Children Around the World

A couple of months ago I was up to my eyeballs in, well, eyeballs!!!

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I know, looks weird, right? But wait until you see what they were for! I joined a swap on the Cricut Circle message board that was hosted by the fabulous Renee, aka RockinRenee. It was for the cartridge, Children Around the World. When it first came out, it reminded me of the Disneyland ride, It’s A Small World, and I knew that I had to have it! We picked one of the ‘children’ and made 25 each. Well, somewhere between reading that and actually making them, I had a senior moment and cut out FIFTY kids instead! So now imagine those eyeballs – 1 doll x 2 eyes x 2 pieces per eye = 200 itty bitty pieces of cardstock!!! There were eyes everywhere! Even now, two months later, I can find eye pieces on the carpet around my work table. But it was worth it!

I choose the African girl. Here are photos of my kids in progress:

CATW African Girl 10I tried to pick different shades of cardstock to represent my girls from Africa (since we are women of color – many different colors!) even though for me it is so hard to pick cardstock to represent any correct shade of skin tone!

CATW African Girl 03Besides the eyes, the really only other small pieces were the little sandals. But since we all cut out our kids at 5” it wasn’t that difficult at all to put them together. There were pieces for my girls hat and her dress.

CATW African Girl 04I think I’m more excited about this part than any other! I used several different patterned papers for all of the dresses and it ALL came from my stash!!! I didn’t plan it that way but I’m so happy that I was able to use papers that I had on hand. It feels like such a big accomplishment to me!

CATW African Girl 08And here are my girls! Don’t they look so cute and fun? I’m happy about the way they came out.

CATW African Girl 06Each doll on the cart also comes with a companion image – mine was the hut – so I used CCR to make the hut into a Thank You card for our hostess, Renee.

When you are part of a swap, one of the best parts is receiving your swap package from the hostess with everyone else’s creations. And I so excited when my package arrived! The other ladies did a fantastic job with their kids. There is so much added detail to each. I am so amazed with my Circle sisters! I am linking Renee’s post on her blog, I Came, I Saw, I Created,  with all of the 25 children so that you can see how lovely they all are. And while you are there, take some time to look around her blog – Renee has so many wonderful and beautiful projects to share! Tell her that Angela sent you to visit!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

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My heart hurts.....

... in more than one way today! I'm sorry that I haven't posted for a while but I've had some serious health problems and concerns but I'm working with my doctor to get well. But today my heart breaks again for the families in Newtown, CT. It's just not right, not this early in their young lives, not at this time of year, not at anytime! Please continue to pray for all those who were personally touched by this horrific tragedy and those parents, grandparents, and siblings of the 20 little Angels and the six who tried to protect them.

And if you have a small prayer left over, I'll be blessed to have any that you can send up.
Thank you and God bless you!

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Christmas Reindeer Treat Holders–Cricut FANatics

Hey everyone! It’s my day to post a project on Cricut FANatics and I wanted to share these treat holders with you. They are cute, easy to put together and I’ll show you different ways to use them this Christmas.

Reindeer1

I saw something like these several years ago made with punches and I had always wanted to make some but never got around to it. Now that I have my Cricut, I am always trying to make life a little easier by recreating projects from years ago using my Expression along with either my Gypsy or more than ever now with Cricut CraftRoom. For this project I used December 25th cart by Teresa Collins and Cricut Craft Room Basics. I love putting most (if not all) of my cardstock for a project on my cutting mat and making just one pass through my Cricut at one time. So even though there are eight different colors to make a reindeer, I only had to do two passes with my Expression.

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I used the Sweet Treat Cups from Stampin’ Up! for the reindeer noses. You get 12 cups for less than $3!

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In one nose I placed red Skittles. You can use Red Hots, red M&M’s, or anything that you’d like to use. In the other nose I used red glitter that I adhered with Glossy Accents and after it dried, I placed oats in the cup. These are to be used on Christmas Eve as “Reindeer Food”.  (Note – you may want to use red colored sugar crystals instead of glitter so as not to harm birds or other little critters)

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I did the “Reindeer Food” with my kids when they were little and they loved it! There is also a little poem that goes with it that I’ll share at the end of this post. After cutting out all of the parts of the reindeer, I inked all of the edges, added red Stickles to the holly and one of the ornaments, Glossy Accents to another ornament, popped the eyes and eyelids up with pop dots, and added the highlights to the eyes with a white gel pen.

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Can you guess what I used for the antlers???

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The antlers from the deer on the December 25th cart! I cut out two with one flipped and that gave me two sets of symmetrical antlers. I just cut them off by hand. Everything is then glued to the base (the one without the hole in it) and a piece of ribbon was attached to the tops with my Tiny Attacher (love this tool!).

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Then you attach the cup with your treats (or the reindeer’s treats) inside and adhere it to the base. The cups already come with adhesive on them. Next, just place the face on top, attach the eyes and holly, and draw his mouth (I can not draw so excuse his lopsided mouth!).

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After I put them all together, I found these plastic Christmas lights in my stash and used these instead of the ornaments that I had cut out. I just tied them on with some SU twine.

Here is the poem that I will use (these are not mine, I have just been using them for many years so I do not know where I found them):

Magic Reindeer Food -

Sprinkle this reindeer food outside on Christmas Eve night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam

This magical food will guide them to your home.

 

Or I may even use one of these:

 

I wanted the perfect gift for you- 
But couldn’t decide just what to do.
 
I almost sent you a dozen roses-
 
Instead here’s a bag of…
 
reindeer noses!

I woke up with such a scare when I heard Santa call...
"Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"
I ran to the lawn, and in the snowy white drifts,
those nasty reindeer had left "little gifts".

