Ornaments, Bags, and Fun

As you know, I've been making the etched ornaments this season. I've had a blast with them, too. I've tried several different styles and ways of doing them. I have made as many as 10 at a time because once you get started, it's easy to just do a bunch at one time. Tonight, though, I worked on bags to put each ornament in. I did it for the ones I gave to Jaydin's church teachers last night, but I forgot to take pictures. (Sorry!) I took them tonight, though.


Here's the snowman bag. He's made out of an off-brand paper that was bought at Michael's, I think. It isn't as heavy as SU, but worked well with all of the folding. The bag was scored using my beloved ScorPal. The bag was made using Plantin' Schoolbook and the cut out was added in the Design Studio. It was nice to size the ornament bags in the DS so that they JUST fit the ornaments. Perfect.












Now, here's the same bag with one of the ornaments beside it. This is one of my favorite ornaments because I love the detail of the snowflake. You can see the size comparison, as well.















Now .... How many of you have seen the Cricut Chirp (not a link to *this* week's edition. It wasn't up when I looked. Sorry!) this week??? Raise your hands.... come on!! JenC was featured this week. She made a fantastic ornament card with her Design Studio and was gracious enough to share when I asked for the .cut file. She is an awesome designer, and all of you should bookmark her blog. Go there again and again for awesome creations.





Now, this was my first try, so I know that it needs more embellies. I have all of the pieces cut out to make another one tomorrow. These are sooooo much fun and so impressive to see. I do need to work a little on the size of the ornament on the inside. This one was a little bit too big for what I would have liked.

The outside part - the webbing - was made with some designer paper from SU. Jen suggested using light paper for the webbing so that it doesn't take much weight to pull it open. The base is made from SU cardstock with a smaller circle on the back to write on if I want to send it as a card. The inside is also made from SU card stock. It's layered with the tree cut-out on both sides and gold SU paper in the middle. Silver cording allows it to hang freely.




This is the back of the card/ornament. I wanted to make it light enough that ink will show up if I write on it.











Up close and on the tree.











The ornament from the top.
















Smooshed! Just the right size for a card envie!! :)














Let me know what you think. Be happy, and have a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!!

Cricut Journal

Tonight, I completed a journal that was being made as part of a Christmas gift for a pre-teen cousin of mine. She loves cheerleading, so I created a cheerleader out of the girl on Beyond Birthdays and the pom-pom (one of the layers to a birthday hat!!) on Celebrations. I put that on the journal, along with her name with a black-out shadow. I love the Design Studio. Without it, I could not have made this journal. I used it to cut the front, back, and spine, as well as the name, shadow, and cheerleader. I did cut the pom-poms a second time so that I could add a second color to those in her hands.


The paper was all SU - pixie pink, close to cocoa, pink passion(?), and pumpkin pie. The ribbon was $1 at JoAnn's and the added bling was a gift from my niece about a month ago.














The cheerleader up close.















As always, I'd love to hear what you think!

Oh - the cartridge storage mentioned in the last post is working very well. Next time (perhaps in my spare time after Christmas - YEAH RIGHT!), I'd love to make it out of wood. I have the tools.... I just need to do it. AND ... NO. DH cannot do it for me. Remember that I said that *I* have the tools ......... That's not his comfort zone. Give him a computer ... NOT a saw. :)


Have an awesome night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!!


:)

Cricut Cartridge Storage

I've been trying so hard to figure out how to store my cartridges because I very rarely use the overlays or the books now that I have the Design Studio (for which the new update has some awesome new features!!). It's not optimal for me to get the cartridge out of the box each time and then, to have to put it back in the box each time. I keep my carts alphabetically arranged, so it was easy to find the box, but it was a pain to open the boxes and deal with that each time I wanted to pull one out.

So, I made a 'solution.' It's not pretty. It's not fancy. It's not even attractive - or really strong. However, it does work. And after working with my bugs (yep, both of them) tonight, I found that it works well and saves me time. It has also freed up 3 shelves of space in my Haven - along with all of the space my new ones were taking up on my table because I didn't want to start a new shelf and rearrange all of them yet.

Without further adieu.....



This is my Cricut cartridges' new home. :) Yes .... I used *purple* duct tape to support the sides and edges. I used small labels to label each cartridge with it's name. ATG tape was used to reinforce the adhesive on the back of the labels. So far, that's worked.....










Here's an up-close view of the slots. It has 48 slots, and I have 35 cartridges. I used chipboard (about the weight of a cereal box) for the inside slots and a box (handy that Christmas gifts are on order and being delivered daily!) that I had on hand to make the frame.











Here's the box in it's place in the Haven. It actually fits perfectly between the two shelf supports.












One day, I hope to come up with a more secure, sturdy (and pretty) solution, but until then, I think this will work pretty well. Let me know if you have any comments .... suggestions .... questions .... whatever. I'd love to hear what you have to say.



Have an awesome evening and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!! :)