Glass Etching with the Cricut

Right after the holidays, I made a tip mug for the bartender at the bowling alley.  During a nite of who knows what, a customer broke her tip glass.  She was using a hand cut bottle (Grey Goose... lol) ... but I thought I could do something nicer for her.  Since it's a bowling alley, I found an image of a bowling ball and added her name to it.  She practically cried when I gave it to her.  It's been a walking ( or should I say bar standing) advertisement for me.  Lots have inquired on purchasing one, but with the economy .... folks want everything cheap.  And no, I'm not going to cheapen my work.  I just did a customer request... and he was a happy camper.  Had her to wash it out and filled it with his favorite brew.  I approached him as I was leaving, and his SO stated how elated he was.  He couldn't stop talking about it. 

Now wouldn't you know it, I didn't take pictures of either one.  How bad of me for not snapping a picture before I gave them to the recipients.  I will have to take a picture of the bartenders next week when I go in to bowl.

Word of wisdom, get your money upfront when doing special orders.  I did 4 mugs during the holidays, and they are still riding around in the trunk of my car.  I called the guy that wanted them 2x and left messages.  Made numerous trips to the store and have not seen him there, although I was told in so many words that he still worked there.  One was for his manager.  I have no use for the mugs since they were personalized, so I may just go and give the manager his mug.  Never know... he might give me a discount on some other glassware for me to decorate.

Here are a few snapshots of some of the glasses that I have done.

Buzzed and Tipsy Wine Glasses

Personalized Coffee mug

 

Personalized Chicago Bears Beer Stein

U of A Beer Stein

A First for Me!!!!

Wow!  I received a blog award!  I feel so special.
Thank you Audrey for this special award.  You can see her awesome work at http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/ .  She does some really neat and creative things.

A Superman Layout

I've not done any layouts in a while and I'm really behind in scrapbooking all of my pictures.  At this rate, I'll never catch up.  Hopefully, my unemployment will be ending soon and I can become a productive working citizen once again.  But in the meantime, I'll continue to do my crafting.

I had printed these pictures of my grandson's 5th birthday party and they were staring at me saying... please make a layout and put them in my book.  LOL!  So I did.  It still needs the journaling done, but I didn't want to post all of that on here for the world to see.

I got an SCAL image of superman from http://mardenz.blogspot.com/ and pieced him out.  Not a bad job.
I used Disney Hannah Montana Cricut Cartridge for the wording.  It was pop dotted off the page.  I used my Signo white pen and drew in some lines for a bit of an effect.
Paper used was Bazzill card stock and the patterned paper .... I believe was a Making Memories paper (4th of July).  It went very well with the color theme.

A Blinged Up Purse

I just love these little boxes that I picked up in the Dollar Bins at Michael's.  They have so much potential.  It's another late night where I'm not sleepy just yet, so I pulled out my paints and went to work.

I used a light purple Pearlescent ink paint and painted the entire box.  Replaced the elastic to some white elastic and added some rhinestones.  I used Fabric Tac glue to glue them in place.  I was amazed at how fast it dried.  And of course, it needed some straps, so I made some small holes with my cropodile and added some small purple eyelets.  The ribbon added just the right touch needed.

I'm sure any young girl would love to have this in her collection.

True Friend Card using the Wedding Cartridge

Another late nite of not feeling sleepy, so I decided to work on some more cards and other thinkgs.    I'm crocheting another baby blanket to go with a baby dress and cap that I recently finished to donate to my Michael's charity group, so I worked on that for a few while watching The Biggest Loser and part of American Idol.

I bought a new EK Success Punch today with some bowling winnings and decided to make a card to send to a True Friend. 

I made a border for the card and added a flourish from the Cricut Wedding Solutions Cartridge.  I cut it at 2 inches using the blackout feature and also the regular cut for layering.  I pop-dotted the flourish off the card for a nice dimentional look.

