Lollypop, Lollypop, Oh Lolly Lolly Lolly

Had another crop with some of the Divas last month. Actually, for this small group, we call ourselves the Jammers because we love to crop and can just spend the day in our jammies.

Anyway, our plans included the celebration of Angie's birthday, but we were the ones surprised. haha We're not sure who had their days mixed up, but Angie's family made plans for the same weekend which included family photos. So .... However, we did enjoy her birthday cake and strawberries! We even took pictures of us enjoying it and texted to her. Yes, we can be evil but all in fun.

Her absence gave me time to make her birthday card. Yes, always behind. I did have her gift card ready but hadn't had/taken the time to make the card. I had it in Design Studio, just not cut.

Remember that Angie is the one with the new grandson, Eli, and her and her husband's grandparent names are Lolly and Pop? So, naturally, her card HAD to be (wait for it) ...



a lollypop. (Yes, I know it should be lollipop, but she's Lolly.)


Pull on the stick and you have the card


with the gift card attached.

Of course, it had to be a fairly large lollipop for the gift card to fit inside. There are several cartridges with a lollipop, but this one was from Mickey & Friends.


I used the base of the lollipop element to get the size for the stick but just cut circles since I needed the stick to be attached to the card and not the sucker. I used George and Basic Shapes for the circles, stick and card elements and used Mickey and Friends just for the swirl layer of the lollipop. I cut out additional "sticks" and just glued them all together to make it stronger.

I think it turned out pretty cute. I probably should have added Stickles, but too late now. Happy Belated Birthday, Angie! (She received her card last weekend when Rose Mary got hers.)

Lollipop Gift Card


Later,
Jill

Road Trip

Rose Mary gave us a scare last week when her husband replied to one of our emails that she was in the hospital. Yikes! Angie and I decided it was time for a road trip. None of the other girls were available. I asked Rose Mary if we could come and told her that we would vacuum her floors, clean her toilets, or whatever she needed done. She said we could come but couldn't clean her house.

I left the house a bit after 9:00 Saturday morning, picked Angie up, drove, drove and drove, took the wrong exit (A instead of B or B instead of A or whatever), got turned around, picked up lunch (if you don't live in Arkansas where you can go to Market Place Grill, I'm so sorry), and made it to Rose Mary's house. I'm glad my house isn't that close to Market Place! We finally got to meet her husband, John, and we all had a GREAT lunch. Food was great; company was even better!

After lunch was present time! We'd gotten Rose Mary the I-rock tool, setters and set of gems as a GET WELL.

I had an email from Archivers last week about the 3 x 3 cards. I thought they were such a cute size and decided to make some. Here's Rose Mary's get well card using an element on Love Struck 2010.


And her birthday was coming up, so we added that to the celebration. Here's her birthday card. I just couldn't get this design to fit on a 3 x 3, so I fudged a little. I believe it's 3 x 3.5. This element is on George and Basic Shapes.


And both cards with the tin containing her gift card. Don't you just love the Hobby Lobby tins?


I was trying to match the cards to the tin. I used Vanilla Cream for the bases, Chocolate for the shadows and Twilight for the designs (all papers CTMH). Once the cuts were put together, I pop dotted them to the bases. I used Waterfall Stickles with Yellow on the candle flame.

Even though Rose Mary wouldn't let us clean house (like it really needed it--NOT! She has a beautiful home that is very neat and tidy.), she did have a few projects lined up if we were willing.

Ha! After 2 real quick projects, we dove in on project 3, reorganizing her scrapbook closet. Yahoo!! With her approval, we threw away, we made a box for Arkansas Children's Hospital and we made piles. Then we left Rose Mary to rest while we made a trip to Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Love shopping and spending other people's money! haha

Then we came back and put everything in its place. Wonder if she'll ever be able to find anything? And believe it or not, we didn't even take a before or after picture, but here's one of the three of us--left to right: Jill, Rose Mary and Angie.


By the time we finished our project, drove back to Little Rock, dropped Angie at her car, and stopped for gas, I got home about 10:20. Long but GREAT day with lots of laughter. And, yes, Rose Mary is on the road to recovery and doing great!

I'm not attaching files. Just put a 3 x 3 square on your Design Studio or Gypsy mat and make your element fit inside.

And, NO, we're not coming to clean your house or reorganize your scrapbook area, so you might as well just stay healthy.

Hope you have a great weekend,
Jill

Nursery Rhymes

Hello! Is anyone out there? Not hearing from many and just wondering if I'm sitting here talking to myself these days. Hope I don't run you off with this long post.

