Christmas in July Blog Hop ~ Christmas Ornaments!

Welcome to the third part of the Christmas in July Blog Hop! This weeks theme is Christmas Ornaments and there is a great line up of Cricut crafting bloggers to visit to see their projects. If you are stopping here from Paulette’s blog, Around the Block with Scrapalette, then you are in the right place. If not, then just hop on over to her blog to start at the beginning and see her fantastic project! She has blog candy for this weeks hop – a Trim the Tree Cricut cartridge! So be sure to leave a comment on each of the blogs to have more chances to win!

For my project today, I created not one but two different ornaments using the same Cricut cartridge – Artiste!

The first one is originally a three-sided 3-D box shape. I welded 3 triangle shapes from George & Basic Shapes to it to form openings on each side:

Before putting it together, I added rhinestones, ribbon, and beads to it. Then after adhering the box together, I added a Christmas pick to the inside.

The second ornament is also from the Artiste cartridge (and actually from the very same page in the handbook). I cut out 6 of the same ornament shapes, scored them and adhered them together to form a 3-D shaped ornament. I found this next tip the hard way – since this shape is not symmetrical, make sure that 3 of the shapes are flipped before you cut them out, lol!!! Here’s what it should look like on the mat in CCR:

Notice the red shapes are flipped! Again, before adhering the shapes together, I added strings of beads that I put together at the top, bottom, and on each side of the ornament. Here are some photos of the steps to create this ornament:

And there are my two Christmas ornaments for today! Hope you enjoyed them!

I also will have a drawing for blog candy today! To be entered, just leave a comment below and become a follower of my blog!

I hope you enjoyed your visit today! Next up on the blog hop is the fabulous Colleen at Col’s Creative Corner.

If you get lost while hopping today, here is the line up:

Paulette at http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Angela at http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ <--- You Are Here!
Colleen at http://scrappycol.blogspot.com/ <--- Next
Theresa at http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com/
Beth at http://seaswancreations.blogspot.com/
Laura at http://www.coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/
Lori at http://singingshell.blogspot.com/

I will be back on 27 July with another Cricut Christmas project for our next Christmas in July Hop so be sure to come back to visit! So until then – happy hopping and…

Merry Christmas in July!!!

My Fabulous & 50 Birthday Blog Hop

“Happy Birthday To Me!” Good morning and welcome to My Fabulous & 50 Birthday Blog Hop! I am celebrating my 50th birthday (which is actually TODAY!) with 11 of my good friends who have graciously agreed  to design projects for the blog hop. These are a great group of talented ladies and I want to thank them so much for helping me on this special day! Please leave them some blog love (comments) after looking at their projects – don’t we all love to be loved? After my blog, just visit the next person on the list below (Dawn) and just keep hopping! Also, at the end of my post I have some extra special blog candy to give away!

I actually made 3 projects for today’s blog hop. The first is a little box that you could make to put a special birthday gift in.

I created this file on Cricut Design Studio but then made it into a Gypsy file so I could cut it with just my Expression and my Gypsy. I used George and Basic Shapes for the box and the flower, Storybook for the label shape on top of the box, and Paper Lace for the sentiment. The paper is from K&Company.

The box is made up of rectangles and the octagon shape that is just stretched out.

I cut three label shapes – 2 from cardstock and 1 from patterned paper.

After scoring and folding the box, I attached ribbon on three sides – top, back, and bottom.

I cut about an inch from one side of both of the cardstock labels and cut the patterned paper label in half. I attached the cardstock pieces to the top and bottom of the box and the paper piece to the top. Then I used the flower from George and cut it out eight times –at 1’, 1.25”, 1.50”, 1.75”, 2”, 2.25”, 2.50”, and 2.75”. I used the Hide Contour to hide the center circle.

 

I sprayed the white cardstock flowers with Glimmer Mist in Tattered Rose then curled the petals with the end of a paint brush.

The petals were layered with a pop dot between each layer.

I cut the Happy Birthday sentiment and its shadow from the Paper Lace cartridge at 1.50”. I added bling to the flower and the sentiment. And here is the final Box!

But I just couldn’t stop there! I also made a little Birthday Origami Mini Album and a Glass Block to go with it. The design on the glass block was cut from pink vinyl.

I’ll be back later next week to give more details about the mini album and the glass block. Now for the Blog Candy Giveaway! I decided to give something that was appropriate for todays celebration -

That’s right – it’s a Nifty Fifties Cricut Cartridge!

Please just leave a comment and follow my blog to have a chance to win! Thanks so much for sharing a little of my 50th birthday with me!

Now here’s the list to follow the rest of the blog hop! Enjoy!

Angie - http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ <---Me!
Dawn - http://scrappyrn-scrappyrn.blogspot.com/ 
Janice - http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
Normea - http://mmdezigns.blogspot.com/
Nancy - http://lanancyworkshop.blogspot.com/
Michelle - http://paperaffair.blogspot.com/
Barb - http://craftinginparadise.blogspot.com/
Debbie - http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/
Marcia - http://scrappin-times.blogspot.com/
Veronica - http://www.iteachscraps.blogspot.com/
TinaGale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/
Monique - http://mixonthememories.blogspot.com/

Remember, if you ever get lost on your way, just come back here to get back on track! Thanks again for hopping with us!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Hobby Lobby Cricut Classes & A Shaker Card - Cindy Loo, George, and Gypsy Wanderings

My Cricut preview at Hobby Lobby last weekend went very well. I want to thank all of you who came by - I enjoyed meeting all of you! Remember, the first class is this Thursday, so go by Hobby Lobby on South Cooper in Arlington and sign up if you haven’t done so already. You must sign up at the Floral Dept. to reserve your seat. We’ll have a lot of fun and you’ll learn so much about your Cricut!
Well, I got to make some things this past week and the first one that I’m going to show you is my Shaker Card. I was inspired by Sheila at shesasassylady. I had planned to make my shaker card more like the one she had in her tutorial but when I got ready to make it I wasn’t home and didn’t have access to her blog. So I improvised and this is what I came up with -

I used my Gypsy to design this 5x5 card. The Cindy Loo cartridge was used for the frame and tree. I adhered a piece of transparency behind it and then used foam strips to pop the frame out. I added the foil leaf confetti before adhering the background (Did you recognize that piece of paper in the background? It’s a K and Company Halloween stack! It kinda reminded me of wind blowing the leaves). Also, I now think I have found something that I like to do as much as inking everything – embossing everything! The embossing folder that I used on the frame is D’vine Swirl and the Tim Holtz Woodgrain embossing folder was used on the tree. Everything was then inked. I also used Gypsy Wanderings and George for the layers on the inside of the card. Cindy Loo has so many nice frames that you could use for cards but they work great for shaker cards – something that I might not have looked at if I had had internet access! I have another shaker card in the works and I’ll post it when it’s finished. Interactive cards are so much fun to make and to give!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,