Tuesday, October 12, 2010

We Have A Winner!

Happy Tuesday Everyone!
It was a busy Saturday in my house. Of course I had to hop along on our Haunted Halloween Hop and I also made sure to visit the Breast Cancer Awareness Hop sponsored by Karel. There were amazing crafts and cards that were Thinking Pink. Karel is also having a fabulous challenge to combine Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness and Halloween. I will be posting my submission later. Stop by her blog and check it out.
I used Random.Org and the number generated for my blog candy is......NUMBER 60!!!!  Congratulations to Melanie Holzwarth who said:

What a wonderful project! Thanks so much for sharing the instructions.

Melanie
Scrappily Ever After Blog

Thanks for leaving your comment, Melanie!
Thank you to everyone who left me such wonderful comments. I read and enjoyed every single one of them. I also want to say thanks again to our host from the Cricut Circle! Janice did an amazing job for her first blog hop! (applause for Janice!) Also, thanks to my fellow bloggers for their fabulous projects! I am thrilled with all the ideas for my future projects!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen





Saturday, October 9, 2010

Haunted Halloween Blog Hop!!!!!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to our first Haunted Halloween Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from CraftySentiments then you are on your way!!!! If not, why not head back to The Scrapbook Girl's blog and see what you may have missed! I am really excited today because this is the first time I have ever participated in a blog hop! I would like to thank Janice and AmyS over at the Cricut Message Boards for inviting me to join in on the fun! So now that you have stopped by, what should we do first? Want Some Candy? After all, this is The Haunted Halloween Blog Hop, and what's Halloween without candy?
Of course, this is the best candy, so much fun and not one calorie! To enter, leave me comment and become a Follower, I will use the random number generator to pick the winner. Don't forget to check back here on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 to see if you are a winner! Now that we've had some yummy candy, here's my project for the blog hop:

Haunted Halloween Blog Hop Luminary


The project I chose to create is a Luminary. It's a fun and easy project, that looks amazing when lit. Here are the materials I used:

Cricut Pumpkin Carvings Cartridge
Chipboard (optional)
Paper (I used Spook Alley by Making Memories)
Vellum
Ribbon
Hole Punch (I used my Cinch)
Paper Crimper
Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Punch
Martha Stewart Glow In The Dark Glitter
Xryon Machine
Scor Board
Flameless Candle
My Gypsy



I originally saw the idea for this in an email from SplitCoast Stampers, but when I tried to access the site, I had all kinds of problems. It ended up being a good thing, because it left me to my own devices! There is a very good tutorial for Non-Cricut Luminaries at Stamp and Design with Lynn Pratt. Like so many others, my craft time is sorely limited, so I broke out the Gypsy, and put the Pumpkin Carvings Cartridge to good use. The luminary ended up being a little bigger than I had planned, (smiling here...) but I am pleased with the finished project.
These pictures show the basic cut files from the gypsy. All I did was take a square from Accent Essentials, then added the image from Pumpkin Carvings into the center of the square, I didn't weld the images. In order to have the circle cut for the window of the luminary, I hid the contours of the cat and witch, that's the middle picture. I cut the image with chipboard and paper. When I cut the chipboard, I used the Deep Cut blade, and cut 3 times because it is heavy chipboard. I then cut 4 more images with my patterned paper.

 


I used black cardstock and cut the cat and witch along with the square, so that I would have a base color for the inside of the Luminary. Below is a picture of the cuts, removed from the square.

Once I had these cut, I decided that I wanted to use my Martha Stewart Glow In The Dark glitter, so I ran the cuts through my Xryon and glittered away!


Above, I ran the cuts through the Xyron again, after I glittered them. I cut 4 squares out of vellum, ran them through a paper crimper, and adhered it between the black paper and chipboard. The picture below shows the vellum adhered to the chipboard, before the paper was added.



I used Scor-Tape to adhere the papers to the vellum and the chipboard. I used the Cinch to punch holes in the chipboard. I took black ribbon and laced it through the holes. Below are pictures of the progress.


