CWC Cele”Bear”Ation Blog Hop

Good morning Crafty Friends,



Welcome to our Cele”bear”ation Blog Hop!  We’ve been partying all month long in honor of CWC’s first blog-aversary.  This is the place to start our fun hop!


Our theme for today’s party is bears and/or celebrations. As many of you may know, I started this blog as a way to force myself to use my Cricut and PC products. Most of the time it sat there and collected dust. I am truly amazed at how it has grown in one year.



There are so many talented crafters and I have met some of the most wonderful people by having a blog. It has truly been a blessing for me!



So now onto a few projects that I have made with my Cricut, Cartridges and sometimes Gypsy. I selected projects that I have made through out the year that have our “Bear” theme to them :-)


A BOY’S BEST FRIEND


This layout was created for The Bug Magazine’s March/April 2011 edition. It features a bear and puppy. I used the DOODLECHARMS Cartridge and My GYPSY to create the bear and puppy. The Gypsy File was a give away for the magazine.


BEST FRIENDS



This layout was created for a challenge a while back. I created this layout using:
George and Basic Shapes
Everyday Paper Dolls
Animal Kingdom
Preserves
50 States
Walk In My Garden
Cake Basics
Hello Kitty Font
Picturesque
Gypsy to re-size and skew some of the shapes.


CELEBRATE

I Created this layout for our May – Month long celebration. I used the following Cricut Cartridges to create this layout.
George and Basic Shapes,
Simply Charmed Cartridge
Birthday Cakes Cartridge





NOW FOR THE BLOG CANDY!

There are FIVE Great Prizes for you to WIN!

The First 3 prizes you can win just by leaving a comment on this post AND you MUST be a follower of this blog.



If you go to our Facebook Page and “LIKE” us there, you can leave a comment on our FB page for an additional prize. CLICK HERE



One random winner will receive a DCWV 12x12 Paper Stack From our sponsor DCWV.




One Random Winner Will Receive the Mary’s Garden Paper and Accents Set From Our Quick Quotes Sponsor! That’s 6 sheets of gorgeous double sided paper, Jewels, Brads n’ Ribbon and Chipboard Accents!




One Random Winner Will Receive a Gift Voucher From PaperCraftingWorld.com for $10 Worth of Cutting File or Digital Stamp Downloads!


Now it's your turn!  Link up your cele”bear”ation-related project at CookingWithCricut.com.
Here are the guidelines for the challenge:
- Project must include a Cricut cut.
- Project must include a Bear.
- Project must be new for this blog hop challenge.
- You must link to your post and not just your blog.
- Your post must include a link back to CWC.

You will have one week to complete your project. The Design Team will pick their three favorites and one lucky person will be chosen randomly to win:
An additional Gift Voucher From PaperCraftingWorld.com for $10 Worth of Cutting File or Digital Stamp Downloads! 



Thank you for joining our cele"bear"ation!

Your next host in our party is Jean of Jean’s Crafty Corner.




Here’s the list of the party girls, just in case you lose your way:
Melin @ Cooking With Cricut YOU’RE HERE
Jean @ Jean’s Crafty Corner NEXT
Roberta @ TX Scrapper Mom
Dalis @ Stamper Girl
Stacey @ Stacey’s Creative Corner
Karla @ KA Little Scrap Corner
Madison @ Funky Cards
Maria Elena @ Maria Elena’s World
Gaby @ Gaby Creates
Jen @ Musings of A Crafty Mom
Back To CWC to enter YOUR “BEARY” terrific Project!

Please note: The shippable prizes are available to Residents of the USA only. If you are out of the country and win, we will gladly substitute the shippable prize with a downloadable gift voucher from PCW for $10. Thank you so much for your understanding and participation.

Mother’s Day Gift Idea Hop Card and Vase

Good afternoon all,

We are having another wonderful mini hop over at Creative Cutter Room. Up for grabs is the wonderful Mother’s Day Bouquet Cartridge.

So be sure to head over to CCR and join in the fun!

Here is the criteria for the challenge. You need to incorporate the following in your projects.

Must Use the color Pink

Must use Ribbon

Must use Stitching (faux or real)

Must use two different types of flowers.

Here is my project

http://www.mypapercrafting.com/2011/04/ccr-mothers-day-gift-idea-hop.html

I am going to give this candle holder to my mom so I thought I would “dress it up” a bit. I made the flowers by using my 50 States Cartridges and the large rose was made using my Gypsy and welding some “leaves” together.

