I'll Never Buy Another Font Cartridge Again

Yes, you read that right. I'll never buy another font cartridge for my Cricut ever again, because I can now use any font I have on my computer and my Cricut will cut it. I know you want to know how, so I'm going to tell you. Girl Genius hooked me up with this software called Sure Cuts A Lot and it is A-Mazing.

I cut that vinyl in the picture above with the software, and then I put it on my minivan. I know. 

Mattie Cake asked me that same question. She said "Who puts that on their car??????"

Freaks like me, that's who.

I used to have the Creative Memories logo on my van with all my contact info, but I'm thinking I might stop doing the Creative Memories thing this summer. Plus, the web address was out of date so it had to come off. And in the interest of being able to find my van in a parking lot full of mini vans, I needed something on mine that will enable me to find it quickly when I forget where I park. Because I do that on a regular basis. I have navigation issues.

Anyway, I'm thinking that no one else is going to put Control Freak on their mini van, so I'm pretty safe.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What I really want to show you is that Janae not only hooked me up with this cool software, but she taught me how to cut vinyl on my Cricut. And I went a little crazy.

I've been cutting vinyl for my classroom. It's perfect for the titles on my white boards. I loooooove it.

I even put my name outside my classroom door. I. LOVE. IT.

Next I want to cut some vinyl sayings to put around my house. I'm thinking "PICK UP YOUR CRAP!" is going to be first.

Would that be too tacky?

Seriously. I feel I should warn you though, that this software might not be for you. Before you buy it, go and read this blah blah about how it could void your warranty and stuff. It's too late for me, because I've already used it, but I haven't had any problems with it and my Cricut did not blow up, so I'm a believer. I'm the kind of person that jumps first and asks questions later though.

Reckless. Impatient. Naughty.

Probably not the best example. Most definitely not qualified to give you Cricut advice. 

Of course Cricut doesn't want you to buy the software because then they can't sell their $70 font cartridges to you. I'm thinking four Cricut font cartridges cost about the same as a new Cricut though, right? And I've already used two different fonts off my computer, so I've already saved half the cost of the money I would need to replace my Cricut if it should happen to blow up because I used the not-Cricut software.

I like to rationalize.

Has anyone else used this software? Does anyone have any words of caution about using it? I'd love to hear what experiences other people have had with it, so leave a comment if you have something to share.

Or if you just want to tell me how stooooooopid I am for using the not-Cricut software.
NOTE: Here's a link a just found with some excellent money-saving Cricut tips.

Cherry Coffee Cake

If you're on a diet, you don't want to stick around for this, I promise you. It'll only mess up all your hard work, and I'd feel awful about that.

But then I'd have this cake to console myself with, so I'd get over it quick enough.

If you need to whip something together to take to a party, or if you just want a treat, you might want to give this recipe a try. It's one of my go to recipes, and the best part is that I can make it with stuff that I normally keep in my pantry.

Here's what you need to make the cake: 1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 C flour, 1 pkg. yeast (or 2-1/4 tsp.), warm water, 2 eggs, 1 can cherry pie filling, 1/3 C cold butter, 1 C powdered sugar, and 1 T corn syrup.

Now I realize that my pantry might not look like your pantry. Take my Mama Llama for instance. Whenever I go visit her, if I want to make a treat, any treat, I have to go to the store to buy every blinking thing in the recipe. She's so granola crunchy, she doesn't keep any white flour in the house at all, and the small amount of sugar she does have is all melded together into a small sugar brick. Plus everything is organic. Not that that's a bad thing.

I should eat like her. At my Mama Llama's house, if I want a little wheat germ or flax seed snack, I can have a part-aaaaay and invite the whole neighborhood over, but chocolate chip cookies? Forget it.

Hey Mama Llama, this cake's for you. It has no nutritional value whatsoever. Just empty calories. Sweet, sweet, empty calories.

You could probably count the cherry pie filling as a fruit serving though. It was fruit once.

Here's the recipe card. Enjoy!

Crafty Storage for Small Things

I recently had an a-ha moment, and I just had to share it with you. This picture is the end result, but I need to back up and show you why I even had to go there. 

This. These raggedy boxes of decks of cards make me CUH-razy. 

Am I alone here? Anyone? We talked about this, you know. We were going to start that club. We were going to call it Freaks of the World Unite? Remember?

Dang it. I'm so lonely.

Anyway, as I was saying, my monsters don't take the time to put the cards away properly because they don't fit right, or they can't get the lid in, or the box is falling apart, blah, blah, blah.

These are the kinds of things that, if I wasn't such a control freak, would drive me to drink.

This game was my inspiration. Have you ever played it? It's a blast. It's only about $5 and you can pick it up at Wal Mart. It's super easy to play, and, maybe I shouldn't admit this, but Stinkerbell kicks my butt every time I play with her. Girlfriend is a maniac and she thinks a lot quicker than her Mama does. That, and I'm easily distracted.

Anyway, when I bought this game I thought to myself "Brilliant! Why can't all card games come in a durable tin like this?"

And that excited inquiry withered on my lips until six months later when I was able to connect the dots and exclaim to myself, because no one in this house listens to me, "Hey, wait a minute! I can make my own ding dang card tins."

So I gathered all the miscellaneous tins I already had, and then I bought a few more from Oriental Trading Company, and I set to work.

For some of the tins, I just cut the card boxes apart and repurposed them on my new box. Because I'm so green and all.

Then I slopped some Modge Podge on the tin, slapped the box piece on, and finally slopped some more Modge Podge over that. They're nothing special, but they do the trick.

In retrospect I think I should have added some nice scrapbook paper as well, and maybe even a little ribbon.

Nah. These babies are going to school and I'm sure they're going to take a beating, so I think I'll just keep them rustic.

The Go Fish box is staying home, so I will allow it to be cute. Because I'm all about the cute.

I also have a couple boxes on the right that I have birthday candles stored in. They come in raggedy boxes too, you know, and they shouldn't have to forego the cute, right?

The possibilities are endless, really. What would you store in them? Talk to me.