the fondant, worked really well. The cookies were great and my family likes the taste of the fondant. We used butter cream icing to stick the fondant to the cookies. Thanks for looking.

Recent Pages

2010-05-23T15:19:00.001-07:00

Hi!
I've made 3 more pages, thanks for looking.

2010-05-16T15:35:00.001-07:00

Okay, here's my very first ever Scrapbook Page. I'm just learning how to make actual pages. Took 2 hours, mostly because I went really slow, got it all done and realized I assigned the wrong instrument to the wrong boy. Good Grief. So, what do you think?

Cricut Cake Mother's Day Gift

2010-05-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Our kids decided this would be a perfect Mother's Day Gift. I'm thinking they're going to love eating the things that don't come out right. They already ate the first batch of sample cuts. LOL!!! Once the fondant was rolled and placed on the mat it was just like cutting paper. Way cool. DD and I are looking forward to doing a lot more with this machine.

Finally

2010-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I've had a hard time this allergy season, it's pretty much taken all my creativity and shuffled aside. I'm feeling better and back to creating. Here's a quick card I made for a dear friend. I forgot how much fun it is to make things with my Cricut.

Greetings

2010-02-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hi!
I am still here. I'm not sure anyone is following, but if you are, thank you. I apologize for not keeping this blog up. Time to make a decision. Surf the internet for hours on end or actually use my stuff and share. Hmmmmm...... Guess I better hide the mouse and get out the glue pens, and take this blog thing seriously. LOL!!!

All is well with the family. I was gifted with a Cricut Gypsy and I've been making so much more stuff. It was all given away over the holidays so it's time to start again. I still haven't resolved the printer/scanner/computer issue despite numerous attempts. I'm going to dig out our camera and go back to taking photos and posting, at least I think I can still do that.

Wishing everyone well.

2009-09-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Not much happening. I've made great progress on the cross stitch piece Noah's Sub. Loom Knitted a hat and scarf set for my dear MIL, she's been diagnosed with breast cancer and is awaiting surgery, so our focus is there. I've been using my Cricut for wall art for the youth group at church. And shamelessly entering contest to win free cartridges or the new Gypsy device. Other than that we've been busy doing the usual day to day stuff.

http://cuttingabove.blogspot.com/

Week 2 Provo Craft Promotional

2009-09-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Myself and about 3500 other people are doing these posts in the hopes of winning 20 free Cricut Cartridges, thanks for being patient with these posts.

Help us celebrate our 100th Cricut cartridge—Winter Woodland! That’s right, we reached 100 cartridges. As a thank you for our great Cricut community members we want you to celebrate with us. So, we’re giving away 100 cartridges over the next five weeks (20 per week). Here’s how it will work. Each week we will be posting a thread. When you respond to the thread you will be entered to win. You can enter once by replying and you can enter a second time by posting on your blog about the celebration and linking back to the cartridge product page. Here is the link to include in your blog. Once you’ve posted on your blog with the link back you can post again to this thread. http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2 Thanks for your continued support. Good luck. _____________________________AdminBecky

Provocraft Promotional Giveaway

2009-09-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Help us celebrate our 100th Cricut cartridge—Winter Woodland!

That’s right, we reached 100 cartridges. As a thank you for our great Cricut community members we want you to celebrate with us. So, we’re giving away 100 cartridges over the next five weeks (20 per week). Here’s how it will work. Each week we will be posting a thread. When you respond to the thread you will be entered to win. You can enter once by replying and you can enter a second time by posting on your blog about the celebration and linking back to the cartridge product page. Here is the link to include in your blog.

Once you’ve posted on your blog with the link back you can post again to this thread. this may be helpful :) http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

Wow, 100 cartridges, that's awesome.

My unmounted storage system

2009-08-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the way I store my unmounteds. I'm new at blogging, so they are out of order a bit. I think this is enough to make sense. Let me know if it doesn't make sense.

Happenings so far this summer

2009-07-27T06:45:00.001-07:00

Hi!
Least you think all I've done this summer was play on the computer and post blog contests, I will give a short summary of the happenings.

Family - We;ve gone on lots of day trips, kept busy hanging out with friends and family, and done lots of church activities. I've really enjoyed spending this summer with the family. The kids are finally getting bored, which means school is close to starting. The boys are going up to Delta this week to buy their books. DD and I will be going clothes shopping and getting hair cuts to start the school year off. Something new this year, she now needs time in the morning to put on her make up and do her hair. Good heavens, she's growing up quickly.

Crafting - I started and finished a small cross stitch piece, it's 4 different cact, with the names. I made this one for DH because he's a big fan of cactus. I've been working on blank cards for future use, DD and I tie died fabric for T-Shirts and I used the left over die to make bulletin board coverings. I'm updated three boards at my church. I've learned how to get photo id on my cell phone, and assign different ring tones to different people, okay, that's seems silly, but I've been trying to get that figured out for a while now. I've gotten hooked on audio books on my I-Touch, I can get a lot of stitching done while a book is being read. One day I even got a good nap in, listening to Hercule Poirot, LOL!!!! I've really been working a lot with my Cricut, I've been trying to get more familiar with the different feature buttons and I've just about got those down. Now I'm on to learn how to use the Designer Software better. I even taught someone else how to use the Cricut, so another fan has been created, YEAH!!!! I used felt to make a board for kids to toss a velcro covered ball against. I used the Cricut to cut the large pieces of felt and letters, the board was used on a mission trip, and I learned how to multi cut and cut fabric. I have one more sewing machine project to work on today, probably finish it tomorrow. Last goal of the summer is to off load some photos from the computer, to save space, and then I need to figure out how to post photos of my work on this blog.

That's it, enjoy.

A Cricut Blog to check out

2009-07-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

Hi!
These ladies put together a Cricut Christmas Blog to get us crafting and creating those gifts and decorations. How fun is that? There are also random give aways too, another fun reason to check out the blog. Enjoy.

http://www.cricutchristmas.blogspot.com/

Another Contest Link to a Great Blog

2009-07-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hi!
This wonderful craft is giving away a SU Big Shot and stuff. Wow, check it out.

http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-blog-candy-post-will-stay-at-top.html

Creating from the Heart: My Blogaversary Giveaway!!

2009-07-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Creating from the Heart: My Blogaversary Giveaway!!

Contest

2009-07-10T06:43:00.001-07:00

a Blog that I follow is offering a contest. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out.
http://www.customcrops.com/images/1000blogcandy.gif

Not the best way to start a Summer Vacation

2009-07-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hi!
We survived church camp just fine, then I caught a cold, which is not improving and I shared my cold with the entire house. Great, what a start to Summer Vacation. I'm hoping everyone is better in a few days. I'm seeing the Doctor this afternoon, in case it's bronchitis, which I sometimes get colds. I've done a small amount of crafting, photos when I'm feeling better.

It's Finally Summer

2009-06-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Summer is officially here. I hope everyone was able to celebrate Father's Day in a way that was meaningful to them. I was able to spend part of Father's Day with family and it was wonderful.

I have two goals for this coming week.

1. Camp - DD and I leave for camp on Wednesday, and we'll be gone for 5 days, which means DH and the boys are on their own.

2. Figure out how to upload pictures, I seem to have some sort of sizing issue, so I'm looking into an on-line photo album. My long term goal is to post the assorted craft projects and some how-to instructions.

Have a great week.

Starting Again

2009-06-16T10:38:00.001-07:00

Hi!
I haven't kept up this blog and I've decided to start again. Thanks for stopping by.