Cricut Chevrons, and Hexagons, and Baby Stuff Too!

**Update--This project is back after being published in the 2013 Cricut Babies Idea Book . If you can't see the card images try refreshing your browser.**

Over the weekend I made a fun discovery. I was glancing through the Letter Envy Cricut Cartridge looking for a cut to catch my eye and inspire some cards I wanted to make, and I found both chevron and hexagon background cuts! Yeah! I've wanted more options for these shapes and  I just fell in love with these two cuts on this cartridge!

I used them as background for these two baby cards.

On the front of these cards I used some clothing cuts from the Baby Steps Cartridge. The ribbon is by American Crafts and the baker's twine by Queen and Company.

I actually decorated the inside of my cards this time as well. The booties are a continuation of the dress cut on the front, and the sentiment is from the Creative Memories Stork's Delivery Cartridge. 

All of the patterned papers for these cards comes from the Cricut Imagine Elsie Cartridge. I flood filled the images from the Baby Steps and Stork's Delivery Cartridges and cut them on my Cricut Imagine. I love how easy the Imagine makes designing Cricut cuts! So fast and simple!

I cut the chevron and hexagon patterns out on my Cricut Mini. I wielded a plain matching shape from Letter Envy to the intricate cuts to make the card base with my Gypsy. I love how well the Cricut Mini handled the tiny intricate cuts from these patterns. The Mini really is a great machine!

More cuts from Baby Steps and Stork's Delivery for this inside of the boy version as well.

Thanks for letting me share!

She Loves Grandma's Quilt

I admit I was very eager to scrapbook these photos from Claire's newborn photo shoot. They are some of my favorites because they mean more to me than just a cute photo of my daughter. When I look at them I see the love my mother has for her grand kids. She pours so much time, effort, and love into each of the quilts she makes them and I was so happy to have images that capture the feeling I get when I see her special  creations. She is such a fun and wonderful grandma and I truly hope my kids will know how lucky they are to have her as friend and example in their life.

The papers and stickers here are from the Echo Park So Happy Together line, the title was done with the my Cricut and the Simply Sweet and Cricut Alphabet Cartridges, and all those fun hexagons were made with Creative Memories new Hexagon Punch--one of my all time favorite tools!

The journaling on this layout reads: "Every time a new grandchild is born grandma makes each of them a beautiful quilt. These quilts are true labors of love and they become such treasures to us. Claire is still a little too small to use hers much, but we did use it a little in her newborn photos. I loved the way she just curled up on top of the quilt and took a long nap. Clearly she loves her quilt already! July 2012"

This quilt has an interesting story behind it. Almost 8 years ago when Blake was born my mom spent a week with us in Las Vegas to help me out. During her stay we made a visit to a local quilt shop and I saw this beautiful quilt kit. Mom and I both just fell in love with it and mom told me she would get it and then if I ever had a girl she would make it for her. 

Well a few years went by and we had another beautiful baby, but a boy. So this kit stayed in the closet and my mom made this amazing quilt for him instead.

After Spencer was born we thought we were done having kids and so I was pretty sure this quilt would end up going to another little girl in the family. 

So when we found out last year that we were having another one and then when we found out it was a girl--I was so excited that my mom still had this kit!

In case you wanted to see a better view of the quilt, here is a photo of my mom holding it up just after she finished it. (Isn't she so talented?!)

I just love the bright colors, the bugs, the chenille accents, and the super soft backing that makes it perfect for cuddling up with Claire underneath it. Thanks mom for making Claire such a treasure!

Swim Like A Fish

Today is the first day of school here and so I'm lamenting the end of summer. Summer is by far my favorite part of the year and normally we spend quite a bit of it soaking up the sun, vacationing and having the time or our lives. With Claire being born in July that kind of made this a different summer for us. We stayed home much more and did a lot less of our usual summer activities. We still have a wonderful time, but this summer was more about cuddling, kissing, and learning all about baby girls than it was about frolicking on the beach. Thankfully in June we did have a family reunion that included a day of beach time. I made this layout about Spencer and his new found love of wave riding on his inflatable lobster with photos from that day.

I used the new Little Yellow Bicycle Splash line for this layout. I loved that it came with a bunch of cute paper embellishments, like these flowers and the banner I put my title on.

I cut my title out with my Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot and some of the fonts on my computer.

The fish come from the Life's A Beach Cartridge.

The journaling reads: "During this year’s reunion you Spencer, had a blast trying your hand at riding the waves on your little inflatable lobster. You used it to mimic your older brothers who were riding the waves on their boogie boards. You laughed and smiled for hours while you ran back and forth catching a ride on the waves every few minute! It was really fun to see you becoming braver and having such a good time."

