Tiki Party

Good Day!

I made this card for my neighbor. I was looking for something fun. The tiki head was an image I downloaded from the internet, traced and cut using the silhouette. The drink was a cricut cut form Life's a Beach cartridge.

The background I printed on my printer. I've learned to use a glossy cardstock and the print is much nicer. The stamp is from Just-Rite and the scallop is a SU punch. 

To go along with the card I bought an orchid plant...guess I didn't show how pretty

it was. lol

The dragonfly was purchased from the silhouette library as were all the vinyl cuts.

This machine cuts vinyl great. Intricate designs are not a problem. My only problem is I want to vinyl everything.

I did have a label image but I was able to draw a oval to match the inside of the label for the blue vinyl. I am using the designer edition software and that allows me more creativity. Probably way more than I'll ever need. The swirly font was pretty cute too.

Well I just couldn't leave this side without anything so I duplicated the dragonfly and then I had a font that has a little flower on each letter. Perfect...and in the centre of each flower I added a black pearl.

 

Had a productive day yesterday in my craftroom and I also visited with a friend where

we exchanged craft ideas. I've got a cool one coming up for you.

 

DH is in Calgary right now...coming home today but boy have they been in the deep freeze. Saturday's forecast was -30C for high and -46C for low. That's cold.

Leave a comment and let me know where your from and how warm or cold you are!

 

If you're still in winter temperatures stay warm and craft....it just makes it more bearable.

 

Enjoy

Yvonne

Valentine Catch Up!

Hi There,

Life has been keeping me so busy. I made lots of Valentine projects but just didn't get them posted.
Today I'm going to share them all at once.  All the projects were made with my Silhouette. I still have all of my cricut machines. Can't part with any of my toys...never know when I might need it.

I have projects that I have for my daughters wedding but can't share them until after the big day.

 Lacey's Card!

 I hung a few of these from the ceiling and then made a bunch smaller to hang on the little evergreen tree.

 Received this little tree at Christmas and it was decorated with snowflakes. Decided to remove those
and decorate for Valentines Day.

 That pretty floral background is actually material. It cut great with my machine.

 

Glad I got those up even if they are late.

 

Yvonne

Valentine Subway Art

Good Day!

Well for a weather update...still rainy and cold. Yuck.

I did make it to the gym yesterday...aiming for a repeat performance today. The last six months I've been neglectful in exercising.

Today's share is what is termed subway art. I've been making lots of these to match each season or holiday. The word art file is from Silhouette Studio.

I go to the local craft store...whoever has the white canvases on sale. Last time I bought seven in a package and I think that worked out to about $2.00 per canvas. They are 16 x 20.

Painted it a pretty pink...trying to use all my tole paints that have been neglected as well.

Now I have a confession to make. For Christmas I got a new cutting machine...the Cameo Silhouette.
Does it cut nice....For anybody out there who is a quilter (Pam) it cuts material as well....

The wording is cut out of red vinyl. The machine can cut very intricate details perfectly. I'm truly impressed. You can also do your own designing and patterns on it. Anyway you can see how narrow the boxes are around some of the words and there was no problem with the cutting!

My house is so decorated for Valentines Day! First year for me to really decorate it. Last year I did make a Valentine's Day wreath for the front door.

 

Challenges Entered

Creative Cutting Challenge

 

Do you decorate?

 

Happy Crafting!

Yvonne

Countdown to Kisses!

Hello!

Did you think I had fallen off the face of the earth. It has been forever since I blogged. I've thought about it many times but I couldn't seem to get around to uploading my pictures from my camera!

I am in the middle of helping my daughter plan her wedding for May/2014...it's coming soon.

I did spend a few days in New Brunswick in January visiting my Grandsons and their parents. So much fun. I have some scrapbooking to do.

Speaking of Grandsons, I made each of the boys a Valentine's Day advent of sorts. I had seen this idea on the internet.

We cut a 12 x 12 piece of MDF board and drilled 14 holes in it. The hersey kisses don't poke all the way through but the hole is drilled all the way through. The lettering is done with vinyl and on the bottom of each Hershey kiss is a number attached with a glue dot.

I have lots more Valentine Day projects so I will try and keep uploading them in a timely fashion.

Have a great week.

Yvonne

K-Cup Valentine Holder

Morning,

This was another Valentine project I had made. This fits two K-cups for your coffee maker.

The heart with wings is from Create A Critter 2 cartridge. It really is a great cartridge. Of course I couldn't resist making the heart glittery. It matched the glittery heart border. The heart border was purchased from Michael's. it comes on a roll and is self-adhesive. It works great and there are lots of different styles of these borders. Some have gems on them and others are beautiful crocheted lace.

I made the box by figuring out how the dimensions to hold my 2 k-cups. I even put an insert into the box that had two holes to keep them in place. Those holes I made with my nestabilities.

