CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
Name: Robin Whiting
About Me: I?m married with one daughter, 24, who shares my love of scrapbooking. Although I work full time, with help from my wonderful husband of 28 years, I?m able to squeeze in time for crafting. With my latest project I was able to combine my passions for scrapbooking and sewing. Wanting new Christmas stockings this year, I thought why not use the Cricut? The results are amazing. The Cricut has opened up a whole new world of crafting!
Instructions: I used CTMH Art Philosophy, and Winter Woodland cartridges for this project. You will need the 12? x 24? mat and Cricut Design Studio or use the Cricut Craft Room.
Fabric: I used linen and burlap but any fabric will do. You?ll need an iron-on adhesive and fusible interfacing and lining. Cut fabric to the following dimensions before cutting with Cricut.
Stocking:
- stocking Cut 2 from lining 12? x 21?
- stocking Cut 2 from linen 12? x 21?
- stocking Cut 2 from fusible interfacing 12? x 21?
- stocking Cut 1 from burlap 10? x 8?,
- heel/toe Cut 1 from linen 12?x 12?
- flowers Cut 1 from burlap 9? x 18?
- cuff Cut 1 from burlap 1? x 8?
- loop Cut 2 from iron-on adhesive 12? x 21?
- stocking Cut 1 from iron-on adhesive 10? x 8?
- heel/toe Cut 1 from iron-on adhesive 12?x 12?
Flowers:
Prepare fabric: Press the iron-on adhesive to wrong sides of 12? x 21? linen, 12? x 12? linen and 10? x 12? burlap.
Using Cricut, cut out stocking:
- Select CTMH Art Philosophy stocking shape (Base + shift) at 19? and cut 1 each from lining, interfacing and linen (adhesive side down).
- Flip the stocking image and cut again 1 each from lining, interfacing and linen (adhesive side down).
- Determine which side will be the front of the stocking and cut one heel and toe (Icon Layer + shift) from 10? x 8? burlap (adhesive side down).
- Cut 1 each of flower in 4?, 3? and 31/2 ?sizes (font shift + flower), flip the flower images and cut again.
- Press front linen stocking to front of interfacing stocking adhesive sides together, repeat with back of stocking.
- Iron on heel and toe to right side of stocking.
- With right sides together, sew =BD? seam leaving the top of the stocking open.
- Trim seams to =BD?, clip curves and turn right side out.
- Fold burlap cuff in half and sew =BD? seam, zigzag seam and trim to =BD?.
- Iron seam to one side, fold burlap in half to form cuff and press.
- Pin raw edges of burlap cuff to right side of stocking opening, matching back seam of stocking to cuff seam and sew =BD? seam.
- Trim seam to =BD?.
- Fold burlap loop in half, press then fold raw edges to center fold and press again.
- Sew loop close to edge. Fold loop in half and sew raw edges to stocking at back cuff seam.
- With lining right sides together sew =BD? seam leaving the top open and a 4? opening on the back side of stocking just above the heel.
- Slip lining over right side of stocking, right sides will be together.
- Sew lining to stocking leaving 4? opening at back of stocking.
- Trim seam to =BD?.
- Turn stocking right side out from the 4? opening.
- Sew 4? opening closed.
- Push the lining inside the stocking and press.
- Press flowers together. Beginning at end of flower; roll to middle and glue in place.
- Place flowers to right side of cuff and glue.
- For my husband?s stocking I opted for buttons in place of the flowers.
- Cut letters from Winter Woodland cartridge, one from Font Shadow + shift and one from coordinating cardstock from Font + shift.
- Glue letters together and using twine tie letter to loop.
Cartridges Used: Art Philosophy CTMH and Winter Woodland
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CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION
I can?t believe Christmas is just around the corner and I just started Christmas Shopping. I feel so behind this Christmas season, what with making my gifts and Christmas cards ? I still have so much to do, but I was able to squeeze in some quality time with my Cricut. There?s something about crafting that helps with my stress level and I enjoy playing with my machine. This week I explored the New Testament, the Christmas Wish and the Santa?s Village cartridges.
