Gypsy welding and Cricut cutting

This morning I saw some ideas on FB and on my friends' blogs and I got to work...

I did a search for a heart, did the Gypsy's copy feature a few times, changed sizes and the rotation of a couple of them too (kerning, I think it's called), welded and voila - a heart background.  I think this background is on the new CTMH Artbooking cartridge but until I get my hands on it... here's this one.  I saw this in white on a beach page where the photos were B&W and the background paper was a very light blue.  I fell in love with it and cut my own hearts.  Now I'm not sure if I will use it on a similar beach layout with B&W pictures, so cutting it out in white is perfect because it can always be treated with some Glimmer Mist, Stickles, regular glitter, embossing, paint... there are a few options!  Plus, I did save the file on my Gypsy so I can cut it out again... So here is my white heart background cut out that I set on black cardstock so you can see it. 

 



 

Here's the rest of the paper, still on the black CS but not attached. ;-)  I might use it to mist a background paper.  I also have all the cut-out hearts to be altered, distressed, etc. 

Next, I saw a page where a rectangle had circles cut out.  Can you see the rectangle shape in there?  I know I'll use this very soon.  I love how it was used in the idea I saw; it had different colored paper showing from the back and a pretty little chipboard heart in the smallest circle.  I'm sure I'll duplicate it almost exactly.

You can see where I have some cutting to do on the left-hand side.  I had to do some tricky maneuvering for this cut because the Gypsy didn't want to weld the rectangle with the circles; I cut the circles first - without the rectangle - and instead of removing the mat from the machine I chose the other option, "return to design" so that the mat would remain perfectly in the machine.  Then I added the rectangle on the Gypsy while removing the circles and voila.  Good cut.  Now in order to keep the piece as one and not have the circles cut through all the way through the rectangle shape, i.e. stay attached, I did the design off the edge of the mat and have to cut a little bit myself.  Clear as mud?  Let me know in the comments if you don't get it and want to! 

Here I mounted the leftover circle pieces on a piece of blue cardstock to be modified for future use as well.  :) 

Finally, I made a few more cuts.  They can be used as photo mats or journaling, though they are big.  Basically I searched for each word (sweet, treasure, and love) and welded it to a rectangle.  I made the cuts on neutral cardstock and viola - ready for a layout.  I placed them on some black cardstock for the express purpose of showing them off to you guys - they aren't attached.  And I don't really like how "sweet" turned out.  I wish I had used the Base Camp font, more of a serif font where all the letters are attached, but oh well.  It's done and it *will* be used anyway. 

So that's it.  Some frugality involved in this post and no layouts or cards, but lots of potential.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments!