Pardon me, I've gone CRICUT CRAZY!

CRAZY!  TOTALLY CRAZY FOR CRICUT!

Yeahp- you saw that right- I'm shouting, not just typing all in CAPS, email-from-Mom-style.

Why am I so Cricut-Crazy tonight?

Maybe you're something like me- prone to excitement, a tad obsessive and suffering from a severe case of SILHOUETTE envy.

You know what SILHOUETTE envy is-  it's the feeling you get when you're cruising the scrapblogs with your mouth open, drooling a bit over all the classy cuts the Silhouette can do...

Then, you turn to your Cricut.  It's sittin' at its spot.  Staring at you, like a kid with a runny nose.

Before I get too far with my story, let's take a trip down memory lane.

I got my first Cricut a little over a year ago.  It was the 'baby' Cricut.  Is that the Cricut Create?  The Cricut Personal Cutter?  I can't remember its official name and I'm too lazy to open a new tab on the old browser here and Google it- but you know what I'm talking about- the 'baby' Cricut that cuts on those 6x12 mats.  Yeah, that one.

I didn't buy my Cricut at a store.  I got it from a scrappy co-worker, who had recently upgraded to the Expression.  I kinda lucked into CricutLand.  She even gave me a cartridge (Home Accents).  My first Cricut and my first cartridge!  What a day!  Because I have such an obsessive personality, I didn't have 'just one cartridge' for long.  That evening, I was combing Wal-Marts and lucked into a couple of 'lite' cartridges in the clearance aisle for 7.00 each.  I also scored DON JUAN.  I'm guessing someone tore up the box for the Cricut machine it was packaged with- as an employee had found it and it's keypad overlay and taped them together.  The cashier didn't know what to do with a box-less, no book-no machine cartridge so she let me have it for 7.00, too.

I was hooked!  I loved cutting things out.  I'd cut things out just to watch the machine cut them out.  When I saw (about two months later) that MICHAELS was going to sell the BRAND SPANKIN' NEW and beautiful CRICUT EXPRESSION 2 at their 'open at 4pm on Thanksgiving DAY sale,' I took that as a sign that YES, I must buy it...  So, after Thanksgiving din-din, I bugged my Mom into braving Michaels with me.  And BRAVING, it was.  The place was packed.  And crazy.  As I cruised aisles with my CE2 in my cart, no less than SEVEN women started up conversations with me by saying, 'Ohhhhh! You're gonna make a girl happy on Christmas DAYYYYY!'

Yeah.  No less than SEVEN women assumed I was there to buy the thing for a lucky little lady back home.  The first lady, I crushed her excitement by exclaiming, "WHAT? WHO? HUH?  WHAT THE HELL YOU TALKIN' BOUT?!  THIS BE MINES!"  She looked as if I'd hit her with her own knock-off Coach bag.  Huhhhhhh?  I didn't know it provided a vicarious thrill, imagining another lady opening up a Cricut on Christmas morning.

So, the rest, I allowed their joy.  I told great stories.  Nice stories, too.  Nice, sweet stories.  Even while I fought the urge to make up a story like, "Yeah, I'm trying to make it up to her, for sleeping with her sister- hope the new Cricut does the trick!"

Wow- how I digress.

Anyways.  I ended up being the head of a two Cricut household.

But shortly after my big CE2 purchase, I began seeing all these Silhouette cuts on all these kick-ass layouts.  Dangit.

I started shopping for a Silhouette.  No store carried this elusive thing.  I don't know if you're like me and/or I don't know if you know this about me- but I HATE to order things online.  I hate paying for something and waiting for it to arrive.  I go crazy.  And then I usually end up needing a vacation day from work on the scheduled delivery day so that I don't have to risk the mailman putting a slip of paper into my mailbox cuz the box was too big and THEN HAVE TO WAIT LONGER TIL I CAN MAKE IT TO THE POST OFFICE DURING THE TEN MINUTES THEY'RE OPEN WHEN I'M NOT AT WORK to pick up my treasures.  Therefore- I've remained Silhouette-less.

But this week, something magical happened.

