Cricut Explore Air2 Review - Haunted Mansion Project

I was sent the Explore Air2 to review and I did a pretty complicated project for my first project with the machine and instead of writing a bunch of stuff and taking a ton of pictures I did a video instead. Actually my friend Carmen suggested a video as it would be easier for people to see the detail. I hate video's because I hate my voice and I am not very good at making the dang things but here it is!!

Here is a picture of the house in case you don't want to watch the video. The house is the Haunted Mansion from the Happy Hauntings cartridge and I did have to do some editing *okie thinks saying "some" is the understatement of the year* to the images to get the patterned paper to cut like I wanted so I could apply it to the house it's self.

I am really pleased with how well the Explore Air2 cut all the images and I had some pretty tough ones in there after I got done with my edits of the house. I really liked the ability to speed up the cuts on the regular cardstock. The machine settings won't let you speed up cuts for things that would likely tear up if it did, such as the chipboard setting. One thing I did find annoying was that the Air2 is quite a bit louder than the other Explore machines I reviewed but it is still more quiet than the other Cricuts, Pazzles or the Cameo's I have heard cutting. I think the quietness of the original Explore just has me spoiled 

The house is open at the bottom so you can add lighting if you wish. In the video I used battery operated tea lights and they work okay but for maximized lighting I think I would find something with a few more lumens so the windows really light up. 

I am super glad I chose this as my first project as Graphic45 was having contests all last week on their Facebook page and my little Haunted Mansion won the really nice prize package in the picture to the left!

This was just a win win situation for me!

6 x 6 Mini Album Challenge - Okie's Version!

Like I said yesterday, Carmen and I had both ended up choosing to use the Graphic45 Le Cirque papers. When discussing this coincidence we both had decided to use it for the same reason...we both had so much of it! It was another one of those rare Tuesday Morning multi-pack finds that us papercrafter's so love to come across. Thank goodness I did have plenty since I made 4 of these stinkin albums! I curse my need to make multiples of projects!!

While Carmen used the "un"circus sides I decided to embrace the Circus theme and try and make an album that didn't necessarily make the owner feel they had to put circus photo's in the album. The title "Life's A Circus" was perfect for this project. All the white cardstock pieces are to be used for "photo templates". I never know if the recipient of my album will be a scrapbooker and know to measure the area so I find it easier to just cut cheap white cardstock and put it in place where the photo goes and then they can just lay it over the photo, trace around it, cut it out and put it down.

When cutting the word Circus I was worried about the top layer and the fine lines but my champion cutter, Pazzles, cut it beautifully. I added some red stickles in the diamond cut outs to dress up the word a bit more.

I cut up one of the BIG PICTURE pages in order to get what I wanted on the front, ya know the gorgeous pages that we all hate to cut up. For embellishing I added flowers, flatback pearls, rhinestones, brads, buttons, ribbon and twine. 

I did a google search or life's a circus to see if I could find something I could use with the album and was lucky enough to find a page where life was compared to a circus. The saying on the tag reads "You are your own Ringmaster. Take the whip and be in charge of this crazy circus we call life". The other tag can be used for a small photo. The "clown around" was done with Microsoft Word Word Art and the little center piece was from a punch out page.

This quote was another I found during my google search and I thought it was perfect for the beginning of the album and I didn't mind sacrificing a photo placement so this could be used. You might have to click the picture and make it bigger to read. I cut the little elephant in the bottom left hand corner out by hand as once it was done I felt it needed a little something else.

Here is the first flap page of my album. I scored directly in the middle and then adhered the bottom to the chipboard page. I'm still not sure I explaining it correctly so ya'll can understand how Carmen got 4 pages out of a flap page instead of 3 but I hope you can understand. The little postage stamp is cut from a full sheet that is decorated with different images but all are postage stamps. I used them in other places in the album as you will see.

 

The banner for this page was cut by hand and was printed with Microsoft Word Word Art. Yeah I know, I hate cutting by hand, but it's not like I had much of a choice right now...at least until I get the new Pazzles Vue and figure out print and cut on it. The banner is only attached on the far left hand side so a picture can easily be placed behind it. It might be hard to read in the picture but it says "Life is much too short to spend your time being serious!"