I am so excited! I completed my album on Saturday. Now, I just need to plan a trip to Dallas to deliver it. :o) Darci, you better get some pictures ready.

A few years ago, I made ABC albums for Layla and Avalee as well as a few other little ones. Layla and Avalee are daughters of very special people in my life and they are cousins. Well, in February, we were blessed with a baby sister for Layla, Baby Alyse. They are all beautiful little girls, and I love them and their parents very much.


This is a photo of the three girls (left to right: Avalee, Alyse and Layla) in our living room last month when they all came for the weekend. Their uncle's girlfriend gave them these darling matching dresses. I had to use three different photos to get this one. Thank goodness for digital! And thank goodness I took so many.

Anyway, my first thought was to make another ABC album for Alyse. Then I bought the Nursery Rhymes cartridge and fell in love. However, between our trip to Arizona, finding paper and trying to get an album done for the bride and groom (I'll share part of that soon), I was delayed getting started on Alyse's album.

Here's the paper I finally selected. I found it at Michaels and used a coupon. I used CTMH cardstock for the solids. I'm using a bright pink album with a place on the cover for a photo to be inserted, also from Michaels.


I had in my head exactly what I wanted it to look like and I DID IT! So many times I have a certain way I want something to turn out and, no matter what I do, it just won't happen. Well, this one turned out perfect!!!!!!! Here's the title page.


I wanted to include the words to the nursery rhymes, the base design and the phrase and leave room for photos to be matted and added. All of this in an 8x8 album?


I used The Real Mother Goose as the basis for getting the words correct for the rhymes. However, some of them just weren't what I remembered, so I went to the internet on those. I'm still not sure about Pat-a-Cake as I do it different, but I like the one I used. I'll change later if Darci wants.

Since I wanted the nursery rhymes to wrap around the pages, I used Microsoft Word and text boxes. I have converted these to pdf files for you and zipped them. I tried to put them all into one document, but the pages were doing weird things and some of them would come out in portrait while others would be landscape. As a matter of fact, one of the rhymes is in two pdf files because I couldn't get both pages to come out in the same direction.

I set up a template file for the Cricut designs. Since I was making an 8x8 album, I set it up on a 24x12 mat with the two pages centered on the mat. Other than welding on the Title and End pages, I did not alter the images. However, using Design Studio and the template made it easier to determine the sizes to use. Hopefully, I have included the sizes on the Notes tab in each file which might help if you are working in a different size album and need to resize.


As I wanted the previews to be available and to make it easier to concentrate on one rhyme at a time, I made a separate cut file for each rhyme. As usual, most of the tabs in the files are for preview. Most of the files have one Cut Page and that page is set up where it will cut on any of the machines. The exceptions are Hickory Dickory which has separate 12x6 Cut Page and 12x6 Paper Placement tabs for the smaller machines and Ring Around which has a 12x6 2nd Cut Page (small machines need to cut both cut pages on that one). Does any of that make sense? Click on the graphic below for a larger view.


Unfortunately, those using the smaller machines will not be able to cut the Cut Shadow pages on the Title Page or the End Page the way I have them set up. My only thought is to cut the shadows in separate pieces and glue them together.


This is the last page of the album. I will give Darci another circle the size of the inside circle as well as one 1/4 inch smaller that she can use for templates if she wants to cut a photo into a circle to place over the LOVE YOU.

I did not use all of the rhymes on the cartridge. I selected 14 for the body of the album and then included 8 more of the designs only in the Title and End pages. There are 17 cut files including the template file. With so many files involved, I zipped them into one zip file to share with you.

Cricut Cut Files

PDF Nursery Rhyme Files

I have a feeling that I'll be doing several more of these albums. Would love to see your creations.

Oh, I also used the font on Nursery Rhymes for the Title and End pages.

Enjoying a nice day at home,
Jill

Crown Gift Card

Back in August, we celebrated Angie and Rose Mary's birthdays. Yes, I am rather behind sharing with you. Sorry. Anyway, here's Rose Mary's card.


This test cut shows it a little better. There's one base cut with tic marks to make folding easier.


Then one crown to layer and bling up.


I stamped Happy Birthday with a CTMH stamp, outlined the crown with Stickles and added gems. Just perfect for our Glitter Queen.

Because of the size of the crown, this one has to be cut on an Expression. However, it is set up to use either George or Plantin along with Happily Ever After.

Crown Gift Card

Maybe you have a little princess in need of a gift? :o)

Jill

More Cards w/ Argyle

I hope you haven't given up on me yet.

