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Category Archives: Pie’s Tips and Tricks

My Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #122: Smore’ Anyone?

Happy Monday everyone! Today I have one of my favorite hats on, and that is being a design team member on the awesome Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog featuring this card for FCCB’s Monday Challenge #122.

I have to say, I was a bit apprehensive I could pull off this concept, but after swimming 1,200 freestyle meter workout and designing a card in my head, this is what I came up with (I am currently training for a mile ocean swim for a triathlon that I am competing in as a relay member and designing cards and other projects in between flip turns helps make the work out go by fast… since you can’t wear your Ipod in the water).

This card is going to be a birthday card for the hubs that we will be celebrating in a week.  We love camping and he built a custom teardrop camper for us to honeymoon in 7.5 years ago.  He did not use plans, he just took the profile dimensions that he found from a  1948 Popular Mechanics issue.  It took him about 3 months to build and most of this project was powered by ebay.

I used the teardrop as my inspiration and covered a cut from Going Places Cricut cartridge with aluminum foil (a bit more tricky that I thought it was going to be – aluminum foil is very temperamental).  I think he is going to love this card!

Head on over to FCCB and check out this week’s challenge and get inspired to creat a fun summer time project!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “gotta love smore’s” pie with me!

Recipe:

Cricut Cartrige: (all cuts at 2.5 inches) Going Places, Potpourri Basket, 3 Brids on Parade

Card: (fits in an A2 enevelope) 12 inches long by 4.25 inches wide scored at 4 and 8 to make the tri fold.  I used Martha Stweart’s Score Board for this.

Paper: Recollections and for the windows and fire Die Cut With a View Glitter Stacker

Reynold’s Wrap

Buttons (natural tones)

Hot Glue to attach buttons

Stamp Ink  for distressting and sentements:  My Pink Stamper – Serindipdy Skies and Close to My Heart – Chocolate

Sentiment: My Pink Stamper – Birthday Doodles Kit

Stickles – Star Dust

Glossy Accents – white and black

ATG, 3M clear fast dry adhesive, Pop Dots.

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Life’s a Party!

I have a friend that called me a few weeks ago to see if I would make some stuff for a baby shower she was throwing.  It was for a boy and it needed to be football themed.  How fun!  I think I have said this before, being a mom of two little girls, I jump at any chance to make boy stuff!

She wanted a football themed diaper cake inspired center pieces, thank you tags for the favors with a little referee that said, “Thank you for Taking the Time Out to Celebrate”, and a banner with the little guy’s name on it.

This is what I came up with!

Diaper Cake Inspired Center Piece:

Recipe: Cricut Cart was Life’s a Party  football image cut at 2.5 inches for base football and 2.75 for shadow. I used Swiss Dots for embossing.  For the diaper cake center piece, I used zip ties and rolled 3 size 2 diapers and fastened zip ties around the middle of each and then used a large zip tie and attached all three together in a triangle set up and wrapped about 11 inches of ribbon around the middle to cover the zip tie and fastened ends together with Zot Dots and then attached the football embellishment with a large Pop Dot a the seam of the ribbon.

Thank You Gift Tags:

Recipe: Cricut Cart was Mini Monogram both circle and scallop were cut at 4 inches.  I used Microsoft Publisher and made the image.  I found a pregnant stick figure and decided to make a referee with a bump.  I needed to have it be solid black so i could color lines of white for the referee shirt.  It was easier finding that image than black and white cardstock that I was going to use for the original concept of using the pregnant silhouette image from Life’s a Party Cricut Cart.  I used my white gel pen for the stripes and embossed the scallop layer with Swiss Dots folder for my Cuttlebug. I punched a hole at the top of each gift tag and ran ribbon through it so she can attach these to the favors. NOTE:  I printed out the images and then used the “CENTER” feature on my Ciruct.  It was a bit tricky at first, but I figured it out thanks to a tutorial video I found via My Pink Stamper.  I view a few other videos at first that I “goggled” and they were not cutting the mustard on really QUICKLY breaking down how to do it.

Banner (LOVE DOING BANNERS):

Recipe: Cricut Cartridge Life’s a Party onsie cut at 4 .75.  I used Design Studio ( I can’t seem to get Cricut Craftroom to successfully update, so until I have some leisure time to call PC I am using DS).  I used the “Hide” feature for the duck and so I have just the onsie.  I then cut the base of the banner out of chipboard and the same exact image for the white layer I embossed with Swiss Dots.  I then used the layer feature on my Circut and cut the blue and brown polka-dot.  For the lettering I used Schoolbook Plantain at “REAL DIAL” size at  inches and then embossed with Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.  I then punched two holes, using my Crop-A-Dial at the top of the onsie on only the chipboard, then ran the baker’s twine I got from My Craft Spot.