Here is the inside of the second flap page. I really tried to keep the embellishment minimal as I didn't want the book to be a foot thick so I did decorate a lot with just paper. On the left hand side that is just a strip of paper with a punch-out tag. Now on the right side I couldn't resist using some Maya Road cording across the top of the flag banner. I carefully added glue to the paper cut and then added the cording. I tied the knots afterwards and then frayed the ends.

This is the second tag page in the album. By the time I got to decorating the tall tag on the right hand side I was out of ideas since I had everything else done. I finally just slapped some papers on it, added a flower to the top, a piece of ribbon and a little punch-out and called it good.

It's hard to see, but I added stickles to one of the small stars I punched out because I thought they looked too plain. I cut out the little trapeze artist by hand. To attach him I put pop dot under his arms and body and then put glue on his legs and the "rope".

This is the last flap page of the album and I left it a bit plain. I had some border punch-outs with some words and I chose the words carefully so certain words would show. Two of the albums have the "Daring" and the other two have "fearless".

I sometimes forget how much I like Coredinations cardstock but I did remember during this project because I sanded anything blue I used. 

This is the inside of the flap page. Sadly I only had two of the "controlled MAYHEM to dazzle and delight" punch-outs so the other two albums got something not quite as cute. I decided to get out my photo corner punches for these two pages, the ones on the right are pop dotted while the ones on the left are just glued down.

The last page of the album didn't have any special cuts and we could do whatever we liked on it. I opted for a two photo placement and then just found different scraps to decorate. I made the little tassles on the lion punch-out out of some craft thread. I added some little hot fix stars here and there for a bit more embellishment.

This might be a first for me - I decorated the back cover! I really wanted to use the quote I printed and this was the last place I had open to use it and that is the true reason the back is decorated. I like how the transparency I used still allows the images to show through from the circus posters. 

Here is the first set of tags from the album. I printed on transparency for the tag on the left and you can see the green star paper through it just a little. The stars are some brads I had, which I am running out of and need to order more since I love those little stars!

I added a few hot fix items to the bottom of the photo tag just for interest. I made the tassel out of Maya Road cording. 

Here is the second set of tags and you can see I was getting tired by this point and just slappin some chit on there. I was going to add some embellishment to the dotted ribbon but it would have been too thick for the pocket so I left it plain. The flower on the top of the tall tag was made with Stampin Up punches. 

Carmen and I were both so excited about this project but by the end we were saying "I don't' want to see this paper again for a long long time!". It will be awhile before our next challenge since I have promised my groups we will make birthday cards again. They really love the activity and it makes for some good therapy in the process. 

Oh and I guess you can see why I haven't posted in awhile as well. It took FOREVER to make four of these little albums!

6x6 Mini Album Challenge - Carmen's Version!

After doing the double door album Carmen and I decided to do another challenge with a 6x6 album. The rules were we had to use the cuts I made in Make the Cut and we had to use Graphic45 papers, any Graphic45 papers. Now here is where it gets weird...we both decided to use Le Cirque!  We didn't know this until after we had started! Carmen used more of the backs of the papers, which is something we love about G45 papers - if ya don't like the front the other side usually has something you do like!

Carmen decided she would maker hers a "Inspire Album" more than a photo album and while we used the same cuts and a lot of the same papers it is quite amazing how different the albums look. I will be posting mine tomorrow.

I don't have a lot of description for Carmen's album so I will just be making some random comments about the pictures as we go along. On the cover she made some rosettes and I think they turned out fabulous!

I don't know what kind of little grommet things she used on the tags but I gotsta gotsta get me some!

Here is an individual picture of her tags. I'm not sure where the quote papers came from or if she printed them. She doesn't always tell me all her secrets.

I think this might be my favorite page of her album. There is just something about the images she used and put together that just makes me love it!

I did make cuts for some flip up pages and Carmen scored a center line and made the album have a few more pages, something I didn't even think of!

I love all the chalkboard images she has, she must tell me where these came from!

She did make a few pages for photos. She is going to give this album to her daughter, Dani, when she returns to college in the fall. Dani will be able to easily add a few of her favorite photos to the album to personalize it.

