This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Are you a crafty Mom or a crafty Mom wannabe? If you answered yes to either of these, this is the gift guide you want to forward to your spouse or partner or kids with all the best that Cricut has to offer for your crafting dreams.

And if you don’t want to wait for someone else to buy them for you, it’s the perfect time to buy them for yourself and put them to good use by making holiday gifts with that personal touch.

I’ve already completed a new holiday project this year to add to the ones I have done in the past but still have a couple items that I want to try before it’s too late.  There are also a few items on this list that I will be sure to ask Santa for myself.

For the crafty Mom’s out there, I am sure a lot of these items are already on your wish list but for those Mom’s that want to be crafty but not sure where to start this list has my top 10 items you’ll want and need to help get from wanna-be crafter to full fledged crafter in no time!

Spouses/partners/gift givers reading this…..here is all you need to buy to have a happy crafter in your life! I’ve split this into two different groups – Main gifts and stocking stuffers to make things a little easier.

MAIN GIFTS

These are the bigger ticket items but in my opinion, every crafters “must-haves”.

The Cricut Maker

If you read my most recent Cricut related post, you will know that I absolutely love this machine and no Cricut gift guide would be complete without including this machine.  It has so many ways that it can be used.  It can cut paper, leather, fabric, chipboard and so much more.  This machine is the starting point for all your crafting dreams.

EasyPress 2

If you’re planning to use your Cricut for any sort of iron-on crafts, the EasyPress 2 is the perfect add-on to your Cricut Maker.  Instead of using your iron, the EasyPress 2 takes the guess work out of ensuring your iron-on materials stay put.  With the online Heat Guide, you just need to choose your base material and your heat-transfer material and it provides you with the timing and the temperature for the perfect heat transfer.  The EasyPress 2 comes in 3 sizes (6×7, 9×9 and 12×10) as well as the latest product, the EasyPress Mini, so there is a perfect size for all your needs.

Cricut Access

Now that you have the Cricut Maker and the EasyPress 2 to start crafting, having Cricut Access will allow you to do so much more.  With this subscription package, you’ll get access to over 400 fonts, over 100,000 images plus discounts on your cricut.com purchases.  I’ve tried crafting with and without having Cricut Access and let me tell you, with Cricut Access you will feel like your crafting possibilities are endless.

 

BrightPad

If there is one thing on this gift guide that I am missing from my crafting arsenal, it’s this BrightPad.  Santa, if you’re reading this, I’ve been super good this year and would really like this.  The BrightPad is basically that, a pad that lights up to help you see the cutting lines so can weed your projects with ease.  It also is great for any tracing you would need to do.  As I am getting older, the fine lines and cuts are getting a bit harder to see, so having the BrightPad will make things so much easier.

 

STOCKING STUFFERS

This part of the gift guide are items that any crafter would love to have in their craft kits for whenever a project idea strikes.  For the wanna-be crafter, these are items that will help make things a little easier and let your creativity blossom.

Infusible Ink Markers

Earlier this year, Cricut introduce a new heat transfer type of product with Infusible Ink.  It is heat proof, flake proof and wash proof and with no seams or edges it’s completely smooth to the touch.  One of the neatest features/products of the Infusible Ink are these pens.  Using your regular copier paper, you can draw anything you like with these markers and using the EasyPress 2, you can heat transfer the image on to shirts, totes and even coasters.  I can’t wait to recruit the boy into using these to help make some personalized custom items for family member gifts.

 

EasyPress Mats

If you are going to invest in an EasyPress 2, you will also want to get yourself the corresponding EasyPress Mat.  This will protect your surfaces when using the EasyPress and helps  eliminate moisture and direct heat to your iron-on design.  If you’re like me and would rather use your crafting table than your ironing board for your heat transfer projects, this is definitely a must-have!

Machine Mats

Machine mats are one of the things in this gift guide that you can never have enough in your supplies.  These are what holds your cutting materials in place when you are using your Cricut Maker to cut.  They can get dirty and lose their grip if you’ve used them and can cause havoc in your projects if the material doesn’t stay put.  This particular set has three different strength of grips (Standard, Light and Strong) so that you always have the correct one on hand.

 

Essential Tool Set

Some of these items your crafter may already have but it is always good to have an extra on hand and this set also comes with the Scoring Stylus that is compatible with your Cricut Maker and perfect for many paper crafts.  I use all these tools with my projects and would be lost without them.

 

Sewing Kit

This is another item that Santa add to my list.  When I was working on my pillow case project recently, I could have used a few of these items.  And it’s also really good to have on hand for just everyday projects like repairing a hole in the boys clothes.  I can tell you that the Cricut Scissors are so nice and sharp and make cutting so much easier.  There is nothing worse than having dull scissors.

