My Ever Changing Craft Room

Hey guys! Yep.. If you follow me at all you know how scattered I get sometimes. The last post I made I had just started setting up my new craft room. I was so excited to get going again. I totally made tons of signs. Then.. something happened. I got engaged!!! <<<insert music and happy dance here>>>  I have gotten engaged to my very best friend. He is quite amazing. Within a week of our engagement I had someone reach out to me and make an unsolicited cash offer on my house. So... long story short... my new craft room I just set up... is now my old craft room. I've moved. Currently I have a closet. Oh... yes! Don't think that the irony of that has been lost. I'm back in a closet. LOL!!!

Here's a look at what I started with....

Yep.... your observation is totally right. It's WAYYYYYY smaller than my previous closet.

Oh... and yeah... I do have this small side here too. My previous closet was at least a walk in. YIKES!!!!












Ok... so to make it even more interesting... this is in the garage. So it's not temper controlled like the rest of the house. It does stay pretty decent. But it's December... so right now I have to have a small space heater.

Here's my finished space.

So yeah... I don't have a place to sit. I set up a table in the garage or haul everything into the kitchen which is on a different level of the house.



UPDATE!!!! Today is Sunday, January 5th 2020. Everything that you've read above... was from last year. It was actually January of 2019. Yes... you read that right. It was a year ago.

Let me back up a bit. Remember that guy I mentioned....??? The very best friend that I got engaged to? Well... we got married! Shortly after getting my new "closet" set up we had everything planned out. We had set a date for the wedding and we were going to add on to the house to include an extra bedroom and... a CRAFT ROOM! Well... not just a craft room. A complete shop (That's a whole other story for another time).

The wedding was set for May 2019. March came and we met with contractors for the addition. We picked our contractor and had a final meeting with him. We had a few decisions to make and a permit we were waiting on. That's when my friend said... "Hey... have you started on your addition yet? Let me make you a deal. Buy my house instead." I laughed! And my husband to be (at the time) said "Heck NO!!!"

Long story short... a week later we made an offer on her house, it was accepted and we closed. We met with a realtor to sell the house we were living in. But.... my husband to be had to go out of town for two weeks. We were going to list the house when he got back. My friend Nancy says... "Just put it on Zillow. You can sell it yourself". While he was gone... not only did I list it on Zillow... but I found a buyer. His second day home from his trip we showed the house and they made an offer. We accepted. It was mid April. Not only did we close on that house.... we went ahead and moved. IN APRIL!!!! It was a whirlwind. We wanted to be moved in the new house before the wedding. We did it!!!!

 We got married.....

Went on our honeymooon!

And now.... we are living happily ever after!!!

So.... I ramble. You probably guessed that by now. All this to tell you... I've got a new craft room!!! LOL

The house we bought is amazing. It truly is my dream home. It's in a place I always wanted to live. Everyone has their own space. I have an amazing shop. And.... I have a place for my "craft room" that is NOT a closet. Does that mean I need to change my name? My Cricut Closet may not be quite appropriate anymore. :)

Watch for my next post so that I can take you on the journey of how things are going. 2019 was quite a year.

A New Craft Room For Me

Hello! It's that time of year again. School has been back in long enough for everyone to settle in and crafters all over are planning their handmade gifts for the holidays. I have noticed a lot of crafters getting ready for the craft fair season as well. I always seem to be behind schedule when it comes to this. Maybe I will be able to be ready this year. (LOL!!! Lets see if that happens!)

Lets backtrack a bit. I mentioned school being back in. I've had the bitter/sweet privilege of sending my only daughter off to college recently. She's been gone a couple of weeks now. I miss her like crazy. But on the other hand... you know what that means to a crafting mom without a craft room.... A NEW CRAFT ROOM!!!! Woohoo!!!!  

Hold on... before you think badly of me... we are actually going to share her newly abandoned room. My daughter is an artist. So I am setting up a place for her to paint and be creative when she comes home. Her bed and other personal items will still be in there. But I will get to move my items in there as well. So far I have found that what I once thought was a big room... is quickly shrinking. 

