Creative Xpress Blog

Batman: The brave and the bold is such a great cartridge. It has so many neat features and die cuts on it. You can piece together all the batman characters and villains to make some great layouts and cards. Lots of different 3D party objects and this cartridge even has a full font with letters and numbers. I decided to showcase a couple of the character die cuts and show you how awesome they would look on some party invites. I also used the very cool font on one card. This font can be used for any theme and it comes in upper and lowercase.

  Batman Card #1

1. Cut black cardstock to 6×6.
2. Cut black bat patterned paper to 5 ½ x 5 ½. Add to the card.
3. Next cut the white skull patterned paper into two 5 ½ x 3/8 strips. Ink them and add to the card.
4. Cut the blue cardstock into, two 5 ½ x ¼ strips. Ink and add to card.
5. Using white cardstock, push the (Batshld) base shadow button out at 4 ½ inches. Ink around it.
6. Using the green webbed patterned paper, push the (Batshld) button out at 4 ½ inches. Ink and add to the base.
7. Using the black cardstock, push the (batshld) button and the outfit layers button out at 4 ½ inches. Add to the base.
8. Using blue cardstock push the (batshld) button and the outfit layers (shift) button out at 4 ½ inches. Ink and add to the base.
9. Using yellow cardstock , push the (Batshld) button and the detail1 layers button at 4 ½ inches. Ink and add them to the base.
10. Using black cardstock, push the (batshld) button and the detail1 layers (shift) button at 4 ½ inches. Add to the base.
11. Add the bat shield to the card and you are now done.

Batman Card #2

1. Cut black cardstock to 6×6. Round bottom edge.
2. Cut white skull patterned paper to 5 5/8 x 5 ½. Round bottom edge. Ink and add to the card.
3. Cut the green solid patterned paper to 5 x 2 ¾. Round edges, Ink and add to the card.
4. Cut the blue cardstock to 5 x ¼, ink and add to the card.
5. Cut stripe patterned paper to 5 x ¼ of an inch, Ink and add to the card.
6. Using the mummy patterned paper, push the (Batsign) button at 1 ¾ inches. Ink and add circle to the card.
7. Using the black cardstock, push (envlp 2-s) and the outfit layers (shift) button at 10 inches. Add bat to the center of the circle. Add inked chipboard sticker.
8. Using black cardstock, push the font uppercase button to spell out “party”. Add to layout.
9. Using black cardstock, push the (Batman 4) button at 4 inches. This will be your base.
10. Using blue cardstock, push the (Batman4) button at 4 inches ink pieces and add to the base.
11. Using the grey cardstock push the (Batman 4) button and the layer outfit (shift) button at 4 inches. Ink and add to the base.
12. Using the peach cardstock, push the (Batman 4) button and the layers details1 button at 4 inches. Add to the base.
13. Using the white cardstock, push the (Batman 4) button and the layers details 1 (shift) button at 4 inches. Add to base.
14. Using yellow cardstock, push the (Batman 4) button and the layers details 2 button at 4 inches. Ink and add to base.
15. Add batman piece to the card and you are now done.

 Supplies-

29-0300  -Cricut Expression machine
29-1072  -Batman Cricut Cartridge
03-3283  -Bazzill Blackbird cardstock
36-8237  -Bazzill Steel blue cardstock
03-3283  -Bazzill Avalanche cardstock
03-3287  -Bazzill Whipped Mousse cardstock
03-3314  -Bazzill Peach cardstock
36-8259  -Bazzill Yellow cardstock
03-1545  -Basic Grey Eerie collection pack
03-1542  -Basic Grey Eerie chipboard stickers
03-4350 -Night sky colorbox ink pads

Thank you so much for looking

Nikki

Tags: Feb assignment by Nikki

 A great feature on the Batman: The bold and the brave, is that it has many great things for a child’s birthday party. It has 3D party objects like, Cards, invites, envelopes, banners, party hats, a mask, belts, cuffs, 3D table toppers, Soda/juice bottle wrapper, goodie boxes, door hangers, crayon box wrapper, cake toppers, and cupcake holders. Enough goodies to make a fabulous party. Keeping with the fun party theme and all these 3D goodies, I decided to make some 3D masks out of the die cut faces of Batman and The joker. They would be great for the kids to wear at the party. My boys love to dress up like superheros and villains all year long. We have a box full of costumes. In fact this last Halloween, my son Aidan was Batman. These masks were something I got to make with my boys. They watched me make them step by step and helped me pick out the colors I used. We had a great time working on this project together.

