Framed mirror with the Chomas Creations engraving tip and Maria!

Maria from Believe Dream Create did this awesome framed mirror with the Chomas Creations engraving tip!  These are her directions, and if you just love it like I do, head to her blog and let her know! 

Engraving with the Chomas Creations Engraving Tip




I had another idea with the Chomas Creations Engraving Tip and a Mirror. I created this Home Decor Frame with only the Cricut, Gypsy, Chomas Creations Engraving Tip, one piece of craft mirror, one piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper and a store bought frame. In person, this project is just BEAUTIFUL! But....with a mirror, it is VERY difficult to photograph (please excuse my reflection). After taking 50 photos or so, I finally gave up and these are the best.

I made the file in my Gypsy. This took the longest part. I welded the border together from an image on the French Manor cartridge. Each little square (.76 inches) is welded to the next. Time consuming, YES, but the results are SO worth it! I then used Winter Woodland to write the words McGuire (1.37 inches) and est. 1987 (1.14 inches). I used both the shadow and the main image of the letters to really get the engraving tip into action! Here is a close-up of the Gypsy screen.

Below is a picture of what it looked like after I took it out of the Cricut. I didn't use multi-cut. One pass through was enough to give it a beautiful engraved finish.

Seriously, all I did after this was cut away some of the excess mirror with my heavy duty trimmer, tape it onto a piece of patterned paper cut to size and put it in the frame. This has got to be the easiest home decor project I have EVER made! Probably one of the most beautiful too :) This would be the best gift giving item....as a matter of fact, some family members I have might be seeing one of these in the future...but this one is mine! Now keep in mind I said easiest....you will have to take a little time to do something like this in the Gypsy with all the welding and lining up, and it takes a good 20 minutes or so for the Cricut to finish engraving all this, but you can always walk away and come back to a piece of artwork! I said it before and I'll say it again, you NEED this Engraving Tip!!

Thanks sooooo much Maria!  Have I told you lately that YOU ROCK???
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Little Miss Sunshine with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder for the Silhouette and Copics

When I saw the new files for the Little Miss and Little Mr. for the Silhouette, they reminded me of being a kid again, and I had to have them!  Only problem was there are some tiny cuts on there!  Bring on the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder for the Silhouette!!!  Instead of cutting Little Miss Sunshine, I added all of her layers together in Silhouette Studio, then I drew her with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder for the Silhouette and the black metallic mini gel pen. 

I then colored her in with the Copic markers!

Sometimes I type my journaling in Microsoft Word, then have to cut all the strips with my journaling, which can be quite time consuming, so I decided to try it with Silhouette Studio instead.  It was quick to type my journaling in Studio, which I then drew onto cardstock with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder for the Silhouette.

Then I added little rectangles around the journaling lines, and copied and pasted those onto another layer in Studio.  I then cut these.

My journaling boxes were done!!!  I added a little yellow Copic around the boxes before I added them to the page.

I also cut the sunshine and clouds out with Silhouette Studio.  This was actually a pretty quick page for me!  I added some Stickles around my clouds and sunshine!  Voila!

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Sweet heart layout with Chomas Creations engraving tip

Ooooh I had fun with this one!!!  I had seen the string of hearts sewed onto a page in another layout and just had to give it a shot!  The hearts are from Simply Charmed, I hid the inside of the hearts in Design Studio, cut them and then inked the edges.  I added them to the page with a little bit of glue on the bottom of each heart, so that when I sewed them on the needle on my sewing machine wouldn't get all stickied up.  For the ribbon I used Zip Dry glue, my new fav for ribbon!  I'm already on my 2nd bottle hehe!
For the circles on the page, I made a file in Design Studio with Simply Charmed then used the Chomas Creations engraving tip to engrave the hearts onto Core'dinations cardstock!  Just a little bit of sanding makes them really pop and then I roughed up the edges of the circles a bit to. 

This is me with my niece a few years ago, she is now a busy 3 year old!  I just couldn't get enough snuggles from her!

