Bakers Twine

I recently ran a Bakers Twine share on the cricut message boards and I thought I'd share with everyone how I decided to store mine. I also have some left if anyone is interested in buying a good sample of fantastic Bakers Twine.

I wound all of mine on the old fashion clothes pins. I started the thread through the slit and since it's wood it grabs onto the twine well and doesn't unwind.

 I think it looks yummy like this as well. Here's a picture of all of them in my jar. So colorful and pretty on the shelf.

I have seen others put each color into a little jar or the small metal containers you can find in the bridal section of craft stores. This was more compact for me and I love being able to see my supplies.

Here's a picture of all 13 colors that were offered. The two bottom ones Airmail and Navy are Divine Twine. You can see the big difference in the brightness of the twine of it and the other twine. The navy has a lot more white and not as much color. It's not quite as heavy as the other twine. I'm so glad I went with the better quality for the other colors!

Red, Bright Pink, Lt Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Lt Green, Teal, Purple, Black, Brown, Airmail, & Navy

I am sold out of the Navy and only have a little bit of the Airmail left but have the other 11 colors available. It's $15 for 10 yard each of the 11 colors and another $1 for the airmail while it lasts. Feel free to contact me if you would like some.
Hugz
tina gale

Playing with the Imagine

I was so blessed to get the Imagine last month from cricut for a fabulous price. I have been wanting it since launch but it was just too much money for me but when cricut put it on sale plus gave circle members another 20% off and free shipping I knew it wasn't going to get much better unless I won it. LOL

I love how you can design and fill your cuts with patterned paper to print and then cut. I know I'll be using this a lot! I need to do an update and unfortunately my laptop is still in the shop and I'm not about to bring the machine down stairs to do it. It is very heavy!!

The first thing I did when I got it was just start printing and cutting random things. I put a few together in layers and a few I printed all the layers as one. It's fabulous either way. Here are some of the things I've done.

 I love that I can cut a whole sheet of patterned paper if I want to. There are some fabulous papers on the Imagine carts! You can click on any of the photos for a closer look. I want to use the cow, armadillo, and MemMoories for some layouts from the Stampede.

I decided to take some of the cuts and see if I could design a card with them. This is what I came up with. All of the images come from  the Imagine More cart that comes with the machine.

I love my Imagine and can't wait to play with it more. I hope to have some things to share soon.
Hugz
Tina Gale

Thinking of You

My Expression2 Anniversary Edition arrived yesterday on my birthday! How perfect was that? I quickly got it updated without any issues. Yeah! I packed away one of my Expressions and put it in it's place then I just sat and admired it for a minute. LOL 

I decided to try and make a quick card from the Just a Note cartridge that comes preloaded on it before I had to leave for work. I also wanted to make something for the current circle challenge. This is what I came up with.

 It's very simple but I think it has some wow factor still yet. One of them being I made it in under 30 minutes learning how to use the new E2 at the same time.

 The middle flap I used my embossing tool and ran a line down the center of the petals then creased them a bit, inked, and added a button. I used ric rac for the stems. I think the creasing really made them pop as well as the inking.

 A close up of the details on the flowers.

 One think I'm not sure I'm wild about is the lack of detail on the phrases. It's like the shadow feature so it's a little hard to read certain letters. I added a button on the o to get the circle effect.

Last I used some twine from the twine share I just hosted. I LOVE it! It's so heavy and bright. I can see using a lot of twine on coming projects.


I still have some twine left for anyone that is interested in receiving a sample pack of colored twine to play with. I know you'll love it! Just send me a not and I'll send you the price and details.

Hope you enjoyed my quick little card to get me started on the E2. If you just got yours are expecting it I would recommend getting it updated first thing and clearing a space for it. It takes up the same amount of space as the current Expression does. On the 3rd page of the manual is a key to all the buttons, copy it off and laminate it. It will be a huge help as you read through the manual and when you actually get started with your machine. I think there's a bit of a learning curve to the E2 but I don't think it's going to be a difficult one. I am in love already with it. It cuts so smooth and is actually quieter than my Expression. It's so easy to design on but I do have to warn you when you get ready to cut you have to tell  it to cut a ton of times. LOL It has several checks before it cuts. I got used to it quick but it is a bit comical.

Hugz
Tina Gale

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday and my daughter that is always telling me and everyone else she doesn't scrap made this beautiful card for me using my cricut and some of my fabulous new paper. I'll never let her forget she can scrap (I knew she could all along).

 This is the inside of the card. I love the picture she used. It was snapped in one of those little photo booths a few years ago at her birthday party. Such Fun!!
I'll cherish this card and her forever!

