Playing with my Cricut

Recently I bought a Cricut Expression. I love that I can cut up to 12 x24 if I want to, though just cutting 12x12 is exciting enough for me. I've only got a few cartridges -- and I can see that I'm going to be buying a lot more.

For this page I borrowed the Summer Vacation catridge from a friend as it offers a Ferris wheel shape, perfect for my neighborhood! I glittered it with Martha Stewart glitter so that it very nearly resembles the real thing!

One of things I don't like about the Cricut is the inability to change the weight of the fonts. For the word 'hood' I wanted some letters that were hefty but not tall and my Cricut would not let me do that with the font cartridge I own. So I turned to my Wishblade to cut all the words in the title shown here as it allows me to stretch my letters in any direction I so choose. The Wishblade's downfall is the steep learning curve and though I've had it for 4 or 5 years now, I've never been able to cut anything on it but titles and circles.

So for ease of use, the Cricut is the winner hands down. I can't wait to get some more cartridges so I can get scrappin'! If anyone wants to know what's on my Christmas list this year, just let me know!

4th of July Hanabi

I had a lot of fun doing this layout of my grandson Gavin watching the fireworks last year in Okinawa, Japan. The holiday is important to our family - not just for it's patriotic aspect - but because we have 4 people within our family that celebrate their birthdays on July 4 and 5th.

I chose the colors for Monica's July Summer Challenge at Memories, Always Forever. Click the link on my sidebar to take you to this great new site. This layout, though based on a digital layout by KellyCali at SB.com, uses so many of the supplies I had on hand. The circles are cut with my Wishblade, but any circle cutter would do the trick. I used lots of buttons as per the Pile It On Challenge blogspot. Here is list of my supplies.

Bazzill cardstock in Red, White, Blue and Black
Karen Foster Sparkle Burst Brads
Bo Bunny Brads in blue and red
K & company Brenda Walters Rhinestones
Dress it Up Color Me White buttons
Junkitz Alphabet Buttons
Smartz Geo Shapes Paper Clips
ColorBok metal dots
Liquid Pearls in Ruby Red and White Opal
Stickles Waterfall
Red, white and blue glitter glues from the 100 yen store
Making Memories Dot letters in black and white
Blue Gel Writer
Fiskars Border Punch
plus assorted left over brads and eyelets from my stash.