For the little footballs that are in the center of the ribbon bunting, I used the same football image I used for the diaper cake center pieces cut at 1 inch.

For the bunting  I used 7 layers of material cut at 5 inches each and then trimmed when each was completed.  I layered the tulle and ribbon tieing them directly to the baker’s twine (each tied on top of each other in a diagonal way so the material fanned out with each layer). I used a glue gun to attach the football.  The banner measured about 6-feet

I had a ton of fun doing this project and it only took about 9 hours to plan, prep and complete. Not bad for just a few hours for a few days this week.

Thanks for coming and sharing a piece of “life’s a party” pie with me!

Getting a Little Educational with My Cricut and My Pink Stamper

As I have mentioned before, I am the  “craft mom” at my daughters’ co-op pre school.  The theme the other week was nutrition.  I decided to do a match the shape/food to the one on the paper and then glue it down.  Since the craft is geared towards 3 and 4 year-olds, I wanted to make it as simple and easy to do.

I first set up a 8.5×11 piece of white cardstock on my Cricut mat and cut out the shapes I wanted to use.  this was my master sheet that I would later place a darker sheet of paper behind and copy with the copy machine to create the sheet that the kiddos will glue the food cut outs to.

After that I went into mass production mode and cut all my die cuts out and then organized them all into ziplock baggies for easy distribution.

Super quick and easy crafty/educational idea.

Basic Recipe:

Cricut Cartridges used:  All cut at 3 inches

Simply Charmed

Create a Critter

Country Life

Sweet Treats

Potpourri

Stamp: My Pink Stamper: Font-aboulous

Ink: Stampin’ Up Classic Black

A More Up Close and Personal Look at Hello Kitty B-Day Party

Since I was limping along with computer woes last week, I decided to give a more detail post regarding the “almost death by Hello Kitty” I endured a couple of weeks ago. . .  and because I got a few more requests for more details! Ask and ye shall receive!

I actually really kept this party at a good and reasonable budget since we were going all out and doing the big Disneyland thing the next day.

Table scape:

I have glass containers I found at Home Goods that I use for these types of events.  I headed into my attic and dug through some Christmas decorations and found the fillers for them along with the styrofoam HK heads I made (I bought those online in a set 12- WAY cheaper than at Jo-Ann’s and Michael’s.)  I made the heads by cutting out felt bows and suing a sharpie to do the eyes, nose and whiskers. I hot glued the bows on.

Decorations:

The center pieces for the little picnic tables were larger styrofoam balls that I found online.  I cut out ears and bows and attached with hot glue and used sharpie for eyes and nose. I used black pipe cleaners for the whiskers (they easily stuck in the balls). I placed brightly colored M&Ms in the shallow glass bowls and placed the heads on top of it.

The outside banner and accents to the pom-pom were made out of white and pink foam.  I had my hubby cut out stencils using a print out from a coloring page of the head and bow in wood with his scroll saw which made for perfectly matched mass production. Cutting through foam was super easy and quick. I added finishing touches on the bows and attached with hot glue.  The whiskers were made out of black pipe cleaners.  I used a punch and ran it through fishing line for the overhead pom-pom decor and pink ribbon from the Celebrate It line from Michael’s.

Pin the Bow  Game:

A good friend threw out an idea of pin the bow game, so I thought about it one day and came up with  this game.  I thought of a felt board and went with that concept.  Again, using the wood stencil the hubs cut out for me, I made the bows for each kid that was invited and traced out the face on a felt white sheet.  I then attached two pieces of felt to a large piece of white foam.   On the day of the party I wrote all kids that were in attendance names on the back of the bows so we would know who’s was the closest to pinning the bow on HK.  It was a huge success!

HK Headbands:

The same good friend suggested making some kind of head bands.  So I thought up these.  I found the head bands via Ebay for $2 free shipping for 12.  I cut out ears and bows (yes, using the same wood stencil the hubs made for me).  I attached with hot glue. On the day of the party, I painted black whiskers on all the little girls and placed the headbands on their heads.  THEY LOVED THEM!

Boo-Boo Bags:

I am not a fan of cheap Chinese party favors to just fill a bag.  I decided to do something a little more personal and useful for this party and they were a  huge hit and not to time consuming.  I found the material via Jo-Ann’s online and it was $40% off and had free shipping.  I made 12 of them cutting 5 inches x 12 inches and folding in half inside out and sewing them almost shut.  After that reversing the material and filling the bags with flax-seed that I got from a bulk bin at a local store for $1 a lb.  I figured each bag cost about $1.50 when all said and done.  After they were filled, they were sown shut.  I placed them in a plastic favor bag and tied with ribbon and printed out instructions to use hot or cold on Avery labels and attached.  I made Goodie bags and added a lip gloss and some HK band aids to them.   They were a huge hit!

