Christmas House

A good friend of mine, who happens to be very creative, made this Exploding Christmas House for me!

Isn't it gorgeous? Each wall has a beautiful design and the tree in the center is amazing! Here is a photo of the box closed. The number over the door is my real house number!

Each outside wall has a special design as well!

When you remove the roof (lid), the walls fall open! Here are closer views of the interior walls. The details are amazing! Look at the little door knob!

And the stockings on the mantel, the fire in the fireplace and the nutcrackers on each side!

The windows even have cornice board window treatments!

Here's a closer view of the beautiful tree with the tree skirt and ornaments!

I told you she was creative! Go visit her blog at Chic Green Dragonfly. I love this gift!

It truly makes me want to say "Merry Christmas. . .from my house to yours!" I hope you had a wonderful day regardless of how you spent it or what you celebrated!

A Disney Mini Mini Album!

A while back, I made a little mini mini album for a friend who had her first grandchild {you can see it HERE} so she could easily carry pictures of her beautiful grandson with her. Since I had designed that file in CCR, I decided to "tweak" it a bit and make a Disney version for a friend headed to Disney World!

This is the front cover. It opens at the bottom and is held closed with a velcro dot. It's approximately 3 x 3 inches. I used the Mickey Font cart.

This is what you see when you open the "ears" and flip the first section up.

Flip the middle section up to show all 3 photo or journaling spots.

And then each section flips open to reveal another photo/journaling spot as well as a pocket that has a removable square, again for photos/journaling.

I also cut a few Mickey heads and hands. I didn't adhere them because my friend is quite creative herself and can choose to use them or some other embellishments.

And, because the back was just plain black cardstock, I added this image! After all, who doesn't love Disney?

I sure hope she has some super special pictures and memories to add to this little Disney Mini Mini Album!

Another Disney Planner Folder

Seems everyone I know is going to Disney World. And without me! So not fair! :) But I still created this Disney Planner for my friend using a pocket folder from Staples. I've made a couple of them before {you can see them HERE}. It was so cool that Staples had "twisted" folders with one color on the outside and another color on the inside and they happened to have a red and yellow combo!

All you do is fold each side to the middle fold and then make it fold accordian style. The ribbon is only attached to the front cover and wraps around the back and ties to keep the folder closed.

Then all I had to do was add some Disney themed paper and some cuts from the Cricut Mickey Font cart! I made little divider pages for each section so she can separate the different pieces of info in that section or she can add photos and journaling and use it as a keepsake of her trip.

The person getting this one, hasn't gotten it yet {hopefully by tomorrow} but I sure hope she likes it! And I wish her the most magical of trips!

Just add Minnie!

What do you do when you're at Joann's and you come across a plain red and white polka dot box?

You buy it, take it home, go straight to your Cricut and just add Minnie Mouse! I used the Mickey and Friends cartridge and cut the layers in vinyl. I can't decide if I should add some words. . .like Minnie Mouse or Disney Memories.

But, even without words, the plain Jane box is now a great Disney Keepsake Box!

Countdown To Disney Blocks

My sister and her daughter are planning a trip to Disney World and she wanted a "countdown" calendar. Here's what I created!  I used the 2 inch cube box from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 and Mickey Font for the letters, numbers and holder.

I had planned to make her one using the same blocks I made for the perpetual calendar but her trip is more than 31 days away so I needed to use 3 blocks to get the right combination of numbers. To hide the 3rd block, I made a simple card stock sleeve to cover it.

I designed and sized everything in CCR, so cutting it all out was a breeze! I cut and scored the cubes and then glued all the background papers to them. Once I had folded them, I glued them closed.

Hope they have a great trip and enjoy counting down the days until they are at Disney World!

Count Your Blessings Frame

Thanksgiving is the perfect day to count the many blessing we have. Usually, as we gather around the table, each person states what they are thankful for. This year, I decided to make an erasable list using a frame, vinyl and a wet erase marker.

 I send the younger 2 members of the family to ask the other family members about their blessings. They added them to the frame and it sat on the living room table for all to see.

Then, the frame was erased and stored away for next year.

Hope you and your family had a Happy Thanksgiving!

A Milk Carton Bank

If you're my age, you might remember making banks from the milk cartons we drank from at lunch in elementary school. And while they were cute {because what kid craft isn't cute?}, sometimes, the milk wasn't totally rinsed from the carton and after a week or so, our beautiful little creations had an awful smell! But with my Cricut and the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cart, I can make a cute little bank and not worry about the smell!

So, not only did I make one little milk carton bank, I made 50 for the Mania attendees to start saving for the next Circle Mania weekend.

A Designer Treat Bag

Following an origami pattern, I used CCR and Craft Room Basics to create this little treat bag.

I made one for each person attending Circle Mania and then challenged them to add their own designer touch. Here's some of what they did.

I must say, I have some pretty creative friends!

A Little Cricut Fairy

What happens when you cross Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street and the bughead from Everyday Cricut? You get a Cricut Fairy!