 

Everyday Iron-On™ Value Pack

If you’re like me, having lots of iron-on vinyl on hand is a must.  It’s great to have this ready for those last minute projects that come up.  I’ve had friends ask me to whip something up for them on a whim and having the vinyl ready to go has allowed me the opportunity to help them out.  There are different packs available, this one is just one that I know I would probably use the most.

So hopefully this guide gives you some ideas on what to buy for that crafty person in your life.  I know I would be a happy recipient of all of these items!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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There is no denying that my crafting game totally changed when I got my Cricut Maker.  I took my crafts to a whole new level.

I could probably go on for days about how much I love my Cricut Maker, but I will narrow it down to my 5 top reasons.

Number One – Versatility

There are so many different ways you can use your Cricut Maker.  You’re not just limited to paper cut crafts, the Cricut Maker has the ability to cut a wide range of materials from paper, vinyl, leather, basswood, chipboard and even fabric.  It even has the ability to emboss and engrave with it’s latest tools.

Aside from making all kinds of printed t shirts for the boy, I’ve been able to use it make earrings, embossed bookmarks and now even pillow cases.  But I’ll get to that one in a moment.

 

Number Two – Easy to Use

The Cricut Maker is very easy to use.  With the help of Cricut Design Space, you can make all your crafts come to life.  There are so many tools within the program to help you create where ever your imagination takes you.  When I got my Cricut Maker, it came with the materials to make a couple of small crafts to get you familiar with the machine which definitely helped me get comfortable with the machine from the start.

And it has smart technology built in to help you ensure you using the correct cutting blade based on the material you are cutting.  This has saved me so many times.

Number Three –  Constantly Introducing New Tools

Cricut is always introducing new tools to use with your Cricut Maker.  Just recently they introduced several new tools to help me with some projects I had swirling around in my head. Now, not only can you cut but you can emboss and engrave items with these tools.

Number Four – Ability to use Cricut Access

If you don’t have Cricut Access to use with you Cricut Maker, you’re missing out on so many ideas and tools.   Having Cricut Access allows you to use all it’s available fonts and images and links to hundreds and hundreds of project ideas.  This has been great when I had an idea for a project and new my Cricut Maker had the ability to do it, I just wasn’t sure how to do it.  And with access to more than standard fonts and images, I can add so much more creativity to my projects.

Number Five – Ability to Cut Fabric

I left the best to last. One of my favorite things that the Cricut Maker can do is cut fabric.  I don’t know about you but I can not cut fabric with a pair of scissors without it looking completely butchered.  So having the ability to cut fabric on the Cricut Maker thrilled me.  I understand I am limited to the size of items that I can cut, but being able to cut smaller items with straight edges and perfect corners is definitely something that I will put to good use.  I couldn’t cut a square to save my life with a regular pair of scissors.

So with that being said, I put the fabric cutting ability of the Cricut Maker to good use by making slip covers for my couch pillows and thanks to it cutting the fabric strips for me, it was super easy and came together beautifully.

Cricut Maker Made Pillow Cases

 

Supplies needed:

1. Cricut Maker
2. Fabric Grip Mat
3. Fabric  – I used Cricut Designer Fabric Sampler, High Adventure 2
4. Pillows
5. Sewing Machine

 

I’m sure a lot of people will look at this project and think they could easily pull it together without using any sort of machine to help them out.  But for me, using my Cricut Maker allowed me to ensure I was cutting straight and properly measured pieces each and every time.  Wanting to have the stripes all equal was vital for this project to turn out.

My pillows were 20 inches x 20 inches.  I wanted to use 5 different strips of fabric so I created a rectangular pattern piece in Design Space that was 5 inches by 21 inches.  The end result would be 4 inch stripes having a 1/2 inch seam allowance on each side.

I used the Cricut Maker to cut out 2 stripes of each colour for each of the pillows.  I sewed the stripes together to make each side of the pillow.

One tip:  The Cricut EasyPress Mini came in very handy to iron all the seams down to that everything laid flat when working with all the pieces.

After both sides were complete I put them together with the completed sides together and sewed around 3 sides to make a pocket to pull the pillow into.

 

After the pocket has been sewn, turn it inside out so that the seams are all inside and insert the pillow filling.

Once the pillow filling has been put inside, I used the Cricut EasyPress Mini again to fold the seams on the open side inwards so that they would be easier to work with.  After, with the seams inward, I sewed up the final edge to complete the pillows.