Here is my set up so far....

Yeah... I know... so far it's just a space for me. Luckily when she has come home to visit she hasn't used her room. But she could use the table. 

So far I've found that I like my old setup better. Here are the things I will be working on to get this space where it needs to be:

• New desk/table or something for my Cricut to sit on. This needs enough space for my 12x24 mat to go through
• Place to store my vinyl
• Place for signs to dry
• Larger space to apply vinyl

One thing that I do like about this space is that it is downstairs. This has lots of advantages. Not going up and down is a plus. It's a lot cooler downstairs. AND... there is a bathroom right outside this room. This makes it easier for clean up. 

Of course the room is a disaster now. I made a few signs in there today. I am starting an Etsy store and I am putting in my signs as well as some cut files for use on Cricut and other machines. 

Here are the files I made today....

Click on the images and they will take you to my Etsy listing. I did create a sign for each as well. But... the "Wash Dry Fold" sign did not get finished. It's been a while since I've used my Cricut so my supplies are running low. I gathered what I had. The transfer tape I had ended up being garbage. The first sign turned out ok. The second one did not. So it got sanded down and repainted. It is waiting for some new transfer tape and new stencil vinyl. Here is the Laundry Room sign I did get to complete. 

I really like how this turned out. 

What projects will you be working on? I'm also curious as to what kind of things you would like to see from me? I have lots of tutorials on Cricut Craft Room. Are you ready for some Cricut Design Space?

Happy Crafting!!!

Making a Comeback???

Hey guys! I have neglected my blog for far too long. I think it's time to make a comeback and start posting again. I've sadly regained an extra bedroom in my home due to my daughter leaving for college. So I have been setting up a small craft space to share with her when she comes home for visits. I have my Cricut set up and I am loving it.

I'm also really interested in the new Cricut Maker. How many of you have that? I'd be interested in checking it out.

For now... here are a few signs that I've been working on now that my Cricut is all set up.

Which is your favorite?

Not related to Cricut... Here is another sign I made that I'm loving. I have access to some great equipment at my job. We have laser etchers so the lettering on this is engraved.  

Tell me what you think!

How do you feel about the font craze? FREE FONTS.

Happy 2017! How are all you Cricut Crafters out there? Enjoying the new year?

I've been doing a lot of work in my shop and at work lately. But due to some medical issues it looks like I may be at home a lot more than I'd like to be. However... that does give me a lot more time to get back to my Cricut classes.

So lets get started with something simple. I can't make it up the stairs right now to get on my Cricut. But I can play with Design Space and do some design work.

Today I was looking up a font for some specific projects. Recently I've taped into Creative Market and I'm loving some of the fonts they have available. Today I downloaded this cool new font. You can click on the link below to get it for yourself.

Butdoh Font

What do you think? I'm really liking it. Here are a few more I've gotten from other places, as well as some quick files I made with them.  

Butdoh

MF I Love Glitter

Arrow Crafter

Boboiboy Newyork

I don't know about you... but I'm absolutely loving using my Cricut Explore with Design Space. Being able to get all these cool fonts without having to buy a cartridge is amazing. The design capabilities are just awesome. 

I have found lots of great fonts on some different sites. Some free... some paid. It all depends on what you are looking for. Some sites to check out to get you started are:

DaFont.com

Fonts.com

CreativeMarket

This is one of the great font bundles from Creative Market.

affiliate link

I can't wait till I can get back upstairs and start cutting some of these out for some sign art I have planned. See you soon!

*Angie*

Cricut Expression 2 - Beyond The Basics (Part 1)

I've been looking forward to today for a while (It's Wednesday evening right now).  A couple of weeks ago I had planned a "Cricut Day" with some friends. We all planned to bring our Cricuts and I was going to share some tips and tricks with them. So yesterday I went through and refreshed my memory on all the functions of the Expression 2. My friend Sherry got an E2 for Christmas. She's such a sweet lady. I knew it was going to be a good time. 