The front of the card was a cut from one of the Martha Stewart cake carts. I'm not sure which one because I just got them and haven't got to play. She has made some wonderful wall art for her room from the MS cake carts that I plan on scraplifting for cards. The sentiment I believe is from Storybook. She couldn't remember what she used but I knew you'd want to know. LOL

I hoped you enjoyed a peak into my family today. I had a wonderful birthday. My E2 arrived today as well so I'm off to play and I'll share tomorrow what I come up with.

Cricut Birthday Celebration

Provo Craft is celebrating  5 years of Cricut so a big Happy Birthday shout out to them. They had a layout contest for the big HSN launch airing today. The only requirement really was to use cricut carts and it had to be a 12x12 birthday layout. I ended up making two and submitting. There were a couple hundred of fabulous layouts submitted. Hopefully they'll post pics of them altogether somewhere.

This is my first layout.

 This little bird on a banner is a fav cut of mine off Birthday Bash!

 The cake I welded on my gypsy so it would flip up for a journaling box.

 And my favorite is this lil birdie! I spritzed a lil bit of white boa  with pink glimmer mist and then glued between two layers for a lil tuft of hair or feathers. LOL I think he's too cute!

The 2nd layout I did much more muted tones with a country feel. I adore it as well. The journaling spot is made with Imagine More. It has several great cuts for journaling spots. I love it!

 I used my distressed cuttlebug folder for my cupcake and then tied some twine around it. Inked and added a couple of buttons to finish it off.

 The little boy I cut double and pop dotted the top layer. You can't tell it here but it added a lot of dimension.

I hope you enjoyed my layouts. I stayed up all night to watch the Cricut Anniversary Edition  Expression 2 launch but ordered it an hour or so before launch and was able to use my 15% off coupon saving me an additional $50! Woo Hoo It should be here just in time for my birthday!

Best Friends

Best Friends, Everyone should have one, or three, or more! A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a weekend with some of my besties at the Cricut Stampede in Dallas. It wasn't without its challenges, in fact we were met with some each day but it didn't stop us from having a blast and I believe it was because they are truly the best friends a person could wish for.

 From left to right is my bestie Linda(my longest time scrapping buddy and 1st cricut convert), then Vevia(another newbie cricuteer), myself(yes, I'm that short and hang out with tall friends), and Kim(our newest cricut convert but may pass us all at the rate she's going). This is all of us the last day of the Stampede holding the banner I had made for our door decoration. I made each owl to represent each one of us and our favorite colors. I also made each one of us a name plate for our tables to match. Unfortunately I didn't get pics of those. Sorry. Much love and thought went in to my little work of art with the intent of sending each of my friends home with their owl as a souvenir or to decorate a layout of the weekend with. I wanted us all to remember the great time we had getting away together. Unfortunately right after they announced we had won 2nd place in the door decorating contest I went to our room to find it had been ripped off our door and taken. I was soo upset and unfortunately management of the hotel did not handle it well adding to my dismay. With all the lack of sleep and events I called it a night. I just couldn't even think of scrapping at the time. This is the time besties swoop in and make it all better. They couldn't let it go knowing how much it upset me so they prayed and then went dumpster diving. They were able to find all of the pieces except the woot woot. They took it downstairs to the crop room and started the restoration process. The owls were crumpled and a couple were torn but they were able to patch them back up. The branch was a goner so they got my gypsy and looked for the file. Aren't they smart? I did have the file and with some help from some others in the crop room they got it figured out and recut. The next morning I went downstairs to find it on my table. It meant the world to me that they would do all of that for me and that I was able to send them home with a  little bit of love from me. They are the best friends a girl could ask for!

This is a pic of our door before it was taken. I think it turned out too stinkin cute!! I hope you enjoy it and I hope each of you have a bestie of your own.
Hugz
tina

My Cricut Station

I'm constantly updating and moving things around in my studio but one thing I'm pretty happy with is my Cricut Station. The challenge this month on the Circle Magazine was to show our storage so I thought I'd share my cricut work space. I hope it will inspire you in your organizing adventure.

This is the bulk of my cricut station. I don't keep my carts in the boxes as you'll see in a pic further down but I do like to keep my newest ones next to my machine until I use them. It helps keep me from being a collector instead of a scrapbooker. ;o)

I'll start below with my cuttlebug area. All of the shelving is jet max cubes from Michaels.  This one holds my cuttlebug and my folders are in the drawer next to it. Makes it very handy!

 I have a video you can check out <> where I show how I cut the packaging down for dividers. I sort them alphabetically and my plates are stored to the front of the drawer. I used to have them in a crate on top of my shelves which you can see in the video and that worked great but now that I have more this little shelf with drawer makes it handy and attractive while saving my counter top for other things.

The new Cricut Everyday cart had this adorable bug and lettering that I cut out of vinyl to put on the drawer. Too cute!!