You might remember when I posted my Mother's Day card that I said the base could be used for any occasion. Well, I've managed to use it a few more times.

Another cousin's daughter had a precious baby boy a few months ago and I needed a card for her baby shower. Then my son's best friend got married and I needed a card to send with their wedding present.


I love the little monkey on Sweethearts and thought he HAD to be used. It's a Boy came from Wild Card, but I wasn't totally happy with it. To give it a little boost, I added a signboard from Storybook.


Congratulations came from New Arrival.


In the photo above, you can see the layers used to make the monkey. I just love layered cards.


Again, I added vellum to the inside and cut an envelope. Remember that this envelope can only be cut on the Expression.


Then it was Josh's turn. Sweethearts came in handy once again with the wedding bells. I used an embossed vellum to cut the top layer of the bells and chalked the clappers. The card had to be turned landscape so that everything would fit properly. I like the change.


Best Wishes was cut from Cuttin' Up. I should have been pickier about where the pop dots went, but I thought the vellum would cover it up better. I was at a crop when I made this card and didn't have the vellum with me.


My friend Kay also used this base to make a baby girl card. I don't have pictures and only created a basic cut file, but I will share the file with you. We used the onsie from New Arrival and the scalloped circle from Mini Monograms for trim on the onsie. I believe she also turned hers landscape.

Monkey Card
Wedding Bells Card
Onsie Card

I hope these give you some ideas and I'll try to do a better job at posting more often.

Jill

Strawberry Card

Who wants strawberries? Yummmmm! Well, you wouldn't want to eat this one, but it sure makes a cute card.

Friday was Linda's last day of teaching. Well, as a career anyway. After 25 years, she has retired! This is the card several of us sent her along with a gift card. Elizabeth told us that she loves strawberries and red.


This is a card from Hello Kitty Greetings. I do love this cartridge and have yet to cut a Hello Kitty from it. Anyway, I cut the card base in red and then the strawberry blackout in black, the strawberry layer in red and two sets of leaves in green. I ran the strawberry through Virginia's Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder.

I layered the strawberry and one set of leaves onto the black using pop dots. I then layered the second set of leaves on top of the first to make another dimension. I attached the black layer to the front of the card using 3D glue dots as they are not as tall as my regular pop dots. You can see the difference as well as all of the layers below.


I then stuck the tip of my Black Diamond Stickles into each hole and got some sparkle inside. I used Xmas Red Stickles on each of the dots on the strawberry and added a little highlight with Green Stickles to the leaves.


Elizabeth said that she had a great party and loved the gift and card. We weren't able to make it to her party, but we were there in thought. :o) Congratulations, Linda!


The card will cut on any Cricut, but you'll need the Expression for the envelope. George was used to add more overlap to the envelope for the layers. You can score along the regular score lines and then again 1/4" further out to make more of a boxed envelope.

There's also a page in the file for a small strawberry to add to the inside of the card or on the envelope. I lost mine before I got it attached and ran out of time to make another.

Strawberry Card

Enjoy,
Jill

Circles

You know, sometimes we forget about the simplest designs and what they can do for us.

While trying to design a title page for my latest Minnesota album, I wanted to use some chipboard letters that I had but also wanted to use a particular piece of paper. My problem was that they were both rather busy. I finally decided to remove all of the letters and place them in a circle and work from there. My large CutterBee Curvy Cutter circle template turned out to be the perfect size. I placed them on a solid piece of paper (CTMH Vanilla Cream) to help neutralize the patterns.

After placing the letters, I realized that the CutterBee wouldn't allow me to cut the sizes that I needed. Back to my trusty Cricut.


As I had already placed my letters, I had to do some test cuts and adjustments. My suggestion to anyone else doing this is to cut the papers first and then work on placing the letters. I've readjusted the file so that the circles cut directly in the middle if you place your paper without offsetting it for the cut lines. I was very pleased with the results. (Remember that my scanner cuts off the bottom edge.)


I also used circles on a layout in the album.


Again, nothing but circles making a great design. (I believe this layout started with a sketch in Imagine.)


I don't know that anyone needs the files for these, but I'm including them just in case. I'm also including a file of circles that fit the round coasters. I don't have an example for this as I've given away or packed away all of the ornaments I made with these.


Title Page Circles

Layout Circles

Coaster Circles


I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend,
Jill

Doily Border

Way to go, Kris!!!! Our new American Idol!

