An Elegant Wreath

I had quite a day on Tuesday - lots of fires to put out and some unexpected complications.  I have a left hand wrapped in bandages right now so it is hard to type and I definitely can't do much with the hand for a few days.

With all of the fanfare about the new Cricut Mini and the Craft Room, I thought I'd share something to remind you to look carefully at the cartridges you own - you never know where you might find an unexpected treasure.  Using Design Studio, the Gypsy or now the online Craft Room can greatly expand the usefulness of your cartridges.  Of course, you do still have to work with the images available on the cartridges that you own. 

This wreath works beautifully to frame a page.  You can read all about it at THIS POST from a couple of years ago and adapt the idea to one of your projects.  Without peeking at the labels, can you tell me which cartridge this wreath is from?  My file is also available to download if you want to see how it was done.

I hope to be able to use my hand more tomorrow - sorry for the super short post today.  I had a minor surgery that turned out to be more involved than I expected but everything is fine.  How are your Thanksgiving preparations going? 


Subscribe to Capadia Designs

A Jolly Old Elf!

The holiday season is well underway - guess who I saw on Saturday?  I had a chance to meet up with my walking friends at a local church fair.  I already had wreaths that we bought from our Cub Scout nephews, but I did manage to do a bit of holiday shopping.

I had a few other things going on and did not get a chance to spend time in my craft room - this is such a busy time of year.  Wreaths were on my mind after the greens sale and I thought I would remind you of the wreath I made last year using a cut from the Pagoda cartridge.  I don't think that would be the first cartridge you would think of to make a Christmas project but there is a cut on Pagoda that makes the most beautiful wreath.

I have seen a lot of projects using the Martha Stewart branch punch to make a wreath.  I have this punch and use it a lot, however, the Pagoda cut makes a "fluffier" wreath and requires less individual pieces.  You can also let the Cricut do the work and save your hands from all that punching!

Here is one card I made with this delicate branch cut.  You can see all of the details and download my file to cut as many branches as possible on the same mat at the original post HERE.

I should be able to get some crafting time in Sunday - I really want to try out a few of the files I have waiting in my computer!   I hope you are having a great weekend and that you are enjoying your holiday preparations.

Subscribe to Capadia Designs       

Another nice way to decorate with Easter eggs

I have been trying out all sorts of ways to decorate eggs.  I have explained some of my experiments in my post today as the Guest Designer on Everyday Cricut - you can click on this LINK to go directly to that post.   There are lots of great prizes this week so you'll want to enter on the Everyday Cricut blog for a chance to win.

Here is one of the variations I tried using just vinyl on an emptied egg.  If you use empty eggs you can save them from year to year and display your creations.  I have collected eggs for years - I started when we lived in Germany.  If you would like to see some of the eggs in my collection, you can look at THIS POST and THIS POST from last year.

You may be wondering about the best method to empty your eggs.  When I was growing up, we would poke at the ends of the egg with a needle to create a small hole and then put our mouths on one end and blow the contents out the other end,  It was messy and rather unsanitary!

When we lived in Germany, our younger son went to the German Kindergarten in our town.  Every so often they would have "Eltern Abend" (Parent's Evening) and this often involved a craft project.  After struggling with the translation of one of the newsletters my son brought home, I figured out that I was to bring emptied eggs to one of these events.  I was amazed to see the other parents show up with eggs that had tiny perfect holes on only one end.

This photo shows you the "secret weapon" for neatly emptying eggs.  The green handled item is a small drill for the end of the egg.  Once the hole is drilled, you insert the metal needle which is placed on the yellow bellows.  The needle breaks up the yolk and, by squeezing the the bellows, you pump air into the egg and the contents are forced out through the tiny hole.  When the contents are emptied, you fill the bellows with water and rinse the egg to remove any residue - neat, clean and efficient!

 

Here is the box for the type of egg emptier I own.  If you search online for "egg blower kit" you will find various sites that sell these - the prices seem to range from about six to nine dollars.

You can drill another hole in the opposite end if you want to thread a ribbon or a wire through the egg.  The blown out eggs are covered very simply by using some wallpaper paste and torn bits of gift tissue.  The irregular pieces are smoothed on and interesting effects are creating by the overlapping of the patterns.

This is the type of gift tissue that we used in Germany and England.  It is firmer than the tissue paper you normally see in the US and it has a pebbly sort of texture.  I still have some old packs - I am not sure if you can buy exactly  the same product here.

An alternative is to use colorful napkins such as these.  Separate the decorative top layer from the plain white second layer.  Then just tear up the colorful layer into small irregular pieces, dip in the wallpaper paste solution and smooth it onto your egg.  (You could probably use something like Mod Podge for this instead of the paste.  We used "tapeten kleister" in the German Kindergarten and I still have some - a box lasts forever).