Again, it was a super easy project but it really makes a huge difference in my living room.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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When I first got my Cricut EasyPress 2, there were so many things that I was excited to use it for.   But as I was coming up with ideas, I felt like the size of EasyPress that I currently had might have a few limitations when it came to smaller more details projects.  Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way as Cricut has added the Cricut EasyPress Mini to the Cricut EasyPress line.

The  Cricut EasyPress Mini allows you to iron on materials to almost all your small or unique shapes projects like hats, shoes, pockets and even stuffed animals.  It has all the same technology and benefits of the Cricut EasyPress 2 (even heat plate and easy to use heat settings) for effortless heat transfers.

I know that we’re still a ways off (or least I am) from doing decorating for the holidays.  But this year, I decided to get a head start on an new banner for mantle and the Cricut Easy Press Mini was the perfect tool to help me accomplish this.

I love the rustic look of a burlap banner so I decided it would be the perfect material to start with for my project.

Materials needed for this project:

1. *  Cricut EasyPress Mini
2. * 1/2 metre of burlap fabric
3. * Cricut Patterned Iron-On (I used Sampler – Stripe, Sampler – Winter, Sampler – Nordic Christmas)
4. * Twine
5. * Mini Clothespins
6. * Cricut Access

To create the base of the banner, I used design space and searched for a shape of bunting that I wanted for my project.  I went with a classic shape and cut enough pieces out to hold all the letters.  In order to determine the size of each piece, I decided how long I wanted the end product to be, and divided it by the number of letters and spaces. That gave me a baseline as to the width of each piece.

Using the font – Follies (available with Cricut Access), I spelled out the phrase “Happy Holidays”.  I then chose 4 different iron-on materials and assigned it to alternating letters.  Once I had decided on the font I wanted to use, I adjusted the size so that it fit inside each piece of the banner properly.  Always test each letter, as depending on the font, the width of the letters can vary dramatically.

After all the letters and bunting pieces were cut out, I arranged everything in order to ensure the colors flowed evenly.

Using the Cricut EasyPress Mini, I applied the iron-on to the burlap.

After each letter was applied and the plastic protective later was removed I threaded the twine through the precut holes.

Once I had everything evenly spaced, I used the mini clothespins to secure each panel in place and to give a little extra flair to the piece.

Although I won’t actually be decorating for the holidays for another month or so, I know that I have this great banner ready to go when the time comes thanks to my Cricut EasyPress Mini.

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Kids are back to school and back to reading assignments.  To make reading more fun for the boy, I decided to make some bookmarks for him and his friends to use.  And of course, I brought out my Cricut Maker to help me out.

With Cricut keeping their promise to come out with more tools and materials for the Cricut Maker, I am finding there are so many different options for every craft that I do.  These tools are specially designed with an Adaptive Tool System that can only be used the the Maker and incorporate 3 major technologies:

1. Delivers 10 times (4 kg) or more cutting force than the Explorer Line
2. Uses a sophisticated steering system to actively control the direction of the blade at all times.
3. Tests to be sure you are using the correct blade before it starts cutting and tells you to change it, if not.  (My favorite feature!)

+

I suppose I could have just cut out a rectangle by hand for my son’s bookmarks, but I wanted to make something a little more fun.  And now that Cricut has 4 new tools as part of their Adaptive Tool system, I wanted to give some of them a try.

The new tools are: (description provided directly from Cricut to ensure accuracy)

Basic Perforation Blade – Create finely perforated lines for any design:

Get the perfect tear quickly and effortlessly with precise perforation cuts for a wide variety of projects. To create uniform, finely perforated lines for any design, just snap this tip onto the QuickSwap Housing and tell your Cricut Maker to “Go!” Evenly spaced perforation lines allow for clean, well-spaced tearing without the need to fold beforehand – especially great for shapes with curves. Perfect for tear-out booklet pages, raffle tickets, homemade journals, or for any project that demands a neat tear.

Wavy Blade – Go crazy with Wavy Blade:

Get a decorative edge in half the time than a drag blade with a gentle wave cut for a wide variety of projects. To add a whimsical wavy edge to any design, this specially sculpted stainless steel blade is great for original vinyl decals, iron-on designs, envelopes, cards, gift tags, collage projects, or any time you need fabulously finished edges and stylish design accents. Perfect for iron-on, vinyl, paper, cardstock, fabric, and more.

Fine Debossing Tip – Add elegance with pro-level debossing:

Add professional polish and elevated elegance to paper crafts by creating crisp, detailed debossed designs. Unlike folders, which lock you into a specific design, this rolling debossing ball, with a wider range of motion, gives you free reign to customize, personalize, and design with incredible intricacy. Make a dimensional wedding card, thank you card with your monogram, or add flourish to gift boxes, tags, and more. Creates a stunning effect on foil cardstock, coated paper, shimmer and glitter paper, basswood, and much more.