Over the week-end I went to the Houston Rodeo Parade. It was the kick-off to three weeks of rodeo events. Every night there is a big name entertainer performing after the rodeo events are finished for the day. I haven't figured out which entertainer I'm going to see yet. Really enjoyed the parade. Some nice floats, lots of great bands and then many, many horses. Every year many groups of people actually trail ride from all over different places to go to the rodeo. Click here for a video. Click here for photos.

Enjoy!

 

Yvonne

Valentine Heart Treat

Hi There,

Today I'll share some treats I made for the gals in my stamping group. They hold six hersey kisses.
Click here for the tutorial on making them. Very easy.

Have a Great Day!

 

Yvonne

Valentine Wreath

Hello,

In November I attended a large craft fair. They were selling lots of wreaths using Deco Mesh and they also had demos on how to create your own. My neighbor and I stood and watched about three separate demos and then decided we had the craft mastered. Bought our supplies and we were off to the races. I did create a fall and Christmas wreath. (I'll show you those another day).

They are really very easy to make so with Valentines day fast approaching and our weather warming daily it just doesn't seem appropriate to have a winter wreath on the door. So off I headed to Hobby Lobby to see what I could find.  The red mesh actually has some black running through it and I picked the white to accent with. I also bought the wooden hearts there. If I would have allowed myself a little more time I could have made those myself, either with the Cricut or I could have tole painted them. Okay, might have had to leave myself lots more time! I did add one Cricut element to it though, the red glittery hearts on the white mesh are cut by my Cricut.

There are a number of good You-Tube videos on making these wreaths as well.

I have a few more Valentine ideas to share this week.

Yvonne

Christmas Votives

Hi There,

First off I'll apologize for the not so great photos. These are hard to photograph without a glare, but they really are super cute.

Last January I was in Body Works and they were clearing out all their old Christmas fragrance tea lights. The tea lights were regular $3.50 and discounted to $1.50 plus they gave you a glass holder for each tea light free. I bought a FEW!

These decorate up great with vinyl. The Cricut cartridge used is Create A Critter 2. This is a great cartridge. Besides the cute critters there are lots of holiday themed icons and phrases. Great value!
The red and green vinyl is shiny/shimmery.

The snowflakes are a punch. I also glittered some of the vinyl. Punch or cut out your vinyl shape, the I use my sticker maker and apply adhesive to the front side of the die cut. Shake on my glitter, give it a bit of a rub and I now have glitter vinyl. The glitter stays stuck very well.

On the opposite side of the bird I have JOY and music notes on the sides.

If I get tired of these I can simply peal off the vinyl and create another theme.

I still have three or more shapes all cut and ready for assembly but ran out of holders and possible people to give them to.

 

I think I will stay away from any malls today - it being Saturday and all!

If you have to venture out shopping today - Good Luck!

 

Yvonne

 

A In A Row!

Good Morning,

Gosh where is December going? It just seems to be flying by. I must admit I'm pretty organized this year. I have all my Christmas cards and the big box in the mail. I do have one more box to get to the post office today....I promise myself.

These are my snowman boxes. Five were for the ladies I stamp with and two more for my "You've Been Elfed."  Being Elfed requires dropping off a box or bag of goodies to a neighbor and then in turn they Elf somebody else.

 

I originally madeone a few years ago and the directions can be found here.

You can put in candy, gift tags, jewelry, really anything small.

Here's a closer look.

Fun to make...not too difficult.

 

Happy Shopping!

Yvonne

Halloween Charger Plate

Hi There!

 

Sorry to be missing for so long. Had a great vacation but got sick on my way home and that flu bug has just suck around way to long. I do hope to share some pictures and stories of my trip as well as the new projects I've been working on.

 

I thought I would share my Halloween Charger Plate. I love making these. They are quick, easy and you can make them for every occasion. After the season has passed storage is easy.

I used several cartridges on this project.

Bats - Happy Hauntings cut at 1"

Happy Halloween - Celebrate With Flourish cut at 2"

Flourishes - Gypsy Font (monogram feature) 1", 1.4" & 1.6"

Border Skulls - Wall Decor & More (border feature) 1.5"

Fence - Wall Decor & More (border feature) 2"

Tree - Happy Hauntings 4.5"

Small Skull beside tree - Indie Art 1"

Bird on Fence - Animal Kingdom - 1"

All images were sized and cut using CCR. Welded two flourishes together on right side of plate.

The fence had a rooster sitting on it and I cut that off and used a more suitable bird from Animal Kingdom.

