Winnie The Pooh New Baby Card

This week we are celebrating the arrival of the newest member of our family. We wanted to send a card to the new parents expressing our heartfelt congratulations. Since Melissa loves Winnie The Pooh I decided to use him as theme for the card.


Directions for Winnie The Pooh Baby Card:

Cricut Pooh and Friends Cartridge
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Yellow, red, black, blue, white, peach and parchment card stock
Blue patterned ribbon
Martha Stewart Doily Border Punch
Martha Stewart Flocking Powder-blue
My Minds Eye Home Glitter Stack-blue dotted paper
Spellbinders Nestabilities Lables Nine
Chalk
Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink
Greeting Card Program


1. Use the parchment card stock and agreeting card program to print the verse on the inside of the card. Use the Half-fold card option.

2. Cut out the largest Spellbinders Label out of the blue dotted paper using either the Sizzix, Cuttlebug or similar die cutting machine. Distress the edges of the label with the tea dye distress ink.

3. Using the Cricut Pooh and Friends cartridge. Cut the sleeping Winnie The Pooh (Pooh 4) at 1 1/2 inches out of black card stock. Press the Layers 1 and 2 key and cut Pooh's body out of yellow card stock. Press the Layers 1 and 2 and the Shift keys and cut Pooh's shirt out of red card stock. Press the Layers 3 and 4 key and cut Pooh's night cap out of blue card stock. Press the Layers 3 and 4 and Shift keys and cut the hat's tassel out of white card stock. Load yellow card stock into the Cricut and set the size dial to 1 inch then press the Icon and Shift keys to cut the stars. Assemble Pooh. Cover Pooh's night cap with glue. Sprinkle blue flocking powder over the entire surface of the night cap and shake off the excess. Set aside to dry.

4. Cut a piece of peach card stock approximately 4 1/4 inches wide by 5 3/4 inches long and emboss using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. Lightly sand the raised dots to highlight them.

5. Cut a piece of blue dotted paper approximately 1/4 inch larger (on all sides) than the dimensions of the embossed peach card stock. Glue the embossed peach card stock on top of the blue dotted paper.

6. Glue Pooh to the blue dotted label. Glue the blue dotted label to the embossed peach card stock. Position the three stars just above the top of the label and glue in place.

7. Cut two small pieces of blue print ribbon and place them diagonally across the upper left and lower right corners of the layered card panel. Glue them in place. Tie a small bow and glue it to the ribbon in the upper left corner.

8. Center the layered card panel on the front of the half-fold card.

9. Punch a border out of parchment card stock using the Martha Stewart Doily Punch. Glue the doily border just under the right edge of the card.

10. Dip a small sponge in the tea dye distress ink and dab the ink randomly over the parchment card stock portion of the card. Highlight the edges of the doily border with the tea dye distress ink. Lightly apply smoky blue chalk to the tea dye distressed card. Use blue chalk to shade the area under Pooh. Highlight Pooh's back, arms and legs with a light orange chalk.

Winnie The Pooh Birthday Card

My husband surprised me with a Gypsy for my birthday. I couldn't wait to get it out of the box and start designing. I quickly found out that in order for the Gypsy to be useful I had to update the firmware and link my cartridges to it. This took most of the afternoon. Now I was ready to start designing.

I decided to try using images from two different cartridges. I chose Winnie The Pooh, a scalloped oval and a butterfly. Since I wanted my images cut out of different colors I needed to use the Layer tab (one layer for each color of paper). Next I wanted to cut my scalloped ovals in two different sizes. The first oval was to be cut at 2 1/2 inches and the second one was to be slightly larger. I entered 2.75 inches for the height and the Gypsy sized the width proportionally.

I love the Gypsy. Not only does it have a lot of design capability but it's small enough to take anywhere. I took it with me to the doctor's office and designed a Christmas card while sitting in the waiting room.



Directions for Winnie The Pooh Card:

Medium blue, parchment, yellow, red, orange, green and black card stock
My Mind's Eye Home Glitter Book for the blue and white dotted card stock
Sheer blue ribbon
Prima Flowers Roses-orange and blue
Martha Stewart Rose Leaf paper punch and Scalloped Doily border punch
Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink
Greeting Card Program
Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue
Green Ink

1. Using a greeting card program and parchment card stock select the half-fold card option and print Happy Birthday on the top portion of the card. Print the verse on the inside right of the card. Fold the card in half and crease.

