Awareness Ribbons

There are lots of questions about making an awareness ribbon with the Cricut. I have 2 versions. I like making a really soft ribbon with the "&" sign in George. Here are some pictures of cards I have made with this cut. And you can use the shadow feature as well to make the shadow of the cut. Another is a cut you can use if you have SCAL. The SVG file is shared in the right hand column as Awareness Ribbon 1.

SCAL version- .svg file in right hand column

Saint Patrick's Day Plate & Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Here is my St. Patrick's day plate. I used PDDU for the pot and coins. I used SCAL for the shamrocks, but there is also a cute one on PDDU. I am using this for school treats on St. Pat's Day - I'm sending in Irish Soda Bread. Here is my recipe. It is a great time of year to try it. It's so good right out of the oven with BUTTER, or toasted the next morning.

Irish Soda Bread

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

3/4 stick melted butter

1 cup raisins

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp baking powder

caraway seeds (optional)

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl including sugar and raisins, make a well and put in buttermilk and melted butter. Mix only until dry ingredients are incorporated. Split into 2 balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake @ 350 50-60 minutes.

I add turbinado (cane sugar) on the top before baking I have also added cranberries and pecans instead of the raisins I do not use caraway seeds because it is more kid-friendly.

Matching Vinyl to my art...

I wanted to do an above mirror wall decoration, but I wanted it to match the art in my room. I did this by taking a close up photograph of the corner fleur d lys and putting it through Inkscape and SCAL to get the exact shape match. Since my gold vinyl is not wall safe, I placed it on black Wall pops as a shadow.

Making your own shape from a photo: photos work best when they are either black or on a black background. Upload your photo from your camera. Open Inkscape and click File-Import-find your photo, click on it . Click Path-Trace Bitmap-...(In the Trace Bitmap Window click Update then OK.) In the original window click Path-Break Apart. Then Click View-Display Mode-Outline. If there are any stray marks, click on them and then click delete on your keyboard until all that is left is the design you want. If you make a mistake and delete something in error, just click Edit-Undo. Normally you don't have stray marks if you are importing clip art of another graphic, but since photos are detailed, you may have to do this step. Once it is the way you want save the file. Then you can open SCAL- click file-Import SVG and find your file and CUT.

Cub Scout Centerpieces

I was volunteered to do the centerpieces for a Cub Scout banquet. The theme is CIRCUS. I used a little Cricut, but I thought I'd share. The first one is a balloon bouquet. Each balloon has the name of the scout and the other side has a picture of a clown (all done in vinyl). I used a coffee can filled with sand as a weight. I punched holes in the plastic lid and just tied them through the holes, then put the lid back onto the can. I coordinated the base with the same clown.

The other centerpiece is a candy bouquet chock full of goodies. (The boys will get the goodies when the banquet is done) I used PC Crafter clip art "Just clowning around". Cut out a circus character for each scout and the leaders. Of course I had to vinyl the bucket.