Nutcracker Gift Bag

Every year we leave a gift bag filled with cookies in the mailbox for our letter carrier, Bryan. Bryan provides great service, he delivers our mail in winter weather even when UPS and Fed Ex won't attempt to make deliveries. In addition to the cookies, I like to make a card and a gift bag to show Bryan how much we appreciate having him as our letter carrier.

Cricut recently released the Holly and Ivy cartridge. One of the images on the cartridge was the Nutcracker, and of course I just had to have it.  The cartridge contains a lot of other nice images, bells, wreaths, Santa, etc. but the Nutcracker was definitely the selling point for me. The order containing my cartridge spent the last 4 days sitting in someplace in Maryland that I had never heard of and I was holding my breath that it would arrive before December 24, otherwise I couldn't use the Nutcracker for my gift bags.

Finally the cartridge arrived yesterday and I immediately started cutting the images for my gift bags. The Nutcracker is fairly detailed but there are none of the clothing or hair cut outs that I am used to with Cricut cartridges. While I really liked the image cut out of black card stock, it just looked blah on a gift bag and not very festive. I wanted to add color to the Nutcracker but wasn't sure how I was going to do that. I cut the image again in the solid option on white card stock and glued the black outlined image over it. I grabbed my Prisma Color pencils and my Copic markers and started coloring in the Nutcracker. I added a few embellishments and the result was dramatically different from the original.

Original Nutcracker from Holly and Ivy cartridge.

Embellished Nutcracker

Finished Gift Bag.

Cookies wrapped for giving.

Directions for Nutcracker Gift Bag:


Medium size gift bags- available at Michaels, JoAnn, Hobby Lobby or Walmart
White and black card stock
Cricut Holly and Ivy cartridge-this cartridge does not come with a key board overlay and uses the universal overlay available at Michaels. I didn't know this until the cartridge arrived. I was able to use the cartridge by substituting an overlay from another cartridge. The Holly and Ivy booklet shows the position of the keys for the image in a key board diagram for each image. I then pressed the corresponding keys on my the substitute overlay.
Colored pencils, markers or watercolors for coloring the image
Red ribbon
Recollections self adhesive gold beads and small blue crystals
Red plaid tissue paper
Blue brads-4
Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder
Embossing machine
Ranger Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink and foam applicator
Platinum Stickles glitter glue

1.  Using the Cricut Holly and Ivy cartridge cut the Nutcracker out of black card stock (at 5 1/2 inches). Cut the solid Nutcracker out of white card stock. Glue the black image over the white solid image.

2.  Color the Nutcracker's face and hands with peach color, colored pencils and accent his cheeks with light pink. Burnish over the face and hands with the white colored pencil until the face has a slight sheen.  Color the jacket and the crown with a red marker and color the pants with a dark yellow marker.  Add the gold beads to embellish to the jacket and the crown.  Add the small blue crystals to the eyes. Accent the shoulders, top of the boots and the sleeves with the platinum Stickles and set aside to dry.

3.  Cut a piece of white card stock large enough to fit the Snowflake embossing folder and emboss the image. Lightly apply the tea dye distress ink over the snowflakes to highlight them.

4.  Attach a blue brad in each corner of the embossed card stock. Glue the embossed card stock to the front of the gift bag.

5.  Glue the Nutcracker to the embossed card stock.

6.  Tie the red ribbon around on of the gift bag handles and make a bow.   Fold the plaid tissue paper to make a triangle and place in the gift bag, add the gift and add another piece of folded tissue paper.

Owl Birthday Card

One of the really nice things about owning the Cricut is having the ability to make personalized cards for any occasion. I like searching through my Cricut library to find the right image for my cards. I found this adorable little Owl on the Kate's ABC's cartridge and decided to build a card around him. When I create cards I very rarely have a clear vision of the finished project, I usually start with an image and go from there. I recently bought some pink Washi tape and wanted to use it in a project. I liked how it looked against the white card stock so I used the tape as the basis for my color scheme. Last night I had some new Memory Box dies lying on my drafting table and had cut the Melinda Corner image out of pink card stock. The corner was beautiful but didn't fit anywhere on this card, so I trimmed off the ends of the corner to use, under the edges of the mat, as accents.

