Simply Adapting: Five Days of Cricut!

On the first day of Cricut my crafter made for me: A batch of tags for presents to be! {You know once you figured out the tune you tried to sing it}

For the next 5 post I am going to do some wonderful projects with my Cricut machine. If you have one please share your ideas! If you don't have one, this would be a great gift to ask for a Christmas. :) I got mine to Christmas 2 years ago from my mom. She knew how much I loved making my bulletins for my classroom really stand out for my students so she thought of it as an investment for me. They can be pricey but if you are crafty it is def. worth the investment!

What is Cricut?

My Answer: The all powerful paper cutting machine!

Cricut is a computerized cutting tool for paper projects, scapping, wall stenciling, posters, kids crafts, card making, the list could go on and on! It is super easy, mine came with 4 cartridges "Planting School Book", "Accent Essentials", oh I forgot the other two, I promise to add them in when I edit!

How it works! Place the Cartridge in the slot then load your cutting mat with the paper of your choice. Using the selection key pad choose what you would like to cut. Select the size you would like to cut the item at, then press cut!

Sorry this came out a bit blurry. Here you can see my cutting mat is loaded. I decided I wanted to cut out letters to make a stencil that says "The Rigdons". The cartridge is the little gray and pink thing on the bottom right corner of the machine. I am using "Plantin School Book" for this project. It has the best letters for stencils.

I set the size letters at 2 3/4" and as you can see above as I pull off the paper from the sticky cutting mat the letters appear! What's great is that even though I am using the Stencil part of the paper I have a little box of letters that I will save for other projects as to not waste what was cut out. I am in the middle of this project and had to let some paint dry to I will show you how I used the stencil later on.

Other projects I decided to go ahead and get started on are Christmas tags for presents. Instead of buying some of the unoriginal sticker tags I am making my own! How fun! Plus it won't cost me a thing since I already have my Cricut and tons of scrap paper! :) I Love saving money, what girl doesn't? That's money I can put towards a cute shirt or pair of shoes!

This time I used Red paper and the same cartridge. It has two sets of tags designs you can choose from. One of the settings that I love for multiple cuttings is a setting that you use to place a quantity of how many you would like cut out or you can even fill the entire page! Helps with large projects. I cuts out plenty ahead of time so that I can just have them made instead of going back to cut more.

Christmas Tags! They even have the whole cut in the top already for the string you just can't see them because I didn't remove them from the cutting board yet.

I used the same cut out for tags on my wedding favors. The favors were little New Holland Tractor toys. I also bought a personalized stamp online that said "George and Brittany August 7, 2010" & "Just Hitched" and stamped the tags then attached them to the hitch of the toy tractor! Can you believe my husband came up with that! Such a smart cookie! So Proud!