Cricut Craft Room?

Anybody used the Cricut Craft Room? If so, what are your thoughts? Easy to use? Convenient? 

I want to hear your thoughts! I know online cuts have been one of the things we have all been waiting for!

I am doing a little house "reshuffling" project right now that hopefully will be done in the next 24 hours or so and then I am hoping to play around with some really CUTE Valentine's cuts that are currently available.

Before I get started, let me know your experiences, thoughts and opinions on this Cricut addition. Also, check out these Valentine's cuts, they are currently only $1.99 in the Cricut Craft Room!

January Monthly Challenge - Get those Layouts Done!

Hey Ange here today, to bring you this month's totally awesome sketch challenge. Check it out!

 This is the perfect sketch to help you get all those awesome holiday photos you just took scrapped! Shawn, of Nuts About Sketches, was kind enough to share this sketch with us for this challenge. Thanks Shawn! Her sketches are so easy to follow and create from. I just love using them and she has tons more on her blog Nuts About Sketches. Don't forget to go check them out!

There is no wrong way to use this sketch. So grab some paper and go! Here is my example:

I used the DCWV Crafty Christmas stack to put together this festive layout of my kids opening presents Christmas morning. I didn't have a 5x7 photo that I wanted to use on this page so I improvised by using two 4x6 photos that I actually cropped a little, since the one on the left was a horizontal picture, to fit into the 5x7 space provided. I didn't feel the need to add a lot of journaling to this layout, so I left the journaling spot blank, but you could always add some embellishment there or whatever makes you happy. That's what it's all about right?

So have fun and don't forget to come back and upload the link to your layout or e-mail a photo to info@scrapbookusaexpo.com by January 31st. I would love to come see it and leave a comment + one lucky (randomly drawn) participant will win 2 early bird tickets to The Original Scrapbook USA coming up March 22-23! :) Ange

Supplies:

DCWV - pp, cs

Nuts About Sketches - sketch

american crafts - thickers, cb snowflakes

ranger - stickles

sei - ink

downtowntape - red tape w/ star burst 
stash - tapes, stickers

Submitted by Angie M

Submitted by Michelle C
 "All products were from Doodlebug Design, except for the marker. That was American crafts. Can’t wait for the expo this March. My daughter and I go together every time."

Submitted by Armywifeof3

Submitted by Tomi Ann

Submitted by Carla

Submitted by Amelia

Bring on 2013 + Monthly Challenge Winner!

I hope everyone had a safe, fun and memorable Christmas and Holiday break! I know that I did! I took a break from my computer, cleaning, laundry and other daily tasks and enjoyed lot's of movies, activities, game nights and fun with my family! Lot's of fun but as of today some of the kiddo's are back to school (minus the sickies) and it is time to get down to business!

Our December Monthly Challenge didn't get a huge response but I am figuring that is because you are all like me, the cards get made but only in time to get them sent out (and that is ok!). Thanks to all those who participated! A free regular admission to our spring show will be going to out to each of our participants!

Thanks so much Chelsie for sending in this darling photo! Super cute card!

Super cute Birthday card, Sarah! Thanks for sharing!

Fun card Angie! I am loving this DCWV stack!

After a random drawing, Chelsie is the winner of a MME product pack! Congratulations Chelsie!!



Christmas Layout

I hope you had a fun, relaxing and enjoyable Christmas yesterday! With the gifts unwrapped and the photos taken, it is time to document all those great memories!

 

Ange here today with Best Present Ever! layout. Die Cuts With a View Crafty Christmas stack and Nuts About Sketches are a hot combo for a fun Christmas page! My dad is always the hardest person to buy for which usually results in some interesting presents for him. Last year we ended up putting our youngest in this huge box and letting my dad unwrap him. The most amazing part of the whole thing was, at only 2, how quiet he was until my dad got the box open. 

