May13

Celebrate & Growing Up … free Cricut Cuts

Posted on May 13, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

Celebrate Cricut Scrapbook page

It’s another FREE Cricut Craft Room post. Today I worked on the free layouts for scrapbooks that are available in the Cricut Craft Room. Once again I urge every Cricut owner to download the Cricut Craft Room so that you can take advantage of the FREE cuts that are offered each week. They have been posting some for only a few days, so make sure you check it daily. There are free scrapbook layouts today for Baby, Music, Celebrate and Growing Up. I am getting ready to leave for vacation, so only did Celebrate and Growing Up.

Celebrate Cricut layout

This is the first layer that I cut out of purple.

Celebrate Cricut layout

To cut the second layer I placed the purple at the top and the pattern paper at the bottom, so that both would cut at the same time. Love how easy it is!! I just punched the balloons out with a punch, but the could also be cut with the Cricut!

e Celebrate Cricut layout

Now you know how I don’t like to waste anything, so I took the purple piece from the bottom of the first layer and trimmed it to make the word Celebrate for another layout. Don’t forget to save the middle cuts from the letters. (e,b & a)

Growing Up Cricut layout

Here are the Growing Up pages I made. They are simple, but I really thought the primary colors worked well. The numbers were printed on my scrapbook paper and I thought it was perfect.(No, I didn’t put the ruler on crooked…I just had my camera at the wrong angle) I will take pictures of the Pre-School Class, where I have been working, for these pages.

Growing Up Cricut layout

I put all the cut for these page on one layer and just set the paper up on the mat.

Growing Up Cricut layout

Once again I used the “scraps” to make what can be a new layout. I used the blue from the first cut and backed it with yellow and added the six circles that were left from the ruler cut. I also kept the cool yellow border left from the ruler cut. I just laid them on a piece of black paper so you could get an idea of what it would look like on a page. Remember…you can always use the “scraps”.

There are several other FREE cuts in the Cricut Craft Room. Art Deco is one and I hope I have time to cut some letters out before I leave for vacation. I will be “on the road” next week, so you are on your own to check out the Cricut Craft Room and create something with your FREE cuts. Happy Scrapping!!

May9

Farmer’s Wife Quilt blocks – week 2 No. 1 & 2

Posted on May 9, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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Farmer’s Wife Quilt Attic Windows

If you read my earlier post on the Farmer’s Wife Quilt, you know I am on a mission to complete the quilt in 13 months by making two blocks per week and posting my progress. I have been reading posts on the Farmer’s Wife Yahoo group and one of the ladies stated that she was going to do the blocks in order, because she thought if she left the hard blocks for last, she wouldn’t finish her quilt. Well, that makes perfect sense to me. So, I then went back and started at the beginning of the blocks and this is block #1 Attic Windows.

paper pieced Attic Windows

I downloaded the pattern from the Yahoo group website which is listed in this earlier post. Sometimes I have an issue with which part of the block I am working on when paper piecing, so I decided to get out my trusty colored pencils. I “fussy cut” the center with the main goal on my now “Leap List”. I got this term off of the new Honda CRV commercial. I guess “bucket list” infers that you are getting ready to “kick the bucket” and I have way too many UFO’s to even begin to think about that. (UFO’s will be addressed in a future post)

I am by no means an expert on paper piecing, but I love the precise look it gives your block. I hope you will join me on my journey to improve my paper piecing skills as I complete this quilt.

Farmer’s Wife Quilt Autumn Tints

My next block is Autumn Tints which is # 2 in the Farmer’s Wife Quilt book. Since this was a simple pieced block I didn’t paper piece it. I cut two strips of cream print 2″ x 5″ and one strip each of the yellow and green 2″ x 5″. I cut two orange block 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

Autumn Tints

Sew the green and cream strips together and the yellow and cream strips together. Now sub cut those strips 2 x 3 1/2. Sew one yellow/cream strip to the green/cream strip.