 

When you are done and the eggs have dried, you simply thread the eggs on a length of wire, alternating with some wooden beads in a coordinating color.  Ribbons tied between the beads make the wreath fuller and prettier.  Don't make the circle too large - five or six eggs is about right.  If it is too large there is a tendency for it to pull out of shape.

Be sure to stop over to Everyday Cricut to see the various decorated eggs I created.  They are lots of fun to make but they do require some time and patience.  While I was working with the eggs I tried a few other types that I will share another day.

Easter Eggs with the Cricut

(This post originally appeared on the Everyday Cricut blog where I was the Guest Designer for the week of March 8-12, 2010)

Happy Tuesday!  It's Diane again, your Guest Designer for the week.  Today I have something different to share with you.  You do not need a particular cartridge, Design Studio or a Gypsy to do this project.  You do need vinyl, eggs, and some time to get creative with your Cricut (egg dye is optional).

If you'd like to find out about a great way to empty the eggs before decorating them (so you can save them to display year after year) you can go to my blog to see the "sister post" for today's project.  I also have a few posts on my blog showing some of my egg collection - I started collecting decorated eggs when we lived in Germany many years ago.  Here is a LINK to my blog.

I started out by cutting some interesting shapes from vinyl. When you are cutting vinyl, you want to "kiss cut" it so that the vinyl is cut but the backing stays intact.  This makes it much easier to remove the cut pieces from the backing.  For my machine, I use medium speed, medium pressure and set the blade depth at 4.  You should experiment to see if these setting work for you - they should be close.  Be careful to keep the vinyl within the paper area of the mat - as you can see in the photo above, my vinyl extended in to the area where the rollers move the mat in and out which created a bit of a problem.

Some shapes will be too large or too thick to be ideal for using on eggs.  This image is from the Mother's Day cartridge and I cut it at 2 1/2 inches thinking that would be about the size of the egg.

I needed to cut some parts of the design to fit it on the egg.  You can see that, despite my efforts, there are still some gaps and puckers.

 

I dyed the egg using pink/red dye.  I added tiny patches at the drilled holes in the ends of the egg to keep the dye from filling the egg.

As you can see from  his photo, I had mixed results.  Some of my eggs looked like they had been tie-dyed but I wanted the crisp clean effect with sharp edges. The vinyl I used for this trial was "Wall-Pops."  I have used this very successfully for wall words and other projects but it seems to be too "soft" for this purpose and the adhesive did not always stay stuck down firmly in the dye bath.

I cut some more shapes using some orange vinyl.  This was the Oracal exhibition 631 vinyl that I got from Oh My Crafts quite a while ago when it was on special for less than $5 a package.  It is supposed to be the same as the Cricut Vinyl.  I used it because I only had black and beige Cricut vinyl on hand (and I paid much more for the Cricut vinyl so I am saving it for walls!).  This vinyl is definitely harder and crisper than the Wall-Pops.  I think that it is thinner and the adhesive is a bit stickier as well.

Here are the eggs after I dyed them.  You can see how crisp the lines are on the butterfly and faith where I have already removed the vinyl.

 I think the word art on the eggs is particularly pretty.

If you visited my blog yesterday, you saw how I cut up the 12 x 12 sheets of Core'dinations gemstone cardstock that I used for the scalloped egg cards.  I will be using most of these "leftovers" during the week.

 

I used the 1 x 4.25 inch strips of cardstock and cut them in half.  Then I punched holes in each end.  By using a decorative brad, you can form an "egg collar" to display your decorated eggs.

  

To help the cardstock create a smooth ring, roll it around a small bottle to "train" it to curve and not kink when the circle is formed.

 

Here are a few of the eggs sitting in the collars.  When I read the directions for the egg dye, I found out that the company recommended rubbing the eggs with "fat" to bring out the colors and give a gloss to the egg.  So, for the first time ever, I buttered the shells of my dyed eggs.  It really works!

You can see how crisp the lines are on this blue egg.

Using the Oracal vinyl and taking extra care to burnish the edges of each image after placing it on the shell  made a big difference in the end results.

Sometimes there are imperfections in the dye or the surface of the egg.  You can always add a few embellishments to conceal the flaws and "dress up" the egg.

You might even decide to leave the vinyl on the dyed egg.  I like the tone-on-tone effect on this egg.

So the tips I have to share are, choose small designs with thin sharp lines, use a thin vinyl that is "hard" and will burnish well to the egg, be careful when you are dipping the egg in the dye so you do not loosen any edges and dry your eggs and rub them with a little fat to bring out the shine.

So what about those delicate eggs I showed you at the top of the post?  I had progressed through my experiments and reached my conclusions about the best sorts of designs to use.  I found some delicate, thin designs on the Home Decor and Heritage cartridges.  I cut them in mint green vinyl and applied them to the eggs - planning to dye these as well.