I began to USE my CE2 again.  While cruising online for Cricut tips, I downloaded the newest Cricut Craft Room software onto my MacBook.  I know this isn't a brand new thing and you're probably gonna shout "WHAT'S NEW AND EXCITING ABOUT THAT?!"

Well, it's NEW to me.  Not so new to me, as I used the 'online only web version' a tiny bit, in the past, while pretending to be working but really just playing at the office.  But now, with the app on my computer- I had a brainstorm.  A real hurricane.  (Sorry, East coast.)

See that?!  Silhouette style frames with attached WORDS!  Yeah!  And IT'S EASY!  Click on an image.  Resize it.  Size it.  Weld letters to it.  Make a new shape by sticking another shape on its side.  (Note to my readers: going forward, I have changed the terminology.  'Sticking' means 'welding.'

And there's those cute little effers all cut out.  I'm in love.

Couldn't stop cutting all night.  There's an arrow with a word attached! 

And...well, I'll stop with the show-n-tell, now.  It just kinda went on like that for hours and hours- 'designing' in the Cricut Craft Room, cutting and squealing like a pig in CARRIE.

Thank you, Cricut Craft Room.  You made me love my Cricut again.  I still want a Silhouette.  Sure, I do.  But I no longer feel like the ugliest scrapper at the crop.

-kory

BOO! A Halloween Banner

I can't get enough Halloween.  It's always been my favorite holiday.  I love going into every costume shop that I drive past.  Even though they are all almost identical and stocked with most of the same exact product- I'm still thrilled.  The only thing I don't like about Halloween stores are the dip$h!ts blocking an aisle while they giggle over the "Dr. Seymour Snatch, Gynecologist" costume, as if they've never seen it before or as if it were even hilarious.

I also like to decorate for Halloween.  I usually go through obsessions with a specific 'item.'  For many years, I had to make a scarecrow for the front porch.  One year, it was ghosts.  One year, it was 'googly eyes.'  You know those plastic googly eyes?  I thought I HAD TO GLUE THEM TO EVERYTHING.  Initially, I only bought them so I could glue them to a kleenex.  After I'd wrapped the kleenex around the top of the Tootsie Pop, of course.  But then, I couldn't stop.  I glued those eyes to everything. 

What am I obsessed with this year?   The same thing everyone else in the craftosphere has been obsessed with for a year- BANNERS AND GARLANDS!!!

I would love to think of myself as being so unique and cool as to avoid a trend.  But I'm not.  I like a trend as much as the next hexagon-hugger.  And banners are so freakin' cool.

So here it is, Kory's Halloween Banner:

As you can see, it only says BOO.  My first 'want' was to do an entire HAPPY HALLOWEEN banner- but then I thought of all the letters.  So BOO it was.  Not that I'm lazy, I just didn't know where I'd hang such a monstrosity.  (get it?)

I wasn't content to just hang the pennants on a string.  I've been dying to use my new Tim Holtz stamps, from Stampers Anonymous: CLASSICS #6.  They look like borders- filled with distressed text and all kinds of beautifulness.  I stamped the 'crown' strip looking one a few times onto some manila cardstock and cut them apart.  Then, with about five different colors of Distress Inks, I colored them into some nice fall shades and flicked some water on them for some splotchy creepy beauty.

Here's some close ups of each flag:

I used a slightly smaller sized pennant for the 'end-caps.'  After cutting each pennant, thank you Spellbinders, I embossed the edge.  You know, as you do and as is the beauty of Spellbinders.  However, I don't emboss with my Spellbinders the way everyone else (and the way Spellbinders say to do it).  It just seems like so much trouble to run the things through a second time with the rubber mat to get the embossed edge- especially for such a simple shape.  After I run the die through to cut the paper, I just lay it on the table and run my stylus along the edge of the die- and zip, zip, zip- each one is embossed.  Takes seconds! 

Then, I stamped the pennant with a wood background stamp and inked the edges.

For the cat's base, I used a plain 'scalloped circle.'  I painted it with some plain white acrylic paint, distressed and inked the edges and stamped with a Tim Holtz text stamp from one of the new Halloween sets. 

