Christmas in July Blog Hop ~ Anything Goes!

Welcome back to the Christmas in July Blog Hop! This weeks theme is Cricut Christmas ~ Anything Goes so you’ll see all sorts of wonderful projects created by our amazing and talented designers. There may be anything from layouts, home décor, cards, and more! Don’t forget to stop by each blog on the list and leave a comment and follow them to be entered into the drawings for a Cricut cartridge!

If you've hopped over from Cindy's blog, In Love with Paper, then you are right on track.  If you'd like to start at the beginning of the Blog Hop please visit Paulette's blog, Around the Block with Scrapalette, so you don't miss a thing.

For this week I decided to create a Christmas home décor project!

I purchased a tapered candle stick and larger candle holder from the dollar store (can’t beat those prices, lol) and adhered them together with E-6000 adhesive.

Then I cut out 2 images from Teresa Collins December 25th cart both at 2.75”. I cut the frames of each image first in scrap vinyl – you can just use small pieces of leftovers in any color at this point. I transferred the positive vinyl frame images to the candle holder and then applied etching cream on the entire thing. Usually you would put the negative vinyl piece on before applying the etching cream but I wanted to do the opposite.

After a few minutes, I rinsed the cream completely off and let the glass dry. While that was drying, I cut the other 2 images – Santa’s head and ‘Dec. 25’ – out of red glitter vinyl. I removed the scrap vinyl and then I carefully transferred the red pieces onto the candle holder inside their frames.

 

I really hope that you can see the reverse etching that I did in these photos! It’s something that’s a little different (to me at least!). I added a battery operated candle inside instead of a real one. I love this little candle because 1) it looks real and 2) it gives off a vanilla scent when it’s turned on!

  Here are two more photos with the lights turned down and the ‘candle’ glowing:

Well I hope that you enjoyed seeing my Christmas home décor project! Please leave a comment below and follow me for a chance to win some blog candy – I will pick a winner on July 31st!

Next up is the fabulous Theresa at Scraps by Gracie.

Here is the lineup just in case you lose your way. Scrapalette is awarding a Cricut Christmas Village cartridge this week and each blog you comment on will give you an entry in the prize drawings!  And, the prize drawing at the end of the month is for a brand new Christmas {Noel} cart!

1~Paulette at http://scrapalette.blogspot.com <<---Starting Point!
2~Sis at http://papercraftscissors.com 
3~Maria at http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com
4~Laura at http://www.coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com
5~Brenda at http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com
6~ Lisa at http://addictedtothecricut.blogspot.com
7~Donna at http://carolinascreativecropper.blogspot.com
8~ Cindy at http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com
9~Angela at http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com <<—You Are Here!
10~Theresa at http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com <—Next!
11~Beth at http://seaswancreations.blogspot.com
12~Betsy at http://betsymcreates.blogspot.com
13~Loraine at http://www.lorainespaperplayhouse.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas in July and Happy Hopping!

{The winner from last weeks hop is #26 ~ Brenda! Thanks Brenda for visiting me! Please email me with your addy so I can get your blog candy in the mail!}

Another 3-D Lantern

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while but today is my day to post over at Cricut FANantics blog and I have decided to show you another 3-D lantern I made from Cricut Exclusives, 3-D Lanterns. I absolutely love making these and they'd also be great for decorating for parties! Can you imagine a bunch of these made in red, white, and blue hanging from the trees in your backyard for next months 4th of July party! That would make a WOW factor for your guests!

After I made the last lantern (which you can see HERE in another post), my little granddaughter wanted one for her room in her favorite color - purple.

Here's what I made for her:

I added a handle made of cardstock and strips of vellum. And of course she had to have bling on it!

I decided to try cutting out the rolled flowers out of vellum instead of cardstock and I really like how they turned out! These flowers were cut out with the Artiste cart at 2.5" and 2". Just remember to change your settings (pressure, blade depth, & speed) on your machine when cutting something as thin as vellum.

She turns on the little light under her lantern every night before going to sleep and thinks about her Grandma! (OK, I just added that last part myself but I'm pretty sure she really does thinks about me every night!)

Thanks for coming by today and please visit again soon! Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Holly Jolly Blog Hop

Welcome to the Holly Jolly Blog Hop! I can’t believe that it’s that time of year again! If you came here from Fantabulously Pink then you are in the right place. If not, start at the beginning so you won’t miss out on any of today’s great projects!

I decided to make a simple yet beautiful Christmas centerpiece – a Poinsettia Gift! I only used one Cricut cartridge for this, one of my favorites – Flowers Shoppe!