So as much as I have loved having Claire with us and the fun joys of a new baby, I'm glad we got this fun day of beach time in too! Maybe now that Claire is older we can squeeze in another one before it gets too cold!

Thanks for visiting today!

Welcome Home Claire!

So sorry for the lack of posts. The combination of lack of sleep and the need to spend half my day feeding Claire has made for less blogging time than usual. Still, I have been getting a few projects done and I thought I'd quickly post one today.

This is a layout about the boys welcoming Claire home for the first time. They were so excited to have her here and just showered her with affection and attention.

The papers and stickers are from the new So Happy Together Collection by Echo Park.

I used my Cricut for the title and white accents. The large heart is from the Paper Pups Cartridge, the small hearts from a Martha Stewart Cake Cartridge, and the butterflies from the Art Philosophy Cartridge. I used Sure Cuts A Lot with my Cricut and some fonts on my computer to cut the title.

The journaling reads: "We are so happy Claire, to finally have you here! Your brothers were so excited to have us bring you home from the hospital! I think they were most excited to “show” you the bedroom we prepared for you. They gave you the grand tour explaining every detail to you. They really wanted you to know how loved you are and how much fun they had helping get the house ready for you! July 2012"

Thanks for stopping by today!

Eating in New York City

A couple of summers ago we had the chance to do an East Coast Road trip. It was a lot of fun! We saw so many things and I of course took a ton of photos! It has been taking me a very long time to scrapbook everything from that trip but I recently dig back into these photos. This layout was one I did a few months ago for the Circle blog using some images from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge and the City People Cricut Craft Room Exclusive cartridge.

The journaling reads: "Tasting some simple NY food was a fun part of our day in the city. For lunch we bought hot dogs in Battery Park and for dinner we had pizza in Times Square. Marc didn't care much for the sausage dog he ordered for lunch, however the other hot dogs and especially the pizza was wonderful! The boys loved the giant slices! 6/10"

The papers and embellishments from this layout are all made by Basic Grey from their Wander line. One of my all time favorite lines of theirs!

Thanks for visiting today!

Spencer's iPad Miracle

Last year I did several projects for an upcoming scrapbooking idea book by the always fabulous Courtney Walsh. Sadly we recently heard that the book has been canceled. I don't really mind though as this project gave me the chance to create one of my all time favorite layouts. I thought I'd share it with you today as it is a good starting point to talk just a little bit about Spencer and the wonderful progress he has been making lately.

About a year ago Spencer's understanding of how to communicate using his iPad suddenly took off. He uses an app called Proloquo2go to "talk" to by touching pictures that then give a verbal output. This layout is about what an answer to prayer this was and what a joy it is to have Spencer "talk" to us.

This past year Spencer has continued to make remarkable progress with this program. He says his prayers with it, participates in school and church programs with it, and communicates his wants, desires, and even his little boy potty humor with it. He tells me he loves me daily and calls me "Mom" with it. It melts my heart every time! 

I love to see him exploring the menus and discovering all kinds of new things he wants to discuss with us--it is a continued miracle for him.  We also transitioned him from the iPad to the iPod Touch which he can wear around his neck and keep with him much easier than the heavier, bulkier iPad. I love the window to his soul that this tools gives us for Spencer.

The layout itself features a mix of Cosmo Cricket and My Mind's Eye papers. The papers are also embossed with my Cuttlebug. The puzzle punch and the postage stamp rotary cutting blade are tools made by Creative Memories. I also used their Custom Cutting System for the circles and their Stork's Delivery Cricut Cartridge for the hearts on this page. The letters are by Basic grey, american Crafts and Sassafras Lass.

Thanks for letting me share today!

Surfing Cousins

In June my family had a great time together during our annual family reunion. On our beach day it was really fun to watch the cousins all having a great time riding the boogie boards together. The older boys pretty much spent as much time as possible riding the waves. It reminded me a lot of me and my brother Adam spending every moment we could on our boards when we vacationed in Mexico as teenagers. Good Times!

This layout is another with the fun and summery Echo Park Paradise Beach collection. The beach Cricut Cuts are from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge, and the title was made from fonts on the Birthday Bash and Birthday Cakes cartridges. 

The journaling reads: "For the first time I think all of you boy cousins spent at least some time riding the waves at the beach! In the past some of the younger ones were still a little scarred of the surf, but not this time. Even Spencer and Hyrum caught some waves! Ty, Blake, and Hyrum spent just about every spare moment they could on their boards this time! 6/12"

Goodbye to the Cricut Circle

A sad day for those of us who designed for the Cricut Circle. Today is our final day as designers working for Cricut. They have made some changes as to what is included in the Circle and the designers are now no longer needed. 