The card was made using the Beautiful Rustic Die Cut With A View Papers and the Lacy Labels Cartridge. The tag was cut at 4.5”

Here is a close up of the flowers. They started out as white and I glitter misted them and inked them.

Here is a shot of the card.

This is an angled shot to try and show the pretty glitter on the paper. The cut really well in your Cricut.

Be sure to also head over to the other Design Team Members

blogs and check out their wonderful work!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Melin

50 States Flower Review

Good morning everyone!

Today I am "Exploring" a cartridge...this weeks lucky cartridge is.... Mr. Classmate himself....50 States

Yes, this studious little cartridge has been around for quite some time. I must admit, if he had been released this year with all the other TONS of Cartridges, he probably would have been "kicked to the curb". He was definitely marketed to the education community. And the packaging made it a little hard to think beyond the 50 states shapes, flags and the educational needs he would meet.

BUT...if you look beyond all that, he has some little gems stored within the "prongs" of his case.

Today I am not focusing on anything but the FLOWERS! Yep that's right....the FLOWERS. So here are a few...not 50, just a few flowers I was able to come up with by working with this little fellow.

The Yellow Flower

This is the "Kansas" Flower on Page 28.I cut him in 4 different layers and at 4 different sizes. I then cut "slits" to make the individual petals. I then "Fluffed" the petals up to give it the dimension.This flower looks a bit like a Carnation or it could be a sunflower.

Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE

The Pink Flower

This is the "North Dakota" flower on page 46. I cut this flower in 4 layers in 3 different sizes. I cut "slits" so the petals would be a little more loose. To me this one looks like a rose.

Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE.

The Purple Rolled Flower

This is the "Ohio" flower on page 47. After cutting this flower out, I cut a slit to "open" up the flower. I then glimmer misted it and rolled it. These are much like all the other "rolled" or "lollipop" flowers that have been floating around the net most of this summer....Who knew...they were tucked away all this time in our little cartridge :-)

Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE.

The Red Flower

This is the "IOWA" flower on page 27 and the center set is the "North Dakota" one. For this one I did use my Gypsy to "hide" the center cutout. But I think you could still achieve this look without doing that. I did, once again, cut the petals "loose" so they would have more play. After glimmer misting, I waited until it was just about dry to "shape and sculpt" the petals. This is just a matter of sitting down and playing with the petals until they look the way you want them to. Crazy thing is: once the glimmer mist is completely dry, the paper gets pretty hard and so these flowers keep their shape really well.

The Orange Flower

This is the "Maryland" flower found on page 32. I cut out the flower option that had two cut at the same time, one with a circle cut out and one without. I then once again cut "slits" so the petals would be loose. I then staggered the layers starting with one that had a hole so that the top layer would be a solid. I then curled the petals just before they were dry.

The Teal Flower

This last beauty is the "North Carolina" flower found on page 45. For this one, I simply cut 3 flowers two at 6" and one at 5". I then glimmer misted and then layered them by "mirroring" them. I then "shaped" the flowers just before the petals were dry to give it dimension. I finally layered the 3 centers and "fluffed" them and added a touch of sparkle to it.

Yep...that's right, all these beauties were created with the 50 States Cartridge. I don't have them on any projects yet, but they are now a part of my flower stash and ready to go at a moments notice :-)

BONUS PROJECT

Here is a card I made last year. I used the same techniques for this flower as I did for the others. With this one though, I did three different colors of glimmer mist to give the flower petals a more varigated look.

Here is a closeup of the flower.

If you would like the flower cutting file below: Please sign up for my newsletter and become a follower and I will be sending the link out in Sunday's newsletter. PLUS another flower too :-) The newsletter will go out Sunday evening. It will be available in the following formats: AI, DXF, GSD, KNK, MTC, SVG, SCUT(Scal 2.0), WPC and WPC14.

SORRY, NO LONGER AVAILABLE

AND LAST.... A FREEBIE FLOWER I WHIPPED UP :-)

You can download the zip file: 

The zip file contains the following format: AI, DXF, GSD, SVG, SCUT(scal 2.0), MTC, KNK, WPC and WPC14. Remember to snag it while you can....it will only be available FREE until Sunday at midnight :-)

Thank you for joining me today! I hope you were inspired to make a whole bunch of "pretties"

-Melin

50 States

50 States

Projects Using the 50 States Cartridge