More Flowers!

These are more of the flowers I am creating for my swap. This time, I am using tropical flowers from Prim. Now, do go out looking to find some of these - they are discontinued. I just happened to have several boxes around from when I got a good deal on a bunch of their flowers.

When I first received them, I had visions of cruise scrapbook layouts - until I poured them out...

Then I was stumped. How to use these? They just weren't what I had in mind. So many months later, I accidentally stumbled upon an awesome way to change the look of these flowers. I was just playing around and some of them "fell" a certain way and I got the lightbulb moment. So I created a few and that was that. Enter the swap. I was trying to think of some unusual flowers for the swap when I came across a bottle of these that I had made before. Click! Easy and gorgeous!

To start: select matching color pairs (you can do complimentary colors as well, this just creates a fuller appearing flower)

Add a touch of tacky glue or similarly strong adhesive to the center of one flower piece, layer the second piece, offsetting the petals.

Allow that to dry, then using glitter glue - my favorite is Stickles - add as much or as little glitter accents as you desire.

Once that is dry, attach a center. I like to use rhinestones or Skittles

Viola!

Quick, easy, and lots of bling!

This is the pile of 25 flowers that I created in under 4 hours tonight while my children were skating. Drying time was the hard work! Having to wait!

Paper Flowers

I have been working on handmade Paper Flowers for an online swap in which I am participating. I have joined in for three groups, so I have to do three different sets of 25 flowers in 5 flower sets. Confused? lol. Basically, each group has 5 people and we send 5 flowers per person to the host, prepackaged for the individuals. so 25 flowers per group x 3 groups = 75 flowers.

So far, this is what I have completed(note - I actually have 3 of the 5 flowers completed, this picture was taken before I really got this post going - I will update later):

This is for the first group. I call them pinwheels flowers, although that isn't really their name(I don't remember the name). I saw these at a crop I attended over a year ago. I liked them so much I sat down and with a little trial and error, I figured them out on my own and made one to take home as a template.

I am doing a set of 5 different colors and sizes for this group

Yes, there are 6 instead of 5. Partly because I always make an extra or two just in case and also because I was able to get 6 flowers from each piece of 12x12 paper. Perfect! no waste! 12 strips of 1 inch paper = 6 flowers. You have to use two strips for each flower to have more flexibility for the flowers

Trial and error led me to some shortcuts. First I scored the paper at 1 inch intervals, then flipped the paper over and scored in between those scored lines. So the scoring was ever half inch mountain-valley-mountain-valley.

Then I cut the paper in 1 inch strips across the scored lines. This was much easier than cutting the paper and then scoring each strip. Another shortcut - cardstock is more difficult to work with on the smaller flowers. It tends to rip and tear easier and is not as malleable.

{To know what sizes to use for how large your flower will be: first decide how large you want your flower to be. 3 inches wide, 5 inches, 2 inches? Then divide that in half. That is how wide the strips of paper should be. When you fold and add them together, they will be approximately the size you want. The scoring measurements decided how thick the flower will be. 1/2 inch sores = 1/5 inch thick.}

Next, I glued the ends of two strips together, then glued their ends together forming a loop. I like to over lap the fold, versus gluing side to side. It seems to make a more secure connection. Setting it on its end, it looks like this. Not much yet.

Another shortcut I use: jar lids. I keep a variety of sizes around to use as forms for different flowers. They are especially helpful with these flowers as they like to pop out of your hands when you are forming them.

I put the loop into the lid

And using BOTH hands, I push the top sides to meet in the center

And with a little wiggling, it lays flat in the lid. Keep your finger on the center as it will still try to pop out!

I use tacky glue in the middle and a punched circle of glitter cardstock for the center. I also keep slightly heavier items nearby and set them on the center of the flower until the glue takes hold and keeps the flower together. Then I flip it out of the lid and turn them over and -another shortcut - using a circle punched from thin copy paper, I glue it to the underside of the flower for added stability and to help keep the shape.

Then embellish the centers as you like. I love the hand-dyed skittles, so that is my center of choice lately.

Here is a sneak peek on some more pinwheel flowers that I will be finishing soon!

After I am finished with this set, I still have two more flower designs to create and share with you!

Beautiful Cricut .cut files!

As I was skimming through the Cricut Messageboards this morning, I came across a post from a member sharing her cut files for "Edgy Albums" This is a direct link to her blog post, where you can see what she created and download the files. I believe they are created in the Design Studio, but they can be modified easily to be used on the Gypsy. Take some time to explore her blog, she has some fabulous files and designs.

Organizing my Cricut Items

This is how I "currently" organize my Cricut Items. I want my stash to be easily portable if I need to take them with me. I also hate to waste desk space. The wooden shelf was made for me to protect a printer I used to travel with, but I no longer have that printer, so since it was perfect for my needs, I repurposed it. The Expression needs at least 12 inches behind it for a 12x12 mat and that is a lot of room, so to keep that space, I went vertical.

First, you can see that I labeled each area. I didn't get a picture of my cords and blades and such in the container, but I figured you didn't really need to see that mess. lol It is a container from Walmart that snaps together.

Next - I used photo boxes and tab dividers to store my handbooks, with the corresponding overlay in the front, in alphabetical order.

The individual cartridges are stored in an ArtBin that I found at Tuesday Morning (I got this idea from someone on the Cricut Messageboard, but I sure can't remember who it was - however, I loved it!!). The cartridges are separated by Fonts and Shapes, and of course, they are in alphabetical order in each section.

I really like this because I can see the front of each cartridge with a glance. The way I stored them before, I had to pull various carts out to read the front until I found the one for which I was looking. Also, there is a face cover that snaps on and a handle on top, so I can carry these anywhere with me. An added bonus is that they are stackable.

Here, you can see the clearance behind my Expression. I also store my extra 12x12 mats there. This makes it easy to grab an extra one when I'm doing a large project. Especially since I don't have any drawers that are 12x12 and I don't truly have the wall space to hang them.

Additionally, I normally keep my Gypsy on the side of all of this, but at the time of the picture I had been using it, so I grabbed a shot or two. This is a mesh bag from Creative Memories, it has a divider so I can keep the cords separate (you can see I don't always use it). But I love it because I can just grab it and go. Everything I need for my Gypsy is in there.

Hope you enjoyed this. Maybe it will give you an idea or two for you organizing.