It’s Time For Our 2011 Handmade Christmas Cards using Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge

Time has been flying since we moved.  Getting adjusted to the new town and even the new time zone for us has been exciting.  But with all of the great distractions, it is time to get started and make time for getting creative and to make our handmade Christmas Cards.

This year I need to incorporate our new address along with a Christmas theme.  So I decided to make a Christmas ornament using the Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge, and a We’ve Moved rubber stamp from PSX. (I just wish this stamp had two cats in the window to represent my two boys).

Now deciding what color to make the ornament and back panel.  I choose………. Christmas green and red (how appropriate – LOL)

I used the Cricut Expression Machine to cut the ornaments.  Then I used a Cutter Bee paper trimmer to cut the red back panel.

Some other supplies that I will use is Copic Sketch markers, Elmer’s permanent dot runner, pop dots, natural polished hemp rope, Memento tuxedo black dye ink, and some sea shells from our beach (if you don’t have a beach near by, then you can always purchase shell online or in a craft store).

I printed our address on blue cardstock and used an oval paper punch from punch bunch to cut them out.  The reason why I had to do that was the space that the stamp provided was way to small for our address and if I did write that tiny, no one would have been able to read it.  So when I stamped the image on white cardstock I just masked that part of the image so it wouldn’t stamp.   Then to add some dimension I used a pop dot to raise the address from the card.  The finishing touch was attaching the sea shell with the hemp rope along with our inside message.

Wishing All Of Your Dreams Come True This Holiday Season

Merry Christmas Everyone

Tags: Copic sketch markers, cricut cartridge, cricut cartridge joys of the season, cricut expression, cricut expression machine, elmer's permanent dot runner, handmade christmas cards, Handmade Greeting Cards, joys of the season cricut cartrige, memento dye ink, rubber stamps, tuxedo black memento dye ink

Moving & Organizing Your Craft Room in a New Home

Hello all of my crafting friends ~ I know that it has been awhile but I am back and ready to have some fun.

I have a new “craft world” I moved from the high desert in New Mexico to now living on an island in Florida and loving it.  I really forgot how much I love the ocean.  The sound of the waves is so calming and also gives you time to reflect on what is really important in ones life.  Well at least that is what it has done for me.

Anyway, the moving of the old craft studio to the new one has been very exciting.  When I was packing up the old studio, I found things that I forgot that I had or didn’t even know that I had to things that I knew was time to give away.  My girlfriend who is also very crafty works in a large company with alot of crafty people so I gave her scrapbooking magazines, card making magazines and even hard cover books of different kinds of crafts that I knew that I would not need and would be of help to some other crafter.

I do have to say that being organized really helped alot.  And also having the white cubes scrapbook organizers/furniture, are the best for having to change the shape and size of each work station to accommodate a new space.  It took a couple of moving things to different walls but I think I figured it out (for now at least)

I made a workstation just for my Cricut Expression, Gypsy and accessories, and when the rest of my cubes are delivered I will do the same for my Cuttlebug and all of the accessories that go with it such as my embossing folders.  I also have some of my rubber stamp ink pads on the carousel from Stampin’ Up and as you can see the base for this Cricut workstation is storage containers with drawers  for some of my rubber stamps and rubber stamp supplies.

Believe it or not I still don’t have all of my scrapbook cubes or all of my supplies they are on a second shipment from our move.  I can’t wait for them to arrive so I can finish organizing everything.

The natural light in this room is great and it’s also good that I have some lamps around too.

Well let me get back to setting up so I can start making my notes to all of our family and friends with the new stamp that my hubby got me for my birthday.  It’s a We Moved stamp.  I will show it to you in the next post.

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: cricut, cricut accessories, cricut expression machine, cuttlebug, cuttlebug embossing folders, organizing craft supplies, rubber stamp ink pads, rubber stamping supplies, rubber stamps, white scrapbooking cubes furniture

Cricut Card Idea using Smiley Cards Gypsy Download

Hope you are having a great day ~ I need to make a handmade birthday card today for my dearest friend.  I wanted a birthday card that would make her smile, nothing serious just a fun card.  So I had a great Cricut Card Idea, using my Gypsy and that great cartridge download Smiley Cards, and I believe that I have a winner.  I also used my Cricut Expression machine to cut this tea cup out.