When I got my Expression back in November, the first thing I cut was Diane's George Doily. I figured it was a good cut to make sure everything was in working order. lol My husband swears it took 45 minutes to cut and 45 for me to get it off the mat and the pieces out of it. I cut it in a color that I knew I would be using for my next Minnesota album and set it aside.


My husband's mother was born and raised in Minnesota. Most of the family is still there near the farm where they were raised. They have a picnic/family reunion once a year come rain, shine, snow or bugs. We go when we can and I make an album for each of our trips. Our last one was 2007, and I decided it was time to get it done as we had hopes of going again this year.

Aunt Fran writes a picnic summary afterwards and sends it to everyone that attended that year. This one is going to take care of most of my journaling. However, by the time I remembered it, I had already pretty much used all of the pictures that I planned to use but had to have a 2nd page to go with it. (I can't handle one-pagers other than the title page and last page and had already completed the last page.)

Then I realized that I had not used my doily either. Yikes! So I started working on a page for the doily. I decided it would be neat if I could find enough small shots to fill the circles with as many faces as possible. So I had some photos reprinted and put some into collages to make them smaller and started punching out faces using one of my circle punches that just happened to fit perfectly. After punching and laying them all out, I worked my way around the frame one face at a time applying adhesive (glue pen) to the back of that circle and positioning the photo. Then on to the next one until all 19 were done.

SO what goes inside? I had originally intended to use it for a group shot. Oh well, best laid plans.... I decided to do a collage of "special" aspects of the picnic--sign that we have every year proclaiming which picnic, hayride stuck in the river, bonfire, and barn stating the "beginning of history". Although I had the collage printed on 5x7, I needed to cover up just a little bit of border and decided a black border would help it pop a little. I used my circle cutter to cut the photo and the black border.


OK, that page looked great but sure didn't do anything for the summary page. Now what? Finally decided that this was going to require some creativity. I opened Diane's files to find out what elements she used and at what size. I then started my own file using those elements and created a border. I didn't want the two sides to be the same, so I started cutting, pasting and moving to make another border using the same pieces. I cut them out, added them to the page and OMG!


This is now one of my favorite layouts! (Please pardon the cut off pages. My scanner scans to 11 3/4", so the bottom gets cut off.)



Doily Border

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Jill

Coffee Anyone?

This is a gift card I made back in March but wanted to do some revisions to get it ready for you. And I wanted Sherry's OK to post it.

A small group of us get together when we can, and we were late celebrating Kay's birthday because "when we can" hadn't happened in a while. So we celebrated both Kay and Dawn's birthday at the same time, and I was in charge. haha As usual, I had waited until the last minute to get it all together and was trying to make cards and pack for Ferncliff at the same time.

Kay's gift was a gift card to Starbucks and needed an appropriate holder. I remembered Sherry's from our gift card swap (http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=3592445 - post #67) and emailed her requesting the file. Once received, I realized that I didn't have any acetate and no time to get any, so I proceeded to revise her file to work for me. See Sherry's blog here.

I was very pleased with the outcome. More importantly, Kay loved it!


The base of the card is a blackout coffee mug flipped for the back and a coffee mug for the front. I used 2-sided paper so that the inside of the cup and the back both looked nice. Be careful how you glue the pieces together so that the card can slide in and out.

I needed the steam and the coffee to be attached in order to use them to pull the card out of the holder. And we know how I like to have an additional card to fold over for the sentiment or what have you. Between the steam, the coffee and 2 cards, it was longer than the mat. Since I didn't want the steam to be the same color as the coffee anyway, I chose to cut the top of the steam off. I then cut a front and a back (flipped) steam in white to lay over the attached steam and cover up the missing part.

That's the only way it works on the Baby Bug. I've done another file for the Expression and included 2 different pages for the card. One will cut the top off as explained; the other is laid out diagonally and will cut the whole thing. You'll only need to cut one or the other.

You can place your paper so that the swirl cuts in a different color.


George was used for the cards and Plantin Schoolbook for the flowers. You can substitute as needed.

Dawn's card was much quicker as I decided on Debbie's cell phone gift card holder (http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=3592445 - post #51). She received a Hobby Lobby gift card but had just gotten a new Blackberry, so I thought it was appropriate.


I think they both turned out pretty cute!

Cut file for Expression

Cut file for Baby Bug

Latte,
Jill

Thanks, Capadia!

Diane has come to our rescue once again. She found a work around for the Hide Contour problem that I have been having. See her post here for explanation.