2. Using the Gypsy and the Pooh and Friends cartridge, select Winnie The Pooh (with his hands behind his back) and transfer him to Layer 1 on the mat screen. Select Layer 2 and the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge and tap the Shift key to select the scalloped oval. Transfer the image to the mat screen. Select Layer 3 and repeat this process for the oval. Next select Layer 4 and transfer the butterfly from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge to the mat screen.

3. Place the yellow card stock on the Cricut mat. Tap the Layer 1 key and select a height of 2 1/2 inches for Pooh. Link the Gypsy to the Cricut. Load the mat into the Cricut using the Load Mat key on the Gypsy. Tap the Cut key. Unload the mat and remove the image. Repeat the process using the red and black card stock. Glue the yellow Pooh on top of the black. Take the red Pooh and cut the red shirt out. Glue it on the yellow Pooh.

4. Place the blue and white glitter card stock on the Cricut mat. Tap the Layer 2 key, set the height at 2.5 inches and then tap the Cut key. Using the Gypsy load the mat into the Cricut, tap the Cut key and cut out the oval. Unload the image and place the medium blue card stock on the Cricut mat. Tap the Layer 3 key and set the height to 2.75 inches and cut out the image.

5. Using the Layer 4 key and a height of 2.5 inches cut a butterfly out of black card stock and then orange card stock. Cut the wings off of the orange butterfly and glue them on top of the black butterfly. Cover the wings lightly with the platinum Stickles. Set aside to dry.

6. Punch a scalloped doily border out of parchment card stock. Cut the border to approximately 3/4 inch. Lightly distress the scalloped edges of the border with the tea dye distress ink. Position the cut straight edge of the border along the open edge of the card and glue in place.

7. Position Winnie The Pooh slightly off center on the blue and white dotted oval and glue in place. Center the blue and white dotted oval over the medium blue oval and glue in place. Position the medium blue oval slightly below Happy Birthday and glue in place. Cut the wire stem off of the blue rose and curl the wire stems of the orange roses around a stylus or pen. Pull the stem slightly to elongate it and trim to desired length. Punch two leaves out of a scrap of green card stock. Ink the edges of the leaves with green ink. Position the roses along the lower right side of the oval and glue in place using a hot glue gun. Glue the leaves under the edge of the roses.

8. Tie a small bow with the blue sheer ribbon. Position it slightly under the oval and glue in place.

9. Glue the butterfly to the left of Happy Birthday.

10. Lightly distress the edges of the card with the tea dye distress ink.

Polar Bear Quilt

I found a bear quilt pattern in the clearance bin at my local quilt shop. Even though the price had been drastically reduced I debated about buying it because the picture of the finished quilt was dark and drab (the bears were brown, dark green and dark blue with burgundy and tan accents). I love bears and collect them and I wanted to make a bear quilt to use as a wall hanging. Since I liked the bears and the over all quilt design but not the colors, I purchased the pattern and changed the colors. I decided to make a Polar Bear quilt and used several white on white print fabrics for my bears. I wanted the quilt to evoke the feeling of the cool climates of the Polar Bears and chose a cool color palette of blues and purples.

Here is the finished result. Unfortunately the pattern that I used is no longer available. The yellowish cast on some of the bears is due to the light that quilt was photographed in.

Owl Tote Bag

I'm always looking for new ways to use my Cricut (or justify the need to upgrade to the Expression). We received an invitation to Aunt Pat's 75th Birthday party. Since she loves to read we decided to give her a gift card to a bookstore. I always like to add a personal touch to my gifts and decided to make a book tote. I love owls and thought that it would make an appropriate theme for my tote. This tote was a fun, easy and quick project. If you haven't used the Cricut to cut out fabric appliques I encourage you to try it. It's really quite easy and it opens up a lot of design possibilities.


Owl Tote Bag


Close up of Owl.

Here are the directions for the Owl Tote.

Cricut Hoot 'N Holler cartridge- available only at Walmart

Fabric tote bag- available at Michaels or Walmart

Fat quarter fabrics in brown, gold, green and orange prints- available at Jo-Ann Fabrics

Heat 'n Bond- available at Jo-Ann or Michaels

Small black beads for eyes and green, brown and gold or orange thread for applique.

