I have been a Cricut user since 2007 (and no I do not need a support group lol)
I have used it to make cards (tons of cards), embellishments and elements for journal pages and ATCS. I have cut vinyl to attach to anything that doesn't move and made some cute cutouts to hang above my work desk to keep me calm and happy at my job.
But for some reason I have never ventured into the world of 3D....until now.
I see so many fabulous projects being shared on the Let's Learn Cricut Explore facebook group and I want to be able to try some of them too. But having never tried 3D paper (except for an off the wall art project in college that didn't quite go as planned) I was very intimidated.
I decided to start with images I own (I will venture into the SVG-cuts.com incredible houses and such one I feel comfortable lol)
So, here is my first project. Be nice lol
I struggled with gluing it together when I first started out but got the hang of it by day 2.
To create the pumpkin I used the 'Ornament' from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2. The ornament hanger top is actually under his hat. :-)
The hat and faces pieces were all shapes cut from George and Basic Shapes. (I had to hand cut out his teeth though)
I crumpled and scrunched his hat and then swiped distress ink all over it. It looks much darker and more aged in person.
As you can see, the ribbon I used was over an inch wide so I folded it in half and then twisted it to create the band. I made a small bow and glued it on. The flowers were cut from the Flower Shoppe cart. The red and rusty looking ones were left as is. The bright orangy one was bright yellow but I didn't like that so I swiped some Barn Door distress ink over it before rolling it into the flower shape.
The vines came from the Thanksgiving cart. They were attached to a central leaf which I had planned on using with the flowers but decided it was too large so I cut off the vines, wrapped them around a pencil to give them more shape and dimension, and tucked them under the flowers and bow.
I am pretty happy with how this first try turned out and have more ideas stirring around my head.
I have never shared any of my project files before but had a couple people on facebook ask me for this so, if you have an Explore, here is the Design Space file for my pumpkin project. :-)
https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/project/19745158
But of course I cannot abandon my card making. :-)
I think I am almost done making Halloween cards.
This house if from Autumn Celebrations. The moon comes from October 31st. A pretty basic card but I added the swirled embossing to add some interest.
This little owl always makes me smile. She comes from the Create a Critter 2 cartridge. Her perch is from Monster Bash and the text is from CTMH Artbooking. I embossed the tree with a wood grain embossing folder and then rubbed ink over it.
And my last card for the week is NOT a Halloween card! lol I needed a birthday card for someone that loves monkeys. I have to say, the faces are not that yellow. They are actually tan. But no matter how much I played around in Photoshop I could not get them to not look yellow (unless I changed all the other colors too)
Both of these party animals hail from Create a Critter 2. The vines are from Create a Critter (1) and the Happy Birthday text is from CTMH Artbooking.
And one more thing...
I won the Fantabulous Cricut challenge for last week! :-D
Here is my winning card. Thank you to the challenge blog. I really appreciate it!!!
I would add the special blinky button showing that I won but my blogger won't let me change anything any more including my header, my background, my guest counter...nothing. Thanks blogger...NOT!
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
I said yesterday that I would be back with some of the projects I have made over the past couple months....so here I am! :-)
But first, I completed another entry for the Fantabulous Cricut challenge. I normally do not like the sketch challenges, they seem to hamper my creativity. But for some reason, the one this week has jump started my Halloween card making. You should go check it out here.
This is my third and final entry for the week. But I have a feeling that this won't be the last card I make with this sketch.
My frog (or in this case - Toad) is from the Mini Monsters cartridge. The bubbles are from Disney Dreams Come True. The Banner is from Banners (not sure if that is a cartridge or just some digital images) and the text shape is from Close To My Heart Artiste. The stamped quote is also from Close To My Heart. It is C1509 Magic Potions (all of the stamps in this set coordinate with the Artiste cartridge). I embossed the card with Darice's Dot Background since it is sort of a random, large dot pattern and I thought it would fill in for warts quite nicely. ;-)
I don't think this is exactly what the Picked Toad label meant but I think my Toad is definitely pickled lol
Now for the goodies I have been making over the past few months.
