You say it's your bird day....

Recently, a friend sent me a link to the Maya Road Design team site. On it, I found an adorable Valentine project. You can view the original by clicking on this link. My version is shown here. I don't own all (or possibly any) of the supplies they used, but I was inspired to make my own version, which I'll share with you.

Of course I used my Cricut. The heart is from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The bird is my own design. I did a rough sketch of the one on the Maya Road site, and using Inkscape created an .svg file to use with Sure Cuts A Lot. I liked it so much that I did a couple of variations of the bird as well. You can download the files here. The usual restrictions apply - please leave me a comment if you download, and please do not share the files on any bulletin boards or groups. Instead, please post a link to this blog so that others may visit.

All stamps used are from Stampin' Up. Alpha stickers are from Karen Foster Design.

Butterflies are free (no, really!)

Although I live in the south where we have a relatively mild Winter, I'm still in the mood for a taste of Springtime and I imagine most of you are too.
For Christmas, my dear husband bought me the Sure Cuts a Lot software I had been gently hinting that I wanted. I'd been afraid to use it for about a month - how silly! I joined a great SCAL group on Yahoo, and before long I found myself downloading Inkscape (thanks to Dan's amazing tutorials!) and trying my hand at creating my own cut files for the Cricut. This is the result.
There are two different butterfly cut files - get the solid butterfly here and the lacy butterfly here. (The lacy butterfly cuts better if you use a slower speed and a thicker paper. )
I haven't had a lot of time to play with these pretty creatures, but my mind is going a mile a minute with all of the possibilities. I cut them from patterned paper, but you could stamp on solid colored cardstock before or after cutting. They'd be pretty embossed, flocked, glittered, jewelled... I'd love to see what you come up with!
If you would like to download these files, they are offered free of charge with a few restrictions and requests. Please leave me a comment if you download the files. And please, please don't share the files on mailing lists or groups - instead, include a link to my blog so others can browse here too.