A Gift For My Sweetheart Blog Hop

Welcome to the “A gift For My Sweetheart” blog hop!

Sit back and relax while you browse through seventeen unique, handmade gift ideas to give a loved one on Valentine’s Day. Each stop along the way has a gift they poured their heart into, but that doesn’t mean the project contains the traditional Valentine heart theme.


The hop started at Christine’s blog. If you didn’t come to my stop on the hop from Suzanne's blog, be sure to start at the beginning so you don’t miss anything.


For this hop we have two sponsors. In order to be entered in the drawing for the two prizes, you must comment and follow each blog.



Hot Berry Designs is offering a $10 gift certificate, and Scraptastical Kreations is offering a $15 gift certificate.

You have Saturday (2/02/13) and Sunday (2/03/13) to hop and leave a comment at all the blogs for your chance to win. The winners will be randomly chosen Monday (2/04/13) and will be
announced on Christine’s blog.



Wow, I feel like it has been a century since I have actually made anything, let alone posted on my blog. I am so sorry! I am going through a few minor "life adjustments" that have kept me away from the craft room. Plus, I'm just downright tired most of the time, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things.

So, my gift is sort of an "us" gift. My husband and I got married in October, 2011. The picture on this layout is one of my very favorites from our wedding day. I had forgotten I had this photo printed, but when I found it tucked away, I knew I had to use it with this paper. The paper is from DCWV and it's from the "Once Upon A Time" stack.

Nitty gritty:

• Photo - 5x7, gray photo mat, 5.25x7.25, blue photo mat, 5.5x7.5. All adhered on foam tape.
• Distressed the edges of all the paper
• Stamped "scroll" design using stamp from CTMH's "Baroque Borders" stamp set in chocolate ink around photo.
• Stamped "i love you more" using a SU wood mount stamp, added a banner end, and attached it on dimensionals so it looked like it was waving, so to speak.
• Cut flowers using the "Flower Shoppe" Cricut cart; blue flowers are the "fun 4" cut at 1.5 inches, and the gray ones are "heart 2" cut at 1.25 inches. I added pearls to the centers from CTMH.
• For an unexpected touch, I took an exacto knife and carefully cut the edges of the butterfly on the bottom left side under the picture. It was a flat image on the paper, but I wanted it to have some dimension. If you do this, just make sure you leave an area on the top and bottom so it is still attached to the paper. You don't want to cut if off entirely. I then adhered another color of paper behind it for some depth, but you don't have to do that. You could just use a shade that is close to the background color. Fold the wings up a bit, and you're good to go.

• I adhered the layout to a piece of 12x12 medium weight cardboard for stability.

Note: the blue flowers are not as vibrant in person. In photos, they look like they don't match the shades of blue in the paper, but I assure you, they do. :)



Thank you for stopping by. Please go to Katie's blog, next.



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

Christine- http://hotberrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Elecia - http://creationsby-kahaulani.blogspot.com/

Suzanne - http://www.zannieberry.blogspot.com/

Melissa- Http://papershenaniganz.blogspot.com

Katie - http://ktscreativeinsights.blogspot.com/

ClaireR http://threewaterscreations.blogspot.com/

Shawnee - http://quiverofangels.blogspot.com

Beth ~http://motherandaughterdesigns.blogspot.com

Ashley - http://thebloghopprincess.blogspot.com

Jamie - http://www.jamielindstromdesigns.com

Lissa Marie www.somanycrafts.com

Mary - http://irongatestamps.blogspot.com/

Angela- www.3crazymonkeys.com  

Sarah - http://itswhatkeepsmesane.blogspot.com/

Miranda- http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/

Lucy - http://love2createitall.com

Election Day

Election Day is finally here! Many men and women have fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice to help protect your rights and freedoms. One of those being the right to vote. So get your booties to the polls and vote! :)

Project Details -

Supplies used:

* Stand and Salute Cricut Cartridge

* Font is from Birthday Cakes Cricut Cartridge

* Chore Chart Lite Cricut Cartridge

* Cricut Craft Room Basics

* Card stock - red, white, dark blue, light blue

* ATG adhesive

* Red marker

* Foam tape

Cuts and sizing:

* "USA flag" welded together to make shaped card base - roughly 6.5 inches

* "vote" welded together using letters from Birthday Cakes - roughly 1 inch

* "square" is from Chore Chart Lite - roughly 1 inch

* "Romney" and "Obama" both welded using font from Cricut Cakes - roughly 1 inch

* "USA flag-s" one in red and one in blue - 3.319 inches

* "star" from CCR Basics - .417 inches

Assembly:

1. Fold and crease card base

2. Adhere red layer.

3. Cut blue layer apart so you only have a piece as a background for the stars, like a real flag.

4. Adhere the stars.

5. Cut a "banner" by hand, or use one from a cartridge.

6. Adhere letters, and square. 

7. Make a "check mark" in each box.

8. Cut a "banner end" (V shape) on one side of banner.

9. Using foam tape, adhere banner to card. You can do this flat, or choose to make it look "waved" like I did.

All done! :) Thank you for visiting my blog. Be sure to become a follower to stay up to date with all my latest projects!

Scrapbook Friday: Fall

It's Scrapbook Friday again at My Cricut Craft Room. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and see what I've made to share today. The theme is Fall. Anything to do with Fall. I don't know about you guys, but Fall is my absolute FAVORITE time of year. As a matter of fact, it's my husband's favorite time of year too, which we why we had an outdoor Fall wedding. Pure bliss. Anyways, let's get down to the nitty gritty. :)

For my layout, I used the Cricut Craft Room Exclusive, "Thanksgiving" which happened to be free the week I made this project. BUT, it has such cute cuts, it's worth the reasonable price it costs. :)

The "count your blessings" phrase was cut at three inches out of burgundy card stock. The pumpkin and it's layer was cut at four inches. I adhered them to a cream colored piece of card stock that is roughly eight by ten or so inches. I just kept cutting slivers off of it until I got it to where I liked it. I then layered that onto a piece of gray/blue and burgundy polka dot paper, which got layered again onto a twelve by twelve piece of paper. All the paper edges I roughed up with the edge of a pair of scissors. I wanted it to have a rustic feel, much like Fall. I even crumpled up the cream card stock layer a bit to add some texture.

The photo mat will hold a 4 x 6 photo. I added a piece of ribbon to the right hand side, and made some sort of crumply "flower" type embellishment. I originally wanted the strip of ribbon to be pleated, but that went horribly wrong, so I just sort of turned it into the flower "thing." A happy accident, after all. I added a few buttons, and called the layout done! :)

I hope this gives you some inspiration to create your own fall layout. I would love to see the projects you create on my Paper Shenaniganz Facebook Page. Just post your projects to my wall.

As always, if you like what you see, be sure to follow my blog.

If you'd like to see more Fall Layouts, please visit My Cricut Craft Room, to see what my Design Team sisters have made to share!