  Joker Mask-

1. Using black cardstock push the (jokerfce) button and the layers outfit button. Cut die at 9 inches. This is the base of the mask. Cut out the eye holes.
2. Using white cardstock push the (jokerfce) button and the layers outfit button. Cut die at 9 inches. Add the face and ear to the base.
3. Using green cardstock push the (jokerfce) button and the layers outfit (shift) button. Cut die at 9 inches. Ink the hair streak and add to the base.
4. Using red cardstock push the (Jokerfce) button and the layers details 1 (shift) button. Cut die at 9 inches. Ink the lips and tongue and add to the base.
5. Using grey cradstock push the (Jokerfce) button and the layers details 1 button. Cut die at 9 inches. Ink and add tp the base.
6. Next cut a piece of string/thread, staple them to the mask and you’re done.

 Batman Mask-

1. Using black cardstock, push the (batface1) button out at 9 ½ inches. This is the base of the mask.
2. Using blue cardstock, push the (batface1) button and the outfit layers button at 9 ½ inches. Ink and add to the base.
3. Using the peach cardstock, push the (batface1) button and the layers detail1 (shift) button at 9 ½ inches. Add to the base.
4. Using the white cardstock, push the (batface1) button and the layers detail1 (shift) button at 9 ½ inches. Add to the base.
5. Punch out holes on the eyes.
6. Next cut a piece of string/thread staple them to the mask and you’re done.

Supplies used-

29-0300   -Cricut Expression machine
29-1072   -Batman Cricut Cartridge
03-3283   -Bazzill Blackbird cardstock
03-3283   -Bazzill Avalanche cardstock
73-7358   -Bazzill Saguaro cardstock
36-8256   -Bazzill Saltillo cardstock
03-3287   -Bazzill Whipped Mousse cardstock
36-8237   -Bazzill Steel Blue cardstock
36-8253   -Bazzill peach cardstock
03-3251   -Green/Purple scrapbooking floss/thread/string
03-4631   -Making memories Hole punch, Tool kit II

Thank you so much for looking

Nikki

Tags: Feb Tips and Tricks by Nikki

Thinking Outside Of The Box (…or should I say Cartridge Box!)

When using the Tie the Knot Shape Cricut Cartridge, my initial impression was that I would likely use this cartridge for wedding-related projects and designs only. But when I really studied the vast amount of images on the cartridge, I was struck next by how versatile many of the images would be for non-wedding-related projects as well.

To test this theory, I selected a random image from the Tie the Knot Shape Cricut Cartridge – the conebox image. If I limited myself to thinking of a wedding-related theme only, I could easily use this image as a simple tussy-mussy holder or an adornment for a door. Instead I decided to turn the conebox upside down, and it immediately took on the vision of becoming a birthday party hat.

Using a sheet of patterned paper from the Basic Grey Lemonade collection, I cut the conebox image at 10 inches, and adhered the two ends together. Using two sheets of coordinating colored Bazzill cardstock, I then chose the monogram shift function to cut one scalloped round image at three inches and another (with the numeral 6 on it) at two inches. Next I layered those two items and adhered with a foam dot to the front of the party hat. I then added some bling flourish to the front and adhered pink pom-poms to the scalloped edges at the “bottom.” Tada – a very cute and easy birthday party hat for a 6-yr-old!

So try not to limit yourself to whatever the “main theme is” represented on your next Cricut cartridge purchase – push yourself to think outside the box and come up with some fresh ways to make those images indeed work for your next project!

