Bug's 3rd Birthday

My son just had his third birthday a few weeks ago, and we had a Cars birthday party, since that is his all-time favorite movie. I made Lightening McQueen invitations using the Cricut Cars and Alphalicious cartridges.

I started by cutting some 4.5 x 3.5" rectangles out of a light brown paper (for the dirt), 4.5 x 3" rectangles out of light blue (for the sky), and some 4 x 3.5" rectangles out of black (the road). To make the road more dimensional, I used a pencil and marked the edge of each sheet .5" in from either side of the top edge. I then used my paper trimmer to cut from the pencil mark on the top to the bottom corner. To make the center lines, I used a ruler and my American Crafts White Galaxy Marker.

I cut McQueen at 2", and since I used the image that was facing straight forward, it wasn't too terrible to put together. I embossed his wheels with black metallic embossing powder to give them a shine (plus it shows up better against the black background!). "It's a Party" was cut from the Alphalicious cartridge at about 2.5".

For the inside, I used my Hobby Lobby "You're Invited" stamp for the details of the party. This is where the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig comes in really handy, because with this particular stamp, I have trouble stamping it straight! To use the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, you take the plastic sheet that came with it, line it up in the corner of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, ink your stamp, and slide the top corner of the stamp down the corner of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. The cool thing about this tool is that you can use it right OR left handed!

After you've stamped the plastic sheet (smooth side for water-based inks, textured side for pigment and dye inks), lay it over your paper where you want to stamp. Holding down the plastic sheet, put your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig back at the top left-hand corner (or right if you're a lefty). Once it's lined up, remove the plastic sheet while holding down the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig - you don't want it to move!

While holding your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig still, take your stamp (re-ink it if necessary) and slide it down the corner and side of the tool, and viola! you've stamped it straight (providing it was lined up straight! That's hard to do sometimes!)!

I hope you've enjoyed my little tutorial. I regret that I couldn't post earlier than this, but we have been busy with his birthday, family visiting, and other activities! I hope you have a great day!

Cars Birthday Card

My son loves the movie Cars. There isn't a week that goes by that we don't watch both movies! I decided several months ago that it would be a good idea to invest in the Cars Cricut cartridge. To be honest, it hasn't gotten much use yet, so I took advantage of the fact that we were going to the birthday party of one of his little buddies and made a Lightening McQueen card.

I began with a solid blue sheet, and used one of the embossing folders from Cuttlebug's Oriental Weave set. I then took one of my Prima Cold Ice chalk edger and lightly ran it over the top of the page. I had a few uneven spots. Okay, maybe more than a few spots! I need some practice.

I then set out to cutting all the pieces to Lightening McQueen. Now, if you've never made a cut from the Disney or Pixar carts, let me warn you: there are a LOT of pieces, and many of them are very small. Because of the size of some of these pieces, I wouldn't recommend cutting the Cars characters at a very small size. I believe I cut McQueen at 3 3/4", and I even ended loosing one of my pieces because they were so small. Look at all those pieces!

Before I started putting him together, I took the wheels and stamped them with my VersaMark embossing ink pad (I have a tiny one that is really useful for this!), and used my Zing! black glitter finish embossing powder to add some texture to them. The brown mat you see in the picture is a great tool to have if you do a lot of stamping and embossing. It's the Ranger Non-Stick Craft Sheet, and not even embossing ink or powder sticks to it. I still had some flakes of embossing powder on the sheet when I heat embossed the tires, and they still came right off the sheet with a baby wipe!

I used my Xyrons to make the pieces sticky. I have the 5" and the 1 1/2" machines, and used both for this project. The 1 1/2" Xyron is really useful for those tiny pieces.

I felt the card wasn't quite complete, so I used some Inkadinkado clear stamp letters to stamp the name in the upper left hand corner. The ink I used was Memento's Tuxedo Black. 

On the inside of the card, I put the "Start Your Engines" cut, and stamped "for a happy birthday," again with the Tuxedo Black ink. The stamps came from Stampabilities "Everyday Expressions" clear stamp set. This is a neat set because all the words are separate, so you can make your own phrases!

Thank you for visiting with me today! I hope you like Cars as much as my son does, because he is having a Cars birthday party next month, so I will have some posts about his invitations and party decorations!

Hope you have a blessed day!