Finally opened my Cricut Cake

My mom came to visit me last Thursday. She mentioned she had made my brother a big cookie for his birthday and needed to be home in time to decorate it. So I introduced her to my Cricut Cake.

I've had the machine awhile now but haven't found the time to open it other than to get the DVD out to watch. BAD "acting." Really bad. So I got the DVD back out for my mom and made her watch it. Ha ha!

Finally we got the machine out and started playing. First lesson: the instruction manual says to apply a "generous" amount of shortening to the mat. Oh not so. The fondant slid everywhere. Note to self: grease the mat like I'd grease a loaf pan... The other biggest lesson was how thin to roll the fondant on the counter before transferring it onto the mat. It took some trial and error...but the conclusion we came to was to try to get the general shape we needed on the counter about 1/4" thick, transfer, and then do the majority of the rolling on the mat.

I let the pieces we cut dry for about an hour on my counter and then sent them home with my mom (sandwiched between waxpaper and cardboard) to "glue" them on to the cookie with the frosting I also sent her home with. Here's the final product (minus the piece my brother ate before my SIL had a chance to take the picture):



I've got a few more cakes on my calendar so I hope to have my new toy out again soon.

Ladybug mini album

I LOVE this album that I finished last week! Isn't the ladybug soooo cute??? All the girls on my husband's side of the family are really into ladybugs...so of course my daughter and I are too. This book was made for my MIL and all of the pictures are of my daughter in her various ladybug outfits since she was born.

I had been thinking of doing this album for quite some time but hadn't yet because my original plan was to design my own cut pattern by tracing a ladybug image in KNK Studio Element. I was having trouble finding an image I liked...the cutest I could find was the cover of one of my daughter's books and I thought maybe I could use it as a guide. But then I came across myscrapchick.com and considering the time/cost ratio, I went ahead and bought the pattern. Modifying it only by adding the rectangle on the side for the binding, I cut it out using my Klic-n-Kut. I also cut cereal boxes and sandwiched them in between cardstock to make the covers more sturdy. In retrospect, I needed to have done that for the face too and will probably end up switching it out. The antenna and bottom of the face hang over the body slightly and are already getting bent. I used pop dots to make the face stand out from the body. I almost always try to get as many pictures as I can on a page so I used an Exacto knife to trim them to the shape of the body where needed. I chose to use daisies, ladybugs, and paisleys for embellishments because they are my MIL's favorites.









Details:
- cereal boxes sandwiched between cardstock for covers
- 2 pieces of cardstock glued together per page
- all cardstock is from The Paper Studio
- ladybug ladybug - Cricut Nursery Rhymes cartridge
- daisies - Marvy punches 1" and 1/2" (punch two and then glue together offset)
- paisleys - Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge
- daisy border - EK Success Daisy Chain (cut apart for individual ones)
- ladybug punch - Miss Elizabeth's (punch one red and one black; cut the head off and a V in the back of the red one; then glue together and use pen to make dots)
- ladybug flight path - Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge
- Bind-it-all with 5/8" red comb (used Crop-a-dile to punch holes - see video here)
- red and black satin ribbon and red grosgrain ribbon with black dots (used a lighter to burn the ends to prevent fraying)
- pink chalk for blush on cheeks and black chalk around edges of red and face on covers