I've been Missing, but I need HELP!!! Calling all CRAFTERS

Hello lovely ladies,

As I mentioned, I've been missing lately. I've still been crafting, but more for just myself and family. No pressures or deadlines, but now I need some help. I am President of my daughters PTA or Parent Council, and right now, we are concentrating on Halloween and the dance we have, but knowing that I have little time, I have to get started on the Christmas party. The plan we have right now is to have a Santa pancake breakfast. With this, I want to give each Family a little take home gift, and thought I could make a Christmas tree decoration....but thats where I got stuck...What kind? I've hunted Pinterest and have a few thoughts running through my over crowded head, but none that jumped out at me as "thats it". My thoughts are maybe my crafty peeps could lend me a hand.....what should I make? I don't want to spend alot, because, well, I have to make about 150, so, haha, it has to be cheap AND easy. Send me some ideas guys. If anyone can, I know its YOU! :)

Theme Day Thursday- Halloween Decorations

 Good day everyone. Happy Theme day Thursday. Today the ladies of My Cricut Craft Room had the pleasure of making something used for a Halloween Party. But don't forget the catch....in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month next month, we have gone pink. All of out projects have to have pink somewhere on it.

  I don't have a Halloween party, but I do have 2 girls in school that have a Halloween dance. So I sat down and got to work. Here is my project:

I cut this frame as large as I could at 11. Because it is not square I could not go the full 12. I found this frame on Happy Hauntings. It has 4 cuts to it, the black web, the orange background, the black backing and the stand part.

For the life of me, I could not figure out how the stand part was attached to the frame, there are little slots on the backing, but it just didn't make sense, so I did the only thing I could figure out, I got out my trusty ATG gun:) I also should note, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with my frame when I started to I cut the stand twice and glued them together to give it some extra strength.

I love using purple for halloween, so I made sure to shadow the saying in it. This saying was from Happy Hauntings as well and it is cut at 3'. I pop dotted it up to give it some dimension. I will be making a twin to this one, only I will use it the display the entrance fee of the dance. One will go on either end of the entrance table:)



And the pink? well, its right here:

I added a little pink spider to the back. He was from Artiste and was cut at 2'. He's a darker pink then he's showing up too, he looks white here, but he's really not.

With Halloween just around the corner, are you thinking of having a party? well head on over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what other ghoulishly fun Halloween decorations they came up with

WYEGW with My Cricut Craft Room

 

Happy Hump Day! Wonder why it's ^^ Pink? We Erica has asked us to go pink for Octobers Breast Cancer awareness. All of our projects will have pink on them somewhere, and our heading will be Pink too.

 So, as a recap, What is Would You Ever Guess Wednesday? It is when you use a cartridge is a way you wouldn't normally. Like not using the main cuts on the cart...usually whats on the plastic overlay. Why the little recap? Well, this week Erica threw in a challange, we were to use as many cuts or cartridges as possible. I was so excited, I jumped at the chance to have this day. So, as usual, life got in the way of crafting, and I got behind. I started my project last wednesday. That gave me 2 days to finish before my due date and I didn't have a clue on what to do. Well, finally I figured it out and got to work.

  I finished it with about 7 hours to spare, when someone says "Are we still supposed to follow the WYEGW rule of no main cut?" D'oh!! What? I had made my whole layout and I couldn't remember my cuts. I use my gypsy everytime, and its just second nature, I don't even think. Well Here's my layout, and I'll tell you after if I followed the rules:

So, I have 4 trees,1 boat with 1 layer, 1 birdie with 1 layer 2 waves welded together, and Summer, cut twice because there was no shadow feature ( I did copy Erica's time about off centering if something doesn't have a shadow feature)

  tree, and the boat are pop dotted, but these pics, you can't tell

 And here is my bit of pink, a heart with the year:)

So did I follow the rules? Nope, not really. The only NON feature cuts are:

Trees- cut @4 Every day Paper Dolls

"Summer" cut @ 2 Phrases

The boat cut @ 3 and the waves welded together cut at 2 are from Life's a Beach

and the Birdie cut at 4 from Straight From the Nest are MAIN feature cuts:(

Ah well, no prize for me. Next time I better think more. To check out who made the same mistake as me, and who didn't (but did an amazing job regardless) head on over to My Cricut Craft Room

Boat Paper-Echo Park

Blue background-CTMH

Cricut Craft Room Help Guide

The Cricut Craft Room Help Guide is 78 pages and
you can download it by clicking this picture. .....

