Tote Bag for my Cricut Accessories

Last time I blogged, I talked about needed/wanting a bag for my Cricut accessories.  Well thanks to Pinterest I found a free tutorial on Simplicity.

So last weekend I was at Hobby Lobby and found the perfect fabric and trim.  I couldn't find the webbing for the handle there.  I did find it at Joanns this week.

Here is what I did.  The directions can be found in the link above.

  I did deviate from the Simplicity directions and went by my Urban Handbag.

 All done, but I am going to get a piece of corrugated plastic to put at the bottom so it is firm.

Lots of room for mats, cartridge binder, tool kit, paper and rolls of contact paper.

And I think it goes very well with my Cricut Shoulder bag.

Cricut Shoulder Bag

Since I bought my Cricut Expression 2 last year, I never found a good way to travel with it.  I am so afraid that I am going to drop it.  I also have the original Cricut that fits perfectly in a reusable shopping bag with my tools and mats.

So after VBS I started looking online for a bag.  I found a bag from Cricut on so many sites.  But the reviews were a bit scary.  Like these from various sites:

Doesn't work good for larger crickets 
Doesn't fit right for the cricket expressions if it unzipped from side instead of front it would have been better.. Takes 10 min to figure out how to get it in the bag

This Cricut bag is well made and great for protecting a small/original Cricut machine from dust. In my opinion, however, if travelling outside your home, you'd have to be careful not to drop the bag because it isn't cushioned very well.  As far as fitting the Cricut Expression, despite the zippered extensions, it is "one wrestling match" to get the machine into the bag.  Think it's tough getting the Expression into the bag? Try getting it out.  The zippered opening seemed too small. Overall the fit is a pressed fit. It took 2 of us to handle the removal of the machine from the bag; one to get the Cricut Expression out and the other to prevent dropping it. ProvoCraft needs to come up with something better for the Cricut Expression. I'd be happy to have a cover or a bag just to keep the machine dust free. For the crafters that work with their Cricuts away from home, they'd no doubt want a cushioned bag

Cricut Shoulder Bag
This item was purchased for the Cricut Expressions machind and althought it can zipper open to expand to take the larger one, it really does not work well for putting the unit in and out or giving the larger Expressions the support and protection it needs. More of an after thought than really a design for the Expressions Machine.

Well finally after seeing negative comment after negative comment (all recent), I spotted one that said there was a hidden zipper on the end.

I decided to go for it and bought it on eBay.  Look it fits!  It was so easy to get in and out.  It might have been helpful  if the zipper was a different color besides black.

 Power Cord and USB cord is stored in the front pocket.

 It zipped up just fine.

 

Now I am on the hut for a cute polka dot fabric and I will make a tote bag that can hold the mats and my little tool kit.

So the moral of this entry....stick with your gut feeling and not all reviews are correct.

Customized Water Bottles for Jungle Safari VBS

I have now been the VBS Coordinator for my church three years and I have learned a lot and mostly the hard way.  The first year, I kind of followed what the previous Coordinator did and when it came to the snack site, we had giant drink coolers with the little spigot that would leak and cups.  My experience was that it would make a huge mess and never mind the trash!

So last year I bought plain white water bottles with orange caps from Discount Mugs and used a sharpie to write on the child's name.  Then they were sorted into buckets and refilled each afternoon and kept in the fridge over night.  The kids loved them and didn't make any mess or trash.  They also got to take them home at the end of VBS.

This year, I had Miss V pick out a smaller sized bottle and the colors.  She picked out teal bottles with black caps.  When I opened them, I had a small panic attack....Black Sharpie would not show up on the dark bottles.  So I went to googling ideas. I have a Cricut Expression 2 and looked at hundreds of blogs to weigh the pros and cons.

Well I concluded that using contact paper instead of expensive vinyl would work for our bottles.  I also saw that using cheap dollar store clear shelf liner works just as well if not better than expensive transfer tape.

Now....for the contact paper, I thought of just plain white and I know I have a roll somewhere.  Well....I cannot find it anywhere!  So off to Walmart we go and I found Zebra striped adhesive contact paper!  Woo hoo!

So I downloaded and installed Cricut Craft Room and got to playing. 

I used my Mickey Font since it is a nice thick font and will show up the zebra pattern better.  I then took a deep breath and cut a 12x12 sheet and started cutting....

Looks good so far!  Now time to transfer the names to the water bottles.  I just cut a strip of the clear contact paper and used my Cricut tools to scrape/press the names on.

This went very well, but....I used Standard Grip mats (the green ones) and it was a bit hard to get the extra paper off of them.  I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a Light Grip mat (light blue) and that worked so much better!!!  I will go back and pick up a few more.  

Each group had their own bucket with their water bottles.  The kids really enjoyed the water bottles and one mom even told me how her son couldn't wait to come back because he had his own drink with his name on it. 

As much as I would love to have the bottle imprinted with the theme logo and church info, it is just to expensive and I don't have that kind of extra money in my budget.  I do think this is a great alternative.