I got an old shovel and started to scoop
Neat little piles of "reindeer poop."
but to throw them away seemed such a waste,
So I saved them, thinking you might like a taste!

As I finished my task, which took quite a while,
Old Santa passed by and he sheepishly smiled.
And I heard him exclaim as he rose to the sky~~~
"Well, they're not potty trained, but at least they can fly!"

 

 

Thank you for visiting and I hope that you enjoyed my Christmas Reindeer!

 

Christmas Reindeer Recipe:

 

From December 25th -

Holly @ 1.222

Ornament @ 1.431

Antlers – Deer @ 4.417 x 8.583

From Cricut Craft Room Basics -

Circles – 1 @ 4.25 x 2.75 (base)

                   1 @ 4.25 x 2.75 (with a 1.75 x 1.75 circle welded inside for the face)

                   2 @ 1.75 x .875 (eyelids)

                   2 @ 2 x 1.375 (outside ears)

                   2 @ 1.75 x .875 (inside ears)

                   2 @ .5 x .5 (eyes in black)

                   2 @ .75 x .75 (eyes in white)

 

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

 

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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!

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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)

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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And here is my finished Christmas poinsettia!

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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!

Spooky Banner Medium Web view

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.

Banner Ends

Here is the first and last piece of the banner.

Web

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.

Background 1

Background 2

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!

Side View

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!

Spooky Banner

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!

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Falling into Halloween Blog Candy Winner and Candy Box File

Happy weekend! I hope your weekend has been great so far. Here it feels like Fall one day and Summer the next. But there were storms last night and to me there’s nothing like going to bed and listening to the raindrops until you fall asleep. Well there were also sounds of thunder and hail but sometimes you have to take a little of the bad to enjoy and appreciate the good.

Well, on with the announcement of the winner of the Blog Candy from the Falling for Halloween Bog Hop last weekend. I hope that you all enjoyed the hop! I will be in another blog hop next month so come prepared to be inspired for all sorts of wonderful Christmas projects! I’ll give you details at the end of this post.

The Winner is ………………….. (Drum roll please) ………………..

 

DONNA BOYCE

On the first day Donna said’ “Absolutely love the block art!! I am going to have to try that. Thanks also for the Thankful was decor I need to learn more about the hide and contour feature that you were talking about. TFS”

And on the second day she said, “Angela the charger is nice, but I absolutely love the milk carton. I have that cartridge and haven’t done anything with it yet... what a great time to start! Thanks so much for sharing!”

Thanks so much Donna for visiting me and al of the other wonderful ladies on the blog hop and taking the time to leave me these wonderful ”Blog Love”comments! I truly appreciate them and you! And thank you for following my blog! I hope to continue to share and inspire you and everyone who visits me. Donna please email me your addy so that I can get your Blog Candy out to you!

I also promised that I would make the Candy Box file available in the .ccr format. Well, I got it done but something happened along the way – the box just didn’t look right and when I cut it all the dimensions were wrong! So I re-created the file in CCR and now I have it available. So here it is:

CandyTreatBox_Angie_ccr

I have a Spooky Banner and few other Ghoulish projects to post before Halloween is here! I will also be apart of the Holly Jolly Blog Hop on November 10, 2012 with some very, very talented designers. Jot that date down and please come visit us for many wonderful and inspiring Christmas projects!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

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Halloween Treat Box

I want to share a Halloween treat box that I designed in the Cricut Design Studio some time ago. This was before the CraftRoom and all of the wonderful cartridges that we have now with the boxes and bags. I used square, rectangle, and tag shapes from Plantin School cartridge to create this treat box that you can use for many, many more occasions other than Halloween. These would be cute for other holidays, birthdays, showers, and wedding favors just by changing the colors and adding an different topper. Oh, and of course, changing the treats inside! I will post the CDS file on my blog for anyone who’d like it.
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Candy Box6(Don’t you just LOVE the purple M&M’s?)
Candy Box4This is the box after it is cut with the Cricut.

Candy Box3Now just score! Starting from the left (the side with the window) score at 1”, 3”, 4”, 6”, 7”  and 9”. Turn 90 degrees and score at 1” and 3”. (This cut was embossed with the Big Shot)
CandyBox2Place Scor-Tape on the ends on the 4 tabs.
CandyBox1Cut or punch out a square piece of transparency paper that is slightly larger than the window opening. I used a 1 3/4” punch. Use the Scor-Tape to adhere the transparency to the underside of the window opening.
CandyBox3 (I tried to take a photo of the top to get the transparency but I can’t tell if you can see it or not)
CandyBox4Put it all together and you have a treat box!
CandyBox8Do not adhere the back flap. This is where you will add your treats!
CandyBox5Decorate the top….
CandyBox6and the inside and you’re done! I used Chic & Scary for the spider web on this one and I used Happy Hauntings for the tombstones in the first photo.

Here’s the link to download the Candy Box CDS file - Candy Box - CDS
I will be recreating the Treat Box in the Craftroom and will post the CCR file tomorrow!

Thank you visiting and I hope that you enjoyed today’s Treat Box! Have a safe and Happy Halloween!
Until next time, Happy Crafting,
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Cricut Info & Supplies Used:
Designed by: Angela Cromwell
Cartridges Used: Plantin SchoolBook, Happy Hauntings, Chic & Scary
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression, Cricut Design Studio
Other Supplies Used: K&Co. cardstock, Sixxiz Big Shot, Tim Holtz Tattered Banners Die, gemstones, Scor-Tape, pop dots, transparency sheet, square punch, ink, stamp by Stampin’ Up, PC embossing folder, Scor-Pal

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