Gotta Love The New Gypsy

I recently acquired a Cricut Gypsy. This is a handy little gadget that you load your Cricut Cartridges on and then you can take it with you and create on the fly. My Gypsy has been in the car line, the hospital, doctors offices, the mall, and any place else that I think I might have some down time.

My first impression was that the screen is going to kill me but I quickly learned how to bring things close up and that made things so much easier.

I decided to put this little tool/toy/gadget through the paces. Here is my first project that actually turned into 7 projects in all just with a few adjustments or changes to the original design. Change up the colors and facial details and the Jack-O-Lantern became a Mummy, Dracula, Cat, Frankenstein, or Witch. And then if you think of another holiday you can turn the bag into Santa's belly.

These ideas came from a project I saw on another site and were made from Pillow Boxes. I loved the ides but didn't want to go buy the Pillow Boxes and I wanted to make them in various sizes. (The Halloween bags are one size and the Santa Suit is bigger.)







I am only learning what my Gypsy can and can't do. I would compare it to the Cricut Design Studio (DS) but something that the DS will do the Gypsy won't and visa-versa. Both are wonderful additions to the Cricut machines and have many similarities but also have vast differences.

I will keep playing with my Gypsy and sharing the projects that I am successful making (I may even share a few of my failures because I learn from the mistakes.)

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

A Box For Halloween or For Christmas

I love it when I see something someone makes and then they say let's see what you can do with it. That was the case with this oh so cute Halloween box. Susan from the ScrapyLand Blog has live shows. These are always a how to do something. She finds or invents some of the most awesome things and generally ends with now take it and run with it and let me see what you can do with it.

If you Click HERE it will take you to the ScrapyLand Blog and if you click HERE it will take you right to the video taped live show of this project. She will walk you through making these really cool treat boxes for that someone special.

I went to order the QuicKutz Label Dies that she used and ScrapyLand happened to be out of them so I improvised and used my Cricut to make it but I used my QuicKutz and Boss Kuts Dies to do all of the details on the boxes. Then I took Susan's challenge and decided to make it for another holiday.






Leave me a message of what you think of my version of her Jack-O-Lantern Treat Box and if you go over to ScrapyLand's Blog and watch the video to get the directions leave her a message as well (and tell her where you got it.)

I hope that you will try this cuter than cute idea and come up with something else again.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

She Is A Teacher Now

This is my future Daughter-In-Law Kim. She recently graduated from college and now has her first teaching job. I had to do a lay out in my album just for her. When I saw the new release QuicKutz Paper Dolls I had to have them all and they were perfect for this occasion.



She is teaching at a private school and is loving her new career.

These new QuicKutz Paper Doll Dies are compatible with the ones previously released and add a whole new dimension to lay outs, pages, or other paper projects.

I hope that you will revisit your youth and pick up a few of these dies.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

Trick Or Treat Candy Bag Topper

I have 6 very special children in my life this year that I wanted to make something special for Halloween. So out came the QuicKutz Dies, papers, and M&M's. this year instead of being just orange and black M&M's they added extra colors which was great in my book because it make the little toppers so much easier to make!

I pulled out several retired dies to make these. Mrs Clause was transformed into a witch, while Dracula and Frankenstein got to play themselves. Each topper also has Happy Halloween on the back and that was done with the Limited Edition Chicken Noodle Font.







I am hoping that this make my CCD/PSR students' Halloween a little more special and inspire you to dig out some of your older dies and use them.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

Do You Make An Opening And Closing Page For Your Albums?

Each of my personal photo album scrapbooks have an opening and a closing page. Sometimes they are something that takes forever to make and my original work and other times I find the perfect thing for these pages someplace else.

Today I am sharing my most recent opening and closing page sets. I have to give a shout out to those who designed the work. I have listed their blogs so that if you like what I've done you can go and look around their blogs. I can not give you the patterns for the "doilies" and "borders" but you can download them from the owner's blogs.

This is my opening page:



The Doily came from a very talented person, Diane. Her blog is Capadia Designs. I have modified her design slightly (taking out the center circle,) so that I could put my family name inside the circle. This lacy design is made from the George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge and the Cricut Design Studio.

I used the Sure Cuts A Lot program and my Cricut along with Marketing Script True Type Font to add my family name and album number.

The closing page:



The poem is written by Clay Harrison and the beautiful borders are made by Jill. You can find that pattern at her blog, Diva In Pink's.

I want to thank Diane and Jill for sharing their talents with all of us.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

Corner Bookmarks

When my friend, Rainy, sent me a bookmark nearly a year ago, I fell in love with it. It snuggled on the corner of my page. It went from book to book as I finished them. About a month ago my bookmark fell apart. Let's face it, paper is not supposed to last forever, right?

I have come to love this type of bookmark and just can't be without one. So I decided that I would make a new one. That lead to making two, three, four of them. You get the picture. I thought to myself if I like it maybe someone else out there would also like it. So I am sharing the directions as well.

Here are pictures of the ones I make:









Each is unique. Some used stamps and Copic Markers, while others QuicKutz Dies and Stickles.

If you decide to try your hand at making one here is a video that you might find helpful. I found several ways to make them but this method was by far the easiest and fastest way. I do my video's for ScrapyLand.com so if you see something that you like you can find it there and ScrapyLand has the best prices, great customer service, and fast shipping.



These bookmarks would make great little teacher gifts, a gift for a student, or anyone that likes to read.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda

I'm Not Warped - I'm Misunderstood!

I had to laugh because when I made this card I was thinking a couple of things. The first I want to use my new dies right now! The second thing I was thinking was Halloween and these new dies were the holiday (Christmas) dies from QuicKutz.

I've shown my card to several people and no one seems to get it the first time they look at it but that is okay because I do get it and so did my husband. Okay so we are both a little misunderstood, or at least that is the way I am looking at it.

When I saw the new QuicKutz Snowman Die I feel in love with him and I wanted to use him right now and there were no "snow" pictures in sight. So I did the next best thing, used him for the current holiday which is Halloween. Since I was humming "oh the weather outside is frightful" it make me think the snowman is scared, not because it is cold but because it is Halloween. This is what I came up with.

The outside of my card:




An then when you open the card you see this:



I thought it was funny but not too many people got it but never the less I thought I would share it to see if anyone else thought it was funny.

Try something new this week, a twist, a turn, or play on words, just to see if you are misunderstood or not.

Happy Scrappin' ! ! !

Brenda