The China Album

Congratulations to our friends, Andy and Amy Jo, who adopted a little girl in March! While they were in China to get Anna, they wrote an incredible blog of their experiences and posted lots of fabulous pictures. I decided to create an album for them after reading their first few posts and worked feverishly those couple of weeks while there were there to try to get it all done by the time they got home. Yah...that didn't happen...ha! I can certainly be crazy sometimes and have been known to occasionally pull an all-nighter to get a project done....but this turned out to be a very detailed project that eventually took me six months to complete, including two weekend scrapbooking retreats. I was so incredibly happy to finally be able to present it to them at the end of September.

Scrapbooking a blog was alot of fun because all of the journaling had already been done and the pictures were ready to go. I copied the text from the website and pasted it into one large MSWord file. For each page, I tried to figure out the best layout for the pictures and then formatted the journaling into text boxes in MSWord to fit around the pictures. Some posts there was ALOT of text so it was a real challenge to get it all to fit...had to tweak line spacing, font size, and/or margins. And then there were some posts that were short and with no pictures....so I combined those with other postings in a layout. I really like using wallet sized prints so that I can fit more pictures into a layout, especially for an 8x8 album. The size I get when I have them printed at Sam's Club is 2.5 x 3.5 inches. The other perk to wallets (printed at Sam's) is that you get two pictures for the price of one! I made most of the embellishments with my Cricut and punches. That was not my intention when I first started, but I like the nice, clean style of die cuts so I went with it. I am really happy with the final result. So without further ado...


There's a shadow on the front window because I took all of these pictures outside...so here's a closeup.

The black frame is dry embossed using one of the Cuttlebug Oriental Weave folders.


I wanted to find a way to incorporate some of Andy and Amy Jo's facebook postings as well. Surprisingly, it took alot of internet image searching to find a nice, pretty map of China that showed all three cities they visited, which I used Stickles glitter glue to highlight. The photo is from our church directory.

This is the page that really got me going with the Cricut. I love the picture of them in the rickshaw!

This 3 page layout is one of my favorites. Incredible picture of them in front of the Great Wall!






This is one of my favorite layouts!! I love love love these pictures!



This one was alot of fun to make!



This is my favorite layout. It's a continuation of the "We left as a family of 3..." layout in the beginning. The picture is one they posted on Facebook.

I love this picture of the two kids!



Supplies:
Martha Stewart Arch Lattice border punch
Martha Stewart 3 dot punch around the page
Martha Stewart lattice punch around the page
Cuttlebug Oriental Weave and Moroccan Screen embossing folders
EK Success border punches: scrolls and dots, diamond lace, American Girl stars
Stickles yellow, fruit punch, and stardust
Cricut cartridges used: Pagoda, Stone Script, Superman, Elegant Cakes, Holiday Cakes, Cake Basics, Home Accents, Spongebob, Designer's Calendar, Stand and Salute and some I don't remember

Whew! I am so happy to have it finally finished and given to such a wonderful family. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Talk to you again soon!

If you would like to see the original blog, here is the address: http://www.youbelong.net/theadams

Spongebob cake

For my nephew's 4th birthday...



This was my first real attempt at using the new Cricut Cake machine to decorate a cake. I had the vision for this cake in my head for months, but it didn't turn out quite as I had planned. I knew that there would be some learning curve to this (I had used the machine once before), but was hoping it wouldn't take all day like it actually did.

First lesson...fondant or gum paste? And what is the difference anyway? Here's the best answer I found: "The simple answer is that you use fondant to cover a cake and you use gum paste to make flowers and bows." Mmmm....okay...I have always used fondant before for making all of my decorations. And if memory serves me, that's what Wilton taught in the class I took....wow...12 years ago (geez I feel old now). Well the machine did not cut Spongebob out of fondant well at all...not like it did the last time I used the machine. It was way too soft and pulled like taffy when the blade went through it, a big part of that probably being the 1,000% humidity that day. So I researched online a little more and found that "you can make your fondant act more like gum paste by kneeding in about a cup of gum paste mix into a pound of rolled fondant. This will make it dry harder than it would normally." First I tried mixing in confectioner's sugar to stiffen it up a bit and offset the humidity. That worked okay, but the blade still pulled it like taffy and didn't get crisp cuts. Attempt number two was adding Gumtex in. That really made it dry and instead of pulling like taffy, it broke when it was pulled during kneading....which is another difference between fondant and gum paste that I found while I was researching online. I thought I was on the right track and did get some good cuts, but not enough. More internet research led me to Tylose powder, which I had never heard of before. It's a fine powder that you can work into fondant to make a quick transition to gum paste. Well it is not available at Michael's or Hobby Lobby or even our local cake store....scratch that idea. I had to run out for an errand anyway, so my next move was to use my trusty old 40% off Michael's coupon to buy a bag of Wilton ready made gum paste. There was even a big sticker on the bag that said, "Perfect for digital cutting machines!" It took a while getting used to working with it, but it did cut better.





Lesson number two was about size and reasonable expectations for this new machine. Let me just start by saying that I KNEW going into this that the licensed cartridges (Cars, Sesame Street, Superman, etc) are always soooo detailed that there are usually six layers and extremely small cuts. However, I had not used a licensed cartridge before (even to cut paper) to know the complexity of such things. I love to paper piece...but gum paste piecing is sooo much different. I knew that I needed to make the characters large so I started with 4 inches. I didn't want a shadow behind my characters, but I did need just a plain base on which to start layering. After some trial and error, I finally figured out that I needed to make the plain base 1/2" bigger than layer cuts. There were some itty bitty pieces of Spongebob that I knew just weren't going to make it, but the most frustrating pieces (and ultimately what caused me to give up on him) were his arms. Each time, the blade just kept pulling and moving the pieces around on the mat and his arms ended up too skinny and short. I tried bumping up the size to 6", but same problem. (He would've been totally disproportionate to the pineapple anyway). I did finally get Gary done at 6" because he had simple enough pieces (and that's cool because Gary is who my nephew loves the most anyway!). Unfortunately he never made it to the cake though because he did not have enough time to dry and harden.






(I forgot to take a picture of him the day of the party, so this is a few days later after he'd had a chance to dry and my 17 mo old nephew had gotten to hold him.)

Using the Cake Basics cartridge, I made the lettering last (at the end of an exhausting day so they are not exactly the best). The humidity was lower in the evening and the gum paste had gotten a little dry (throwing it in the microwave was not helping it very much either). I was determined to not waste what I had though so the letters and flowers came out a little rough along the edges.



Luckily I had already shopped for Plan "C" (the figurines) the previous week just in case. Of course Spongebob is getting harder and harder to find now so I was limited to these figurines at Toys 'R Us.

The pineapple was made by stacking 4 six inch rounds and using the center column from one of my cake plate sets for support. I freehanded the windows and doors from fondant. The two large pieces of the pineapple crown were cut from the cartridge, but the single leaves were freehanded.

Hopefully the next cake will go smoother now that I'm further along the learning curve.... I still think the Spongebob cake turned out well and a certain little four year old boy loved it...which is all that really mattered.

Happy birthday, Griffin. Love, Super Cool Aunt Jenn

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