Merry Christmas!

I know that it has been awhile since I posted on this blog and now I am receiving strange emails telling me that I need to post on the blog and I am allowed only one blog, etc. They say they are from the blog host and maybe they are, so I am making sure to post today, but the emails looked weird and I'm not responding to them in case they are "fake".

So Merry Christmas to all and I hope that you find time to play between the holidays. I don't think I will have much time for playing as my days are pretty booked up.

HOw about a little HAUL information? I went to Michael's looking for crystal Martha Stewart Tinsel glitter. They were out of it but a K & Company paper stack called "Let it Snow" called to me and it was 50% off because it is Christmassy. Later in the week, I went to another Michael's and found the glitter, plus two boxes of decorated background cards by Recollections, also on sale at 50% off and I can't wait until I have time to play with them and start my 2011 Christmas cards.

And, I received an order that contained Distress Stickles in Brick Red and Peeled Paint, a Scotch 2M Advanced Tape Glider kit, and the Tim Holtz Snowman die! It's been a Merry Christmas for me already!

Embossing with the Cricut

Today I decided to play with something I had seen in a You Tube video from Joys life.com, which is embossing with my Cricut Expression. I just played and don't know if I will actually use this technique, but here are my experimental results. It was fun to try.

The blue sample is cardstock, which is so-so and the machine actually tore the paper a bit. The silver sample is foil paper and it shreds. The pink sample is Shimmer Sheetz and it does a nice job on that. The gold sample is thin metal foil which didn't give all smooth lines. Finally, the copper is thicker metal foil and embossed well. Unfortunately, you do get marks from the rubber rollers in the machine and there are some stray lines made by the blade as it moves to a different position and doesn't raise high enough over the already embossed portion. The roller marks can be avoided in your design if the design is small enough to fit between the rubber rollers.

To do this technique, you simply remove the regular blade from the blade houseing unit and then re-insert it upside down. You need to place some kind of embossing mat on top of your regular Cricut mat. The video I watched suggested a Spellbinder embossing mat, but since I didn't have one, I used some old Ellison embossing rubber. I am not sure if it is the same exact thickness. The material that you want to emboss is taped on top of this embossing mat and you put it into the Cricut machine and proceed as usual. Warning: This is not a technique from Provocraft, so it has the potential to damage your machine and void your warranty.

Updated the ribbon flowers!

I realized that I posted the photo of the ribbon flowers last night, without the stems!

Here's the photo with more flowers and the stems. I think the stems flourish with this die set is fabulous! I think I will be using this stem with other flowers and also as a stand alone in designs.

Shimmer Sheetz and die cuts and ribbon, Oh My!

Well, last night I decided to play with my new Creatables ribbon flower die set. I cut the flowers out of some shimmery cardstock and then pulled out the Shimmer Sheetz and cut some out of metallic red and White Iris. You thread ribbon through little slots in the die cut and fasten them together with brads. Of course, I had to stop at Michael's today and buy some more brads because I have all mini brads at home and needed larger. Aren't they fun? I can't wait to start using them on cards. I plan to take them with me when I go to stamp camp to use.

Trying again. I think it worked this time!

Hello Again,
I think I know how to add a photo so I am going to try. The photo that I am trying to add is a page spread from an Altered book round robin that I worked on. I used my Cricut, Design Studio, and the Christmas cartridge on this and liked the way it turned out. Check it out.

I did it!

Well, I can't believe it but I have set up a blog! I don't know how often I will get around to updating it, but people have asked me if I have a blog and I'm going to try to figure out how to post photos here. Wish me luck!