Owl Card Directions:

Darice Washi Masking Tape-pink print
Recollections Faux Pearls
Yellow,light pink,medium pink, brown, green, and white cardstock
Yellow self stick crystals
Petaloo Floral Embelishments
Petaloo Premier Darjeeling Collection
DCWV All Dressed Up mat stack- black and pink dotted card stock
Martha Stewart Rose Leaf Paper Punch
Corner Rounder Paper Punch
Small black card stock oval
Cricut Kate's ABC's cartridge
Memory Box Melinda Corner Die
Tattered Angels GlimmerMist Diamond Dust
Zots and Foam Dots

1.   Print a birthday card on white card stock using a greeting card program. Leave enough room (on the front of the card) under the greeting for the card design. Score the card and fold in half.

2.   Cut a piece of pink Washi tape the length of the card and position it 1/8 inch from the folded edge.

3.   Load the Cricut cartridge into the Cricut machine and cut the Owl base layer at 2 inches out of yellow card stock.  Press the Shift and the Owl keys to cut the branch and eyes out of brown card stock. Press Layer 1 to cut the Owl body out of light pink card stock. Press the Shift, Layer 1 and the Owl keys to cut the leaves out of green card stock. Cut the eyes out of white card stock by pressing Layer 2 and the Owl keys. Press the Layer 2, Shift and Owl keys to cut the feet out of brown card stock.  Assemble the Owl.

4.  Cut a piece of black and pink dotted card stock approximately 5 1/4 inches high by 3 1/2 inches. Use the corner rounder paper punch to round the ends of the mat. Turn the mat over to the white side and place one Zot in the middle of the mat and one Zot in each of the 4 corners. Position the edges of the mat approximately 1 1/4 inches from the folded edge of the card and 2 1/4 inches from the top of  the card. Press into place.

5.   Cut a small oval out of black card stock, slightly larger than the Owl. I used a left over center from a die cut frame.  Put small foam dots on the back of the Owl, center on the oval and press into place.

6.    Cut the Melinda Corner out of medium pink card stock.  Cut the ends off of the corner. Place the ends under the upper left and lower right corners of the black and pink dotted mat and glue in place.

7.   Place a small pink flower from the Floral Embelishement at the bottom center of the mat.  Place a large pink flower from the Darjeeling Collection at the upper right corner of the card. Using the Martha Stewart rose leaf paper punch, punch three leaves out of green card stock. Pinch each leaf together lengthwise to make it curl upward. Glue the leaves under the large flower.

8.   Add small faux pearls around the oval black frame, and on the ends of the Melinda Corner. Add large faux pearls to the corners of the mat and to the Washi tape (at the top, middle and bottom). Add a small yellow crystal to the left of the oval frame and to the right of the Owl.

9.   Lightly spray the card with Glimmer Mist and set aside to dry.

Flapper Birthday Card

It's been quite a while since I have done a Cricut card. I saw the Art Deco cartridge this summer but wasn't sure if it contained enough useful images to justify buying the cartridge. The back of the  box only showed a sample of images from the cartridge and based on that sample there just wasn't enough to entice me to purchase the cartridge. I don't know why Cricut decided to show only a sample of images rather than showing all of the images available on the cartridge but I don't think it's a good marketing practice. In my case they almost lost a sale. Since I really liked the flapper, decorative elements and the Empire State Building, I decided to try to find the cartridge on line to see if I could view all of the images on the cartridge. After viewing all of the images I found quite a few that I really liked ( the Greyhound, bird, other buildings and people).

The past several weeks everything has taken precedence over my art projects. Since I'm in the process of reorganizing my Atelier, it is in a state of disarray and not very inviting. Last night I cleared off the drafting table so that I would have a place to work. Even though I don't like the ambiance I really needed to make a birthday card and the Art Deco cartridge was lying on my drafting table begging to be used. The Flapper is one of my favorite images on this cartridge and I thought that she would make a cute birthday card.

