Christmas in July! {Day 3}

Welcome to Cooking With Cricut and Paper Crafting World's “sneak peek” into our annual 25 Days of Christmas Crafting Fun, which happens each year in December. Every day this week we will bring you a variety of different ideas to kick-start your holiday preparations! 

Today the Cooking With Cricut Design Team Challenge is to use scraps! I don't know about you, but I have tons and tons of scraps and I use them whenever I can. This entire layout was done with scraps -- with the exception of the two 12" x 12" sheets of light blue card stock I used for my base.

Here's the recipe:

• Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge - Snowman's Hat cut at 1 1/4" tall and his scarf (originally intended to be a Pirate's sash!) cut at 1 1/2" tall.
• Doodlecharms cartridge - Snowman cut at 4" tall and snowflakes cut at 2 5/8" tall.
• Joys of the Season cartridge - "Happy Holidays" cut at 7 1/2" wide; Polar Bear cut at 3" tall; Stocking cut at 2 1/2" tall; and Santa Hat cut at 1 1/4" tall.
• Red and clear stickles for a bit of bling and some pen stitching to finish it off.

This layout will accompany the ones I made for this past weekend's "Crops of Luv" Blog Hop (click here to check out my layouts for Day 1 and Day 2 of the Hop) as well as the one I created yesterday (click here to check it out).  "Crops of Luv" works hand in hand with the Make A Wish Foundation and creates scrapbooks for families who have children facing life-threatening illnesses.   If you would like more information about this organization, or would like to make a monetary, scrapbook  page or supplies donation please visit their web site at www.cropsofluv.com. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head over to Cooking With Cricut and see what the other Design Team members have created!  And check back with us each day this week for some great Christmas projects.

~ Jen


P.S.  I'm linking my card up at Bitten by the Bug 2 and 2 Sisters Challenge Blog.

Christmas in July! {Day 2}

We wish you a Merry Christmas . . . in July! Welcome to Cooking With Cricut and Paper Crafting World's “sneak peek” into our annual 25 Days of Christmas Crafting Fun, which happens each year in December. Every day this week we will bring you a variety of different ideas to kick-start your holiday preparations!

I decided to jump in and participate in the PaperCraftingWorld.com Design Team challenge today which is all about using scraps.  I don't know about you, but I have tons and tons of scraps and I use them whenever I can.  This entire layout was done with scraps -- with the exception of the two 12" x 12" sheets of green card stock I used for my base.

Here is the recipe:

• PaperCraftingWorld.com cutting file -- Santa & Rudolph.
• Santa measures 7 3/8" tall assembled.
• Rudolph measures 5 1/4" tall assembled.
• Photo mats are cut at 4" x 6".
• The journaling box measures 4" x 4".
• "Merry Christmas" cut at 7" wide from Cricut's Joys of the Season cartridge.
• Chalk and pen doodling finish off the jolly old elf and his antlered helper.

This layout will accompany the ones I made for this past weekend's "Crops of Luv" Blog Hop.  "Crops of Luv" works hand in hand with the Make A Wish Foundation and creates scrapbooks for families who have children facing life-threatening illnesses.   If you would like more information about this organization, or would like to make a monetary, scrapbook  page or supplies donation please visit their web site at www.cropsofluv.com. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head over to Cooking With Cricut and see what the other Design Team members have created!  And check back with us each day this week for some great Christmas projects -- tomorrow the CWC Design Team will have another great challenge that you can join in on!

~ Jen

P.S.  I'm linking my card up at Bitten by the Bug 2 and 2 Sisters Challenge Blog.

Christmas in July! {Day 1}

We wish you a Merry Christmas . . . in July! Welcome to Cooking With Cricut's “sneak peek” into our annual 25 Days of Christmas Crafting Fun, which happens each year in December. Every day this week we will bring you a variety of different ideas to kick-start your holiday preparations! Today's projects are all about:

Here is my Christmas card featuring non-traditional colors! I used Cricut's Wrap It Up cartridge for all of the cuts.

