3-D Haunted House using Happy Hauntings; BBTB2 Challenge

I had wanted to make the creepy haunted house from the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge ever since I got it. So when I saw that the house was the blog challenge this week on Bitten by the Bug 2, I jumped at the chance to play along. They said that the cutting was easy – cutting is always easy using my Cricut – but warned that the assembly took time. Boy, were they ever right! There seemed to be hundreds of pieces to this thing and even though the step-by-step instructions are in the back of the handbook, there are 22 steps – and 9 of the steps have 2 parts! You do the math! LOL! But once I started this project I couldn’t stop simply because I couldn’t wait to see what the finished house would look like.

I followed BBTB2 recommendation and cut it out at 7” and when all assembled the finished house is almost a foot tall. I used black cardstock for the whole thing but when it was finished I used a deep purple Twinkling H2O by LuminArte and brushed it onto the roof, balcony, and railings. Finally after buying about 20 jars of this stuff several years ago I actually used some! You can see the Twinkling H2O’s HERE. Then I sprinkled some purple and black Doodlebug brand glitter mixed together on top. Another old purchase! I could have been a little neater with this step but by this time I just wanted to be done! So please excuse the mess. Because I put two electric tea lights inside the house and I wanted the light to shine through, I cut the window parts of the design out of yellow vellum. You can see one through the door…

I used my Gypsy to weld extra fence lengths together and glued them all around a 12x12 piece of black cardstock. After everything was done, I just kept thinking that it needed something else. Surprise, surprise! I couldn’t just stop there! So I came up with the idea of the witches legs and feet sticking out of the chimney. I actually cut this out free-hand using DCWV Midnight Spell Glitter Mat Stack. But because it was a little hard to see the legs, I cut out a circle for a moon to place behind it.

I photographed it with the same spooky tree that I posted a couple of weeks ago. Here is another view of the house…

Although it took some time and there were a lot of pieces to the house, I really did enjoy the outcome. I hope you’ll like it too. At least appreciate it after seeing the next photo of the haunted house in progress, lol…

(And this was after step #13B!)

Head over to Bitten by the Bug 2 and take a look at all of the Haunted Houses created by the wonderfully talented designers over there!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Another Halloween Party Idea: A 3-D Platter using Happy Hauntings

I bought these Halloween cupcakes and that inspired me to finally make the 3-D platter on page 70 of the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I love all of the dimensional images that are available now.

The ghosts, the creepy hands, and the witches hats for the cupcake toppers came from the same cartridge. To create a topper, I placed my image – twice - on the virtual mat in Gypsy, sized them to about 2” using the Real Dial Size feature, highlighted just one and flipped it, creating a reverse image. I cut them out and adhered them back to back with a toothpick between the two. You’ll need to use a good, strong adhesive for this. I used Scotch brand Quick Dry Adhesive.

Because I used my Gypsy, I was able to cut this image out at 11” which is slightly larger than you’d be able to cut it out without the Gypsy or Design Studio. The top isn’t the problem, it’s the base because it’s rather wide. So I rotated both parts of the base 45 degrees on my Gypsy and I was able to make it a little larger. Here are the screen shots from Design Studio -

I cut the top from cardstock and the base from black chipboard. I first cut the base from cardstock also but, duh, it didn’t hold the weight of the cupcakes! Glad I had that chipboard on hand. See, it pays to hoard – scrapbook supplies, that is! lol!
Speaking of supplies, look at my weekend haul! I had to use all of those coupons! It’s a law, I think. And it didn’t help at all that the cashier at Michaels let me use THREE coupons at once! What was she thinking? Couldn’t she tell that I was already broke? LOL! I got some new Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page punches, her Monarch Butterfly punch and a border punch, the new DCWV Christmas patterned paper and cardstock stacks, and a paper pad from K&Co. Oh yes, I am now the proud owner of a pink ATG! Anyone need a used RED ATG? lol!

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I also had a cartridge that I have wanted for a long time in my hands – can you guess what happened knowing how much I love to shop and also love a great deal? Please post a comment and tell me what you think I did with it and what cartridge you think it was. The person who guesses right will get some blog candy!!! You have until this Friday (I’ll pick a winner at 10:00pm CST) so let the guessing begin!
Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Can’t Find It? Cricut Search it!

How many times have you wanted a certain image but can’t find it or you don’t know which cartridge it’s on? For those of you who don’t own Design Studio/Gypsy or for those of you who own almost every cartridge that Provo Craft has made this can become a major dilemma. Even those who do own either Design Studio or the Gypsy (or, like me, own BOTH!), finding the right image can be frustrating. Well, your problems have been solved! I’m going to let you in on my little secret, Cricut Search! This is the most innovative idea since sliced bread, ok, well almost! Shawn has done a remarkable job not only in helping us locate specific images from the thousands that are on all of those cartridges but she also shows us which cartridges the image is on AND the page number!!! How cool is that?
I typed in the word Butterfly and it not only showed me that there were 77 files but it also shows the handbook pages with images and page numbers.

Now you know how I LOVE my Gypsy but it did have to think about it for a while before giving me all of the butterfly images. Cricut Search was extremely fast in its search. Plus, now I have the page views and page numbers, too! Design Studio only showed me 3 images for a butterfly :-(
There is also an advanced search. With this feature you can even type in just a letter that you want and Cricut Search will give you every font for that letter that is in the Cricut library. Neither DS nor the G can do that. Or just click on Cricut Cartridges and you’ll get a list of every single cartridge with a brief description of each one.
This is such a cool site that you’ll just want to play around with it and explore it to see all of the features. Give it a try. It’s fast, accurate, and so easy to use. You’ll wonder how you got along without it! Click the Cricut Search button that’s located on my side bar to the right or click here to start using CricutSearch.com right now! While you are there, subscribe to their newsletter and grab the Cricut Search button for your own blog. Also go here for the Cricut Search Facebook page.  By the way, thanks for the mention, Shawn!
I really love to read the comments that you leave so please be kind and leave more! If there is something that you’d like to see here on my blog please leave a comment and let me know. I want to make my followers happy! Thanks and Happy Crafting,

Cricut Bug Pumpkin using Vinyl and Potpourri Basket & World Card Making Day Photos

This is just a quick little project that I threw together but I thought it turned out cute. I used some Provo Craft black vinyl and the Potpourri Basket cartridge to cut out the little Cricut bug. He’s cut out at 4 1/2 inches. When cutting vinyl I always turn my pressure to low, my blade to 2-3, and my speed to medium (low if the image is intricate). I love vinyl and I’m constantly looking for something that I can ‘transform’ with it. So here’s my Halloween pumpkin…

I hope that everyone had a good time last Saturday making cards on World Card Making Day. How many cards did you complete? Did you finish all of your Christmas cards? Well, my girlfriends & I were very productive during our crop/slumber party. We had all of our supplies out and ready…

We had a Cricut station,

and a Cuttlebug station,

and here is Sylvia starting on her Christmas cards,

and Michelle learning how to emboss…

But that’s as far as we got! No cards were ever made. We were only productive when it came to talking and laughing! And we did a lot of that – for hours! But we had the best time ever! Thanks Sylvia and Michelle - I had a great time and can not wait for our next crop. Maybe we’ll actually make something next time, lol. But after all the fun and fellowship, our crop ended like this…

 

 

Happy Crafting,

Martha Stewart 50% coupon and Free Photo Book offer from Walgreens

No project today but I wanted to let you know about 2 offers that I happened to run across.

The first one is from Miss Oprah and Martha. Michaels is offering Oprah viewers 50% off of any Martha Stewart craft item. You need to download the coupon before 11:59 CT on Wednesday October 6 but it can be used at Michaels between Oct. 5 and Oct. 16. This coupon overrides any other MS sales offer! I can see some more around the corner punches in my scrapbooking room! Click HERE to see the offer and download coupon.

Most of the time I get my photos developed at Walgreens. They are fast, have good prices, and my photos look great. They also have great coupons and offers. Right now Walgreens if offering a FREE Purse Book. It’s a 4x6 photo book with a custom cover, 20+ pages, has various covers and themes, and has a sturdy heavyweight cover. All you need to pay is the shipping and taxes. The coupon code is FOREVER and this offer expires on Wednesday Oct. 6 so hurry!

Walgreens also has a great photo developing offer. You can get 50 4x6 prints for only $5. The coupon code is INSPIRE. This offer is good until Oct. 9. For both of these offers just log onto Walgreens.com.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a project, photos, a poll, and some very good news! Until then, Happy Crafting,

Minnie Mouse Scrapbook Page Layout using Disney’s Mickey & Friends Cartridge

Happy October everyone! I love that we are starting to feel a some cooler weather, even if it’s only early in the morning and later in the evening here in Texas. I can’t believe that there are only 3 more months left in 2010! This year has really flown by.
Today I made a quick Minnie Mouse layout using the Disney Mickey & Friends cartridge. Yes, I said quick and the Disney cartridge in the same sentence! Some people have told me that they stay away from these types of cartridges because of the layering and the time it takes to make some of the images. Well, it’s not that hard at all if you follow these tips and if you use Design Studio or the Gypsy. Now these ideas are definitely not new. When I first starting using this cartridge and hit road blocks, I either worked at it until I figured it out or I went looking for answers. So it will really help new Cricuteers and could be a refresher course for others. Just please remember that this is how I do it and for now it works for me!

These photos were taken on one of our trips to Disneyland when my daughter was a little younger and while there we took the tour of Minnie’s house. I wanted to make the layout about the house and although Minnie traditionally wears her red and white outfit, her house is very pink! I also gave the finished layout a bit of sparkle with Stickles! First, using Design Studio I took the border icon on page 109 and created an even longer border for the bottom of my page. The original icon only had 4 roses in a row. My new borders have a total of 29 roses! I welded 4 of the images together and then rotated the welded image about 45 degrees. You’ll find the rotate box in the upper right hand side under Shape Properties. This way you can get a longer border. Remember, on the 12x12 mat, you can’t cut a full 12 inches. Rotating my image let me cut my borders at almost 13 inches.