There are different ways to work with vinyl. I set my machine to cut the image out through both the vinyl and the backing. I do not use a transfer tape. When I'm lining up to layer my vinyl I peel just a small portion of the backing away and make sure I have the image exactly where I want it and then adhere the vinyl layers together. I then proceed to peel back a little more of the backing and adhere that down. By doing it this way I'm not trying to work with a piece of vinyl that is trying to stick to everything it comes in contact with.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Yvonne

Cricut Info & Supplies Used:

Designed By: Yvonne Balmer

Cricut Machine Used: Imagine

Project Type: Home Decore

Project Theme: Halloween

Cricut Cartridges Used: Happy Hauntings, Celecrate with Flourish, Wall Decor & More, Indie Art, Animal Kingdom, Gypsy Font

Other Supplies Used: Vinyl, Black Charger Plate

 

 

It's A Boy!

Morning There,

First off I want to let you know my Grandson was born on Monday at 5:02 p.m. weighing in at a healthy 7 lbs 7 oz.

As you can see I have been busy ... I actually had this already done but I couldn't get the pictures to upload to the computer from the camera. The disk seems to get stubborn every once in a while and yes it decided to have a moment at the most inopportune time.

I started with a 8 x 8 glass block from Hobby Lobby. Inside I've inserted a set of lights so it can work as a night light. I also now know how to install a cord switch if the set of lights doesn't have this option. Very easy to do.

This side of the block I used Word Collage Cricut cartridge and blue vinyl from Joann's. Before I added the vinyl I also sprayed the outside of the block so it have a frosted look to it and it also makes the lightening softer.

On the reverse side of the block I used Nursery Tails and printed the image with my Imagine on printable vinyl.

The image on the card was also take from the Nursery Tail cartridge.

I thought the little carriage was really cute and I might put some treats in there for Xavier.

The design for this came from Scor-pal. The directions are here. In the directions they don't list a size for the wheels...I started with the Stampin' Up scallop punch and sized down from there using my nestabilities. I like my added touch of spokes. Again it was a Stampin' Up punch and I just cut two, one in each color. A sparkly blue brad to finish.

Can't stay on the computer long this morning....I have lots of things to get done before we leave for Canada tomorrow. I know Poppy & Nana have to stay away from the stores today. We keep stopping in and checking out the cute kids clothes department and apparently we lack self-control.

I really am going to try and post while I'm gone....I have the pictures loaded to my blog already.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yvonne

A Bouquet For You!

Good Day Crafters!

Sorry I've been away so much but I did have a great time visiting with family. Lots of laughs and stories. I'm back to my craft room now so have some projects to share with you.
Over at Creative Critterz Imaginations  we've had lots of great ideas using recycled items for our projects and this week we are moving right into a Spring Theme. Yeah! I love spring. This is such a cute project and sits in my entryway.

Cartridges Used:
Digital Pinwheel- 3", 3.75" & 4"
Flower Shoppe - 2 1/2", 3", 3.75"
Floral Emporium - flood filled both pinwheel and flowers
Imagine More Cards - Butterfly - 1.5"
Art Nouveau - printed on vinyl - 1"

Used straws to attach 3-d items to. I also used the straws that have the bendable part in them. Usually used for kids. That way I could tip and move the flowers/pinwheels into place easier.

In the bottom of the pail I put the clear pebbles you get at Michaels or Walmart. Makes the pail more stable and gives your straws support.

Pail purchased after Easter at Randalls and the ribbon retired Stampin' Up. Brads from my stash.

Keep checking back for more Spring Inspiration.

Yvonne

Challenges Entered

Cricut Circle - Create a Centre Piece

Paper Sundaes - Anything Goes

Getting Cricky - Favorite Project

Little Scrap Pieces - Use A Flower

Easter Decor

Hi There,

I told you I'm in Easter mode. I'm really liking the spring colors of the charger plates. The green is the most vibrant but they also come in a pale pink, lavender and an interesting blue. I have the blue one and just need to figure out how to decorate it.

Butterflies/Flowers - Walk In My Garden (Glittered some of the vinyl pieces for accenting.)
Bunny, Eggs & Basket - Easter 2010
Happy Easter - Letter Envy

Basket and eggs printed from Yummy cartridge on the printable vinyl. Bunny cut from brown vinyl and then flocked. Worked great and easy.

Challenges Entered

FCCB - #103 - Celebrate Spring

             (must have at least three flowers)

Splendiferous Creations - Bloggers Challenge - Happy Easter

Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - Anything Spring or Easter

Our Craft Lounge - Spring Things

Time to get outside and enjoy the spring weather.

