Elmo And Friends

     Whoot whoot!!! It's the last Friday of the Summer and time for some fun @ My Cricut Craft Room (we always have fun,lol). I was so excited when Erica asked the Design Team to create a lay out using a character. While on our huge family vacation we visited Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA where they have a Sesame Street section. Our youngest grand child just loves Elmo so he was super excited to meet him in person. Here is the lay out I made to capture the memory using Elmo's Party.

     Where to begin? I usually add more than one picture on my LO but today I decided to use just the one that we bought at the park. Charlie was not happy to have to look at the camera rather than his friend Elmo, lol. Most of the cousins were there (we are missing two). I thought the title says it all "Elmo And Friends". I cut all the letters at 1" for the font and the font shadow.

     After cutting the letters I used some Stickles on the letters for some pizzazz. It seems I am using the CCR for a lot of my projects and this one is no exception.I wanted to use a banner and include the kids names. This is so easy to do when you have the Imagine. I used the banners CCR exclusive digital cut and the same Elmo Font for their names. You use 2 separate mat layers. On the first mat I place my banners @ 1". On the second mat I made my names and then placed them over the banners. Now when you go to use the Imagine, I printed the mat layer with the names and then went back and cut only the banners.Voila, done. I didn't ink the banners because I wanted the pic and all the other embellishments to be more prominent.

     I had cut a lot of flower shapes a long time ago so whenever I needed some they would be ready to ink and use on any project that needed them. I just used some Cherry glimmer mist and added a brad for the centers. I wanted my flowers to be "grounded" so I drew in some stems and leaves. I really wanted a playful look. Speaking of playful, how about Elmo? This image is on page 31 and I cut it @ 3". I used some enamel accents in black to bring out his eyes more.

     Would you believe the background paper is My Mind's eye Sweet Dream Holiday Avenue. Yup, it's a Christmas stack! Although I have the Imagine and many pattern carts, I still want to use up some of the paper packs I have and this was perfect. The red roping and pennant banner were from my stash of K&Company banner packs.

     If you are looking for some crafting bargains then you should check out Erica's Store. She is having a fabulous moving sale that you won't want to miss. You can find it HERE.

     Hope you have something wonderful planned for this week end but be safe. Now please head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what my Design Team Sisters have to show you.

Charlie's Elmo Party

     Happy Monday everyone! Saturday we had a wonderful time celebrating our youngest grand child, Charlie's 2nd birthday. I love the fact we have a summer birthday since our big months are October and December. We also have a couple in the spring but the winter ones are the toughest.

     I used the Elmos party cartridge to make a few things. The banner was cut using 8.5" x 11" card stock fit to length. The only problem with this is that the letters for Happy Birthday are placed on the mat at about 4" high so I had to use the 12"x24" mat and my expression in order for the length of the phrase to fit. I love when I was hanging the banner Charlie squealed "Elmo".

     Of course you need goodie bags! I decided to try as many different Elmo's as there are on the cart. 

There are 18 bags in all.

These were all cut @ 3.5". I didn't want him to just be suspended in air so I did a little green doodling.

I thought this  running Elmo was a little big so for this image I cut the rest of this shape @ 2.5".

     I didn't do the cake this time since Joelle wanted to do it this time. She thought she should at least make one of her boys cakes, lol. She did a great job.

It was so yummy!!!!

     Now for a fun treat that I thought of. It's my take on the frozen chocolate covered bananas-Elmo style!

     I actually bought the red chocolate wafers from a cake supply shop I know of. She even had the candy eyes (I was going to make my own). Be sure to use ripe bananas when dipping.

     Needless to say, big brother Ben sure loved them as well as the other kids.

     What would a party be if I didn't make a card? Hmm could it be Elmo?

     I loved hearing Charlie giggle. That makes it so worth while when you make your own cards, just seeing the sheer joy on their a face.

Here is the Birthday Boy himself. Happy Birthday Charlie!!!

     

Elmo Birthday Tags

     Happy Monday! Today is Imagination Monday and for this weeks project I used the CCR to design my project and the Imagine to print and cut. We have 2 grand nephews that turned 1 year old several weeks apart so I needed to make something to go on the presents. I decided to make tags rather than cards (they have a hard enough time opening gifts with out throwing an envelope at them,lol). I had just gotten my Elmo's Party cart in so thought this would be the perfect project to break in it,  plus the paper I used had Elmo in fire trucks. I love to buy my paper at the Dollar Store and then coordinate the card or tag to go with it!

     First I cut a tag @ 6" using the Imagine cart Nursery Tails and the tag on page 23. When selecting the image I separated the layers and only used the single layer. For the other layers, when you choose edit, you select the color box with the white square and the red line through it. This will make that image "invisible".
     Next I turned to the CCR to layout my Elmos.

     I selected all my layers and edited them to add my own colors. I used All Wrapped Up for my color palette but added the RGB codes that are specific for Elmo. I had Googled "RGB Codes For Sesame Street" and these are the codes I used but you may find other codes out there that are slightly different: Fur Color R238,G64, B53-Nose Color: R244, G 152, B41. The black was from the basic color pallette.

     Above you will find the color wheel where you put the codes in. This is what it looks like before you change the codes.

     Next I worked on the names. You will notice that you can select T for text and a box will pop up. This is awesome! You add all you letters at once and this groups them together for you to work with.

   On the left side of your mat there is all the features you need to play with your text. This is where you change the size and the spacing. One thing I love about this is that it shows you right away when they are welded. In the CDS and Gypsy you would have to show preview and then go back and forth until you got it right. With CCR you see it as you are playing with the spacing. So cool!!!

      The only problem I ran into was selecting the wrong cart (one I did not have,lol). I thought wow this is so cute they even have Elmo's hand in the font. When I went to print and cut in the Imagine it kept telling me to insert 3 Birds On Parade. I was so confused thinking why is it asking for this cart I didn't use it? Then I looked at the cart that came up and yes, I was wrong, it wasn't Elmos hand but a bird, so I switched to Base Camp. It really would have been cute with the other font, lol.

     Finally, for the birthday sentiment, I used the image on page 65 for caketop-s. I sized the whole image to get the Happy Birthday the size I wanted and then used the edit button to hide Elmo by clicking on him. Then I was able to pick a color with the Imagine and voila I instantly had 2 tags done. This was so easy to design and complete.

      I did cut 2 tags of each and glue together for stability. Of course, being me, I added some perfect pearls in white to add some sheen and used a metallic pen to do some faux stitching around the outside edge.

     The dot for the eye was so small that I lost it, lol. So Collin got a little bling. Here are the presents ready to go after adding a few stickles to the tag.

     Be sure to check back over to http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ to see what the rest of the design Team has to show you. Before you go though I would love if you would leave me a comment and say hi to Elmo, lol.~Mary