This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.

Three Ways To Make Your Gifts Special With Cricut Joy

Easter is almost here and it’ll be an Easter like never before. But with my Cricut Joy I’ll be adding some extra special gifts. Normally each year we’d go to my mom and stepdad’s house for Easter. It was my mom’s favorite holiday. Mine too. However, last year a few weeks before Easter my mom passed away. We knew it was coming. Even tried to play Easter early and had a plan to celebrate it Tuesday afternoon. I had my car loaded with candy and baskets and was getting it ready. But it was her time and she died Monday morning. We waited and celebrated Easter on Easter day with my siblings, their kids, my dad and my stepdad. Still at my mom and stepdad’s house, or now my stepdad’s house. It was different. There were some sad moments but we pulled it off. Now, this year there is a new spin. We can’t celebrate it together at all. Due to the social distancing from COVID our families can’t all meet. This will be the first time I can ever remember not having Easter with my whole family. My mom used to be in charge of the baskets. As her health began to fail I took her shopping and helped her and I put together the baskets. It progressed to her buying some of the candy and toys but me doing it to me doing it 100%. Since we can’t all be together I decided to do something extra fun this year with my new Cricut Joy. On top of Easter we have a few birthdays in the next month or two. So I decided to create things for the baskets and deliver them to my sibling’s garages (so they can sit a few days to let any germs die, in case of COVID virus. I got a set or random jars from someone on Freecycle a few months ago and wasn’t sure what to do with them, and then I got a fantastic idea. Harry Potter Potion Jars!

I searched the internet for the names of some Harry Potter potions and used a variety of free fonts in Design Space and used the Joy to create random labels and some designs or animals for the back side of the jars.

This was my first time using my Joy so I used the Smart Vinyl paper for the test run in the setup. It printed a sunflower (which I used on one of the jars) and this type of paper doesn’t need a mat.

I have a few Cricut tools to help out and I tried to grab bottles that the shapes would fit best on.

To prep the bottles I washed them first and let them dry. It is best to clean the surface with alcohol but I don’t have any and it is scarce in the stores right now, so I skipped it.

These are the Smart Vinyl colors that came in one container.

I found the designs I wanted in Cricut Design Space (now something that can be downloaded to a computer or an app for a cell phone- I used my cell phone). I chose the type of material was using and hit print.

For the bigger words and because I currently have more vinyl color choices I also used my Cricut Explore Air 2 for printing. I thought this color would stand out on the jars and be great for a potion label colors.

I also used my Cricut Brightpad so I could see the shapes better when weeding. Some shapes of the animals were extras. I’ll be using those later. My sister started doing paint pouring art projects and wanted some shapes. That’ll be another post.
I decided to use a few different colors for the potion bottles. Here is the green one after the main extra vinyl was removed.

Here is the first one. Lionfish Spine (I picked potion names that sounded cool or weird or that did neat things, like healing or were rare potions).

Here is all of them. Some are a little crooked. Some of that was on accident (I’m still learning) and some was on purpose (spooky potion look).
The shape of this bottle is my favorite.
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I plan to fill the jars with jelly beans or other small candies for the kids for Easter.

Next I made some Easter cards, since we can’t all be together. Back to the Joy. I’d never made cards before (haven’t tried on the Explore Air 2 because it is intimidating) but they came in my sample packet. I was totally nervous I’d screw up but I read the instructions twice and tried it. I love how they turned out and want to buy more cards in a variety of colors and make them for all occasions. I’m sure I could make them personal and put names on them but still need to learn how to do that.

I used these card sets that come with a card, insert and envelope.

I went into Cricut Design Space™ and picked cards, Easter, Free and chose some and printed them, one at a time. The more intricate cards took about 3-5 minutes to make. The simple designs took about 1-2 minutes. I used a special card mat so that the Joy only cut on the front of the card and not on the back half of it.

This is what it looks like when I removed it

from the Joy. I easily removed it from the card mat and then weeded the card. This was my first time weeding paper but it was super easy. Even easier than vinyl since it isn’t sticky.
Once done I chose an insert to put in the back of the card, putting each of the four corners inside the little tab.
This is the completed card. I forgot to weed the loop of the ‘h’ so did that after the photo.
Here is the same card on navy blue. It is half-way weeded here. I love the shape of the carrots and eggs.

I also did two birthday cards for family members. I used the tan cardstock and wanted a beachy look so used a regular piece of notebook paper I had at home and cut it into the right size and used it as an insert. I love how it turned out.

The left and bottom cards have an insert of shiny shapes. I am dying to order more card sets from Cricut to now make all my cards on the Joy. I’m very pleased with how these turned out.

Finally I created a fun tic-tac-toe with some window cling material. I thought this would be a great indoor game everyone can play (especially since it is raining right now) and a cute decoration on the sliding glass door. I found it in Cricut Design Space™ and printed them. This was also my first time printing a window cling. I used my Cricut Explore Air™ (not sure yet if the Joy will cut this material, waiting for an answer) and had it set to custom in the settings and then chose window cling.

The grid is one pattern and I chose the cute turquoise pattern so it could be seen easily on the sliding glass door.

The X’s and O’s were on a separate page and I printed them in white (but they could be made in any color). I think next time I’ll do the X’s in one color and the O’s in another color. Besides fun for my family these are a really cute gift idea.

It was quick to cut and I’ll be adding this to the Easter baskets.

Easter definitely isn’t the same this year. It’ll never be the same with my mom gone. But we can carry on, making changes and new editions. With the COVID virus I’m trying to create more fun things, since we won’t be having a day together of eating, dyeing eggs and a basket hunt. Hopefully we can do a group FaceTime with the whole family to say hi and Happy Easter to everyone. We will make lemonade out of lemons and find a way.

I hope everyone does that same and has a great Easter too. Even if it isn’t want you planned. Made do. Love your family. Create new memories.

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