Hope this tip is helpful to you!

AnnaMarie Mondro

New Years Card

Create a 4 by 8 inch side fold card from an 8 by 8 inch square of dark brown card stock.

Adhere atop card a matte of lighter brown card stock cut at 3 ¾ by 7 ¾.

Cut a piece of blue card stock to 3 ½ by 7 ½. Run top 2/3s through divine swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. Run the bottom 1/3 through the swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Lightly sand the raised textured surface .Tape a length of light blue grosgrain around seam where the 2 textures meet.

Using the Spring Holiday Sampler Cricut cartridge cut the champagne glasses ( “cheers” Cricut button) at 6 ¾ inches. Cut 3 times- once in light blue, beige, and white card stock. Trim off white bubbles and adhere to light blue glass base, fill light blue glass with beige card stock. Use a fine line black pen to add detailing, tie tiny white ribbons around glasses stems, and adhere to card front. Finish by adding a few pearl embellishments around the bubbles.

 When getting rid of your old Cricut mats, be sure to save the clear plastic protective cover.  I love to reuse these covers.  You can do so many things with them.  I’ve cut them into “ghost” letters and numbers to use on my projects.

Clear keepsake pocket

I had the pleasure of working with the Destinations Crtridge this month.  This cartridge has been on everyone’s “hot” list since it debuted and I was anxious to see why.  Upon first glance I noticed it had a lot of the major U.S. cities covered – like New York, Boston, San Francisco, etc.  As I looked closer, I found lots of countries and specific items of interest that pertained to each.  This is a wonderful cartridge to use for all those vacation layouts you need to finish or perhaps for a mini album of places you have visited or perhaps you’d love to visit one day.

Having come across some photos of my Great Uncle from 1942, I was hoping to find some corresponding images that would help tell his story.  When I discovered he had been in North Africa at some point during WW2, I was thrilled to find images and words that would hep set the tone of my layout.

I used Brown cardstock as the base of my layout and the Kaiser Dutchess collection for my layers.  The striped paper was cut to 11 1/2 x 11 1/2.   I cut out a number of images from paper and mounted them on cardstock before adhering them to the layout.  This really allowed the layers to stand out.

The Africa title was cut at 1 3/4 inches from pattern paper and mounted on it’s cardstock shadow.  I wrapped a luggage tag around the title for fun.  The luggage tag was cut at 1 3/4 inches from the location + shift tag key.  As there was no corresponding shadow, I cut another luggage tag at 2 inches to create a shadow.  North  and 1942 were cut from Designer’s Calendar at 1 1/2 inches in regular and shadow font in a corresponding shade of pale of green which was inked to help age them..

I cut 2 elephants (a mom and her baby) at 3 inches and 2 inches from Dotted Swiss and I cut their shadows from brown cardstock.  I inked the top layers and then mounted the baby on the mother with pop dots.

A compass was cut from Stand and Salute at 3 inches from Swiss Dot and mounted on cardstock.  Dog tags were also cut from Stand and Salute at 2 1/4 inches.

Since there is no included font, I used Designer’s Calendar, cutting “Uncle Rob” at 3/4 inch in shadow; North, WW2 and 1942 were cut at 1 1/2 inches in regular and shadow font.  All the letters were inked for dimension.

Because my photos were in ery poor condition due to their age, I scanned and printed them with a sepia tone. 

This is a wonderful cartridge, packed with so many images that can be used in so many ways.

Supplies:

Cricut Expression

Catridges:  Destinations, Designer’s Calendar, Stand and Salute

Cardstock: Bazzil Light Criss Cross Multi Pack; Bazzill Dotted Swiss-Mud Puddle; Bazzill Chocolate Fourz

Pattern paper:  Kaiser, Duchess Collection

Ribbon: Bo Bunny Double Dot

Brad: Bo Bunny

Ink: Colorbox Rustic Colors

Embossing folder: Cuttlebug Diamond Plate

Tags: Bazzill, Destinations cart, kaiser

by Laura Mendoza

My son is learning to count and so I thought this would be a big help to him. He loves Elmo and giggled the entire time I showed him the album.