Fiskars came out with some new acrylic stamps which I'm really liking.  There is a big background stamp, flourishes and words... 17 stamps total.   The words "True Friend" came from this set.  It has lots of potential and I have an idea of another card feature that I plan to work on this week.

The paper used for this card was DCWV Whimsy stack (patterned paper) and the newer DCWV Natural Stack (off-white cardstock)a.  The colors went very well together.  I inked all edges with Tsukineko chalk ink in Pixie Dust.  The words were inked with Tsukineko Brilliance Pigment ink in Pearlescent Poppy and then heat embossed with Ultra Thick embossing powder.

Here's a picture of the fiskar punch:

And here's the card and closeup details:

Recipe:

EK Success Edger Punch - Fancy Flight

Fiskars Acrylic Stamps - Bold Flowers

DCWV Natural Stack - Off-white cardstock

DCWV Whimsy Stack - Patterned Paper

Tsukineko Brilliance Pigment Ink - Pearlescent Poppy

Tsukineko Versa Magic Chalk Ink - Pixie Dust

Cricut Wedding Solutions Cartridge - Flourish

Ok... this isn't anything crafty, but.............

I had to share a few things that happened to me today.... well tonite actually.  I bowl on Tuesday nites... no I didn't roll a coveted 300.  LOL!  On the way home from the bowling alley, I am in my neighborhood..... approximately 2 miles from my house.  I get to the stop sign... its a 4 way stop.... and I notice to my right... there are 2 cars stopped, but not at the end of the street to go either right or left.   I wait for the car across from me to turn down that street.  Just as I safely proceed across the street, I look to the right to see that one of the cars that is stopped... the car door is open ... and then I notice these 2 people are fighting.  Whew!  Not in my neighborhood.  This is a nice neighborhood.... what the heck is up with that.

So, I'm on my cell phone chatting with a friend.... yes, I was talking on the phone while driving.... shoot me.  LOL!  I was finding out whether she was going scrapbooking tomorrow as we had planned.  I stopped in mid-sentence to say  whoa.... there are people fighting in the middle of the street.  Whew! 

Ok... enough of that.
I get home and I'm a little hungry.  I know there is a leftover piece of chicken in there... then I see the remainders of the spanish rice and beans.  Its in this cup.  So I take and loosen the saran wrap and place it in the microwave for 2 minutes.  The timer goes off and I go back to get my food.  I open the microwave to see.... LOL! ...... the cup has shrunk... like those shrinky dink papers.  Whew!  I shoulda took a picture of that before I took everything out of the microwave.  But at least it wasn't an egg that I tried to boil in the microwave like a friend of mine did .... bawhahahahaha... I'm crying now thinking about it. Boy, she's never going to tell me any of her secrets again.  

Lawd help me.  I will have to make sure she sees this post.  So, here's the cup.

Altered Boxes

While browsing at my local hangout.... LOL! ... Michael's, they were restocking the $ bins and putting in all sorts of neat things.  Those little $ items add up quickly, so you have to be really careful or you can spend $100 on those little items in no time.

They had these cute little boxes and I wasn't going to get any, but decided to pick up 2 of the 3 styles they had.  I think I'll go back and get some more because I can see these used for little gifts.

I took the knobs off of them and painted them with Pearlescent paints for a little glimmer.
I covered them with DCWV papers from the Safari stack (butterfly print) and Saffron stack (loved the colors).  I then punched small holes in the tops with my cropodile and added eyelets so I run ribbon thru them.

The little tube purse has a small piece of letter to go around the knob for closure, but I'm going to run out and get some colored elastic since that piece of leather doesn't hold too great.

The other purse had some elastic on it, but it didn't match after I covered it with that gorgeous butterfly paper, so it will get some new elastic as well.  I tried several things as a closure, but they weren't working for me.

On the larger purse, I used the Disney Hannah Montana Cricut Cartridge and cut out the butterfly.   I layered it and glued it down, adding a little rhinestone in the middle of it.  It will hold a cell phone and a few other necessities. I'm thinking my friends daughters might like this for when they are hanging out with friends and just a few items vs a large handbag.

