Saturday, April 05, 2014

More exploring with the Explore

Since I am still in my free trial period (you get 2 free weeks of access to over 25000+ Cricut images when you buy the Explore-after that time you can buy a subscription) I am playing with lots of images from cartridges that I don't own....so beware.....picture heavy post. :-)

I am still exploring uses for vinyl and am totally loving it! I put a couple dragonflies on our glass door and they look so cute (no picture). Minnie has swiped at them a couple times from her cat tower thinking they were something she could play with. So far they are still stuck tight. :-)

On Monday, after work, we went and got new cell phones. Am I the only one that finds this both fun and infuriating. It is fun to get new toys to play with and pick one that has all the features you like but at the same time you are then dickering over the price, the amount of data...the hidden charges. Ugh! Sometimes I just long for the days of the phone hanging on the wall. But then how could I check Twitter while I am at the grocery? (just kidding, I never check twitter from anyplace but home.....I just don't care THAT much lol)

But to get back on track.....I had that new phone in my hot little hands for about an hour when I pulled out the vinyl and prettied it up. :-)

This cat image if from the Chore Chart cartridge and is about 2 inches tall. Notice how precise the whiskers are cut.


Now, I am one that when I get a new device like a phone or tablet, one of the first things I do is go online and order a vinyl skin for it. So, this was so much fun to create my own vinyl and make my phone unique to me. But for some reason I never put a skin on my iPad mini that I got last summer. I loved how my phone turned out so I grabbed the iPad and vinyl'd it up too!


The doily is from Edge to Edge and the monogram is from Miss Kate's Cuttables. I am still in awe of how the Explore can cut these doilies! The entire thing is only about 4 inches across and yet all those teensy pieces are cut perfectly. (and a nightmare to weed lol)

And as I think I mentioned in another post, hubby wanted something on the dishwasher so that he could differentiate between clean and dirty so I made him these...


We can move a magnet between the 2 of them.  :-)

Here is a closer look. The he is from the Barnyard Babies cartridge. I flipped one of them and I hand-cut the mud. 


But I cut paper and cardstock this week too lol

Because my free period is almost up, I cut out several images that I know I will use in the near future. I will doctor them up and assemble them later but here is one I completed yesterday. He is a puffin from the Seabirds and Shells cartridge. I colored on his details with Prismacolor pencils. I probably should have painted the white on his face but too late now lol  He is just a little guy, about 1 1/2 inches tall.


And finally, the Explore can cut SVG files. Yes, I know if you have the SureCutsALot program you could already do that. But I didn't. And I don't own a Silhouette so I have never played with SVGs before. I am finding tons of free images online and I love freebies!

Miss Kate's offers a freebie of the day so you have to go check every day but it is totally worth it!

This is her Pretty Bug from earlier this week. But don't worry, if you miss out on the freebie, you can still buy it from her for a very small price. 


I used a printed cardstock for the body (it was some sort of peeling paint looking thing lol) in what I think is a nice bug green. The wings were embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and then I rubbed ink over them to highlight the dots. The base is another doily, from Edge to Edge this time cut at about 5 inches.  Isn't she cute? I was going to put her on a card but instead she now hangs over my work computer because she makes me smile.

But Miss's Kate's isn't the only place I find freebies.

Check out this adorable Pot Belly Bunny. He is the freebie of the week over at Little Scraps of Heaven.


The background paper was just hand cut in a rectangle and I used a corner punch to perk up the corners (nothing like doing it old school lol)
The text box was cut from.....hmmm.....hard to say, there are tons of rectangles out there but probably from George and Basic Shapes. I let the Explore do the writing for me. :-)

And one last picture. Hey, I warned you up front that I was bombarding you this week! lol

This was not a freebie but I still found him online from a site that does offer a freebie of the week. This is from the Cats Collection at Treasure Box Designs.

Sometimes I have a hard time resisting cats. Especially when they look at you like this! lol


All the shading was done with Prismacolor pencils. And her designs already have the 'cute' eyes cut-out, all you need to do is add the details. I liked that as I was assembling this on my lapdesk in front of the TV and really couldn't be messing with paint and water lol

My free trial period is almost up and I do not plan on subscribing (not when I own so many cartridges) so we shall see how it goes. It has been fun browsing the entire Cricut library thought! There are sooooo many images I never imaged they had. But I found myself drawn to things I already own so I think that is a good thing. But, if I do need something I don't already have it is nice to have the option of buying just that one image.

Until next time, have a wonderful week!



No comments: