Fall is in the air -- Wall Decor with my Cricut

What a beautiful “fall like” day. The cool temperatures and leaves falling into my pool made it feel more like a late September or early October day rather than the August 24th day near the end of summer. It’s been in the high 60’s all day and a breeze blowing nicely. It’s actually kind of appropriate as returning to school when I was younger always meant fall and return to fall clothing – and that’s exactly what we did now – we sent our only off to college this week, same thing, different generation, LOL. So….I just had to do some wall décor in her dorm room for her with my Cricut.

First, I use the deep housing blade (blue one) to cut my vinyl. Then, I weeded out the stuff I wasn't going to use. After adding the transfer tape, we moved her name around a bit until she found just where she wanted it to go. Next, while still holding it in place, I removed the backing and...

...started burnishing the letters to the wall.

Then, I carefully started pulling the transfer tape away, making sure the letters were not coming up with it -- they didn't. :)

...and ta-da! the finished name -- centered right where she wanted it.

Check out the cheetah cloth on her bulletin board too. LOL. Last year we covered her message board with a blue background and stars, this year we went cheetah! (we trimmed up the cheetah cloth after we were done with the name... it looks much better, only we forgot to get a picture when it was finished, LOL).

It’s been pretty busy around here – I hope to catch up on things and then post some more cards soon. Have a great week and see ya' soon!

Scrapbook Tip #3: Paper Cutters

Welcome back to another Two minute Tuesday -- Scrapbook Tip #3

Today we will talk about the different paper cutters available.

 There are many out there but they basically fall into one of these categories:

• Guillotine Paper Cutters - These are used for precision cutting.  They contain a large blade that can cut up to about ten sheets of paper, cardboard and textiles -- depending on the thickness of the item being cut.  Guillotine trimmers generally have a guide, a ruler, and a grid pattern to help ensure that your cuts are straight.  These are not really for your general crafter and they are very similar to the arm cutters.

• Rotary Paper Cutters - Designed for graphic artists and photographers due to the clean accurate cut.  Rotary paper trimmers use a round cutting blade, which slides along a rail that can cut in either direction.  This is my personal favorite as it is the most accurate and I can cut from the middle too if I want to do an opening in the middle of a card or something similar.  Fiskars is a good one.

• Arm Cutters - A lot of stores carry this kind in the scrap booking section or in the school, and office section of your discount superstores. These cutters are the most common type cutter/trimmer and state they are designed for everyday use.  They generally have a ruler, a guide and a large bladed arm.  You see these a lot in the schools.  I don't care for them.  They are scary, seem kind of dangerous, and if the screw is not properly adjusted do not cut well.  If the screw is not tight enough they flop around when you try to cut making your paper bend instead of cutting.  If the screw is too tight it rubs and is hard to cut, you keep running into the metal edge and dull your blade faster.  Also as they get older they don't cut straight, due to the arm movement.  I would avoid this type if you have small children.

• Stack Cutters – Perfect for cutting through large stacks of paper.  They generally have a guide and a ruler to help you achieve the desired cut as well as a clamp to fix the paper in place to avoid tearing.  You won't find this kind in your general store.  They are for bigger jobs and are generally a more professional type of cutting instrument.  You can probably find them on line if you are really interested in this type, but for your average crafter, you really don't need this type of paper cutter.

• Crafter's trimmer -- I'm not really sure what to call this last one, so I just called it the crafter's trimmer because you will often see them in the craft section.  I have one of these in addition to my rotary cutter.  Basically you have a plastic arm of some type that either lifts from the top so you can place paper under it, or is hinged on both sides and you slide the paper from left-to-right / right-to-left.  The blade rests in the middle of the arm and you slide the blade up and down to cut your paper.  These are used for small scale type cutting.  They only cut one sheet of paper at a time and they are limited in how large a piece you can cut, usually less than 12"x12".  However, the great thing about them, and the main thing I use mine for, is for putting the alternate blade in them so that you can create a crease in which to make nice even folds.  If you make a lot of cards this is fabulous.

See you next time on Two minute Tuesday. :)

Creepy Cobwebs it's a Spooky Night Card

This is a card I made for Paper Sundaes challenge blog (which you can go to via the name link there). The challenge was to create a card using real or faux "stitches". Hopefully you can see my stitches on there. For those who are not familiar with blogspot, if you click on the picture you can see it bigger.

