Friday, June 1, 2012

Erica's Craft Room 100 Cricut Cartridge

June's 100 Cricut Cartridge Blog Hop

     Welcome to Erica's 100 Cartridge Blog Hop. I am so delighted you decided to join our very talented Design Team. Our goal is to show you some of the projects that you can make with your Cricut cartridges. I do hope you find some inspiration along the way and that you try some of these yourself.
     If you came from Lisa's  http://lisacustomscrapbooking.blogspot.com then you are in the right place. If not, then you will want to start at Erica's  http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com so you don't miss a thing!
     I am using the Yummy cart for the Imagine, Tinkerbell and Robotz cartridges for my projects.So let's get started:
     I just love using this cart. The image is on page 8 of the booklet which I cut @ 2".I cut one image combined and then separated the images so I could use just the flowers of which I cut 2 more layers. Then it was just a matter of embellishing the flowers with some lime green stickles on the leaves, glossy accents on the flower and glossy accents plus glitter for the frosting. After it was dry I used pop dots to raise up the flowers.
     While all that was drying, I cut a background mat using Elegant edges on page 52 with the oblong and shadow feature. I used Smooch pearlized accent for the flower centers after I inked the edges with Tumbled Glass distress ink. You know me, I love glitz, so I used some Zing embossing powder in silver glitter finish for my sentiment. Of course I used Pink By Designs stamp set called "age is only a number."
     This guy is so cute! I made this card for one of my Grandsons who turns 2 the end of July. This Robot is on page 57 of the Robotz cart. He is the Retro Botz. The layers I used were Retro Botz+shift, Layer 2 shadow+shift, Layer1+shift . Whew that's a lot of pieces! I cut him @4'' so the pieces weren't too bad to work with. I inked everything while the cuts were still on the mat before I remved any of the card stock. This actually makes it so much easier to ink. The distress inks I used were Faded Jeans and Spiced Marmalade. I used a 5"x7" base and matted it with a piece of printed card stock from DCWV All About Boys Stack. Again I used the same PBD stamp set however I found there was a defect in this particular phrase. The #2 just wouldn't stamp right so I decided to use the black glaze pen Erica sent me as a member of the DT. (LOVE when she does that!!!). I am so pleased how this glaze added so much to the dimension of the phrase.
     Provo Craft also has some awesome embossing folders which go with some of the carts. I love embossing and my cuttlebug but I didn't have room to do this on the front of the card sooo, I embossed the inside!
     I had to use a wobble to make this robot really move, lol. This was missing something so I decided to add some "screw" brads to the corners before I put everything together.
      My final project is the one and only Tinkerbell! I used the image on page 30 and cut it @ 3.5". The cuts on this cart can be challenging especially for facial features such as the eyes and mouth. So I decided to add the features by going over the cut marks with a fine archival pen before I assembled all the pieces. to add a little life to her eyes, I used the white glaze pen Erica also included in my package. Tink is also on a wobble action device.
     I had also received some Zing red embossing powder and flower soft from Erica (I told you she was good to me, Hee Hee) so I found these would be perfect to use on this card. The flowers and butterfly is from Inkadinkado stamps and the sentiment is from My Time Made Easy. I used Versamark Dazzle Ink and the Zink red powder for the flowers  plus a white opaque embossing powder for the butterfly.i finally had a chance to use the flowersoft for the center of the flowers. This is really cool stuff to use.
     All of these products can be found at Ericas store:        http://www.shop.ericascraftroom.com/ 
     I am so glad you took the time to visit with me today and hope you will hop over to Marji's blog  http://www.fstampaholic.blogspot.com/ and see what she has created just for you!
    Here is the list unless you get lost along the way (you won't want to miss a thing!)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Altered Card Box