I started with three items purchased from the $ store – a 4x4 piece of Styrofoam and two different candle holders. I glued the flat candle holder onto the candle stick with E-6000 adhesive and wrapped the Styrofoam in some Christmas wrapping paper (just in case the base showed through the flowers)

For each poinsettia, I cut out two of the <Mum2> flowers at 2”, one more at 1.5” (page 21), and one <Sunflwr1> at 1.5” (page 17). I used the Hide Contour feature in Cricut CraftRoom to hide the holes in the flower centers. I inked the edges of the three flowers with Fired Brick and then cut the two largest flowers between two of the petals.

Using a mat and a petal roller, I shaped all three flowers – first from the back around the outside and then on the front just in the centers.

I then overlapped and glued the petals on the two larger flowers.

Then all three layers were glued in place, staggering the petals.

I rolled the spikey swirl and glued together. When they were dry, I lightly brushed them with Walnut Stain ink and glued them to the center of each poinsettia.

And here is my finished Christmas poinsettia!

I wrapped holiday ribbon around the Styrofoam and then hot glued all of the poinsettias to it. I plan on making two more of these in different sizes to place on the center of my table next month.

I hope that you enjoyed my holiday project and my quick tutorial. Next on the Hop is Betsy at BetsyBoo!

Please leave a comment (and follow my blog if you’d like to!) and I’ll enter your name for some blog candy of Christmas dyed Crinkle Ribbon! Have fun on your Hop!

Kreimers http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/
Tiffysmom http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ = YOU ARE HERE
BetsyBoo http://www.betsymcreates.blogspot.com/  = NEXT
October Beauty http://www.macybella.blogspot.com/
Marcjo http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/
Ken’s Kreations www.kreativeken.blogspot.com
DarcyBeeler http://dlmbscrapping-time2create.blogspot.com/
Scrapalette http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Momtotwocuties http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/
Greengirl www.michelegreen.com
Scrappin-Nanapuddin http://scrappin-nanapuddin.blogspot.com
CraftyScentiments http://craftyscentiments.blogspot.com/
CricutAddicted http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/
Sis O’Snap http://papercraftscissors.com/
TerriSki http://scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com/
Phantom Rink Rat http://addictedtothecricut.blogspot.com
TheCraftyTouch www.thecraftytouch.blogspot.com
HappyScrapper64 http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/
CraftySanSan http://1craftysansan.blogspot.com
MamaC http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/
NadiaH-McConnell http://www.withglitteringeyes.com/

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy and Safe Halloween! It warmed up here in Texas for the little Trick-or-Treaters to go out tonight and show off their costumes and pick up some treats along the way. I have just one more Halloween project to share before I put it all away and start working on Christmas projects! Here is my Spooky Halloween Banner!

I used Pretty Pennants to cut out the banner shapes at 6”. There are 5 shapes in all – the scalloped and regular banner shapes, the half circle shapes at the top, the spider webs, and the two bat flourishes at each end. I love this cart because it can be used for so many occasions and holidays.

Here is the first and last piece of the banner.

And here is one of the spider webs. I used a little silver ink to dust across the bat flourishes and the webs. Don’t you just love that purple ribbon with the black tinsel trim? It’s great for Halloween projects! It’s the Celebrate It! brand by Michaels.

I used two different patterned papers as the backgrounds for the banner. Both are made by The Paper Studio. The letters were all cut from the Happy Hauntings cart and were cut at 3.5”. The top layer is cut from a beautiful glitter cardstock called Red Carpet by Core’dinations. LOVE this cardstock!

Besides my love of bling, I also love dimension! I popped up these letters once into their shadows and then popped them up with not one but with two more pop dots onto the banner! Some people have their weaknesses – mine is pop dots!

Well, my banner is up and the candy is sitting in the Halloween bowls so I guess that means that I’m ready for tonight! Hope you are too! Thank you for visiting me today!

One more thing. If you love sales and Cricut images then run, do not walk, to Cricut.com! All of their digital images (carts, single images, image sets, and all Cricut CraftRoom Exclusives) are 31% off! But the sale ends today. If you have any questions about the digital images please leave me a comment!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Glass Block Tutorial

Hey guys, here is the tutorial for the Glass Block that I first posted on Saturday.

I started with just a clear glass block that I bought at Hobby Lobby. It has an opening in the bottom to place your string of lights. Instead of using my glass etching cream on it like I had originally planned, I decided to spray the entire block with this -

It’s a Specialty Frosted Glass spray made by Rust-oleum that I also purchased at Hobby Lobby. After the glass is sprayed it almost looks like it’s been etched or frosted.

(You can barely see the string of white Christmas lights inside the block in this photo.)

