Paper Dolls Altered Jewelry Box

I found an old black jewelry box at a yard sale a few months ago for 25 cents.  The exterior was scratched and faded and the inside had very old, yucky padding where it had most likely once held a necklace.  I wasn't sure what to use the box for at the time but felt inspired to renovate it and then hope an idea came later.

Started out painting the outside with a fresh coat of black acrylic craft paint. After that was dry, I used a stencil and applied molding paste to both the front and back cover.  Allowed that to dry and then painted the molding paste design with various colors of Golden acrylic paints.  Added a large Prima flower and some ribbon and called it done.

I removed the old insides and cut some Tim Holtz paper to size for the background and also a front pocket.  Added some machine stitching for decor.

Once the box was done, I just stuck a few Tim Holtz tags inside and sat it on display in my craft room.

Recently while looking through some clip art on the internet I came across some cute vintage paper dolls.  This brought back a flood of memories as I had quite a paper doll collection when I was young. I wondered how well the Cricut Explore would do with the print then cut feature and gave it a try.  I started by upping the resolution to 300 dpi in Photoshop Elements and making color adjustments.  This made the clip art a bit less grainy and more vibrant.  I imported into Design Space as a jpg and used the clean up tool to remove the background then proceeded with the print then cut.  It worked fairly well except for some jagged cuts around the images.  I am looking into ways to eliminate that from future attempts as I plan on cutting out lots of different paper dolls. 

The banner along the bottom is a Tim Holz die and the lettering was cut on the Explore using the Lyrical Letters 2 Slab font.  A bit of gel pen work was added to create stitches and highlights.

Lastly, I glued dresses on some Tim Holtz hanger clips and hung them from a piece of jute strung across the top left of the box.  Used a high pop up dot to keep the dresses from falling off or swinging around.

This project was fun because it was an original idea (with borrowed clip art) for an enjoyable process of trial and error with no idea how it would all turn out.

 

Little Piggy Bank Card

The Cutting Cafe just released a set of really cute "shaker" type cards for use on cutting machines.  There are seven different designs in the set - Piggy Bank (pictured), Gumball Machine, Air balloon, Baby Rattle, Candy, Flower and a Ladybug.  It also includes a small box the dimensional card will fit into for gift giving.

Assembly was fairly simple with the aide of Regina Easter's You Tube video tutorial.  The most time consuming part was uploading and resizing the images into Cricut Design Space.

There are a few minor tweaks I will do next time.  I think the tail should be elevated more and not flat on the card so will use pop dot pieces or another method to achieve that look.  I would also like to come up with a few different sentiments to make the card more versatile. 

I'm looking forward to making all seven designs in this series.  Lots of fun!

Explosion Box

If you aren't a member of the Facebook group Cricut Lovers Guide to Design Space, join now!  There are some amazingly talented women who love to help and share projects and ideas.  The project below is a Design Space file from a truly wonderful gal - Jackie Russet.  I think it is one of the prettiest takes on an explosion box that I've seen.

The little box in the middle is so perfect for jewelry and other small gifts. I plan on making three more of them for my grand daughters and daughter in law. I'm going to put a cute Wish necklace in each box.  The necklace has a small paper scroll and a few beads inside and you write your wish on the scroll and seal it up in the bottle.  Who knows.....maybe their wishes will come true.

 

Easter Grouping

I've determined that I'm a lazy crafter.  A couple 2 or 3 hours tops is the optimum amount of time I want to spend on a project.  Anything more than that and it feels more like work instead of fun.  Now, this may change once I retire and have more free time. As long as I am a working girl, I do prefer quickies. 

The projects below are good examples of what I consider fast and fun projects.  The pink Bunny box pushed the boundaries a little bit and took a a while longer but in this case was worth it because it is just so darn cute.

I've also determined that I'm a cheapskate crafter.  Often my projects don't look as stunning or picture perfect as they could because I'm too cheap to use my good paper.  <blushing>   I use a lot of my 8.5 x 11 paper that I get for cheaps at Michael's when it's on sale.  Often, the colors aren't perfect and I'll settle for the wrong shade so I don't have to break into my "premium" stacks of 12 x 12. It kills me to do so!  Is that wrong?!

Am I the only one with these quirks?

The bunnies on each end are Silhouette files, the yellow basket is from my Cricut DS subscription and of course the infamous bunny box that everyone has been making is from SVG Cuts.

Easter Bunny Belly Box

Only a few more days until Easter!  The projects have been fun - cute bunnies and chicks in soft spring pastels.  It lets me know that summer is just around the corner. 

Belly Boxes are fast and easy to assemble and look adorable.  Will fill this cute chick with colorful candies and use for decor Easter Sunday.

Silhouette File

Easter Shadow Box Card

I have purchased many shadow box cards through my Silhouette subscription but haven't gotten around to making one until last night.  This one is by designer Daniela Angelova.  She has the most beautiful designs - especially her cards.  I do wish she would offer instructions as I was unable to find any on the Silhouette site or her blog.  Tried searching You Tube and found a similar tutorial by Lori Whitlock but there was a glitch in her video and the end part was cut off and that was the part I was having problems figuring out.  Arghhhh!! The card is supposed to be able to fold flat in either direction so that it will fit in an envelope.  That was the tricky part.  After much trial and error finally figured it out.  If I can get my camera to cooperate, I'll try to post a mini tutorial in a few days in case anyone else needs help. 

Mouse in the House

Someone on the Cricut Lover's Guide to Design Space FB page had posted a cute pic of a mouse hole that she found on the internet and cut from vinyl.   I thought it was cute so I went and found the same image and then a few more and did a mouse village in my craft room.  It was very simple - just searched for the term Mouse Hole Silhouette png and then searched images.

Tip: Always try to find and use png images when looking for art over the internet because then the background is clear and there is no erasing and clean up. 

At first I intended to cut just one mouse hole from black vinyl but was having too much fun so kept creating until I had an entire mouse street.  Thought the black cat was a nice touch too.  I have to admit that the first black cat I was going to use looked like it was about to pounce and it creeped me out a little bit - a real evil looking cat.  Decided I didn't want that vibe going on in my happy craft room so went back and searched for a kinder, gentler version. 

The entire project took only about 3 hours.  This included searching for images, importing them into Make The Cut and converting to svg files, exporting and re-opening in Cricut Design Space. Had absolutely no issues with the Cricut Explore cutting the vinyl perfectly and because the images were large and chunky there was not much time spent weeding.  The mice are so easy to do that I didn't even need transfer tape for them.  Just used them like a sticker.

I mentioned in my post on Cricut Lover's FB page that I thought about adding captions to each scene - some thought bubbles above some of the characters because I can imagine what they might be thinking or saying.  Yes, I need to get out of the house more probably....hehehe.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.  Do you think it would look too cluttered if I added more?

The timid mouse hiding in the hole staring at the cat is my favorite scene. I can imagine the small mouse thinking "Feet don't fail me now!"

One mouse family has put their home up for sale due to location.  Too close to the cat!  Far left and cut out of the picture is an adult mouse trying to gather up the babies who are headed towards the cat.

This mouse family appear to be comfortable enough to be outside and visiting despite the cat down the street. The two women mice are obviously gossiping.....but what about I wonder?

The pictures don't do it justice because the whole thing is about 10 feet long and in a semi - L shape.  Thank you for stopping by to look.  I have a few more projects to share as soon as I get the pics taken.