Painter's Tape- This is necessary to keep the fabric from slipping on the Cricut mat while the machine is cutting out the image.

Brayer- optional


1. Iron the tote bag and the fat quarters to remove creases.

2. Cut gold and orange fabric pieces 6 inches by 6 inches. Cut the brown and green fabric pieces 6 inches wide by 12 inches long.

3. Cut the Heat 'N Bond the same dimensions as the fabric pieces.

4. Lay the fabric pieces (one at a time) face down on an ironing board. You want to fuse the Heat 'N Bond to the wrong side of the fabric. Place the rough side of the Heat 'N Bond on top of the wrong side of the fabric (the paper backing of the Heat 'N Bond should be on top). Heat the iron on Cotton setting and fuse to the fabric according to the directions on the Heat 'N Bond package.

5. After the fabric is cool to the touch place the brown fabric on the Cricut mat fabric side down. It is easier for the Cricut to cut out the image if the paper backing is on top. Firmly press the fabric down on the mat. Use a brayer to help smooth out any bubbles and help the fabric to adhere to the mat. Next cut 2 strips of painter's tape slightly longer than the fabric and tape it to the edges of the fabric. It's okay if the tape extends a little into the green edge of your mat.

6. Load the fabric in the Cricut. Using the Hoot 'N Holler cartridge and Owl 10 cut the owl at 5 inches. With the brown fabric still in the machine press the Shift key and cut Branch 1. Load the gold fabric into the machine and press the Layer key and cut Owl 10. Press the Layer and Shift keys and cut Owl 10 out of the orange fabric.

7. Load the green fabric into the Cricut and cut Branch 1 and then press the Layer and Shift keys and Branch 1 to cut out the leaves.

8. Remove the paper backing from the green branch, brown branch and leaves. Position the green branch on tote bag and fuse in place. Place the brown branch on top of the green branch and fuse in place. Next fuse the leaves in place.

9. Remove the paper backing from the owl and position the owl's feet on top of the branch and fuse in place. Fuse the gold owl on top of the brown and then fuse the orange layer on top of the gold layer.

10. Using the orange thread for the owl stitch around the edges of the owl with a zig-zag stitch. Zig-zag stitch around the owl's feet and the branch with brown thread and around the leaves with green thread.

11. Sew the beads for the eyes in place with a needle and thread.

Hello Kitty Birthday Card and Gift Wrap

Recently I have become a Hello Kitty fan. I love using Hello Kitty to decorate cards and packages because she is so cute.

Brittany's birthday was coming up and I couldn't find any gift wrap that I liked so I decided to make my own. I bought some plain pink wrapping paper and sheer white wire edged ribbon at my local craft store. I used my Sizzix Hello Kitty Ladybug die, Build A Lilac die and Martha Stewart Ladybug craft punch to make the decorations for the package.

Brittany loved the gift wrap so much that she opened her gift and then re-wrapped the empty box and sat it on her desk.


Directions for the Hello Kitty Card and Gift Wrap:

Greeting Card Program
White, Yellow, Bright Pink, Pink, Black, Lavender, Green and Red Card Stock
Pink Patterned Paper
Pink Gift Wrap
Wide White Sheer Wire Edged Ribbon; 1/2 inch wide sheer white ribbon
Sizzix Hello Kitty Ladybug and Build A Lilac Dies
Martha Stewart Ladybug Craft Punch
Craft Wire
Pastel Flower Shaped Brads


Gift Wrap:

1. Wrap gift box with pink gift wrap.

2. Tie the wire edged ribbon around the package and make a knot to hold it in place. Tie a simple bow.

3. Using the Sizzix Build A Lilac Die and lavender card stock cut 4 petals. Assemble the flowers using two petals per flower. Use pastel flower shaped brads to hold the petals together.

4. Glue the lilacs to opposite corners on the top of the package. Add two leaves to each lilac and glue in place.

5. Using the red card stock and the Martha Stewart Ladybug paper punch make 10 ladybugs. Punch 10 ladybugs out of the black card stock. Assemble the ladybugs and glue to the package. Glue a ladybug at opposite corners on the top of the package and one ladybug on each side of the ribbon on the sides of the package (refer to photo for placement).

