Cricut Project 1: Mickey Room Sign

Here is a fun project offered by Cricut; it is featured in the Mickey & Friends cartridge booklet.

What a fun and easy way to brighten up a room! This colorful wood sign will delight any little occupant. Make it in minutes following these simple directions.

Materials:

Wood sign board

Acrylic paint: black, red, blue
Adhesive

(If you have a Cricut machine):
Cardstock: black, white, flesh, red, yellow

Cricut font cartridge, sticker letters, or alphabet stencil

Cricut Mickey & Friends cartridge

(If you do not have a Cricut machine):
Click here to buy a pre-assembled Mickey
Sticker letters or alphabet stencil

Step One:

Paint wood sign board with acrylic paints as desired.

Step Two:

Create Mickey. Or click here to buy a pre-assembled Mickey

Using Mickey and Friends cartridge and black cardstock, cut one 5 1/2" .

Using flesh-colored cardstock, press Layers: Face/White feature and cut one 5 1/2" to cut face. Using white cardstock, press Shift and Layers: Face/White feature and cut one 5 1/2" to cut eyes and gloves.
Assemble Mickey head

Step Three:

Create phrase.

Cut one 6" x 3.75" rectangle of white cardstock. Mat onto red cardstock and finally black cardstock. Create name or phrase on white cardstock using a Cricut font cartridge, sticker letters, or alphabet stencil.

Step Four:

Assemble sign.

Adhere phrase across bottom of sign board and apply Mickey head above as shown.

 

 

 

Scrapbook Tear Bears 1.1-1.4: Easter

In honor of Easter, I created 4 cute Easter tear bears. Each bear comes in an Easter dress, a matching bunny ear headpiece, and a pair of cute socks and shoes. The pink is my favorite; which one is yours?

The tear bears were all handmade out of mulberry paper; it is really amazing that paper can create such fuzziness!  Each bear was hand-torn, fluffed, and then shaded with chalk. 

 

 

The fabric used to make her dress looks like denim; it would be cute to make some jeans for the tear bears one day.   

 

I liked the way the colors came together for this dress, with the contrast of the different shades of pink.  However, the fabric was difficult to work with; it kept wanting to pop up and did not want to stay put.  I'm not sure if I will choose to work with this fabric again.

 

The style of this dress is different from the other three dresses; I wanted to offer some variety, besides just a difference in color and print.

 



I am very happy to have found this fabric.  It is perfect for making tear bear socks, and it's nice that the stripes on them are glittery.

 

 

 

 

Scrapbook Layout 1: Candy Factory

This layout was created with DCWV's Glitter Sweet Stack: it includes a pre-sewn journaling tag and four photo mats, and features three sweet tear bears, a conveyor belt, a candy stand, and yummy polymer clay lollipops.  The tear bears, paper piecings, and polymer clay pieces were all handmade.  I have to admit, during the course of this layout, I had a few candy cravings!

The "memories" title was made with the Cricut machine, using the Makin' the Grade cartridge.



These photo mats came out very sturdy, which I liked.  No, seriously, I was really pleased.  :)







The tag and mats were all inked with Colorbox (bright) pigment ink. 

The swirls on the lollipops are actually swirls of glitter; the candy pieces are also speckled with glitter.



Each slat was individually inked and pieced; it took awhile, but I think it gave the slats an extra dimension. 

The candy stand is made with glitter cardstock; it is a shame the picture doesn't show the glitter too well.  :(

Bags of sugar, ready to be made into candy!

I liked how this yellow dress came out; the ruffles added an extra layer and detail.





Craft Tip 2: Prevent Ribbon from Fraying by Sealing with Glue

THE HASSLE

The use of ribbon in crafts is very common, and always adds a nice decorative touch. However, based on the material of the ribbon, certain ribbons are more prone to fraying than others.

This may cause some crafters to stay away from using particular materials, thus reducing their options, and preventing their full creativity potential.

THE SOLUTION

An easy solution is to seal the ends of ribbon with a clear-drying glue; no more worrying about ribbon fraying, and no more having to cut the ribbon shorter, and shorter...
Just cut and prepare the strip of ribbon, as directed for the project. Before glueing down the ribbon to your project, lightly dab the ends of the ribbon with glue, let dry, and now the ribbon is ready for use.

Make sure to minimize handling of the ribbon until the glue is dried; this will prevent the glue from picking up any possible dirt, and giving it a "dirty" look to where the glue was applied.

SEAL FABRICS TOO

Using glue to seal ribbon is a method that can easily be used elsewhere; there are many possibilities. Fabric, like ribbon, is also prone to fraying, and can be easily remedied by sealing with some clear-drying glue or fabric glue.

Welcome to alicazam*!

Welcome to alicazam*! The articles found on this blog will focus on crafts, with more emphasis on scrapbooking and tear bears. Included will be tutorials, project ideas, tips, product reviews, and much more!