Hanging Carrot Box with free CCR file

For our final quick and easy Easter project I created a giant carrot box to hang from a door knob or the back of a chair. This is a triangle box that I've left open at the top to add some green cellophane.  I'll pop the chocolate bunny in this one and leave it on the kid's door knobs for a morning surprise.  

You'll need one sheet of cardstock for the box and flower decorations (it cuts multiple flowers for use in other projects) and an 8x12" sheet of coordinating paper for the decorative front piece (my file cuts 6 per page of the front piece).  Here is our final Easter free Artiste CCR file:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fTWJUVEdWTi13LU0/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you've enjoyed my Easter Project Egg-stravaganza this week!  What projects did you make for Easter?  

Stay crafty my friends,

Paige

Strawberry Baskets / Egg Baskets with Free CCR File

Today's easy Easter project is an egg basket / strawberry basket that fit 2 per page including a double sided handle and flower decorations for the side panel of the basket!

Here's what they look like made up in Chantilly.  I've added an extra paper flower (more using up stash - love it!) to the Cricut cut flower shape.

I found the sweet little carrot chocolates at the store and thought they'd be perfect for these baskets!

Here is the CCR cut file link for this CTMH Artiste Cartridge project.  If you need to pick up one of these versatile cartridges, please visit my online shopping site at www.Paige.CTMH.com!  

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fRmNhOE9mbUNaVEU/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you were able to get some Easter crafting done this year!

Paige

Flower Cupcake Wrapper / Candy Holder with CTMH Artiste

A couple of weeks ago I was at Michael's and saw some adorable flower shaped cupcake liners - loved them but the price was high and if you are like me, whenever I see something cute I always think "hey, I can make that!"  When I started putting together my Easter project week I knew I wanted something like that but  hand made and inexpensive.  Boy was I happy when I found this little cutie on p.73 of the Artiste manual!

Here is the flower in profile.  I bent the petals out a bit by rolling them on a round barrel pen and added a set of leaves (p.32 Artiste Manual).

Each sheet of cardstock will cut 3 of the flower cupcake liners and the leaf sheet holds 9 sets of leaves.  I've put an empty cupcake liner inside and filled it with candy - you can pick it up and the liner won't fall out the bottom hole.  

Here's the link to the CCR cut file:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fNmhydDBMSVBZNGs/edit?usp=sharing

If you need to purchase the CTMH Artiste Cartridge, please visit my site at www.Paige.CTMH.com!

I'm on a tight budget this year so creating something fun/cute/functional out of materials that we already have at the house is an area that I get really excited about.  I love that I was able to use up a bunch of retired papers for my Easter goodies this year, have a bunch of cute things to surprise my kids with and had fun spending time in my craft room!  Are you having fun crafting for Easter?  What kinds of projects are you making?

Hoppy Easter crafting my friends,

Paige

Giant Easter Egg Wall / Door Decor with AP and Artiste Cartridge - Free CCR File

Here is today's fast and fun Easter Project - a giant Easter Egg for your door or wall.  If you cut the egg as big as it can go on your Expression you'll get about an 11 inch or so egg but I played with the dimensions and angles in Cricut Craft Room and was able to get a 13" egg on a 12" piece of paper!

This one goes together really quickly - just a few minutes to cut and glue the pieces.  You'll need a sheet of CS, a sheet of patterned paper (good use of older thinner B&T) and a half sheet of darker CS or patterned paper.

Here is the Cricut Craft Room file for this one.  It uses both the Art Philosophy cartridge (egg and overlay) as well as Artiste (the word Easter).

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fT0REUU1qcVFhRHc/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy your fast and easy Easter crafting!

Paige

Easter Egg Banner+ with free CCR Art Philosophy File

This fun banner was made using 6 sheets of cardstock plus 6 sheets of patterned paper.  I designed it so the letters alternate in rainbow colors so you can stack it like I've shown here or make one long banner.  The height of the eggs is about 8" tall by 6" wide.