Here's the finished card. I added small stick on pearls to the strand around the Flapper's neck. After all, Is she really a Flapper without her her pearls? It was tedious to stick on each pearl but the result was worth it. When applying the pearls leave a small space between each one to mimic the way real pearls are strung.



Flapper Card Directions:

White, red, black beige and light grey card stock
Me and My Big Ideas Mambi Sheets Animal Print paper- black and white leopard print
Recollections Roses- light and dark grey
Recollections Self Adhesive pearls- small pearls
Peach and dark rose colored pencils
Artist Loft color pencil blender
Fine point black felt tip pen
Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist
Zots and Foam Dots


1.  Print a card greeting on the front and the inside of the card. Fold the card in half and crease.

2.  Using the Cricut Art Deco cartridge cut the flapper at 5 inches out of beige card stock. Press the Shift and Flapper keys and cut the clothes at 5 inches out of red card stock. Press the Layer and Flapper keys and cut the stockings and pearls out of white card stock. Next press the Layer, Shift and Flapper keys to cut the shoes and belt out of black card stock. Assemble the Flapper.

3.  Apply the self adhesive pearls to the necklace around the Flapper's neck.

4.  Color the Flapper's face and arms with the peach colored pencil. Use the color pencil blender to blend the skin tone. Apply a little dark rose colored pencil to the Flapper's cheek and lips. Use the black felt tip marker to draw her eye.

5.  Lightly spray the image with Pearl Glimmer Mist and let it dry.

6.  Cut a piece of light grey card stock approximately 5 1/4 inches high by 4 inches wide.  Center Flapper on the card stock and attach with small foam dots.

7.  Cut a piece of black and white leopard card stock approximately 6 inches high by 4 3/4 inches wide. Attach Zots to the back of the card stock. Center the card stock on the front of the card below the greeting and press in place. Attach Zots to the back of the grey card stock. Center the card stock on the leopard card stock and press in place.

8.  Glue a dark grey rose to the upper left corner of the leopard card stock and a light grey rose to the bottom right corner of the leopard card stock.

Foxy Valentine Card

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and as usual I have more ideas for projects than I have time to complete them. C'est la vie! There are several more Valentine's projects in the works and hopefully time won't run out before they are completed and ready to post.

The first of the cards is finally finished. This card was originally intended for Valentine's Day but I plan to use it for my Close-to-Valentine's Day Anniversary.




Directions for Foxy Valentine Card:

Cricut Ornamental Iron and Noah's ABC Animals cartridges
Martha Stewart Filigree Heart and tulip paper punches
DCWV Black Current Stack-patterned grey paper and pink dotted paper
Recollections Metallic Stack- silver paper
Black, rust, white, dark pink and grey card stock
Offray Black and White Dotted ribbon
Jolee's Bling adhesive pink pearls
Stickles Ice Stickles glitter glue
Adhesive clear crystals
Small pink adhesive backed rose
Scrap of green card stock to cut leaves for rose and tulip stem. Scrap of pink and white print for tulip
Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink- green apple or green metallic nail polish
Foam Dots



1. Fold the light grey card stock in half and crease along the fold.

2. Cut the grey patterned card stock to approximately 6 1/4 inches long by 5 inches wide. Next cut the black card stock 4 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches long. Cut the pink dotted card stock 4 inches wide by 5 1/4 inches long. Glue the pink dotted card stock on top of the black card stock, leaving approximately an 1/8 inch border on all sides. Attach foam dots to the back of the black card stock. Position the black/pink card stock on top of the grey patterned card stock, leaving a 1/4 inch border on all sides. Once you are happy with the placement press the black/pink card stock in place. Position the grey patterned card stock grouping about 1 1/2 inches from the top edge of the card and center it and glue in place.

