Thursday Tutorial - 3D Star

Hello! Rachel here from Cricut with Heart, and today I'm sharing a tutorial that I made a while ago based on a 3-D Star that my friend Elvia Murray made. You can use this simple and easy trick to turn almost any of your Cricut cuts into something 3-D! Here is the star I made by using an ornament cut.

I started by cutting out the ornament from page 53 of the Cricut Artiste booklet. I used one sheet of double sided paper to cut them out. You'll also need to cut out a 2" circle for the base.

Here are all the pieces, and by turning over the 2 1/2" pieces, you can show the color on the other side.

I used my Martha Stewart Score Board to score a line down the middle of each piece.

This is how the pieces will be glued together once they are scored. Notice that the green ones have 3 pieces to them, and the others have only 2 pieces.

I inked the edges of all the pieces and glued them to each other to make 5 points for each of the 3 layers. then I began to assemble the ornament by adhering the 3" points to the base circle to form a star shape.

Then the 2 1/2" green points get glued to the base in between these.

Finally, the 1 3/4" small points get glued on top. I rotated my layers a little bit. I used liquid glue to make sure it held together nice and strong.

I added a pearl to the center and on the tips. You could even glue two of these back to back to make a totally 3-D shape! I hope this inspires you to turn some of the fun Cricut cuts into something 3-D. Leave me a comment with a link to your project, and I'd love to check it out!

Happy Crafting!

Thursday Tutorial - Swing Cards!

Hello! Rachel here from Cricut with Heart, and today I'm sharing a fun tutorial/chart made by my friend and blog partner, Mary Thompson.  

Did you know that the Cricut Artiste Cartridge has 9 different Swing Cards on it? Here are all nine of the Artiste Swing card shapes, and the cards that Mary made using them. 

The possibilities are truly endless!  The best part is, they are quick and easy to make with the Cricut. If you have both the Artiste and Art Philosophy cartridges, you can cut out the matching shapes to decorate these swing cards.

Below is a chart that Mary made, and it shows the companion shape for each card and which cartridge to find it on. You will also find the page and size needed for each shape.

Give these cards a try, they are fast and easy to make and turn out so cute!

Happy Crafting!

Thursday Tutorial - Banners made Easy!

Want a cool tip on how to make the popular banners in just a couple of easy steps? Check out this easy tutorial made by my friend, Mary Thompson...

Here are some fun cards she made using this cool banner technique!

And here is a layout that I made using banners. 

I hope you'll try this easy technique to make some banners on your next project!

Happy Crafting! 

Thursday Tutorial - Paper Saver Tip!

Hello! Rachel here from Cricut with Heart and today I'd like to share a paper saving tip for cutting photo mats. I was on a Close to My Heart consultant retreat this past weekend, and my friend a fellow team member, Shauna Nuttall, showed me how to get four full 5" x 7" photo mats from one sheet of 12"x 12" paper!

You begin by setting your paper in your cutter and line it up at the 7" mark.

Then pull down the cutter to the 7" mark on the cutting ruler.

Lift the cutting ruler and rotate the paper counter-clockwise, lining it up again at the 7" mark. Pull the blade down again to the 7" mark on the cutting ruler, and you now have your first 5"x 7" photo mat.

Simply repeat the process! Lift the cutting ruler, rotate the paper, line up at 7" and pull the blade down to 7". Now you have your second mat. 

The final cut will get your final two mats! Just lift, rotate, and cut down to 7".

Now you have four photo mats at 5"x 7", and the scrap piece from the middle is 2"x 2"! Easy, huh?

This method will also work for cutting 4 1/2"x 6 1/2" mats by starting out with an 11"x 11" paper and cutting at 6 1/2".  I hope you'll find this tutorial as useful as I did!

Happy Crafting!

Thursday Tutorial - Fabric Topiary

Hello! Rachel here from Cricut with Heart , and today I'm sharing a tutorial on how I made a fun little fabric topiary home decor item.  

Isn't that fun?! I made this for Valentine's Day, but afterwards I simply removed the "Valentine" lettering, and the heart candies so now I have it on my entry table for a Spring Time home decor item.  

It's pretty easy to make. I used a 3" round smooth foam ball, a wooden skewer, and a small ceramic pot from Michael's. 

I cut out yellow squares approximately 1" and pink squares about 1 1/2" out of my textiles from Close to My Heart. These are a nice light fabric in fun colors and perfect for this kind of project.  As long as your fabric is not too heavy, it should work.

You'll need to cut a lot of squares, but they don't have to be perfect.  I just cut more as I went on until the ball was completely covered. I used my Inscriblio tool to push the square into the foam since it has a small ball at the tip and didn't push all the way through the fabric. You could use an embossing stylus, but I couldn't find mine at the time (LOL)!

Simply place a square onto the foam ball, and push it into the foam with your stylus!

Continue doing this and space out the larger pink squares into flower clusters and then fill in the space around them with the smaller yellow squares.

Add the wooden skewer to serve as the stem, and wrap a strip of the green fabric around it by using strong double sided tape at the top and the bottom. Tie a strip of the green fabric into a bow on the stem to make the "leaves".

Add foam to the bottom of the pot, and stick the stem into this for stability. The final touch is adding this fun little butterfly at the top.

Now we'll get to use our Cricut by cutting out the butterfly from page 58 of the Artiste booklet at 1 1/2".  Then I got some of my pink craft wire, and cut a piece and twisted it together from the middle but left the ends separated to make the antennae.

On the back side, I used a strong double sided tape to attach the wire which will also be used to attach it to the foam ball.

I embellished the front of the butterfly with some Bitty Pearls. Cute, huh?

Here is how it looks attached to the fabric ball.

Happy Crafting!