The front cover says “Elmo says” and the back cover says “Count with me”

Each inside page counts an item from the cartridge 1-10. The album is 6 pieces, covered front and back, making 12 pages all together.

 29-1074 Elmo’s Party Cartridge

29-0300 Cricut Expression Machine

73-5422 Crop-A-Dile Big Bite

00-9988 Basic Grey June Bug Patterned Paper

03-3299 Red, black, yellow, white, red, blue, light pink, dark pink and brown cardstock.

03-3518 Buttercup double dot ribbon

03-3424 Ladybug boutique trims

I started with the sheet of 12×12 chipboard to create the album, just cut it down to (6) pieces of 4”x6” and then punch two holes at the top for the two rings.

I used June Bug Basic Grey Patterned Paper. This pack of paper corresponds so well with each other and so well with the primary Elmo colors, that any paper in the pack can be used.

You want to cover the 6 pieces of chipboard paper with June Bug Paper, making sure to re-punch the holes in the top for the rings.

With your circuit and Elmo Party Cartridge, cut the following Elmo images:

Right hand up Elmo at 5” from red, black, white and yellow. Stack pieces together and adhere.

Left hand up Elmo at 5” from red, black, white and yellow. Stack pieces together and adhere.

Dancing Elmo at 5” from red, black, white and yellow. Stack pieces together and adhere.

Cut the title “ELMO” from red and “says” at 1” from yellow. On the front page, adhere a a2×6” piece of yellow cardstock to the right side of the cover. Adhere Elmo to the left and the title to the right, as shown.

Cut the title “COUNT” at 1 ½” from red and “with me” at ¾” from black.

On the back cover, adhere a piece of black cardstock to the right side. Adhere the title to the right side and elmo to the left, as shown.

On the inside of the back cover, on the black cardstock piece to the right, you adhere the right hand up elmo. Part of his left hand is cut off. (This is the #10 crayon page)

With your cricut and Elmo Party Cartridge, cut the following for pages 1-10;

Cut 10 red circles 2” each.

Cut the numbers 1-10 from white at 1 ½”.

Each of the white numbers are adhered to a red circle and then adhered to it’s corresponding page.

 For each of the pages, cut and adhere the following images:

Cut (1) cupcake at 3” from brown, light pink, dark pink, white and black. Stack and adhere together.

Cut (2) presents at 1 ½” from black, red, yellow, pink, red, white and black. Stack and adhere together.

Cut (3) candles at 2” from black, red, pink and yellow. Stack and adhere together.

Cut (4) elmo’s face at 1 ½” from black, red, white and yellow. Stack and adhere together.

Cut (5) ribbons at 2” from black and (5) stars at 4” from yellow. Stack and adhere together.

Cut (6) balloons at 1 ½’ from red cardstock and outline with black ink.

Cut (7) notes at 2 ½” from back.

Cut (9) suns (this is the cupcake holder) at 1” from red. Cut stars at 4” from yellow. Stack together and adhere.

Cut (10) crayons at 2” from black, pink, yellow, blue and white. Stack together and adhere.

Place the two metal rings through the two holes at the top of each page.

Tie red and yellow ribbon at the top.

You are done!

One of the things I love most about my cricut, is that it can do more than just something lovely on a scrapbook page. Of course I love everything it’s helped me do with my layouts, by adding extra elements and flair that make my pages POP, but it has helped me do much more outside of scrapbooking.

 This past Christmas I had to make some Christmas cupcakes for my hubby’s grandparents family Christmas party. I usually get to make some kind of dessert for the holidays or family get togethers. I wanted to do something a little different with my cupcakes this time around. I had made 48 cupcakes for boy my sons school homerooms this Christmas as well. I bought these super cute cupcake wrapper kits that came with cupcake toppers on toothpicks. This gave me the idea to use my Cricut to make my own cupcake toppers. I decided on these super cute Christmas trees for my hubby’s grandparents party. They were so much fun to make and the HIT of the dessert table.

