Be My Tweetheart

Totally inspired by Jeannie Phillips and her blog A Place For My Cards, I couldn't resist making my own adorable version of her "Tweetheart" card for my husband for Valentine's Day.  It was all mapped out on my Bitty Bugger (Gypsy) and cut using the Sweethearts cartridge for the tree and the birds in the nest, Doodlecharms cartridge for the sun, My Community for the cute little picket fence, and good ol' George to cut the circle in the tree.  The edges of the tree and leaves were all inked around the edges a bit to give it some dimension.

The sentiment on the inside was printed out on my computer, using the Luvable font from Font Diner.

Happy buggin'!

Oldies But Goodies From Last Year.

With emergency room visits and sicknesses making their way through our house lately (several times, I might add), it's been really hard for me to get the blog/FB fan page/website all up and running smoothly as well as find some time to be crafty and ingenius.  Since I'm starting the blog and fan page anyway, I thought now would be as good a time as ever to "re"-introduce some of my favourite Valentine/Love cards from years past!

I LOVE this pirate Valentine, for SOOOO many reasons.  For starters, my son made it.  He was 7 at the time and he made it for his brother, who is quite possibly the biggest pirate fan EVER!  He set up the machine himself, picked the image from the Love Struck Seasonal Mini Cricut cartridge and measured the size and cut.  That's what I love about it, is that it's one cut.  It was cut at 5.25" tall, and centred on an A2 card (An A2 measures 4.24" x 5.5" and is made by scoring an 8.5" x 5.5" down the middle and folding along your score line).  The pirate image centres nicely on a red background.  He then used Cardinal stickles for the blade of the Pirate's sword and Champagne stickles for his eyepatch.  A super easy cut that makes a great card for kids or adults!

I like this one too, because of it's simplicity.  The image is also cut from the Love Struck Seasonal Mini Cricut cartridge.  The image is cut from red, and there is a blackout cut from white.  The two are layered together and arranged on a pink card.  I pop-dotted them for effect.  I tied a matching ribbon around some cardstock that I cut just smaller than the card for a little detail.  Voila!  Easy peasy. :)

The XO card is made using the Gypsy and the latest Digital-Only cartridge called Smiley Cards.  Before cutting my image, I ran it through my good ol' HP officejet printer and printed "I Love You", using the 2Peas Heart's Delight font in indigo.  I cut the base image in pink and just the Layer 1 in white.  I'm not overly keen on the faces, but to each his own.  And I left it at that.  Simple and sweet and can be used for Valentine's Day, Anniversary, Just Because, I Love You, etc.

Happy buggin'!

Blog grief all worked out!

I've been having some problems getting used to the blogging thing and the blogger way of doing it.  I had originally posted photos of the boxes of all the retired carts on a separate page.  Then I went and got the bright idea of posting sample images of the cartridges as well.  Well, that just led to a nightmare, as images were going all crazy and sizing was happening without my permission and images were just shuffling all over the place!  I was getting super frustrated and nearly pulled my hair out, lol.  Well, all is right in the universe again, as I spent the day restructuring that page.  All retired cartridge images are now available to look at here:

http://lilbuggerblog.blogspot.com/p/retired2.html

Or you can just click on the "Retired" header at the top of this page :)

There have been 30 cartridges retired to date, and they are currently in alphabetical order.  I'll be keeping that page up to date and add the cartridges as they are announced.

Happy buggin'!

Cricut Circle Cartridges

Since I'm limited to only 10 behind-the-blog-scenes pages, I thought I'd throw in the Circle carts and information here.  There have been 3 cartridges released so far, the first was French Manor, in Summer of 2010.  Shall We Dance? was the second, released in fall of the same year, and just announced is Cricut Everyday which was just released and should be arriving any day now.  These cartridges are exclusive to the Cricut Circle club. Cricut Circle is a unique membership-only club offered by ProvoCraft and these cartridges are only available to members.

French Manor (Summer 2010):

Shall We Dance? (Fall 2010):

Cricut Everyday (Winter 2011):

Now to put on my creative thinking cap and see what we can't come up with using these!  I see Shall We Dance as more of a girlie cartridge...and having a house full of boys, that could be quite the challenge.  I think I'll have to dig out some wedding photos for that one!  I can't wait for Cricut Everyday to arrive...that one will be used to replace my labels in my craftroom and scrapbooking those photos of my friends and I scrapbooking.  (You know you're addicted when...).

