Cricut Mat Tip & New Necklace

I wanted to share a tip for the Cricut mat that I haven't seen anywhere else. I am sure others have done this, too, but I trimmed the top and bottom of my mat so I can insert it in all four directions. It makes some projects sooo much easier, & it prolongs the life of the mat.

Provo Craft recommends 30 to 50 cuts for each mat. I have one and have used it hundreds of times. And I going to keep using it until I wear a hole in it! I spray it with a quilt basting spray every hundred cuts or so, to keep it sticky. I also clean it with baby wipes when it gets fuzzy. But I think most everyone knows those tips.

I trimmed the bottom (shown below) just under the numbers, &, yes, I know my trimming is kinda squiggly *smile*. The top I trimmed to the middle of the arrow. Whatever fits best on your machine though.

I also finished a new necklace with white and silver marbled beads...

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend was a busy one. I finished the necklaces and gift bags for my mom and mother-in-law. (See previous post for the gift bag SVG).

The gift bag below is modeled after these pictures on Flickr by Imalrl.

I also made 35 boxes and lemon bars for a bake sale for church. These are cupcake boxes from the Box Font by Holly at Scentials.com. Well worth the $10 for the font.
I hope everyone else had a good Mother's Day Weekend, too!

ScrappyDew Tutorial

Thanks to Rob over at ScrappyDew.com for another great Inkscape/ SCAL tutorial!

I designed a gift bag to cut in SCAL, and it kept cutting the lines twice. I hadn't seen this happen before in anything else I made, so I needed help solving the problem. I sent a tutorial request to ScrappyDew. I also posted a message on the SCAL message board, because I really didn't think they'd actually make a tutorial! Well, both places are great, and I had two answers within the hour. And Rob was also kind enough to post a tutorial to show us exactly how do clean up those lines.

The tutorial can be viewed on YouTube:

ScrappyDew Tutorial

Download the GiftBag.SVG.