Unsuccessful Day . . .

I was unsuccessful in my double line welding today.  I am disappointed that I could not make it work as I thought it would.  I only wasted about three sheets of paper before I decided I needed to see if I could find additional tutorials to see what I was doing incorrectly.  Part of my problem I believe is I do not have the best fonts to be making sentimental cards or words for scrapbooking.  I have the Georges font and shapes that came with my Cricut, and I have the Pooh Font.  Neither ring romance nor excitement for what I was trying to do today.  So until I view more tutorials, and get additional font cartridges, I am setting aside the double line welding for a few days.

Tomorrow I am going to begin working on the scrap book from our holiday cruise.  My husband and I took a 9 day Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Dream.  This is a beautiful ship where we had a great time and took a great deal of photographs.  I need to weed through them and start adding them into the scrapbook.

My day maybe was unproductive in terms of learning to weld multiple lines, but I did learn quite a bit about my Cricut and Design Studio.  Payday is right around the corner where I hope I will be able to add some supplies to my craft room.  I need the beads, ribbons, gems and more to decorate my cards and Layouts.

More practicing sessions tomorrow after I grade of course.  J

Learning to Use the Welding Features

After spending some time watching helpful tutorials on one of my favorite blogs, I have started practicing with the welding technique for my fonts.  I knew there was a way to do this but for the life of me, I could not figure it out. So I turned to the net and some of my favorite blogs and this is the result of my practice sessions.

As you can see, I still need to work on getting the letters a little closer, the last A in Alivia’s name is a little bit loose.  I had to stagger the letters because of the two I’s or I could not get them to weld and look right at all.  I love the nudge feature in Design Studio, but sometimes it nudges it more than I wish it would.

The cartridge I used for this experiment is the Pooh Font. I plan to use this font in my new granddaughter’s scrapbook.

It is all an experiment for me right now, as I continue to play with the power in front of me.   Tomorrow, I am going to try to weld multiple lines for phrases. “Happy Birthday”  “Happy Anniversary”.  I am sure there is a cartridge that already has this, but with limited funds, I have to pick and chose the cartridges I want and add the others to my list.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!!!

One of my first attempts at using my Cricut

I have a new granddaughter, born on December 12^th.  Mommy and Daddy have decorated her room in Pooh Bear so Gramma decided she would make a scrapbook for the new baby using Pooh Bear as well.  Two of the first cartridges I bought for my new Cricut cutter were the Pooh and Friends and the Pooh Font Set.

Before I delve into the start of the scrapbook, I thought I should learn how to use the machine and the many settings it takes to create the intricate little Pooh characters.   I was quite surprised at some of the tiny detailing included, and how easily this machine cuts these tiny pieces.

Below is the design I created for practice for our granddaughter’s scrapbook. I learned a valuable lesson while practicing with this piece. 

I first tried to create the pieces using regular colored paper.  While yes, this did work, I found that I had a great deal of uneven cuts and the designs just did not look good. So I did the unthinkable . . .

I did not have the correct colors of card stock to create my design, so I opened up my Adobe Photoshop CS4 and I created the colors I needed. Printed them out on my HP Printer, and set about cutting and gluing.  While this is not a practice I recommend, it did allow me to create a design and help me understand the steps and processes necessary to create on small item for the scrapbook.

Now that I know what to do, how to do it, I can get started with the scrapbooks.  One for my granddaughter, one for the recent trip my hubby and I just took, and one for the local hockey team we follow.

Oh, this should be fun for sure.

Scrapping Rookie

Okay – so my few minutes turned into a few hours, or even a few days.  Something new always takes time to adjust and working the way we want it. Right (sounds like a good excuse at the moment)?

I created this blog as much to chronicle my new found hobby as a papercrafter more than I did to present my designs to the public.  I have learned through the years of designing web pages that people always want to see your past work. They want to see how you have progressed throughout the years.

With the assistance of my sister-in-law (she knows where all the great sales are) I am now the proud owner of a Cricut Personal Cutter. I am just learning to use it and use the layers for doing fun things. 

I will be using the Cricut to create multiple scrapbooks, greeting cards, and even some home décor. It all just take time, practice and of course money to buy the paper and other decorations used in your papercrafts.

Some will find my blog boring, however, if you stop by, I would love to hear your comments, and of course your suggestions for improvements to my designs.

I have found some great blogs that showcase awesome designs.  You can see who I follow by reviewing my profile.