I have just loved designing for Cricut! It has been such an amazing opportunity and I have met so many wonderful people as a result of it. I think that is one of the hardest parts of seeing it come to an end--saying goodbye to a truly fabulous team where everyone has been so great to work with. I will also miss the Circle members. They have been such a warm and inspiring group themselves and I will miss getting to know and design for them as well!

I thought that today I'd share Claire's Room with you. I used my Cricut so much in putting it together for her and it seems like a good way to show how much I love (and will continue to love and use) my Cricut.

I wish I had thought to take before and after photos. This room used to be Spencer's nursery, and then for awhile all three boys slept in here with some bunk beds. The walls were blue on the bottom and had a brown stripe going around the room The top half of the wall was a cream color. Once upon a time there were cute animal decals and stars on the walls, but over the years the boys pulled those off in pieces and left the walls quite a mess. There were also several dings in the wall from the rough housing that naturally follows three boys with bunk beds. To say this room needed a little TLC was an understatement.

We started by painting the upper half of the walls a light creamy yellow, and then by adding bead board wallpaper to the bottom half. I LOVED working with this wallpaper! We picked up a couple of rolls at Lowe's and it made a huge difference in the feel of the room, it was also super easy to work with--going onto the walls with ease! Lastly we added some white chair rail around the room.

After getting the walls in shape I started by painting tons of shelves, frames, a dresser, and a cradle (not pictured) white. I wanted to paint the crib white as well, but being 8 months pregnant and knowing it was 90+ degrees outside ended my plans for that!

 So instead of painting, I got to work with my Cricuts and stated on the decorations. My favorite project was the vinyl decor for the walls. I used my Imagine and lots printable vinyl to cut out the images for the walls. 

 I looked at lots of options for vinyl decor online but couldn't find anything I liked in the colors I wanted, so I used my Imagine to print my images in the colors I wanted and some of my favorite cartridges (Walk In My Garden, Live Simply, and Hoot n' Holler) for the shapes.

I loved how it turned out and how much atmosphere it adds to her room!

Above her crib hangs her name made from Hobby's Lobby's Chip Decor and covered in papers cut to the perfect size with the Cricut Chip decor cartridge. It was so fast and easy to cut and cover these chipboard letters with this cartridge! I love it! The roses on the letters were made with the Cricut Craft Room Exclusive, Mother's Day Corsage.

I also used the Chip Decor Cartridge to cover these smaller chipboard letters again from Hobby Lobby.

On this side of her room hangs a ribbon and bow holder. 

I used the same cartridges as the ones for the wall vinyl to design it plus Simply Sweet for her name. Again, flood filling my papers with Imagine patterns helped everything to match.

On the shelf across from the crib are some wall art frames I made, again with the same cartridges as the rest of the room, but this time using up some old Chatterbox papers that I loved, but didn't have a good use for--until we found out we were having a girl!

Each frame is about 10" x 10" and came from the dollar store.

And lastly I also used my Cricut to make these pompadours. I cut hundreds of flowers out using the Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge and pinned them to some Styrofoam balls.

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Thankfully I had it all finished up just in time for her early arrival! 

Thanks for letting me share her room, and for all the wonderful experiences designing for the Cricut Circle! I will miss it so much!

Bluebonnet Hike

Hi everyone! Just a quick share today of another of my layouts for Scrapbook.com. Back in March we were able to spend a few days camping with some family. We had a great time and one of the many fun moments was a hike that unexpectedly ended in a beautiful bluebonnet patch. I used the new Echo Park Sweet Day Collection  and my Cricut for the title.

The journaling reads: "One of my favorite parts of our camping trip was the afternoon hike we took. We picked a random trail to follow and it ended up being a beautiful hike! Little did we know we would stumble upon a gorgeous patch of bluebonnets at the end of it! It was fun taking pictures with the cousins together in the flowers, especially since it was the girls first time seeing a bluebonnet patch! 3/12"

Thanks for stopping by today!

Beach Blasters

Just before Claire was born we had a family reunion here in Texas. One of my favorite days from the reunion  was spent together at the beach. The cousins had a great time playing in the waves and building in the sand. They also had a lot of fun with these water guns.They spent a good amount of time trying (mostly in vain) to spray the seagulls who were intent on stealing our lunch. This made for a lot of fun and a lot of laughs as we adults watched the kids try to ward off these would be lunch thieves. 

The papers and stickers here are from the Echo Park Paradise Beach line and the title and sea horse were cut with my Cricut. 

The journaling reads: "When grandma packed these water guns for our beach trip I'll bet she would not have guessed just how much fun you cousins would have with them! You spent a good amount of our day at the beach using them to scare off the seagulls that seemed intent on eating our picnic lunch. I think you all thought that trying to blast the seagulls with your water guns was some of the most fun you have ever had at the beach! 06/12

Thanks for visiting today and have a great weekend!