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!