The sun, mailbox, and heart were all pretty easy to piece together. It’s mostly the images that have many, many parts, like Minnie’s house, that people have trouble with.  First, I took a look at  all of the colors of cardstock that I needed and gathered them together. Sometimes I even make a little cheat sheet for myself, especially if I’m not using the same colors that are in the handbook. Now here is the best part – there is no need to send your mat through the Cricut 8 times even if there are 8 different colors to cut! I’ll demonstrate using the Daisy Duck image on page 111. Using my Design Studio, I put all of the parts of Daisy’s image on the first mat. I cut it out at 4 1/2”. I then made a new page (you’ll find this by clicking on the View button) for each color and renamed each page according to that color. I then copied each part of the image separately and pasted it onto the page for its corresponding color. 

Here is the first page with all of the images on it.  Below you can see how I labeled my pages. Here is another page.

This is how I changed the image color. On each page, I right-clicked on the image and in the box that pops up I went to Set Preview Color and picked the color that matches the color of the cardstock (or close to it) that I was going to cut that particular image with. For example, on the page with Daisy’s bow, I set the color to pink because that’s the color of cardstock that I planned on cutting the bow out of. The only exception is white – I made those images a light gray to be able to see them.

I did this for each image that I was cutting. Then I created one more page that I left blank. When you are on that last page, click Preview (the EYE icon on the far left). This is what you will see -

This helps me with paper placement on my mat. Now all I had to do was cut each color of cardstock a little bigger than the image and place it exactly on my mat like the images are placed on that last page. Just like this -

When I loaded the mat and hit the Cut With Cricut button, all of the images cut in one pass – not 7!

This is what it looks like after cutting -

So I won’t get the pieces mixed up, I leave them on the mat and only take them off one at a time as I am layering my image together. For me, this is the easiest way to cut and assemble images with multiple parts. And here is the finished Daisy Duck -

I hope that you enjoyed this quick little tutorial (hey, it’s my first!) and that you can use it to create some wonderful layered images. And I hope that I explained it clearly enough so that those living outside of my own head will understand! lol
Thanks for visiting. Please leave a comment and tell me who your favorite character is from the Disney’s Mickey & Friends cartridge. Or, if Disney’s not your thing, what cartridge do you like that uses layers and which image on that cartridge is either your favorite or one that you have trouble with. I’ll be checking to see what you have to say.

As always, Happy Crafting,

Halloween Party Idea - Happy Hauntings and Wild Card

By now I guess you have noticed that I really, really love the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I only wish that it was around when my kids were, well, KIDS! Heck, I wish the Cricut was around back then. I would have been the really cool room mom – the one that had all the neat decorations and goodie bags for the class parties. Oh well, maybe when I have grandkids. Or borrow someone else’s – just for a little bit and then I can give them back, lol!

So if I could help plan a party, here are a couple of ideas that I’d like to share. I tried the old, spooky tree that’s on page 71. It is a 3-D shape and I used the Fit to Page feature on my Expression to cut it. After I cut the two pieces, I sprayed them with a little Glimmer Mist. Then I just slipped the two shapes together and…

Kind of cool, isn’t it? Then I’d serve the little kiddos some Witches Brew…

I finally used my new Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Edge Punch! Yea, yea, I know. I’m way behind the rest of the world. But it was new to me! I think this punch is so neat to use and can be used for so many other things besides Halloween. I just punched two strips of cardstock with my punch, layered them, and inked the edges with TH Distressed ink. I also cut the “Witches Brew” with Happy Hauntings. Just make sure that you use a strong adhesive if you are using cardstock to wrap around the bottle. Even my trusty ATG adhesive didn’t work. I used the red liner tape from Stampin Up and it is still holding on. By the way. it’s not REALLY witches brew. It’s only grape Crush. I know, I let you guys down.

Now let’s add a little spooky party favor. The coffin is also on Happy Hauntings. I cut it out at 6 1/4”. The base is black and the top has two layers – orange and purple. R.I.P is from… Yep, you got it! HH! But the spider webs were cut from the Wild Card cartridge. Another one of my favorites! I added ink again and “nails” with a silver metallic pen.

 

But wait… What’s that inside? Oh no [insert a loud, high pitched scream here].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, doesn’t every little goblin want their ‘Mummy’? Ok, enough, Angela. Get on with it! :-(

My mummy is really an mini sized Kit Kat wrapped in gauze that I frayed and inked. Then I added the little googly eyes. Is ‘googly’ a real word?

Well there you have it. A little spooky scene, ready for any Halloween party that you might be planning. I hope that you can use some (or all) of these ideas next month. Gosh, next month - that’s TOMORROW! Well, until then, Happy Crafting!