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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pan-Dee Meets a Spider


Sing to the tune of "I'm a little teapot"...





 





Panda: Create-A-Critter Cricut cartridge
Spider and Web, Tree, Bats, Tombstones, House, Cat : Hallowscream Things by Lettering Delights
Hat, Ghost, Trick-or-Treat Bag: DB Haunted House by Lettering Delights
Cut using Make-The-Cut and the Cricut Expression.


For more Pan-Dee posts, click here:


Friday, October 29, 2010

$1 Treat


Seriously, all these for a buck?

 
I really thought that this was a price mistake. I mean, 6 fonts that was $18 is now just a buck? Gotta be a mistake, right? Well, turns out that this is LD's treat for their customers. That DB Haunted House alone is already worth that dollar. Be aware though that this font needs a little clean up before they can be used to cut with MTC cleanly. That's because there are small tiny dots within each design. I just clean the image up by "breaking" with CTRL-B and deleting away those spots. Also, LD Peek-A-Boo looks like it can also be used for occasions that is not related to Halloween. Nevertheless, the bundle is still crazy cheap and if you have a coupon, it will cost even less! How's that for a treat? ;-) 

Click here or the image above to get it and if you have not downloaded the free treat bag, you can also go here to add it to your cart and checkout.



LD Freebie Friday: Festive Frights Treat Bag


How many of you are done with your Halloween goodie bags? I am (whoo hoo!) but still I can't resist grabbing the free printable that Lettering Delights is offering today. How cute is this freebie? Just print, cut, fold and glue and you have a super cute treat bag to hold those yummy candy treats. 

Just click here or on the image above and add the item to your cart. Check out as usual and you will be charged $0 for this file. Don't forget to check your email confirmation for a free 25% off discount code that you can use on your next LD purchase. Don't wait too long to use the code because it will expire in 30 days.

Enjoy your freebie!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

3 Pumpkins



It's time to clean up the aftermath of Halloween crafting but I can't resist making that one last card with these scraps that I found on my desk. By using the pumpkin from LD's DB Boo Ya and replacing the face with designs from LD's Jack-O-Patterns 2, I cut out several pumpkins that had different looks.
To do that, I used MTC and added the DB Boo Ya font. Then I clicked on the pumpkin to put the image onto the mat.
Using CTRL-B, I "Break" the image and delete the face.
Next, I used the Jack-O-Patterns 2 font and click on a pattern that I want to replace the face with.
I adjusted the size of the face and position it onto the pumpkin. I used CTRL-J to join the images together to get this:
Ta-da! A pumpkin with a new face!

By doing the same steps over and with the different faces in the Jack-O-Patterns set, I came up with a whole bunch of different looking pumpkins.
 These are super easy and super fun. Cut them out big and with vinyl to decorate around the house or cut them out small to use as tags. I cut the pumpkins out using my scrap paper and layered them on a card with foam tape. Quick, easy, fun!


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Lamp with Many Faces


Four days to Halloween and it's time to wrap things up. Cards are made, and treat bags stuffed and waiting to be delivered. I'm making some cutouts for the classroom and I promised the teacher a simple banner for the class Halloween Party and once I get that out, I'm done. 

But wait. There's something outside that's been bugging me. See this lamp outside our door? Don't you think it looks kind of...naked?

 For the past 3 weeks I have asked Hubby if I can dress it up. It looks so sad. And cold. But the answer I get every time is a firm "No". Well, you know what, buddy, I'm going to do it anyway. So take this!

and this!
and that...
  and that!
I hope you see them when you drive into the garage later, Darrrrling. Call me "Slacker Mom" one more time and I'll stick these faces all over your computer monitors.


Muahhahahhahahaha.....  *evil laughter*


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Halloween Treat Bags



"Slacker Mom". That's what hubby called me this morning. All because I decided to stay at home instead of volunteering in the classroom like I was supposed to. Never mind that I am not over my cold and cough that I've been battling against all week. I'm a slacker. :-(

Speaking of slackers, raise your hand if you are still not done with the goodie bags that you promised your kids you would make for their classmates. Well, my friend, don't worry because I have an idea for you today.


I found this template from the Stampinton website and I cleaned it up for use with MTC. You can download the original template by going to the Stampinton page or simply download the MTC file by clicking here.

Just score, fold, and glue (or tape like I did with the ATG). Wrap a ribbon around the bag to pretty it up and stick on a label made with the LD Little Halloween Notes doodlebat font. I used the text tool in Adobe Photoshop and typed each letter/label at a text size of 150. Each circle will measure approximately 1.5inches across. I printed and punched out each label with my circle punch and layered it over a punched out scallop. (Hint: To remove the lines on the labels, Merge Layers and use the Eraser tool to erase away the lines.)

My kids love to stuff the treats into the bags so I just tell them to finish up with that. I've done the cutting, gluing, punching, candy-buying and now I will get the kids to do the rest. After all, I'm a slacker mom. :P

Monday, October 25, 2010

Not just for cupcakes


Happy Monday, everyone! How was your weekend? All set for Halloween? I'm almost there but I still have a couple of treat bags to finish up. Why didn't I get them all done? Well, cos' I really wanted to play with the new Spooky Soiree Cupcake Topper set from LD.  And...I didn't even make a single cupcake!


 Just because they called the set "cupcake topper" doesn't mean that I had to use the file as such. I made cards and little note cards that may also be used as place cards. And how about a treat bag topper?