6. Using the Hello Kitty die cut Kitty several times using the white, yellow, bright pink, black and pink card stock. Cut Kitty again using the pink patterned paper. Assemble Kitty. Add the pink wings and the pink patterned paper flowers. Cut a 6 inch piece of craft wire and fold it in half. Attach the wire to the back of Hello Kitty with tape. Attach Hello Kitty to the bow so that she sits in the bow.


Hello Kitty Card:

1. Use the greeting card program to generate a birthday greeting on the front of the card and a verse on the inside. Use the half-fold card option.


2. Cut a piece of pink patterned paper approximately 4 inches wide by 6 inches long. Cut a piece of 1/2 inch sheer white ribbon slightly wider than the width of the patterned paper. Glue the ribbon across the bottom of the patterned paper. Tuck the ribbon ends under the paper edges and glue in place. Tie a small bow and glue it to the ribbon. Glue the pink patterned paper to the white card stock.

3. Using the Hello Kitty die cut Kitty several times using the white, yellow, bright pink, black and pink card stock. Cut Kitty again using the pink patterned paper. Assemble Kitty. Add the pink wings and the pink patterned paper flowers. Glue Hello Kitty to the patterned paper.

Bat Cookie Season

In my house October marks the beginning of Bat Cookie Season. I usually start baking the cookies two weeks before Halloween and if I'm lucky there are enough left to serve on Halloween night. I originally cut sugar cookies in the shape of bats and then outlined the edges of the bat with chocolate butter-cream icing. One year I over estimated the amount of icing that I needed and had a lot left over. Not wanting to throw out the left over icing I spread it on one of the bats and placed another bat on top of it to make a sandwich cookie. They were an instant hit! Now they are my most requested cookie.


Bat Cookies:

Sugar Cookie Recipe (use your favorite recipe)

Chocolate Butter-cream icing ( I use Hershey's Cocoa Powder and the butter-cream icing recipe on the side of the Domino's 10x Sugar box)

Bat shaped cookie cutter

Piping bag and Wilton Number 3 Round Tip

On a lightly floured pastry mat roll out the sugar cookie dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut out bats using the Bat cookie cutter. Bake the cookies according to your recipe directions and cool them on a wire rack.

After the baked cookies cool separate them in pairs. Ice the bottom cookie with the butter-cream icing and gently press a cookie on top.

Put some icing in the piping bag and outline the top cookie. Add a dot of icing to make the eyes.

Bewitching Halloween Card

I found some cute dimensional stickers and coordinating paper by K & Company on sale at Michaels. Dimensional stickers are easy to work with and can be a real time saver. Since this card has very little die cutting it can be completed very quickly. Unfortunately the witch did not photograph well so it's hard to see her face.




Halloween Witch Card Directions:

Black, grey and dark purple card stock
Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge
Martha Stewart paper punches- Bat and Pumpkin Border
Paper Crimper (I used Fiskers)
K & Company Tim Coffey Halloween Paper and Witch Dimensional Stickers
Glimmer Mist Raven Mist by Tattered Angels
Halloween Dotted Ribbon
Black Cat sticker
Recollections Adhesive Rhinestones
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Nine
Foam dots

1. Fold an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of grey card stock in half and crease.

2. Cut a label using the Spellbinders large label and the orange swirl Halloween paper. I used my Sizzix to cut the label. Center the witch sticker on the label and press into place. Place the black cat sticker next to the witch and press in place.

3. Cut a piece of black card stock 4 1/4 inches long by 4 1/2 inches wide and run it through the crimper. Spray the crimped card stock lightly with Glimmer Mist. Let it dry and spray it again.

4. Attach the orange label to the crimped card stock using foam dots.

5. Punch pumpkins using the Pumpkin Border punch and the orange swirl card stock. Cut the border to fit the sides of the crimped card stock and glue in place. The bottom of the pumpkins should touch the black card stock.

6. Attach the golden rhinestones in each corner of the black card stock.

7. Set the Cricut size dial to 1 inch. Using the Happy Hauntings cartridge and the dark purple card stock cut the phrase Happy Halloween. Glue it to the top of the card.

8. Punch 2 bats with the Bat paper punch and glue them on each side of the Halloween greeting.

9. Cut a piece of dotted Halloween ribbon and glue it to the bottom of the card. Make a bow and glue it to the ribbon.