Dec 9th

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For today's project I made my grandson a backpack.   I remembered I had this pattern, no idea where I got it from, I might have actually copied it from something my stepdaughter had.  I looked all over the net trying to find the pattern and I cannot find it.  There are a ton of free patterns out there and a couple that are similar to this style.  Sewing was probably my first real craft.   I used to play with my mom's machine making Barbie Doll clothes from fabric scraps.   So, from my perspective, this was a very simple back pack to make.  If you sew and can put in a zipper you can do this.  

I used the dog from Boys Will Be Boys (shadow) and cut at 6.931 x 5.875.  I used the deep cut blade set at 6, multi cut 2, pressure 5 and speed 1.  The fabric is a fake suede scrap I had left over from a Halloween costume.   After ironing the fabric to the Heat and Bond and then the denim, it really feels like suede.   I was really worried that this fabric would not cut well, but it cut great.   To make the mouth and nose I played with the sizing of the dog in CCR to make the heads a similar size and then cut in paper and used it as a pattern to cut the nose, trace the mouth and placement for eyes.  I added the brown fake suede nose with embroidery thread and then sewed and glued on button eyes and made the mouth and then thought what the heck sew around the whole thing, that way it will hold up better.   It probably would have been fine without the hand stitching.   I then sewed the backpack together.  Much better than the bib I thought I was going to make.  I think this little dog would also be cute on a sweatshirt.  I would probably machine stitch around him if I were to do that.

Here it is with the books ready to put in and be wrapped for Christmas.  If you have not heard of Mo Willems, I very highly recommend his books.   The first book of his that I picked up was We Are In a Book and had to have it and it is staying at grandma's.  Very cute books but I still love Dr. Seuss too!

Hope I have inspired you to try something new or different with your Cricut machine.

Laurie

December 6th

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Today's theme is sports and I created a layout about my favorite winter sport, snowmobiling.

I used Potpourri Basket for the Snowflakes and A Child's Year for the photo mat.  

5.5 x 4.3 Photo mat 

Various size snowflakes approximate sizes is 2.1 x 2.3.   I just filled the page with snowflakes and then placed papers on the mat so I would have assorted colors.

Papers used are from DCWV Green pack, White is AC textured cardstock.

A snowflake punch.

I also used Karen Foster Stickers.   I love her papers and embellishments, she has the best for boys and more masculine projects.   I especially love the sentiment "The more snow the better" on the small sticker.

To make this I first made a rough design in Cricut Craft Room, sort of laying out the general placement of everything and getting the snowflakes sized.   I then cut a strip of paper to use as my starting point on the page.   Adding the mat, then the stickers to see the placement.     Now the snowflakes, I just took the ones I cut, along with the ones I punched and just layered them until I liked how it looked.   I also added gold Distress Stickles to the snowflakes to give them some dimension and sparkle.   I love how the stickles curl up the snowflakes a bit.   I then topped the snowflakes with blue, brown and gray buttons that I tied crochet thread through.  I then attached all the pieces to the background paper using my ATG gun, pop dots and Glossy Accents.   

I hope I have inspired you or given you some new ideas to use in your projects.   If you haven't thought of using crochet thread, I very highly recommend it as it is cheap and comes in assorted colors.   I also very highly recommend using Glossy Accents as adhesive on smaller pieces because if you accidentally get it in the wrong place, you don't end up with a sticky residue on your finished product.

Hope you are enjoying our projects in 25 days of projects!

Laurie

December 2nd

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Today I have a layout to show you.   I used Winter Frolic along with Recollections, ColorBok, and Coredination papers.

The 2 boys are both cut at 4 inches.   I used a white Gelly Roll pen to add some faux stitching to the boy with the snowball.   I sanded the sled to give it some dimension and added some Silver Gelly Roll pen to the skis.

Snow much fun is cut at 6.139 x3.556 and I cut one in brown to use as a shadow.  I just offset it a bit and then just the white gelly pen to add faux stitching to the word snow.

The North Pole is cut at 7.472 x 8.347.   I cut all layers except the green tree layer in the same color blue card stock.   I used the cuttlebug embossing folder with dots to add dimension to one of the 3 top pieces and then went over it lightly with stickles, I also went around the other two with stickles.    I opted to leave the North Pole off of my layout because I want to use it to put the month and year at a later time.    

I then layered a photo mat over the bottom portion of the North Pole mountains.

Winter with snow is by far my favorite season and I simply cannot wait to show my grandson just how much fun it is to play in the snow, so this layout was made with that in mind.

Don't forget to check out all the other 25 days of projects!

Laurie

December 1st

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I am so excited to be part of 25 days in December.

I totally experimented cutting fabric with the Cricut, no idea what I was going to make or how it would turn out and I ended up with a Poinsettia Pin.

Supply list.

1. Fabric that has been washed, dried and ironed.
2. A sticky Mat
3. A blade that is brand new or one that is dedicated for cutting fabric.
4. A deep set housing blade, if you have it.
5. An iron that you don't care if it gets gunked up.
6. Iron on interfacing.  For this I used Steam a Seam 2 because I had it and wanted to see if it would work.
7. Stickles
8. Brad
9. Pin finding, look in the jewelry area at the craft store

After preparing the fabric for cutting, I placed the fabric with the Steam a Seam down on the mat.    I used the deep set blade and my settings were Blade 6, Pressure 5, Speed 1 and Multi-cut 2.

My poinsettia is cut from the Christmas cartridge at 5.16 x 3.81.  It cut really well.   I didn't like that the back was sticky and ugly so I decided to iron my cut out pieces to the piece of fabric that was left over after cutting.   I had to hand cut the poinsettias out but it was relatively easy using the cut pieces as a guide.  So, now I had a bunch of double sided poinsettia leaves and didn't know what to do with it.   I figured it was another one of my many projects that failed and then I decided that I could probably add some dimension by folding and ironing just the tips.  Somehow I managed to not burn my fingers.  I then outlined the edge of each piece with stickles.  I sort of painted it on using and eye shadow thing.   I was going to sew this together and put on the front of a felted wool eye glass case but didn't really love that idea and decided to make a pin instead. 

To make the pin I pierced the center of each piece so I could put a brad through it and then attached the pin putting the brad through the center hole in the pin finding.  I also hand sewed the bottom piece to the pin to make sure it was secure.    I added stickles to the brad and added a few dots.

I decided that I was going to give this to my mom when I saw her at Thanksgiving and made this box to wrap up the pin.

To make the box I used the inside part of the matchbox, box from Tags Bags, Boxes and More.   I used my gypsy and put 2 on the mat, then I made one a bit smaller so it would fit together better.   The cut sizes were 6.26 x 4.65 and 6.22 x 4.62.   I used paper from a Recollections cardstock stack.

To make the bow I used the scallop border from Winter Frolic to make strips for the bow.   To do this, you have to weld 2 of the borders together flipping one so you have a scallop on both sides.  I grouped those together and copied several more that I welded together to make longer strips.  The size of the scallop border welded was 1.75 x .50, after welding more together my strips were 6.85 x .50.    To put the bow together I cut my strips as I went.   The center piece is first, you will need to punch a small hole on each end and make a loop putting a brad through both holes.   Cut the 2nd piece and make a loop and punch a hole through the center and add it to the first, then do the same with the 3rd strip.  Open the brad to secure.

I had extra of the strip so I used it along with a strip of green paper to make a paper ribbon for the box.   The red paper is from Stampin up.

I hope my project inspires you to experiment and try new things because you never know what you will end up with.   My mom loved the pin.

Laurie

Recipe and Baking Blog Hop

Welcome!   You should have come from Sheila's Blog, if not you may have missed some great inspiration and will want to start from My Cricut Craft Room so you don't miss anything awesome.


For my first project, I have started a Kid Tested Recipe Book.   My grandson is  15 months and not quite old enough yet to help grandma but definitely needs some high chair activities.  Grandma needed a break from chasing him around the house and decided to look for some fun recipes.   So I made him a very basic flour and salt play dough.   He was still a bit too young but he still liked squishing it around in his hands.   What he didn't like was the taste.  It was so funny and I didn't get a picture.   Each time I get to babysit, I am going to look for a recipe for something fun to play (make a mess) with or eat and add a new page to our recipe book.  I am putting them in a 3 ring binder that has a sleeve on the cover. I have a lot ideas that are not necessarily going to be mom approved.  :)

I purposely made my cover super simple because I plan to have Austin help me decorate it when I make finger paints.    I used Cricut Craft Room Basics to cut the letters and used the paper company value pack card stock.


I used the Font Tool for "Kid Tested" "Recipes" and cut at 1 inch.   I really like the ability to use a text box for simple text but it doesn't work well if you want to play with the placement a bit, so, the rest of the letters I didn't use the text feature and just placed them on the mat.  And is cut at .5, With is cut at .875, Grandma is cut at 1.6 and all words welded.  Austin is cut at 1.08


For my first page, again, I purposely made it super simple.   I really want to keep this album fun and really hope that Austin will want to help make pages later on.  The only cricut cut on this page is the word bubble, cut at 3.056 x 2.125 from craft room basics.  I then added a note from Austin.   I used paper from a really old pack of paper and matted the photo and recipe on red cardstock.

My next projects are also super simple.   I'm the family baker and candy maker so I'm always looking for new recipes and trying new things.  And I am super excited that I can make super simple things to package up some of my treats.   

I cut the popcorn box from Tags Bags Boxes & More cut at 11.40 x 6.45.   
Scalloped circle 2.42 x 2 from A Child's Year and a 2.14 x 2 circle from George and Basic Shapes.  I then cut a snowflake from Winter Lace cut at 1.66 x 1.81.    Patterned paper is from Stampin Up, the red and cream paper is from my stash.      If you have not made boxes before they are really simple, just make sure you get a good fold and use strong adhesive.


I also made a tag from Winter Frolic cut at 2 x 3 and attached another snowflake.   On the back of the tag I will put the link to the recipe.


Chocolate Popcorn.   Super easy to make and unfortunately for me, really easy to eat. 


The treat bag is also super simple.   I used the same tag from Winter Frolic but cut at 3 x 3 and added another of the snowflakes with some red stickles for the center.  I used the little treat bags you can find in the cake decorating aisle at Michael's.   Sorry about the M & Ms, I made Chili Roasted Peanuts for my husband to take with him (boy did this week go fast) and I forgot to save some for the photo.


I really love that I will be able to make yummy treats and then make super simple and cute packaging using my expression.


I love comments and would certainly love recipes for treats or fun play recipes if you would like to share.


Don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs because I am sure Erica has something fun planned for blog candy.


Next you will go see what fantastic project Carol is sharing!   The entire lineup is posted below.


Happy Hopping
Laurie








My Cricut Craft Room- http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com 
Melissa - http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com
Amanda - http://craftsbyamanda.blogspot.com/
Tracy - http://scrappininthewoods.blogspot.com/
Beckie - http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/
Erica- http://ericascraftroom.blogspot.com/ 
Tammy - http://thepurplemuse.blogspot.com
 Wendy - http://gilbyscraftster.blogspot.com 
Sheila - http://2pawprints.blogspot.com
Laurie - http://lauriecandoit.blogspot.com   YOU Are Here 
Carol - http://huffandpuffscrap.blogspot.com  NEXT
Blog Candy - http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com

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            

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