How To Make Your Cricut Cutting Mat Sticky Again

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CRICUT BOARD STICKY AGAIN

During my darkest moments in some serious frustration with borrowing my church's cricut machine and trying to figure out how on Earth to use it, realizing the main problem was the board not being sticky enough, I realized, wait, there HAS to be a cheap solution for this...

I wanted to throw the thing. The paper kept slipping and the blade was cutting through all my precious tags for MaddiandAddiBowtique.etsy.com but you know, you can't break what ain't yours, and you shouldn't ruin your things either...

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CRICUT BOARD STICKY AGAIN

A basic swagbuck search popped up a lot of different options (Gotta earn those free Starbucks gift cards through swagbucks, link below). One I like best was using Spray Adhesive.




It's so simple, you don't even need pitcures. I even have safe Amazon links for you to click and buy. I'm that good.

Take your board (whatever brand you use, I hear there are a few), cover the frame: the non sticky part around the sticky part. It's important. The rollers go over this part and you don't want the rollers getting sticky stuff on them. I used scotch tape and regretted it, but it's all I had. You can use painting tape, or even cover it with paper.

Spray the adhesive spray around the board. Not too much in one spot (and remember, when it wears off you can always reapply more). If you spray too much in one spot, your paper will really stick. Learn from my experience. ;)  I sprayed the board I use right there on the floor. It isn't messy if you're careful. Easy Peasy.

LET IT DRY completely. It's not sticky until it dries.

Remove your tape and enjoy!






Swagbucks link: swagbucks.com/refer/JenniBrenni
It's a simple, easy way to do some basic polls and surveys to earn free gift cards to your favorite places!

***I'm part of the Amazon Associate Program. If you click on the safe amazon link and buy that item, I get a small percentage, and isn't that nice?!***

Carson's Lego Birthday

Here I am posting a little late about Carson's Birthday.
It was pretty good. Super stressful, but worth it in the end.

Plates on the wall: Party City, taped together

Streamers: Party City

Cupcakes: Me

Lego Heads on Cupcakes: Melted Wilton yellow chocolate on mini pretzel sticks

Bunting: Walmart or you can convo MaddiandAddiBowtique.etsy.com and have me make you a fabric one that you can hang on your kid's wall after!

 

Part of the goody bags included these handmade lego notepads that Jeanine basically made for me. I also had the party hats as part because they are a lot to do, and are really special. Big Candy bars were also involved. I didn't have enough time to get legos and bag those up, too. BOO to that.

Kayt decorated the sugar cutout cookies. I ate them all.

 

Keep in mind that I am NOT a photographer and I have is a phone camera.

Birthday boy!

 

 

 

He's already 2!

Munchkin Straws[Amazon Link] !

Who doesn't need these? Perfect for cleaning sippy cup, tumbler cups, and every other little reusable straw you have.
I can't believe I just discovered them.

P.S., I'm part of the amazon associate program. If you click on the link and buy this product, I get paid! :)

Via: Amazon

How To Make Lego Invitations

 

My little boy is turning 2 on September 18! I'm pretty excited and boy does time fly. 

We are having a lego party for him because let's face it: *I* love legos. We were thinking about Thomas the Tank but we really just don't like the message the show sends to kids.

I used the cricut to make these. I bought the primary color card-stock paper at Walmart.
 Since he is 2, we are making the little "2" brick for invitations. 

I  don't have the shapes cartridge (actually everything is borrowed, cricut and a ton of cartridges), so I used the "Jasmine" cartridge for the rectangle, and I set it to 6". I was able to get 3 rectangles per sheet, if the sheet and machine cooperated together...

I flipped the paper and put in the "Accent Essentials" cartridge and pushed shift and one of the extravagant little circles, making it a plain old circle. I set those to 2 1/2" and got 8 out of the leftover paper. THEN, I was like "oh, these look like big legos" and was able to use the hole-y side for decorations! 

I hot-glued those circles down on the same color rectangle to give it a raised effect, and BOOM, a lego invitation. 

I still have to print off the details, but I'm just going to glue that to the back.

I looked for simple "lego" stickers, but was unable to find them. If I had, I was going to stick them to the tops of the circles to make them look legitimate.

jennibrenni.blogspot.com

jennibrenni.blogspot.com

jennibrenni.blogspot.com

AND there you have it! EASY DIY lego invitations!

Tutu Baby Shower Invitations

So, the long awaited post on the invitations for my baby shower, a year ago.
Don't judge me.

