Circle Calling Cards

Yesterday I received a lovely package I have anxiously been waiting for...it was full of Circle member's calling cards. I signed up for a swap of the 3"x3" beauties, worked diligently to make 45 of them and sent them off then began waiting for the return package. It was so much fun to see everyone's ideas of what to put on the calling cards, each one is a work of art! The next challenge was to figure out a way to display all the pretties.

At first I thought I would create a clothesline grid with wire in a large picture frame but alas, I didn't have a frame large enough to hold all the cards so I improvised. I found a few push pins, pushed them in the wall, then wrapped some florist wire around them. Tada! A clothes line for artwork. I didn't have any clothes pins (well I found one tiny one - I wondered where the rest of the package went 15 years ago!) so again I improvised and tried it with small plastic coated paper clips. It works! Okay the colored clips don't add anything to the art but hey - they're hanging! I must confess, before pushing the pins into the drywall, I had to do a bit of painting.

You see, my craft room is in the unfinished portion of the basement. I mean really unfinished, only part of the wall has drywall and it has seen some abuse. My son decided to tape some posters a few years back (mind you this wall was never taped or primed!) and the walls look atrocious. I knew I wanted to take a photo of all the pretty calling cards so I decided to quickly prime the un-taped sheet rock before putting up the display.

So, there is my disclaimer for my raw, unfinished room. But it is my little piece of crafting paradise and I love being in my crafty space, especially now that I have some lovely artwork from fellow circlets to gaze at. If you look closely at the second picture in the top left, you will see the pink fleur de lis, my calling card, and in the last picture on the top right there is a teddy bear card made by my wonderful SIL, marebare. I had to bookend the top row with our two calling cards so I could easily point them out!

E2 layout entries

HSN debuted the E2 and Provocraft had a contest to win a new E2 machine...it was simple (not!), create a birthday themed 12 by 12 layout (up to three different layouts), send in by April 22 and watch the cricut facebook page to see if you're a winner. I created two layouts and mailed them in with Marebare's three layouts - to see Marybares, visit her blog at marebaresscraps.blogspot.com..
Here are my two...

All the papers on this first layout are from Stampin Up. The cuts are from the Celebrations cartridge. The balloons are embellished with hemp twine for the string.

The oval is cut from Father's Day seasonal cart and all the flowers are from Mother's Day Bouquet seasonal cart. The few green leaves are from accent essentials cart. All the paper on the floral layout are coredinations with the exception of the vellum oval cut. The Happy birthday was cut from Wild Cards cartridge.

This final picture is a close up of the paper flowers I lightly misted with water to make them pliable and shaped/curled them with a bamboo skewer.
Over all I liked my layouts and was hoping to win an E2 but instead I ordered the machine 10 minutes after the debut on HSN and then promptly fell asleep. I was hoping to watch the shows to see if any of my layouts were shown (many layouts were shown quickly) but I just don't know. Maybe I can find a video on the internet so I can see mine (if indeed they were shown!) and all the other wonderful creations by fellow cicuteers that sent their layouts in for the contest!

MareBear's Cartridge giveaway!

My dear dear friend and SIL, Marebear is celebrating having 200 blog followers with a cartridge give away. So boogie on over to marebearscraps.blogspot.com, take a look at all the fantastic ideas she has, and become a follower. Who knows, maybe you will be the lucky winner!

Earth Day = the 3 Rs!

I am a frugal crafter, always looking for ways to save money, and I like to reuse items in different ways...my SIL just laughs at me and my thrifty ways. I save the clear packaging from clam shells, I have a special file box/folder for scrap papers. I am always on the search for new ways to use old things (see old post of paperback books). Well, now my junk collecting is being recognized, okay maybe not MY junk but others in the Cricut Circle world are being challenged to recycle/repurpose/reuse items for a challenge, this is was what I started with (after some modifications)

and not all of the items made it to the final project, nor were all items used in the beginning photo (this is just what I saved from the swarm)...Here is my creation for the Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle, challenge...So what exactly did I reuse/repurpose/recycle???
Okay the base for my mini album is made from the sleeves of coffee cups, you know those fancy kind from specialty coffee shops? The three I used were from the coffee shop at Craft's Direct in Waite Park, MN (I asked other crafters if I could have theirs.) On the front cover I used the stir sticks from the same coffee shop as the "spine" and a rubber band I had laying around. (it might have migrated home from work after wrapping around some spine labels in the mail)