These were really easy to make because all that I did was to print the images out with my $32 inkjet printer and punch them out with my Circle punch. Then I glued them down to a card front and embellish. My 2nd grader was so inspired she even made a bookmark!


 By the way, I flocked the spider on the "Beware" card with black flocking to increase the creepy factor. The eyes are little red rhinestones.
 

For the bat card, I increased the size of the image before printing it out. I wasn't able to find the right ribbon to attach to the card so I cut off a strip from a page from the Spooky Soiree paper pack


Browsing the LD site, I came across three other cupcake topper files:




Imagine all the possibilities with these circular images! Print, punch, and glue. You can even increase the sizes of the image for a different look. Did I mention that the Spooky Soiree Cupcake Toppers set is only $1 right now? Yup. Tons of fun for just one buck! I don't know if LD will increase the price later but for just a dollar, I think that set is a pretty good deal. ;-)

Friday, October 22, 2010

LD Freebie and a 20% coupon!


How timely is this LD freebie? To think that I was just making masks for the kids yesterday and now there's 2 more I can make for them. Even better, these are FREE!


 Just click on the image above and add them to your cart, then check out as if you are buying it. You will be charged $0 for this set. In other words, if you are just checking out with the masks, your order total will be $0!


Don't forget to check your email confirmation for a 25% coupon code that will expire in 30 days. You can use that right away to buy any of the newer sets or use it to buy the bundle above to bring the price of each set to $0.75 each!

You may also like to save that coupon for another day and use this 20% code instead:





Super Fun Kiddie Masks!



Whoo Hoo! It's Friday! Need an idea to keep the kids occupied this weekend? How about some masks for them?
 

Using Adobe Photoshop, I crop the witches images in the LD's Witch One and Witch's Brew sets, so that only the heads are left. Using MTC and Photoshop, I cut-and-print (as illustrated in my tutorial here) so that the image is sized to fit fully on a sheet of 8.5" x 11" cardstock.


To make the masks more sturdy, I cut a backing using cereal boxes. I had to set the blade on the Cricut to 6, and I set MTC to get the blade to cut over the same shape 5 times so that the thick cereal box material can be cut through cleanly. Using a new sticky mat helped to keep the cardboard stay in place.

I adhered the backing to the printed front with my ATG tape.


I sandwiched a craft stick between the printed front and the cardboard backing and punch out 2 holes for the eyes with my hole-punch-thingamadoodle. If you do not have an anywhere-hole punch, just trace a round button and cut out with a craft knife. Also, instead of a craft stick, you may punch out a hole on each side of the mask and string a piece of elastic thread through them. I lost my spool of elastic thread so I went the route of the craft stick instead.

Ta-dah! How many hours of fun do you think that this witch will give to my kids? heh heh.. Dare I say "Hello, Mommy Time!"? :-D

It's the last weekend before Halloween. I'm going to be busy making treat bags. What are you going to be making? Treat bags? Chocolate Mummies? Hope you get to be creative this weekend. Have fun creating!



Thursday, October 21, 2010

Coffin Treat Box (NOT from Happy Hauntings cartridge)



One of the reasons why I was tempted to buy the Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge was that it has a few interesting 3-D projects including a coffin-shaped favor box. Of course when I finally decided to order it, it's back-ordered and I'm not hopeful that it'll arrive at my mailbox with enough time left for me to make the boxes. Lucky for me, a search for "coffin favor box" on Bing.com yielded quite few free downloads of the box. I decided to get the template from Martha's site.

I downloaded the 2 free .pdf files quickly and imported them into MTC. I used "Break" and "Delete" to remove the page title. I also had to remove all the score lines because MTC had imported them as solid cut lines.

 Because I am nice, :-D I will share the cut file with you so that you do not have to do all the boring Break-Delete work. Just click on this link to download the MTC file. You will need to have the MTC program to open the file. (Edit oct 24/11: .studio file added. Just click here to download. Select the 2nd file.)

 

I used a double-sided 12"x12" sheet of printed cardstock to cut out both the top and bottom of the box.

Even though I had removed all the scorelines, it wasn't hard to figure out where the folds should be. Just align the two ends of the two adjacent cut lines and crease away.

The bottom is quite deep at 2" so I was able to use my ATG tape to stick the cut sides down. The top is more shallow so I used my Zip 2-way glue pen instead. I placed some clips on the glued sides for a short while to hold down the sides while the glue dries. Did you notice that the clips matched the color of the cardstock? :-D


This is how the box looks like when it's done. Creepy, huh? *shudder*


What shall I put in it? Candies? Lollipops? How about a mummy?



A Musketeer mummy. How fast can you say "Mummified Musketeer"? Haha!


Eek! There's a spider on the Mummy!


I printed a label with LD Frightmare and stuck it on the box.Then I took a piece of kitchen twine and colored it with my Memories Dye Inkpad (Chestnut Brown). I wrapped it around the box, tied a knot, and the project is completed.


The top of the box seems a bit larger than it should be but it did not bother me. If you want a tighter fit, you might want to adjust the template for the top in MTC.


Credit for the mummy goes to Julie of the Paper Jewels blog. My kids and I made a whole army of Chocolate Mummies last year. They were so fun to make! The size of the Hershey's chocolate bar is too big to fit into the box so I made one out of the Musketeer bar instead. If you prefer to put in a Hershey's Chocolate Mummy in the box, just make the necessary adjustments in the MTC file. No matter what you prefer to fill the box with, just have fun making them. I really got a kick out of putting this one together. Have a great day creating!