The invitations were made with glittery card stock, a onsie cookie cutter, and a printer.
The extra stuff included satin for the tutu, hot glue & gun, sticky rhinestones, pearls on a string and some flower appliques. Not to mention a lot of time.

My friend figure out how many invitations could be printed out on one page through a lot of trial and error. We cut them up and glued the tutus on, the pearls, and flowers.

Then we added some fluff! We had a huge variety of different looking invitations and a little variety of thank you notes.

 Feel free to ask me questions! I love them!

My Favorite Headband/Bow Holder Tutorials {Links}

I have been busy making hairbows and headbands and all this D.I.Y. stuff and I wanted to give credit to where my inspiration comes from. I dislike taking credit for doing things when they aren't my idea. I'll be blogging pages with links in them to share with my friends where these things came from!

Firstly, these are by far my most favorite tutorials for headband and hair bow holders! I altered mine(and I'll blog about those later) to the way I liked them and how they'd work best for me.

Photo from: The Paro Post

 I loved this one because you can put everything on it. And it's pink, so that's a plus. For the tutorial, click here.

Photo from: *lyssa beth*

 These headband holders are perfect for Sehara and I, they suck for Madeline. Preferably, if the headband is open, these are great. If not, you have to pull one over all of them and it just ruins my whole day. Presentation is almost everything and this is maj! For the tutorial, click here!

Photo from: Simply Modern Mom

 This one is for open headbands, as well. I love it because it's simple and cute and that's fine with me. For the tutorial, click here.

Photo from: tinkerwiththis

I can't even talk about this one, because it's simply stunning. Not only is it gorgeous, but it's PERFECT for baby headbands. The clothes pins are the best way to hand up Madeline's headbands. When I go to pick one out, I look at the width of the headband, and what it is made out of (along with the color, and whether it's a bow or flower, blah blah) and the clothes pin allows me to actually see that. I haven't made this one yet, it's definitely on my list though. For this amazing tutorial, click here!

A Bit of Humor

Maybe dry humor, but funny to me!! I lay awake a lot and funny things pop in my head. I'd like to share them.
Enjoy! :)

Stylish Wants

Chanel-SPRING-2012-RTW-podium-024_runway

Kardashian Madformetallics jacket

Chanel Spring 2012

Here is the link to my Stylish wants of Jan.  Sorry for the double posts! I do know that they get annoying... :)

Pin It

Quite frankly, I'm an amateur when it comes to graphic design, but if I don't try it, then I'll never get better. I have ambitions to get better, so I'm going to try it. My first one had too many flaws. The colors weren't appropriate and didn't allow the words to pop like they should. Unreadable, almost. This one is simple, yet, better.

Really, these are designed for Pinterest, to get my blog out there more.  I'm trying to get more experience with it, more hits on my page, so I can prove to myself that I can be successful allowing me to take the next step, because honestly, thinking about putting myself out there for a lot larger population is kind of scary.  You people love me, and tell me the truth in a way I can handle and correct it. 

Do you have a Pinterest account? It's so lovely. You just browse pins other people pin and repin them if you like it.  If you're on a website and you think there are things other people would enjoy, you pin it. Anything from photography to architecture to DIY crafts and recipes. Let me know if you want an invite, and leave your email address in a comment (or privately) and I'll send one.

Fun Random One Liners part 1

I like that whenever I'm packing a few extra pounds, people always say to me, "You're so confident!". Which, I am...

I am so conceited.  I know I'm pretty, or, cute.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm the Beholder, Hooker.

My name is Jenni, not Jenn-AY.  Thank you, Forrest Gump.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I threw a paper ball at the person standing at pulpit. WHAT WOULD HE DO?

There are times that I don't really have one clear thought pattern.  During those times I like to go on Pinterest and "like" whatever I like.  Then, I go back and look at them...you should try it. Insight...

Not only do I think I'm hilarious, I kinda know it.
Actually, the more I read my stuff, the more I laugh!!

WA BAM


Facebook favorites:

No, not creepy at all when you wake at negative 4 a.m. and find your baby staring at you with a huge smile. How am I coherent enough to write this?

We call him Wilbur.

Carson is really struggling to go back to sleep. I think he needs my help! I think he needs for me to lay down with him and shut my eyes, too!!

I don't know why Tim acts surprised everytime he catches me picking my nose... I don't say anything to him.

Carson doesn't like his toes to be popped. Who doesn't like having their toes popped?! This is crazy to me. Come to think of it, Sehara and Tim don't like it either..