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Saturday, October 27, 2012

My Favorite {CTMH} Things Blog Hop #3

Hi folks!

Welcome to the "My Favoite {CTMH} Things" Blog Hop!  Today our theme is Christmas projects!

Our Playing With Paper team is sharing artwork featuring some of our favorite products from Close To My Heart.  If you have come here from Jayma's blog you are in the right spot.  If you haven't, why don't you click HERE to be taken to the beginning.

Today, I have created the middle card showcased in the Pear and Partridge Workshop on the Go.  This workshop is so easy peasy that even a caveman could do it!  Seriously though, I did mess up...how funny!  Anyway, I did the Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas card and could not be happier with how it turned out.  I stumbled along the way but I was happy with the finalized product.

The Workshop on the Go gave specific cutting instructions so that was the easy part.  At one point I cut something 2"x2" instead of 2"x3" so I had to redo that, but that was an easy fix.


Here is the whole card in all its glory!  Nice, huh?  :)


Here is a close-up of the stamp.  I should have used pop dots to raise the "A Merry Little" from the page but didn't do that, unfortunately.  


For a little class, I added some gemstones to give it a sparkle.  



Here's a close-up of the ribbon to show you how I tied it.  Super super easy!

Now hop on over to Norhalma's blog for your next spot.  If you get lost along the way, feel free to head back here and look at the blog hop lineup below.  :)

Jayma - www.jaymamalme.com
Ian - http://anewbiecrafter.blogspot.com  <---That's ME!
Norhalma - www.fromsnapstoscraps.com  <---Go Here Next!
Renee - http://craftyqueenswithctmh.blogspot.com
Jennifer - www.passthescissors.com
Amy - www.paisleysplayhouse.blogspot.com

Craft on!
Ian

Monday, October 22, 2012

Exploring Cricut Challenge!

Hi folks!

I was sitting in my living room on Tuesday, watching TV, and realized I had to get working on the challenge for Exploring Cricut.  After taking a look at my calendar, I realized that I had not one, not two, but THREE different posts today, so if you are looking for my post from She's A Sassy Lady or Cricut is Close To My Heart, please refresh the click on A Newbie Crafter at the top of the page and that should show you all of the posts, not just this one.

Now, onto my project.  I used Mini Monsters for this project.  I am planning on having a Halloween Party for my staff in a week and wanted to put some decorations around the house to give it a Halloween feel to it.  So far, I have only cut out 3 different images, (although it seemed like I had cut about 17!)  Haha.


The first image is the moon and tree with the phrase Creep.  I absolutely love how this turned out with the big yellow moon and the tree and "creep" in black.  Love, love, love it.


The next image I cut was the Bump in the Night image.  I liked how this turned out as well.


The last image I cut was the fence with Do Not Enter.  I put this on my craft room door so that they wouldn't see how messy it is!  Post on that to follow...hopefully.  :D



For all of these images I sized them as large as they could go on a 12x12 mat.  Had I had larger paper and a bigger mat, I would have cut them out a tad big bigger.

Well, that's my project for today.  I have 6 more days before the party and NEED to cut more images (I have a lot of wall space).  I also need to "plan" the party as far as what we will be munching on, games we will play, etc.  Oyyy.  Lots to do, very little time.  :D

Craft on,
Ian

Be Inspired sign...


Hi folks,

This post is for the Cricut is Close To My Heart design team I'm on.  Today I did a sign for my craft room.  My craft room is very bare and needs some sprucing up.  So I went to my Art Philosophy cartridge and cut out the following image.  Because I wanted something else on it, I decided to cut out "Be Inspired" and weld the letters by myself.  I lined them up and glued them all together.  Not that difficult and almost relaxing in a way!


I cut the base image out at 7".  That is as high as it would go for a 12x12 sheet.  I also cut the letters out at 2" which fit perfectly inside the frame.  For the paper I used the Victory Paper Pack.  I really like it and feel like it gives it a "manly" feel to it.  :)  I have already placed it on my craft room door and love it!  I feel like we all need a sign on our craft space to inspire us or just something to note that the space is YOURS!  :)

I hope you are all well, and I'm sorry for such a short post.  I had 3 different projects to work on today and my brain is gone!  :)

Craft on,
Ian

Halloween Party Invite!

Hi folks,

Today I am posting for She's a Sassy Lady.  As mentioned in a previous post today, I am having a Halloween Party for my staff members in a week.  At yesterday's staff meeting I handed out their invitations, which I have attached below.  Check out the pictures and directions for more info!

I will admit, I did scraplift this from a crafter online, but it was too cute not to pass on to everyone.


Here's the entire invite.  I cut the base layer at 4.25"x5.5 (which allowed me to get 4 bases of the invites from each 8.5"x11" piece of white cardstock).  The black cardstock was cut at 4.25" x 3" and the orange cardstock was cut at 4 1/4" x 3 1/8".


The next thing I did was stamp BOO! on each corner of the base layer in black Stazon Ink.  I also used Stazon Ink to stamp the pumpkin image on the same orange cardstock.  I used the 1 1/4" circle punch to cut that out, as well as 1 3/4" scallop punch on black cardstock and 2 1/4" scallop punch on the orange cardstock.  I also did a scallop punch along the edge of the black cardstock to make it pretty.