After cutting the Abby Cadabby image in both green and pink with my Cricut, I took out my scissors. I trimmed Abby's head so the Cricut Bughead would cover it. Then I trimmed the dress from the pink image, added some details with a darker pink gel pen and dressed my little fairy.

I cut a small Circle logo and covered the fluffy end of Abby's wand. Then added a flat back jewel to the center. I used a metallic marker to color the want. A little bow for the antenna and some stickles to the wings and my fairy was complete!

She was so cute, I did this 50 more times as I made these little Cricut Fairies to go on the names tags for Circle Mania!

Sometimes, I think I need a Cricut Fairy to help with my Cricut projects!

Chalkboard Name Cards

This past weekend, I hosted Circle Mania. It's a weekend long crafting event with people I've meet through the Cricut Circle or on the Cricut Circle forums. It's always so much fun!

I created little 3-D chalkboards as name cards and placed them at each person's seat! Yes, I made 50 of these little chalkboards. . .the chalkboard cut {which was created in CCR}, the black chalkboard, 5 little pennants, five little letters {Mickey Font cart}, the person's name {Lovely Floral cart} and 2 bows for each! It was a lot of cutting with my Cricut and assembling in front of the TV! But, it was worth the work because I love the way they turned out!

Mallie, from the Marketing Dept at Provo Craft arranged for Anna Griffin to join us! It was so exciting to meet her! Be sure to watch HSN this Thursday for Anna's new products!
That's Mallie in the middle of the Circle logo {along with Anne, Donna and Renee}.

And this is Anna and me in the Circle logo.

This is the majority of attendees.

And this is me with my gold Anna Griffin Cuttlebug that she autographed!

I'll go back and catch up on my Halloween projects and post more Mania projects in the days ahead!
Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween!

I'll be posting a few Halloween projects soon!

Small Talk Frames and Tags

Update: the handbook has been added to cricut.com!

This new Cricut cart, Small Talk Frames and Tags, hasn't been officially announced by Provo Craft, but people have been buying it at Michael's for the past 3 weeks or so. Because it hasn't been officially announced, the PDF version of the handbook hasn't been posted to cricut.com. However, someone who purchased the cart photographed the handbook pages and shared them. Here's what's on the cart {click on the picture to enlarge it}:

If you like what you see, be sure to check the Cricut cage at your Michael's to see if they have it yet!

New Cricut Cart ~ Merry and Bright

Looks like there's a new Cricut cart due out ~ Merry and Bright! Such cute designs!

Wedding Card for Katie

When Katie and her family moved into the house next to us, Katie was only 4 years old. Today, she is 23 years old and getting married! I wanted to make a special card and gift for Katie and her husband. The wedding card is pictured on a black background to show off the swirls. It's actually a side step card and stands freely. The bride and groom as well as the "Happily Ever After" are from the Divine Weddings cart. The flourishes are from several different carts. I made a custom size for the card base. It's 6.5 inches long and 3 inches high when folded. The "steps" on the side are 2.5 inches wide. Once you add the bride and groom and all the flourishes, the card is approximately 10 inches wide and 6 inches tall. So, I made a custom fit box to hand deliver it in.

I also wanted a handmade part of her wedding gift, so I made a floating frame. The "G" is from the Storybook cart and the words are from Divine Weddings cart. All the letters are cut in vinyl and applied to the outside of the frame and there is no backing in the frame.The beige color is the wall color of my family room {where I hung it for a photo}. The frame came from Michael's.

Best wishes to Katie and Jason!

Mickey Money or Mickey Memories

This was such an easy and  fun project! I saw a similar project on Dollar Crafts and knew right away I had to make one. . .or two. . .or more! So I had my husband finish off a jar of trail mix and found a Mickey Mouse figure.

You glue the Mickey Mouse figure to the top of your container and use spray paint formulated for  plastic to paint it black.

Then, I used vinyl and the Cricut Mickey Font cart to cut the words "Mickey Money". Viola ~ a super cute way to save those coins for a Disney trip!

But since we don't really save our loose change for Disney trips, I decided to change the words for the second jar to Mickey Memories for all those mementos that we always bring home from our trips. If I ever get scrapbooks made, these will go in the scrapbooks. But until then, they will be stored in the Mickey Memories jar!

Which do you prefer. . .Mickey Money or Mickey Memories?

A Mini-mini Album

I used Craft Room Basics to create this little mini album for a friend who just had her first grandson! I embellished it with images from the Charmed, Tiny Treasures and Pooh Font carts.

It's designed to hold a lot of photos in a small space to make it easy for Grandma to carry with her. It's similar to a bigger mini album I saw years ago on a craft show hosted by Sandi Genovese. When you open it, it unfolds not just once. . .

But twice!

And then each section has a flap that opens to reveal a pocket holding a double sided photo/journaling mat.

So there are 9 spots for photos/journaling in this little 3 x 3 inch {it's actually a smidge bigger} album!

And it all fits in the palm of your hand!

I sure hope she likes it!  Congratulations Carolyn on becoming a Grandma! :)