Cricut Teddy Bear, George Only

I was thinking this weekend that I wanted to make a teddy bear cut file with the DS, so when somebody posted a request this morning for one, I knew it was a good time to give it a try. Here is the bear I came up with. The mouth is drawn on and I put brown dots on the white eyes, but you could just cut them from brown.

TeddyBear.cut file:

TeddyBear.cut

Spring Blocks

I made these today with my cricut. Letters are from Plantin, cut at 1 inch. I used SU paper (pretty in pink, so saffron, celery, amethyst, and then coordinating dark colors for shadow). Blocks are pine, 1.5 inches on each side, which I painted with a light coat of white spray paint.

Spring is in the air!

Feeling Blue? Blues Clues !

Whenever something goes missing in the house, the boys get out their handy dandy notebooks and look for clues. This morning as they were looking for a lost toy, I decided it was time to do a Blues Clues scrapbook page. I made Blue in Cricut Design Studio, the first one didn't come out quite as I'd hoped-I think I figure out how to cut her spots- but I couldn't bear to just throw her away so I decided she would be cute on a card. Card size is 5 1/2 square. Shading is done with chalks, I drew on the eyes (whites are part of .cut file), toes are drawn on, and I used white gel pen for accent on the nose. Paw print is a stamp. Current .cut file is below, although I will work on the spots and I'm also working on a notebook - how cute would that be for journaling the scrap page? BLUE is done using George Basic Shapes and the lettering is Opposites Attract.

Cricut DS cut file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hdu5j2mjytg

Cricut Paper Dolls Sailor Bear - Tear bear instructions

I am having so much fun making these little bears (and animals) and dressing them with my Cricut! I know there are lots of instructions on these on the internet alread – that’s where I learned-but I thought it would be fun to write one with a Cricut in mind. This is my first tutorial…so BEAR with me.

You will need:
Handmade Mulberry paper, 100 gsm, tan, cream
Paint brush and water OR aquapainter
Chalks
Adhesive (I use glue stick)
Stiff brush to fluff paper (I use a stiff toothbrush)
Paw print punch or CRICUT
White gel pen
Black pen
Pencil
Cardstock (white, black and your choice of colors for clothes)

1. Begin by either drawing a rough sketch of a bear head and cutting it out OR if you have a cricut, cutting a pattern (the lion head on pg 69 of the Paper Dolls works great cut at 5 ½ inches) – its pretty much just a circle-ish for the head and two smaller circles for ears, so if you don’t have the cricut, no worries-just draw. I do the ears separate from the head, with practice and patience maybe they could be done as one, but I like the layered look anyway. Paper dolls/clothes cut at 5 ½ inches are great patterns for bear arms, legs and feet . If you are making just paws, use the foot part of the pattern, you really just need a small oval – I use my thumb print but I know some people like an actual pattern. For a leg or arm, use more or less of the pattern, see dashed lines in photo.

2. Use the brush to fluff up the front side of the tan mulberry paper, then flip the paper over and trace your shapes onto the back with a pencil.

3. Use your aquapainter or wet paint brush to go over the marks. Tear paper along water line. I find it best to pinch the paper between my thumb and finger along the line and tug with other hand so you get a tear exactly where you want. When in doubt error on bigger – it is easy to wet and re-tear a little farther in, but you can’t put it back if you tear too much.

4. Fluff your second (cream) color and make smaller oval for face(the same pattern you used for paw will work for face), wet and tear

5. Now you need some clothes! I’ve been cutting clothes at 2 inches (real size dial on) and headwear at 4 inches. It really depends on the outfit and how round you’d like your bear to look, but those are good places to start.

6. Assemble your bear parts. I use some tiny bits of the lighter fluff to accent the inside of ears and bottom of feet. Next I use chalks to do some shading, and a pencil to draw little lines on his paws for claws.

7. For Eyes and nose, I have always used a paw print punch, but for this one I wanted to use the cricut only, no punches, so I went looking and there are lots of noses in animal kingdom, there is one in Paper Dolls too, but you have to cut out a whole cat face. Hearts make cute noses too. For eyes, any little oval or tear shape will do, I used Animal Kingdom Rabbit nose at 5 inch for eyes and bear nose (go figure) at 4 for the nose. Accent white eyes with black pen, and accent a black nose with –it seems like it always takes me a couple trys to get eyes I like and that match – so you might want to save some time and cut several eyes out to have ready.

8. Use a black pen to add wiskers, mouth and –if it’s a girl bear-eyelashes. Use your bear for scrapbooks, cards or crafts. Don’t just stop with bears, if you have Animal Kingdom you have a LOT of animals patterns to choose from, so go wild and have fun!

Here is my final page for the sailor bear:

Cricut Paper Dolls Tear Bear Scrappage

Last month I bought the Paper Dolls cricut cartridge so I could start dressing some tear bears. Today, I finally finished a scrap page with a dressed bear on it. The Costume is a 2.5 real size dial ON and the hat is done at 4 inches regular. The treat bag and candies are from Doodlecharms and cut at 1 inch. Some of this photo is done digitally. I used digital papers from SugarPlum Papery and learned how to use the cookie cutter in Photoshop. This is the first time I've tried to post a scrap page, not sure about taking a photo of a photo, hopefully its large enough to see the details.

Cricut Easter Basket

I'm in the Easter mood so today I started making Easter treats for the neighbor kids. I cut the treat boxes with my Cricut Expression using George Basic Shapes, Doodlecharms and Design Software. For the girls I cut flowers and tags at 1 inch, and for the boys, little bunnies and tags at 1 1/2 inches. Bases are made from one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of Close to Cocoa Cardstock (Stampin' UP!). Stamps are from Papertrayink (Easter wishes) and Stampin' up! (for you), bunny is shaded with chalks. They are just the right size to hold two little plastic eggs filled with candy (basket is cut at 4 inches). Fun, fun, fun! The .cut file is attaced below to download.

NOTE: When cutting the basket, it is just the right size for 8 1/2 by 11 paper, but check your placement. I have the file starting at the 2 inch mark - I have less errors that way for some reason. The cut file is for the girl version, tag and flower are in pattern. Change as you need - I changed it a little for the boy. Happy Easter!

Easterbasket.cut

Easter Cards

I haven't been doing a lot of stamping lately and I will say that I've missed it, so I decided to do some Easter cards. I did two styles, the first is an egg card done with Stampin' Up Kind Thoughts (Easter Wishes stamp is Papertrayink). Colors were inspired by some purple and yellow ribbon I bought last year that I've been wanting to use, cardstock colors are Amethyst, So Saffron, and Always artichoke. I would have never put those three together, but I the SU color coach told me it was OK, and sure enough, it worked. The image on the egg is embossed with white EP and colored with SU markers. There is a clear jewel in the center. The egg was cut with my cricut (Doodlecharms, 3").




The other card is Banana and Lilac and image is from Spring Gifts (retired SU). I have had this set for years and never used it. I decided it was time to use it or sell it.....I choose to use it. I recently got a crop-a-dile and now I like to put eyelets EVERYWHERE so there are three flower eyelets on the bottom edge. I made a LOT of these today for friends. It started out following today's sketch challenge on SCS, but I can not follow instructions very well, so it ended up not qualifying (side panel is too small) oh well.....