Scratch off Homemade Lottery Tickets

I thought I would share another gem from my favorite blog- http://www.notmartha.org/.  What a great place for neat ideas.  In this case, Megan linked to a neat little how-to on making homemade lottery cards complete with the scratch off silver shavings.  Check out Artmind (and her Etsy shop) at http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com/.

Paper Purse

Just a quick post today to show off a paper purse made to hold the Girl Scout awards last year.  Nothing too fancy- just the "purse-2" cut from the Cricut cartridge, Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.  The edges of the bag were inked with a walnut ink to soften the white edges of the patterned paper.  A button was glued to the front for decoration and the purse closed with a repositionable Glue Dot.  I like to use the Glue Lines to put a box/purse together.  A quick "K" cut from Ashlyn's Alphabet to adorn the front and you have a small, cute container for the girl's earned awards.

Etched Glass Canisters

One of the really cool tricks that one can do with a Cricut is etching glass.  These canisters were for a wedding shower present. 

Instructions for using vinyl for etching can be found here.  The "A" was cut from vinyl using the Shift-Loop Dee Loo font found in the Lyrical Letters cart.  The "stencil" portion of the cut was used to stick onto the glass rather than the "A".  Glass etching cream can be found at your local craft store (Hobby Lobby, Joann's, Michael's, etc.).  I have used the Armour Etch.  One of the tricks I use is to try to keep the actual etched surface area to a minimum.  This cream doesn't work well if you are covering larger areas.  One more trick when using the etching cream- let the cream sit as instructed, rinse as normal and pat dry.  When the glass is dry, you can see imperfections in the etching.  If any exist, apply more cream and let sit as instructed. 

Either way, glass etching can be a fun way to jazz up a set of glass cereal bowls (we've got a set with our family names, Dan, Andie, Tim and Katie etched into the side), glass casseroles, etc.  Give it a try and see how easy and fun etching can be.

Unusual Baby Shower Card

Last year I became a great-aunt.  What a thrill, though a bit of a challenge when trying to come up with a boy based baby shower card.  Cute, frilly pink and soft baby shower cards are a dime a dozen and much easier to make.  A proper boy card with just the right amount of cutesy with a large dose of tough guy thrown in, that's another story.    This is where you trust that your best friend's Cricut cartridge library has just what you need.  Sure enough, Brandy's Animal Kingdom cartrige has a moose head just right for the occasion.  My nephew, Matt, (the father) is well know for his skill at hunting.  The soon-to-be-new grandma, Lorie, is also know for her moose in decorating.  Thus the perfect boy baby shower card liberally roughed up with brown ink.

The Welcome Baby was created using the Design Studio and the Don Juan cartridge.  Don Juan is my go-to font cartridge as it is soft, but not girly.  I nudged the letters together and cut them out at a 1 1/2 inch size.

We welcomed Colin over 6 months ago now.  He's grown so big and represents the next generation on my husband's side of the family.  What a wonderful addition and excuse to paper craft!?!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's St. Patrick's Day and the Millers (the Dan and Andie Millers) are looking forward to the corned beef and cabbage.  I saw this at my favorite craft blog, notmartha.org, and couldn't resist sharing.  I've never made a rainbow cake, but I sure wish I had the time. 

Check it out... Leprechaun Trap Cake.  mmm... colorful!

Bread Bears

I'll point you to a great idea- Bread Bears.  Too cute!  This was one of those ideas from notmartha.org.  Quick little links that make you smile.  Now... just to find the time to try it.

Chic Birthday Cards

For Katie's birthday a few months ago we were looking for a quick and easy party for 11 and 12 year old girls.  This is a bit tougher than you think since these are teenagers-in-training.  Gone are the days where I can hire a bouncy castle for the backyard, grill some hot dogs, and serve an abundance of M & Ms and receive the parting comment "Mom, this was the best birthday party ever!"

So, we came up with the idea from the internet to host a Mall Scavenger Hunt.  The girls were separated into two different teams, given $20 and a digital camera.  Each team was given a list of scavenger hunt items.  The lists contained things the could do, things they could get pictures of, and suggestions for  items to spend the money on.  The team with the most scavenger hunt items and/or the most items purchased for their money would win the prize.

The girls didn't have a lot of time, but they searched the mall high and low, checked off many of their scavenger hunt items.  Some of the things they accomplished included:

• a picture with a guest as you give them ketchup and a napkin (the baffled look on her face was hysterical)
• a picture of the girls riding the elevator, escalator, lying on a bench.
• a sales flyer (why did both teams collect sales flyers from Justice, Just for Girls?)

The girls were able to complete the scavenger hunt and enjoy a food court dinner.  After a rush through dinner, the real birthday treat occurred when we sprinted on over to the movie theater to see the new (then) release of Tangled.  Oh, the exclamations from the tweens when HE CUT HER HAIR!!

The front of the invitation was made using the Cricut cartridge Forever Young.  Each "model" was cut at 5 1/2 inches.  The Cricut knows how to size the dress embellishment and other accessories.  Quick work was made of some black cardstock, the American Crafts Everyday line of 12 x 12 patterned paper, and few coordinating scraps of colored cardstock.  Now how fun was that?

Andie

Those Special Occassion Cards

My mother-in-law, Pat, turned 75 years old this Christmas.  Her birthday was celebrated by the family getting together to celebrate at the Mesa Country Club.  Family traveled from far and near to join the celebration.  A card celebrating 75 years are hard to come by and we utlimately saw a few duplicates as they rotated around the table after dinner.  My DH's (this I guess is "internet speak" for dear husband... I kinda like it) family has a tradition of purchasing funny birthday cards.  Since making a funny card is a little beyond my reach yet I made this card to give with our gift.

Here's a quick explanation of the parts and pieces that went into the making of this card.



Crystal Accents by Ranger Industries is one of my new favorite glues.  The glue is fast drying which helps when making flowers, layering accents or generally fixing pieces in their proper place quickly.  The other great use is to create a 3-D acrylic type finish to a paper embellishment.  The 7  the 5 in my card were both coated in this way.  Apply the glue as a layer filling out to all edges.  The glue does dry quickly in small amounts, but you usually have a little time to adjust the layer of glue applied to create a uniform layer over your embellishment.  Crystal Accents is described here: http://rangerink.com/products/prod_inkssentials_glossy.htm and can also be sourced at M's or J's.

Happy cardmaking!

Andie

Butterfly Wall Art

One of the most fun projects I have ever completed was a small piece of wall art created as a gift from me to Brandy.  Brandy has long had an affinity for the butterfly in all it's forms.  I was trolling through the internet one day and someone had done a craft very simliar to this piece and posted the instructions.  As a newly appointed owner of a ProvoCraft Cricut Expression, I instantly knew what Brandy's birthday gift for 2010 would be.  The butterflies are cut using the Cricut cart Graphically Speaking.  I think I ultimately cut a 3 1/4 in. butterfly.  The wings were bent to create the 3-D look.  The 12 x 12 shadow box frame came with a heavy backing.  I cut a piece of white cardstock to fit (I didn't like the look of textured cardstock in this use).  I measured the page and used a removable tape and yarn to create a grid of nine boxes where I used a liquid adhesive to place the butterflies in place.  I removed the tape and yarn and mounted the page inside the shadow box frame.  Exactly one year later, this is still one of my all time favorite crafts that I am very proud to have created.  Happy Birthday 2011, Brandy!

Andie