Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room's

100 Cricut Cartridge Blog Hop

You should have started at http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/  if not please start at the beginning

Be sure to visit Erica's Blog http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com tomorrow for over 50 NEW projects that you did not see today....

Also make sure to follow Erica's blog so you will know when she has contests, prizes, challenges, swaps & special online coupons.

Currently she is running a Scrapbook & Card challenge over on her challenge blog and you can win a gift certificate to her webstore!  http://ericascraftroomchallenges.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to comment along the way on all of the blogs today and tomorrow to be entered to win the Cricut cartridge that Erica is giving away today.

Winners will be announced on her blog on Tuesday!

Welcome and happy Spring to all of you! I have a lot to share so let's get started. For my projects I used the Cricut carts: Inspired Heart, Wedding Solutions, Plantin School Book, Beyond Birthdays and the Imagine cart Hey Diddle Diddle.

     Spring also means the performance of religious rites of passage and we happen to have both a Grand son and Grand Daughter receiving their First Communion into our Catholic faith so I thought I'd make their cards ahead of time. I started with a card base from Plantin School Book which I sized @ 5.50" in CCR so I could add an oval window to the card front. The oval is from the insert to the image. I did have to rotate it  90 degrees since I wanted the card to open the vertically rather than from the side.

 Next I laid out the girl and boy images from Inspired Heart @ 3.25" as well as the oval that goes behind the image. (I'll explain in a minute!).  

Now I have my mat staged to cut the "stained glass" oval. Remove the images and ovals but leave the card stock/paper in place. I used Graffix stain glass acrylic and slipped it in the oval opening. Now I know I have the perfect fit to go behind my images (or you could just hide the images, leave the ovals, move the ovals over and cut, lol).I ran the front part of the card through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dot folder and misted with some Perfect Pearls in white to add a little sheen.

 The cross was cut @ 1.25" from the Wedding Solutions cart. The image is located on the 2nd row, 2nd image from the Left.

I did some distressing with Tattered Rose and Broken China on all my images.

Lastly, I wanted to add a nice sentiment so I used the Beyond Birthdays cart for the "Blessings to you " which is on page 134 cut @ 2".

Here's a close up of the girl card. the stain glass gives such a great look. It only took 4 cartridges to create this design, lol. I finished both cards with some Candi "brads" that you can purchase @ Erica's Shop.

Lastly I wanted to show you a project I am working on with the Imagine cart Hey Diddle Diddle. I have 5 grand sons all under the age of 8 years so I wanted to do baby books for them.

     I love my Imagine!!!! I can just go to the images, print and cut what I want, combine layers or separate them, make them into embellishments or just use them as they are. Talk about creative freedom!!!! This page is an example of separating the layers so they all print and cut individually. This way I could lay them all out on my page and add a real button to the phrase "Button".

I kept the "its a boy" as one image since I want the other page where a picture will go as a focal point.

 I have a feeling these are going to be works in progress for a while.

Time for you to continue hopping along to see what the rest of these ladies have to share.

Feel free to leave a comment along the way. Hugs~Mary

Next stop is Sheila @ http://2pawprints.blogspot.com

 Just in case you get lost along the way here is the line up:

Saturday

1.   Start My Cricut Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

2.   Susan http://craftingandbeyond.blogspot.com

3.   Janet http://janetscreativeworld.blogspot.com

4.   Jenn Lorist http://jennspapercrafts.blogspot.com

5.   Jenny R http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com 

6.   Liz http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com

7.   Tracy http://scrappininthewoods.blogspot.com

8.   Karey - http://www.creativecraftcorner.com

9.   Ericas’ Project http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com

10. Dana http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com

11. Tonya - http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com

12. Mary http://mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com <---You Are Here

13. Sheila http://2pawprints.blogspot.com <-------------   Next Stop

14. Kathy S http://3spoileddogs.blogspot.com

15. Amber http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com 

16. Laurie - http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com

17. Marji http://fstampaholic.blogspot.com

18. Christina http://cema1cema.blogspot.com

19. Kym http://kimmyskards.blogspot.com

20. Sabrina http://sabrinabellabeautiful.blogspot.com

21. Jessica K  http://homespunelegance.blogspot.com

22. Tiffany http://angel4ever-thecraftyteacher.blogspot.com

23. Teresa http://createenjoyshare.blogspot.com

24. Erica’s Blog candy http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/

How To Repair A Mannequin

     I have been working on a very special project I am excited to share with you. I am a floral designer and we are working on our prom display. Yes, it's that time again.
     One of my co-workers has an eye for vintage items so thought this might work in our display:

      Unfortunately she needed some repairs

      From her forehead, chin and even down to her toes she looked like she had been in a warehouse for a while.

