Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Mad About You - Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the December stamp of the month blog hop, where we are featuring the Mad About You stamp set!  If you're here from Sheila Bennett's blog, you are in the right place.  After this, you will hop along to Traci Pasqualone's blog.


I love the images in this stamp set, and how well they will work with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  Unfortunately, I will have to wait to play with mine.  For the first time, I realized too late that I had forgotten to order a set in advance. :(  So for now, I will share some of Corporate's beautiful artwork with you.

UPDATE: If you are still looking for ideas to use with this stamp set, I have some artwork posted on this entry here!


 Did you know that CTMH now includes a picture of this artwork inside the stamp package?  AND, all the directions for the artwork is available online at the CTMH website! Check them out right here! If you're ready to order, my store is open 24/7 so shop anytime on my website!

Now, head on over and check out what Traci has made for us this month.

Custom Advent Calendar

As usual, I am running a little behind on my holiday crafting!  I used to always buy filled advent calendars for my kids, but apparently I have taught them well and they all hate the cheap chocolate that they are filled with.  So, this year I decided to make my own, but needed something quick thanks to my "last-minute-itis".

Lucky for me, SVG Cuts came to the rescue!  They have a super cute SVG set for a fillable advent calendar, and it only took a few hours to put together.  (Which is great for me, because I have two more to make before tomorrow afternoon!)  I just imported the files into my Make The Cut software, and cut them out with my cutting machine - it was super quick, and it was easy to put together following the picture and the numbers on the interior boxes.


I love all the different little details on the doors!  For some added interest, I used glitter cardstock for one of my papers, and I embossed some of the pieces using Cuttlebug embossing folders.  Here are some closeups of a couple of the doors:


Supplies used to make this version:
  • Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit from SVG Cuts
  • Make The Cut software
  • Wonderland paper pack and cardstock from Close To My Heart
  • American Crafts glitter cardstock
  • Scor Tape, 1/8"
  • Beacon 3-in-1 adhesive
  • Cuttlebug embossing folders, snowflake and swiss dots

Monday, November 14, 2011

Product Spotlight Featuring Echo Park Paper

If you haven't yet started your Christmas crafting, this is your official notice that it's time to get going!  In the spirit of all things Christmas, I'm putting a spotlight on the Season's Greetings collection from Echo Park Paper.  This happens to be my personal favorite Christmas line this year, so it was really easy to whip up a few projects this weekend.  (And I have even more in my head, lol.)

My first of three projects today are some Christmas ornaments.  I do something different with the kids' school pictures every year, and this year's ornaments are made from these sweet over-sized bottle caps.

This is the "top", or outside, of the ornaments,  I covered them each with a paper and embellishments that best suited each child.  I also personalized them with their names and ages so I won't have trouble remembering what year they are.

The left one is embellished with a snowflake brad from the Assorted Brad Pack and letter/number stickers from the collection pack.

The center one is embellished with a wreath from the Season's Greetings chipboard and letter/number stickers from the collection pack.

The right one is embellished with a snowman sticker and letter/number stickers, all from the collection pack.

This is the inside of the ornaments.  I simply lined them with the same paper I used on the outside.  Then I used a large circle punch to cut out their school picture and adhered them to the centers.

In order to hang them, I used a Dremel tool to drill a hole in the top center.  (If you don't know what a Dremel is, I suggest you Google it - it's a handy little tool for all sorts of uses!)  I then doubled some thin satin ribbon and pulled the ends down through the hole and tied an overhand knot.  I trimmed the ends then pulled the ribbon back up until the knot was against the hole.

My second project is a clear gift pail I picked up at Michael's.  I love to fill these with matching paper shreds to hide some little gifts.  They are especially fun for kids as they try to peek through the pail to see what the gift is!

Beautiful, even empty!  I love how the "back side" of the double sided paper shows through.  I used Scor Tape to attach everything, since it holds to plastic well, and keeps things stuck to the curved shape better than other adhesives.

I added a thin border of black cardstock to make that poinsettia paper stand out more.  Next I cut the sentiment from the sheet of Journaling Cards, inked the edges with black ink, and matted it on some coordinating green cardstock.  I poked a hole in the corner and strung through some Doodle Twine, tying it in a bow on the front.  To complete the look, I cut a circle for the lid from the same poinsettia paper.



