Cooking With Cricut Home Decor Blog Hop: Day 1

Welcome to Day One of Paper Crafting World and Cooking With Cricut’s Home Decor Blog Hop! Our Design Teams are so excited to bring you a two-day hop that focuses on projects for your home – that’s right no cards or scrapbook layouts in this hop! 

You should have arrived here from visiting the very talented Becky at Scrap Circus. I'm the caboose on this Blog Hop train . . . so if you just dropped in and would like to start at the beginning, head on over to Melinda’s Paper Crafting World; then click thru and check out the beautiful things our two Design Teams have created.  

I chose to create some artwork for my home decor project ~ this was a gift for my nephew's wife, Jessica.  She and Jeffrey were married last year and are creating their own home, like all newlyweds do.  I thought she might appreciate a gift featuring her favorites -- butterflies, purples, and pale yellows.

The frame is a shadow box that I picked up on clearance from my local Michael's.  It was raw wood and had a few nicks and scrapes that sanded right out.  I painted it with a glossy white spray paint and while it dried I went to work on the insides.

I used the Cricut Cake Basics cartridge for the butterflies.  All of the butterflies were cut at 1 1/2" wide by 1" tall.  (The papers are from my scrap stash.)  The background paper is a white embossed card stock I've had in my paper cabinet for quite a while.  

The hardest part of this project was figuring out how many butterflies I could line up across and down and then sticking them on straight!  I adhered them with therm-o-web Zots (small clear adhesive dots) and then lifted the wings up to give them some dimension.  Once everything was where I wanted it, I went to work embellishing.  I added rhinestones and pearls to a number of the butterflies.

The mat was plain white so I decided to cover it with a deep purple mulberry paper.  It still needed something . . . so I added a little rhinestone detailing to the corners.  All in all, I'm happy with the way it turned out -- and Jessica LOVED it!

We hope you’ll link up your Home Decor project for a chance at winning one of our giveaways. One winner will be chosen by random draw and three others will be selected by the Design Team. Head on over to Cooking With Cricut for the guidelines and the link up. 

Now it wouldn't be a hop without some blog candy, now would it!  To be eligible for my blog candy you must (1) be a follower of my blog and (2) leave a comment with your e-mail address.  One lucky person will be chosen from the comments left on both days (so double your chances and stop by tomorrow and leave a comment, too!) and will be announced in my post on Wednesday, April 25th.  You have until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday to leave your comment(s).  Up for grabs are three sets of clear mini stamps -- a graduation set by studio g and two fun sets by inkadinkadoo.

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to join us tomorrow for another wonderful day filled with tons of new projects.  We kick off at 8:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) at Melinda's Paper Crafting World . . . so grab your favorite morning beverage and come hop with us!

~ Jen