So that's three things already (the requirement for the challenge) but I used more...the center of the flowers is cut from an old children's book using a cut from Everyday Cricut cart, the centers of the treat box that I didn't use for this project - just the centers! I ripped the treat box (cut too small for what I was trying) so I couldn't let the scrap go to waste! The flowers are actually from a small pick of flowers, silks I suppose some would call them, that were from an display that was too ratty to continue as a decoration in my house. The Cricut logo was cut from a paper drinking cup (saved from the crop). On another page I plan to insert a picture from a swarm of some of us gals being silly, but I made the clear embellishment from recycled clam shell.

I cut a scalloped circle from Cricut Everyday then ran it thru. the cuttlebug with the spots and dots folder.
The flowers showing above the book are left overs from another challenge (I cut a LOT of flowers for the layout)

and the stems of the flowers are stir sticks, again from the coffee shop. The flowers were cut from the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge and the leaves and grass are from Plantin School Book cart. (2 different cuts - another challenge requirement) The flowers, leaves, and grass were cut from corediantions cardstock with Viva decor pearl pens in the flower centers. All three coffee cup sleeves are pockets and the pocket inserts/tags were cut from some light green card stock.

On each green "tag" I added a tab that was cut from a box used a Christmas to house a shirt I gifted to DH. (another thrifty save! and reuse!) I simply cut the tabs from the From My Kitchen cart and adhered them with the dark brown side showing (the smooth white from the outside of the box is glued together!) On the first tabbed tag you can see my name tag from the swarm, on the back I will add a photo from the event - I still have to select and send to be printed all the pictures I took of the fun :) I hope you are inspired to help the environment and find new and fun ways to use every day products from around your house! Go Green!

The new Expression for the 5 year Anniversay

I have been counting down the days to the release of the new E2 on HSN. I'm in central time zone so the fun begins at 11:01pm on Monday night (April 25, 2011). To add to the excitement, the lovely ladies at Everyday Cricut are hosting a Ustream at 8:05pm Monday night to help us with the upcoming release! They (Joy and Melanie at Everyday Cricut) are also giving away an E2 (and maybe other goodies!)...so join in the fun, maybe you will win the latest, greatest die cutting machine!

one more challenge

The challenge was to use a frame at scrapbookers-anonymous.blogspot.com so here is my thank you card using a frame cut from Accent Essentials cricut cartridge.

It doesn't show up well in the picture but there are two layers of ribbon, the purple gingham type and a thread with sparkles on top makes for a special effect with the coredinations paper run through the cuttlebug using the leafy branch folder. The stamp is from Stampin' up and ink is black stazOn.

challenges

I visited many blogs this weekend, mainly for the No Housework blog hop organized by Groovy Deb. A couple challenges presented themselves, one was to use your favorite color, mine is green, and the other was correlated with what house work chore you hate the most...mine is mopping and washing walls...I mean really, do people wash their walls?!

Well the hated chore corresponded to a material to use: mopping-use ribbon, washing walls-use card stock. I combined both challenges and created a card using ribbon, card stock and my favorite color, green. The end result is a father's day card. I also created a thank you card, using green (fav. color again!)

for another challenge at marcisscrappingspot, another part of the blog hop and finally to use a bird (because housework is for the birds!!) challenge from scrappingtheguys. Enjoy!!

Swarm this weekend

I am having fun at a cricut swarm, sponsored by Crafts Direct - a wonderful local store in Waite Park, MN with tons of scrappin' goodness. My SIL and I made some tee shirts for our group of six at the swarm and here

I am modeling my shirt and the silly glasses and hats we couldn't resist creating.
My tee shirt says "Scrapbooking is hazardous to your wealth" The cut/phrase is from the Everyday Cricut cartridge, which is circle member exclusive. The glasses and hat are from the same cart. The vinyl is iron-on vinyl I purchased from Expressionsvinyl.com