Christmas in July # 7 - charger plate

Hello!!  Sorry I missed yesterday, I was so busy with work and then it was so nice and cool I decided to bake muffins last night to stock my freezer.  Then when it gets hot again I have a quick breakfast ready to go, especially when school starts back up!  Only 18 days!!

So, here is the last project for my Christmas in July week - and although I say it's my last project I still have a couple more cards to share this week :)  Once I started with Christmas it seems I couldn't stop!

 Last year after Christmas, Walmart had these charger plates in red, green and gold marked down to 25 cents!!  I totally stocked up and have an entire tote full ready to be altered!  And I know most people use vinyl when altering the charger plates, but I am either out or I just can't find it in my mess, so I used cardstock.

I started with the center image.  I knew I wanted to use an angel and I knew I wanted to use A Quilted Christmas.  It's the cartridge I chose when I signed up for Cricut Circle and I never got around to using it yet.

I started by measuring the inner circle of my charger (8.25") and made a circle in CCR using Cricut Craft Room Basics.  This way I could layer the angel over the top to get a better sizing instead of having to imagine it - because I am ALWAYS wrong when I try to do that  LOL.  Then I went to A Quilted Christmas and using the silhouette feature, I chose the angel located on button 24.  I started with 7 1/2" and adjusted the size on my circle till I was happy.  I ended up with the angel sized at 6.833" and cut it out of black cardstock.

Then I started on the words to go around the edge of the charger.

I started by measuring the space from the edge to where it starts to dip down - 2".  Based on this, I knew I wanted my letters to be 1 1/2 inches, and I knew what I wanted it to say, I just didn't know what font to use.

Recently, I discovered the text feature in CCR.  OMG this makes finding a font on my cartridges SO MUCH EASIER!!! It used to be that I would type a letter into the image search and just go through them all - what a pain in the hiney!   If you click on text, then add a new text box, a box will pop up on your virtual mat.  You type in the phrase you want to cut out and then just click on the cartridges in the drop down menu.  It will change your font as you click on them so you can see exactly what your phrase will look like!  I love it!!

So by doing this, I came across this wonderful font on the Nursery Rhyme cartridge.  Honestly, I didn't even know this cart had a font!  I thought it was perfect for what I wanted and cut my words out with black cardstock.

I glued all of my cuts/words down with a liquid quick dry glue and I thought I was done.  But my husband said it was too plain and it "needed something, maybe some color or something".  So back I went to CCR looking through my Christmas themed cartridges.  I stumbled on the Christmas flower and the holly berry on the Joys of the Season cartridge.  I played with the sizes until they would fit the space I needed and cut them out.  I added some chunky gold glitter to the center of the flower and added some spots of red glitter in between each of the words.

I was pretty happy with the end result and got a thumbs up from the hubs  :-)

BTW - Christmas is only 150 days away!!!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

Linking to:  Little Scrap Pieces

Poinsettia Gift Box - Christmas in July # 4

Hi Everyone!  Welcome to project # 4 in my Christmas in July week!

Today I have a little gift box to share with you.  Going back to using the cartridges I don't use very often, I pulled out Garden Soup and Joys of the Season cartridges.

I cut this cute little hexagon box from the Garden Soup cartridge.  It's found under button 41, honeycomb layer. I cut it at 9 inches, fit to page with red cardstock.  I measured the sides and cut 6 pieces of pattern paper 1 1/2 x 2 with my paper trimmer.

Then I found a basic hexagon to go on the top under button 35.  I used CCR to layer it over the top of the box image to get the perfect size.  It came out to 3.292 x 2.819.  The pattern paper is from My Mind's Eye, Sweater Weather, 6 x 6 pad.  The stamp on the front is from a Fiskars stamp set called Seasons Greetings and I stamped it with red ink onto kraft cardstock and fussy cut it out.

The poinsettia is cut from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  It's under button 38, the layer feature.  I used CCR hide option to hide the berries and only cut the petals.  The bottom 2 layers are cut at 2 3/4" and the top 2 layers are cut at 1 3/4".  I used a quick dry liquid glue to attach them all together in the center.  I curled the petals with a pencil and inked the petal edges with New England Ivy.  Then I added some more liquid glue to the middle and poured some chunky gold glitter for the center of the flower.  I adhered it to the top of the box with liquid glue as well.

To finish it off I added a magnet closure to the flap and the front panel to keep it closed.

I hope you enjoyed todays Christmas project!  Have a wonderful day!!