Autumn Tints

Your next step is to join these four blocks. Make sure you press the seams towards the orange block so that the seams will butt up together. Happy quilting!!

May6

Cricut Mother’s Day and Flower Cards

Posted on May 6, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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Mother’s Day and Flower Cricut Cards

Once again I am posting the free cuts in the Cricut Craft Room. I should have gotten to these earlier since it says they are only on from May 1-8th of 2013. They are titled Mother’s Day cards, so I am not really sure which cartridge you would have to buy to get these cuts. I think they could be used for many occasions. If you haven’t already loaded the Cricut Craft Room to your computer…do it now and let’s get busy making some free cards!

flower Cricut Card

This is the first card we will cut. First you open the Cricut Craft Room and go to my cartridges and the free cuts for the week will show up. Then since this card has layers, I first chose the size for the main card. You also had the option to make the envelope, but since I am a former Postal employee, I didn’t want my card to fit in an odd size envelope and be subject to a surcharge in postage. I made my card to fit into a 4 1/2 x 6″ envelope.

F Cricut flower card

You will size the card (orange) and then hit the plus sign by the layer tab. This will give you a new layer , yellow in this case. Now size the liner to fit your card. Next you can add another layer and size in the flower pieces.

Cricut flower card

Now you will need to move the flower layers to different areas on your mat so that they will cut separate.

Cricut flower card

Now this is the really cool part. You can cut do all the cuts in one layer at the same time. Just position the different card stock where your cuts should be according to the layer.

Cricut flower card

Now hit cut and choose the layer you what to cut from the top drop down box on the cut screen.

Cricut flower card

I used a hammer and this tool (not sure what you call it) to put the hole in the center of the flower so I could add some “bling”.

Cricut Mother’s Day Card

Do the same method for the rest of the cards. Place the main card and then add the layers to fit the size you picked.

Cricut Mother’s Day Card

I added three flowers to the card.

Cricut tulip card

I cut one set of tulips out of patterned paper and one out of plain and made a little snip on the top layer to look more like tulip petals.

Cricut free cuts

Now don’t throw away the scraps from your projects. This is what I did with the scraps. The center of the card cuts will be used inside a future card. The outline of the Mother can be cut down and the corners rounded to use again. The extra tulip petals looked like Easter eggs and went into my Easter drawer.

I hope you have enjoyed these cards and the cuts were free. You can use these free cuts on any machine. You don’t have to buy anything to use the Cricut Craft Room. Happy Mother’s Day!!

May5

This is IT…my last Coke Zero

Posted on May 5, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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coke zero

Ok, it’s official! This was my last Diet Coke in a quest of 90 days without a diet pop. (or soda depending on what part of the country you are from) I have made through day one with only 89 days to go. I decided to try to give up diet pop after my girlfriend sat across from me at a quilting get-a-way for a weekend and said, “Kim, we need to talk…you drink entirely too much diet pop. Do you know how bad it is for you?”

Well I am sure it is not good for me, but I really don’t think it is that bad. I have heard it said that diet pop will make you crave sweets. I decided to see for myself it that is true. I admit I am a sugar addict and I know I can not give up sugar.

I chose 90 days because I read somewhere that it takes 90 days to form a habit. In this case, I am hoping that after 90 days I will break a habit. My husband is totally against this quest. He said he doesn’t want to listen to me “cry” about it for 90 days. I guess I will have to suffer in silence.

As of right now I have made it through day one with only EIGHTY-NINE DAYS TO GO! Did I say that already? We’ll see how this works out!