Engraving Tip – Turn any project into a keepsake:

Make a lasting impression with Cricut Engraving Tip. To get professional-looking results, just snap this tip onto the QuickSwap Housing and tell your Cricut Maker to “Go!” Watch with awe as you write personalized text or create monograms, draw decorative flourishes and embellishments, or inscribe your favorite quotes on a keepsake. For an eye-catching effect, engrave Cricut Metal Sheets or anodized aluminum to reveal the silver beneath.

 

Because I wanted to try out as many of the tools as I could, I made multiple versions of the bookmark using different materials and different tools.

The basic template I made in Design Space and then changed it based on the different versions.

Depending on which tool you would like to use, you just select the area you wish to use it on and select the appropriate item in the drop down.

The best part is you can use multiple tools within one project to really step up your crafting game.

And one of the best features included gives you a list of compatible materials to complete your project.  For example, when I wanted to use the Engraving tool for the wording of the bookmarks, it gave me different list of materials to use compared to when I wanted to use the Fine Debossing tip.  It’s important to pay attention to this.  I tried to use a material that wasn’t listed and needless to say, it didn’t workout so well.

So in the end, I made 3 different versions of the same bookmarks.

The first using silver metallic poster board, the Engraving tool and the Wavy tool.

The second using genuine leather, everyday vinyl and the wavy tool.

The third using blue metallic poster board, the Embossing tool and the wavy tool.

The boy was really impressed with the end results and can’t wait to share the bookmarks with his friends.

Time to start thinking about crafting for the holiday season and using all the new Cricut tools available.

 

Disclosure:  Although items for this patio makeover were provided by Home Depot Canada, all comments, opinions and photos are strictly mine.

I don’t know about you, but summer is already passing by way to quickly. I told myself after what seemed like a never ending winter this past year, that I would spend as much time as I could outside this summer.  Working a 9-5 job kind of throws a wrench into plans like that for most people, however, being fortunate enough to work from home, I knew I could do a little summer enjoyment/work multitasking with a simple patio makeover. Luckily my WIFI reaches the patio area so I wanted to be able to bring my laptop outside with me and work and enjoy.

Because I live in a rental, I don’t want to spend money on something that I can’t take with me if I ever move.  And I also don’t have a lot of storage for outdoor items in the winter so I need to really think and plan when I want to do any sort of updates.  I didn’t want to do too much to the space but believe me, it needed some work.

BEFORE:

Yes, the before was pretty abysmal with weeds growing everywhere and a complete eyesore.  So first things first, of course I chose the hottest day of the summer to pull weeds and get rid the growth in the cracks.  But there was no way I would enjoy the space, no matter what I put in it, if it was covered in weeds.

I looked on the Home Depot Canada website for some inspiration for the space and it gave me a lot of ideas.  I wanted a space that I could use to work outside so I would need a table and chairs and definitely an umbrella to shade me from the afternoon sun.  The chairs would have to comfortable enough for me to sit for an extended period of time.  I also wanted to use the space for the boy and I to eat meals outside once in a while so I needed the table big enough to allow that.

Again, due to limited storage space, I wanted items that I would be able to fold up when the dreaded winter arrives so that I would be able to store them quickly and easily.  I didn’t feel like it was a huge wish list for my patio makeover but I knew I would need to make sure all the pieces worked together to get the end effect that I was looking for.

After getting some ideas from the website, I headed to my local store and literally stumbled across the perfect table and chair set as soon as I walked in the door.  Not only were the chairs comfortable, they are able to fold up to easy storage.  There were lots of options to choose from on display at the store but as soon as I saw this one, I knew it was perfect.

And the table was big enough to accommodate a meal, but not too large that it would overtake my small patio space.

I was also able to find an umbrella that again folded up for storage come winter but also was easy enough to put up and down when I wanted to use it so I didn’t have to worry about it being damaged or blowing away when a summer storm blew in.

As I was getting ready to check out I saw this cute pineapple shapes LED light that I thought would be perfect on my table to light up the area if we wanted to sit outside into the evening.  And who doesn’t love anything pineapple?

It seems like it’s just a simple few pieces but it really made my sad patio area into something I enjoyed using almost on daily basis.

AFTER:

And one last piece that I wasn’t originally in my “must haves” for this patio makeover, was a cute straw mat for my doorstep.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the perfect representation of the boy and I and the perfect way to greet guests upon their arrival.

So if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go enjoy my patio and soak up as much of this summer as I can.