Dani can add two photos here, or she can cut smaller ones and do a collage of small photos on these two pages.

You might be able to see a little more easier from this picture, looking at the red based pages, of how she made the flap cuts have 4 sides. Mine only have 3 since one was used to adhere the flap to the album. 

Again with the awesome grommet things! I don't know how she did that butterfly but I love it as well. I think the little watch embellishment was genius with the tag saying!

Individual picture of the tags where you can see the sayings on them a little better.

This quote by Eleanor Roosevelt is so awesome and one of my personal favorites!

Okay if you look closely you can see she used Nesties on this page, at least that is what it looks like to me.

Another favorite saying of mine! I love how she added the little blingy flourish. 

I think this might be from Graphic45 but I'm not sure. I do know it is not from the Le Cirque collection!

I love all the patterns used on this page...the polka dots, plaid, small dots and typewritten background!

Oh did you notice the Washi tape she used? She and I have discussed many times about how to use the tapes and I'm glad she figured out a way to use some...I still need to figure it out on my projects!

And last but not least, her back cover. I think she chose the perfect quotes for the back cover!

When Carmen sent me the pictures and I looked at them I was in awe of all her work! I told her she had completely out done herself on this project. Carmen often says she likes my stuff better and I always tell her she can make the same stuff. I really just don't think she gives herself near enough credit for her artistic abilities! 

Like I mentioned earlier, I will be posting my album tomorrow for ya'll to see. We will be laying off the challenges for a bit since I have to get things together for my groups to make birthday cards over the next few weeks, that will be 48 card kits total that I have to get ready. I think the cards might be really simple this year.

Oh The Pain - Graphic45 Journaling Book

I got an email the other day with instructions for a Graphic45 Journaling Book and how they were going to have a contest by participants sending in a picture of their creation. I have file folders and I have quite a bit of Graphic45 papers in my collection of gorgeous papers so I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a go". After I got my folders cut apart and started adding papers I was like "OMG this is the ugliest thing I have ever made!" but I was too far gone into the project to stop and figured I would finish and toss it in the trash when I was done if I didn't like it. I am glad I kept at it as it turned out a lot better than I expected! I'll let the pictures do the talking!

I am going to try and remember what all Graphic45 collections were used:
Boardwalk
Olde Curiosity Shoppe
Steampunk Debutante
Birdsong (stickers)
Proper Gentleman
Curtain Call

I only had one stamp that I could use for journaling so I had to try and line it up on some spots, which wasn't perfect in many places but I think it added to the overall character of the book.

I really did like the tag page, in the middle of the picture, and I had to make my own out of leftovers of the file folders. I decorated it up a little at the top and since I couldn't find my Cropodile Big Bite *okie still has no idea where that dang thing is* I had to make my own little slit in the top and add the ribbon.

There were two pocket pages in the cuts and those will be nice for loose pictures or mementos. I did find a few little tags and chipboard pieces in my collection of embellishments to add to the book.






I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to add staples to the tickets for a bit of interest. I also stamped some images on some areas.

I got my pages out of order somewhere but I guess it doesn't really matter too much but I was trying to keep like papers away from each other but I guess it still worked out okay. I hand cut different images out of the different collections to use in the book. 

All the square black mats are 3x3 which will make it easy to crop pictures to add and not have to keep measuring different squares. I made the "File Folder Label" using one of my punches. These two pages open up.

This is with the left page is open.








And here is the right page open.

There was one page in their example that was just decorated. I opted to add a little jouraling space and different images from different collections. I made the flower using some of the punches I have. I spritzed them with water and wadded them up. I let them sit a little while and then I carefully opened them up and kept them scrunched while drying. Once dry I just put the layers together.

The page on the left is the only one with a larger picture area and that mat is 3x6 inches, of course you could always add larger pictures in the pocket page which is on the right.


 

Finally here is the last of the book! I could have added another picture mat to the back page but just decided to decorate it a little and leave it at that. 




I used my Cinch to punch my holes, being careful to line up the pages that were a little off from all the rest and then used 3/4" Bind It All coils to put it all together. I have no idea what I will do with this book but I am thinking it will make a nice prize at my Christmas party this year!