It's Christmas Time

And we party with the elves yeah!

 Happy Holidays, Friends and Fellow Crafters! Today I am sharing a wall hanging with you that I created for the Cricut Fanatics Blog.  The hanging is for my son. He is a Christmas music lover and this is a line from a song that he really enjoys. Christmas music runs constantly from Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve in our home. I am a lover of the classic Christmas tunes, my son loves it all, but my poor husband is a guitarist and really needed some music to call his own. A few years ago, I picked him up a rockin' CD called Ho Ho Hoey-The Complete Collection, by a guitarist called Gary Hoey. He is a rock guitarist but he does a rap type of song called the Twas The Night Before Christmas. My son loves it! It's actually a funny song with some great guitar playing. One of the lines that my hubby and I rap for my son is "we party with the elves, yeah"! Naturally that puts him into fits of laughter. I've had this idea floating around in my head to make him something like this for quite some time now and finally got around to it!
I used my Gypsy to create the hanging. The back is chipboard and I covered it with papers from my stash.

This cut is from Art Philosophy and I fiddled with the sizing to make it longer. It measures 9.75 high by 11 inches wide. Then I used two Christmas papers from my stash and cut one just slightly smaller to make a layer. I know the top layer is from K&Company, but I can't say for sure where the bottom layer of paper came from.

The elves are from Jolly Holidays. I wanted the elves to look like they were jumping, so I used the elf with the wagon, then I cut the wagon off. I also flipped two of the three elves. The are cut at 4.20 wide by 3.10 high. I used K&Company Paper for their suits. I added a little chalk to their cheeks for a rosy glow. I embellished them with some pen stitching and used Stickles to give them some sparkle.

The center elf is attached to an Action Wobbler. My son likes to make him wobble.
Santa is 4.5 high by 4.0 inches wide. He is also attached to an Action Wobbler. I used Stickles on him and Glossy Accents on his umbrella to give it a wet appearance. I added a belt buckle to his belt using a Gold paint pen and added some fake stitching to his suit. I also used the paint pen to add a little accent to his shoes.

The letters for "party and elves" are from an oldie but goodie cartridge, Cuttin' Up. They are 2.5 inches tall. I used Calligraphy Collection for the words "with the". I like the contrast they provide.

Finally, since it is for my son, I didn't want to use ribbon on it, so I used some Jewelry wire to hang the sign up. I wanted it to look curly in keeping with the fun theme, so I twisted it around a paint brush.

I used my Big Bite to punch a couple of holes and ran the wire through the back.

I am so happy I finally got around to creating this and have enjoyed sharing it with you today!
I wish everyone a joyous holiday!

Happy Crafting!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Colleen 

Designed by:  Colleen McCauley

Machines Used:  Cricut Expression, Gypsy

Cartridges Used: Cuttin' Up, Calligraphy Collection, CTMH Art Philosophy and Jolly Holidays

Supplies Used: Action Wobblers, Paper from my stash, Glossy Accents, Stickles, Pebbles Chalk, Wire and Chipboard.

A Special 50th Birthday Card

 Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! My girlfriends and I have all turned 50 over this past year. A half century, who could believe it? We celebrated the final birthday for the year last weekend. My girlfriend, Gemma loves antiques and this is where I decided would be my starting point for her card. She is not a flowery type of person, so I went with an art deco feel for her card. I bet you can't guess which Cricut Cartridge I used? LOL! This whole card is from Art Deco. It's a larger card, almost 6 inches, but I wanted it to be big. After all, 50 is a big birthday!

Everything is from my stash. The card didn't photograph well because I used left over Recollections silver foil paper and it kept reflecting back at my little point and shoot digital camera. I cut the woman with SEI velvet paper, and added some bling to her using Platinum Stickles. Sorry for the awful pictures! The card is much prettier in person!

The background paper is Graphic 45, which is a perfect match for the Art Deco Cartridge and cuts. The turquoise paper is from my Stampin' Up stash which has to be at least 3-4 years old. I cut the background in the foil, black and turquoise and used the negatives to  design the card. The corners are also from the hexagon cut. I used glossy accents on all the corners for some interest.

Again, another not so perfect picture. I computer printed the sentiment in vellum from my stash. and used the rest of the cuts from the front of the card.

Of course the 50th Birthday Banner made it's last appearance! It's through four of us! It started making the rounds last March for my girlfriend, Colleen's Birthday, then Colleen brought it back for my birthday, we used it again in June for Elaine's birthday and now, finally Gemma's. Each time after our party, I would give the name section of the banner to the birthday girl for a keepsake.

One last picture today. Our present to her was a Kindle Fire, which she loved! Here is our happy birthday girl! We have been friends since 1976 and have been through so many good and bad times together over the years. I am so blessed to have her and my other friends in my life. They are my sisters and I know that no matter what happens, they are always there for me, as I am for each of them.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

A Christmas Card! Yeah Me!

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! I finally made a Christmas card! OK, I did make a few over the summer that I didn't get a chance to post, but this is really the first one that I've made during the Christmas season. It's for my Mom's home health aide. Her daughter is big into cheerleading so I used a couple of Cheerleaders from the CCR exclusive Cheerleading.

Here is the inside:

 

 

Here are close ups of the cheerleaders. I added a Santa Hat to their uniforms from Joys Of The Season. They just tickled me!

 



The green solid cardstock is from CTMH, the red is from Recollections and the patterned paper is from K&Company. The cheerleaders red and green uniforms are velvet paper from SEI. I love that paper! The brown, skin tone and grey shadow are from my stash.

Everything was created using my Gypsy and cut using my Expression 2. The snowflakes are maybe from Accent Essentials, I am not 100% sure because they have been in a box of left over cuts that I've had forever. :-)

The best part about this card is that I only used my stash to create it!
I really enjoyed creating this card and I hope the health aide enjoys it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

December Daily: December 1st through 5th

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters!

Looks like the Christmas season is getting into full swing now, doesn't it? Like everybody, we have been pretty crazy here in our household getting  ready for Christmas Day. It has been hectic but somewhere along the way, I thought I would join so many other crafters out there and create a December Daily. I got the idea from Sara on the Circut Message Boards, but I know that Ali Edwards does them and has some fabulous digital overlays available to use. If you have a moment, stop off at Sara's blog and take a look around, she has some wonderful projects that she shares.

For my December Daily, I decided to create my own version. Everything is from my stash which makes me very happy! I haven't decided on the cover or the 1st page designs yet, but I do have December 1st through 5th finished! Yeah!

I am trying to keep the pages simple which is sort of challenging to me. All my pages and numbers are ready to go, so I only need to add the pictures, journaling and embellishments. As I was doing the pages, I started adding stickles to the numbers, so now I need to go back and add it to the first couple of days. When it's finished, I plan on binding it with my bind it all. Plan B is to use binder rings. LOL!

With things being so busy around here, I forget to actually stop and enjoy the season. I want my December Daily to be a record of the little things. These are the moments that make me smile, cry, reflect, and be grateful for my loved ones, friends, pets, home, and for my life.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen