Giving Back

I hope you have enjoyed the hop we put together to say THANKS to Erica from My Cricut Craftroom.

I'm the last stop.   You should have come from Karey's Blog, If not you might have gotten lost and wish to start from the beginning with Kat's Blog.   The lineup is also posted at the end this post.

For my project, I really wanted to use the Popup Neighborhood Cartridge that I won from Erica.   My page started out as a pink and purple store with a cute little Cricut head I created using Cricut Craft Room.  And then what usually happens, happened, I couldn't find a piece of paper to match.   I spent a crazy amount of time in Joann's and didn't find anything.....except for the cutest little penguin sitting on a piece of paper with cute little snowmen and santas.     So, I decided to make a Christmas store for my layout.  

I made the store like a card and a put a photo of the prizes I had won along with a note for Erica.   All of the pages are being placed in an album for Erica.

Now I must say thanks to this great group of ladies who helped put this album and hop together.  During the past couple of days I have said many times I don't know how Erica does all this stuff.    But I am really glad that she does because since finding My Cricut Craftroom on Facebook, I have become a better paper crafter.   With her blog she provides daily inspiration and a place for crafters, like myself to display our work;  U stream videos that are not scripted, perhaps that is why they are so much fun and have been extremely helpful, and I don't want to forget what she does for others;  Cards for Operation Write Home and Project Sunshine and Smiles cards for Kids at St Jude's hospital.
I know how much time and work Erica puts in all of this and I just want to say Thanks Erica!    I know you enjoy doing all of it and then you do even more with all the prizes you give away!   I appreciate it, I know all the ladies who worked with me on this appreciate it, and I just hope everyone who has hopped with us today appreciates all your hard work as well.

I couldn't decide what to do for blog candy and finally decided another way to say thanks is to support Erica's store.   I was hoping that gift certificates would be available but they are not so what I am doing is a $10 credit to her store.  (I will paypal that to Erica when I announce the winner)   To enter, I would like you to post on Erica's facebook page something you appreciate, maybe you won a prize or are thankful for her super awesome store prices or a tip you leaned.  I will announce the winner on Erica's facebook page on Monday evening.

Thanks for hopping with us and Happy Crafting!

Laurie

http://katscrapfever.blogspot.com                   

http://papercrafteranonymous.com                 

http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com      

http://grammiejudys.blogspot.com                   

www.lezlyes.blogspot.com                              

http://gscraptime.blogspot.com/                                   

http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com               

http://kleymanr.blogspot.com/                     

http://cema1cema.blogspot.com                     

http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com/             

http://micraftygal.blogspot.com                        

http://samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/ 

http://manicexpressionsdesigns.blogspot.com/   

http://sweetpsscrapbooks.blogspot.com/           

http://craftsbyamanda.blogspot.com                 

http://conniescraftycloset.blogspot.com             

http://craftyandgreen.blogspot.com                   

http://allmadebylisa.blogspot.com                 

http://mississippihippycrafts.blogspot.com         

http://kccroppers.blogspot.com                       

http://www.creativecraftcorner.com                 

http://www.lauriecandoit.blogspot.com            

Oct 1-2 100 Cartridge Blog Hop

Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room's October 100 Cartridge Blog Hop, Day Two! 

If you have been hopping along you should have come from Kat's Blog.  If not you will want to start from the beginning on Erica's Blog.

I made projects about two of my favorite things snow and Halloween.  

I decided to take one image from Accent Essentials and make 2 different projects.   

First is a snowflake garland.   

I used Auto Fill on my Expression to  cut out  2 inch shadow snowflakes from white poster board.   Then I cut out the top layer in a dark navy blue cardstock.  The sparkle on the navy is extreme glitter craft paint sponged on with a make up sponge.  I adhered the navy to the white pieces and then ran a strip of ATG adhesive on half of them and attached my ribbon and then attached the other half with more adhesive.   This took a little bit of time because I sponged the paint on but other than that this is a super simple quick project to do.
So then I took the same snowflake and created a card.

The blue card front is a square from Accent Essentials and made on my gypsy.   I set it to cut at 4.75.   I then selected the same square set to cut at 2.5 and then placed it in the the center of the larger square.  You do not want to weld this smaller square as you want most of the inside square to cut.  Then I placed the shadow (shift) layer of the snowflake in the center of the card so that the edges slightly overlapped the small square.   I welded the snowflake and large square.   What you end up with should be a mostly red highlighted cut lines with just the round edges of the snowflake gray.    I then cut out the shadow snowflake in white and the snowflake in blue.      I inked the blue with embossing ink and dusted with white pearl ex to make it shimmer and finally added stickles with a make up sponge.   I attached the card front to a blue card base and added some bling to the center of the snowflake.