This card measures 8 1/2" tall by 5 1/2" wide.  And here's the recipe:

• The mat is actually the tag on page 29 of the handbook using the blackout feature.  I hid the top cut out using Cricut Design Studio.  The pink mat measures 4 1/2" wide by 6 1/2" tall and the white mat is 4" x 6"  I inked the edges of the white mat with a turquoise ink pad.
• The Candy Cottage (page 28) is cut at 4" tall by 3 1/2" wide.  I inked the edges of a number of the pieces; added some bling and then some pen detailing.
• All papers are from my scrap stash except for the base piece.  The base is a glossy, embossed card stock from DCWV.
• The ribbon is 1/4" wide and is by American Crafts from their "Elements" collection.

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head over to Cooking With Cricut and see what the other Design Team members have created!  And check back with us each day this week for some great Christmas projects -- tomorrow the Design Team from Paper Crafting World will have a die and stamp challenge that you can join in on!

~ Jen

P.S.  I'm linking my card up at Bitten by the Bug 2 and 2 Sisters Challenge Blog.

Crops of Love Blog Hop: Day 2

Welcome to the second day of Cooking With Cricut's "Crops of Love" Blog Hop!  This month our designers chose to create layouts for the Crops of Luv Organization. If you came here from visiting Suzanne at Cricut Craftin' Grammy, then you are in the right place; if you just happened by, you'll want to head over to CWC and start at the beginning because I'm the last stop in this Hop!

Crops of Luv works hand-in-hand with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and creates scrapbooks for families who have children facing life-threatening illnesses.  The focus of our two day hop  is to create 12" x 12" double page scrapbook layouts using these themes: Princesses, Pirates, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Summer Fun (e.g. swimming), Christmas (yes, they have Christmas every Thursday at "Give Kids the World"), or general Disney themes.

Crops of Luv has some specific guidelines for the layouts. They need to include a journaling block or tag and mats for three 4 x 6 pictures on each page. They also do not want the photo mats permanently adhered to the page.  That way they can flip them whichever way they need to. 

Here is the layout I made:

I used Cricut's Mickey & Friends, Mickey Font and Plantin SchoolBook cartridges for this super cute and cheery Disney layout.  The Mickey hands are pop-dotted and I added some yellow and red buttons.

We hope you enjoyed our creations! We would love for you to participate. You can make a two-page layout following the parameters outlined above and mail it directly to: Crops of Luv c/o Roberta Baker, 11424   S. Pawnee Circle, Phoenix, AZ 85044. Since this blog hop is also a challenge, be sure to link your project to CWC/PCW.  If you would like more information about this organization, or would like to make a monetary or supply donation please visit their web site at www.cropsofluv.com. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!   Come join us Monday at CookingWithCricut.com as we kick-off  "Christmas in July"  -- a full week of Christmas-y projects.

~ Jen

"Crops of Love" Blog Hop: Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of  Cooking With Cricut's "Crops of Love" Blog Hop. This month our designers chose to create layouts for the Crops of Luv Organization. If you came here from visiting Lynden at An Elegant Touch, then you are in the right place; if you just happened by, you'll want to head over to CWC and start at the beginning because I'm the last stop in this Hop!

Crops of Luv works hand-in-hand with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and creates scrapbooks for families who have children facing life-threatening illnesses.  The focus of our two day hop  is to create 12" x 12" double page scrapbook layouts using these themes: Princesses, Pirates, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Summer Fun (e.g. swimming), Christmas (yes, they have Christmas every Thursday at "Give Kids the World"), or general Disney themes.

Crops of Luv has some specific guidelines for the layouts. They need to include a journaling block or tag and mats for three 4 x 6 pictures on each page. They also do not want the photo mats permanently adhered to the page.  That way they can flip them whichever way they need to. 

Here is the layout I made:

I used Cricut's Mickey & Friends cartridge for Mickey and Goofy; Mickey Font for the word "characters"; and Cake Basics for the words "Bunch" and "of" and for the circles.  The circle letters are raised with pop-dots.

We hope you enjoyed our creations! We would love for you to participate. You can make a two-page layout following the parameters outlined above and mail it directly to: Crops of Luv c/o Roberta Baker, 11424   S. Pawnee Circle, Phoenix, AZ 85044. Since this blog hop is also a challenge, be sure to link your project to CWC/PCW.  If you would like more information about this organization, or would like to make a monetary or supply donation please visit their web site at www.cropsofluv.com.

Thanks so much for stopping by . . . make sure you come back by tomorrow and hop with us for another fun-filled day of scrapbook layouts -- we start bright and early at 8:00 a.m. at CookingWithCricut.com!