She was kind enough to fix the Class of 2009 Mesh, and I was able to fix the Baby Bottle Gift Card files. I have replaced all of the file links with the new ones here and in the previous posts.

Class of 2009 Mesh
Baby Bottle Gift Card
Baby Bottle Gift Card w/ George
Baby Bottle Gift Card w/ Plantin

Thanks, Diane!

Jill

2009 Card

Thanks for all of the great comments. I hope everyone is enjoying my blog and the files I manage to design.

I created this as a graduation card, but I guess it would be good for any event this year. There are two files: one using Base Camp with George and Basic Shapes and the second with Base Camp and Plantin Schoolbook.

You do have to be careful where you place your message on this one. Otherwise, it will show through when the card is closed. Except, of course, if that doesn't matter to you.

The card base is what you see in black--the back and shadowed numbers. On 2009, the 2-0 and the 0-9 are each welded together and cut to trim off any excess created from welding the shadow numbers to the back. Depending on the color you select for the base, you may need to cut an inside piece. I think it really made the numbers pop when closed on this one. You don't need to cut the numbers on the Preview page. That page is just to make the preview look pretty. :o)

Have fun and good luck to all of the graduates out there.


Cut files:
2009 Card w/ George and Basic Shapes
2009 Card w/ Plantin Schoolbook


Jill

Up Up and Away

Last gift card holder. This one doesn't conform to the guidelines for the swap, but it is one that has actually already been given away. Because of the size, it can only be cut on the Expression. I used George and Basic Shapes along with New Arrival, but you could revise for Plantin Schoolbook (explained later).

Our friend Katie is adopting, and I needed something for her shower. I didn't want to go real babyish since he will be 20 months old. I decided the airplane on New Arrival would be really cute if only it would work. It turned out perfect! I did it in our company colors and used his birth date for the tail number. Not only that, he's coming from China, so he'll be coming home on an airplane.

Cut one Plane in your main color. Don't worry when it cuts off the top wing. We don't need that one. Cut two of the Plane Solid in whatever color you want to show through the windows. This will also cut off the top wing.

Check your Parts page before cutting to make sure everything is still hidden that needs to be hidden. You need the bottom wing, tail wing and propeller in one image. The other image should have the top wing welded to two rounded rectangles. Check out Narelle's blog if you need help with the Hide Contour feature. And cut the Parts in your accent color.

You may want to cut the full plane out to help you align the wing in the correct place (May want... tab).

Go ahead and attach your gift card to the middle section of the card (glue dots work great), add your message on the bottom section and fold. Glue your two solid planes together making sure that you do not glue where the card goes in. Watch where the bottom of the card will go because it is a tight fit and you don't want to close it up. Glue the detailed plane on top, add wings and propeller, insert card and add tail number if desired. I was running late and used my label maker for the tail number.

My card looks different in the photo as I have redesigned it since then. Also, I used George to make the card because I prefer the rounded corners. However, you could replace those two George pieces with a rectangle from Plantin Schoolbook if you don't have George.

Yes, Katie LOVED it! And we can't wait to meet Luke!

Airplane Gift Card

Happy flying,
Jill

Welcome Baby

I actually started this one before the rattle but got stuck and had to come back to it. Once again, it can be cut on any of the machines. It's come down to 3 files; it was just easier. One is for George and Basic Shapes, the other for Plantin Schoolbook and the third has all of the pages for both. They also use New Arrival.

Cut the bottle in your main color. It will cut the nipple and ring from the bottle itself. Cut two bases in the color you want to show through the slits of the bottle. The base will also cut off the nipple and ring. All you need is the bottle.

Click on the card page and look carefully. How many nipples do you see? If you see two, use the Hide Contour feature to hide the left one. For some reason, the hide is not staying when I save the file. To be on the safe side, make sure the right ring and its slits are still hidden too. If you need help with this feature, visit Narelle at Cricut Lovers Guide to Design Studio.

Cut the card in the color you want for the nipple.

Click on the Neck page, make sure the nipple is hidden and cut the ring.

OK, assembly time! Glue the two bases together ONLY along the edges and NOT at the top. Make sure the bottom part of the card will fit between the two bases. Glue the bottle onto the base (including at the top). Layer the ring onto the card. Attach your gift card to the middle section of the card (glue dots work great for this), write your message on the lower section, fold and insert between the two bases. Embellish as desired. All done!

(Note 2/15/09--Hide Contour problem has been resolved and files should be problem free.)

Baby Bottle Gift Card
Baby Bottle w/ George
Baby Bottle w/ Plantin

Jill