I was recently lucky enough to receive a fabulous Cricut Mini to review. While I'm getting to know the machine I've been making a few little projects, and I'm sharing my very first one here. I recently discovered washi tape, and I've been using for a few little crafty makes. These little gift tags are made with washi tape on card stock and cut out using the Cricut. Of course, if you don't have a Cricut, you can just cut them out by hand.
Watch my how to video for a full demonstration and to see the Cricut Mini in action:
The gift tags are very simple to make up. Take a sheet of light cardstock and run a few strips of washi tape across the top. Make sure to stick it down firmly. Lay it down on the cutting mat and open up the Cricut Craft room software on the PC.
For the gift tag template I used a shape that came free with the Cricut Mini. It's from the Something to Celebrate cartridge. Under the Décor tab, it's called HvngPrty. I enlarged it slightly, then copied and pasted it across the screen to make three tags. The layout on your screen corresponds exactly to the cutting mat that you are using so you can work out where to position your shapes.
I used the setting for medium card stock which worked fine and the shapes were cut beautifully.
Once the card stock is removed from the machines, peel it away and reveal your lovely gift tags! I added some ribbon through the top. The space at the bottom is perfect for adding the name of the recipient.
As part of working through my unfinished craft projects I recently stitched up a little cupcake cross stitch that I bought in the Hobbycraft sale probably about a year ago. They sell lots of little cross stitch kits, often seasonal ones, usually on 3 for 2, and always displayed in the baskets by the tills so that you spot them while you're waiting to be served and can't help picking them up. Very clever and I've been tempted (and caught!) many times!
This little cross stitch only took a couple of hours to do and it's very sweet, but I never really know what to do with these tiny cross stitch pieces when they are finished. I suppose they are designed for cards really, but everyone that I know who would appreciate the work that has gone into a home made card is perfectly capable of making their own lovely cards!
So I decided to make a little frame for it using my Cricut Mini so that I can stick it up somewhere and enjoy it. Both pieces are cut from the free cartridges included with the Cricut Mini. For the frame I just used the rectangle shape from Cricut Craft Room Basics. I made a larger rectangle then a smaller square positioned over the top, then a matching back piece. The overlay (cut in pink) is the Emblem Border from the Elegant Cartridge, glued across the bottom of the frame.
The cross stitch has been cut to size and secured to the back of the frame with tape, then the second rectangle glued onto the back. It's currently up next to my desk, although I wouldn't be surprised if it finds its way into Mia's room!
I recently returned from an amazing holiday to the US. I'm afraid that you may be hearing rather a lot about it on the blog over the next few weeks. But instead of just travel reports I thought that I'd also share some of the fantastic crafty goodies that I picked up! I can't remember exactly where I bought everything, but I shopped in craft shops Michaels and Jo-Ann (both of which do amazing coupons that you can just show the cashier on your phone, you can sometimes save up to 50% off your most expensive item and 20% off your entire shop). I also found some little bits in Target and WalMart.
I know that most of these things can be sourced in the UK too, but they did work out cheaper and as I don't normally buy so many crafty things at once it was pretty exciting for me!
I bought washi tape, printed fabric tape and patterned Duck Tape. I just can't resist washi tape, especially when it's really cheap, and I found fabric tape, glitter tape and shaped tape.
Now I just need to find a way of storing it, as unfortunately my lovely washi tape holder is now woefully inadequate!
I bought Perler beads which look to be the same as Hama beads, but they are stripy! I'm looking forward to playing with these and seeing how they look when they are ironed.
I also found some Cricut accessories cheaper than at home, including some Cricut vinyl which I've been after for a while. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet but I've seen lots of cool crafts around that I'd like to try.
Finally I used one of my large discount coupons to buy a Smash Book. I think that I'm a bit late to these but I've read about them and they are pretty cool, basically they are just a scrapbook that comes with a fancy pen that has a glue stick on one end, along with a few other stickers, tiny sticky notes and tape to embellish with. I've already done a few pages with some mementoes and notes from our holiday, I'll share how I get on with it when I've completed some more!
Some links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, just in case I've whet your crafty appetite!