3. Using the Cricut Noah's ABC Animals cartridge cut the Fox at 3 inches out of black card stock. Next press the Fox and the Shift keys and cut (Fox-s) out of white card stock. Finally press the Layer and the Fox keys and cut the fur out of rust card stock. Assemble the fox. Attach 3 clear crystals around the Fox's neck for a collar and apply a small amount of Ice Stickles to the Fox's eye lashes and nose. I used a tooth pick to apply the Stickles to the eyes and nose.

4. Load the Ornamental Iron cartridge into the Cricut machine. Cut Gate 10a at 5 inches out of silver metallic card stock. Glue the Gate to the pink dotted card stock.

5. Attach foam dots to the back of the Fox and position her near the bottom edge of the Gate, leaving a small space to the right of the Fox's feet. Press into place once you are happy with the placement.

6. Attach a pink pearl to the swirls at the top of the Gate. Next attach a small pink rose at the top center of the Gate. Cut 3 small free form leaves out of the green card stock. Don't worry if they are not perfect, leaves in nature are not perfect. Fold the leaves over an awl or other small object to give them an upward curve. Bend the tip of each leaf backward over the end of the awl. Paint the leaves with Smooch or nail polish and set aside to dry. When dry glue the leaves under the rose.

7. Punch a small tulip out of the scrap of green card stock and another tulip out of the pink and white patterned card stock. Cut the tulip flower from the stem of the pink and white card stock and glue it over the green tulip flower. Paint the tulip stem with Smooch. When the flower is dry glue it to the right of the Fox's feet.

8. Punch four hearts out of dark pink card stock using the Martha Stewart Filigree Heart paper punch. Glue a heart to each corner of the grey patterned card stock. Apply a small amount of Ice Stickles to the inside of the hearts.

9. Tie a small bow out of the black and white dotted ribbon and glue to the top center of the card.

Robot Valentine's Day Card

I have so many projects going on that I have had little time to spend with my Cricut. Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and it's the perfect time to fire up the Cricut. I love making my own Valentine's Day cards because I am not limited to the design and message printed on a commercial card. Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity to unleash your creativity! I wanted to do something different so I used the Robotz cartridge.




Close up of Robot

I always keep a lot of embellishments on hand for my projects. Embellishments can be expensive so look for sales and check the clearance aisles regularly and then stock up. After I cut the robot out, I grabbed several embellishments and laid them on my desk. I started laying them on the card until I had the design that I wanted.

Brittany recently asked how do I go about designing a card? The first thing that I do is to start with an idea of the main design element. Since I use Cricut cartridges to make most of my cards I usually decide on the image that I want to use and work from there. After I decide on an image the next thing is to determine the color scheme. For the Valentine's Day card we chose pink with grey accents. The next step is to have fun with the embellishments-place them on the card to see what works and what doesn't. Above all don't glue anything down until you are sure that this is finished design. I usually complete the design, leave it on my desk and walk away for awhile. When I return if I feel that the design doesn't need any changes then I glue the elements in place to complete the card.

Directions for Robot Valentine's Day Card:

Cricut Robotz cartridge
Cricut Paper Pups cartridge
White, light grey, black, light pink and medium pink card stock
Pink heart print card stock
Wilton heart shaped paper lace doily
Large pink self adhesive pearls
Recollections large white pearls
Stickles Ice stickles and platinum glitter glue
2 small black beads
Martha Stewart pink micro beads
Pink and white dotted sheer ribbon
Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist
Glue
Foam dots
Clear nail polish

1. Print the Valentine greeting using a card program and the half fold option on white card stock. Fold the card in half and crease along the fold.

2. Load the Cricut Robotz cartridge into the Cricut machine and cut Robot 10 at 3 1/2 inches out of medium pink card stock. Cut Robot base out of light grey card stock and Robot 10-s out of black card stock. Press the shift and layer keys to cut the eyes out of white card stock. Assemble the Robot. Spray the Robot lightly with Pearl Glimmer Mist and set aside to dry.

