Happy Mother's Day to my Cricut-tastic Friends!

Jean at Jean's Crafty Corner and Kim at Kim's Kreations have bestowed upon me the "Cricut-tastic Blog Award."  Thank you so much, Jean and Kim!  Jean lives in Huntsville, AL and is finally back home again after the horrific tornado rampage that swept thru Alabama.  We have family that live in that area and they too made it thru unscathed.  My prayers are with those who lost so much.

Here is what Jean and Kim said, "Your blog has been deemed Cricut-tastic! Wear this badge proudly on your blog and share it with friends! Since Cricut is 5 years old and they have an E2 out, share this award with 10 people that you think have Cricut-tastic Blogs! You also have to tell 5 Cricut-related things about yourself."

So, here are 5 Cricut-tastic things about me: 

1. I bought my baby bug in 2007 and about wore that poor thing out!
2. My Mom and step-Dad gave me a Pink Expression for Christmas in 2009  -- boy, was I shocked!! 
3. I love Cricut Design Studio and if my Cricut is on so is CDS.
4. I very rarely cut into a whole sheet of paper.  I love to use my scrap stash -- Design Studio makes using small pieces a breeze.
5. Compared to some, I have very few cartridges -- only 34.  So I am always looking at my die cuts from every angle to see how I can make it into something else. 

There are so many wonderful Cricut-tastic blogs and bloggers out there . . . picking only ten is hard!  And I just couldn't do it -- I couldn't narrow it down to ten, so for everyone who visits my blog . . . grab that award 'cause you're all Cricut-tastic in my book!

Happy Mother's Day!

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Three Flowers and a Shade of Purple

I'm late . . . I'm late . . . . for a very important date -- with you!  My real challenge this week was not the one Melin at Cooking With Cricut laid out for us -- it was being able to actually find the time to sit down and make my project!  So I apologize to you and my fellow Chefs for the delay in getting my Wednesday challenge project posted.

This week Melin challenged us to use three flowers and a shade of purple in our project.  Easy-peasy!  My seven year old daughter and I have been working on Mother's Day projects and I asked her to design a card for her Gigi (my Mom) -- I told her it had to have at least three flowers and purple.  So Demi got out her sketch pad and her crayons and started drawing.  We then found images she liked on the Cindy Loo and Mother's Day 2010 cartridges.  She picked out her papers and then said, "Momma, it's time for you and the bug to make your magic!"  LOL!

The cat is cut from the Cindy Loo cartridge at 4 1/2" tall.  I used a VersaMark watermark stamp pad and a small rose stamp by DeNami Design (copyright 1998) to make the pattern on her tail and toes.  The rhinestones are some I purchased at Michael's as are the purple flowers.  The kitty is pop-dotted over some really fun fibers that I've had for forever -- they're made by EK Success.

The mat is cut from a white polka-dot embossed paper at 5 1/2" square using the Mother's Day 2010 cartridge.  I did a little faux stitching around the outside of the mat.

The inside of the card has the "Happy Mother's Day" greeting from Mother's Day 2010 cartridge; it is cut at about 3" wide.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll link your flowery purple project up at Cooking With Cricut -- you could be this week's Top Chef! 

Don't forget to pop on over to Cooking With Cricut and check out what my fellow chefs have whipped up for you!

~ Jen

Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday Celebration & Cooking With Cricut's Blog-Aversary!

Yesterday was our grandson's first birthday and this month marks the first blog-aversary for CookingWith Cricut!  Melin is having a month-long celebration called "Every Day in May" and I am today's guest designer.  The theme for the month is celebrations ~ which fit perfectly with our Mickey Mouse & Friends 1st Birthday party.  So here are my projects:

First up ~ a birthday card!  Ninety-nine percent of the papers I used were from my scrap stash. The black paper is a Disney paper by Sandylion from their "Mickey Pack." The red is from a Recollections paper pack and is cut at 6" x 12" and folded to create a 6" x 6" card. 

Cartridges used:  Mickey & Friends -- Goofy (cut at 5" tall); Swirl (cut at 4 1/2" tall) and Mickey Font -- Gawrsh (cut at 3 1/2" wide x 1" tall)

I used 3-D Crystal Lacquer on his nose and eyes to make them stand out a bit from the rest of the black card stock. I used my white gel pen to do some outlining on the letters.

Next up is a birthday banner.  I used the Mother's Day 2010 cartridge for the banner triangles.  They are cut at 5" wide by 5 7/8" tall from a red card stock by Recollections.  The Mickey heads are cut from black card stock at 4" wide using the Mickey & Friends cartridge.  The letters are cut at 2" high from the Pooh Font cartridge. 

The paper is from a Mickey Paper pack by Sandylion.  I outlined the letters using a black Zig Writer and did some doodling on Mickey with a white gel pen.  The banner is tied together with narrow black ribbon.

Here's the birthday boy sporting the freezer paper t-shirt I made for him.  (I just love that smile!)  Dylan's t-shirt is a size 12 mos. from the baby section at Wal-Mart.  All of the little boy's shirts had pockets, so I had to scrap my original idea and do something different.  I think I like this one better than my original idea!

My stencils were cut from freezer paper that I then ironed on the shirt and painted using Tulip Soft Fabric Paints.

The front pocket has a Mickey head with a number "1" cut at 2 1/4" tall cut from the Mickey Font cartridge.  The back of the shirt features a silhouette of Mickey cut at 6" tall and "{heart}that mouse" cut at 3" wide -- both are from the Mickey & Friends cartridge.

For my last project I purchased four 5" x 7" inexpensive wooden frames at Wal-Mart and made some wall art for Dylan's bedroom.  Mickey and the gang are cut at 4 3/4" tall and the text is cut at 4 1/4" wide -- all are from the Mickey & Friends cartridge.  The solid card stocks are all from my scrap stash and the patterned papers came from Disney paper packs by Sandylion and EK Success.  (So sorry for the rotten photos of these -- I had a terrible time with glare!)

And of course there was cake! 

Dee created another beautiful birthday cake that was so yummy!  The Mickey ears were cut out of black card stock using the Mickey & Friends cartridge.  The head was half of a ball cake (chocolate of course) covered in black fondant.  The bottom tier was one layer of french vanilla cake and one layer of chocolate cake covered in white fondant.  The smash cake was french vanilla covered in vanilla buttercream.  All of the letters, Mickey heads, dots and stars were cut from fondant.  The border is tinted buttercream.  



The Disney characters are about 2" tall and we found them at Dollar Tree. The large cake board has what I call a "cake ring" that says "Happy 1st Birthday Dylan." I created it using Cricut Design Studio and welding letters and Mickey Heads from the Mickey Font cartridge together in a half-circle. 

As you can see, Dylan thoroughly enjoyed his cake; as did the rest of us!


Thanks so much for stopping by to see my Mickey inspired projects.  I hope you stop in at Cooking With Cricut each and every day this month to check out the incredible projects created by Melin and the rest of the Design Team.  There will also be DAILY freebies, compliments of PaperCraftingWorld.com!  Each day Melin will have either a cutting file or a digital stamp up for grabs. But you will have to visit each day as the files will only be available for 24 hours! That’s it . . . only 24 hours!  So get ready to make Cooking With Cricut a daily part of your life in May as you don’t want to miss out on these amazing files created by our fabulous Executive Chef, Melin.  There will also be weekly give-a-ways from other wonderful Sponsors too! So keep your eyes peeled! 

~ Jen