So besides decorating for the fall season, I just finished an order of Christmas cards.  They came out really good and I know that my friend who ordered them will be really pleased.  Now I need to continue on this path and get a lot more Christmas cards done.

But, today is Saturday, a day when others have a day off from work and want to “play”, well I wanted to play too, so I got out my Cricut Gypsy and I did just that.   This machine makes creating so fun & easy.  I just cut out some pumpkins and cool color leaves from the Cricut Gypsy Wandering cartridge, and am going to put together a quick scrapbook page and add this picture of my centerpiece.

Here is how I did it.

First I picked out the leaves that I wanted to cut and arranged them on the Gypsy screen.

Then I arranged the paper onto the cutting mat in the same places as shown on the Gypsy screen.

Followed the prompts on the Gypsy to load the paper, and to check all the pressure settings, and pressed cut and it started cutting out the images on my Cricut Expression.

When it was done the Gypsy prompted me that it was done cutting and what would I like to do next.

I unloaded the mat, took off the leaves, and as you can see one of the black shadow leaves had its top cut off since I didn’t have the image aligned correctly on the mat for the size paper that I loaded. Oh well, I’ll cover it up somehow.

The final page looks pretty good ~ I just have to print my picture and add to this scrapbook  page.

This was so much fun to make ~ Thanks for letting me share this with you.

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

What you’ll need:

Cardstock: Hobby Lobby patterned paper and solid brown and beige paper from World Win Papers, Die cut machine: Cricut Expression, Cricut cartridge: Animal Kingdom Cricut Cartridge for Owls and the word Whooo,: Plantin Schoolbook for the numbers 6, 0 and the letter’s, Little Greetings from hero Arts 3×6 card with envelope, All Night Media mini Pop Dots, Zig 2 way glue, K&Company permanent tape runner, Zig Memory System chocolate colored marker, and Rhinestones that I had in a jar.

How to make it:

I started with a neutral card base. Cut a strip of the patterned paper and adhered to the card with tape runner.

Placed the paper on the Cricut cutting mat as shown in the picture and loaded paper into my Cricut Expression. I selected the size that I wanted to cut out the images. For the words and numbers I used size 1 ¼”, Owls were cut to 1 ¾” and 1 ¼”. Pressed the image that I wanted on the keypad and then the Cut button to start cutting.

When the cutting has stopped, press the unload paper key. Using my spatula tool I removed the images from the cricut cutting mat.

Wanting a stitched look I used my Zig marker and went around the letters and numbers making little dashes, then using my pop dots and glue stick, I put the images to the patterned paper, and then added rhinestones for the eyes.

I was pleased the way it turned out and I know that he will not be getting a duplicate of this card. It is a one-of-a-kind Joan’s Craft World creation.

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

The Cricut cutter or also known as the Cricut Cutting Machine, Baby Bug, Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter, or Original Cricut, is the greatest thing that has come to the market for creating endless possibilities for all of those crafters out there.  If you are into scrapbooking, card making, handmade party decorations, school projects that take all weekend cutting out shapes and letters, and the list goes on and on, this Cricut cutter is for you.

First of all, speaking from someone who used to love her QuicKutz Squeeze, this Cricut cutter “die-cut” machine surpasses it by a mile.  The Cricut cutter is lightweight and easy to use. It also has a handle for easy carrying.  No computer is required. The Cricut cutting machine simply plugs into any normal wall outlet. Besides the blade and Cricut cutting mat that comes with the Cricut cutting machine, you need a Cricut cartridge. The machine usually comes with two cartridges, a font cartridge and a shapes cartridge to get you started.

The Cricut cartridges are also small and lightweight, and each comes with a simple keypad overlay, and manual to make it easy to use. Although some may say that the cartridges can be a little pricey (I have seen them priced from $39 all the way up to $100), they are well worth the cost if you consider the fact that each cartridge has hundreds of designs that can be used in virtually thousands of styles and sizes, all in one cartridge. On the Cricut cutter you can cut from 1″ to 5.5″.  No more storing hundreds of die cut plates, which come in bulky sizes.  Another positive is you will have more space in your craft room.

Also available are replacement blades and mats at reasonable prices, and other accessories such as tools and carrying cases.

I personally think that the Cricut cutter is by far a best investment you can make for your crafting needs!

That is the bug you will get when you purchase a Cricut Expressions Machine!

The Cricut Expressions Machine has got to be the best die cut machine on the market.  With other machines you usually have to do a lot of squeezing, turn a crank, or slide something back and forth, and all you end up with is a cut piece of paper.  The Cricut Expression Machine does all this work for you.  All you need to do is pick out the image you want, pick the size that you want that image to be, add the paper to the Cricut cutting mat, then press the CUT button on your keypad and the Cricut Expressions Machine starts cutting your image.

Now, if that’s not super easy to do then what is?  In minutes or should I say seconds, you have the perfect size, color, image that you want.

Let’s say that you go to your local craft store looking for a die cut of a pink cat.  Most likely you’ll not find it, and if you do is it the right size? The right color pink?  With the Cricut Expressions Machine you pick out the paper color you want, the size that you want from .25″ to 23.5″, and the image of a cat from one of the many Cricut Cartridges.

Don’t Hesitate – for the best in all your crafting desires – go get one now!