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Buttons & Brads

Happy Wednesday and thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blog world!  Today is Design Team challenge day at Cooking With Cricut -- we were asked to use buttons and/or brads on our projects.

I know that sometimes those little embellishments get overlooked in my work space -- and quite often they are the perfect finishing touch to a card or layout.  I created two cards to send with my Mickey banner for my friend Madison's "I Feel the Love" Project.  This month her outreach is to children and teens living in a homeless shelter in Kansas City.  The volunteers throw a big birthday party every month and they need reusable decorations and special birthday cards for the kids.

As you can see these cards are almost identical.  The card on the left has round red brads that I jazzed up with some Stickles and the one on the right has star brads.  These cards measure 4 1/4" wide by 5 1/2" tall.  All of the papers are from my scrap stash.

I also used Stickles on the phrase to give it some glitz!  Here's a better view:

The inside of the card was created using MS Publisher; the font is called "Waltograph."

Now it's your turn!  Link up your buttons and/or brads project at Cooking With Cricut -- you just might be our next Top Chef!  Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my project.  Don't forget . . . we've got a great Blog Hop scheduled for this Saturday, July 21 and Sunday, July 22.  We begin at 8:00 a.m. each day -- two fun-filled days with new projects each day.  And as always, some great giveaways!

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Birthday Cards & Decorations

Happy Wednesday!  Today is challenge day over at Cooking With Cricut and the Design Team has created some fun birthday cards and decorations for the "I Feel the Love" Project. Our Design Team member, Madison Womack is the creator/founder of the "I Feel the Love" Project and it is her goal to bring a little bit of handmade love to someone in need.  This month IFTL's focus is Sheffield Place.  

Sheffield Place opened its doors in February 1991 as a community response to the growing population of homeless mothers and their children in the Kansas City area. Since then, they have assisted more than 560 families in making the difficult journey from homelessness to self-sufficiency.  The Director of Sheffield Place has asked that one of their volunteers throw a birthday party once a month for the kids at the shelter. Madison thought it would be great if they had a stash of birthday cards and decorations to use for these occasions.

Please consider joining us in making birthday cards for boys and girls and/or birthday decorations, such as a banner that can be reused. This homeless shelter would be very grateful to receive a big box of cards and decorations from us!    Can you see it?  The face of the homeless child celebrating his or her birthday in the shelter and receiving a beautiful homemade card. His or her face will light up knowing that someone out there cares enough to send such a gift. That someone can be you! All you need to do is this . . . submit your card/s or decorations by July 31 to:

Madison Womack

(IFTL) Funky Cards - Project 12
P.O. Box 1203
Atascadero, CA  93423

Here is what I created:

Banners!  I have three completed and three more in the works that I will share later.  I also intend to make cards that "go" with these banners.  I'll share those later, too.

All of the papers for the pennants and text is from 12" x 12" paper packs by Recollections. The other papers are from my scrap stash.  Some pen doodling, a little bit of bling (Hello Kitty), eyelets and ribbon finish off these simple, but very cute birthday banners.

Here's the recipe:

• Pennants - Mother's Day 2010 Cricut cartridge - cut at 5" wide by 5 7/8" tall.
• Mickey Heads - Mickey & Friends Cricut cartridge - cut at 3 3/8" tall.
• Minnie Bows - Mickey & Friends Cricut cartridge - cut at 1 1/2" tall.
• Text - Mickey Font Cricut cartridge - cut at 2" tall.
• Hello Kitty - Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge - cut at 3 3/4" tall.
• Cupcake - Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge - cut at 3" tall.

Now it's your turn!  Link up your birthday card or decoration for a child or teen at Cooking With Cricut -- you just might be our next Top Chef.  And then link it up at "I Feel the Love" and send it to Madison and help brighten the day of a child in need.

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head on over to Cooking With Cricut and check out all of the cuteness the Design Team made for the Sheffield Place kids!

~ Jen

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday, America!  I hope you and yours have a safe and happy 4th of July!  We are spending the day with family and friends -- watching the kiddos play on the slip 'n slide and in the wading pool.  And when they tire of that Aunt Jen has some crafts ready for them.  Cook out later and then fireworks tonight.

I hope you'll check out all of the wonderful red, white and blue projects the Design Team at Cooking With Cricut whipped up this week!  They are spectacular!

~ Jen