Thanks to random.org, the lucky winner is Christeen!! Please contact me at swoonpaper@gmail.com to claim your prize. Thank you to everyone who entered and for sharing your hilarious stories-I LOVED it!
You might remember that one time a while back when I decided to give away a year's worth of happy mail to one lucky reader. Well, I finally got around to sending month one about a week ago (apologies Madaline)! I will be sending along a few of my favorite things each month from here on out.
Up first is anything and everything by the lovely Rifle Paper Co. (have you seen these iPhone cases yet?!) I've had last years Rifle calendar tucked away for some time now because I just couldn't bear to part with it. I knew I wanted to make a few things out of the illustrated pages, but I also couldn't bear the thought of cutting into it, changing my mind, or worse yet, messing up and wasting it.
Enter in the genius machine that is the Cricut. If you asked me a few months ago if I would ever own a Cricut, the answer would be no. I don't scrapbook. Nope, not a scrapper. For some reason that's what I've always associated this machine with. But, when Cricut asked if I would like to try one, I decided to give it a go. Now I'm wondering why I've been cutting things by hand all of these years?! I've discovered that for me, the Cricut is perfect for making one of a kind packaging and party decor. The shapes come out perfect and take far less time than cutting everything by hand.
So, for this month's happy mail I combined my love for Rifle, packaging and paper by whipping up a few things from the calendar using my new machine. I also included one of my favorite notebooks-they look so pretty stacked up on a desk or in your purse.
Using the machine to cut out a few gift tags was surprisingly easy. I also cut out several sunburst shapes and stitched them together to make a sweet little garland. I gathered a little bit of embroidery floss to use with the gift tags and wrapped it all up. I really hope you loved opening your package Madaline!
Lucky for you, in addition to letting me try their product, Cricut is going to give away a Cricut Mini to one lucky reader! The mini is a portable, compact machine that is designed to plug directly into your computer. Along with the machine you will receive access to over 500 free images, read more about it here.
To enter to win, simply comment on this post and tell me your worst crafting fail (because I really love hearing those stories!). The contest will close at midnight (PST) on Thursday, June 6th, 2013. Winner will be announced at the top of this post on Friday, June 7th. Good luck!
Thank you Cricut for being so generous and for making happy mail a little happier! It's been a pleasure to work with you ;)
I'd love to win one! I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, but I think I would you this! My worst crafting fail, many. I think it's when I tried to make a tote bag with stretch denim, bad bad idea.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED my package! Thanks so much! I immediately recognized Rifle Paper! Yay! for being a paper nerd!
ReplyDeleteWorst crafting fail -- my big idea to make pillows...my big idea to make Christmas shirts for me and the siblings...my big idea to make and sell bath salts?! Did you know that the bath salts gets hard as a rock if it sits for just a day...yea...nobody bought any.
My question first - does the Cricut also cut fabric??? I could certainly use it for that! Worst failure (quilting, not crafting) was couching wool yarn onto a bed quilt...guess what happened when it was laundered! Yep, it shrunk up gathers into the quilt, making it look like an old lady. I had to cut the yarn every 2", then cover the spaces with another similar, but non-wool, non-shrinking yarn. Turned out great, but I would have saved myself a lot of time!
ReplyDeleteLove your circle bunting! Beautiful! My worst crafting fail is when I tried to make a house shape out of fabric and washi tape on my wall. Took me hours, and after my daughter woke from her nap she pulled it down within minutes. Lol. What WAS I thinking?!
ReplyDeleteMy worst crafting fail... How 'bout I just mention my most recent which involved my attempt (with the help of my mom) to sew a cover for my tablet. It was my first time sewing in quite some time and I didn't calculate the seam allowances quite right, and ignored my mom's help since I was confident I was doing I correctly. Needless to say, the first attempt was much to small and I had to add extra fabric so it looked like a mess.
ReplyDeleteWorst crafting fail-- word of advice, don't ever put stray pins in your mouth when sewing!! Ever! Crazy happenstances where you are bumped and pins end up through your lip are not old wives tales! I ended up in the ER. Not a happy crafter I can tell you!
ReplyDeleteMost PAINFUL crafting fail - the Exacto knife slipping out of my hand and stabbing me in the upper thigh. I was wearing my favorite white jeans.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a scrapbooker either. However, I do make my own greeting cards, party and celebration decorations and love to wrap pretty packages. I'd love to see what the Cricut is all about. Thanks Randi and Cricut for this opportunity!
