Kids crafts and more...

I'm going to cover two things here -

First - my new favorite reason to love my Gypsy. I finally got a Gypsy for Mother's day this year, after I was spending to much time playing with my demo one for work. (hubby does notice these things). When I did my daughter's birthday party I did A LOT of layering. For the the Snow White and Seven dwarves I used my Design studio, which was great - but I had to move my Cricut down to the computer room and bring all the paper I needed. When I did the rest I was upstairs in my craft room, but for each of the designs, I knew the sizes, but I never knew how much paper I needed. Also I had to load each color individaully for the cut - which can lead to a lot of shifting of mats around along with wasted paper- which gets tiring!

So while playing with layers on my gypsy I realized some thing. If I don't overlap my paper, and cut smaller pieces based on the size I need, I can actually cut 2-5 different colors on one mat!!

Here is a screen shot of some fishes I did for my daughter.

These are off of Everyday Paper Dolls, Sesame Street characters, and Animal Kingdom - the other reason to love the Gypsy, cutting for 3 cartridges at the same time. On the Paper doll cuts, I had to use the real size function - or the fishes would be smaller and harder to figure out.

The next shot is how I laid out the paper on the sheet.

Notice they do not over lap. And notice that the one has a small peice missing out of it - since I know based on the gypsy picture that part wouldn't be used it is fine to be missing the piece.

The next picture is after the Cricut cut.

You can see how much paper was used and I don't feel like I'm throwing away as much paper.

And here is it after removing the excess.

I have been able to do the layers for character on one sheet - just not the base layer. I know I'll be setting a number of these up in my gypsy as I get ready to cut more out for my daughters friend.

The Next part of my love of Cricut and Gypsy come in the form of great kids ideas.

First I found a great idea on Pink and  Green Mama Blog. Ocean in a box 

This was a great idea taking senory boxes to the next level, and I agree with this gal - this would be a great birthday present.

Next I saw an idea on the DIY Dish blog. Making stand up designs for kids to play with. I have since created a couple of ideas for my daughter to play with.

Here is the first part of the ocean in a box. I picked up 2 bags of fish gravel some plants. I then made some cricut shells, fish and castle. Then after seeing the DIY Dish blog idea, I added more things.

Then I created seahorses on popicle actually add something to the piece. It looks like the seashorse are floating in the water, the gravel holds the sticks great.

Then I did some trees.

These I did with popicle sticks and air dry clay. I now see AWESOME ideas for kids projects for school in adding 3-D elements to projects. I also see a "cheap" way to add to sets that kids play with. And I can work on using up some of my scrap paper very easily without having to use my good paper.

THANK you to Pink and green mama blog for a great kids play project, and the DIY dish for adding to my imagination!

Valentine's Day Recap

Well Valentine's has come and gone and I didn't update some of the things I did. Olypmics has keep me busy - as it is MY favorite thing to watch and I'm working steadly on my Ravelypmics projects (for another post).

First the decor. I did get a few more things up.

Here is more christmas garland with the crayon shavings hearts.

I decided to save some of the doilies I got this year for next year - as I know K will get more into desorating over the next year with me. She did enjoy the projects we did. I'll post more if I missed the one in another post.

K also decorated this mailbox that I bough on Clearance at Target last year. I plan on letting her play around with it some more.

So that was it with decor - we did do some windows with Gel clings and such - but no more crafty goodies.

The last part of our Valentine's came with our MOMS club party. I host this year and last years. Both years I got contianers together for the kids to decorate and had PLENTY of foam shapes and stickers for both years.

Our last year party we did paper plate holders for the Valentine's.

Here is the before. I used red plates and I used my cricut and my opposites attract caritdge for the names. I used my design studio to weld the names so they worked better. I also had them labeled before the kids got there. I had a tile fireplace last year and used Command hooks to put the holders. I also punched holes around and whipstitches with white yarn the pieces together. 

 

Here is the after. The kids used foam shapes and stickers to decorate. My kiddo wasn't into it as much last year.

This year we turned to recycling. I was talking to a friend and we were tossing ideas around about what to use for a card holder. I have a bags, tags and more caritidge for the Cricut, but I couldn't get something big enough (even on the expression) that I likes and would hold up.And we didn't want to reuse the last idea. She suggested food boxes. So we gathers some boxes - cake mix, crackers, pasta etc. Whatever was in the recycled paper bin. and here is the idea.

Here is the start.

and the side

and supplies.

I used recycled boxes - flatten and opened up

Colored duct tape

3/16" eyelets (big enough for the yarn)

scrap yarn

eyelet setter

scissors

I didn't take pictures - but you will get the idea. I opened the seams of the boxes up and turned the boxes inside out. I trim the tabs off top side. I used the duct tape to reseal the box inside out. I though about other adhesives - but sometimes the box tears a little and such and these were for kids for 18 mos to 4 yrs (not the most gentle sort). So I though the tape would hold the box well and add stability to the project, also the colors could dress it up some.

I then used my eyelet punch and made a hold about 1/2" to 1" down the side of the box. The Crop-a-dile was able to go though the tape no problem. I then set the eyelet (do both sides). I then strung yarn through the holes and tied to both sides. You could used ribbon - but I want to keep cost down. And they are ready to decorate.

For the party I precut the kids names with Simply sweet Cricut Cartitidge at 1 1/2" inches shadow cut. I also (to save time) ran the names through my "X" xyron so they would be sticky and ready to use (again young kids). I made a clothesline on one of my walls and hung the boxes up with clothespins and attached the names.

here they are ready to decorate. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture after decorating but you can see kiddo's here.

All in all the project was great and can work well for parties. One of the boxes we saved was a pasta box with the clean window in it. You could have a lot fun with that style.