I used this fun paper with the tree with presents under it for the base, cut a slit up each side of the tree with a craft knife and slid the red striped paper under. Then I cut some of the cute journaling tags from another sheet and presents from a scrap paper from a previous layout and layered them on this layout. The To/From tag was also cut from the Crafty Christmas stack, layered with foam tape onto green cs and then I added twine. To finish the layout off I added washi tape to one photo, red stickles to presents and candy canes on the tree and did a little doodling around the edge of the page. Hope you have fun with your family this holiday season! :)Ange

Supplies:

DCWV - pp, cs

NAS - sketch #243

american crafts - thickers

ranger - stickles

recollections - washi tape

stampin up - marker 

tombow - glue runner

ek tools - foam adhesive 

stash - twine

Still Wrapping, Try This!

Ange here with some fun and easy boxes for gifting. I made all of these using papers from DCWV Crafty Christmas stack and added in some fun hand made paper bows using the DCWV Arctic Wishes mat stack.  

 

I think I started with this tutorial here: Box. But really all you need to remember is that you want the lid to be about 1/8 of an inch bigger than the bottom so that it fits well. So for a 2x3 box with 1in. sides you cut a piece of paper that is 4x5 and score in 1 inch on each side, cut along the score line on two sides (but don't cut the corners out), fold in and tape. Then for the lid remember to add 1/8 for a nice fit. Also if you're going to do some border punching like I did, you'll want to consider how much the punch will take off. So for this example you would want to cut a paper 4-1/8x5-1/8, so that after the punching you have a bit of a fancy lid design showing on the side. For a deeper punched design you would need to add more.

Make your own bows like I did, tie them up with twine or add a little embellishment from your stash and you have a fun little box to gift your special present in.

DCWV - pp 

SEI - ink 

martha stewart - punch

glue dots

ek tools - foam & tape adhesive 

tombow - tape runner

american crafts - snowflakes

stash - pearl

Christmas Gift Tage DIY with DCWV

I love wrapping gifts. I'm not sure when this love started, but I remember asking my mom if I could wrap the Christmas presents each year.  She never seemed to complain...

With the wrapping comes the need for gift tags. Instead of buying them this year, I decided to make them. I wanted them to be easy to keep track of though. (Nothing worse than spending time making something just to lose it before you can use it!)

So, I decided to make a ticket tag book.  

All the fun papers that make up this book come from the DCWV "Crafty Christmas" stack. I love the red and green stripes and plaids! They are so fun!  

I used some "Fairy Dust"  Creative Inspirations Paint to add some beautiful shimmer to the snow. I also used some Enamel Accents to the eyes and mouth for a little pop of texture.

The inside is made up of ticket strips... I die cut them from my favorite papers from the stack using the Tim Holtz "Ticket Strip" die. I then used Archival ink to stamp on the image of the ticket.  (Always use an ink made for non-porous surfaces when you are stamping over the varnish!).  I then stamped and embossed all the white images.  

Although it looks like it would take a long time to stamp and emboss all those images, I think I spent more time going through all my holiday stamps to find the images. =)

All the backs have "To:"  & "From:" stamped on them, so they are ready to add to packages.

Now, to get the shopping done...

Enjoy!

~Kassi

Supplies Used:

Paper: DCWV "Crafty Christmas" stack

Ink: Archival Ink, VersaMark, Mark-It

Stamps: Tim Holtz "Odds & Ends", Doodlebug "Alphabet", Personal Sentiments "Skate & Ski", & "Winter Quiet", Great Impressions "Magic and Wonder" & "Christmas Town", Crafter's Companion "Just for You", Inkadinkado "Snowflakes", Studio G

Dies: Quickutz "Nesting Circles", Tim Holtz "Ticket Strip"

Creative Inspirations Paint: Fairy Dust

Other: Enamel Accents, rhinestones

Holiday Traditions - What Are Yours?

Hello and good morning....

It's Wendi here, and I'm sharing a Christmas layout that I created using the Basic Grey Aspen Frost line... One of our family's favorite Christmas traditions is to open one present the night before. It's pretty much always the same thing... new Christmas pajamas.. So we put them on and take pictures in front of the tree with our new pjs.

 I used the Aspen Frost Garland in two places to add some banners on the page:

And I used some of the Aspen Frost Die Cut Shapes as accent pieces on the layout:

I used my scallop border punch for the perfect ending of the page, it kinda gives it a fun holiday feel:

So what are some of your holiday traditions????

Have a wonderful day!!!!