Apr30

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

Posted on April 30, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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fruit salsa and cinnamon chips

Doesn’t this look sooooo good! My niece made it for Easter this year and I made it last weekend for my daughter to take to a brunch. She was in town for a wedding and the girls got together to catch up on “ole times” the day after the wedding. She said the salsa was a big hit with the kids since the pieces were cut really small. The children were all under the age of 4. I really think this would be great to take to a Summer picnic.

fruit salsa and cinnamon chips

You will need:

Fruit Salsa

2 kiwis, peeled and diced

2 Golden Delicious Apples, peeled and diced

8 oz of raspberries

1 (16 oz) carton of strawberries ( diced)

2 tbsp of white sugar

1 tbsp of brown sugar

3 tbsp fruit preserves, any flavor ( I used strawberry)

For Cinnamon chips:

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas

melted butter (or butter flavored cooking spray) I used butter!!

Cinnamon sugar:

it calls for (but I didn’t use near that much)

1 cup of white sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon

diced fruit

In a large bowl add all the salsa ingredients. Kiwi, raspberries, apples, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves and mix well. Cover and chill. The longer this sits the more juice it produces. You should make it the day you are going to serve it, but I did eat the leftovers up to two days later. I just had to use a slotted spoon.

butter the tortillas

Melt the butter ( I used a half of stick). Brush it on one side of the tortilla.

sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

Sprinkle the buttered tortilla with cinnamon sugar. Cut the flour tortilla in 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. This step does take some time to complete. You could also use cinnamon graham crackers or cinnamon pita chips if you are in a hurry.

Serve with your fruit salsa.

We pinned this recipe and the original site was http://thethreadaffect.com

Apr29

Farmer’s Wife Quilt …the beginning…#111 Wrench and # 20 Churn Dash

Posted on April 29, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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fabric for Farmer’s Wife

This is where my journey begins. I am taking on the daunting task of completing the “Farmer’s Wife” quilt.

Farmer’s Wife Book

This is a picture of the front cover of the book by Laurie Aaron Hird. It is a collection of letters from farmer’s wives from the 1920′s that were answers to a question placed in the “Farmer’s Wife” magazine. Laurie was inspired by the letters to make a sampler quilt with 111 six inch blocks.

I belong to a Splinter Group and we each choose a project and supply the pattern and fabric in a box that we pass each month. We are a very relaxed group that started over 20 years ago. We started out with 12 members and our group still includes 6 of the original members. Over the years we have lost some of our members and some have dropped out to move on to other interests. We take turns hosting the group and enjoy the fellowship and snacks as much as the quilting. In 20 years we still can not get down the “passing of the boxes”. Each time we meet we laugh over how we can not remember the “pecking order”. I have made quilts and have enjoyed each and every meeting. I don’t think we have ever had a disagreement. We have raised our children, lost love ones and grown as quilters. Each box brings us a new challenge.

So now you might ask, “Why are you telling me all this?” It was Susie who got the ball rolling on this quilt. We have been working on her Farmer’s Wife quilt since 2010. We only do one or two blocks per month and it takes a while to complete 111 blocks..LOL It so happens that we are getting to the HARD blocks. One day on Pinterest, I found a site that led me to a Yahoo group that is working on the Farmer’s Wife. It has the paper pieced patterns for all the blocks and many, many pictures. I applied for membership and it took about a month before I was able to join the site. When I started looking at all the options I decided I would like to make one of my own. I found a unique setting where the block seem to float on the quilt.

In my earlier post I showed the fabric I choose. I am going to float my block on a grey fabric. I am trying to stay with mostly yellow and grey as the main fabric, but I found a fabric line called “noteworthy” that has a “bucket list” printed on the fabric. Now I will be expanding my colors to include this fabric. I started with two similar blocks to showcase the bucket list fabric. After this post I am going to start posting the blocks in order, since one of the group stated that if you leave all the hard blocks until the end, you may not want to finish your quilt. Makes perfect sense to me.

#20 Churn Dash Farmer’s Wife

Here is my first block!!! Churn Dash! I didn’t paper piece this block.

half-square triangles on a roll

I used half-square triangles on a roll for this project. I took a piece of yellow and a piece of grey material and with right sides together you sew on the dotted lines. You then cut on the solid lines. You will need the triangles that finished to a 2″ block. I then cut 8 – 1 1/2″x2 1/2 squares of grey and red fabric and chained stitched these together on the 2 1/2 inch side to make a 2 1/2″ block.