My worst crafting fail was an accordion-fold card for my nephew's sixth birthday. I was horrified when I realized I had created a 666 card! :)
ReplyDeleteHere it is: http://www.rachelswartley.com/2010/11/19/the-evil-birthday-card/
My worst crafting fail - trying make bottle cap necklaces. It was hard to get the liquid glue to dry nicely without bubbling up the paper.
ReplyDeleteI tried making a cloth doll for my daughter one Christmas. I worked late into Christmas morning to finish the doll. my daughter was excited but after an hour of play or so the doll began to fall apart. apparently i used the wrong type of fabric. we tried to fix the doll several times but it was pretty much a goner.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a few days before my wedding, and I was working on my bouquet. I was using dried Billie balls (I spray painted them orange) and then used ostrich feathers i was hot gluing onto felt strips and then cutting them off the feather and then i hot glued them under the bouquet to hide the underneath part. I was a nervous wreck attempting to finish things, and wasn't sleep well so I got up around 3am and got back to work. Before I knew it I had hot glued some of my long locks onto the felt in two places.... I had to cut it out... 3 days before the big day.
ReplyDeleteBiggest crafting fail...It was 1 am on my birthday and I cut out fabric letters that spelled "I'm the big sister" to iron/sew on a t-shirt for my daughter to wear to our baby-gender-reveal-it's-also-my-birthday party. I did the tedious sewing required. She wore the shirt for about an hour.
ReplyDeleteI washed it and they fell off. I told myself I was going to sew them back on but ultimately pregnancy brain/body too over and it never happened. :)
Love that botanical calendar and the paper garland!
Randi I love your ideas. My worst crafting fail was a sweater I knitted completely, but never got sewn together because I didn't know how to block it. Ginger White
ReplyDeleteMy worst crafting fail? HA! Which one? :) My biggest fail happened sewing. I didn't notice that my bobbin had run out of thread and I kept "sewing" happily removing all the carefully place pins along the way not even noticing that I hadn't actually sewed anything!
ReplyDeleteMy worst crafting fail would have to be when I forgot to sew the lining closed in the bag/purse I made for a friend. Soon after she had lipstick,pens, and keys, disappearing from her bag..she brought it back claiming there was definitely something wrong! Her bag was stealing her belongings!
ReplyDeleteThis would be so awesome to win!
ReplyDeleteMy worst crafting fail would have to be my backdrop for my wedding, I wanted an all white wedding with different textures and I decided to string marshmallows on fishing line! So I spent endless hours, weeks doing it. I was doing all the prepping in Idaho and was getting married in California. After the long 14 hr drive I pulled out my beautiful fun back-drop which turned into the biggest ball of marshmallows, they got so tangled that I ended up throwing it all away! So sad!
I guess my most embarrassing craft fail....would be the time I was hosting a baby shower. I always get brilliant ideas when I do host, I feel as if I'm Martha. I mean, I get them but when tried to carry out, I am infact NOT Martha. Failure sometimes ensues. :D So anyway I followed the steps from Martha Stewart. Three easy steps. I bought the streamer rolls of paper she said to use. I got it in the mail. I then painted the cutest big polka dots on some. I was proud. If only I knew how barbaric it would be to hang them. I never factored in the air speed streaming out of the air ducts in the large room. I never factored how I would hang them on the tall ceilings, my arms were punched in the face, literally. And I never factored in kids. It was Ca-RAZY!
ReplyDeleteThey were hung. They were wonky, and waving at the guest when they arrived. Half way through a kid decided to run through my work of art that took me half my life to hang. It was left hanging by a thread. At the time, I did not find this funny at ALL, it was quite embarrassing. Not the fact the kid ripped it...but the fact at how wonky they looked. Now looking back I find it funny. I tried. Tried REALLY hard. Anyway, you see, I would love to win a Cricut so I could try this really sweet garland, that I probably could make in "three TRUELY easy" steps. YES! Please! :D
I forgot to add it was a backdrop made from streamer paper rolls. Not the actual streamers. :D
DeleteI'd love to have one of these as I work to stretch out of my noncrafting comfort zone and take on some projects for some "me" time - inspired by pinterest and instagram! My worst crafting fail is current and related to the sewing machine - I'm trying to teach myself how to use it, and failing over and over and over again. I will not give up, but I am nowhere close yet. :)
ReplyDeleteMy biggest craft fail...would have to be a birthday cake I was making for my little one. It was one of those barbie ones. Didn't make it big enough or the right shape...had to take apart the barbie...it was interesting. That is just one of many craft fails in my day!
ReplyDelete