Party Craft:

I decided to set up a “mommy and me” bracelet making station. I found all the beads via ebay and even found HK beads! I spent no more than $8 on all the beads. I pre made packages so all they had to do was thread the beads and go.  It was super cute and a fun way for mommy and daughter to have a little time together.

Inside Banner/Cupcake Toppers:

 

 

This is my favorite thing to do for a party and like I said before in a previous post, I ordered HK die cuts via ebay and worked from there.  I found the heart garland via Michael’s on a clearance Valentine rack for $1.50 and bought two.  I used that as my base and then used Mini Monograms and Once Upon a Princess Cricut Carts to make the content and structure of the banner.  To add finishing touches I used my Cuttlebug embossing Happy Birthday folder and Swiss dots folder, stickes and ribbon for burst of color in between the rounds.  I attached the rounds directly onto the chain on the garland.

The cupcake toppers were just a bit of the same concept and cricut carts just scaled down and added to 4 inch Wilton sticks.

There you have it in a nut shell… Thanks for coming and sharing a piece of “Hello Kitty on a Budget” pie with me!

A Little Dancing Pizza and a Sweet Blog Award!

Yay! Today is the first day I am posting from my new laptop!  I have been inching along on a 7-year-old laptop for years and our PC is not far behind it, so when my laptop finally died two weeks ago we started shopping for a new one.  Last night we finally got one!

First order of business! I was awarded a lovely and sweet blog award recently and was very honored that I have someone outside of personal friends and family that even look at this mess of creativity.   Thank you Lisa from My Scrap Nook!   The award is the Liebster Award – which is German for “Dearest”.   Paying it forward I am going to honor a new and fun blog buddy from my favorite part of my state (Wine Country) Lee Lee Cards.  She has so much energy and life and I wish I could meet her in person someday… and we may just find a way to pull that off.  I think you will enjoy her wit and sass and the fact she is a beautiful newly made VERY young grandma! 🙂

 

During the time we were in computer limbo, I have been keeping busy with many craft focused projects.  This project was for my 4 year old’s first dance recital and we had to make a pizza costume out of a felt piece.  So heading to my Cricut cart inventory, I found a pizza shape from Simply Charmed and used that as a stencil.  I cut it at 8 inches and used buttons, ric-rack, baker’s twine and tons of glitter and stickles.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

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Thanks for having a piece of “dancing pizza pie fun” with me!

A Piece of Pie Video: Hello Kitty Tootsie Pops

Yes, I am going to make you endure my SECOND ever made video!  This time I did have fun with some new music I discovered, thanks to Pandora radio!  

Even though my little one’s birthday is not until March, I am in project mode to get as much done for her little party as I can, so while I was coming up with ideas, I threw together this video and I hope it comes in handy for someone out there in cyber crafty land!

Thanks for coming and sharing a piece of “NOT ANOTHER A PIECE OF PIE VIDEO” pie with me! 🙂

I Have Been Doing a lot of Pie Making!

 . . . well at least a lot of crafting.  Outside of the already posted holiday projects I was up to my ears in crafting over the holidays.  Since then we have been batteling the stomach flu, colds and trying to get Christmas and my winter “spring” cleaning done. 

Santa was good to me this year!  I got a ton of  craft store gift cards and The Cinch.  I am still holding off on the Imagine, just becasue part of my Christmas/Birthday present from they hubs was re-doing my craft room.  So all things in moderation and I LOVE how my craft room is truning out!  Deciding to re-do my craft room in the full swing of all the projects was a bit nutty, but if you knew me, you would get that I have a VERY high energy level that does not know how to stop until my body stops me:-).

I am on the hunt for the Hello Kitty Cricut Cart that has been retired so I can do my almost 4 year old’s bithday stuff, if you know of a place I can find it, that is not going to cost a million dollars, please let me know.  I have been looking on Ebay and they are going for about $80-$100. 

So on to my projects and thanks for coming and sharing a piece of “wow no wonder I am a wee bit  Christmas Cheered Out” pie with me! 

Project 1: Idea came from My Pink Stamper’s 12 Days of Christmas

Project 2: Another idea  from My Pink Stamper’s 12 Days of Christmas for the lady that does my hair.  She lives in the “Christmas Candy Cane Lane” neigborhood and has the Charlie Brown themed house. She sits out with friends and family almost every night greeting the hundreds of people checking out the lights and I thought this would keep those sheer cutting hands warm.

Project 3: I made these cards for my nephews who were getting gift cards.  They liked them!