I cut the cat with some black KraftCore the small Movers and Shapers die and roughed it up with some sandpaper Then, I spent about an hour obsessing over and admiring the beautiful wonder that is KraftCore.  How amazing is this stuff?!

I cut the letters out of more KraftCore, using my Cricut and the Happy Hauntings cartridge.  I sanded them, inked randomly and smeared some Rock Candy stickles on each letter. 

I took some plain twine (from Dollar Tree- I love their 'kitchen twine!) and colored it with some Brushed Pewter Metallic and Bard Door Distress Stains.  I threaded the twine through the tops of each pennant and then put the entire thing together with the border strips with some brads.  Now that I'm looking at it again, I wish I'd pulled out my Texture Hammer and banged those brads a bit!  Oh well, there's always tonight.  No, there's not TONIGHT.  Tonight, I've gotta run home, finish sewing my Halloween costume (I'm gonna be a werewolf) and go to a Halloween party.  Yeah- I made my own costume with some fake fur (what a mess) and my sewing machine.  It was like Project Runway up in that house last night!

Supplies:

Cardstock:

     Plain Manila

     KraftCore: Black

    

Sizzix: Tim Holtz

Cat/Raven Movers and Shapers

Spellbinders: Nestabilities

     Scalloped Circles

     Lacey Pennants

     Lacey Circles

Stamps:

     Stampers Anonymous: Tim Holtz, Classics #6

     Mini Halloween 3

Cricut Expression 2 and HAPPY HAUNTINGS cartridge

Distress Inks:

     Vintage Photo

     Aged Mahogany

     Rusty Hinge

     Black Soot

     Dusty Concord

     Frayed Burlap

     Scattered Straw

Distress Stains:

     Brushed Pewter Metallic

    Barn Door

Twine: from Dollar Tree

Brads

White Acrylic Paint

Sandpaper

Show Bidness!

If you're keeping up with me, here, you'll know that I'm a stage manager.  For live shows.  You know- theatre.  Mostly for plays.  Musicals are much more work.  I stage managed a long run of the rock musical, HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH and it so many cues that I nearly lost my mind.  Well, what's left of my mind.  Non-musicals are so much easier to work on!  

As I move from show to show, I like to keep things that remind me of them- photos, cards from actors, ticket stubs, playbills, maybe even a prop or two that I manage to run off with...anything!  I've been working at building a nice album, full of my 'Show Bidness Memories.' 

The play I'm working on right now, opened last Friday night.  I loved the advertising postcards/flyers for the show.  The day I got them, I sat down at my worktable and got to work.  One more page for my album! 

The bright colors of the flyers really seemed to set me free from the stark and/or monochromatic style that I'm usually attracted to- 

I sat down in my pile of papers and found this bright pink paper from CRATE.  I love CRATE, lately.  The backside of this pink paper was a dark brown with a cool minimal design on it- I guess that is why I bought it, but I love that I've ended up using the unexpected (to me) side!

I also have a love for the shape of a postage stamp.  I cut the large photo mat, with my Black Friday Cricut Expression 2 and my latest cartridge, 'Elegant Edges.'  What a great cartridge.  I also used my Cricut to cut the rolodex card shape behind the photo on the left.  I found this great shape on the 'Graphically Speaking' cartridge.  Another great cartridge to have!  I love these kinds of shapes.  Anything that reminds me of office supply gives me a thrill.  Why?  I don't know.  I'll explore that with a therapist.

The part of this page that I had the most fun with?  The borders.  I lined them up all in a row.  They're from a pack of borders from K & CO.  EVERY border in this set is terrific.  The set is called CUT N PASTE.  Check them out: 

Photo from K&CO: http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/kandcompany

See the one that looks like a big film strip?  You gotta see it in person.  I've got to go back to MICHAELS and pick up another package of these...or another two package of these...

I love this 'New Vintage' look that has really taken off.  Will it replace my love for the beautiful grunge from Mr. Holtz?  No.  But, clean, modern retro is really winning over my heart.

There ya go, a page from my 'Shows' album!  If you wanna come to OKC and catch a show, let me know.  I'll take you to the Hobby Lobby outlet in the morning.  ;-)

Later!

-kory