Finally! Recycled Popcorn Boxes

So I decided to get off my lazy behind and finally post how I recycled the popcorn boxes from my parents anniversary - remember them? Here's a picture if you don't:

I made way too many - I think at least 30 so I had a bunch left over - and I sure as heck didn't want to throw them out after I spent so much time on them! And my daughter's baseball picnic was coming up - and I thought what better to use for them to hold all the candy from the pinata I had bought? (The adventure to find a baseball shaped pinata is a whole other story!) With a little ingenuity, some markers, pens,  and some prying off of the scallops I turned them into a baseball themed container!

The details: 


I used the layer feature on my Gypsy to make a bunch of these baseballs with the name of her team on them. On Layer 1 I placed the baseball from Sports Mania and drew it with the Cricut brand markers.Then I hit return to design and NOT unload mat. On layer 2 I put the name of her team using the Stamped font cartridge and drew it with with the Cri-kut brand gel pens. Again, I used return to design and swapped out the holder for my blade housing. On the last layer I had positioned the blackout cut of the baseball and this is when I finally cut out the shape. Then it was time to unload the mat! I was really happy with the way it came out and that I was able to use them twice.

I also used my Sports Mania Cartridge and Printing Press to make some lollipop center pieces. I just cut out an extra bottom layer to sandwich a skewer stick in. For once I didn't even stress that I didn't have buckets in coordinating colors  which was a good thing - because they only cared about the candy!

I have often thought that Sports Mania is sometimes overlooked  - I love the cuts on it! The glove and baseball are my favorites. A closeup:

Hope you enjoyed this post-season baseball moment!

Quick and Easy Bouquet

Oh vinyl - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!!

In all seriousness, if you have not tried vinyl yet - what are you waiting for??I absolutlely love working with this medium and today is a great example of that. I needed to put together a quick gift for my daughter to take to her friends at a play and I imediately thought of doing a lollipop bouqet! I had plenty of extra lollipop flowers leftover from Princess Party, so I concentrated on decorating the tin.

The crafty details:

I designed this cut in my gypsy, using the Hannah Montana and Printing Press carts. I used a 3.5 inch star from Hannah, and then put a smaller star inside it. Then I added the text from Printing Press and another teenier star. I grouped it all together and kiss cut it using my vinyl settings - 3 for blade depth, and medium for presure. I weeded the excess and then used painter's tape to transfer it to the tin.

All in all, it probably took me longer to design the Gypsy file than it did to actually cut the vinyl and put it on. If you haven't tried using vinyl in your crafting yet, get to it!!