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Love Bug layout with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder & Copics!

Coloring with the Copic markers takes me back to my child hood!  Sometimes I could just sit and color for hours!  So this was a really fun one for me to do! Of course I wasn't exactly coloring for hours lol!
I started by designing this love bug file with Simply Charmed in Design Studio, you can download the file here... Love bug file
Then I used the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder with the black metallic mini gel pen to draw the bugs and title on my page.  I then replaced the mini gel pen holder with the blade carefully, and cut the hearts around them.  I do like to let my images dry just a bit before I start coloring.  I used the Copic markers to color in the bugs and hearts, no smearing!  Then I used an ink pad to age the edges of the hearts a bit.  Of course no buggy is complete without googly eyes!

I added one of my journaling circles to the page that I did with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder, you can get the file and instructions for that here... journaling circles

Here is my completed page with my love bug all decked out for Valentine's Day in loads of PINK!  hehe

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You rock with Chomas Creations embossing kit

My son is one amazing kid!  He is almost 13 and he has to be the most easy going, laid back, sweet kid I've ever met!  He still likes hugs from his mom, and you can't embarrass him for nothing!  He still dances in the car with me when a good song comes on, and we have a great time embarrassing his older sister!
So he rocks!  Look how the Hannah Montana cartridge can work for boys!  The guitar, the "you" and the "rock" are all from it! 
I used the Chomas Creations embossing kit to emboss with the Cricut on a piece of Ten Seconds Studio metal sheet.  To do this I placed it black side down on the embossing mat, then sanded off the raised guitar and square area. 

I cut the you and rock out of some silver sheets I found at Target in there $.99 spot of scrapbooking, 2 sheets!  And it is really shiny!  I used multicut of 2 as it is a bit thick. 

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Simple thinking of you card with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and embossing kit

Sometimes you need a quick card!  And wow, was this one quick, yet it turned out so cute!  I have ready to go cards that are scored and come with matching envelopes, and I put this one on my mat and drew the thinking of you with the Cricut and the Stamping cartridge.  I then colored it in with a Copic marker.
Then I took a piece of the Ten Seconds Studios periwinkle metal sheets onto the Chomas Creations embossing mat colored side down and embossed it.  I left the image unsanded for my card, but I embossed 2 of the images so I would have an extra, and show that one sanded.
Super quick and easy!  Not everything in life needs to be complicated!

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Quick and fun Valentines with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and MTC

Being I have an abundance of cardstock, patterned paper, and fun stuff to play with, we make our own Valentine's Day cards in this house!  I made a design with Make-the-Cut to draw the Valentine's cards with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder, then cut around them.  I have the Make-the-Cut file for download here...  Valentine's download

You  may need to click on the image to enlarge. 

1.  This shows you are on the draw cut page in MTC

2. On the default layer, click on the eye to close it

3. On the shadow layer make sure the eye is open

Now your images are ready to cut.  Use your blade to cut these hearts out

4. On the default layer click on the eye to open it

5. On the shadow layer click on the eye to close it

Now your images are ready to draw.  Without moving the blade carraige, gently remove the blade and replace it with your choice of color mini gel pen and the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder.  Draw your images. 

Here is what the hearts look like after they have been cut and then drawn.

I also made a mirror layer in MTC, because I'm going to add the heart to the backs of the kids cards so they are not all white. 

Now when the kids get home from school they can glue them together, write their friends' names on the cards, and also stamp hearts, XOXO's and whatever other stamps we can come up with! 

And here is what my kidlets came up with!  My 4 year old did most of the stamping hehe!  We used Samantha's Artsy Heartsy stamp set, you can see it here... Artsy Heartsy  Jack loved how he could put the hearts patterns inside the hearts and kept asking me... "isn't it just beautiful?"  Kids!  hehe

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Two Hearts One Love card with Edna and the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder

Edna from Create with Expression made this Two Hearts One Love card using the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder.  I often get asked if you can use the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder without computer programs (Design Studio, Make-the-Cut, SCAL), and the answer is YES!
Edna did this great instructional video using the Cricut alone!  To watch the video, visit her blog!  Create with Expression

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Now that's a lot of hits! And the hop for the cure winner!