You'll see on the cut file that along with the base egg tag shape I also cut letters and rolled flowers on the same sheet getting the most out of each sheet of paper.  The banner takes 11 eggs but a total of 12 are cut so here is what I made with the extra pieces.

Here's some close ups of the Easter banner so you can see the color combinations I used.  I matched the letter colors to pieces of retired B&T papers - lots of paper packs used here!

I used Hooligans, Cherry-O, Wings, Paper Garden and Heavenly Blue B&T - some of these are OLD!  It felt so good to use up stash while making something cute!

I kept the banner flat (no rolled flowers on it) for easy storage after the holiday.

Detail of the bow treatment at the ends of the banner using a bit of pink Baker's Twine I bought last year.

And here is the promised Cricut Craft Room (CCR) file that I have out on Google Docs:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fcU5jN1Mwcm9vZUU/edit?usp=sharing

  You'll need the Art Philosophy Cartridge in order to make this little gem of a project.  If you are in the market to purchase this cartridge you can stop by my Close to my Heart website at www.Paige.CTMH.com and have it shipped right to your house!  

This project will take the longest of all the projects I have for this week but outside of the cutting it should only take about 30 minutes to glue all the overlays and letters on and then thread the banner.  Rolling the roses for the separate bonus project will take a little time - I love using our new Quilling Tool to make these super fast and easy.

If you download my file and use it to cut I'd LOVE to see your results!  This week is our "So Egg-Cited for Easter" celebration at Heart2Heart Challenges so post it there and then let me know you used my cut file.  I'd love feedback / comments on what you think as I'm kicking around a couple more holiday ideas for this type of project fest!

Hoppy Easter Crafting my Friends!

Paige

So Egg-Cited for Easter H2H Challenge - Bunny Boxes with free cutting file

I'm "So Egg-Cited" to be the guest blogger over at Heart2Heart Challenges this week to introduce this fun Easter/Spring themed challenge!  Easter is very early this year - next Sunday, 31 March so this challenge is perfect for hopping to your Easter crafting, gathering supplies in your crafting basket and hatching up some fun projects just in time for the holiday!

I was so inspired by this week's challenge that I created a week's worth of QUICK and EASY Easter projects to share with you each day this week!  As a little gift to you, each day I'll post the project AND a free Cricut Craft Room file that uses either Art Philosophy / Artiste so you can just import the file and cut.  I'll keep each project to around 30 minutes so you can fit them into the busy week in time for Easter.  No fussing with sizes and I'll let you know about how much paper each project needs!

I have three kiddos aged 17, 14 and 11 so they are too old for the little kid stuff but still wanting the sweets and treats to celebrate the holiday.  I like to buy a few high quality treats and then put them in fun homemade packaging to make the day special for them.  These bunny boxes from CTMH Artiste are sized for about 2 Cadbury eggs or the equivalent in candy.  

I love the trendy new chalkboard look - so easy with a bit of Black Cardstock and our new CTMH Chalk Marker!

Close up of a bunny.  The Cashmere and Slate bunnies were sponged with ink and then I did some easy detailing on each - a bit of pink marker for ears and nose, some black sharpie for an eye and a white gel pen for a fluffy tail and eye sparkle. 

If you own the CTMH Artiste Cartridge, this cut is found on p.73 (Accent 1).  I used Cricut Craft Room to angle the box on my mat and blow it up to its absolute maximum size and cut it in White Daisy - 1 sheet for each box. After I removed it from the mat, I sponged Pear ink on to the two visible flaps that secure the box and look like a big hill the bunny sits on.  The two small sides of the box were decorated with 2.125 x 3.25" scraps of patterned paper.