I also made a few extra sample toppers just for you to show you what you could do and to give you some more idea’s/themes for future Holiday’s and parties.

Instructions-

1.) Christmas Tree topper- I used the Christmas Cheer cartridge and the “Tree1″ die at 1 3/4 inches with brown, green and yellow cardstock. Ink.

2.) Heart topper- I used the Doodlecharms cartridge and the “heart” die at 1 1/2 inches with red cardstock. Ink.

3.) Birthday hat topper- I used the Doodlecharms cartridge and the “hat” die at  1 1/2 inches with the red and yellow cardstock. Ink.

4.) Spider topper- I used the Doodlecharms cartridge and the “spider” die at 1 1/2 inches with the black cardstock.

5.) Baseball topper- I used the Baseball solutions cartridge and the “ball” die at 1 1/2 inches with the red and white cardstock. Ink.

Supplies used-

29-0300  – Cricut Expression machine
29-0019 – Christmas cheer cartridge
29-0021 – Doodlecharms cartridge
29-0540 – Baseball solutions cartridge
73-7358 – Bazzill Green cardstock
36-8259 – Bazzill yellow cardstock
03-3287 – Bazzill Brown cardstock
36-8256 – Bazzill red cardstock
03-3283 – Bazzill Black cardstock
03-3283 – Bazzill white cardstock
36-8253 – Bazzill Orange cardstock
03-4350 – Night sky black ink pads
03-4430 – Chocolate and blueberries ink pads

Thank you for looking

Nikki

Tags: Cricut, Dec Tips/Tech

February Tips & Techniques

Scrunch a Bunch with Cricut

This is a fun technique for adding texture and dimension to your Cricut cuts.

To make the flower for this card I cut multiple flower images from the Forever Young Cricut cartridge in varying sizes.

 I then took the flowers and scrunched them up into a little ball in my hand and then carefully opened them back up and lightly smoothed them out. I used an ink pad to add a little shadowing to the petal edges.

Layer the flower petals in a manner that you find pleasing and punch a central hole. Fasten together with a brad.

( Womans profile cameo on card from the Heritage Cricut cartridge.)

Altered Frame using the Tie the Knot Shape Cricut Cartridge

For this month’s assignment, I was given the assignment of working with the new Tie the Knot Shape Cricut Cartridge. There are so many elegant wedding-related images available on it, as well as numerous options for cards, tags, invitations, monograms, and 3-D objects.

For this project, I decided to alter a 12×12 Provo Craft wood frame and create a generic layout inside it that could be used as a wedding gift. The first step was to sand the frame so as to create a rough texture for the next step – painting. I chose Making Memories Scrapbook Colors Paint in Sky for the first layer of paint. After that was dry, I lightly sanded it again and then added a layer of Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Weathered Wood. I used a heat gun to speed up the drying process and allow more of the cracking to come through. When that was dry, I then sprayed Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl over the entire frame to give it a “shimmer.”

Using the French Flea Market 12×12 Paper Kit by My Minds Eye, I selected a solid sheet to serve as the “background” and sprayed the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl over that as well. I layered a round scallop sheet of Bazzill cardstock over that, and pulled random sheets from the French Flea line to work with the following images that were cut at between two and six inches each: Dove1, Chapel, Love-s (heart), RSVP-s (flourish),  and Blossom1. All images were then adhered onto the round scallop Bazzill cardstock with a foam dot for added dimensionality. To complete the frame project, Stickles in Frosted Lace was added to the RSVP-s flourish and Blossom 1 images. I then added Making Memories Tiny Alphas to create the title “happy wedding day” and layered that over the RSVS-s flourish image. Finally Elegant Corner Flourish Rhinestone Set by Kaiser were adhered to the upper left and lower right corners of the frame border.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for creating an altered frame wedding gift!

AnnaMarie Mondro