| Bakes, Books And My Boys

Introducing the Cricut Maker

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

My quest to organise and personalise our home has taken a huge leap recently because the lovely people at Cricut have sent me their latest machine to review! The new Cricut Maker!

I’ve been a huge fan of Cricut for years now since I discovered the Cricut (pronounced cricket) mini 5 years ago! Between that and the Cricut Explore I haven't bought a card and have created none stop beautiful projects from summery flowery wreaths to creating 20 personalised t-shirts for my schools PTA group and summer fayre!

Whats the difference?

So with having these two on my desk and being moved almost weekly up to my mums and back again what can the all new Cricut Maker do that my older Cricut cant…Well the main one for us is the fact that this wonderful model can cut fabric! My mum is a huge patchwork maker and leap up in shouts of delight when she discovered this. Although difficult pieces which are so hand to cut cleanly can now be cut by machine. My excitement comes in that this can also cut leather!! Oh my goodness I cannot wait to start on this! The most gorgeous earrings and jewellery can be created by this – I’ll will show how to jazz up your outfit in seconds in a post next month with Cricut! The storage whole on the side has two different depths so no hunting around at the bottom of the hole for blades or pen lids.

Design

The machine design I have to say puts everything else in my craft room to shame. The beautiful brushed rose gold lid is really just a glorious shout out to its luxury. The whole finish to the machine top quality, the lines are sleek and smooth and the slow touch open and close. The tools that are included and the extras are also of not to be found on the high street quality. I rather ashamedly am very precious with my older Cricut tools and use them in my clothes sewing! That storage I mentioned on the side? The bottom of each of those holders has a soft base so you don’t damage or blunt your tools.

What can it cut

So most importantly what can be cut with the new Cricut Maker?

Cardstock
Fabric
Art board
Felt – yes! Felt flower accessories here I come!
Foil & Metal – even my dad got excited by this one.
Foam
Iron On
Leather
Plastic
Vinyl
Wood – yes really!
LOTS OF OTHER STUFF!!!!

Another handy thing I noticed on the new machine was that the Smart Dial was no longer to select the material. Instead this is all chosen in the Cricut Design App to ensure less errors! The caught my interest hugely – why? Well the machine comes with over 240 material settings. That left me more than a little stunned but glancing through this I noticed that the machine will not only cut balsa wood (there's a design to make simple aeroplanes) but also silk gauze, which my scissors have caught and shredded countless times. I just have to assure you here that the 3 blades are used across these materials and watching them cut is like poetry in motion – the blade cut the silk like a hot knife through butter and it didn’t catch! So if you’re anything like us and leave homework projects to the last minute this is ideal for creating masterpieces out of even Cereal boxes – yup there's a preset for that! However if its 11 o clock and you’re desperate for bed the wonderful fail safe automatic preset cut works wonders on most of these!

Latest Technology

This new machine is also a thinking a machine! While you can use your normal computer and the Cricut Design space from that you can also use your phone or device to cut through the Cricut design space app! As you can see your device sits in nicely on the special groove and it also lets your scroll through ideas from the comfort or your phone (or bed) without having to power up your computer.

The Cricut Maker as I mentioned before has a huge ability for different tools. Some come as standard with the machine but there's added extras out there which offer up endless ideas and creations. There is a variety of different pens, embossing tools and different blades one of which is their new Rotary blade for the softer flexible fabrics on their new list like silk, denim, cotton and canvas.

Projects

With all of this you can imagine my excitement about what can be done around the house. With the Cricut Maker I can tackle the most amazing projects, just look at my Pinterest for some ideas but they range from Home Décor, Sewing Patterns, Quilting, Fashion, Jewelley, Kids Crafts, Party supplies & decorations, Handmade bespoke cards and invitations and notes, Organisation and well I should leave you a little to find out yourself.

Included with your cricut maker is a selection of materials to make your very first project to help your get over those new machine nerves but also they include 50 Free Projects. Theres something in this range for everyone! Just download the Cricut Design Space and start searching! I’ve rather fallen in love with their Martha Stewart collaborations.