Rangoli are designs that are created on the floor, either indoors or outdoors, usually using natural materials like dyed sand, dyed rice, coloured powders or flower petals. The designs can be simple or intricate, and are often based around geometric shapes and patterns. Rangoli are often seen at Diwali as decoration and to encourage the goddess Lakshmi to enter homes. They are a fun activity to do with children because there are so many different ways that you can design and make them.
This year we've made Rangoli using dyed salt in a cardboard template placed on sticky clear contact paper. I used a Cricut Mini to make our templates but you can easily cut them by hand
You need:
Salt and food colouring
Template shapes - mine were cut using a Cricut Mini
Clear contact paper (sticky backed plastic)
Tape to hold in position on the table
(Laminator if required)
Instructions:
This activity does require some preparation, and it's a lot easier to do if it's all set up beforehand!
First you need to dye the salt. I used cheap supermarket salt and liquid food colouring. Pour the salt into a bowl and mix in a generous amount (at least a teaspoon) of food colouring. Stir well, then leave somewhere warm to dry out. I prepared my dyed salt a few days in advance.
Then you need to prepare the Rangoli template. I used a Cricut Mini to cut out my shapes. A limitation of the Cricut Mini is that you can only cut shapes that you have in your library - I'm too mean to purchase additional cartridges, but I find that the basic shapes included in the Craft Room are very good. I used a selection of designs including circles, ovals and leaf shapes, and tweaked them a bit to get the shapes that I wanted.
If you are cutting the shapes out by hand I'd recommend using a craft knife and cutting mat. There are lots of designs online that you can use for inspiration, it's best to look for a simple one like this basic Rangoli pattern. Cut the design from thin cardboard in a contrasting colour.
Lay your clear contact paper out on the table sticky side up and secure the corners with tape. Lay your design out and make sure that it is stuck down firmly to the sticky paper.
Then you can let the children loose! Use fingers to sprinkle the salt and press down onto the paper. It doesn't matter if you put down too much salt as you can carefully shake off the excess salt over a bin. Seal the design with a second sheet of clear contact paper stuck down over the top.
The finished Rangoli were fine as a temporary craft, but I wasn't sure if they would last well if I hung them up. So I ran them through the laminator to make them a little sturdier and to be sure that no salt would escape.
The dyed salt can also be used to make a temporary Rangoli design outdoors or on the floor with older children. Simply draw out a design on the floor using chalk and fill in with the coloured salt.
If you are teaching your young children about Diwali, here are some books that they might enjoy:
The Best Diwali Ever (affiliate link) - A heart warming picture book about Diwali, siblings and how very special this celebration can be.
Diwali colouring book for kids (affiliate link) - A simple coloring book for young children, suitable for ages 2-5. Contains all sorts of things to colour including lamps, fireworks, candles, lanterns, food & rangoli patterns.
First Festivals: Diwali (affiliate link) - Featuring simple text, gorgeous illustrations and satisfying lift-the-flaps, this book explores common Diwali traditions and helps young children understand the importance of this special holiday.
Mr Men and Little Miss Happy Diwali (affiliate link) - The five-day festival of lights is celebrated by millions of people across the world and the Mr Men and Little Miss can't wait to join in. They're busy cleaning their homes, creating Rangolis, lighting lamps and enjoying all the festivities, including large feasts that Mr Greedy is particularly looking forward to. It’s going to be a busy five days of light and laughter!
You can also find all sorts of different Diwali crafts and activities on my popular Diwali Pinterest board.
These simple heart sun catchers are a great Valentine's Day craft for toddlers. They are really easy to make and you only need a few bits and pieces from the craft box to make some lovely heart themed decor to decorate your home for Valentine's Day.
All you need is some thin coloured card, some clear contact paper (sticky backed plastic) and some collage materials, we used torn up red and pink tissue paper.
I used my Cricut Mini to cut out the heart shapes. There is a basic heart shape supplied in the designs that come with the machine, and when I logged in this time I had a free trial of the Love Struck 2010 cartridge which is where the slanted heart shapes came from (although you could easily recreate this shape by manipulating the free basic heart shape). Of course it is also easy enough to cut out a heart frame using scissors.