Happy buggin'!

LOVE the New Cricut Logos!

Also unveiled at the CHA this weekend were the new Cricut logos, in celebration of Cricut's 5th birthday!!  Happy Birthday Cricut!!!  How cute are these?!?!

Happy buggin'!

There's a New Bug Coming to Town!

News from the CHA in Los Angeles...Cricut will soon be releasing the Expression 2!  Love the machine, but I think they could have come up with a better name.  Seems this new beast will have WiFi capabilities, able to connect with your Gypsy and/or Design Studio/SCAL/MTC from clear across the room, so you don't have to navigate around that cord.  There are no overlays on this machine (!)...they are digitally displayed on it's LCD touch screen.  What that means for overlays in the future is anyone's guess.  This new machine is compatible with both the original Cricut cartridges and as well the Imagine cartridges, and the same goes for the mats...either will work.  There is an on-board memory to remember your settings, so you can cut vinyl, paper, then cardstock, and then back to vinyl again at the push of a button - your settings will be remembered.  A bit of a luxury, in my opinion, but there is a light on the blade to see what you're cutting.  Nice to be able to do a quick check and make sure it's cutting ok.  I don't know what I'm going to do now with the little mini flashlight I keep in my kit for just such a use, but I'm sure I could manage ;)  So excited to learn more about this newest Bugger and am calculating in my head how many classes I will have to teach and how many layouts I will have to sell to bring the newest member of our Bugger Family home.  *sigh*  Be nice to me, ProvoCraft!!

Check out this little teaser video about the newest bug from the CHA:

Happy buggin'!

I *heart* my mailman!

After spending the majority of my morning in the Emergency department with my youngest son, consoling him while the doctors stitched a gash on his forehead closed, I was SUPER excited to come home to find my awesome mailman had left me my much anticipated December bundle of the nine newly released cartridges:

Pack Your Bags (Full-featured Shapes cartridge), Best of Pixar - which is amazing by the way - (Full-featured Licenced Shapes cartridge), Groovy Times (Full-featured Shapes cartridge), Spring Holiday Cards (Limited Edition Seasonal Mini cartridge), Mother's Day Bouquet (Limited Edition Seasonal Mini cartridge), April Showers (Limited Edition Seasonal Mini cartridge), Life's A Party (Full-featured Shapes cartridge), Disney Classics - oh the memories!! - (Full-featured Licenced Shapes cartridge), and Nate's ABCs (Full-featured Shapes cartridge).

It's been an exhausting and emotional day, to say the least.  I can't wait to play with them tomorrow!  I will also be sure to post some more detailed samples of what these cartridges can cut.

Happy buggin'!

Thank-you Shout-out.

I have to send a shout-out to http://www.threecolumblogger.com/ for their awesome tutorial and step-by-step instructions on changing the html on my blog to change it from a 2-column blog to a 3-column blog.  Super easy to follow!  I now have so much more space to fill.  :)  Thanks, you rock!

Happy buggin'!



Bedroom Door Nameplate

A friend of mine has been looking everywhere for something for her 5 year old daughter's bedroom door with her name on it.  Her daughter is in love with The Little Mermaid.  She was hoping to find something at Disney™ this winter, but alas...there was nothing with 'Abby' that she was happy with.  With some inspiration from Jill at http://www.benalycards.com/ and input from Abby, this is what we came up with:

Created with the Bitty Bugger (my Gypsy, lol), I just kept adding images from the Disney™ Dreams Come True Cricut® cartridge and welded them together.  Then the layers were cut out at the appropriate sizes.  "ABBY" is cut from the StoryBook Cricut® Cartridge, and "room" is from the tried-and-true Don Juan Cricut® Cartridge.  I love how it turned out!

Surprisingly, the only "new" items used were the black and the white.  Everything else was using stock that I had on hand.  Finished project measures 12" high by 24" wide.  Her father is a carpenter and mounted it on a nice piece of wood with rounded edges and it is hung by a beautiful red ribbon threaded through it.  I'm still waiting for photos of the finished project, but you get the idea ;)

In a houseful of boys, it was nice to do something wonderful for a little girl for a change!

Happy buggin'!

Meet My Bug Family!

the Bugger Family

I thought it might be time to introduce my bug family.  These 6 machines are the backbone of my scrapbook and paper craft obsession.  Each is different and unique in their own right:

Big Bugger and Mother Bugger are Expressions:

Cricut® Expression

I personally, use the Big Bugger exclusively for paper products, with a regular blade, and the Mother Bugger is used for projects requiring the deep blade and housing, such as magnets, vinyl, and chipboard.  It just makes it easier for me, not having to change the housings each time.



Cricut® Expression

The Cricut® Expression™ is a much larger unit than the Cricut® Create™ or the Cricut® Personal Electronic Cutter®, meant to stay on a work table or in a media room. The good thing is that all Cricut® models use the same cartridges and the same blade housings and blades.



The Cricut® Expression™ is a way to cut letters, shapes, and phrases in impressive sizes using the 12" x 24" mat or the 12" x 12" mat. The possibilities are endless with this larger machine, allowing you to create bigger die cuts for classroom decor, scrapbook layouts, signage, and so much more.

• Mix and match creative features in the same cut
• Use the entire library of existing Cricut cartridges
• Cut in portrait or landscape
• Mat sizes 12" x 12" or 12" x 24"
• No computer necessary
• Change settings such as language and units of measurement
• New LCD screen that shows exactly what you're typing for your next cut

Lil' Bugger is a Create:

Cricut® Create

The Cricut® Create™ Personal Electronic Cutter combines the portability of the original Cricut® machine with the functionality of the Cricut® Expression™ machine. The Cricut® Create™ machine is the same size as the original Cricut® machine, yet it allows cuts from 0.25" up to 11.5" on a 6" x 12" cutting mat. The machine also includes an eight-way directional blade, Portrait mode (to cut taller images), Fit to Page mode (to cut the largest cut possible), Auto Fill mode (to mass produce cuts), Center Point function, and Flip function. An improved display screen and sleek design add greater style and convenience.

Ol' Bugger is a Personal:

The Cricut® Personal Electronic Cutter™ machine, released as the first machine, redefined home crafting and paper crafts. Simply by touching a button, Cricut® can cut beautiful designs and alphabets for card making, scrapbooking, and paper crafting.



Cricut® Personal

The Personal is very basic in what it can do, in comparisons to the newer and larger machines now being released.  Options are limited on the Personal.


No computer is required, just plug it in.  Place your favourite cartridge in your Cricut® and choose from hundreds of designs in 12 different sizes; ranging from 1" to 5-1/2"!  That's thousands of possibilities!  Cutting customized shapes and alphabets has never been easier.  This Cricut machine weighs only 7 lbs.

Cuttle Bugger is a Cuttlebug:

Cuttlebug®

Cut a shape, emboss a shape, or cut then emboss shapes with the inspired designs available exclusively with Cuttlebug® cutting and embossing dies. Expressing your creativity has never been easier!

• Cuttlebug accepts the dies you already own.
• Cuttlebug loves the materials you love, freeing you to cut and emboss from a wide range of crafting materials.
• Compact fold-n-store profile allows storage in less space than other leading machines.
• With a built-in pop-up handle, Cuttlebug goes wherever you find inspiration.

Bitty Bugger is a Gypsy:

Gypsy™ is a hand-held, portable Design Studio.  Gypsy™ stores all your Cricut® cartridges, making it easy to search and find just the right shape. Gypsy™ works easily with any Cricut® machine-just connect and cut! Design anywhere with Gypsy™ from Provo Craft.

Gypsy™

With Gypsy™ you can design whenever and wherever you want!  The Gypsy™ lets you take your entire Cricut® library with you.  Along with having all your cartridges ready-to-cut on your Gypsy™ you can also design using a whole host of design capabilities allowing you to design at the dentist's office, grocery store, or whenever you've got a free minute and a free hand!

In the near future, I will be posting a bit more detail about what each machine does, different settings for different materials, and of course lots of projects that you can create using just these machines and your own imagination.

Happy buggin'!