a baby shower via cricut

this post is all about the love I have for my cricut.

(the craft cutter, not the bug)

I still have fond memories of the summer of 2009 when I finally became the proud owner of my own cricut machine. My friend Brandy had one, and that summer her machine came to live at my house. She still had full custody, it was just here visiting since we did a TON of layouts together over the summer. I had just given birth to baby #2 in May, and within just a few weeks I'd already mastered the art of nursing-baby-on-boppy-in-lap-while-your-hands-are-free-to-make-scrapbook-layouts.

Was that TMI?

sorry.

moving on...

It was so bright and shiny and pretty and...it cut things.

As in, I'd never have to buy letter stickers again,

or ANY kind of sticker for that matter, because now this machine could make it for me. And in any color/pattern that I wanted. It was also a LOT easier to use than I'd expected, seeing as how it had all those buttons and whatnot. (the instructional dvd, while a bit boring, did help quite a bit. My son even watched the 'cricut movie' with me, but was unimpressed. ah well...)

At the end of the summer, I used a bit of my salary from teaching at a theatre summer camp and I became the proud owner of my own cricut expression.

We are still BFF, although I'm sure she's felt a bit neglected lately.

Not much time for her since adding baby #3 to our clan, but I'd like to show you a few things I made for a baby shower a few months back.

meet my friend, Courtney

she was a bridesmaid in my wedding, so you might remember her from the pics in this post. anywho-

she was preggo last year with a sweet babe named Lucy, so 2 other gals and myself threw a little shindig for Courtney and her babe at my casa.

Here's what my entryway looked like-

and here's a closer peek at some of the things my cricut made-

I'd have to say that by far, my fave cartridge is the Child's year. That's where that cute silhouette of the babe in the high chair came from.

I also made a few silhouettes and 'L's for Lucy and put them in the hutch in my dining room-

more silhouettes and onesies on a clothesline in the living room-

oh how I love those onesies. They're on the New Arrival cartridge, fyi. I even made one with Lucy's name on it-

how cute would it be to have one of those with your kiddos name on it in a frame in their room?

SO cute.

yep.

here's a closer look at a few of the silhouettes. I changed out the background colors to make them a bit more boyish for another shower more recently-

a close-up of the girly onesies,

and some boy onesies.

And fyi- I used the 'fit to page' option on my cricut to make these babies as large as they could be from a 12 x 12 piece of paper.

I've also made some cute monograms-

(this is a fancy L, just in case you're not sure. I wasn't even sure I'd cut the right letter at first, but I guess I'm just not that fancy.)

and you may recall these from my Halloween decor from last year-

here's something else I made for the shower-

how cute are these kiddies??

And how cute would a ton of these precious silhoeuttes be all over the walls of a nursery?

very.

little preggo ladies cut out using the New Arrival cartridge, and a tiny little onesie

and of course, when I originally purchased it, I thought I'd use the cricut the most for scrapbooking-

you'll probably need a minute to compose yourself after laughing at my ginormous belly in these pics. Just warning you.

the lettering on all of the above layouts was done on my trusty lil cricut. So glad to finally let her show what she can do- I do believe this is the first I've ever posted about her.

and yes, my cricut is a 'her'.

I can just tell.

Anyone else out there have love for their craft cutter?

I'm linking today with Serenity Now's I heart my craft cutter party,

so if you'd like to see more ideas/crafts using things that were cut with a machine- check it out!

**also linked to Craftomanic Monday
 Made by you Monday at Skip to my Lou
 Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got
 Today's Creative Blog Get Your Craft On
 Tip me Tuesday at Tip Junkie
 Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff
 Talent Tuesday at Vintage Wanna Bee
 Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello
 Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
 the Wednesday link party at Lil Luna
Creative Share Wednesdays at the Trendy Treehouse
Anything Goes party at Type A
Show and Tell Wednesday with Blue Cricket Design