Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Summer at the beach layout




A recent layout I made using Bella Blvd patterned papers and my Cricut Lite Crocs Rule cart.




tfl!, Charity

Friday, August 26, 2011

Echo Park Giveaway Winner!

A little late announcing the winner- chosen randomly- hubby chose a number between 1-30, lol!

Sonia said...
Wow...loving your Echo Park Apothecary treats! So cool! thanks for the chance to win :)

August 24, 2011 12:47 PM


Sonia, please email me at cjhassel@yahoo.com so we can get your Echo Park collection to you!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Teacher Notecard set- new Fancy Pants Off to School

One of my favorite releases from Fancy Pants designs has to be the new Off to School line! Here's a look at some projects I've made recently with it! First, this notecard set as seen on the Cricut blog (check out my post on the blog for details about the cut size, etc. to make these cards).






One more card I made with this line:











If you want even more fun ideas and looks at this new line, be sure to check out the Fancy Pants design blog! tfl, Charity

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Alexander's first day of 2nd Grade!

Alexander had his first day of 2nd Grade this past Monday! He is really trying his best and seems to be having fun so far! Here are some pictures of his first day!
Don't forget the giveaway going on here on my blog till Thursday- check out this post.






He's looking entirely too grown up and "cool"- ya, don't say handsome, mom! tfl!, Charity

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Paper Crafts Sketch

My card was recently on the Paper Crafts magazine blog promoting their new magazine..



Paper Crafts latest special issue, Card Ideas for Paper Crafters. Based on the popularity of last year’s Go-to Sketches, this sequel features 288 cards made from 72 sketches. And this time around all 72 sketches were designed by some of your favorite Paper Crafts designers.

Here's the sketch from the book:


Here's the cards published using the sketch (mine is the middle one with the house)



tfl!, Charity

Monday, August 22, 2011

Echo Park Guest Designer and Giveaway!



How fun to be able to work with Echo Park's newest products as a guest designer! Be sure to check out the Echo Park blog and Echo Park facebook site as well!
***also, be sure to read the end of this post for how to enter to win a kit from this line!***



Banner 10-31 card: On this card I cut a spider web from patterned paper and inked the outer edges with black ink. Place that on the center of your card. Next, place two black brads on either side of the web- don't make the brads too tight so that you can wrap them with orange twine. Place banner stickers onto black cardstock. Add 10 star and 31 to centers of banners. Cut around banners so that the bbanners are matted with black cardstock. Use pop dots to adhere banner pieces to card. I used the Cricut Expression to cut the spider and glued it to my card.



Beware of cats jar.
Choose a glass jar to decorate- I got this one fairly cheap from a craft store. Cut a circle the size of the bottom of the jar. I used my Cricut Expression and Cricut Happy Hauntings cart to cut a spooky tree from Apothecary Emporium patterned paper and set it into the glass. I really want to re-use this container during other seasons. So, instead of adhering my sticker (beware of black cats) onto it, I adhered the sticker to black cardstock and cut around it. Then, I attached it to my orange ribbon at the top of the jar.




Spider box: To create the spider box I used the awesome spider patterned paper from this line. I used my cricut and the wrap it up cart to cut the box (material saver off, which turned out to be 9" I then cut the layers of spider at 2". I used the lacey sticker from the Apothecary Emporium line to wrap around the top edge of the box as well.




3D Coffin treat box: I used my cricut once again and cut a 3d coffin from patterned paper using the wrap it up cart <3dcoffin> at 9". I inked the edges. Then, I folded a long strip of patterned paper accordion style and made a pennant-style embellishment for the top of the coffin. I added orange ribbon and topped it with one of the cool stickers from the Apothecary Emporium collection. I also used three small bat stickers from this line, only adhering the centers and gently bending the wings for a 3d look.


In celebration of my guest spot I'm giving away a kit from the Echo Park's Apothecary Emporium line! This is the line I used on the projects shown today! Leave a comment here and on the Echo Park blog for a chance to win! I'll randomly choose a winner on Thursday, the 25th and announce it on my blog and on the Echo Park facebook site! tfl!