Yesterday was funny. I'm going through all the functions and I start getting excited remembering how much it can do even without Craft Room. I was like a little kid. So today... we got together and started cutting. I introduced them to Cricut Craft Room and shared with them the Free cuts of the week. They loved it! They aren't really big on computers so it may be a while before they use CCR... but they loved everything about it. 

We had a limited amount of time and I did end up spending way too much time with customer support. One of the girls had an Expression that was frozen up so I ended up calling and they walked me through getting it going. While I hated being on the phone... I am glad that they have a great support that was able to get her machine up and running again. But because of all that... I didn't really end up having enough time to get pictures of the things we cut. I got one. LOL

My good friend Sherry brought some vinyl and wanted to decorate her E2. We designed this in Craft Room. We used Gypsy Font for the lettering and we used Cindy Lou and for the flower. We welded these together to make it all cut out as one image. After this we cut two more flowers from Cindy Lou and put them on the grey sides. We also cut some cute images from Create A Critter and the Free Images of the week. Those hearts are super cute. 

We cut some more vinyl on the Expression using Birthday Bash and Pet Shop. I didn't get a pic of this on the vehicle but this is what we cut. 

It's pretty simple. She cut the fonts out in this really great metallic creamy color and the pugs out of black and put them on her back car window. It turned out super cute. A bit big... but still super cute. 

Here's something really cool. I have the Cricut monthly subscription. And while I already owned Create A Critter... EVERYTHING else we cut out today was either from the subscription or from the Free weekly cut. That's just amazing to me. I love it. Absolutely LOVE that!!!

Well... I started telling you most of this story not only to share the few projects we made. But also to let you know I created a quick video last night as well. We covered the Basics in my first three CE2 videos. So now it's time to go Beyond the Basics. Below you will find Part 1. We cover page 1 of the "tools" button. I'll be adding more videos covering the next pages over the next few days. So make sure you subscribe to my channel and follow along. 

Happy Crafting!

How To Calibrate Your Cricut Expression 2

YEAH! It's Friday!!!! Anybody have any awesome plans scheduled for this weekend? It's going to cold here in Southern Indiana so all my plans are going to be indoors. Well… except for Sunday. We are going to a Super Bowl party/surprise birthday party. That should be fun. 

Well.. I had a question posted on one of my YouTube videos so I thought it was easier to do a super quick video and show you how. I know I had to think about it when asked. She asked how to calibrate the Cricut Expression 2. And if she wondered… and I had to think about it… I figured there are others that would like to know as well. So…. Here we go….

Quick and Easy….

1) Turn on your machine.

2) Tap on the circle button in the top right hand corner that looks like a wrench. This is your tools settings.

3) Below the circle buttons there will be two arrow. Click on the one pointing to the right. You will tap through four times till you get to the last page. 

4) In the top right hand corner there is a rectangle with a plus sign in it and a stylus/pen. Click on this button. 

5) Follow the on screen instructions.

The End! Your machine is now calibrated. I would do this anytime you've moved the machine a lot or if it's been sitting for an extended amount of time. 

Pretty easy right? Well… If you are more of a visual learner… here's your video. It's barely over a minute long. Hope this helps. 

Cricut Crash! Boom! Pow! - This weeks free images

Crash! Boom! Pow!

Here are this weeks FREE images. When I seen them I immediately thought of my son. He is six and is all about all the superheroes. Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Hulk... all of them! 

Aren't these cupcake toppers great!
Click the image below to create these in Design Space. 

Then I did a search on Pinterest. I found some cute ideas. 

The link on this one was gone. But I still thought it was worth sharing. 

 This one looks like a lot of fun too. No web page but click on the pic to link to the creators Pinterest Board. 

And again... I mentioned my son loves super heroes. So this one is one of my favorites. I found it on the Cricut Projects page. Click on the image for more details. 

Oh... do you remember last weeks Free Images... Movie Night? You can still create with those today. This is your last chance. AND... Even better... you can go to Cricut Design Space and someone has already create a file for you. Everything is laid out. All you have to do is open the file and click Make It Now. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THAT!!!

Click Here! And MAKE IT NOW!

Happy Crafting! Lets see what you can make today!