Here is the link to the CCR Artiste Cartridge Cut File on my Google Docs - just download it and then go to your Cricut Craft Room account and select "Import".  You must own the Artiste Cartridge in order to use this file, if you don't have it yet you can order it by clicking this link to my website at www.Paige.CTMH.com.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fNGdyYU84RzRnZG8/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you'll hop on over to the Heart2Heart Challenges Blog and join us "Egg-Cited" girls as we craft our way to the holiday!  You need to use some CTMH product on your creation to join the fun so if your basket is empty then head on over to my website at www.Paige.CTMH.com and fill up on some new Spring goodies from our Idea Book!

Make sure you come back each day this week as I'll be sharing fast and easy Easter projects through Saturday all with a CCR file to make your crafting quick as a twitching bunny tail!

Hoppy Crafting!

Paige

What went into this project:

Paper:  White Daisy Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Later Sk8r, Chantilly

Other:  Artiste Cricut Cartridge, Champagne, Slate, Pear Ink, Cotton Candy Marker, CTMH Chalk Marker, White Gel Pen (Uniball)

Adding shimmer to your projects video

Here is a video done by Close to my Heart Corporate giving you some ideas on how to add shimmer to your projects!

If you receive this via e-mail and you see a black box below then click out to my blog to see the actual video.

 

Hope your day is shiny!

Paige

And the winner of the Green Goodies blog candy is...

The winner of last week's Green Goodies Blog Candy is....

Comment #1 - Kigz (aka Amie Kiger).

Amie - please send your mailing address to paigedolecki@yahoo.com and I'll get your prize out to you!

Check out the adorable grin on my youngest kiddo's face as he gets to pick the blog candy winner.   My kids always like pulling prize names!



I'm off to work on my Design Team project, package up some baked goods for my two oldest who are going on a weekend trip with Key Club, help them pack, finish up laundry, get my youngest from school, take a physical therapy walk for my knee and about a thousand other things that need to be done today!

Stay crafty my friends!

Paige

Technology improves *most* things - funny video

Living with someone who is very tech savvy and recently switched me over to an IPhone and IPad (which I adore) this commercial made me laugh!

H2H Challenges - Go Green Lucky 4 Leaf Clover Framed Art plus a Giveaway!

If you've been a reader for a while you know that I love to create seasonal framed art using my scrapping supplies so this week's Go Green challenge at Heart2Heart Challenges seemed the perfect time for me to create a home decor piece in honor of upcoming St. Patrick's Day!

I have a deep set 12x12" frame that I picked up at Michael's on sale a while back that lets me create artwork with up to 2" in depth and still get it behind the glass (I removed the glass before taking the above shot to avoid glare).  I use the same frame over and over and simply store the seasonal layouts in my craft room throughout the year in our 3 ring "Work in Progress" binders.  Click here to check them out. 

I created the clover by cutting out the Cricut Art Philosophy at 5" found on p.50 in the book.

I cut apart the petals, folding them in half and then bending the outer edges up.  I used the 5th petal to cut out the stem.  I adhered them to a circle of scrap and put a button in the center to cover up the edges.

I like using the font on Art Philosophy that has the dots for glitter or gem placement - it makes it so easy to be uniform!  I used Almond Glitz Glitter Gel which looks gold when it dries.  The rainbow background was created by cutting 1" strips of cardstock, inking the edges and sending it through my handy paper crimper.  Love that thing - it gives so much texture and you aren't limited by length of your piece.

The ruffled ribbon tanked my first attempt at this project (the first one wound up in the trash).  I was using wired ribbon that I bought on a huge spool at Costco but I couldn't get it to stay on the edges of the first attempt.  I used Tacky Tape and glue but no dice.  I started over and this time I outlined where I wanted the ruffles on the bottom black cardstock and STAPLED the ruffled ribbon directly to my black base.  It worked perfectly!  I stacked some scrap paper under to build up depth and laid the rainbow piece right on top.

Without my first disastrous attempt, this project was actually fairly fast to put together and I won't be shy about using the stapler to affix ruffled ribbon in future home decor pieces!