Once you have a selection of heart frames cut out, stick them down on the clear contact paper and cut around the edges. Then give your child the collage materials and let them stick them to the sticky paper. Even younger toddlers will easily be able to do this, and they will have a real sense of accomplishment from being able to create something pretty so easily. You might like to add a second layer of the sticky backed plastic on the reverse side, to keep it all nice and neat.
Then stick them up in the window so that the light can shine through!
I was recently sent a Cricut Mini Electronic Cutting Machine from Provo Craft to review, and I've been having a lot of fun trying it out. With the Cricut Mini you can cut out shapes and designs which can be used for all sorts of crafty projects. You can use it for cardmaking, scrapbooking, bunting, gift bags...all sorts of paper crafting. You can also use it for cutting thicker materials like magnetic sheets or vinyl.
I was rather intimidated when I first took it out of the box, because there were lots of instructions to follow. But once the children were in bed and I had the chance to look at it properly, it was very easy to set up and install the required software. It didn't take long before I was able to make my first project. The Cricut Mini comes with a few sheets of card stock and instructions which help you to make your very first small card. The machine only actually has two buttons - one to turn it on and one to load the cutting mat.
The supplied cutting mat has a sticky surface which holds the card stock firmly in place while the machine is cutting. You simply load the mat into the machine, produce your design on the computer, and click Cut.
I was fascinated watching the Cricut electronic cutting machine at work, so I made a little video to show it in action.
I was then eager to start using the Cricut Mini for my own projects, so I decided to make some little gift tags using cardstock and washi tape. I blogged the full instructions here - Cricut Mini washi tape gift tags - and you can also watch my short video below for a complete tutorial.
All the projects that your Cricut Mini will cut are created online in the Cricut Craft Room, so you do need a computer and internet access to use it. You download the free software onto your computer and then set up an account which stores details of the cartridges which you have purchased. There are also plenty of free designs available in your account to use. It's really easy to design your project against a background which mirrors the cutting mat exactly. You simply drag and drop the images and text that you would like to use, and position and shape them as you like.
The big limitation of the Cricut Mini is that you cannot cut out your own designs, you can only use the free designs provided or additional images that you have purchased. You do have access via the Craft Room to the entire Cricut image library for design purposes, but you can only cut the actual images that are in your account. It could work out quite expensive if you wanted to buy a lot of images.
I did find however that the range of free basic images was very good, and every time I logged in to the Craft Room there were new free images there for me to use. For example, over the last couple of weeks, several sets of Halloween images have appeared. Also, with a bit of practice it is very easy to manipulate the basic geometric shapes into more personalised images. I wanted to create a silhouette image of a haunted house for Halloween, and I was able to make up a simple one just using the basic shapes as below. The different colours represent the different layers in the image.
The machine cuts quickly and effectively and the quality of the final cut is good. You need to change the settings for depth, pressure and speed according to the material and designs that you are cutting. You are given some guidance through the craft room software, but it is worth experimenting with this a little, for example I found that it was worth reducing the cutting speed for a cleaner cut.
The Cricut Mini is really easy to use. It's small and light, and great if you are making a lot of one item, for example a batch of wedding invitations or Christmas cards. It's perfect for cutting intricate designs that would be almost impossible with a craft knife. I personally don't feel the need to purchase any additional images, as I think that the ones supplied for free will be sufficient for my purposes. For the price I think that it represents excellent value.
to review. While I'm getting to know the machine I've been making a few little projects, and I'm sharing my very first one here. I recently discovered washi tape, and I've been using for a few little crafty makes. These little gift tags are made with washi tape on card stock and cut out using the Cricut. Of course, if you don't have a Cricut, you can just cut them out by hand.
which I've been after for a while. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet but I've seen lots of cool crafts around that I'd like to try.
. I think that I'm a bit late to these but I've read about them and they are pretty cool, basically they are just a scrapbook that comes with a fancy pen that has a glue stick on one end, along with a few other stickers, tiny sticky notes and tape to embellish with. I've already done a few pages with some mementoes and notes from our holiday, I'll share how I get on with it when I've completed some more!
