Crazy About Cricut Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!!

Welcome to The Fall/Halloween Blog Hop featuring the Thankful Thursday Design Team! Hopefully you just came from the talented Sharon from Simply Sweet by Sharon. If not, please head on over to see our hop hostess Jenny at Crazy About Cricut so you can start from the beginning :)

For my Halloween project, I made a Happy Haunting garland. It's so hard to photograph garlands well because they're so LONG, but hopefully you get the idea :) This was all done using the Happy Hauntings cart on my Cricut, I love all the awesome Halloween images and fonts on there!
For each letter, I cut a tombstone then inked the edges in white, so they kind of glow a little, then tied the top with orange ribbon. Then I cut a spider web as a background and put the glittery letters up on pop dots. The whole thing is strung on black yarn and then in between the letters and bats I tied some white gauzy tulle and a black ribbon. When it's all hanging there, the tulle kind of looks spider web-like so that was fun!

I cut out each bat and then I added some red stickles to the eyes for something just a little different. My son was the one who gave me this idea to make a bat garland, and he was so excited that we now have "flying bats" in our living room!


The grand prize for this hop is the beautiful Celebrate With Flourish cartridge. To enter you need to leave a comment on ALL the blogs in this hop.

Well now it's time for some blog candy!! Because besides getting to see everyone's amazing projects, that is just the BEST part! This is the Memories Embellishment kit from Making Memories. It's so versatile, you could use it for any project! All you have to do is leave me a comment and don't forget to leave me a way to contact you in case you are the lucky winner! Also, if you happen to like what you see on my blog and would like to become a follower, that would be awesome too, but it's not required for your chance to win. :) I'll announce the winner next Thursday!!

Thank you for hopping along with us! Now head on over to see Ruby at Paper Junkie as the next stop on the hop!

Here's the whole lineup just in case you need it:
Jenny @ http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/

Cheryl @ http://cardsbycg.blogspot.com/
Christel @ http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com/
Sharon @ http://www.simplysweetbysharon.blogspot.com/
Lola @ http://purplepeepstechniques.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE!!
Ruby @ http://paper-junkie.blogspot.com/
Leah@ http://www.leahscarddesigns.com
Tanya @ http://www.scrappinkymomma.blogspot.com/
Jen @ http://mccalleyhouse.blogspot.com/
Sandra @ http://sweetpeascards.blogspot.com/
Gaby @ http://www.gabycreates.com/
Amber @ http://my3escrapbooking.blogspot.com/

Have an awesome day!!

CTO Challenge Card

Welcome to another great challenge at Celebrate the Occasion! This week, the challenge is to make a project for any occasion, but it must have a ribbon. I have a few cousins getting married in the next few months, so you might see some more wedding cards from me in the next few weeks :) For this card, I used papers and stickers from the Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection. It's SO beautiful and the colors happen to coordinate perfectly with one of the weddings! I loved the back of this paper too, so I folded over the side and tore it and then inked the whole thing. I used a pearl trim for the border and then added a lace trim for some added interest.


I cut this scalloped oval out on my Cricut using the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy cart and then printed out the sentiment on my computer. I added the border which was a sticker from the Bo Bunny collection and added little brown pearls and the ribbon for the accents.

Then I used star dust stickles to give the butterfly some sparkle. Hope they like the card! Now come and join us this week at Celebrate the Occasion for this fun challenge and to check out all the fabulous work from the rest of the awesome Design Team!! All you need to do is create a card, layout or other project and post it by Sunday, October 2nd, 11:59pm (EST). The winner will be selected and entered into the drawing for the month!

Have a fantastic day!

Owl trick or treat block

I've been looking everywhere for a cute owl decoration and I just couldn't find one I really liked, so I decided to make one! I saw these cool glass blocks over in the Christmas decor section and I went with a fall theme instead. I used the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy cart for the great leaves and then the Happy Haunting cart for the awesome owl and the sentiment. I inked the branch with vintage photo distress ink and used some lavender stickles for the ears and center of the owl. I did the sentiment with vinyl and cardstock for the rest of the design. It was a fun project!

These blocks are hollowed out so you can make them into banks, put lights inside, whatever you can think of. So even though you can't see it that well in the picture, I have some lights behind this one. I think I need more lights! :) I love this ribbon too with the sparkly copper swirls, it just feels so festive!

Here are some challenges that inspired me:

My Craft Spot - fall leaves
Cooking with Cricut - colors of autumn
The Paper Variety - home decor
Penny's Paper Crafty - fall theme
More than Favors - fall theme
Simon Says Stamp - dies to die for
Whimsical Wednesday - fall colors with handmade embellishment

Have a great day!

Thankful Thursday Pirate Project

The Thankful Thursday challenge at Crazy About Cricut for this week is to make a project with a Pirate theme! Arrgghh! For this fun pirate party, I started out by taking a picture of each child and then I made a tag for each of them to wear. They loved that they had their picture on them and it was like their badge for the party :)

I made my daughter a cute pirate bow since she is really into bows right now and it was a joint party for her and her brother.

I made a pirate cake and decorated it with Oreo tube cookies, Rolos, and square grid looking pretzels for the windows. I used my Cricut and the Life's a Beach cart to make the pirate flag and put it on a bendy straw. Then I dyed coconut flakes with blue food coloring and floated some Swedish fish in the water :)

We sent the kids on a treasure hunt for their goodies. I made each of the kids a shirt with the pirate logo on the front saying "Where there be Pirates, there be a Party!" and their names on the back. I even made Pirate Princess shirts for the girls. They loved them!

Such an awesome party, and girls and boys all got in on the fun! Now make sure to head over to Crazy About Cricut and check out all the awesome Design Team projects and enter your family's pirate project and don't forget Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th! Have a fun day!

CTO Tall Card Birthday Challenge

Good morning everyone! The Celebrate the Occasion challenge this week is to make a tall card with a birthday theme (must have a present). I used my Close to my Heart paper and the Art Philosophy cricut cart to make this card. I cut out the tag card at 9" high and then cut out all the embellishments too. Such a versatile cartridge!

The Art Philosophy cartridge came with a few different stamp sets that match the cutouts perfectly. It even tells you right on the stamp sheet what size to cut the image so that it will fit. I love the way the present turned out! I tucked my present inside the card and made a money holder out of it. It worked out great!

Make sure you come and join us this week at Celebrate the Occasion for this fun challenge and to check out all the fabulous work from the rest of the awesome Design Team!! All you need to do is create a card, layout or other project and post it by Sunday, September 18th, 11:59pm (EST). The winner will be selected and entered into the drawing for the month!

Have a fantastic day!!

Thankful Thursday Grandparents' Day Challenge

Welcome to Thankful Thursday and the great challenge over at Crazy About Cricut! This week, the design team was challenged to make a Grandparents' Day card. It was perfect timing, because we're about to see my parents this weekend who live out of state so they'll love to get this from my kids. I had each of them write a little sentiment and sign their names. It's so fun to see how their handwriting and spelling skills improve every year!

I just love the Create a Critter cart and my mom loves turtles so I thought I'd make my mom and dad out of the little turtles :) I used the bow and glasses from the Everyday Paper Dolls cart as accents.

Now you'll want to head over to Crazy About Cricut and check out all the awesome Design Team projects and enter your family's project letting some much loved grandparents know how great they are! Have a fun day!