Upcoming 2011 projects - February, March, April

I have a bit of a cold today and thought a posting to my blog would be a nice pick me up. My plans for the February, March and April projects are pretty much finalized. In February we will do a 2 page layout using Sweethearts and Storybook cartridges, plus make some window clings, and possibly a bookmark or gift tag with holder. In March we are doing cards that move -- and there will be 5 different styles. Since there are new seasonal cartridges - April Showers, Spring Holiday Cards, Mothers Day Bouquet - and assuming J's will carry these items, I thought we might want to use some for the March cards. Of course I will let you know once the cartridge list is firm. Finally, a 2 page layout for April plus a little something extra. The cartridges for April will be Storybook, Everyday Paper Dolls, and Designers Calendar. It is my intention to use techniques that we cover in the advanced techniques class or, perhaps, something new. Another item I am considering is adding Gypsy and/or Cricut Design Studio instructions as part of the instruction materials since many students have, or plan to have, one of these products and it would give them projects to learn/reinforce tool features. What do you think? I also have started to repeat some cartridges in the projects so we don't always have to rush out to purchase new cartridges - even though that is alot of fun! For those attending class tomorrow night, see you then. Happy cricuting.

ColorNook + Gypsy + Cricut = awesome!

I received (obviously early) a ColorNook for Christmas this year. I have loaded the pdf cartridge booklets for my linked cartridges on my ColorNook. I have not yet loaded the jpeg versions -- which seems to be the format for the solutions cartridges. Talk about simplify!! Crafting now involves 3 devices - my gypsy, my cricut and my ColorNook. It is wonderful to look at the cartridge booklets from 1 device. Certainly a computer or Net book would work too, but the Nook is a much smaller size and more convenient for me. I like the Color version of the Nook too because I can see the images just as they appear in the cartridge booklet -- plus I can enlarge the size of the image if I want to. Can you spell "awesome"? Other ereader devices will work too for loading your cartridge library so give it a try if you haven't yet done so. It is freezing here so what a good time to snuggle with your Gypsy and plan your next projects. Stay warm and enjoy the holidays.

January 2011 project and other thoughts

Ok the instructions are done. I am working on March and April project designs and samples. It sure would be fun to have a flip video and then to be able to tape some of the techniques or design inspirations. No flip video yet so that will go on the wish list for 2011. A personal challenge: use all my cartridges and explore new techniques. Hope everyone's holiday season is going well. Stay safe and healthy!

January 2011 Cricut Project

Yes, the project is done. I do have to write up the instructions. This was a project that went together without any fussing. I really enjoyed creating it. Fingers crossed that it will appeal to others and there will be enough students to run the class. We will go green and will create our own chipboard PLUS do some multi cutting. Hope you are able to join me for class on January 4. I will post some pictures just to get your creative juices flowing. We are using Designer Calendar and Cindy Loo cartridges. Let's start the New Year off right and do some Cricuting!!!

December 2010 Cricut Workshop

I was tuckered out for planning a December class. It seemed like it took forever to plan each card, and then forever to select the papers, and then forever to rework paper selections if those papers were no longer offered in the store. Thank goodness I had completed the 10 cards in November and just needed to write up the instructions - huh? Ok writing instructions is not a fun task but it is very important because it is the only way someone can complete a project once the class has concluded. Tonight I am updating/revising the class instructions for tomorrow's class. Fingers crossed all will go well. I thought developing January and February class content might be an issue but I am pleased to say that the projects for both are completed. I do need to write up the instructions but that is a job for later this week. Now that I have this blog updated I can share with each student to help them complete their projects. It hasn't quite been a year since I began creating these workshops but I am satisfied that I have done my best to keep the content varied and feature new and different techniques.

November 2010 Cricut Workshop

Holiday Cards. A woman at the store suggested I create a Holiday Card workshop. It seemed like a good idea. Over the summer I began to think of cartridges and structure for the class. I thought it might be fun to have everyone just bring their machine and then we would pass the cartridge to create the cards. Since the maximum number of students for the class was 8, I thought we would have 8 cards. Did I mention I "overfill" class content. There were a few neat holiday cartridges out in the summer, but the Thanksgiving and Christmas Cards were not released. As with all the classes, I began the process to create the card designs and new cartridges and new ideas began to ferment. I realized that everyone works at their own pace so to make the ability to create a card dependent on another seemed a bad idea. I ended up developing 10 different Holiday cards, 2 of them for Thanksgiving and 8 for the Holiday Season. In November we created the 2 Thanksgiving cards and 4 different Holiday Cards using the following cartridges: Thanksgiving, Christmas Cards, Winter Woodland, Joys of the Season, and Create a Critter. Boy the elves were busy making Holiday Cards in the workshop. Everyone completed their cuts and some sent me pictures of their completed cards. I loved how each one personalize the card to reflect themselves. We will be completing the remaining 4 cards in the December workshop plus making an etched glass vase.

October 2010 Cricut Workshop

Ok, I thought this will be a Halloween themed something. When I originally envisioned this class there was no "Happy Haunting" or any 2010 Fall seasonal cartridges - the best cartridge with Halloween content was Paper Doll Dress Up. I had wanted to do something with magnets and clothes for magnets but with a twist. The store offers Darice magnetic canvas so I decided to create magnet with this material. Also, I wanted to use the markers to create the detailed skelton costume - showing off all this detail. Once I saw Happy Haunting I wanted to create a layout. The result is the 2 page Halloween Delights and Halloween magnets with costumes. As you can probably see, I "overfill" the content of these classes. While we may not finish everything within the 2.5 hours, the students have advised the instructions are sufficient to complete the projects at home. The featured cartridges for this month were Paper Doll Dress Up and Happy Haunting. Did I say again how much I love teaching!!! Thank you to all who take my classes and give me this opportunity.