Sunday Funday

A dreary, rainy Sunday ended up being a breezy, sunny, gorgeous day.  Unfortunately, the Ravens game that started out gorgeous, ended in the exact opposite way - in ruin against the Redskins.  Ugh!  That's why, instead of stressing, and yelling, I made these.  Aren't they cute?  The cricut, while being a major pain in the butt - with all the replacement blades, and the unstickyness of the mat and the deciding on what and how big to make things - is truly one of the coolest inventions out there.  

I just love it!  And the cartridge I used for these cards - Create a Critter 2 - is my favorite.  It's perfect for making cutesy cards, and let's face it - those are what I make the most of.  As much as I try to make fancy and gorgeous, I always come back to cutesy and fun.  And when all the little critters that you make have such adorable faces, is that really such a bad thing?!  

Cricut Love

Because I've been so good about getting my Christmas crafting started ahead of time, I've been so bad about coming up with other things to craft.  I just keep adding things to the list that don't actually need to be added because in my head, I'm quite far ahead of schedule.  It's a vicious cycle...

The other thing that's contributing to this fact is that I'm falling in love with my Cricut all over again.  I bought it a few years ago; used it for a couple of big projects then I really haven't touched it since.  But this month, I decided to use it for my Christmas card design and since then, there's really no stopping me.  Me and my trusty cricut have been hanging out every evening this week.  It makes a mess - there are paper scraps everywhere.  It's time consuming and it takes forever to decode the little buttons.  However, it also allows me to create the cutest little projects ever! (Even if I do say so myself.)

Thanks to the fancy machine I was able to knock out a super cute Name plate for a new baby, a memory game for someone (I told you I was adding ridiculous things to the list) and the beginnings of 3 alphabet frames for 3 little ones for Christmas (sort of like this.) Now if I can just keep up the momentum (and the love) for the next 23 letters of the alphabet...

Christmas Craftiness

So each year, I spend weeks trying to decide what craft projects will be made as gifts and what will have to wait until the next holiday.  Pinterest is and always will be a perfect accompaniment for this craziness. However, Pinterest lies, I've learned.  I know there are blogs and tumblrs devoted to this fact but I usually have absolute faith in the pictures I'm seeing.  Yeah, not so much.  Below are the remnants of the easy peasy salt dough ornaments I read about here.  After seeing the messy, dried out snowheads, I baked for 4 long hours, I've decided that they had to paint theirs.  But that's not in the directions.  Needless to say, they hit the trash can quite quickly.

On the other hand, my Christmas cards which were not Pinterest finds, turned out quite cute even if I do say so myself. Gotta love that Cricut!  I really should be using that more often.  It made the whole process quite a bit simpler.

There are other Pinterest crafts in the works as well.  But they'll be shared after the holiday - Can't blab to the receivers of said gifts just yet : )

Things I've Learned This Week

~It's a good thing I understand military time, because it seems it's used primarily in England.  I've seen it on telephones and in articles.  I just assumed this was a US military thing but I suppose not.

~An ASBO is a sort of disorderly conduct citation in England.  I'm not bright enough to remember what the acronym stands for but I can at least give you the basics (and since I don't plan to ever get one, the basics will be sufficient.)

~Ray Lewis is retiring which is just depressing and a half.  If you are a Ravens fan or just a fan of the NFL in general, you must know that big Ray (we use Big Ray to distinguish him from Little Ray Rice here in B-more) is one of the most influential players to ever play the game.  He's inspirational, a tough cookie and an all around awesome person and we in Baltimore are going to miss him terribly! But I also learned he'll be starting on ESPN as a commentator so at least we'll still get our Ray fix.

~All stupid stinking FICA (not even sure what this is) taxes will be going up ~3% this week.  What the heck?!  I know it has to be done but seriously, can't you just tax the rich dudes that actually have money to spare?

~It is supposedly possible to cut fabric with the Cricut.  This cannot be confirmed as I have not yet tried but I can't wait to give it a shot!

~This is not as easy as the pictures make it seem and it really just looks like a small animal is nesting in your ponytail.

And lastly:

~I am, without a doubt, the most boring twitter-er (tweeter?) EVER. 

Cricut Craftin'

If you are a scrapbooker, you no doubt know what a Cricut is.  It's about the coolest tool ever to use for paper crafting.  Before I received one 2 years ago, I thought for sure I could do without it.  I had a healthy obsession with stickers which were so much easier to use than die cuts.  Little did I know how much I would fall in love with this little machine. 

Sure the poor thing gets neglected every few months when I hit a crafters block.  But when the creative juices start flowing again, this little baby is always there waiting for me.  Such was the case this week.  My parents' 33rd anniversary (Happy Anniversary Buds!) is on April 21 and I hadn't a clue what I was going to give them.  Cricut to the rescue!

They like most Marylanders (why? I have no idea...) LOVE  crabs and with Summer coming, a gift card to a crab shack was the perfect present.  But unlike a normal person, I can't just drop the gift card in an envelope...That's just not fun at all!  This is where the Cricut came into play.  I had a vague idea that I wanted to put the gift card in a bushel of crabs.  After some thought, cutting and gluing and one craft-related injury (Don't ask!), I created the gift card holder below.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It's super cute (I think) which is exactly what I was going for.  The crabs are my favorite part which were created with the Create a Critter cartridge for the Cricut. If you are in the market for the perfect cartridge, this one is it!

It's hard to tell, but the gift card (or in this case a certificate which caused some thought re-jiggering...Who has certificates anymore!?) is attached to a piece of cardstock.  When you pull up on the crabs the certificate pops up (if that makes any sense). And since you can't have crabs without a cold beverage, I made these too.  I kind of love them!  It's a little hard to see but they are covered with clear vellum from a sticker package.  See?  The healthy obsession with stickers still pays off!

Now that that's out of my system, Jiminy the Cricut is going back into hibernation, until my next inspiration hits.