I decided that the eggs looked so pretty that I would keep the vinyl on as the only decoration!  Of course, you could dye the egg if you want more color.  The thin vinyl  and thin lines of the designs smooth down very nicely.

The basket is from the Easter cartridge (I think I will tempt you into buying this cartridge before the week is out!).  I made it as large as possible from a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock and left it plain except for a few pretty embellishments to the handle.  The embellishments are from Creative Charms - here is a LINK to the page on their site where you can find out more about the flowers and butterflies.  The little butterfly brads I used for the egg collars are also from Creative Charms - here is a LINK to the page.  I have been creating some designs for Creative Charms and I really enjoy working with their lovely embellishments.

I love the idea of creating personalized eggs for each member of the family.  By using Design Studio, you could have welded versions of their actual names instead of just the generic Mommy/Daddy/Baby/Grandma.  You can even add your own flourishes when you create your welded names.

This assortment of eggs includes some that I made when we lived in Germany.  They are simple to do and blend nicely with the dyed and decorated eggs.

You can use these eggs to create small wreaths - for more information about this be sure to visit my blog, Capadia Designs, and check out Tuesday's post.

Don't forget to leave comments to have a chance to win the great items that Joy and Melanie are giving away this week.  I'll be back tomorrow with a project that uses paper again!

An Unexpected Wreath

While there are several seasonal holiday Cricut cartridges available you can actually find images that will work for the holidays on other cartridges that you may own.  Sometimes I just browse through the cartridges on Design Studio looking at all of the options - there are endless possibilities once you combine the cartridges with the flexibility and creativity made possible by the Design Studio program.

A cartridge that doesn't get a lot of attention is the "50 States" educational cartridge.  I think the educational cartridges are easily overlooked because they are in their own section in the "All by Category" listing in Design Studio.  It is easier to find the cartridges if you add them to "My Cartridges" because they will appear in strict alphabetical order, regardless of category.  The 50 States cartridge has a lot to offer in addition to the state names, shapes and capitals.  The state birds, flowers and flags are also included. 

The key highlighted here is the cut I used to make this wreath.

Here is a preview of the image that the key cuts.  You could cut it straight from the cartridge and save the extra pieces, however, by using Design Studio and "hide selected contour" you can conserve your paper.

Here you can see that I have hidden the center images (they are in pale blue indicating that they will not cut).

I wanted some stars to layer on the wreath.  I found some on the key highlighted above.

This key cuts seven small and one large star.  I needed nine stars all the same size.  I manipulated the shape using the handles around the box to make sure the size was correct.  I cut the stars from glitter cardstock.

I wanted to conserve my cardstock, so I overlapped several of the cuts to nestle the stars as closely together as possible.  I  used "hide selected contour" to make this work.  If you look carefully at this screen shot you will see many blue lines.

The glitter cardstock I used was from the DCWV Holiday Collection mat stack.  Some of the colors have a very glossy finish but others, such as this gold, have a more textured feel that I like a lot.  When I cut glitter cardstock, I usually use blade depth 6, high pressure and multi cut 2.

I added Stickles to all of the "berry" spots on the wreath.  The paper I used for the base wreath is from a K & Co. Holiday Stack.  I used foam squares to raise up the stars for more dimension.

This cut makes a lovely frame on a page.  As always, the look changes dramatically with different background papers.  You could also create a framed piece for the wall with the addition of a holiday greeting in the center.

This screen shot shows a preview using the words "Seasons Greetings" from the Christmas Solutions cartridge.  Some people do not like the look of the "t" in "Greetings" - the curl can make it look more like an "f."

I tried an alternative by creating a welded phrase with the Blackletter cartridge.  (I did not check weld for the previews so I could see the phrases in color).  I think this is a bit easier to read though I would probably change it to "Merry Christmas."  (There is no "Merry" on the Christmas cartridge - the phrase is set up for "Happy Christmas" which is a more common greeting in England).

I made this wreath quite a while ago and I intended to layer it with another wreath to see it that would create a more traditional look but I haven't had time to do that or to "clean up" the file for posting.  I think the wreath on Joys of the Season would look nice with this wreath added on top.

I do something similar with the wreath on our front door each year.  I have a grapevine and ivy artificial wreath that I decorated several years ago.  Each year I buy a fresh evergreen wreath and layer the artificial wreath on top - it is a quick and easy way to have a fully decorated wreath very quickly!

I did lots of cleaning and put another tree up today - I am getting closer to finishing!   Tomorrow I'll be on my way to New Jersey.  I will try to post a file for this cut if I get a chance - you can easily replicate it yourself and add your own greetings phrase to suit.

 ETA:  Download link for file added in THIS POST - be sure to read the explanation so you can avoid a cutting error.