My next project highlights some cuts from October 31st.   The cuts from this cart are somewhat intricate and lend themselves well to making paper bag lanterns.   The haunted house is cut from Happy Hauntings.

I was having a heck of a time cutting with my new mat and completely forgot to write down cut sizes.   I think they were around 7 inches.   The bags are just cheap lunch bags filled with stones and then I dropped in the battery operated candles.

My final project is a mini album.  I used mostly Colorbok and Paper Company Value pack papers and lots of ink.  The book is 5.5 x 8.

"Enter if you Dare" is from Happy Hauntings cut at 6.19 x 4.13 and layered on top of the back for the spider frame cut at 5.28 x 7.20.   The spider web is from October 31st and was in my stash.

The tree is the 3d tree from Happy Hauntings cut at 5.01 x 4.93 and then cut in half.    The moon was cut from Plantin School book at cut at 3.21 x 3.   The witch is from HH and cut at 1.79 x 1.37.   I cut the grass from HH to fit the width of the book.  I left room on this page for a picture.  I will add the mat with the photo.

The ghost is from HH cut at 2.11 x 4.66.  The Mummy is also from HH cut at 2.98 x  3.37.   I used the tombstone with grass cut at 6.79 x 5.07.   I then added tombstones that were cut in various sizes, embellished with inks and embossing powders. The bats are from HH and October 31st and were in my stash.

I used mostly Popup Neighborhood for the fall farm pages.   The barn  3.01 x 2.89.  I then cut strips of paper and  inked them to create old barn wood.   The fence 2.9 x 1.11 and the Wagon 3.04 x 1.91.   The pumpkins and bird were from my stash.  Pumpkin patch is cut from October 31st and cut at 1.58 x 1.15.

The corn maze is cut at 5.0 x 4.45 and the scarecrow is cut at 1.64 x  3.01.   I cut this page a bit wider  and folded it to make room for a photo.

I added this sign cut at 2.55 x 4.69 and added individual cornstalks tied with a ribbon and  it doesn't show up well on the photo but there is an indian corn attached.     

I love the haunted houses on HH and October 31st, but I wanted the inside of the haunted house for my album.  I added the spider frame from HH cut at 5.28 x 7.20.  I embossed the spider web with a mix of black, gray and silver embossing powder and then added a small ghost that I embossed.

I wanted to use Summer in Paris in my Halloween album because it isn't a cartridge you would think of for Halloween but the Chandelier on SIP just looks spooky to me.   The spider web, spider, cat 1.77 x 1.55 and skeleton 1.97 x 3.90  is from Happy Hauntings.   The table is from  A Child's Year (tea party design and I cut off the extra parts to get just the table)   The chandelier is 2.31 x 2.13.  I cut out both of the 3d parts and stacked them to get some dimension then embossed with a silver and gold.   The chair from SIP is cut at 2.09 x 3.51  I cut the top layer with the the intricate cuts and then cut them out to get just the frame that I .layered on top of patterned paper  base cut. (SIP recommended cut size is about 5.5 inches).  The wine bottle and glass I cut just the base at .73 x 1.25 and then added some wine embossing powder.  The background paper is from a paper pack I got at the dollar store several years ago.   I went over it with black ink to make it spookier!

The piano is from Summer in Paris and cut at 3.73 x 3.69.  I used Happy Hauntings for Frankenstein  cut at 2.40 x 4.69 and  Bride of Frankenstein cut at 2.78 x 4.69.   The background paper is from Stampin Up and again I inked with black to make it spookier!

I used the skeleton corner border from October 31st cut at 4 inches and the Mouse from Happy Hauntings cut at 2.5 inches to frame the photo I will add later!

This is the back of the book!

I hope you have enjoyed hopping with us today!   Your next stop on the hop is Blog Candy.  If you haven't left comments on every blog, you will want to go back and do that!   The line up for Day 2 is listed below!

Thanks for hopping by!