I hope you'll hop on over to Heart2Heart Challenges this week and join in the fun by creating your own Go Green project.  We are open to interpretation on this one - you can do St. Patrick's Day, something green or even green as in recycled or reused for your project!  We only ask that you use mostly Close to my Heart products!  If you need to replenish your supplies or just want to check out the latest items in the Idea Book, feel free to shop my website at www.Paige.CTMH.com.  If you join my March 15th party, I am doing a Mystery Hostess party and giving away the Hostess Rewards if we hit $150!  Even if we don't hit $150 I'm still giving away a free D size stamp set from my stash pulled from the order names (I have a big stash so there are lots of sets to choose from)!  Winner will be pulled on March 16th just in time for St. Patrick's Day!

March Madness Giveaway Prize!

If you've come here from the Heart2Heart Challenges blog then you know about the March Madness prizes we are doing through the main Heart2Heart blog but the Design Team gets to play along too if they want - and I want!  So, in honor of St. Patrick's Day I have a little green bundle of goodies I'm giving away!  Comment on this post before Monday, 18th March and you'll be entered to win this bundle of green goodies which includes 5 yards of emerald green Baker's Twine, a Sweet Leaf accessory pack (1 yard ribbon, 4 corduroy brads, 2 metal tags) and a homemade card telling you just how wonderful you are for commenting because I'm so lucky to have YOU visit me!  Limited to US posting (sorry!)

What went into my project?

Paper:  Black, Ruby, Sunset, Buttercup, Topiary, Crystal Blue, Pacifica, Gypsy Cardstock, Chantilly Level 2

Ink:  Ruby, Sunset, Buttercup, Pear, Topiary, Crystal Blue, Pacifica, Gypsy

Other: Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, Almond and Silver Glitz Glitter Gel, Topiary button (from retired set), Wired Ribbon (Costco at Christmas), Deep set frame from Michael's

Stay crafty my friends!

Paige

Join the March 15th party and win a prize!

Hello my crafty friends!

I am just $75 away from my quarterly sales goal so I thought I’d do something fun to get me there and reward my customers at the same time!  From now until March 15^th when you place an order through the open party on my website (www.Paige.CTMH.com), you’ll be entered to win a Mystery Hostess prize!  If the order hits $150 or more then the prize will be at least $25 in hostess rewards, if it doesn’t hit $150 the prize will be a D size stamp set from my collection (I’ll offer you a selection to choose from). I’ll draw the winner from the order names on Saturday, 16^th March and contact the lucky person to select their hostess rewards or stamp set.

There are lots of terrific items on the “While Supplies Last” section of my website including the awesome Scroll Album kit (minus the stamp set) for just $12.50 and lots of items under $2! 

What’s the next workshop? Chantilly Card Workshop on Friday, 22 

 March from 6:30-10PM!  

You can place your order for the Workshop ($29.95) through this order and come play with me from 6:30-10PM so we can put together your kit!  I’ve made some alterations to my version of the kit using all the same cuts, inks and papers just adding a bit of flair to get 15 variations of the cards.  I’ll show you how easy it is to use your workshop materials to create the variations or make your kit as shown in the instructions.  Here are some quick cell phone pictures of my variations - the original design is the front left card on each picture.

Let me know if you have any questions!  Happy shopping!

Paige Dolecki - CTMH Consultant and Stampologist
cell:  (425) 260-6965

e-mail:  paige@stampologist.com
online shopping:  www.Paige.CTMH.com

Find out how to win one of our new hinged display trays!

Jeanette Lynton (founder of CTMH) has a new contest on her blog for people to win one of the new hinged display trays! To enter you'll need to visit her blog to enter a comment but you can see the video for ideas on using the display tray here!

Eclectic Mini Album all cut with Cricut Artiste Cartridge

This mini album is so adorable and the tips for sewing the binding with Baker's Twine are great! Enjoy!