Angel Paper Dolls with the Cricut Explore

Yesterday I spent the morning with my two little neighbors while their mother was helping on a school field trip with their brother.  When we made the plan, I said we could make something while they were visiting ... maybe some paper dolls.  Well, four year old girls do not forget about the promise of a paper doll, so, as soon as they arrived, Emma and Claire wanted to get started making something.

After they spent a little time coloring and playing with the cat, I got out my laptop and opened the Design Space so we could choose which paper doll to make.

I pulled up the image library and choose the Paper Doll Dress Up image set.  The girls had fun looking at all of the choices and, after considering lots of possibilities, they settled on the very first image - the doll dressed as an angel.

One of my favorite things about using the Design Space and the Cricut Explore is that you can see full color assembled images when you look at a cartridge or image set.  This is so much simpler than having to flip through the handbook or the keypads on the screen to find all of the layers for a complicated image like one of the paper dolls.

As soon as you choose the image and size it, you can move to cutting out all of the pieces in the colors you like.  The most time consuming thing is selecting the papers. The girls wanted to draw their own faces on the dolls so I clicked the "contour" button and hid all of the cut lines for the faces.

We decided to make one angel with a pink dress and purple wings and one with a purple dress and pink wings.  I had two angels in the work space so I clicked on the "Sync" button and dragged one set of wings to the purple color and one dress to the pink color.

After you click "Go" at the top of the screen, the images all are sorted by color and placed on the necessary number of mats.  This is another big time-saver.  All you have to do is to click through the mats to be sure that everything is placed where you want it.

I thought that the gold images were not set up to make the best use of space so I rotated one halo and necklace set and moved it to fit closer to the first set.

I didn't take any photos while we were cutting out the dolls but the girls both enjoyed pushing the arrow button and the cut button when they flashed for each mat.  In no time at all, we had all of the pieces cut and ready to assemble.  The Design Space makes it very easy to move from choosing the image to cutting - no matter how many pieces there are in the design.

Emma and Claire each drew the face on their doll.  I thought it was very cute that the two angels seem to be looking at each other and don't you love those eyelashes!

Both girls were happy to pose outside for a photo with their dolls.  I think we'll be making more of these - and I already have a request to make the unicorn next time!

I hadn't really thought much about how the Explore makes crafting easier with kids until we did this project.  It was so nice to have the images all on the screen and in color.  I remember sometimes it would take quite a while to find and place all of the little pieces you need for one of these dolls.  We were able to move from choosing to cutting very quickly - which is great when you are working with two four year olds who really want to have their doll made now!

Free Cricut Images and Sales this week...

I am an affiliate for Cricut and when you shop by clicking on these links I may earn a commission on the sale.  Your price does not change.  I appreciate it when you support my blog by using these links.

Father's Day is coming and the free images this week are perfect for Father's Day projects.  These images will be available in the Cricut Craftroom and the Design Space until June 11th.

There are also some great sales this week on the Cricut website including several Cricut Explore bundles.   Standard shipping in the US on orders over $35 is free with the code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

Cartridges for Babies, Birthdays and Weddings are 40% off - click HERE to go to the sale page.

Some older and rare cartridges including Toy Story, Cars and Sugar & Spice are also on sale - click  HERE to see the cartridges that are included.

There are also six "Top Picks" cartridges available for only $19.99, including Disney Classics, Mickey and Friends and the adorable Teddy Bear Parade cartridge.  See all six HERE.

Have a wonderful Thursday.  If you get a chance, do a craft project with your kids or a young friend - it's a lot of fun to see things through their eyes and I think you'll have a great time - I know I did yesterday!

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Front Door Hello - Inspired by Pinterest

Today I have a quick and simple project to share.  It involves just a couple of words but it has a big impact as people enter and leave your home.

My mother-in-law got an email from Pinterest showing these front doors with the  greeting "hello." applied in vinyl.  She asked me if I could make her a similar sign and of course I said "sure thing!"

When I did a search for "front door hello vinyl" on Pinterest I found many more examples.  I liked the idea of adding "goodbye." to the inside of the door.

This project can be done with any die-cutting machine that will accept true type fonts.  I chose the "Sweetheart Script" font.  You can choose whatever font you like for your door.  There are some great Cricut fonts that would work nicely if you have the Cricut Image Subscription or you own one of the cartridges with some script fonts.

I used transfer tape to place the words neatly on each side of the door.  You should be sure that the surface is clean before you try to adhere the vinyl.

The "goodbye." on the inside is a little smaller because there are both ascending and descending letters.  Since the inside of the door is white, I used a red similar to the outside door color for the word.

I set up both words to cut on a single mat with my Silhouette machine.  Each word occupies an area of about 5 x 8 inches.  I added a few extra dots for the period after each word - just to be on the safe side since these are so easy to lose!

This is an easy project to make and my mother-in-law was pleased with the way it turned out.  She was having some people over for a dinner and many of the visitors noticed and commented on the words.