I first lined the orange cardstock up with the top of the white cardstock and placed a pop dot directly below it on the white cardstock so it had something to stop at.  I then took the black cardstock and put two pop dots on the bottom of that.  I used a 1/8" punch to punch a hole in the black and orange cardstock and put a brad there.


After that was done I took a white gel pen and put a dot on the scallops of the black scalloped circle and a black gel pen for the orange scalloped circle.  I also used pop dots to adhere the pumpkin image to the black scalloped circle, a pop dot for the black scalloped circle to the orange scalloped circle and a pop dot on the bottom of the orange scalloped circle on the black cardstock so it wouldn't interfere with the maneuvering of the top of the card.  To finish it up I tied purple ribbon around the orange cardstock for a splash of extra color.

The Close To My Heart stamp sets I used for this was:  Perfect Fit - Halloween (B1413), and the November 2012 Stamp of the Month.

Craft on!
Ian

Friday, October 19, 2012

New Doortags!

Hi folks!

I hope you are all doing well.  I've had quite the whirlwind couple of days so I apologize for not posting more often.  Today I'm being featured on the Exploring Cricut blog.

Today's post is all about Door Tags for my Resident Assistants.  As you all probably know I work at a small college in Residence Life.  I have 13 RAs this year.  They are required to do two door tags a semester and we are encouraged to do the same.  Their door tags are due on the residents doors by Sunday so I had to get to stepping if I wanted to meet the deadline.


I hemmed and hawed over what cartridge I wanted to use.  Had I more time, I would have done more intricate cuts.  I decided to turn to my Sweater Weather cartridge to cut these door tags.  I cut the snowman/snowwoman at 5.5".  Then I turned to some scraps I had from making A2 envelopes and decided to use my Martha Stewart Aspen Flurry edger punch.  Don't you just love it!


I finished it up with some stickles for the eyes, carrot nose, and coal buttons.  I was really pleased with how this turned out!  I hope you like it too.  I was worried that these would come out too "pixelated" but they look great!


Stop by soon for more projects!  If you are interested in any of the projects I used, check out the links below!





Craft on,
Ian

Friday, October 12, 2012

Monster Mash Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Monster Mash Blog Hop, brought to you by the design teams of Made Especially For You and Exploring Cricut!

Today the design teams of Made Especially For You and Exploring Cricut have teamed up to share with you all sorts of spooktacular monster-themed projects to help get your crafty gears turning for all those upcoming Halloween projects!

If you've come from Jessica's blog, you're in the right place! If you just came across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Ashley at Made Especially For You.

For my project, I created a monster card!  I had the idea of a monster hiding in a closet in a little girl's room.  Think of Monsters, Inc. without the Pixar Cricut cartridge.  :)  I used the Bump in the Night Cricut cartridge and cut this little guy out.


I then used Close To My Heart's Diverse Backgrounds to have a splatter paint effect on the wall.  When I was growing up, my next door neighbors built their house and the boy my same age had splatter painted walls.  I thought this was so cool and wanted to do it to my room, but my mother wouldn't let me.  Parents, ugh!  :)  So with that in mind, I created a splatter painted room with a closet door.  I cut the door from the Wild Card cartridge and put a piece of black cardstock behind it to make it look like a dark closet.  Then I adhered the monster to the black cardstock so he was kind of peaking out.  I scored the brown door so that it was easier to open.


I also used a stamp sentiment from Close To My Heart's Moonlight Workshop on the Go.  I was very pleased with the outcome and hope you are too!




We also have some wonderful sponsors giving away prizes to those who comment on every stop of the hop!

Paper Piecings by Nikki

$15 Gift Certificate




$15 Gift Certificate

$10 Gift Certificate

The winners of the blog candy will be announced on Made Especially For You on Tuesday October 16th. Please make sure to leave your contact information when commenting to be eligible to win!

Your next stop is Laura's blog.  Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:


Happy Hopping!

Monday, October 8, 2012

October Exploring Cricut Challenge

Hi friends!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the nice, colder, Fall weather.  I am absolutely a fan of the Fall.  :)  Fall and Winter are my favorites.  After that is then Spring and then Summer, but I digress.

Anyway, you are here to see some crafty projects and I will get on with the show.  As most of you know, I am on the Design Team of Exploring Cricut.  This week we had a challenge to compete in.  The challenge included making a card, layout, or papercraft project on "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" and our project was supposed to symbolize hope against the fight of this terrible disease with pink and a sentiment.

I wholeheartedly accepted this challenge.  For this project, I turned to my Pink Journey cartridge that I actually just purchased and set out to create a card for those fighting or who have survived this horrible disease.  I knew that I wanted to have a pink ribbon and since I don't have any stamp sentiments designated toward Breast Cancer Awareness I wanted to use something from the cartridge itself.


Here is the front of the card.  I cut the ribbon out in pink cardstock and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  I also took some paper I got from American Crafts as the 2nd base layer of the card.  I placed "Race" on the front of the card.


On the inside of the card, I put "for the cure".  There are many Susan G. Komen walks happening around the United States this month and I encourage you to donate or raise money and walk yourself.  The cards from this challenge will be collected by one of the Design Team members and distributed to hospitals for those affected.

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I'll be back soon with more projects.  Life has been a bit crazy on this end.  It will hopefully slow down soon.  Hopefully...

Craft on,
Ian