Thanks everyone and thank you Echo Park for the fun opportunity!, Charity

Friday, August 19, 2011

Cover Girl!



I posted this on facebook a few days ago when I saw it, but had to share it here too! What a surprise to see my mini album on the cover of the new Northridge Media Create: Holidays idea book!! I used Fancy Pants Designs Tradition line!

tfl!, Charity

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Cricut cards and Scarecrows

Brand new cart recently released from ProvoCraft- Simply Scarecrow:






and another new cartridge- Ornamental Iron 2








Be sure to check out the Cricut Blog and click here for info. on the Cricut Circle!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Cricut cuteness!

Back today with some more projects using my Cricut Expression! Be sure to check out the details of how to become a Cricut Circle member and, the Cricut blog is a wonderful place to find crafty inspiration!





Have a happy day! Charity

Monday, August 15, 2011

Lego Birthday Party for Alexander!

It was time to plan Alexander's 7th Birthday party and he asked for a Lego party! I began looking for Lego things to use for the party- not a whole lot out there that can just be bought from the store. So, thank goodness for the internet- lots of fun ideas, even nice people who are willing to share their ideas, pdf files, etc. for free! So, here are photos from the party. I will do my best to give you links to places that helped me, inspired me, etc. Here we go!

The invitations were made using this download- so cute and it's free!:






Here's the blog where I downloaded the invites from: http://cleof.blogspot.com/2010/07/lego-birthday-party.html

She also had a Lego VIP tag included in the invite. I printed those VIP tags out onto photo paper, cut them out and put them inside some clear name tags I purchased cheap from Wal-Mart. Each kid got a VIP tag when they came in the door for the party!



Another thing for when the kids were first arriving was to have them guess how many legos was in the jar:



Decor:
I really loved the Lego Party here: http://www.hostessblog.com/2011/07/a-modern-lego-inspired-birthday-party/

So, I just used my cricut to cut more white circles and glued them onto my table covers. Also, I bought some white circle stickers from Staples- used them on my cups for the Lego Candy Buffet!




Fun little touch-hung these outside:





Another cute, inexpensive idea is to cover juice boxes to look like Lego blocks. Here is where I got the free download for this: http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/2011/01/lego-juice-box-bricks.html

Activities:
Alexander wanted to do a pin the party hat on the lego man. So, I found it impossible to find an image large enough to make a decent lego man. So, I used this download here: http://twistynoodle.com/media/img/r/lego/lego-3/coloring_book_page_jpg_468x609_q85.jpg

So, I used the paint program on my computer and blew up the lego man's individual pieces, then, used those printed images as templates to cut out each piece from colored posterboard. Then, I went around the edges with black marker. I glued him together on a green posterboard. I cut out my party hats using my cricut and added some white circle stickers. Here's the final product:






I hand cut these lego men out using a free printable from: http://winksanddaisies.blogspot.com/2011/02/lost-lego-party-guy.htmlThen, I used my Cricut to cut hair, clothes, purses, hats, guitars, shoes, etc. for the kids to create their very own lego men/girls. I also cut door hangs using my circut. So, the kids glued their lego people on the door hangs to put on their bedroom doors at home.
The kids working on their lego people:



Here's a picture of the one my son made:




I printed a few of the Happy Birthday men and used them as a banner:


Another ativity was simple, but something the kids could play in-between planned activities, a lego building area- we didn't want to use all my son's small Legos so we used Megablocks instead.




Outside activities included a Lego version of carrying a potato on a spoon. I used plastic spoons for each kid. There were 10 children- 5boys, 5girls. So, we divided up into 2 teams and had a relay race where the kids had to carry the lego (actually a megablock) on their spoon. The boys won that race.




Another activity we did was a Lego toss. Again, I used megablocks for this. Each child had a chance to toss 4 Megablocks. I used a red vinyl tablecloth, cut a bit off, used tent stakes to hold down the four edges. Then, I adhered 6 white paper plates to the red and wrote the point value for each plate. The kids had fun doing this one!