Supplies
CTMH CS Ponderosa Pine and Pansy Purple
CTMH Exclusive Inks Pansy Purple and Black ink pads
CTMH Stamp Sets Creepy Cobwebs (D1319) & Spooky Night (C1333) -- hence the title, LOL
CTMH Paper packet for the B&T Duo Paper - light purplish/bluish with swirls
CTMH Exclusive Inks Marker Pansy Purple for stitching
Create your own brad
Purple glitter for create your own brad
Bluish glitter for spiderweb
Dauber sponge to sponge edges of layers and darken sky area of Haunted Mansion
Edge Distresser (to rough up the edges of the Pansy Purple, which I then used my fingers to manually curl the edges slightly and then sponged with Pansy Purple)
Adhesive
Glue Pen (to put the glitter on the spiderweb)
EK Success wavy dots boarder punch (it has no name so I just made one up, LOL)

Putting the card together is mostly self-explanatory; it's traditional size fits an A2 envelope. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll be sure to answer soon. :)

Mojo Monday: 150

I've been so busy running my daughter back-and-forth to work lately, I'm getting out my mojo, LOL.  So, lucky for me I could pick some up from Mojo Monday, LOL. (click the link to visit their site).  I apologize for the picture quality, looks like too much light and all the color is washed out -- I forgot to turn the flash off and didn't realize it until it was too late to fix.

Supplies (simple version today)
CTMH CS Pansy Purple and Ponderosa Pine
CTMH B&T Duos Star Dust (spring 2009) and Daydream (spring 2009)
Beauty is from April Word Puzzle (D1271)
Star buttons
EK Success border punch -- wave with dots (doesn't have a name, that's just what it looks like, LOL)
Glue pen
Martha Stewart Red Glitter

RAK, Cricut Dan, My 1st ever Scrapbook Convention

Today my daughter and I went to our first ever Scrapbook Convention. We decided to use our fair winnings to experience something new and fun for a day.

We walked into the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, PA and were lost. Where do we go? What do we do? Who do we pay?

As we were wandering around looking like we needed direction -- a RAK angel appears and asks if we need an entrance band. Yes, we said, where do you find them? Her response...here I have an extra one, I don't want it to go to waste. Then she pointed us in the direction of the information booth for the second one....and like that she was gone. Off into the crowd. I thanked her before she left, but still, words cannot express the thanks for her kindness in reaching out to us. I don't know her name or where she was from, but I want to say thank you again. We really will cherish this!

BUT.... the kindness of scrapbooking strangers does not stop there. We arrived at the information booth to get our tickets and there was another angel. When the sales clerk asked if I had a coupon, I said no, I didn't know there were any -- the woman next to us says to the sales clerk, " I just gave you two -- give one to them." So, we received $3.00 off the price of our ticket. We were blessed with a second angel in less than 5 minutes time. I know I thanked you then, but thank you again. I don't know either of you ladies, but you both made our day so bright it will shine through the week and then some.

Now we are armed with our wrist bands and on a mission to find Cricut Dan, do some make-and-takes, take a class or two, and see what new ideas and things await us.

We really should have set out earlier for this mission of ours. We arrived later in the day, so we were like deer in the lights, too many things to see. -- Oh, where to go??? We wandered around a bit, then realizing we didn't sign-up for classes, went back out to do that -- woo-hoo! there were still some available. Then we went back inside with hour until our first class. We found Cricut Dan. He was busy, so we were going to try to take a picture on the sly, but he caught on and jumped right into the picture.

Then he asked if I wanted one with the hat -- well, sure.... next thing I know, I have one for the photo too. I look silly, but it was a lot of fun. :) Thanks Cricut Dan!

From there we wandered around some more taking in all the neat things, signing-up for a drawing here and there, and then...we came across the neatest make and take -- it was awesome -- it was glittery, it sparkled! If you know me, you know I just love glittery things, heehee. :) I never knew they made Terrifically Tacky Tape in large size -- large enough to cut on your Cricut.

After that, it was time to head off to our respective classes. The people were all very nice. So many of the people there said they've been coming for years. Wow, I'm feeling very much in the dark, LOL. We really need to get with the program, hahaha. :) The reason we even found out about the event was because we wanted to find Cricut Dan, LOL. We had a fun day. I think we'll be back next year, but this time we might actually know in advance so we can register for classes and things ahead of time, and go for more than 5 hours (grin). Hope to see you there! ♥