 To the right of this is where I store my cartridges, handbooks, and overlays. I made little folder pockets to hold the handbook and overlay. Next to them on the size I store the actual cartridge. The pink bag to the back holds my cricut markers and extra blades. I still need to get my label maker out and label all of them and the drawer fronts. Organizing is never finished it seems.

 Again I used the Cricut Everyday cart to cut these cute little cartridges out to decorate the front on the drawers. I added stickles to the antennas. Gotta have my bling!!

 On the end of my cabines I have one of the little plastic hooks you can buy from Wal-Mart or other store. It holds all of my mats for the Expression. It works perfect! My mats are always within easy reach.

Last but not least by any means is my Pink E. It sits center stage and gets used almost daily. I pull it to the front of the cabinet and it has plenty of room for the mat to clear. I love my studio and my lil cricut station. I hope it's given you ideas for your own space whether it be big or small. My next organizing feat is to set up my new Imagine Station! I just got it but I know I want to get it all organized as well so I can begin to use it daily as well!

Have a great day and as always I love to hear your feedback. 

Hugz

tina

Gift Card Set

I've been working on these cards for a while and I showed a couple a while back. I worked on them some more at the Stampede and finally finished several gift sets. I made them all out of my scrap drawers and the Create a Critter Cart.

I made a gift box for them to fit in. There's a pocket to the back to hold the envelopes. I'll tie a nice pretty bow around it and it'll be ready to give to someone special.

 The cards are 3x3, a perfect size for a those last minute little gifts. I thought everyone would love to receive something like this. At least I know I would. LOL Totally useful for everyone!

I cute all the animals at 2 inches, inked and blinged them up as always. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. I'm entering these in the Just Because Weekly Challenge on the Circle Blog.

Scrappin With my Bug

It seems like I've been working on this forever. I kept changing and adding things. I think I'm pretty happy with it other than I think it needs some more bling. lol

This will be going on my table in Dallas and then hanging on my wall when I get back. I think it turned out too fun!

Now for a little detail about what I used to create it. Scrappin With my Bug came from the new Everyday Cricut cart exclusive to Circle members. It has soo many cute phrases it was hard to decide on one. The frame is from Lacy Labels. I definitely see places for a little bling here!

I made Cowboy Cricut with two carts. The body and clothes are from Paper Doll Dress Up and the head is from Everyday Cricut. I chose the cowboy get up in honor of the Stampede but he'll be right at home in my studio afterwards.

I'm not so sure she turned out looking like me but she is cute! She's from Paper Doll Dress Up as well as her camera. I used Diva Liquid Pearls for her buttons on her shirt, pink pearls for her earrings and some diamond bling for her ring.

And my favorite part of her accessories!! She has her own Cricut Circle charm bracelet! Isn't that fabulous?!  I had to hand cut it because it was soo tiny! I used some diamond glaze on it to stiffen it up then attached it to a beaded bracelet I strung together.

The last little detail is my pink cricut from Everyday Cricut again. Even though I cut it bigger the buttons were just too small so I ended up drawing them in with a marker. I'm not sure how big you would have to cut it to get them big enough to cut out so be warned if you decide to try this cut.

I hand cut the table as well. I even made it the colors of my table in my studio. It's perfect! I had another table cut from the French Manor cart but I just couldn't get the proportions to work with everything else. I'm so glad because this complements my room and the layout so much better.

Shutterbuggin, my messageboard name and Tina were cut with Pooh Font and the capital letters are from the cricut font on Everyday Cricut.

I think that about covers it. If I missed anything let me know and I'll be happy to answer. Be sure to let me know what you think and if you're coming to Dallas.

Hugz
Tina

Bibbidy Bobbidi Boo

Every little girls dream and big girls too is to have a fairy godmother make all her dreams come true. At Walt Disney World they gave my daughter just that chance at the Bibbidy bobbidy Boutique. She was assigned her own fairy godmother in training to do her hair and make up, transforming her into a real fairy tale princess. Well in her case she opted to be a pirate princess with a skull crown.

These are pictures from our 2007 trip that I've been waiting to do and the Cricut Circle Challenge was just the push I needed. The challenge was to include a fairy tale figure and who better than the Fairy Godmother herself from Cinderella.

A little about the details of the pages and the cartridges I used.

Fairy Godmother and the crown are from Happily Ever After.  The clock, shoe, and castle border are from Wall Decor and More.

 The title is cut from Wild Card. I love this font!! I will definitely be using it a lot. I happened upon it when I was beta testing the new Cricut CraftRoom. I have the cart and didn't even know about this font. Silly me.

Speaking of the Cricut CraftRoom I am so excited for it's release. I've been playing some with it and it's fabulous!! I can't wait for all the glitches to be worked out and available to cut with. It's the bomb!!

Hope you enjoyed my layout of my princess.
Have a blessed day
Tina