I wanted to share the project I made using the Spring Fever Holiday Cartridge that comes with the Cricut Expression 2 bundle. I was inspired by this cart to create a tween themed wall tile. I love YA books and read them all. So for this design I used the bleeding heart tattoo looking cut to represent The Twilight Series and the dragon to represent the Millennium / Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series. I am forever a tween myself and love celebrating a good read!

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5 and on the Lovely Lula Facebook page.

The DVR is killing me. I record everything now. Feeling a little spoiled when I go to watch a show and can’t fast forward through commercials because it isn’t recorded and HGTV is my obsession. If the short people don’t interrupt and ask for a show of their own. I often watch Design on a Dime and mock a little because really some of their projects are just ugly. So I thought why not show a simple way to make a painting for your bare walls that is fun and functional and not splatter paint!

I took an inexpensive canvas from the art supply store and treated it with layers to make a great piece of art.

1. I started by painting the canvas all one color using acrylic paint, allow it to dry fully.

2. I spray painted a loose spotty paint over top in a contrasting color.

3. I used my Cricut to cut letters out of sticker vinyl (in this case I used Birds on Parade Cartridge) I laid those letter down on top of the canvas and dabbed a third color of paint over top, this time a lighter color, covering the letters, I allowed this to dry and then peeled the letters off to revel the color underneath.

4. I then used the YUDU to screen printed several sheets of card stock using a hand drawn patterns. I used those screen printed sheets to cut a large rose shape on the Cricut using the Sophie Cartridge, which is a Cricut Circle exclusive.

5. I flipped the rose shape upside down and lightly spray painted a dusting of black onto the canvas.

6. I flipped the rose over with the screen printing facing out and I added a few pieces of the vinyl that had been removed, to different areas on the canvas.

7. Finally I used shellac to hold the whole thing in place.

Allow to dry and you are done with a great piece of art to hang on your wall!

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5 and on Face Book under the Lovely Lula page.

I found a simple but inspiring square galvanized metal for that was screaming to become a planter box. I knew I wanted to play with the Cricut® Autumn Celebrations Cartridge for this one because there was a fun Day of the Dead* image on it. I cut the layers of of the skull image out of different colors of vinyl on my Cricut. Once those layers were in place I edged the metal box with masking tape that has a black background and glow in the dark dots. I enhanced the dots with the YUDU glow in the dark ink. I then used Ranger Inkssentials Enamel Accentsin black and white to dot the rest of the image. I allowed it to fully dry and then placed a miniature pepper plant inside.

I also made a greeting card out of the extra pieces. I like to cut several of the shapes incase soemthing happens in the cutting and that way I have extras to make cards out of. Here is the card, it also has glow in the dark ink on it:

Happy crafting xoxo Cyndi aka Lovely Lula Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

*Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

I started this weeks project with pieces of burlap that I had peeled off of another reclaimed project I am working on and I thought why not make use of these scraps of two toned burlap? I also just sewed a new shower curtain for my girls bathroom and the curtain that was in there was a simple canvas one. So again I thought this can be used and off to the studio I went.

I used the burlap to wrap around a green Styrofoam wreath form that I actually picked up at the dollar store. I then used my Cricut and the Simply Scarecrow Cartridge to cut out the”Happy Harvest”, the leaves and a corn stalk onto black paper and used those to burned them onto a YUDU screen.

I screen printed onto that canvas shower curtain by taking brown, orange and tan ink and swirling it on the screen so that when I used the squeegee to pull the ink through it would variegate the colors to look like a mixed fall pallet. I frayed the edges of the burlap and the canvas to give the whole thing a rustic look.

I finished it off by adding a golden rod yellow ribbon at the top, a tiny piece of burlap and finished it  with a tiny screen printed leaf at the loop that will hang on the wreath holder that goes over my door.

Happy Fall! Happy Harvest! Happy Crafting! Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

I have been on a cleaning streak since the short one went off to Kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. I happened upon a drawer of VCR tapes I was holding on to. I knew I had to let them go and thought why not make a project out of them instead of just tossing them. So I made a vintage looking purse using a double case and the outer paper from My Fair Lady. I love it!

For the purple background I used Bazzill Basics Metallic paper and ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Peacock from the Animal Prints Embossing folder set.  For the female silhouette I used the “My Fair Lady” outer paper box, flattened, along with pink Bazzill Basic paper. I readied the papers onto mats and then used the Cricut Art Nouveau Cartridge to cut out the silhouettes.

The handle was created by braiding the actual VCR tape and using E-600 glue to attach to the sides. I finished it off by gluing down black and white striped ribbon along the edge and spray painting the inside of the box white.

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

Today we welcome guest artist erin k. bailey a.k.a ekb* She is an artist & a DJ, visit her at ekb*

In her words:

I have been a long time fan of Amy Winehouse, and was so sad to hear of her passing. I had been working with cut paper designs, and I decided to attempt to do her portrait to honor her life and music in my own way. I used one of the frame designs for the background on the Songbird Cartridge for its vintage feel, because much of her music and style was influenced by artists from the 50’s and 60’s. I hand cut Amy’s portrait during a 4 day, labor of love cut-a-thon.

My other art pieces can be view at ekb* or find me on Facebook and if you are curious about the music I mix visit ekb* over at Sound Cloud for free downloads!

SUPPLIES:

-Bazzill Basics card stock paper
-Starry paper is from a “its my party” short stack by Christy Lyle
-Cricut Songbird Cartridge
-YES Paste

art information:

-12”x12” canvas
-Title: “back to blue” tribute to Amy Winehouse

ekb* also created a self portrait that she is now using as her banner using the Cricut and the Space Party Cartridge for the back ground. She hand cut the paper of her portrait- super cool!

The other day I was at a grocery store and saw a display for Halloween Candy and thought “whoa it’s way too early for that!” I went home and thought more about it and the desire for Halloween, my favorite holiday, crept in. So I too surrendered, with the full knowledge that it’s still just August but why not start making goodies for Halloween? So with the new Cricut Hello Thursday Chic and Scary Cartridge I grabbed my Cricut vinyl in Raven Black, black T-Shirt yarn and an old beat up piece of barn wood and created a “BEWARE” sign. I love it and I love when I can make things that are both Chic and Scary!

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

I had a great time visiting my local dollar store. I was immediately attracted to a turnstile filled with blue and white nautical looking scarves. I also found blue, white and red undies and thought hey why not make it a total project runway moment! So I used the fabric from the undies and the lace trim. I backed the fabric with wonder under and cut the snail on the Cricut using the Give A Hoot Cartridge and the house using the Heritage Cartridge.

Happy crafting xoxo Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

All this back to school talk got me thinking. I head back to school next week too, I teach at Arizona State University and thought – I want a fun new notebook. So I grabbed a plain black spiral bound notebook and went at it. Used glitter paper and pink masking tape. I also used pink card stock and ran it through my Cuttlebug with the skull and cross bones embossing folder included in the Happy Hauntings set. The pink skull on top is also cut on the the Cuttlebug using the Beware Die.

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

I am just back from a wonderful Summer vacation, road tripping up the coast of California. At every beach the short one collected shells. Now back home I thought “okay so what do I do with the shells now?” I remembered I still had an Ester basket around that I had been meaning to re-purpose. So I grabbed the basket and spray painted it aqua blue, and then wrapped it with a band of lawn chair webbing. I cut shells and the phrase “Sun, Sand, Sea” out of sand colored paper using my Cricut and the Creative Memories Travelers Cartridge*. I attached the paper to the front of the basket, loaded in the shells and boom – a perfect Summer memory basket.

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

*This cartridge is available exclusively through Creative Memories shop.