Diana's Designs Blog

Cricut 21st Birthday Cake Explosion Box

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:33:00 +0000

Continuing with my recent obsession with the Birthday Cake Explosion Box, I am sharing one that I made for a 21st birthday. I replaced the single candle with a 21-shaped candle and added extra bling using adhesive rhinestones. Check out my project on Cricut Design Space: 21st Birthday Cake Explosion Box.

Cricut Birthday Cake Explosion Box

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 21:48:00 +0000

Last week, I tried my hand at the Cricut Birthday Cake Explosion Box project I bookmarked on Design Space many years ago. I loved it so much, I had to make another one! I modified the project by replacing the square and triangular cuts that had cut out patterns with design paper and I really love the look of it.

I also added a personalized sentiment to the front of the box and adhered it with foam tape to give it some dimension.

I also used foam tape to adhere the ballons and presnt.

The cake is removable and allows you to hide a little gift inside. So cute!

And the design includes to note cards that require Cricut pens to embellish the border. Will definitely be making more of these!

Cricut Birthday Cake Explosion Box

Top 6 Adhesives for Paper Crafts

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 16:24:00 +0000

As a longtime crafter, I am always on the lookout for glues and adhesives for a variety paper crafts but often rely on my favourite go-to items. Whether it be double-sided glue tape for gluing larger pieces of paper, two-way glue pens for gluing finer cuts or adhesive foam to make embellishments pop, I always make sure to have some on hand, especially for those last minute projects. Below I highlight my top 6 adhesives for paper crafts.

Top 6 Adhesives for Paper Crafts

1. Advanced Tape Glider (ATG)

When I first started making my own greeting cards using my Cricut Expression way back when, I needed a way to adhere layered mattes on my card fronts and sometimes white mattes on the inside for the message if I had chosen a dark coloured card base. Regular glue sticks did not work well for me and white glue was messy, warped the paper and took too long to dry. I had my eye on the SScotch Advanced Tape Glider and waited until it went on sale at Michaels. It has come in handy for making cards in bulk and I often use the 30% or 40% off coupon to buy refills.

PROS: Each refill contains 36 yards/32.9 metres of tape per roll so they last me a long time and the permanent adhesive is strong.
CONS: Sometimes the tape slides off the front roller.

2. 2-Way Glue Pen

This is my go-to for gluing finer cuts of paper, namely sentiments or any letter cutouts. And because it is a liquid, you have some felixibility when adhering so you have a little bit of time to adjust before it dries. My favourite pen is the Zig squeeze and roll fine ball point pen.

PROS: It is blue when wet so you can see where you have applied it but dries clear.
CONS: With certain black or dark coloured card stock, it may cause the colour of the card stock to bleed if you need to adjust the position.

3. Glue Dots

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Glue dots are very much glue the globs of glue you find on the back of your new bank cards that you get in the mail. They are great for adhering items that you want the recipient to be able to remove, such as gift cards, or if you want to glue embellishments such as flowers or other embelisshments that are not made of paper. I use them when adhering DIY magnets to card fronts. Scroll throught the Instagram images above to view an example.

PROS: They offer removable and super strength, as well as mini dots.
CONS: They sometimes don't stick when peeling off the backing. If this happens, I find pressing really hard on the dot before removing the backing will work.

4. Adhesive Foam

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When adding layers to cake toppers or greeting cards, I love to add some dimension by using double sided adheisve foam tape to glue the layers together. I buy my rolls at Dollarama, which are usually in the aisle with painter's tape and are called Mouting Tape. I also learned a hack recently where you can stick strips of the tape onto a cutting mat and use a precision knife to cut them into smaller squares or strips.

PROS: A roll from the dollar store is pretty inexpensive and lasts me a long time.
CONS: Once you apply, it is very, very difficult to remove so there is next to no wiggle room to adjust.

5. Precision Craft Glue

After seeing a lot of crafters using Bearly Art craft glue, I ordered a bottle online to give it a try. My favourite feature is that it includes a fine tip nib and a needle to clean out the nibs in between usages. It doesn't warp paper nearly as much as regular white glue and it is very strong once dry.

PROS: It dries clear and a little goes a long way.
CONS: I haven't been able to find it locally and it costs more online than I care to pay for.