Creative grids ruler

This ruler is a handy tool when you are fussy cutting your fabric. (fussy cut is when you want a specific piece of your fabric to show up in your quilt block) You center the black solid lines around your design in whatever size you need for your block. I needed a two inch finished square. The ruler has small holes at the corner of the dotted lines. You place your pencil in these holes and mark the corners.

fussy cut block

In this picture you can see the pencil marks in the corners which were my guide for cutting my block. You can also see how cool the “bucket list’ fabric is going to be in my quilt!

fussy cut block

This is how it lines up after cutting…cool!

#111 Wrench – Farmer’s Wife

Number 111 the Wrench is just the same block as the Churn Dash with the fabric placement a little different. I did get a little smarter and cut strips of fabric for the side pieces. I cut one each of yellow and grey at 1 1/2″ X 11″

Wrench

After you sew the two 11″ pieces together, press the seams to the darker fabric and sub cut into 2 1/2″ squares . Now lay out your pieces. In this case the corners were made just like in #20 Churn Dash block with the triangles on a roll.

Wrench

Now pay careful attention to how you press your seams. You will want to press the seams so that they will butt up together when you sew them. In this photo I pressed the center strip seams to the center block and the outer strip seams to the outside.

butt the seams

I hope you can tell from this picture what I mean by “butting the seams”. The seams will fit together since they are pressed in opposite directions. The next post will not be as long, so I hope you will join me on my 13 month journey to complete the Farmer’s Wife!! I will be posting two blocks per week. Why not join the group and start your own journey?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/farmerswifesampler/

Apr26

Ohio State Cheerleader Card made with the Cricut

Posted on April 26, 2013 by madisonzanecreations

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Ohio State Cheerleader Cricut Card

Congratulations Jess! I made this card for my nephew’s girlfriend who has just made the cheerleading squad for The Ohio State University. We are soooooo proud! I used the Everyday Paper Doll Cricut cartridge. I love this cartridge. It has so many uses. You can cut about anything thing out! I think the paper dolls are so cute and you can change up the hair and clothes for any occasion. I used stickers for the block O on the cheerleading outfit and the “Go Bucks”. On the edge of the white background, I used a “Stampin Up” punch.

Cricut Craft Room

I wanted to add something to the inside of the card, so I went to the Cricut Craft Room “to design and cut.” If you haven’t downloaded this FREE program you are not getting the most “bang for your buck” with your Cricut. You can download it from cricut.com . I used the George and Basic Shapes.

Just add a text box. .. Type in the “I”…. Add a Heart… Add another text box and type “Cheer” then go to the spacing arrows on the left hand sid of the screen and push the down arrow until the letter are overlapping …and another text box and type in “to” and overlap these letters… At this point you will have 4 images to work with on your screen. Just highlight the image you want to work with by double clicking on it until the arrow appear.

Now over lap the heart and words by moving the images around on the screen.( You can also resize the image). Notice I have the “to” with arrows around it so that I can work with the image’s one at a time. The program will “weld” the images and the words! (weld, as in make it just one cut ) How cool is that!!!

inside of card – George and Basic Shapes

Well, I kinda fibbed about that. If you look closely you can see that I didn’t get the word “Cheer” close enough togeter and the “C” cut separate form the rest of the image.

Craig and Jess

madisonzanecreations

modern crafting creations

Celebrate & Growing Up … free Cricut Cuts

Farmer’s Wife Quilt blocks – week 2 No. 1 & 2

Cricut Mother’s Day and Flower Cards

This is IT…my last Coke Zero

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

Farmer’s Wife Quilt …the beginning…#111 Wrench and # 20 Churn Dash

Ohio State Cheerleader Card made with the Cricut

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