     Good Morning on this beautiful Memorial Day! I hope you all are enjoying beautiful weather and are not too stuffed from all the cookouts, lol. Today the Erica's  DT has some beautiful projects to share with you so I hope you will take a moment to see what we have been working on.
     I have been exploring the CCR and had just purchased the Banners digital download so I thought I would show you what I came up with. Of course I also used my Imagine!!
     I found these plain boxes @ Michaels' and thought they would be perfect to hold some handmade cards of mine. The boxes are about the size of a cigar box and are ready to paint, decoupage, stamp etc. I didn't take pictures as I went along so let's just jump into the details.
      First I painted the edges with a gold dauber and then used gel medium to decoupage my paper on the box. The sides and bottom have a faux wood looking paper. This gave me the idea to make the banner wood looking also. I started by making the banner at 5" long out of a cream card stock in the CCR. By adding another mat in the CCR, I was able to add the "Cards" font by using Divine Wedding cart at .75". I used the separate layers feature to print the font first and then cut the banner.
     I cut 3 banners and then adhered them together before I inked the edges. Once the ink was dry I applied some paper glaze to give it a little protection. Would you like to see the finished project?
     I told you you could paint, stamp and decoupage these boxes so I did all three, lol. I even added a braided ribbon and some Tim Holtz adornments to the corners. I'll show you a few more pics of the details.
     I used some Zing copper embossing powder and some Imaginisce bling for the top and bottom right hand corners.
     I have so many left over beads that I made a hanging charm to peek out of a corner of the flowers.
     Speaking of flowers I love how these turned out. I used distress inks and found I had some that even matched my paper. I even love how the leaves turned out.
   Erica is so generous with her DT that she sends us some really neat stuff to try for our projects. In one of my orders she had sent me some cuttlebug dies that had these great leaf dies. They are 2 pieces sort of like a blackout and the top part of the leaf. They look beautiful with a chalk glimmer. You can find all sort of supplies at Erica's Store and she has fabulous prices as well.
     I hope this project inspires you just a little. Please check out my team members projects back at Erica's Blog and see what else they have to help your mojo.Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who gave their lives to keep us safe.
    

Honoring Our Veterans

     Sometimes with the hustle and bustle of the first unofficial start to the summer, we forget what this week end is really all about. It's about the sacrifice our servicemen and their families make everyday. They are deployed without question leaving behind mothers, fathers, wives, children and a wide range of family members and countless friends. Some will never return while others return to us some what different. They have physical as well as emotional conflicts. Yet, when they are called to serve, they continue to go.
     To them, it is a calling. They certainly don't do it for the money or the fact they never stay too long in one place. They are always training and constantly on the move. This makes for a very different lifestyle than most of us would care to live. Yet with all that said, they do this to protect us. They do it to ensure our way of life. They do it because, with all the other choices in life, they feel it is their duty to serve.
     So, I salute the members of the Armed Services, no matter the branch, and thank you for your commitment. Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed. You are always in our hearts and we owe you a debit of gratitude.
    Now, I have something special to share with you that truly brought tears to my eyes. As many of you know, I am a floral designer for a local florist. Friday morning we received a box filled with roses of all colors. We did not order them and thought there had been a huge mistake. There was no mistake. They had been sent to use as a gift from the California and Ecuadorean growers.We are to hand them out to Veterans and share at Memorial Day ceremonies. These are from the same growers that hand them out @ Arlington National Cemetery. This is  (I believe) the second year they are doing this. So, if you happen to be at one of these ceremonies and they are handing out roses, ask if they are from Diamond Roses. You can read more about this wonderful tradition on this website MemorialDayFlowers.org. They hope to make this an annual tradition and get more communities involved all across the country.

     My boss is so brilliant! She contacted the Major in charge of a local J.R.O.T.C. They were beyond thrilled at the opportunity to pass these out. This is so gratifying to know that these young people will have the opportunity to do something special for their role models.
     I am not plugging this rose company however, with today's economy and some self absorbed companies, isn't it wonderful to hear about companies like this?
     I wish you all a memorable Memorial Day!