6. Double-Sided Glue Tape

This is a mini version of the advanced tape glider and it is great for smaller cuts as you can more easily apply it with precision. I buy them at the Dollarama and keep them on hand for those times when I need to quickly throw together a greeting card or even at school when I want to avoid warping from white glue or something more permanent than glue sticks.

PROS: It's easy to use and the dollar store version is fairly inexpensive.
CONS: The tape length is only 8 metres the dispensers are non-refillable.

Paper Pups Tube Dog Birthday Card #CricutMade

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 00:50:00 +0000

Of all the old Cricut cartridges I ever purchased for my Expression, the Paper Pups cartridge was among my favourites. I used the tube dog for this birthday card that I had made for my goddaughter, who is a synchronized swimmer. I used the contour and offset features in Design Space to isolate the yellow tube and orange beak.

The banner was a bit tricky, as the black "line" was so thin, it would tear easily. But overall, I really love how this card turned out and especiallly love the colour combo. If you'd like to make this card, check out my Paper Pups Tube Dog Birthday Card project on Design Space.

Peppa Pig Personalized Birthday Card with Matching Envelope

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 01:41:00 +0000

I'm back! I won't even say how long it's been since I've posted here on my craft blog. But I absolutely love how my latest Cricut creation turned out, I simply had to share. I'll keep this post short and sweet, though. Using the Cricut Design Space, I used the print and cut feature and created a layered cutout of Peppa Pig using foam tape from the dollar store. The sun is from the Paper Doll Dress-Up cartridge but I removed the eyes and mouth. The font was a little too small but I ended up using it anyway, despite it being a slight challenge to adhere using my Zig two-way glue pen. The flowers were cut out with a punch and then I added self-adhesive rhinestones from the dollar store.

Cricut Create a Critter Bunny Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 11:34:00 +0000

Taking inspiration from an adorable bunny gift bag, I decided to make a bunny themed birthday card for my BFF's daughter. I used the bunny cut from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge and added a circle frame to it using the Design Studio. As usual, I stuck with a standard A2 card size, so the bunny itself is about 2". I couldn't figure out how to crop the bunny to fit the circle using the Design Studio so I just cut off the lower parts after I adhered it to the circle.

For help with the layout, I turned to MFT Card Challenges sketch 346. It's a fun sketch and one that reminded me to try some faux stitching. The problem is I didn't have a fine tip black marker so I'm not thrilled with how the stitching looks. I reused some old grosgrain ribbon and the stamp is from the dollar store. Inside the card, I wrote: "Some bunny told me it's your birthday!" Ba-dum, ching!

Create a Critter Squirrel Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 14:57:00 +0000

I'm baaaack!

I know it's been a long time since I last posted, way too long. The truth is I haven't been crafting as much as I used to. I've been lacking the inspiration, the time and the patience as of late. But I recently took advantage of an Amazon Prime Day deal and I bought a Cricut Expore Air 2. Since then, I have made a handful of crafts and I am eager to get back in to crafting regularly. Today I share the first card I made using my new machine. It's a birthday card in a standard A4 size. The squirrel is from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge and it's about 3". I removed a couple of contours using the Design Space contours feature to hide the eyes, nose and mouth since I wanted to hand draw the face. The grosgrain ribbon is from a box of chocolates I was given by one of my students. I used foam dimensional dots from the dollar store to adhere the critter to the card front. Isn't this squirrel a cutie?

Cricut Create a Critter Dalmatian Invitations

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 23:56:00 +0000

My nephew's first birthday is coming up this summer and my sister-in-law asked if I could make some invitations for her. I had made Cricut Create a Critter Owl invitations for her first-born so of course I was going to make some for her second. She ended up choosing the dalmatian from the same cartridge and it was perfect since the fireman's hat has the number 1 on it. I wanted to try my hand at a shape card since I hadn't made one in a while.

The problem with the dalmatian is that it would fit a square envelope better than a standard A2 but I wanted to avoid going with the square since it could incur additional postage. I managed to find a value pack of 50 white envelopes in an A7 (5.25" x 7.25") at Michael's and, while they were still a bit too long, they just barely fit a 4.75" dalmatian.

In addition to a Cricut cutting machine, cutting mat and the Create a Critter cartridge, you will need plain card stock in red, yellow, white and black. To assemble the card pieces, you will need double-sided tape and a glue pen. If you plan on making a lot of cards, I suggest purchasing a Scotch Advanced Tape Glider. I also recommend the Zig two-way glue pens. The glue is blue when wet but dries clear and doesn't wrinkle the paper.

