Thursday, March 20, 2014

Loving My Cricut Explore

Hi friends and fellow crafters! I have been having a blast playing with my new Cricut Explore. Today I am sharing some new cards that I created using it. This machine cuts like a dream! I love the Make It Now Projects. I needed a birthday card for my cousin, so I used the Anna Griffin Make it Now Butterfly card.
 
I used the pens to write the sentiment and outline my label. I added some pearls and a flower and had a beautiful card all set to go.
 
 
I added a computer generated sentiment and voila! It was all ready to be mailed!

The next card was a Make It Now Birthday Card for my nephew.



I added some glitter to the base and really like the finished product. These are two fun Make It Now projects from Design Space. I will be back later with a couple of cards that I created using the Explore and my own ideas.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!
Colleen

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Exploring All The Possiblities!


 
 
Hi friends and fellow crafters. I have been having lots of fun playing with my new Cricut Explore Machine. This new machine does it all! I love it! Along with the machine, Provo Craft has also created a program that uses SVGs, JPEGs, PNGs, and your own computer fonts. The new Design Space is so easy to use. Not only can you create your own projects, but there are a bunch of  "Make It Now" projects to play with. These rosettes are from a Fourth Of July project. I just changed up the colors and added some fun St. Patrick's Day cuts. I loved how easy it was to make these using the scoring tool in my Explore! All the rosettes are scored for you! Woo-hoo!


This is a big centerpiece! The design makes 7 rosettes. One 10x10 ( I made 2 just for fun) two 8x8 rosettes and 4 6x6 rosettes. I am pretty sure the rosettes are from Ribbons and Rosettes. Using the Make It Now, lays all the pieces out on the mats for you. You have the opportunity to change colors in the program or at the beginning you can customize the design. I found some of the circles for the back of the rosettes to be al little too large for my taste, so I made them slightly smaller for the 6x6 rosettes.

 
 I love looking around at all the images available to cut on my Cricut Explore. It truly gives me a greater appreciation of all the cartridges I own. I used the word Lucky from Simply Charmed and sized it at almost 2 inches high. The Pot Of Gold is from the St. Patrick's Digital Set and sized around 2.75 inches high.

 
The Leprechaun's Hat is from A Child's Year and sized at 2.5 inches high. The shamrocks are from Celebrate With A Flourish. I totally forgot about that cartridge! I cut them at 2.8 inches high.


 My favorites are the 10 inch rosettes with the Leprechauns. They are also from Simply Charmed. I cut them at 3.15 inches high. I was so amazed at great the tiny pieces cut with my Explore. Look at those teeny tiny clouds on the Rainbow from the St. Patrick's Day set! That rainbow is less than 2 inches high! I was floored at how perfect the leprechauns' eyebrows are! Wow!


 I ended up cutting the bamboo skewer a little too short on the last rosette, so I removed it and glued the rosette on the front of the pot with Ranger Glossy Accents.

I found the container for the rosettes in Michael's for 2.99 and I used some moss and raffia I had laying around the craft room.


The papers are mostly 3 Birds Studio, Bazzill Basics "Olivia" cardstock. This is nice sturdy cardstock. The green patterned paper is from Graphic 45. I used lots of Distress Inks on the rosettes and even had Danny helping to ink them. He made the Lucky Rosette all by himself! The only help I gave him was with the embellishment on "lucky" and I hot glued the rosette on the base for him. He also inked and folded the shamrock rosette on the container. He had loads of fun helping out. We added lots of glitter to the rosettes using Ranger Glossy Accents and Recollections glitter. We also painted the bamboo skewers green and used floral foam to anchor the rosettes. 

I can many more of these in my crafting future! The possibilities are endless with this new machine!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!
Colleen