One thing I noticed- a lot of my activities took way less time than I anticipated! I'm not a professional party planner, that's for sure! Good thing we had the goody bags with coloring books and Lego creator gifts for everyone. So, the kids put their little lego planes and cars together for the last part of the party and some of them had fun coloring with the crayons shaped like legos!





Lego Candy Buffet:






The blue cups I used are small. I used white circle stickers on them to make them look more lego-ish. The white dotted balloons I found at Target in the party section. If I had not found dotted ones I was planning on just putting some white circle stickers on solid balloons. The mini candybars I covered with primary colored wraps. I used a paint program to create a solid strip with white circles, then printed, cut and wrapped my candybars. I found the red napkins with white dots at Target as well.

The cake I had made by Publix. No way was I attempting that! lol!





Gift bags:

So easy- I just used my cricut to cut the white circles and pop dots to add dimension.



The gift bag was filled with:


1.Lego man shaped crayons. (I bought mine from http://www.etsy.com/shop/poshpapercreations)



2.Lego candy (I bought mine from Amazon) http://www.amazon.com/Concord-BuildEm-EatEm-Assorted-Flavor/dp/tech-data/B000UH3R1W




3.Lego coloring book (I downloaded it from here- http://cleof.blogspot.com/2010/07/lego-birthday-party.html) I printed the first page onto green cardstock and used my Cricut Cuttlebug to emboss the dots on the front.




4.Lego packs- I saw them on sale at ToysRUs, of course, after I bought them somewhere else for more money, lol.

The kids also took home their lego VIP tags and the doorhangs with their lego person on it as well as candy from the candy buffet!

Other great links for Lego things:

Free lego printables here: http://blog.aussiepumpkinpatch.com/2011/03/lego-party-printables.html

More printables and ideas here: http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2011/02/lego-themed-birthday-party.html

Lots of fun things on etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?ref=auto&q=lego+birthday

Thrifty: http://thriftydecorating-nikkiw.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-birthday-party-idea.html

Fabulous: http://go.tipjunkie.com/pa/320/modernmomentsdesigns.com/2010/12/23/lego-birthday-party-actual-party/

Cool: http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/06/lego-birthday-party/

Fun: http://www.polkadotchair.com/2010/05/lego-birthday-party.html

Another one: http://mommygoneartsy.blogspot.com/2010/10/part-1-adams-6th-lego-birthday.html

Fun ideas: http://www.stylelushblog.com/2010/03/party-post-.html

Cute: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2010/03/09/hes-six-lego-birthday-party/

Nice: http://stylishchildrensparties.blogspot.com/2010/09/lego-birthday-party-dessert-table.html

Here ya go: http://www.yousaytoo.com/lego-birthday-party/434722

http://celebrationsathomeblog.com/2010/02/a-lego-birthday-party.html

http://jcaugustine1.blogspot.com/2011/03/inspiration-lego-birthday-party.html

http://kristencheney.blogspot.com/2011/03/lego-birthday-party.html

http://bdaypartybrainstorms.blogspot.com/

http://www.productionnotreproduction.com/2011/01/so-you-want-to-throw-lego-party.html

Link to Lego font: just scroll down and click on the lego image http://www.squidoo.com/lego-birthday-party-ideas

http://partiesandholidays.blogspot.com/2011/01/lego-themed-birthday-party.html

http://www.nicolehastings.com/2011/02/13/8th-birthday-lego-party/

http://funandthensome.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/party-obsession-building-a-lego-party/

downloadable lego bingo: http://www.bigdandme.com/2011/05/lego-bingo/

pinterest: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=lego+party

http://crunchycatholicmomma.blogspot.com/2011/07/lego-party.html

lego pirate party: http://notwithoutsalt.com/2011/05/17/legopirate-party/

http://angelnavywife.blogspot.com/2011/04/lego-party-decorations.html



Alexander and his friends:






I think the kids had a great time! tfl!, Charity