When you open Cricut Craft Room now there is a GREAT video that pops up and welcomes you to Craft Room. If you have ever been intimidated by the idea of Craft Room…. NOW is your chance. There is a 4 minute video that welcomes you to Craft Room and will help you get aquainted and NOT intimidated by Craft Room!

It really is great, no matter what your computer skill level is. Please take the first step and try Craft Room if you have not taken that step yet. I have done a few Ustream tutorials to help with Craft Room, but no one can do it better than Provo-Craft themselves!

This guide came from www.cricut.com and was assembled by
Erica’s Craft Room™ My Cricut Craft Room™
and Affordable Crafting Concepts™ Copyright 2009-2012

Visit the My Cricut Craft Room blog for 6-10 Cricut made projects each weekday.
http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com



On Hello Thursday visit Erica’s blog for the projects made with the
newest cricut cartridges and the Cricut Craft Room files to go with them.
I will have a project made with them and all of the Cricut Craft Room files for them to make your crafting easier and less frustrating.

Never pay more than $34.99 for a Cricut Cartridge EVER again…..

www.shop.ericascraftroom.com

ALL Cricut cartridges $34.99 or less the DAY of release from Provo-Craft.

Create a Critter 2 & Suburbia, Now shipping

$34.99 each or $65 for both (September Bundle)

STOCK UP SALE!!!!

AND $5 shipping all weekend!
12x12 set of Cricut mats (Also work for the Imagine) $8
12x24 set of Cutting mats $12.50
Set of Regular Blades $7.50
Set of Deep Cut Blades $9

Click HERE to download this help guide.
Any suggestions are ALWAYS welcome!

My Cricut Craft Room Layout

 Good Friday morning everyone. We are finishing up our first full week of school here. I`ve struggled to get back into the swing of things, but hey atleast the kids got to school on time, with lunches, fully dressed:)

  Todays theme at My Cricut Craft Room is a layout with 4 pictures. Easy peasy!! My favorite too:)
Here`s my layout:

(Excuse the picture, for some reason, my camera was acting up)


 I used the Everyday Paper dolls to make this layout of my kids playing mini golf. My In laws came a few days this summer to take the kids on special outtings, and mini golf is one of there favorite activies.

 Everything is cut at 4` except the clouds with where 2. They were too big at 4. I popped 1 layer of the grass, and the clouds are popped on top of a flat cloud to give it a fluffy effect. You can`t tell in the picture though. I added silver pearl stuff around the tires and on the flag pole (what is that stuff called, for the life of me, I can`t think of it) and I used orange stickles on the flag.

 As I write up this post, I`m thinking I need a title, so I might have to go back and do that. What do you think? Title? No Title?

 I`m off to start, and finish 4 cards for this weekend, and my project for next week lol, but if you need some more inspiration, head over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what the rest of the ladies whipped up.
 

Take a Peak Through the Window

  Good morning folks. Everyone have a good long weekend? For us here, it was the last weekend before school starts on friday. Yes, our classes start Friday. Strange eh? Anyways, today for Card Creating Tuesday with My Cricut Craft Room had the theme of a window. I jumped at the chance to do this, and then when it came time to make my card, well, I blanked. I made 3 different cards. ( I didn't finish, but I will post it once I finish)

  Here is one I made

 I used the Simply Charmed cart and used the gypsy to weld the back part of the crayon box to the front. I cut out (with a craft knife) where it said crayons and used that as my window. I wasn't completely thrilled with this card, so I tried again.

  This is the card that I chose to showcase today:

 I used a card feature on the Art Philosophy cart. It didn't have a window on it so I picked a shape I wanted and added it to the mat on my gypsy before cutting the card. The butterfly is from Cricut Basics.

 After some tweaking on sizes I cut the card shape at 6.8 and the butterfly is 3. Its an odd card size, but I still wanted some room on the card to embellish.