I am going to have a busy morning - my little friends from up the street are staying with me while their Mom chaperones a field trip with their brother.  I wonder what crafty projects we will get up to?
Have a great Wednesday!

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New in the Garden

It's been a while since I shared photos of our garden.  Yesterday was a lovely day and I grabbed my camera and took a walk around the yard.  I hope you enjoy these photos.

Last Saturday there was a terrible plane crash at Hanscom Field, the airport in Bedford, MA, which is just a few miles away from our home.  All seven people on board were killed.  I am sharing these seven photos in their memory.

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Happy 80th Birthday!

 

Today is my father-in-law's 80th birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!  We had a big family celebration last night and whenever someone said "Happy 80th," he said "almost..." Well the day has now arrived!

I made this box card using the basic box file from SVGCuts and I added a variety of birthday images to make the layers.  Everything was cut with the Cricut Explore.  The candles, hat and balloons are from the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge and the cake is from the Sweet Shop cartridge.  Both of these cartridges are included in the Cricut Image Library Subscription.  I cut the "80" and the scalloped circle on the front with Sizzix and Nestabilities dies.  The "80" is cut from white glitter cardstock but the glitter doesn't show up clearly in these photos.

Once you have made a few box cards, it is fun to choose your own elements to add.  There are two dividers in this box plus the front and back images for a total of four layers.

When you are selecting your designs, it is a good idea to layer them in the order you will place them in the box.  Here is a screen shot showing my plan for the card layers.  You can reshuffle the layers until you find the best arrangement.  I decided to move the cake in front of the party hat when I assembled the card.

Some of the balloons were cut from textured or patterned cardstock.  I embossed the ones cut from plain cardstock to add some more interest to the card.  I used the Argyle and the D'vine Swirl folders.  I made the card with a lot of really bright colors - just for fun!

The cake was delicious - chocolate upon chocolate!

When he was opening the card, Dad asked if it was going to pop out at him - I had to say that, in fact, it was!  Here he is with his card at the party last night.

Happy 80th Dad!

We had beautiful weather this weekend - which was a good thing since we were helping our younger son and his girlfirend with their move to a new apartment.  Everything worked out great but I am feeling some muscles I forgot I had!  Happy June - I hope it will be a wonderful month for everyone!

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Apple of My Eye Card (last chance for the May Stamp of the Month)

It's nearly the end of May - how did that happen?  This month is always a busy one and this year it was busier than usual for us.  We were away for 10 days and there were lots of changes for our family (all good things - new job, new apartment for our younger son and a first home purchase for our son and daughter-in-law).  So I have not been a daily blogger this month but I have lots of things planned for June.

When the Spring/Summer Close to My Heart catalog came out earlier this year, I found a lot of things that I liked.   Beautiful papers, new products for pocket scrapping, jewelry items and lots of stamps sets.  You can see all of the sticky markers I put in the catalog that my friend Joy Tracey sent to me!

One of my very favorite things was this stamp set - and I had to wait until May to get it!  This is the Stamp of the Month for May and you can only buy it in May.  The nice thing is that you can buy the Stamp of the Month for just $5 if you spend $50 on other items (not hard to do!). These are always the large stamp sets that sell for $17.95, so it is a great deal!

This month there is a double deal because, in celebration of National Scrapbooking Month, you can also buy a very nice set of papers for just $5 with that same $50 purchase (regular price $11.95).

This set does not coordinate to one of the CTMH Cricut cartridges (Art Philosophy, Artiste and Artbooking), so I created my own cut files by scanning the cover sheet into my Silhouette software and tracing the images to create outlines (for details on how to do this please see THIS POST).

I created a file with several of each stamp shapes and cut it from an 8 /12 x 11 sheet of white cardstock.  Here is the cut preview of the shapes.

The shapes cut perfectly (don't mind my dirty mat - and yes I do sometimes use my Cricut mats in the Cameo, you just have to place your cardstock slightly higher on the mat to compensate for the difference in mat size).

I like the chalkboard look of these images and my absolute favorite is the "apple of my eye" stamp.  My husband's family has an apple farm and we have a great affinity for all things apple!

I remembered this cardstock from an older DCWV stack (the Sweet Stack - I bought several of them when it came out and still have lots to use up!).  The apples along the bottom work perfectly for my card.  I matted the stamped apple sentiment on two scalloped circles cut with Nestabilities petite scalloped circle dies.  The top layer is also cut from the Sweet Stack and the lower layer is Core'dinations Core Couture glitter cardstock (to match the glittery apples along the bottom of the card).

I used foam dots to raise the top circle and the stamp just a bit.  Once you have created the file for the stamp mats you can use them over and over.

If you love these stamps too - you need to hurry over to Joy's Close to My Heart site because when May is over they will be gone.  So that means you have to shop today or tomorrow!  Remember, you can buy this set for $17.95 or get it for only $5 with a $50 purchase.  You will add it to your shopping cart after you have spent $50 or more to get the special price.

Have a great weekend - we have a big birthday celebration this weekend (more about that soon...)

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