Laurie

.  Erica – http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

19.  Connie -  http://conniescraftycloset.blogspot.com

20.  Lucinda Gibson - http://thegrowinggibson.blogspot.com

21.  Tanya Adams -   http://nonnascraftcorner.blogspot.com

22.  Karey Jeans -  http://www.creativecraftcorner.com

23.  Jenny R  http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com

24.  Gayle Schrader-  http://gscraptime.blogspot.com

25.  Laura  -  http://laurascraftsandmore.blogspot.com

26.  Heather S -  http://operationcricutdesign.blogspot.com

27.  Lezlye    http://lezlyes.blogspot.com

28.  Rosa    http://kleymanr.blogspot.com/

29.  Autumn Willis -   http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com

30.  Lisa Newton-Orensky -  www.allmadebylisa.blogspot.com

31.  Sharon http://simplysweetbysharon.blogspot.com

32.  Kat http://katscrapfever.blogspot.com/

33.  Laurie   http://lauriecandoit.blogspot.com/   <-------  You are here!

34.  Blog Candy  http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/

All About the Guys Blog Hop

I hope you are enjoying the All About The Guys Blog hop!   You should have come from Samantha's Blog, if not you may want to start from the beginning at My Cricut Craftroom so you don't miss anything awesome!

I made two different projects.   One of my favorite musicians is Kid Rock and my favorite state is Michigan.  So my inspiration for my card is Kid Rock's beer brewed in Michigan.

I kept seeing the wings on the Indie Art cart and I knew I wanted to use these wings for something related to Kid Rock, maybe a concert page.   Then I remembered the beer mug card I made for my husband on his birthday.  It's on the Smiley Cards Cart.  And then because I was using two of the free carts lucky gypsy owners received, I decided to use another, Black Letter. I even used Cricut Craftroom to design and then cut using my gypsy.  Still getting used to it but so far I mostly love CCR.  Thank-you PC for all the freebies!

So here is my card.  My husband, the beer drinker, gave me his seal of approval.

Card Base is white Colorbok cardstock.   I placed the beer mug on the mat, copy and pasted a second mug, flipped and then welded it at the top.   I sized it at 4.87 x 5.72 prior to welding 2 together.

The black mug is cut from Recollections paper and the foam is cut from Colorbok paper.   I decided to add a second layer of foam that I cut a bit smaller to give it some dimension.  I also added clear embossing powder around the edges for more dimension.  (The foam would make clouds if you don't have a cart with clouds)

The wings are welded and cut at 1.67 x 1.33 before the weld.  I didn't even try to cut out the top layer because it was just too small.  I tried a gray Cricut marker and that didn't work so I drew on some lines added some black/silver embossing powder and then embossed with clear powder.  It is double layered and I used pop dots for dimension.

The banner is from Black Letter and cut at 3.51 x 1.21.  Happy was cut to fit at .83.

Birthday I also welded and cut a bit larger than Happy.

My next project is wall art for my grandson Austin.  His initials are AT and he absolutely loves trucks.   My inspiration for this project comes from the Northridge video for September's Cricut magazine and then Pottery Barn Kids wall art.  My project is not completely finished as we are not sure what canvas color will look best on his wall, that will have to wait until I can go up to her house. I like the white because it reminds of flash cards, my daughter isn't sure about the white.

I wanted this to be large cause he has a large empty wall right now, so I am using 16 x 20 canvas mats.

I used Plantin Schoolbook for the letters, Boys Will Be Boys for the truck and the airplane is from PopUp Neighborhoods.   I am not sure what company the paper is from.  

A and T are cut at 11.49 x 13.13 and 7.89 x 13.13

Truck is cut at 4.25

Plane is cut at 4.25 and narrower so it would still fit the canvas.

The truck is cut at 9.20 x 7.57.

The airplane is cut at 8.95 x 4.95.

All cut on my brand new Expression.  I was thinking I was the slowest scrapper in the world until today when I realized just how much extra time I spent because of the 6 x 12 limitation of the baby bug. 

So those are my projects.  I love comments and followers.  And don't forget about blog candy at the end of the hop!

Next you get to see what Kimberly has made.

Have fun hopping,

Laurie

The entire lineup in case you get lost.

Erica http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Yvette http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Samantha http://samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/

Laurie http://www.lauriecandoit.blogspot.com/

Kimberly http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com/

Tammy Smith  http://cuttinandstampin.blogspot.com/ 

Lori www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com

Maria http://scrapfornat.blogspot.com/

Melissa http://pinkpolkadotscrappingblogspot.com

Erica’s Blog Candy J

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/all-about-guys-blog-candy.html

Christmas in July

Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room's Christmas in July Blog Hop!