Forgot to take pictures of the round tube before it was altered, and remembered when I had disassembled the larger one.  So, it went from this......

to this......

Recipe:

Wooden boxes from Michael's

DCWV Safari Stack

DCWV Saffron Stack

Rhinestones

Eyelets

Ribbon (from my stash)

Disney Hannah Montana Cartridge

I think I might go back and embellish them a little bit more.

Wedding Card - Easel Style

A very good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow evening in a small ceremony with family.  Being that I'm a good friend (LOL!) , I am invited and promised not to take full length pictures.  I fell in love with this wedding paper and thought it would be a nice background.  Since this is both of their second marriages, I thought an off-white would be a good choice of color.

I used the Cricut Wedding Solutions Cartridge for the Bride and Groom cut at 4 1/2".  I layered the clothing and pop-dotted them out on the card.  Cardstock used was Bazzill white for the bride and DCWV Shimmer stack for the grooms tux and the accents on the bride.  I cut strips of ribbon and layered it under the dress for a nice effect , along with using the ribbon on top of the veil.  I accented the veil and the dress with pearls.

On the inside of the card, I used a Martha Stewart Heart Border punch and accented the hearts with crystal rhinestones.  I inked the edges with ColorBox chalk cats eye in Creamy Brown.

The sentiment is one I found on the internet.

Recipe:

Bazzill White Cardstock

DCWV Shimmer Stack

Wedding Paper by

American Crafts Brown ribbon (Cardfront)

Prestige Sheer Ribbon for Dress and Headdress

ColorBox Chalk Cats Eyes - Creamy Brown

Pearls

Rhinestones

Happy Easter Bunny Baskets

I'm trying to be ahead of the game in creating my Easter gifts.  While out shopping at Dollar Tree, I stumbled upon these little wooden boxes.  I passed them up the first time, but went back the next day to get them.  I thought of what I could  use them for and went on a mission.  In browsing the Cricut MB, there have been a few pictures of Easter bunny cards.  So I decided to try my hand at creating my own bunny in Cricut Design Studio .  Here is my rendition of my version of Easter Baskets to give to my grandson and some other children that I simply adore.

I used lots of different cartridges to create this basket as follows:
George and Basic Shapes was used to create the bunny, the nose and the carrot
Ashlyn's Alphabet  was used for the white sign
A Child's Year was used for the "Happy"
Paper Pups  was used for the "Easter"
Paper Doll Dress Up was used for the carrot top

I changed out the ribbon and used some American Crafts Easter Ribbon.  The bunny butt was made from Pebbles, Inc. Pom Poms.  I embossed the bunny ears with a cuttlebug folder.  The bunny was inked with Tsuneiko Chalk inks.

Recipe:

Wooden box from Dollar Tree

Bazzill cardstock

George and basic shapes

Ashlyn's Alphabet

A Child's Year

Paper Pups

Paper Doll Dress Up

American Crafts Ribbon

Pebbles, Inc Pom Poms

Googly Eyes

Tsunieko Chalk Inks

 

St. Patrick's Day Card

I decided to have a little fun with this card.  Decided to make it ethnic and female at that.  LOL!  If you can't have fun with the things that you do, then you don't need to do them.

Recipe:

Bazzill Bling in Green, Gold and Black

KI Memories Patterned Paper - Daydream Stack

Cricut Cartridge - Paper Doll Dress Up for Leprechaun

Cricut Cartridge - Jasmine for phrase on front of card

Green Rhinestones

Birthday Card - Full Front Tri-fold Shutter Style

I've been on a card kick lately.  I'm trying to get my stash built up, so that when the need arises, I will have cards ready to choose from.  This is another Tri-fold Shutter card, but with a full front.  You can get the directions on how to make one from here...  Tri-Shutter Full Front Card

Recipe:

DCWV Spring Glitter Stack Patterned Paper

Gemstone Bling Papers in Gold and Blue

Charms from Michael's Jewelry

Stamps - Cloud 9 Happy Birthday