3. Cut the pink heart print card stock 4 1/2 inches long by 4 1/4 inches wide.

4. Glue the heart shaped doily to the center of the pink heart print card stock.

5. Attach the Robot to the center of the doily with foam dots.

6. Position the pink heart print card stock with the Robot about 2 1/2 inches from the top of the card, making sure that it is centered. Attach a pink self adhesive pearl to each corner of the pink heart print card stock.

7. Place a white self adhesive pearl over each of the wheels.

8. Load the Paper Pups cartridge into the Cricut machine. Select the Love Dog image. Press the dog and shift to cut the heart. Cut 2 hearts out of light pink card stock at 1 1/2 inches. Glue the open heart to the right and left of the Valentine's greeting. Apply Ice Stickles glitter glue to the hearts and set aside to dry.

9. Glue a small black bead to the center of the Robot's eyes. Apply Platinum Stickles to the Robot's left antennae.

10. Apply glue to the heart shape from the center of the open heart and cover it with Martha Stewart pink micro beads. Shake off the excess beads and cover the heart with clear nail polish to seal it. When the heart is dry attach it to the Robot with a foam dot.

11. Tie a small bow using the pink and white dotted sheer ribbon, center the bow just below the pink heart print card stock and glue in place.

Peace On Earth

Every year I tend to under estimate the time it takes to make Christmas cards. No matter how good my intentions are it seems that I'm always making my cards at the last minute. I suppose that I could go to the store and buy a box of cards but I just can't bring myself to do that. I really enjoy making the cards and printing an individualized Christmas message for each recipient.


The lion and the lamb laying down peacefully together is one of my favorite themes. It's a theme that I feel is appropriate especially at Christmas time. This card uses 3 Cricut cartridges: Noah's ABC Animals, Joy of the Season and New Testament.

Directions for Peace On Earth:

Cricut cartridges: Noah's ABC Animals, Joy of the Season, New Testament
White, light blue, dark blue, yellow, golden yellow, and black card stock
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and Sizzix Big Shot or Cuttlebug
Self adhesive pearl trim
Self adhesive clear crystals
Martha Stewart Snowflake border punch
Stickles Icicle glitter glue
Gold ribbon
Foam Dots
Computer greeting card program

1. Load the Noah's ABC Animals cartridge into the Cricut machine and cut the Lion at 2 inches out of golden yellow, yellow, dark blue and black card stock (as directed in the handbook). Assemble the lion.

2. Load the New Testament cartridge into the Cricut and cut the lamb at 1 1/2 inches out of black and white card stock. Assemble the lamb.

3. Load the Joy of the Season cartridge into the Cricut and cut the North Star at 1 1/2 inches out of dark blue and yellow card stock. Assemble the star. Next cut peace at 1 1/2 inches out of dark blue card stock.

4. Punch several small snowflakes out of white card stock using the Martha Stewart snowflake border punch.

5. Cut a 4 3/4 inch wide by 5 1/2 inch long piece of light blue card stock and emboss it with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and the Sizzix or Cuttlebug machine.

6. Using the greeting card program select the half fold vertical card option and print a Christmas message on the inside of the card. Fold the printed card in half and crease along the edge.

7. Glue the embossed blue card stock 1 1/4 inches from the bottom of the front of the card. Apply foam dots to the back of the lamb and attach him near the bottom right of the blue embossed card stock. Apply foam dots to the back of the lion and attach him to the embossed card stock, with his paw extending onto the lamb's body. Press the lion in place. Center the North Star at the top of the blue embossed card stock, apply foam dots and press into place. Glue the small snowflakes to the embossed blue card stock. Place a self adhesive clear crystal to the center of the North Star. Apply Stickles Icicle glitter glue to the center of each snowflake and the yellow part of the North Star. Apply the self adhesive pearl border along the top edge of the embossed blue card stock.

8. Measure 3/4 inches down from the top edge of the card and center the word peace. Glue into place. Dot the ends of the word with Stickles.

9. Cut a piece of gold ribbon the width of the front of the card plus 1/2 inch. Starting at the left edge of the card glue the ribbon in place and fold the extra 1/2 inch of ribbon over the edge of the card and secure with glue. Tie a small bow and glue it over the ribbon.