You should have come from Tina's Blog.   If not please go to http:/mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com to start from the beginning so you don't miss any of the awesome designs.

What better time to make snowmen than when it is 100 degrees outside!   I love winter, especially when it snows a lot so I always make snowmen gift tags for Christmas.

This tag is made using the Smiley Cards Cartridge.   The snowman is cut at 4.12 x 5.05.  I used Colorbok white textured cardstock and patterned paper along with unknown black card stock.  I added some floss on the buttons.

The next snowman is exactly the same except I colored the hat black, then added some stickles and finally used a silver sharpie to go over the hat.   I also used a pale blue card stock and added yarn scraps for the scarf.

This size snowman also works well for an A2 sized easel card.

My 3rd snowman is from Gypsy Wanderings.

The tag size is 3 x 5 and is from Gypsy Wanderings.   The snowman is cut at 3.75 x 3.82 I think.   I cut these out last winter and just put them together for this project now.    I used Cricut Blues paper for the tag and then used a Stampin Up Stamp to add embossed tiny snowflakes.   I then added a piece of Colorbok shimmer paper for the snowdrift and added some stickles.    The Snowman is layered with a pale blue and white cardstock.  I added a Stampin Up sentiment, matted on a silver scrap and then attached with some Martha Stewart twine.  The back of the tag has To and From cut from A Child's Year.

It wouldn't be Christmas without some red and green gift tags.  The tags are from Plantin Schoolbook and cut at 3.59 x 4.19

The Poinsettia is cut from the Christmas Card at 4.07 x 3.0.  It has a few pieces that I inked and sprayed with some homemade red shimmer mist.   I just wrinkled up the pieces and put them together with a brad that I covered with gold stickles.  I placed it on top of greens, also from the Christmas cart and cut at 2.49 x 1.49.  I flipped one upside down and then cut 2 of each to give them a bit more dimension.  The cream tag is from Popup Neighborhood and cut at 3.05 x 2.91.  I added some Memories Soft Gold ink to the tag and stamped the to and from with Stampin Up Always Artichoke.

I went a bit nuts with inking and stickles on this one.  The cream tag and tree are both from Popup Neighborhood and cut at 3.22 x 2.98 and 1.95 x 3.75.   I inked the red tag and tree trunk with Walnut Distress ink, the cream tag with Memories Soft Gold and then covered the tree with stickles with Distress Gold Stickles and smeared it around to cover it.  It wrinkled up the tree a bit too much but hey trees are not flat right?

My last project involves one of my many favorite Christmas day activities, food.   I started making place cards for our family dinner.

 I am making Santa and his reindeer for each of my family members.

The place card is from Plantin Schoolbook and cut at 5 x 4.

The tag is again from Popup Neighborhood and cut at 2.5 x 1.30.

The names are from Plantin Schoolbook and cut at approximately 1.79 x 1 and welded.

Santa and Reindeer are from the Christmas cart and cut at 2.19 x 3.13 and 1.72 x 2.41.

I used assorted Paper Co and Recollections value pack card stock and inked the cream tags with Memories Soft Gold ink.  Santa has a bunch of tiny pieces that I tried to use but ended up using stickles and gel pens for some parts.  

 I am giving away 6 snowman tags/embellishments.   All you have to do is leave a comment or if that doesn't work leave me a message on facebook.  I will be posting the winner on Sunday on my blog and facebook.

The next stop on the hop is Gayle's Blog.   

In case you get lost I have posted the lineup below!   Thanks for visiting my blog and happy hopping!

Laurie

start http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

tina http://craftyandgreen.blogspot.com

laurie  http://www.lauriecandoit.blogspot.com/

gayle http://gscraptime.blogspot.com/
jen  www.mybusycraftylife.blogspot.com 

lucinda www.thegrowinggibson.blogspot.com

sheila  http://2pawprints.blogspot.com 

yvette http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/

enjoli http://mississippihippycrafts.blogspot.com/

connie  http://conniescraftycloset.blogspot.com

raina http://www.scrapwithraina.blogspot.com/

heather www.papercrafteranonymous.com

Tammy  http://crazycardcreator.blogspot.com/

autumn http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com

melissa http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com