Hello Kitty Card

After being in the kitchen all weekend, I snuck away for a bit of crafting.  My niece has a birthday in September and every year DH and I always scramble for a gift and card - but not this year!  I saw a challenge to make something with a licensed cartridge for the Cricut and I was inspired. The top photo is the birthday card I created.

 
I only used the cart. Hello Kitty font.  The Kitty was cut at 4.25 inches.  The papers are all old remnants I have in my scrap stash.  The white gossamer ribbon is from Target found last year in the wrapping supplies after Christmas.  The sparkly blue gems are i-rock hot rocks adhered with the i-rock tool - love it!  And the greatest part is the the i-rock tool and stones were a prize I won from Imaginisce.  Very cool tool!  The second photograph is of the envelope (green) and the inside of the card.  I had some Hello Kitty ribbon that I just couldn't resist using (I can't remember where I purchased the ribbon).

Salsa is made!

This weekend DH and I made two batches of salsa.  It took all day Saturday to make the first batch.  It was huge, we ended up with 12 quarts and 8 pints but we still had tomatoes! Sunday was spent enjoying visiting with good friends from out of town (they ended up at our place last night because of the hotel goofing up the reservation) then after they left it was back to kitchen duty.  The second batch was only a third of the size of Saturday's creation so it went fairly quickly.  Second batch of salsa yielded 2 quarts and 7 pints with the added bonus of being extra spicy.



  The first picture is of Saturday's results (notice the scalloped labels!) and the second photo is of me showing off some of the ingredients ready for the simmering pot of tomatoes, notice the dark green jalapenos!  I ran out of labels and plan to make a few more with some changes to distinguish between the two different salsas. 

Scalloped labels

Bob and I are getting ready to make salsa so this year I thought to make some labels for the canning jars (to be added after done canning)  I used vinyl so they are removable stickers.  I printed the white labels on normal copy paper with our names and the year then ran the paper thru. the cricut after tweeking the oval to just the right size on my gypsy.  Ovals came from the From My Kitchen cart.  The scalloped ovals were scalloped circles I changed the height and width separately from the mini monograms cartridge.  I put a sample one on a jar with a piece of paper in it so it can be seen better. 

Welcome Banner

I made a banner that says "Welcome" to display at my school.  I wanted to hang it in the hallway (students start after labor day) but didn't have the heart to do it the day the custodian finished washing the walls!  I'll hang it next week.  I tried to get a picture of the whole banner as it was out on the circulation desk.  I took a close up of one of the pennants so you can see the detail.  Okay, so for the "recipe" to this project...I used my gypsy and the base (yellow) was cut on a 12 x 24 mat.  Only four fit on a mat, cut at 9 inches high.  The yellow paper is laminated bulletin board paper (it's very thin and tears in the cricut if it isn't laminated).
The red scalloped ovals are scalloped circles from Mini Monograms with some changes to the size.  I had to unlink the width and height button and make the width narrow to get the oval shape.  the final size was 3.4 width and 5.2 height.  It was very handy to do each element on a different layer so I could get the proper sizes.  The letters are cut from Jasmine with the oval feature.  The measurements 2.66 width and 6.09 height.  Both the red and light blue paper are construction paper from school I had laminated knowing they were to be cut using the circut.  I haven't found a good setting to cut construction paper not laminated.   The purple lace looking boarder to the pennants was made by using my Fiskars border punch lacy days of summer (I thought it appropriate for the end of summer! heehee).  The deep purple paper is from a friend who had a box of scraps she received from a family she did some tutoring with the son, she shared the wealth and gave me a bunch of the papers (lots of diff. colors and sizes!).  The ribbon the pennents are stung on was found in the dollar spot at Target with scrapbook supplies, it took two pieces, which are three yards each.  I tied a bow on each end with the ribbon then strung it through the holes.  Everything was adhered together with Tombo permanent adhesive.  I think this will be a cheerful greeting for the students when the arrive at school!

dorm decoration

I made a whole page full of cherries for my daughter to put on the walls of her dorm room.  I started with black Cricut vinyl and with my gypsy was able to maximize as much space as possible.  The cuts are from Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.  The green stems are from a pack of solid papers I have had for years and the red cherries are laminated construction paper left over from a school project I had done.  During the vinyl cutting my cricut was accidentally turned off so one of the outlines was cut twice but not exact (the gypsy was handy to remove the already cut ones on the virtual mat and I could begin the cutting again!)  So the goofed up outline was used to sample the final product.  I stuck it to a board used to place a laptop computer on for stability.  I wanted the finished project to be on vinyl so Emily could put the cherries on the wall of her dorm room and be able to remove them without any problem, so basically I made a sticker for her walls!  I glued the paper (green stems) with zig two way glue pen and the cherries (laminated paper) I ran through my xyron using permanent adhesive.  I think/hope Emily will like these!!

Movin in Weekend

We took Emily to UND and helped her move in....we put together her loft/futon and Bill was on hand to connect to Wii!  The we relaxed and play a few wii games.  It is going to be strange with out Emily in the house but she is beginning an excited journey!

Hello Thursday release

Joy at Obsessed with Scrapbooking has some wonderful projects showcasing the new cartridges!  Take a look and enter to win!  While there, join in the blog hop!

My Pink Stamper in Minnesota

Crafts Direct in St. Cloud is hosting  My Pink Stamper classes on Saturday, Sept. 4.  Sign up is today starting at 1pm.  Details can be found here at the Crafts Direct website.

If you want to be a designer...

The Paper Variety is a new scrapbooking challenge blog looking for design team members.  I was started by a couple gal from My Scrap Stuff where I found out about the design team applications. If you are interested and want to apply check it out here.

My Grandma Marge

My grandmother, Marjorie passed away a few weeks ago.  Recently a cousin sent these two photos and I wanted to make a layout showing how Grandma and Grandpa had started a huge family.  The big group picture is almost inclusive of Harvey and Margie's descendants, only two people missing.  I like to think Grandma was watching from heaven as the family gathered to celebrate her life and try to stay in a tight group for the picture!

join in the fun of the hop

I found a blog hop going on this weekend from Scrappin-n-Chattin...hops are always fun, hopping around visiting different blogs to see creative ideas!  Oh and entering to win some blog candy is always a thrill.  So check out the blog hop at Boxer Brats Scraps, but be sure to start at My Scrap Stuff for the details and order of the hop - and have FUN!

More Creating at CHA

ColorArtz had a booth where we were able to decorate a tee shirt using the air brush system, so simple and easy!  I did the scrunch shirt method and hot pink paint then black paint.  I have been wanting try this since seeing Terri O did a video of the paints...very fun and easy!

Creating at CHA

CHA was a blast, so much to see and do I could have spent another day crafting!  Mary and I were busy looking, shopping, helping and creating...this picture is of the two of us making a card using eksuccess Martha Stewart punches, and some beautiful Jolee's stickers.