Yvonne



Easter Baskets

Hi There,

I'm happy to be working on Easter projects this week. I started by making an Easter card but then came up with these Easter baskets and just couldn't stop. They hold three of the Cadbury eggs nicely. I've attached a video with directions on sizing and how the baskets go together complete with showing how to use flock and glitter.
I have a whole new appreciation for those people who do videos. My video was way too long so I had to learn how to edit my clip. Six plus hours later and the video is far from perfect but I've learned a lot and next time should be easier. I'll apologize in advance that I wasn't always as close to the camera as I should have been but I was doing the taping and the demo. lol
The chick and bunny head are both on the wobbles. You can see them in action on the video. I love how the flock came out on these little critters. There's a holder inside the basket to craddle the eggs.

Pattern Paper - Imagine Blossom
Chick - Easter 2010
Added some faux stitching to the pattern paper.

Paper - Imagine - Enjoy The Seasons
Bunny - Easter 2010

Pattern Paper - Imagine - Yummy
Border on Handle - punch
Rabbit - Easter 1010
Sponged blue ink around edges of pattern paper.

The back side of the baskets are pretty much alike. Happy Easter is glittered.

My You Tube Video

Stop by Wednesday for the Easter card and I'll tell you all about going to the Houston Rodeo!

Yvonne

A Love Plate

Hi There,

Since Halloween I've been making decorative charger plates for my neighbors.  I figure by the time I move again she'll have a set for every holiday.

The doves are from the Wedding cartridge and Love from Sentiments cartridge. The little hearts were a punch.

Black vinyl for the shadow and silver for the top layer. The silver is actually looking a little more white in the photo.  The plate was a dark red which in hindsight was too bad cause I had some really nice red sparkly vinyl I had wanted to use for the images.

Have you been watching what new items are being released at the Craft & Hobby Convention (CHA)?

From cricut they are releasing gel pens that you can insert into any of the machines so you can write sentiments (not sure if they are different from the other gel pens they put out). They are also releasing a NEW Bags, Tags and More cartridge. This one will also score the lines for folding the bags/boxes, however you do have to purchase a new housing for your machine so it can score the folds.

Tim Holtz released of course new stamps, embossing folders, paper and a set of markers to match his inks. Between him and Ranger there is a new machine that will cut out the stamped images for you. If you go to Tim Holtz's website you can get details.

Well my mind has gone blank about the other stuff I've seen so I'll sign off for today.

Yvonne

Guest Designer at FCCB!

Good Morning,
Back for another week of projects. For the month of December the design team over at Creative Critterz Imaginations gets to be creative and showcase whatever we like.

I started this project off with a white 12 x 24" canvas. Painted the edges green and covered it with two sheets of pattern paper.

The rosettes are cut from Ribbons & Rosettes at 2.75" which makes about a 5" diameter rosette.

I used Gypsy font at 1.8" and clear embossed it three times for a nice glossy finish.

Ornaments from Christmas Solutions cut at 2.5" & 2". There were three layers and the top layer I covered in glitter.

All the circles were cut using spellbinders but could easily have been done with the cricut.

  Fantabuous Cricut Challenge Blog did a Sunday Spotlight on my blog. Very exciting. Also today I'm a guest designer over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog. Our theme there was Present Time. It could be a gift, gift wrapping, a card with a gift on it..... be sure to check out all the projects!

This was my creation

Santa/Tree/Presents - Santa's Villiage

Stars - Lyrical Letters

Sleigh - Christmas Solutions

Believe- Gypsy Wanderings

I think that wraps things up today. I have lots of things to keep me busy all week!

Yvonne

Cookies For Santa

Good Morning My Crafty Friends!

This project is probably one of my favorites. While I was out shopping at Sam's Club on the week-end I spotted this very cute set of dishes to hold Santa's Goodies. There were four different designs and I stood there and looked and looked for a very long time. Finally I made a decision...of course the one I wanted was on the bottom so had to dig it out....then I decided it would be more special for Xavier if Nana just made him a set.

So after much more shopping to find just the right dinnerware assortment I started creating. The plate, cup and bowl were bought at Target and are not breakable. The cute little deer was bought at Kohl's in the picture frame department.  Lots of style to choose from...again a hard decision.

Cartridges used:
From My Kitchen - Gingerbread -  1.3" & Cookies - 1.3"
George & Basic Shapes - Moon - 2.1"
Joys of the Season - Candy Cane - 2.3"
Christmas Solutions - Santa Sleigh - 2.3"
Lyrical Letters - for - .85" Santa - 1.3" (welded on Gypsy)

Cartridges Used
Christmas Solutions - Reindeer - 3.3"
Lyrical Letters - Reindeer Feed - .7"

If you look closely I glued a read pearl to the deer nose - Rudolf. Also altered a little book that the pages can tear out of so Xavier can write his letter to Santa and attach it to the note holder with the clip.

Lastly Santa needs some Milk to wash down those cookies.

Snowflakes - punch

Lyrical Letters - Milk for - .7" Santa - 1.3"

It's already to go into my suitcase to take with me tomorrow!

I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have making it.

Yvonne