I love the images in the Suburbia and Forever Young carts. Silhouettes that highlight the clothes or items being held. But I am not always thrilled with just a black body with colored clothes. I thought I would play around and make them look more like real people. :-)
Here are the Forever Young cards. I used a newsprint type cardstock for the bodies. I am still on the fence about that but overall am happy with the results.
The honeycomb background is from Close To My Heart Artbooking. All the other images are from Forever Young.
The background on this one is from one of the Paper Lace carts I do believe.
Here I tried out flesh colored card stock (it isn't so orangy colored in person). I had to manually cut out her arms in the dress image so that she was actually holding the cup but I am thrilled with how she turned out. The chair is from Love You a Latte, the woman is from Suburbia.
I have a few more things lying around but thought this was enough for today. :-)
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Yeah Yeah, I went missing again! I'm sorry! It is just so hard to find time to blog when I am either working or out of the house. But have no fear, fall is almost here which means more indoor time :-)
That is not to say that I haven't made anything lately. I have made a few things. I just never have time to even take the photos off my camera. I did download them today so hopefully soon I will have a picture heavy post for you but until then...
I just got my Explore back (long story short: it developed a very odd issue and they decided they needed to replace it.). I had a 2 week withdrawal period but am now back in business and wanted to play in this weeks Fantabulous Cricut Challenge.
I have been wanting to start making some Halloween cards and this was the perfect excuse!
I made 3 cards and have not decided which one(s) I want to enter. :-)
For this card I chose the cat from Pumpkin Carvings. The Beware sign is from Autumn Celebrations and the fence comes from Paper doll Dress-up. I duplicated the cat, used the contour feature and removed all the lines so I would have a solid yellow circle for a background.
Here I used the witch from Celebrate with Flourish. The diamond borders are from CTMH Art Philosophy and the Beware with crow (raven?) is from Teresa Collins Chic & Scary.
And finally, the cat face from Autumn Celebrations (I have been dying to use that cat since I got this cartridge last spring!). The Spooky text is from 3 Birds on Parade and the border comes from Paper Lace 2.
Like I said, I am not sure which to enter....you can enter up to 3 and I have an idea with a frog ... lol
Until next time (when I finally get all my summer project posted) Happy Crafting!!!
What a week! Work was a nightmare! I am so glad today is Friday and I am done working for the day!!!
I have not had much art time this week. :-(
But, my submission to the sketch challenge has been on my mind (ok, it has been bugging me because I was not thrilled at all with my card!) I know from a lifetime of art that something like the sketch challenge actually inhibits my creativity. I hate boxes lol
I was talking to my mom about it last night and her response was kind of like....duh! We all know that about you.
Give me a theme and I am there with ideas swirling in my head. Give me a diagram and say I need to fit my idea in that 'box' and my muse takes a hike. lol
So, I decided to give it another try. But I moved a bit outside of the box on this one. ;-)
Here is the sketch
Here is my new card. All cuts are from Create a Critter.
Now, I am going to say that technically I followed the sketch.
My hippo is the round ball (hippos are sort of rounded....yeah, that is my answer so deal with it! ha!)
The water is that right background section. Yep, not rectangular but does go under my hippo ;-)
The lace is the left vertical bar....ok, so this part is probably pretty spot on lol
If you read my last post you saw that I said I might try again with something more 'springy' and what screams spring more than a flowery pink hippo I ask you?! haha
I said it was a bad week lol Hippos on Friday is the only good part! :-D
Oh, I take that back, on Wednesday I found out that I was in the top 5 for the weekly Fantabulous Cricut Challenge. Yay! Thank you!!!
And on to another issue.....Blogger will no longer let me add a banner to my blog. If you have been following me in the past you know that I always had a custom banner at the top. Well a few weeks ago it disappeared and when I try to add one back I just get error after error! And the blogger help was, well not helpful!
Anyone have any ideas on how to replace my banner?
Or know of a good blog site that I can move to (well, I think I would have hubby move my blog as he seems to enjoy that kind of stuff more than I do)