Christmas Wish is the newest addition to the Cricut Imagine pattern collection. This wonderful cartridge is perfect for this Christmas Season ? the colors and styles are fun and bright. This cartridge comes with twenty patterns that include cars picking up Christmas trees, mittens, stripes, stars, ice-skating, tree ornaments, snowflakes, records, tea and coffee cups, and paper snowflakes with scissors. Colors range from light green, light pink, red, yellow, brown, black, purple, orange and Christmas tree green. One other exciting feature that now comes with pattern cartridges is fun bonus content. This cartridge provides you with a 3-D box, Christmas tags, Santa wish list with envelope, and additional borders with other icons and journal boxes. I cut out the tags so I could check one thing off my Christmas list, now all I need to do is wrap presents then attach these cute tags. I also cut out the Santa wish list with envelope set; it was so easy. I added the image to my Cricut Imagine mat on my machine then pressed the fit to page button to make the image fill the entire mat, see photo for example. Cutting this Santa wish list and envelope set makes me want children so I can have them write a letter to Santa.
?Santa?s Village? is another adorable Cricut Imagine cartridge that is perfect for Christmas. This cartridge is a wonderful vintage style with an old fashioned touch on every image. This cartridge comes with fifty images that include Santa Clause on a chair, in the sleigh, holding a stocking, and Mrs. Clause sitting on a chair and holding cookies. Cut out your favorite reindeers, elves, snowman, moose, penguin, bear, rabbit, wolf, bicycle, fire engine, jack-in-the-box, nutcracker, ballerina, gingerbread, sleigh, rocking horse, train, tree, stocking, and present. You can also cut out Santa?s workshop which includes the home, workshop, reindeer home and a few more fun accents. As I was playing with this cartridge I found five images that are black and white and I thought these images would be perfect for a coloring book for kids or to use them on a card and have the kids color them ? this would be a great family night project. This is easy, by simply changing the blade housing out for the marker/inks and changing the settings so that you only print the image. Now you have something fun to do with the kids and you can also make cards using these images and then let the kids color in the cards. The bonus content is a fun 3D house that is perfect for filling with Christmas candy and then giving it to your neighbors for Christmas. You can also cut out candy bar wrappers, a candy bag, and a bunch of fun Holiday tags. This cartridge also comes with ten icons that include more tags, and other images, plus you can personalize any of the images with one of the twenty different patterns or choose from one of the eighteen solid colors. As I was cutting out the images from this cartridge I thought they would make great tree ornaments all you need to do is punch a hole and add some ribbon then hang them on the tree.
The ?New Testament? is the last cartridge that I spent time exploring. Yes, this is a cartridge that is full of religious images taken from the Bible. You can cut out scriptures, images of Jesus, and a variety of styles of crosses. Along with cutting images of Jesus you can cut images from the Nativity story, and names of the books in the New Testament. The creative features for this cartridge are: Layer 1, Layer 2, Scripture, Books, Book's Shadow, and Crosses. I wanted to give you all a tip about this cartridge, make sure to look through the handbook for the red circles. The numbers in the red circles are guidelines that the image can't be cut smaller than that number. When you are cutting out the scriptures with the layer, I would also recommend that you cut out the layer first then note what size the layer is at so you can cut the scripture at that same size.  If the scripture layer doesn't fit on the page make sure to press the ?fit to page? button this will adjust the size so the image can be cut on the mat. Some of the images that you can cut from this cartridge include Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, olive tree, bread and fish, oil lamp, wise man, children, Jerusalem, fishermen, disciples, dove, palm trees, camel, Shepherds, sheep, angels, and a stable. I cut out Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus to show you the style of art that is in the cartridge. As I was cutting the different layers for these images I thought of a wonderful family activity. Cut each of the images from the Naivety story and then read the story as a family using the images you've just cut.
This wraps up my exploration. Check back next week as I continue exploring new cartridges using my Cricut. Also check out the new Cricut Craft Room, which is a wonderful new design program that you can pull images from all the cartridges and weld them or weld phrases together. You can find this design program at www.cricut.com. Happy Crafting!!
- Crafty Kimber
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