Project 4:  I made these pack of cards for all the ladies in our family.  I ended up making 3 in each set which came to 21 cards!  I did this kind of last minute. I used My Pink Stamper’s Sweetest Cupcake Stampset I won from a Blog Hop Challenge back in August.  I also used Once Upon A Princess Cartridge for the cupcake. All the ladies LOVED them!

Project 5: I made this for a sweet friend that got married on December 9th.  It was a very small and close wedding at the beautiful Ojai Valley Inn, Ojai, CA.  I was one of the very few that were invited to the quiet and yet elegant event – I also made some tags for this event I posted about earlier this month.  I used a new stamp set I got from Close to my Heart, Cherish the Day! The cartrige I used was Storybook – Thank You setting.

Project 6:  My girls and I made this for my father-in-law’s birthday that was in early December.  He loves old cars, so we had fun doing some new tricks using Peachy Keen faces and Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge.

[Project 7:  Christmas cards for some bloggging buddies I have formed this year.  I used a Christmas stack from Papertreyink, Christmas stamp set from My Pink Stamper and the ortament came from Simply Charmed.

Who needs and Ice Cream Cone when you have Hot Coco Cones!

Back in early November I decided that I was not going to make my shortbread chocolate dipped cookies for my Christmas goodies I pass out.  Instead I thought of the hot coco cones I saw at a local Harvest Craft fair back in October and thought I would take a stab at doing that. 

I forgot to purchase one at the fair to break down and see how it was done and the quantity they used.  Luckily My Pink Stamper did a whole tutorial on making these since she saw the same idea at a craft fair she was at… how random! 

I made over 5 dozen of these using a tag from Winter Frolic cut at 1 3/4 inches.  I used some christmas paper that I had in my stash from a million years ago (I am totally on this kick to be out with the old before I buy another sheet of paper). I used Stickles for the scarf.  For the stamping I used Close to My Heart and Stampin’ Up Inks and My Pink Stamper’s Winter Treats and Sayings and Christmas Wishes stamp set. 

The past week I have been passing these out and everyone is LOVING them!  I think I just found my new Christmas goodie tradition and it something that the kids love to help with!

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Bringing a Little Glitz to a Favorite Bible Story

I made this for a Christmas present for someone (can’t say who, just in case they read this blog).  I finished it late last night.  This has been a project 3 years in the making.  I saw this idea (at least the glittering of the animals for Christmas tree ornaments) on Martha Stewart’s show back in December of 2008.  I ordered the set from her vendor she was showcasing and started on this project. . . . I only was able to glitter 2 sets of animals and then came down with Hyperemisis (extreme morning sickness where I needed home IVs to stay hydrated for weeks) with my second child.  Then we bought a house that was a fixer 4 weeks after she was born. 

In reorganizing and getting a dream craftroom set up (will be showcasing that in a few weeks) I found this unfinished project and decided to finish it, but with a new twist.  Make a wreath out of it. 

I had a heck of a time finding a big enough wreath to fit everything and I wanted a rustic year-round wreath so I stuck with grapevine.  I welded the two 18 inch wreaths I found at Michael’s with zip ties and then glittered the components.  WHAT A MESS! My hard floors will ever resemble a disco ball!  I then hot glued the animals in pairs and then found some wooden letters to add the word “Promise” on the Ark – that was not part of the kit.

I then set the glitter with hair spray ( a trick I found via Martha Stewart’s latest magazine).  I used crinkle ribbon I got via My Craft Spot (the best ribbon ever!) to tie the animals on to the wreath and for embelishments. I reinforced all the wooden components with hot glue. 

It was a fun project, but I think I will not take on such a big glitter job in a long while.  The whole time I was doing this I was bummed that Beacon has not put that amazing glittering adhesive on the market that I saw showcased via My Pink Stamper!  That will be the next must have in the supply closet!

Thanks for coming and sharing a piece of “my craft room looks like Tinker Bell resides there” pie with me!

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My Stab at a Crayon Wreath

 

 

‘Tis the season for making homemade Christmas gifts.   This past fall I saw these done and decided that I wanted to do this for my daughter’s teacher.  She is a pre-k teacher that is just amazing. I adore her and will be sad to say goodbye this year.   She has a time during her class where she does neat science experiments for the kiddos and when the experiment is done she always says, “That’s science friends!”.  I wanted to incorporate that into the project as well.

It was a bit more labor intensive than I expected and what I used was a wire wreath and flipped it over and placed a glass bowl in the middle to line up the crayons perfectly.  I then hot glued the crayons to the wire . . . that was a bit tricky, but I figured it out.

I have one more to make and I will take pics along the way to the steps I did so you can see how it was done and the recipe next week.  

Thanks for sharing a bit of “spreading the Christmas cheer” pie with me.

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