My Monday at Exploring Cricut

Where I live is a wonderful mix of people from various countries, of various faiths.  The Phrases cartridge has a beautiful design to use for those who will be celebrating Hanukkah this week.

This is a standard 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 inch card.  The Phrases cartridge has beautiful sentiment arrangements so the sentiment can be the focus of the card.  Use a pretty background paper and a little bling and you have a beautiful card.  There are 4 colors in this: yellow, gray and 2 shades of blue.

Please, continue to visit Exploring Cricut for daily ideas of what you can do with the cricut and join us for our bi-weekly challenges.

Whatever you celebrate this week, ENJOY!
Happy creating.
Rae Ann

Count Your Blessings Challenge at Exploring Cricut

Welcome to another challenge.  The holiday stretch is approaching (as any store will demonstrate) and we are reminded by Thanksgiving of how much we have to be thankful for.  Our challenge is to create a card, layout, or any other paper craft with a Thanksgiving theme.
I love the Pilgrim Bird in the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge so I decided to showcase him.

I bought the background paper at A.C. Moore; I wanted something that expressed 'bounty' and this field of pumpkins was the closest to what I had in mind.  The pilgrim was cut at 4 inches.  I used the Phrases cartridge to cut the background for the stamped sentiment and cut it at 1 1/4 inches.  The corners (which are always great fillers) came from Picturesque and were cut at 1 Inch.  I even trimmed some off of the lower corner. I hope you like it.

Please join our challenge this week with your project with a Thanksgiving theme.  Enter them at Exploring Cricut and continue to visit us each day for ideas from the design team.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy creating.
Rae Ann

Fruit is the focus for Exploring Cricut

Hello, again.  Not long ago, in A.C. Moore, I found a display of  'not selling well' cartridges for a nice low price.  I brought home the Preserves cartridge.  Here's what I came up with; I hope to sell some at a sale our apartment house is having.

I made this phote collage with Picasa to show you the varieties I've done so far.
Another great find was this pack of polka-dot papers at Michael's. (Yes, I am lucky enough to have both stores nearby.  Plus, a Hobby Lobby opened recently just a slightly longer distance away.  My budget is always in danger.)
These are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch cards (A2).  The frames are from the Just Because cartridge, cut at 4 1/2 and 5 inch settings (They are not real size but are in proportion to the size of a card cut at those sizes.)  Most of the fruit was cut at 3 inches.  The orange was cut at 2 1/2 inches (from the grapefruit page because I wanted a slice look.)  The watermelon was cut at 1 1 /2 inches.
I made a variety of phrases:  thinking of you, thanks, just a note, get well soon, you're in my thoughts.  Thanks and notes are blank inside; the others have appropriate sayings that I printed on the computer.
These make up quickly.  I'd cut out 2 or 3 at a time and assembled them while watching TV.
I'm happy with them; I hope you like them, too.
Please, visit Exploring Cricut each day for more ideas and join us next week for another challenge.
Happy Creating.
Rae Ann

Cricut Choice Challenge at Exploring Cricut

Welcome to this week's challenge.  It's called "Cricut Choice".  Make a card, layout, or any papercraft project using at least one patterned paper, 2 cricut cuts, and 3 colors.  It can be any theme.

My choice was another Christmas card using the new Winter Wonderland cartridge.  I decided to use red, green, and gold as my colors. The decorative spray at the top was cut at 2 inches; the bell was cut at 2 1/2 inches.  I used a small piece of decorative cord to connect them.  I didn't use one of the paper layers that came with the design because I don't have the kind of gold paper I imagined for this project; I used glitter glue in the decorating instead.

The banner I used is from the Phrases cartridge.  I cut it at 1 1/4 inches.

We at Exploring Cricut look forward to seeing you interpretation of this challenge.  Please join us with your entry.
Happy creating.
Rae Ann