My final thoughts

I just love Cricut and this machine has really just sent my ideas totally crazy. The big thing for me and my household is the new rotary blade and the washable pen. This does the painful boring work which has stopped many sewing and quilting projects from me and reopened up a whole new world of crafting again. My mum is planning on taking it to her quilting club as the machine is so easy to use and turns out such high quality pieces each time it’s a dream for all creators as any level! From the very first basics and stepping out in the crafting world to the hardened crafters who like my mum have been creating cards and clothing and accessories for over 40 years!

ravensburger

Gardenings World Puzzle

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

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Thursday, March 07, 2019

Review

My Living World Bird Feeder

Friday, March 01, 2019

We’ve just finished the Great Bird Watch in January and the boys are very into encouraging wildlife in to the garden at the moment. Spring is the perfect time for this and our trees outside are full of birds hunting around. Perfect timing for being set the My Living World Window Bird Feeder to review.

The set itself is a great simple little set which takes minutes to put together. My 8-year-old managed it with a little extra help from me. The age range is 5+ but I suspect that’s more due to smaller parts for the set in case you want to wall mount it rather than window. It’s a great set for all the ranges of the family, we’ve had siblings, friends, parents, grandparents and great grand parents all watching the feeder – even some family pets!

Once the set is put together its simple to put up where you want it. We chose the lounge window as its further away from where the cats and dogs play and gives us a great viewing over morning coffee.

The actual set doesn’t come with any bird feed, but the booklet included recommends a variety in the range many of which can be picked up at your local supermarket. The boys were really interested in reading that different foods attracted different birds.

The booklet which comes with the set is superb for telling the children and family more about what birds you’re likely to see in your garden, how to maintain the kit – they have religiously taken not on the calendar when to bring it down and wash it to ensure no spreading of disease. The booklet also as well states that it could take a little while for the birds to start using it as they need to get used to it first. It took our garden birds about four days to come and brave the seeds inside.

We love the one way mirror it includes to ensure the birds are disturbed by faces appearing on the other side of their new food, but we might have to move it to a smaller window soon as I cant imagine what they think when they see the boys, cats and dogs all with their noses pressed up against the glass to watch!

For such a simple kit the My Living World bird feeder has provided so much fun and excitement! Its really aided the boys in showing an interest in the garden birds and how we can help them.

Book Review

Sew Beautiful Quilted Bags

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Earlier this month we were sent a book to test our sewing skills out on. I’ve been an off and on again sewer since my teens and jumped at the chance to try out a new quilting book. The book is Sew Beautiful Quilted Bags by Akemi Shibata. It’s a gorgeous book full off different styles of quilting and applique and a huge range of different bag styles.

I have to say the range grabbed my attention immediately more so than the quilting since most books have the standard easy shopper bag and then different styles on that. This however is filled with a diverse range of 28 beautiful and useful bags to hand quilt and make your own and in your own style.

We decided to make a simple Flower Pochette….

We followed the instructions but did struggle in a couple of places with how they had been written. Its worth paying attention to the commas in the book – b and b, are in fact two separate different shapes not an odd gramma usage. I suspect this more down to a translation difference than anything else as the rest of the book has clear instructions.

We tweaked a couple of the instructions – we made the front as one complete piece rather than two separates due more to a lack of fabric! One of the things we did like about the book and patterns were that were easy to tweak to your own style of sewing.

The Pochette was made over the space of a week and embroidered and quilted in the evenings while watching tv. It’s a superb way of destressing and keeping your mind occupied without causing your brain to be overly stretched.

The patterns are copied off using either pattern paper, thin paper or tracing paper – depending on your personal preference and there’s a handy/envelope for you to store them in later.

While the styles are simple and the instructions are easy to follow I would say that some knowledge of sewing and quilting is needed. It’s a superb book to gift someone who enjoys sewing and quilting. The results are very unique and different to many other handbag book projects out there. The handles in the book are mainly bought ones and I would have liked to see more of these in the book.

The book covers bags which aren’t just sewing but cover hand quilting, applique, embroidery and bead work. Techniques such as button covering and finishing techniques, and different stitches are in the back and are a handy and a lovely addition. I’d definitely recommend having one in your house!