To create these dalmatian invitations, you will need to cut out the following pieces:

2 x dalmatian character in black for the front and back of the card
layer 1 in white for the body
layer 2 in red for the hat, collar and tongue
layer 3 in yellow for the dog tag and helmet detail

I recommend cutting out as many as you need one colour at a time and create an assembly line. For the card front, I used the Zig glue pen to glue on the dog tag to the collar and the yellow shield to the hat. I used it as well to glue the collar to the body as well as the tongue. To adhere the body to the black base, I used the ATG gun. Then, I used a ruler and the tip of my bone folder to score the top of the remaining black base about 1/4" from the top and used the ATG gun to stick it to the card front.

For the inside, I typed up the details into a text box in Word and duplicated them before printing them onto card stock. I used my round corner punch to round off the corners.

Cricut Paper Pups Christmas Card with Holly

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 03:30:00 +0000

Skimming through some old photos, I came a couple of adorable Christmas cards I had made a couple of years ago. For this card, I used the sleeping pup from the Cricut Paper Pups cartridge and topped him off with a Santa hat. The sentiment is from the Cricut Wild Card cartridge and it looks like it was cut at about 1 3/4" using the Real Dial Size feature. I also used the holly cut from the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge along with a couple of red brads as berries to embellish the corners. The paper used for the background is Bazzill cardstock for added texture and the pup was adhered using a foam dot to give the card some dimension. This is just one of those cards that get the Cricut bug in my itching to make more cards this year!

Cricut Paper Pups Birthday Card - Pink

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 13:34:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, my goddaughter turned ten years old. Yes, she's a whole decade old. And that's a pretty big deal in my books. For her birthday card, I chose to go with a pink polka dot theme. Her family has two cats at home and I know how much they love animals so I chose to use a puppy dog cut from the Cricut Paper Pups cartridge. I kind of wish they had a Paper Kittens cart, too, but the paper pup would have to do. I really like this cut since it has an optional bow. If I ever use this cut to make a card for a boy, I can easily use it as a bow tie. Cute, no?

The pup was cut at 2.5" and adhered using pop dots. I also added a self-adhesive rhinestone to the bow and corners for a 'bling' effect. The pink polka dotted designer paper is from the K & Company Valentine pack and the ribbon is from an old stash I bought at Michael's. I also used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to embellish the inside of the card as well as the envelope.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! and I used dimensional foam dots to make it pop out. It's a simple card but my goddaughter seemed to really like it.

Butterflies and Flowers Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 23:23:00 +0000

For this birthday card, I used my cherished Martha Stewart butterfly punch that I found at Walmart to cut out two butterflies and glued them together at the body. I also curved the top set of wings slightly. The flower is from a Recollections Signatures set and the sentiment is a stamp from Stampin' Up! I used a purple brad to attach the flower and pop dots from the dollar store to adhere the central matte.

Handmade Paper Pups Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:30:00 +0000

Making a masculin-looking card has never been easy. I always struggle with the colour combinations and motif. It could be that my current stock of art supplies is filled with bright colours and floral patterns. In any case, I often resort to muted or neutral colours when it comes to making cards for males. For this card, I chose two design paper patterns from the SEI Charlemagne paper pad and added re-purposed ribbon. I used a bunch of cuts from the Cricut Paper Pups cartridge and kept them black and white. The sentiment is also a cut from the same cartridge.

Handmade Star Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 19:53:00 +0000

Earlier this month, my dad celebrated his sixty-somethingth birthday. You know, the one that creeps ever so close to seventy. Even though he's retired and spends his well-earned retirement days at home, he is still an all-star in my eyes. He came to Canada with a couple hundred bucks in his pocket, a single piece of luggage and yet not a word of English in his lexicon. But still he managed to find good, honest work, save money for a house, start his own business, and raise three very smart children. It only seemed fitting to make him an all-star birthday card. I used the star cut from the Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge cut in 4 different sizes. I glued two sets of two stars together using a Zig two-way glue pen and then used adhesive foam to the layers to make the star stand out. The pattern paper is from the Recollections Bold Basics paper pad and the cardstock used for the base is from Stampin' Up! as is the sentiment.

