My first Brownie badge! Shoe box dolls house

I love making things and love a challenge. A few weeks ago my manager at work asked if I wanted to help her with a task they were doing at Brownies to make a dolls house out of shoe boxes. I was more than happy to help and she delivered the shoe box house to my car and that evening my mind went into overdrive thinking of all the things I had in my craft room and what I could turn them into for a dolls house. 

The shoe box house was made up of two boxes on top of each other and a lid at the side. I decided I'd make the side the entrance door, the bottom box a kitchen and living room, and the top floor a bedroom. 

The first room I started on was the kitchen as I used a Debbi Moore CD which had a 3D kitchen card box, by manipulating the graphics I was able to make a wooden floor, and 3D shelves. I then made a kitchen unit and glued it in place. I then went off on a tangent and made a vase and flowers from some beads I had and glued this to the kitchen units.

For the living room I just covered the walls using some DoCrafts scrapbook paper that had a wallpaper like print then made a sofa using my Crafters Companion Big Score board. The sofa was made up of 4 small boxes; the largest for the main body and seat, 2 identical small squares for the arms and a long thin box for the sofa back. I covered these with patterned paper then glued them together with my glue gun (so they dried quickly and firmly)

The light in this room was a mirror ball Christmas decoration (Rachel gave me it with the shoe boxes and said about using it as a light)

I then set to work on the bedroom. The wallpaper was some lovely Kaisercraft scrapbook paper with a poppy design. I made the bed by making a rectangular box, then made the headboard and bottom using a wrought iron shape with my Cricut Explore, but as I wanted it solid  I manipulated it so I only had the main outline. I cut two of the headboard and bottom so I could glue the card together to make it stronger. I got my sewing machine out and made a little duvet and pillows from Tilda fabric squares in my stash. For the duvet I put some wadding inbetween to give it a nice feel, and stuffed the pillows with toy stuffing.

I then made a set of drawers and used Craftwork candi as the knobs.

For the light I used some white glitter card wrapped round a circle to make a cylinder, edged it with a thin piece of paper that matched the wallpaper and glued some tigertail wire (from my jewellery making stash) for it to hang from.

My Cricut really came in handy with this project as I found a curtain shape with I used in each room and for the windows themselves I printed a countryside scene onto a4 and cut out views for the bedroom and downstairs. 

I showed my friend at work and she asked where the toilet was so I decided to add in a bathroom by the front door. As this was going to be in the lid I couldn't really use anything 3D as it would stick out so I found a picture of a toilet and sink, imported them into Cricut Design Space and used the print and cut feature. These were then stuck to the wall and I added in a toilet roll made of white ribbon wrapped round a paper clip (so it looked like a toilet roll holder) and some fabric wrapped over a paper clip (to look like a towel).

To separate the toilet from the entrance I made a partition using a thin piece of card.

I'm so please with how it turned out and so was Rachel. I earned a toy maker badge for my help which was lovely as I only went to brownies once and hated it as they were making straw dolls and o couldn't get the hang of it and I was confused about it all. I'd been to rainbows previously but didn't like that as it was just a lot of running round (which isn't great when you have Muscular Dystrophy).

The shoebox dolls house now has now gone to a good home, a colleague at works daughter now has it to play with which is lovely.

I always wanted a dolls house and a great uncle made one for me but died shortly after and his daughter decided she wanted to keep it so I never got it so it was lovely doing this and if I had the space I would love to get a dolls house and decorate it properly. 

Floral Earphone Case

My friend at work asked me the other day if I could make her an earphone case for her Mum for Mothers Day. I've had a busy run up to Mothers Day having to make 4 cards inbetween decorating a shoebox dolls house and housework. 

I had a look on Pinterest for inspiration as I was originall going to make a fabric envelope type thing, but found a circular zip case which looked cute. It was from the blog Dog Under My Desk. Luckily I had a dark green zip (which I had brought by mistake thinking it was black online) and looking in my fabric stash I had some lovely Tilda squares of green flowery material. 

I love how it turned out but wish I could have stitched all the way round the case to finish it off but the layers plus the zip were really thick so I couldn't top stitch over the zip end. 

Star Birthday Card

This card was made with my Cricut Explorer with Hunkydory papers. I love how this turned out, great for males and females birthday cards. I'm really loving the drawing function and added in a faux stitch by using a lot of hypens and rotating them for the two sides. 

Adoption Card

My husbads Mum and Step-Dad have fostered a boy for a few years now and today the adoption has gone through so I made this card. It's really hard to find a verse for this type of occasion so I ended up making one myself while drying my hair yesterday. 

I used a free SVG from Sure Cuts A Lot for the puzzle, it was 3 x 3 but it wouldn't fit so I rearranged it to make 3 x 2. I used coredinations card stock for the puzzle. The text was written using the Cricut Explore.

This Years Valentines Card

Here is this years valentines card which I made for my husband. I cut a card blank using my Cricut Explore and used the writing feature to add the text at the same time. I then cut out a heart and covered it in red buttons (I've got a huge bag full!)

The card is quite heavy so has to be opened quite a lot to make it stand up.

Update the review for the Cricut Explore

I've now had my Cricut Explore for 2 months nearly and have had a chance to use a number of functions so I thought I'd post an updated review, especially given the fact Cricut have now announced a new Cricut Explore (although from what I've seen it just makes it wireless without needed a wireless adaptor, so not much difference.)

Firstly I have actually used this Cricut more than I used my Cricut Mini as the cuts are far superior. Even though it's bigger, I like the fact I can make it wireless so I've got more space on my desk when cutting.

I had a few issues when I first got it due to the mat being bent but having contacted Provocraft they kindly sent me out a replacement (actually 2 new mats!) after I gave them proof of purchase and my machine serial number. Brilliant customer service! 

I also ordered the heavy duty and lighter mats along with a scoring tool from a shop on eBay but after waiting 2 weeks it never turned up so they kindly sent out a replacement but had no more scoring tools (these seem to be hard to get hold of) but I managed to get one via Amazon.

I've not really read any guides or instructions for the Cricut Explore and here are a few things I have learnt while using it:

- When cutting Crafters Companion Centura Pearl card it won't cut cleanly on the cardstock or cardstock+ setting however on the glitter cardstock setting it does it perfectly as it does a double cut (ie it cuts once then goes over again)

- For print and cut items there is a maximum size for cutting depending on the web browser you're using. I found this out as I printed Donald Ducks boat out for a card so it was around A5 size, it printed fine, I put it in the Cricut and it scanned the lines then said it was finished and didn't cut anything out! On searching I found this http://content.provocraft.com/b/pdfs/explore_manual/10thingstoknow.pdf

- When adding text there is a filter to show only 'handwriting' styles of text so that when using a pen in your Cricut it won't just do an outline. There is a little triangle at the top of the text box and you can choose 'has a writing style' and then all the fonts which have an option to just do a line style font will show (this blog has a great section on it http://www.withglitteringeyes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/alternative-handwriting-fonts-for.html)

I'm still learning new things while using the Cricut and managed to cut a cardblank, add in text on the front and back, then I crafted as normal and it gave a brilliant result. 

I also used the writing font to address an envelope and it looked so cool although I found that it didn't finish off an 'O' and instead left it like a 'C' which was odd so I had to write it in myself.

Talking of the pens, I have tried a few pens out now as I didn't particularly like the Cricut pen which came with the machine as you could see where the pen started and finished each letter. I also tried Crayola fine line pens which worked a bit better than the Cricut pen (and were only £2.50 for 10) 

However the best pens I've used so far have been Pilot V5 Needlepoint Liquid Ink Rollerball Pens. I brought 3 for £4.50 on Amazon and they fit perfectly and write lovely (see the heart card earlier in this post for an example). Although colours are limited in these I don't find a need for any other colours. It might be nice to have a white, silver or gold maybe to write on black card, but not necessary really. I used the pens on Centura Pearl and was wary that the ink may be wet, but it dried almost instantly (I would say instantly actually but I didn't touch it until it came out the machine)

I'm looking forward to cutting some fabric at some point in it and will post the results on here. I'm so glad I brought this, you certainly get what you pay for! I've got rid of my Big Shot and all my dies now as this does an amazing job and with the Cricut subscription I have access to so many images and cuts PLUS I can add in my own images to cut, the possibilities are endless. 

Vinyl Phone Case Decoration

Both my sister and I have Griffin Survivor iPhone cases as we always drop them (on the floor or in water) but they look boring and we wanted to jazz them up a bit. I used the silver vinyl from the Cricut Explore starter set and chose a Little Mermaid text design for mine from a Cricut cartridge, and my sister had a Tinkerbell silhouette I uploaded myself. 

The designs stuck well for the first day but then started moving and letters started coming off mine, and the wand on Laura's Tinkerbell moved too. I think it's due to the material used for the phone case as it's not got a completely smooth surface. I think a stronger vinyl may work better or if I used the vinyl as a stencil and then painted through it. Vinyl sticks fine to other phone cases, I just think our cases that have a problem with the vinyl.