My First Cricut!

So I finally went out and bought my first Cricut machine. I happened to be at WalMart searching for some more letter stickers or some sort of paper to make the first page of my 2014 family scrapbook. So as I am browsing around I come across the last one on the shelf. A Cricut Expression, marked down. I really didn't want to buy one originally because they can be very expensive. Plus I honestly thought I would never get any use out of it. Now that I have a family to make memories with I have more stuff to scrapbook! So the picture below is my exact model of Cricut.

I also have tons of scrap booking paper that is just begging to be used! I went through them last week and sorted them all by color and holiday. It took a while but was well worth it. I have already found papers much easier now that I know where to look.

 This is what the mat looks like before you cut, the mats are sticky and the paper will stick so it doesn't move around while the machine cuts the designs out for you.

This is after me pulling off the first part of the paper. I did the name Moran across the top, and the numbers for 2014. The square was a really complicated design, and it died when I tried to remove it. New mats are SUPER sticky and I didn't know, so it was like a crime scene trying to get it off.

Here below is the finished product, the red polka dot letters were all from my first attempt. Then I did the darker red letters on another piece of paper and it came out great. I am getting the hang of this!

 The only part of the page below that was Cricut cut was the light blue paper behind the words Birth Announcement. But it added a nice touch to the page.

This one is my favorite I have done so far. I went online and printed off the white paper, it is a chart that says when the babies teeth are supposed to come in. So we wrote down Aries first tooth. Then I used the Cricut to cut out the boarder for the tooth chart. I did it as a frame and not a big solid piece, so I could use that extra paper that would have been in the center, later in anther project. Then I still had enough edge paper to do the letters at the top of the page too. I was really happy with how it turned out in the end.