          Her neck also had to be repaired. As soon as I saw her I could picture her restored but where do I start? Well, first I cleaned her up to remove any grease or dirt. Then I figured I couldn't just gesso the worn spots or she might look like she had chicken pox so I decided I needed to do some patch work.
     After some light sanding and removal of chipped paint, I tried some spackling filler, wrong! It just wouldn't stick. Next I thought about wood filler. Wrong again. While I played with the fillers, I decided to match a paint sample. I just couldn't get the right shade.
     Then I had the most brilliant idea. Since you can unlock all the pieces (hands, arms, legs etc) I put one of the hands in a bag and headed off to Home Depot. You know the commercial where they tell you they do color matching? Well it works! After the lady in the paint Department got over the shock of a really life like looking hand we were able to match the color perfectly and even went with a satin finish to match what was already on the Mannequin.
     The next step was to figure out what on earth to use to fill the pox marks with? The base is actually covered with a fiberglass however the bonding agent had to be mixed and used within 5 minutes. This was not a time frame I was at all comfortable with. So the sales lady and I headed over to the patch section in the paint department and agreed Dap's Crack Shot High Performance spackling paste seemed the best choice.

     After a careful patch job, overnight dry time and more light sanding I was finally ready to paint. Are you ready for the big reveal?

 She is such a sultry lady, lol.

You can't even see where the flaws were. I love all the detail she has. The beautiful brown eyes are glass with life like eyelashes. I did have to redo the eyebrows using an archival fine point marker. I could not find a shade to redo the the lips and I felt it was best to leave them alone.

Here she is after dressing and before we find a safe spot to display her.

     Just a note about this mannequin, when I go shopping I find it strange to see clothing displayed on faceless, shapeless figures.This one was produced in 1987 and the detail, not only on the facial features, but on the skeletal frame as well is incredible. She has a very graceful spine but what impressed me was the biceps and the other muscles that were evident. People coming into the store are doing a double take because she truly is life like. This is a challenge I just had to undertake. After all I would do it if only: For The Love Of Art!!!!!!

Scottie Dog Birthday Card

     Welcome to  Mondays from My Cricut Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ where you are limited only by your Imagination, lol. On Mondays the Design Team is challenged to use either the Imagine carts, CCR images or the cartridges that come with the E2. If you have been following me you know I love to use the Imagine pattern carts to flood fill my images or to use the paper as my card base. This week I used the Imagine cart Heirloom to create my card base and insert with the Just Because Cards cartridge. The card and insert is on page 37 and cut @ a height of 5.50". This beautiful musical background from Heirloom is on page 10.

    I also cut some small rectangles (1:2 and 2:3) that are preloaded on the Imagine for the outside of the card as well as the insert tag using the color palette with this cart. The Scottie dogs are cut with Layer 1 + 2 as well as the shadow @ 1.50". I did use a black card stock for these cute little guys. The shadow was also shaded with distress inks.

     This is the insert that goes with this particular card. Again I used the preloaded label on the Imagine but this time I flood filled with the same musical paper that is on the front of the card. I used some distress ink on the edges and added some pearl dots to the edges. The sentiment is a rub-on as well as the Happy Birthday on the front of the card.

     Here's a close up of the embellishments on the card. I used some i-rock rhinestones for the collar and a pearl for the eye. I wanted the dogs to show up so I used a small prima flower with a pink brad for the center
and a few silver stickles to bring out the center.
      This is a Birthday card for my Mom who turns 87 on April 6th and she just loves anything Scottish. She is having difficulty seeing so I wanted to add some elements she could feel. This is why I used a silver wire to "tie" the two dogs together.
     Are you inspired to try this card? I certainly hope so. Now be sure to head back over to Ericas Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/  and see what my fellow Design Team sisters have to show you. While you are there, check out Erica's store for any of your crafting supplies.http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/