Handmade Floral Birthday Card Using EK Daisy Scallop Edger Punch

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:17:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I made a couple of birthday cards - one at the request of a co-worker and one to give to my French teaching partner who celebrated her birthday yesterday. I came across this colour combo from the Color Throwdown challenge and I really like how nicely they come together. I also used my brand new EK Daisy Scallop Edger Punch which I received courtesy of DeSerres. I used an underlying layer beneath the border in a solid colour to make the border pop as well as a strip of pattern paper on the inside of the card. I then added some ribbon, Recollections floral embellishments, and an adhesive gem from the dollar store. The sentiment is a stamp I found at the dollar star as well.

Handmade New Arrival Card - Baby Luca

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 02:39:00 +0000

Over the holidays, my brother-in-law flew in from Spain to spend time with the family. It's always great for the kids to get to spend time with their uncle, even if it is only once a year. Before his return last weekend, I went through a bunch of my son's old clothes to pass on to his friend who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last year. His friend is such a sweetheart and I couldn't be more thrilled for her and her husband. I decided to make a personalized baby card for them using an embellishment that was left over from the baptism invitations I had made for my son nearly five years ago. I used some textured paper and patterned paper, added some grosgrain ribbon and adhesive gems, and stuck on the embellishment using double-sided adhesive foam strips. The lettering is cut at 1" using the Cricut Pooh Font cartridge and I used a Zig two-way glue pen to glue them on.

Personalized Baby Boy Card Using Cricut New Arrival and Pooh Font

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 22:41:00 +0000

A little over a week ago, a friend became a daddy and welcomed a beautiful baby boy. This is the baby card I made for him and his wife. The baby is from the Cricut New Arrival cartridge and I used the blackout option. I chalked the edges, drew his face by hand, added some 'blush' and adhered it to the card using adhesive foam. I personalized it with the baby's name from the Cricut Pooh Font cartridge and used the shadow feature with brown card stock to make the letters stand out. The pattern paper is from the Recollections Bold Basics paper pad. I finished it off with some grosgrain ribbon. Isn't it cute?

Personalized Smurfette Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 09:41:00 +0000

While rummaging through some of my old photos, I came across this personalized Smurfette birthday card I had made last year. I found an image of Smurfette online and made several copies of her. Then I carefully cut out each one. Starting with the bottom layer, I cut off portions of the cartoon until I eventually ended up with just her hat as the fourth layer. Using foam dots to add depth, I put the layers together before adhering the cutout to the card. The letters have two layers with a white shadow, which I cut using the Cricut Pooh Font cartridge. I like the bunch of flowers I attached using brads but am still unhappy with the general layout of the card. I find that often happens when I make cards larger than an A2. Too much space to fill up! Anyway, I recently decluttered my Cricut/craft space so I'm hoping to work on some more cards in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Personalized Birthday Card with Cow

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 17:06:00 +0000

The requests for personalized cards this year kept adding up. This one was definitely fun to make, though. I used the adorable cow and grass cuts from the Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. This card is very similar to the Moochas Grassias cards I made a few years ago. The cow is cut out at 4" and I printed the sentiment using my computer. I adhered the cow using some foam adhesive to give him some dimension and cut out the black spots free-hand. I also inked the edges of the grass as well.

Personalized Anniversary Card Using Cricut Wedding Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 20:22:00 +0000

A colleague at work asked if I could make a first anniversary card for her and personalize it with the names of the husband and wife. Using the champagne flutes from the Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge, I used a metallic card stock for the cut, which was at 4". Then I printed out the sentiment and the names onto card stock. I adhered some cellophane to the back of the cutout to give it the appearance of glass and cut the excess by hand. I did the same with the names. The matte is embossed using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I used foam to pop up the glasses. I hope they liked it.

Personalized Ladybug Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:41:00 +0000

Here is another personalized birthday card I made at the request of a co-worker. I used the ladybug from the Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge and I believe it was cut at 3". I added an extra layer of wings and attached it using adhesive foam to give the wings a 3D appearance. The font is from the Cricut Storybook cartridge and I alternated the sizes between 2" and 1.25". I really like the look of the alternating sizes so I'm pretty sure I'll be trying it out again in the future. The design paper is from a K&Company Valentine pack I purchased at Michaels.

