It's My Party Blog Hop!!!

 


Welcome to our Party Decor Blog Hop. We have a fantastic group of ladies who love to
 make party decorations and we are excited to share our projects with you today!  

If you just happened to find my blog, thank-you so much. However, so you don't miss awesome projects or the chance to win blog candy, you will want to start at the beginning at  
http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com. If you came from Wandy @ http://greenapplescrapper.blogspot.com/ then you are in the right spot.
     I am in the mood to PARTYYYYY! Today just happens to coincide with the unveiling of my new blog design! I just love it, it's so me.!!!!

Speaking of parties we have them all the time. I have 5 children and 8 grand children so with weddings, baby showers, christenings, anniversaries and graduations, etc we always have a reason to party! Let me introduce myself:
 
     Hi! I am Mary and I'm a craftoholic!!! I'm so glad you decide to join us on this wonderful Hop! I am going to share with you a birthday party we had for my grandson Ben who turned 5 in December. He loves pirates and since I was in charge of the desserts I had just the right idea.

      I had just gotten the Cricut cake machine  ( for a great deal, lol) so this is my first attempt using this machine. I used the Buccaneer cart since it was a pirate party. I think there is going to be a learning curve with the cake machine! ( but I am learning to LOVE my Imagine).

     I had my own gum paste (tinted brown) for the skull and cross bones. The blue and white polka dots is a sugar sheet that I thought would be good to work with, wrong! It dries too quickly and is brittle. Even though I got it on sale, I don't think I'll use this again.

     I was fortunate enough to find some pirate themed candles to add to this. How cool are these banners? I made a lot of them because.....

      The banners were cut at 1.5" and I did half one way and the others I did the same only I flipped them horizontally so I would have a front and back. The characters were all cut separately and had to be sized to fit the banners.

      I made cupcake boxes for the kids party at the laser tag party so each kid would have their own cake. Ben's was extra special with the "Shiver Me Timbers" pattern for the cart.This is the great thing about the imagine because you can flood fill any image you have on any Cricut cartridge so you don't have to worry about having enough paper. Definitely a savings when you are doing a large quantity.

      I made a little insert for the bottom of the wrapper to raise the cupcake up. The insert was cut from Sweet Tooth Boxes. I used Sweet Treats cartridge on page 72 cupcake holders for the actual box. Just a word of warning if you print your own cardstock with the Imagine, it is not waterproof. I placed the cupcakes in the wrappers just prior to bringing to the party.

     Here's the handsome and ever playful Benjamin who is now officially 5!
      Next stop on the Hop is Jen @ http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com/. Let's see what kind of party she is having!!!

                BLOG CANDY is a $20 gift card to Michaels.

To win all you have to do is comment on each of the designer's blogs. Following everyone's

blog isn't required but we sure do appreciate it when someone new follows our blogs.


The winner will be announced on http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com

on April 27th.

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

1. Laurie http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com
   
2. Michelle www.scrappinwithmybug.com
   
3. ClaireR http://threewaterscreations.blogspot.com/
   
4. Ashley http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com
   
5. Cyndie http://cyndiepaperboutique.wordpress.com/
   
6. Sandy S. http://thecraftycreationspot.blogspot.com
   
7. Gloria http://craftnthings.blogspot.com
   
8. Jessica http://homespunelegance.blogspot.com/
   
9. Autumn http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com/
   
10. Sheila http://2pawprints.blogspot.com
    
11. Vanessa http://wwwpaperkraftsunlimiteddesings.blogspot.com/
    
12. Marji http://www.fstampaholic.blogspot.com/
    
13. Sylvia http://www.bellascrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com/
    
14. Wandy http://greenapplescrapper.blogspot.com/
    ,--- You came from
15. Mary  http://Mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com/
    <------You are here
16. Jenny R http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com
     < Next stop to party on!!!!

   

Hang Ten!!!

     Are you ready for vacation yet, lol? Well I had an unexpected trip to Hawaii to help my daughter after some surgery. So when I saw today was Theme Day Thursday @ Erica's Craft Room, and that the theme was vacation I figured it would be the only way I would scrap any part of this trip.
     Please keep in mind that I am a card maker and am WAY out of my comfort zone yet I am so happy with how this turned out. It rained 12 out of the 14 days I was there however we did have one evening where we went to downtown Honolulu and went to this fabulous park.

     Where do I begin? This beautiful park had statues of a Queen who was reading books to children. It was surrounded with palm trees that were all light with lights. There were even lanterns hanging from the trees. I wanted to remember these so I used the Luau cartridge to cut the lanterns@ 4" wide and 1.861 high out of black card stock.. I then cut 3 sets of the layer feature @ 3.208" x 1" high from different colors. I used my Xyron X to adhere the layers, added some stickles and some black bakers twine. If you need some stickles, bakers twine or other supplies, please be sure to visit Erica's Shop, she has some awesome products over there.

      No matter where we went people make this hand gesture called "hang ten". It's sort of like waving high or goodbye. Believe it or not the Life's A Beach cart has the hang ten symbol, lol. The image is on page74 and I cut the main image @ 3.5" x 4" with the layers @ 1.792" x 2.569" for the fingers. I inked them while they were still on the mat then added pop dots to the fingers. The back side has journaling on it. Since I had saved the coffee wrapper it seemed like a good spot to tuck the hand in.

     Naturally I had to use the "Paradise" from Life's A Beach. You can find this on page 33 under Title words. I cut it @ 6" x 3.111. I wanted a blackout but this image didn't have one so ....CCR to the rescue! I sized it @ 6" x 3.125 and, using the edit button, I blocked out the center of the letters. Again I cut 3 sets out of different colors, then cut them apart to have a multicolored sign. I popped the letters in my Xyron X again (love this little machine!) and after everything is adhered added so stickles.

     This is a picture of how I set up my mat. I love designing in the CCR. Once I have it designed I just place the colors on my mat and cut!!

     This is the right hand side of the page. Notice the second set of lanterns in the top right hand side. I made a tag in the CCR using the Luau cartridge and the Hibiscus image. I cut the image  @ 2.25.

     This has to be my favorite element I created for this lay out! You can find this image on the Luau cart. I cut it @ 4.5" and cut the layer of leaves 3 times out of velum. The layers are separated by pop dots, adorned with stickles. The center has a brown pearl from creative charms.
     I hope I have given you a few ideas and please pop back over to Erica's Craft Room to see what the rest of the team has to show you.

Puzzle Pieces Card

     I have been working on so many projects that I thought it was about time to share. My oldest grandson just turned 8 so I wanted to make him a special boy card. He loves Legos but, since I was short on time to create Lego pieces (ya right like I could ever even know where to start, lol) I decided to do puzzle pieces.

     I have so many supplies that I haven't even attempted that I thought this was a perfect time to break out my Cricut stamp set by Provo Craft. I started by inking my background on a piece of card stock with distress inks in bold colors. While that dried I used My Community cart to make some puzzle pieces.The images are found on pages 45 + 46 and were all cut at 1.25". These were cut from the stamp material in the kit. I used the following settings: deep cut blade set @ 4.5", speed 3, pressure 4, and cut 2x. It is important to have a real sticky mat. I also taped around all edges and rolled with a brayer to make sure it was really stuck on the mat. Then I stamped as usual.

     I cut the main image @ 2.5" using the Criss Cross image. After I adhered the images using the Xyron 250 I added pop dots to the back for some dimension. The separate puzzle pieces were made with a new product I am playing with. I'll share more when I am more confident using this product. I purchased it while I was in Hawaii and I think there is a learning curve. (When isn't there a learning curve!)
     It is funny how things just work out. I wanted something bright who would heve guessed this card would co ordinate so well with the party atmosphere!!!

     Do you see what I mean by co ordinating, lol. Happy 8th Birthday Matteo!!!!