The butter fly on the inside I embossed with the swirls folder and added foam squares to the back to pop it. I stamped a sentiment on the inside as well.

  The outside sentiment says "Forever Friends" that I cut at 1 from the phrases cart.

 I should have the 3rd card ready for you all tomorrow, but if your looking for some more cool Window cards head on over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what the rest of the fabulous ladies have come up with.

September's 100 Cartridge Blog Hop with My Cricut Craft Room

 Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room 100 cartridge Blog Hop! This is a blog hop put on the first weekend of every month by the wonderful design team of My Cricut Craft Room. This is Day 1 of the hop.

  You should have come here from Erica's Projects. If not make sure you start from the start at My Cricut Craft Room because you're not going to want to miss any of our projects!

  This weekend the 3 cartridges that I choose to use where:
1.Wall Decor and More
2. Lovely Floral
3. Going Places.

 The first layout I did I used the Wall Decor and More cartridge. I absolutely love this cartridge. I love how many different things you could do with it. I'm also getting the courage soon I hope to use this cart to make some vinyl wall art. Cross your fingers for me:) Here's my project:

 This layout is of my girls making their very first sewing project. My Mother in Law taught the girls how to make these cute little snow man pillows. They were so excited.

CUTS:
"SEW" cut @ 4
Needle and tread cut @ 3
Scissors cut @ 3

Some other products used were:
Bazzill cardstock, buttons, Twine, Glitter ritz, 3 Girl JamRibbon

 The second layout I completed was using the Lovely Floral cart. I just recently noticed the wonderful cuts on this cartridge. It really is a great cart.

 This is  my daughter Payton's first day of Grade 3 last year.



CUTS:
Beautiful cut @ 2
Grade   3 cut @ 3
Bookworm cut @3

 "Beautiful" was a premade word, and I love it. I think its so elegant. The grade 3 I just used the alphabet font and typed it out . The little book worm is carrying a little flag that had "hello" one it, but I hid it so that I could write the date.

 And finally, my last layout....one that I squeaked in under the wire. I finished this layout at 9 pm last night, knowing that I had only til about 11 pm because I still had to type up this post. Phew. This layout I used Going Places. This was actually the 1st cart I picked and had a plan all worked out last month, thats why I left it til last. Well by time I got into my room, a whole new idea came up as I was working, and I think I like this idea better:)

 This is during our last road trip to Florida. Its a 4 day road trip for us, but we love doing it, and wouldn't fly for the world.

CUTS:
4 Street Signs cut @ 2
Car cut @ 2
Traffic light cut @ 3
Stop Sign cut @ 3

  I decided last minute to use the stop sing as my journaling spot. I hid the word "Stop" on it too using the Gypsy ( I love that thing!!)

Journaling says "What do you do with 3 kids on a 4 day road trip? Put in a movie, and hope for the best!"





 ,

 Hope you enjoyed my layouts:) Hoping to venture into something else next month:)

 Your next stop on the hop is Cathy at Cathy Plus 5 

If you get lost along the way, here is Saturdays full lineup:
 1. MCCR http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

3. Kathy http://3spoileddogs.blogspot.com/
4. heather http://heathernovinger.blogspot.com/
5. Miranda http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/
6. LB http://www.coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/
7. amy http://clayfulimagination.blogspot.com/
8. Claire http://threewaterscreations.blogspot.com/
9. shelley http://shelley-scrapbookingforfun.blogspot.com/
10. jenn lorist http://www.jennspapercrafts.blogspot.com/
11. Erica's Projects http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com/
12. Angie http://crazyscraplady-angelpie.blogspot.com/
13. Cathy http://cathyplus5.blogspot.com/
14. Tammy - http://www.Cuttinandstampin.blogspot.com/
15. Samantha http://www.samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/
16. Nadja http://nadjarobbins.blogspot.com/
17. Lisa Carrier http://ourcraftingcorner.blogspot.com/
18. robin http://create-a-latte.blogspot.com/
19. Jessica S http://jessicascraftshaque.blogspot.com/
20. Jen L http://www.mybusycraftylife.blogspot.com/
21. Blog Candy http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.co

Scrapbook Friday with My Cricut Craft Room

 Its Friday folks!!! (and a long weekend!)  And with friday comes Scrapbook Friday were the ladies show off the layouts we've made. This weeks layouts had a theme...it had to include a character on it. Simple right? I've been to Disney, might as well do a disney layout...well I didn't:) I did use a Disney character though!

Ahhh, my boy. He turned 13 in May and is already taller then me, I'm 5'9, so he's going to be tall. Somedays I look at him and think he's getting to be such a young man, but then, I turn around and he's doing something so funny and so kid like:) Like roasting a marshmellow over a candle while wearing his sister's pink bike helmet!

   I had a picture made into a 5x7 for the main page, but just as I was about to mat it down, I realized that I hadn't cropped it very well, so you could see my youngest's hand on the side. I was a little pift and didn't have time to order a new one (I don't have a working home print at this time:( )

  So I did the seconf best thing, I used part of my title to cover the little flaw. It doesn't cover all of it, but it takes the attention away.

 And here's the character I used! Seemed fitting with the pictures I had. I could have used the Disney theme for the whole layout, but I wanted to show that you could use any character for any layout.




Recipe

Cartridge- Mickey Font- Goofy, cut @ 4
                                      "Gawarsh" cut @ 2
                                       "What A Guy" cut @ 1 (lower case)
                                         "GOOFY" cut @ 3 (capitol)
Cardstock- Navy Blue- Bazzill
                   Little blue - Core'dinations
Twine- Twinery

  Simple layout, but I do love it. It shows my boy perfectly. To see more fun characters head on over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what a few of the lovely Ladies have come up with.

 Also while you're there, check out the giveaway Erica has going on right now. She is asking that you stop by FB and show your love and support for the Cricut Machine. Click HERE to see.

  And don't forget to come back this weekend for our 100 Cartridge blog hop:) Its always a good time, full of amazing projects!

As the Summer Winds Down....

....Its time to go back to a routine:( During the summer months, its no hold barred at my house. The kids run a muck, the dogs get hyper, I seem to get more grey hair...but I wouldn't change it for the world!!

 This summer has been good! I had my daycare kids all summer, so most of the time we were wtuck at home, but the end of July we made the 26 hour drive to visit my sister in law in Ottawa. We drove through the US there and back and had a really good time. Going there we did it in 2 days, arriving early evening the 2 day. We did have a chance to stop off at a DINER'S, DRIVE-INN's, and DIVE'S restaurant in Cloquet, MN

Their claim to fame was onion rings, but lets just say they were less then steller:( I don't remember the town we stayed in that night, but this is the view from our hotel room...we had sliding doors right onto the lake!!

 We had a wonderful visit in Ottawa!! I thought I would have a huge anxiety problem out there with 2 extra kids (my niece and nephew) but it was really good! My kids got to try new things, and they all had a BLAST!!

 Quading

 Fishing

 Downtown Ottawa (dying in the heat)

I just threw this one in because I think he looks great in this picture:) He hates it heehee.

 My kids went on a boat for the first time, they fished for the first time, tubed for the first time! And for my son, thats HUGE. He is like me, and trying things outside of the box gives him huge anxiety issues but he loved it all!!

On the way home we went through the US again. There was a few things I wanted to do while there, but the 11/2 wait at the border slowed us down. Then the kids saw a Cracker Barrel and wanted lunch. One of our family faves when in the US. So lunch took 2 hours. I had wanted to see if I could squeeze in a meet and greet with 3 of my DT sister that are in the Cleveland area, but because of the delays, and Canadian technology costing an arm and a leg in the States I was unable to meet Jessica from  Jessica's Craft Shaque, Heather from Random Recipes, Paper Crafts and Photos By HL, and last but not least, our fearless leader Erica from My Cricut Craft Room.

 But we did stop at Niagara Falls in Buffaol NY. Totally in awe of that place!

 There's more to our summer fun, but I'm going to keep you waiting til tomorrow:) Come back and see! Hmmm, after this post, make sure you go to the bathroom first, and maybe grab a drink and a snack!!