Teacher Thank You Card

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:18:00 +0000

Last year, one of my colleagues requested some Teacher Thank You Cards to give to her children's teachers at the end of the year. They are both in French Immersion so I used the sentiment 'merci' from the Cricut Beyond Birthdays cartridge. This year, she asked for another set of thank you cards and, being a little pressed for time during a really busy year-end, I just used the 'merci' cut, some ribbon and the pattern paper from the Stampin' Up! Storytime Suite. The size of the card is a standard A2 (5.5" x 4.25"). The sentiment is about 1.75", I believe, and I used the shadow feature in white to make it stand out. I really like the look of the lined paper on the inside.

Personalized Birthday Card with Flower

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 03:28:00 +0000

Sometimes, when you're pressed for time, a simple personalized birthday card will have to do. For this card, I fancied it up a bit by using the Fancy feature on the Cricut Storybook font cartridge for the first initial and smaller letters in the basic font. I really like how it turned out. The card fits a standard A2 envelope and the font is about 1.25" and 2". I used a Prima flower with a purple brad along with some adhesive jewels. I rounded the corners using a corner punch and reused some old ribbon.

Stampin' Up! Spring Surprise Bundle

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:20:00 +0000

(Originally published on Toronto Teacher Mom.)

On the weekend, the weather was so cold that we had to turn the heat back on. While Mother Nature may have a hard time understanding that it is spring, Stampin' Up! knows full well that it's the perfect time to celebrate the season of May flowers with their Spring Surprise Bundle, coordinating inks and card stock in bright colours. Stampin' Up! sent me a sample of the bundle that features the Round Array stamp set (available in clear-mount only) and the coordinating Scallop Circle 7/8" punch featured above. The stamp set includes five stamps with sentiments and three generic stamps that are perfect for everyday embellishments.

The Stampin' Up! Spring Surprise Bundle is a perfect set for those looking to incorporate stamping into their crafts as it includes all the elements required to complete a project. With these stamps and coordinating punch, you can easily embellish a variety of projects, like cards, notes, jars of homemade goodies, and more!

Since I love to make greeting cards, I chose to use some Stampin' Up! card stock in Primrose Petal and Raspberry Ripple with coordinating water-based dye ink to create a couple of birthday cards which measure at 5.5" by 4.25". I stamped and punched two of the same images and attached them using a dimensional to add some pop.

I loved using the stamps and coordinating punch so much that I decided to embellish the inside of the cards as well. I seriously need to look into getting more coordinating stamp and punch sets...

And for Administrative Profesionals' Day, I made some very simple Thank U cards using a large prima flower as the centrepiece with a stamped and punched sentiment glued on to the centre. (I am so excited that these cards have recently been featured on Listen to Lena!)

The Spring Surprise Bundle retails for $29.95. Keep an eye out for the Stampin' Up! annual catalogue which I hear is scheduled to launch at the end of May.

Disclosure: I was sent product to help facilitate this review. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Personalized Birthday Card with Monkey Magnet

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:18:00 +0000

This past weekend, my son celebrated his fifth birthday. He's such a little monkey that I decided to use the monkey cut (at 4") from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge to make a personalized birthday card for my parents to give to him. I used three colours of card stock: dark brown for the base layer, a sort of tan colour for the second layer and a lighter brown for the topmost layer. I then rubbed some brown ink along the edges of the cut.

I used the Cricut Pooh marker font to cut out his name in dark brown and used a white shadow, cut at 1".

I added some adhesive pearls and the vine cut from the Create a Critter cart. I only glued the ends of the vine because I wanted to be able to hang the monkey from it. The reason being is that I adhered a piece of magnet onto the back of the monkey so my son could have his own unique magnet. Isn't it cute?

Tis the Season for Baby Shower Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Diana Mancuso) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:10:00 +0000

It seems to be the season for baby showers. I had two requests at work this past week or so for a personalized baby shower card. I first made this style of card using the expectant mother from the Cricut New Arrival cart to make a personalized baby shower card about three years ago. In it, she is holding a Michael Kors bag. For this one, I was asked to make it a Coach bag, so I added the letter C using some Stickles. The mother is cut at 4" and I used design paper from the Super Slab by Rob and Bob Studio. The lettering is from the Cricut Storybook cartridge and I bought the grosgrain ribbon at Michael's. The adhesive half-pearls are from the dollar store. I think the one thing I would change is the ribbon since the green flowers are too bright and don't match well with the green paper. Oh, well. You have to work with what you've got, right?