The block will need a couple of coats of spraying but it dries pretty fast. I measured my glass block at about 7.25” square. Now, I use my Gypsy or Design Studio whenever I can because an image that looks square may not always be a perfect square. So with my G or DS I can unlink the height and width proportions to make an image perfectly square. Two things to remember – make sure the little chain link is NOT highlighted yellow on the Gypsy to unlink the height and width proportions and you may also need to use the Real Dial Size to get the correct size. I used an image from the Paper Lace cartridge and sized it to 7.25”x7.25”. I also used pink vinyl and transfer tape, both from Provo Craft.

Using this transfer tape will save you from countless headaches – trust me on this one! I set the pressure on my Cricut to Medium (3) and my blade depth to 2 –remember, I used my Gypsy so I couldn’t control the speed but slow the speed down to 3 also if you’re just using your machine alone. You just want to do a ‘kiss cut’ – cutting only the vinyl and not the paper backing. After you have your vinyl cut out, you need to “weed” it. That just means to pull off all the negative areas of the vinyl and leave the image on the paper backing. The best tool to use is the dental looking tool that comes in the Cricut Tool kit! I love that little thing!It’s probably one of my favorite and most used tools! Now cut a piece of the transfer tape a little bit larger than your image. Pull the transfer tape layers apart – there is the part with the grid on it and a tacky layer. Place the tacky piece over your design. Here is what it will look like with the tacky layer over the design:

Now burnish the tape onto the vinyl image by rubbing it with the stick that came with the vinyl or the transfer tape. You can also use an old credit card or something similar – just make sure that you get a good seal between the vinyl and the tape.

Then gently peel the transfer tape away from the vinyl paper backing. The vinyl image should come up with the transfer tape. If it doesn’t, put the tape back down and burnish it some more.

Place the transfer tape with the vinyl image over your project, in this case, the glass block, making sure that the vinyl image is centered correctly.

Once you have it where you want it, smooth it down so that you seal the vinyl to the glass. Then slowly peel the transfer tape off. Go slow – you want to avoid air bubbles!

If you do find some air bubbles just keep smoothing them out slowly with your finger being careful not to rip the vinyl.

And here is the finished project -

Just add a string of lights and plug it in! What I like about this method of decorating a glass block is that you can easily take the vinyl off and redecorate it with different images and in different colors of vinyl – even use multiple colors of vinyl!

See how nice it looks with the lights plugged in -

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, please email me! Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Some Vinyl Projects!

What a great day I had yesterday! The Fabulous & 50 Blog Hop was so much fun and everyone involved had great projects! I can’t stop thanking them enough – so here we go, just one more time: Dawn, Janice, Normea, Nancy, Michelle, Barbara, Debbie, Marcia, Veronica, Tina, and last but not least, my girl, Monique. Thanks again to all of you for celebrating with me and being great friends! Scroll down to yesterdays post if you missed it!

I will get the tutorials made this week about the Glass Block that I made and the Origami Mini Book also. So keep checking back or better yet, subscribe to my blog and you will automatically receive my blog posts! But today I just wanted to share a couple of projects that I made back in BC – that’s Before Cricut! I had the Baby Bug but I also wanted something that would allow me to do more and design – so DH bought the Wishblade for me! More on that later!

In the first design, I bought the file from Paper Threads but I’m so sorry that I can not remember the actual designers name.

Jesus’ face is so detailed. This was a gift for a friend so I purchased an inexpensive clear glass plate and placed the cut black vinyl on it. She loved it!

Look at this – isn’t it amazing! If you know the designer please leave a comment. This was a very simple gift to make. I love working with vinyl so much!

This next project is all mine! I knew her family’s names and the fact that family was extremely important to her.

So easy to do with vinyl! Ok, now back to the Wishblade – I loved my WB and my little Bug just sat in the corner of my craft room. That was until I discovered the Gypsy and the Design Studio! I {HEART} my G & my DS! And that’s when I found out that I could do many of the things that I did in my WB program but with the G & DS it was SO MUCH EASIER! Yes, I know that with the WB I could use all of the fonts on my computer but between all of the carts that I own, surely I can find at least one font that will work with my projects! So even though I still have my WB (and I’ll never part with it) I absolutely {HEART} my Cricut family. Since then I have adopted a Cricut Expression, a Cricut Cake, the Design Studio, too many carts (lol, but the next one is just around the corner!), and my precious Gypsy! My little ‘family’ is very close and we spend a lot of time together! Maybe too much if you talk to some others, like those real people that stay here too! But with your Cricut, you can design the second project above in just minutes! You don’t need the G or DS but let me tell you, those two make my life so much easier! And if you get a Gypsy NOW and register it by tomorrow, you’ll be able to download extra cartridges – FREE! Now that’s a deal!

Well, time to go play with my family! Until next time, Happy Crafting,