Today I got an email from Appie from the Netherlands, she was my 100,000th visitor, and she was kind enough to share this with me!!!

I can not believe I've had 100,000 views on my site!  Actually more then that because it took me awhile to put up a counter hehe!  Thanks everyone for stopping by and viewing my blog, I want you to know that every post is read and appreciated!

The JDRF Crop for a Cure was a huge success for Sara over at Crop Out Diabetes.  She raised $2,524.97 for JDRF!  I donated some Chomas Creations goodies as prizes for her crop!
I only got 3 entries for the blog hop for the cure.  And the winner is...
Breanna!  She did a page on who inspired her most, and if you would like you can see it here...
Breannas Blitherings
Breanna you have won a Chomas Creations micro Sharpie holder and 3 micro Sharpies! 
Sorry it took so long to get the winner picked, rough weekend!  My oldest daughter had a sledding accident, but she is doing much better now!
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Someone to watch over me layout with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder

I always wanted a big brother growing up, thinking of how cool it would be to have one watching over me.  My little girl is lucky enough to have that, and she loves it!  He is tall enough to reach anything she needs, and he sticks up for his lil sis.  Of course we'll see how she likes having the big brother when boys start coming around for her hehe! 
This was a pretty simple page! I like 'em quick and easy sometimes! The title was designed in Make-the-Cut with the Charlie Clown font from Lettering Delights. The journaling circle was done with this file here, and the video is here on how to do it as well... journaling circle tutorial

Sorry about the slow blog week here, but because of all the snow my kids have been home 3 days straight, eeeeek!  lol  No time to get anything done with a houseful of kids!

Also everything ordered this week is shipping today as our post office was even closed Wednesday, and the roads were awful yesterday! 

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Birthday card with Chomas Creations micro Sharpie holder

It is my Gramp's 92nd birthday (WOW) so I made him this card!  It was actually quite simple.  I used the Birthday Bash cartridge for the title, and the card shape. 
 Black, blue, red, green, orange, purple, aqua and berry!!!  I used a pressure of minimum and multi-cut of 2 to get a nice look to the writing.
When cutting through clear cardstock I use multi-cut on 4, this gets it through all the way.

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JDRF walk layout & don't forget the hop for the cure!

Every year my family likes to get together and do the JDRF walk.  It is something we do that is fun as a family, and it is for such a good cause!  If you have been reading my blog you may know that my now 16 year old daughter has Type 1 diabetes.  She has had it for almost 8 years now.  So this is something we do as a family to show our support for Taylor! 
I'm also in a blog hop for the cure, benefits going to JDRF.  If you would like to see a more recent way that Taylor looks at diabetes, and find out more info on the hop, you can go here... Hop for the cure post

This year (and a few years after) we put Taylor in charge of drawing a design for our shirts.  That is what you can see on the upper left side of the layout.  She is quite the artist! 

The journaling on this page was done on one of the journaling line scallopped rectangles I make with the Chomas Creations gel pen holder and MTC.  I make them in surplus so they are easy to grab when I need one.  You can get more details on how to make them and see a video tutorial here... MTC journaling tutorial

Here is the right side of the page!

Please, if you could just take a moment and donate a minimum of $5 for JDRF, and then be a part of the hop for the cure, it would be greatly appreciated!
1. Donate to JDRF using our donate button which can be found on all participating blogs. (A minimum donation of $5 is required to be eligible for prizes) **Donate button is located on the right hand side of my blog, just scroll down


2. Start at Crop Out Diabetes and follow along the hop. If you get lost each blog will have a list of the participating blogs so that you can get right back in on all the fun!

3. Complete the challenges and take a photo of your completed project.

4. Link a photo of your completed project to the linking tool at the bottom of each corresponding blog hop post by February 5th at midnight.

5. Winners will be chosen randomly using random.org and be posted by February 12th, 2011.





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