Summer Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Well, my leg did not get better - in fact, it's worse.  After my bike fall last Saturday I've developed a big infection in my leg, and it H-U-R-T-S! It's not so comfortable to sit or stand in my scrap space, so I didn't do much this week.  Here's hoping the new round of antibiotics will kick the infection this week. 

But I did manage to get a couple of projects finished this weekend.  Here is my Counterfeit Kit Challenge using the summer add-on kit and the sketch for this challenge. 

I chose to include my Gypsy in my summer kit, to remind me to start USING it.  So I made a few cuts to add shapes, a welded border, and some circles to stack like flowers.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos for Gypsy tutorials this week, and I've spent a lot more time watching than practicing. But it's research, right?!  Anyway, I had a couple of "duh, how did I not know that" moments, but it has been good to put a few of the tricks into practice. 

One tidbit I can share: I had a paper with some printed circles that I wanted to cut out of the paper.  But I didn't have a punch exactly the right size, and I didn't trust myself to cut it by hand.  How to cut it with my Cricut?

First, measure the diameter of the circle you want to cut.  Create a circle that size on the Gypsy, and then cut the circle out of scrap paper. 

Remove the circle from the mat, then without removing the remaining paper, peel it back to make room for the paper you want to cut.

Here's the circle I was trying to cut. Once you have it positioned, run your mat back through the machine and make the same cut. 

And there's the circle I was going for, and it gave it a nice clean edge.  In the interest of full disclosure, I did mess it up the first time - it was off the mark just a smidge.  Fortunately I had an extra piece of paper in case I made mistakes.  Just take some extra care to make sure you load your mat properly each time, and it works like a charm.

Here's the finished circle stack on the layout.  It looked like a nice place for a paw print in the center :).

I'm sorry, I don't remember where I picked up that little trick, but I do have a couple of links to the best tutorials I found for the Gypsy.  If you're like me and have the Gypsy, but never took the time to actually read any instructions, this series is a good one.  It looks like the blogger that created these videos is no longer blogging, but her blog is still up and has other great ideas, too.

Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 1
Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 2
Cropaholicblog's Designing with the Gypsy Part 3