Look how cute this tea cup turned out.

I made a tea bag label with beige cardstock and stamped happy birthday with a Hero Arts stamp set. I layered the tea cup onto first lavender Stampin Up cardstock, that was then layered onto polka dot paper from  DCWV the summer stack paper pack, then one more layer on burgundy cardstock that I also used a border punch by EK Success that has birthday candles.  I used gold stickles for the flames of each candle and then also used Martha Stewart Opaque white marker for the base of the candle.

This is just another great Cricut Card Idea that is sure to be a keeper in your handmade card file.  You don’t need alot of paper for this tea cup so you can use up some scraps that you have laying around if you like.

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: Cricut card idea, cricut expression machine, cricut gypsy, DCWV paper, ek success birthday candle border punch, ek success border punch, gypsy download smiley cards, handmade birthday card, martha stewart opaque markers, smiley cards cricut cartridge, stampin up cardstock, stickles

My Favorite 2010 Cricut Cartridges

I can’t believe that it is New Years Eve and this will be my last post for 2010.  Yesterday I made a post of my favorite Cricut Card Ideas for 2010, which made me think of all of the cartridges that I have and if I had to pick just one, which one would that be.

So after looking though my library of Cricut cartridges, I Love them all, but picking just one favorite would have to be… 3 Birds on Parade.  I purchased this cartridge when it was an exclusive on HSN, but now you can buy this cartridge everywhere cricut cartridges are sold.

This Cricut Cartridge has a bird for every occasion, really fun phrases, accessories for each bird.  Look how cute they are ~ I love the football one ~ Are you ready for some football?

Then there is another cartridge that I received with my Gypsy update, and it has got to be my next favorite.  It is the Smiley Card Gypsy download cartridge.   This cartridge is not available as a cartridge it was only available as a download as a promotion.  I do hope that if you didn’t get this download because you don’t have a Gypsy or the you missed the deadline to get this cute download, that  one day real soon, Provo Craft will make this a cartridge that everyone can have.  The images on this cartridge can really make you smile that is how cute they are.

This past year has been a little crazy, with my health being not so good and just normal life situations that we encountered.  So, I can’t wait for the New Year.  2011 is going to be the best year yet.  I plan on making more cards using my Cricut Expression Machine,also my Cricut Gypsy and Cuttlebug and then sharing all of my Cricut Card Ideas with all of you.   I am looking forward to a fun, happy, healthy and creative year.

Wishing You and Your Family A Happy New Year ~ 2011

Make if a Great Year and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: 3 birds on parade cricut cartridge, cricut card ideas, cricut cartridges, cricut expression, cricut expression machine, cricut gypsy, smiley card cricut cartridge

Wrapping Presents Can Definately Get You In The Christmas Spirit!

12 Days of Christmas with Joans Craft World

On the tenth day of Christmas…

I hope that you all are having a great day.  Today I have to stop crafting with my Cricut Expression and my Rubber Stamps and start a different kind of Christmas Craft.  The craft of wrapping Christmas presents.  That’s right, I haven’t started wrapping presents and that means that I haven’t shipped our gifts to our family in New Jersey yet either.  Doing this at the last minute makes it more fun.  HoHoHo!

I have the ABC Family channel on watching  “A Dennis the Menace Christmas” while I am surrounded by Christmas wrapping paper and presents.  I thought Christmas tree paper would look really cute with the gift tags that I made the other day with the Christmas Cheer Cricut Cartridge and my Cricut Expression machine of different colored Christmas lights.

The small gifts are all wrapped, now it’s time for the “real” presents to be wrapped.  Sorry can’t show you what’s inside just in case my family is reading this.  As soon as I am done wrapping, we will be off to the Post Office to use Priority Mail shipping and hoping that they get to our family in time for Christmas Day.

Make it a Great Day and don’t forget to leave time to Craft!

Tags: 12 days of christmas, christmas cheer cricut cartridge, christmas wrapping paper, cricut expression, cricut expression machine, wrapping paper