I had cut a square at 6.5 x 6.5 for the bottom and lid from chipboard, and covered the base with black cardstock. I wanted a patterned paper on the top and wanted to use my Drippy Goo Punch to add a little interest to the lid. Since I was using two different papers, I cut the Drippy Goo Punches to the 6.5 inches long and left some extra paper so that I could have it hang over the Luminary. If you are using the same color paper for a top and the trim, you can just as easily add an extra inch and a half and just punch around the paper. Here is how I did it. I used Scor Tape to adhere the Drippy Goo Punch, I adhered a black cardstock square to the chipboard and then I flipped the lid (ha-ha) and added the patterned cardstock. I used my Scor Board to scor the trim, then folded it down.
 

Once it was folded down, I realized I needed to anchor the sides of the trim together, so I took 4 small scraps, added tape to them and adhered them to the inside.
I didn't worry about the them being even, they held the corners fine. I added a couple of little flameless candles I picked up in Michael's for 1.99 each, and lit it up!



Here a couple more pictures of the finished project.



Thanks for stopping by today! Your next stop on the blog hop is the fabulous Sea Swan's blog. Don't forget to check back in with me on Tuesday! Enjoy the rest of the blog hop! I'm sure you find many wonderful, inspiring projects from the talented crafters here!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen

Today, one of my favorite musical influences would have turned 70 years old, Happy Birthday to you John Lennon, where ever you are. Who knows what you might have created these past 30 years had you not been stolen from us all!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

John Lennon-Grow Old With Me

It's All About The ATCs!

It's been ATC madness in my craft room recently. I just finished three more sets of  ATCs for Jean's By The Number ATC swap on the Cricut Message Board. What made this challenge so much fun was that we picked numbers for the groups we were in, and our esteemed Hostess then gave us our assignments. I wasn't too sure of what I was going to do when I saw my themes. There was an option to request a different theme, but there was no way I was walking away from my themes! LOL! I am happy with my results and I hope my fellow swappers enjoy them, too!

Sadly, group 1 was full by the time I signed up, so I am in groups 2, 3 and 4. This is group 2. The theme is Standing Still. My first thought was to go with a picture of a lake, but then I stumbled across the picture I used. It is called Time Standing Still. Everything about this picture appealed to me. The quote is one of my favorites, "grow old along with me, the best is yet to be" I don't know where the quote originated, but for me, it's always going to be John Lennon's voice I hear when I see this quote. I associate the quote with my husband and family. We are blessed, and I am truly thankful to have my soul mate to grow old with. This ATC turned out to be very personal for me. I love the concrete clock in the fountain with Father Time, and the soft, muted colors on this picture. I cut small Peacocks from French Manor and corners from Picturesque on my Cricut in SEI blue velvet paper. I added a little bling to the Peacock with Platinum Stickles, and here is how they turned out.

Group 2-Standing Still

Group 3 had the theme Deep In Thought. Once again, what I started out with, is not the ATC that I finished with, LOL! I call my ATC, "I Wonder..."  Don't you think the little girl in the picture is lost in her thoughts? I used a scalloped nestability to crop the photo. A bow and a tiny heart complete the ATC. I went light on the embellishments on all my ATCs this round, I don't know why, I just did...

Group 3- Deep In Thought

We were offered a challenge within the challenge which we could do or just skip. The challenge was to make an ATC that would be personal for us. I know I said that my Time Standing Still card is personal to me, and it is, but I found the perfect personal Advertisement for my group 4. McCauley's Equine Formulas. The feed company with one focus, the horse. Yep, that's their motto! I love horses! I am a McCauley, through and through, so there you have it! It's all personal to me! LOL!

Group 4-Advertisement
Once again I went clean and simple. I printed out the feed company's logo, added some layers, a black velvet horse cut from my Cricut, (I think I used A County Life Cartridge for the cut) and finally, added some Viva Decor. I really like this one.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!
Happy Crafting!
Colleen