My final project is a clearly fabulous Christmas card!

 You may wonder why this card looks a little "different".  Well, it's because this is NOT your ordinary card.  This is a clear card, cut with my Cricut from a Clear Scraps Acrylic Sheet.  I cut this one using the card on the Thanksgiving cartridge. (If you're cutting with a Cricut, be sure to test - I needed to multi-cut 4 times on mine with a deep cut blade set at 6 and Max Pressure.)  Here's a view where you can see a little better how the whole clear thing comes in to play.

The key to clear cards is layering, so the outside pieces cover the  inside pieces properly, and add dimension. I used Liquid Glass from Close To My Heart as my adhesive.  It dries clear and is much less noticeable through the clear card than other adhesives.

I started with the inside front of my card.  I adhered a strip of red snowflake paper to the inside front bottom edge and trimmed it by hand after the adhesive dried.  I also adhered a snowflake Journaling Card to the upper left of the inside.  On the outside front, I adhered the rocking horse from the Layered Chipboard on top of the Journaling Card.  Lastly, I wrapped the entire front of the card with some green ricrac from my stash.  In order to keep the hills & valleys matching, I extended the ricrac off the edge of the right side somewhat.  I then added a Craftwork Cards CANDi near the end.

Here you can see the inside of the card, and the matted sentiment I chose to hide behind the embellishments on the front of the card.  I started with the outside back of the card.  I covered the entire back with the striped paper using the Liquid Glass.  Then I moved to the inside back.  Checking against the card front, I adhered a strip of green cardstock across the entire width.  Next I cut a blue mat 3" x 4", the same size as the journaling card on the front.  I lined it up with the journaling card and adhered it on top of the green strip.  Finally, I added my sentiment using stickers from the collection pack.

You can check out the entire collection here - I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do!  I hope you liked today's projects.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!  I'd also love it if you become a follower or follow by email.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Laundry Room Decor with Cricut and More

I have a sweet little how-to for you today, related to this beautiful project:


Don't you want one for your house?!  This turned out even better than I expected and I just HAD to share it with you.  However, since I based this on a class from Michael's, I can't share the full instructions with you.  I do highly recommend you check for the "Paper Crafted Gift" class at your local Michael's and sign up (it's probably billed/displayed as a Christmas project).  It is well worth the $25 fee - you just need to buy a certain frame, and you can either buy your materials or bring them from home.  I can tell you that I used my Cricut Art Philosophy for the flowers and Make The Cut software for the words.

If you happen to live in the SW Chicago-land area, I teach this class at both Orland Park (on LaGrange) and Tinley Park (just off I-80) stores, and have plenty of additional ideas for it I am happy to share with you.

Now, here is the focus of my post today:


I know, we've covered these rolled roses before; that's not what we're here for today!  (In case you missed the rolled roses video, you can find it on my YouTube channel with this one.  Do you notice those pretty leaves peeking out from behind the flowers?  Would you have guessed that I cut those from the same Art Philosophy cartridge as the flowers?  Oh, and they are SO easy!  Check out this short video to see how I make them.  (And I apologize for my assistant interfering, but that's what happens around here.  And just be glad I didn't actually USE the Cricut during the video...)


Don't forget, the leaf and pretty 3-D flowers are just a few of the cuts available on the awesome Art Philosophy cartridge!  If you are interested in buying it, I would greatly appreciate your business.  In addition to the 3 stamp sets and 3 sheets of Dimensional Elements that come with the cartridge, I send you a free Petite Perks mini stamp set for purchasing.  Also, through November 30, I am offering a free "A Holiday" stamp set (or other "A" size stamp set of your choice) when you purchase Art Philosophy.  This stamp set also coordinates with cuts on the cartridge, so it's a great little addition to your collection.  You can shop here anytime, or ask me about hosting your own online gathering so you can earn Hostess Rewards (only $150 in orders gets you started) or even earn a 50% off your own cartridge (1/2 price items begin at $250 in orders).

Thanks for stopping by today!  If you like what you see, I hope you will become a follower or follow by email.  You can also subscribe to my newsletter (on the left) to find out about personal specials like this any time I offer them.
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