video-acrylic cutting

Here is a quick video. Leave a comment if you still need help!

making the album part 1

I found some time to work on my SUNSHINE acrylic album. This is so fun!

The first thing I like to do is choose papers and lay them out in the order I want them to be.

These papers are from the Bloom & Grow line (both color ways used) from My Mind's Eye. I used the more "solid" color sides. The multi color sides will be used later for the photo mats.


Then I trim off the white border so it will fit on my cutting mat nicely.


Then we start cutting letters! You can't see my laptop with Design Studio running, but it's there.


When you are cutting letters...make sure you are cutting the right one on the right page. I cut an N on the right paper, it was just the wrong N...OOPS!


Keep cutting until you have all your peices.

aren't they cute?

Now onto the adhesive. The Xyron permanent adhesive is probably your best bet. You need a smooth and even layer over the entire peice so that the adhesive doesn't show on the other side.


Make sure you flip your sheet over and burnish really well to make sure the adhesive is applied without any bubbles and will not peel off when you remove it from the liner. A plastic tool will work best.


Make SURE you peel the protective liner off the acrylic peices BEFORE adhering your letters! Be very careful when placing the letters. They stick easily and are impossible to remove.


Once you have the letter or shape in place, burnish again to get any bubbles out of the adhesive. This will make the back side of the paper crystal clear for the opposite side. You will be able to see where you need to burnish easily from the back side. Be careful not to scratch the acrylic when doing this! ALWAYS burnish on the PAPER side!


A happy flip side free of bubbles.



Part 1 all finished! Looks pretty neat so far!

Photo mats and embellishments next time!

Phoenix Crafts Blog Candy!

I just found this blog and the projects and photography are wonderful! Jennifer over at Phoenix Crafts really throws herself into her crafting! Check out her blog, and maybe sign up for some blog candy (shown below).

word books

I finally got around to trying out the acrylic sheets on something a little more detailed than a little turtle. I really like how well this cut and I really love how this looks! Acrylic has been so easy to work with. Easier than chipboard has been. I can't wait to get it scrapped!

Here is a chipboard album I did the other day. I still need to scrap this one too! I guess I need to stop playing with designs and materials long enough to actually put pictures into the albums one of these days!

A different mini album

This is an album I made for my sister's mother-in-law back in December. Though I'd share! These are probably the easiest and roomiest word books to make. The only draw back is they take a LOT of chipboard. As a plus, you can make longer words and have ample room to scrap.

I love vinyl!

I have to admit, I spend a lot of time cutting everything BUT paper. Anyone can cut paper. It's easy. Vinyl is easy too! The best settings on the Cricut machines is a blade depth of 6, pressure 2-3, and speed 4. Here is a sign I put together last night with layered vinyl lettering.



I also got to looking at vinyl wall decals on Etsy.com and there are some really amazing designers out there. I love all of the birdcage icons I saw. I could fill a room with them. I decided to design my own birdcage. I think it turned out pretty cute! I can't wait to get it cut and on the wall.


The main cage. I may add some punchwork detail to the top dome. I still need to design a bird too.


I am not sure if I want the cage hanging from the ceiling or on a floor stand. I am also not sure if I want the floor stand to have a table top or not, so I have those as options.

Cricut cartriges used: George and Basic Shapes, New Arrival, Joys of the Season, Celebrations, My Community

acrylic cutting!

I stopped at a wonderful scrap shop on my way home from Omaha today, called Precious Treasures. What a fun store! They had just gotten in the new Cosmo Cricket line, Girl Friday, and I HAD to pick some up. This has to be the most fun retro mod paper around! If you haven't seen it yet go check it out at www.cosmocricket.com. They have several new lines out that are sure to please!

Getting back on track with the topic here...

While I was at PT I found a stack of acrylic sheets. I had noticed that the store had die cut some custom albums, and decided to try to cut the sheets with my Cricut Expression. It cuts! How cool is that? I used my standard test cut turtles and played with the different blades, depths, and machine settings. I found that having either a roland 60 degree blade, or the cricut deep cut blade in the green housing worked best. I set the pressure at max, blade at 6, multicut at 4 and speed at 4. This will NOT cut clean through the acrylic, but it WILL give you a usable cut. You do need to find a flat edge and bend it so the bottom side of the cut is outward until it snaps, then you can start pulling the excess off the cut. It will come right out. I will have to make a video later to show how to do this.

YAY ACRYLIC! I think I will try the sunshine album next!