New Year's Thank You Card Blog Hop ~ Day One

Welcome to the Crafty Chics Blog, and the New Year’s Thank You Card Blog Hop! If you have come after visiting ScrappyCraftCorner, you're in the right place. If you just stopped in and did not know about the Blog Hop and want to play along with our blog hopping fun, you can go to the beginning and join the fun.    


This blog hop is intended to help you get ideas for  Thank You Cards.  In our house we have a rule . . . you can't spend the money, use the gift card or play with the toy until the Thank You Card is written.  This helps to motivate my children to write their Thank You's sooner rather than later.  There will be opportunities to win some blog candy and prizes along the way in this Blog Hop.  Oh . . . and I will be featuring a different card each day of this Blog Hop, so be sure to check back so you see them all! (Here are direct links to Day Two and Day Three)


Now, on to the card . . . for this card I did something that I have not done for YEARS . . . used a stamp!  Since discovered the world of the Cricut, the box with my stamps has gone untouched.  My daughter helped to inspire this one . . . she wanted something with glitter paper and a snowman for a thank you card she had to write.

I stamped the image of the child with the snowman, and backed it on some teal glitter paper.  I covered the entire card with some purple snowflake paper I had, and then added a little extra bling with some glittery snowflakes.  The large snowflake is cut from the Graphically Speaking Cricut Cartridge.


The inside of the card says Thank You "snow" much!


And of course what fun would a Blog Hop be without a chance to win something!  I will be giving away a $25 gift certificate to Custom Crops.  You can use it for anything you want . . . paper, cartridges, embellishments . . . anything they sell!

For your chance to win, we are going to play a little game.  Have you heard of the website CricutSearch.com?  I worked with my family to create Cricut Search, and it allows you to type in a word and then it will show you all of the handbooks that image is found on.  It even gives you a preview of the handbook page so that you can look at the image right away and know if it is what you are looking for.


So, to enter to win the $25 gift certificate from Custom Crops, go to Cricut Search and type Thank You into the search bar and then send an email to me and tell me how many images came up for that search.  (you can send me an email here, or go to the Contact Us page at Cricut Search)  Please DO NOT post your email address in the comment section of the blog . . . that is not a safe thing to do . . . it allows other to get your email for those spam email lists.


Thanks for stopping by, and now I will send you off to the next blog on the hop . . . MyScrappinObsession.com

Just in case you want the WHOLE Blog Hop list from the start . . . I have listed everyone below.
(Edit: Since there were some broken links or people who forgot to post a card along the way, I have updated the links below so that they should all be good ones for you!)

CraftyCardGallery
KeekerzCrafts
ScrappinWithMyBug
BitByTheCricutBug
BeyondScrapin
letsubrightnurday
Luvs2Scrapbook
TheGlamorousSideOfScrapping
CardMonkey
MacherieCreations
Cheryl-Gibson
Lezlyes
Scrappin3rdeeschik
CrossMyHeartPapercrafts
ScrappyCraftCorner
Crafty Chics and CricutSearch  (You are HERE)
MyScrappinObsession
TheScrapoholic
SeptemberNinth
DeesDesignsFromMyHeart
Scrapadoodledee
TheScrapbookingQueen
CreativeArmyWife
KrazyQuilling
PattisScrapingTime
BugLvr
FunkyCards
TheCreativeStamperSpot
JamieisACraftyMomma
NadiasBeautifulMess
TypicalScrapbooker

My Junior Crafty Chic!

Even my daughter enjoys being crafty, and I love that it is something that we can do together.

For Christmas she got a kit for a no-sew blanket, and she wanted to start working on it the day after she got it.  Yes, I had to help out with laying out the fabric and making sure the cuts were straight, but she loves that when the project is done this will be something that she can say that SHE made.

If you have never made one of these no-sew blankets, they are so easy!  There are kits like the one that my daughter was given where the two pieces of fleece are pre-cut so that they are both the same size, but if you don't want to buy the kit you can just go out and buy yardage of fleece fabric.  Just place the two pieces of fabric on top of each other, as shown in the first picture.  If you are buying fabric, you can make them any size you want . . . from a toddler bed size all the way up to a large blanket like this one.  Once you have the fabric spread out I would place some safety pins in a few places to hold the two layers together so they don't move around while you are cutting or tying the fabric.

In each corner, cut out a 7" square of the fabric.  So then your overall fabric will look like this . . .

Then, making sure you are cutting through BOTH layers of the fabric, start cutting the fringe pieces about 1" apart.  I did a quick sketch of how that will start to look once you cut the fringe on the different sides.

You would continue all the way down each side . . . I was just showing a few cuts on each side for the example.  Then all you need to do is pick up a piece of the fringe and tie the top layer to the bottom layer.  You can do a single or double knot.  My daughter liked the way the double knot looked, so that is what she is doing in this picture.

The gift of organization

One of the gifts that I got this year from my family was something I have been wanting for MONTHS . . . a way to better organize my Cricut Cartridges.

First off, I have to show you the old way . . .

There is a countertop in our basement that I use for working on my scrapbooks, and I had attached a twist tie to one of the drawer handles to hang my Cricut cutting mats from.  This way they were always there when I needed them, and they never got left out on the floor collecting dust or where someone could step on them.

Now, when my cartridge collection was small the photo box storage system actually worked pretty well.  I had one for my Font cartridges, one for my Image cartridges, and one for my Disney cartridges.  As my collection grew, I outgrew the boxes, and I also found that when I was working on projects for a few days they would end up sitting out and looking like this . . .

Not a very organized system.

But now I have a Scrap N Tote, in my favorite color . . . PINK!  So now when I scrapbook I can just grab my Scrap N Tote by the handles, set it next to my Cricut machine like this . . .

 . . . oh, and I put the cartridges in alphabetical order, so then when I got to CricutSearch.com to search for the image I want to use, and it tells me what cartridge that cut can be found on, I just flip my Scrap N Tote open like this to the right page . . .

I am SO READY to start crafting!  Oh . . . did you notice that there is even space for my cutting mat?  No more hanging in on that ugly twist tie.  I have the 12x12 mat in the back, and my 6x12 mats for my Baby Bug in the front.

Reuse and make something NEW!

I found this article about taking something old and making it new.

With the New Year coming up, I might want to take a look at some of the old things around my house and give them a fresh new look.

Sandy Stone even wrote a book on this topic, called Fabric Remix.  She owns a design studio and a store in Minneapolis, MN called Hunt & Gather.  I bet going into her store is like going on a treasure hunt!  Her store has been featured in several magazines.

So before you just throw something out because it is old and out of date, take a look at it in a different way and see how it can be reused and given new life.

Mark your calendar

I wanted to let all of you know that I will be in a Blog Hop on December 31st.

Since we all have a lot of Thank You cards to write after yesterday, it will be a Thank You Card Blog Hop.  I will be featuring a different Thank You card for each day of the hop, so be sure to stop back every day!

Also, if there are any cartridges that were on your Christmas Wish List that you did NOT get, you might want to check out Amazon.  I have found some of the exclusive or hard to find ones on there, and I have even listed some sub-groups for you like Lites, Imagine and Retired.

   

Archiver's coupons

Just in case Santa did not bring you everything you wanted, or you need some new tools to go with what he DID bring, make sure to print out these coupons for Archivers!

30% off any one item
Free cardstock with the purchase of cardstock

Merry Christmas

I hope that Santa brought you some new crafting toys!

We are looking forward to enjoying the holidays and getting ready for the new year!

Merry Christmas from Crafty Chics Blog and
the Staff at Cricut Search!

Twas the night before Christmas

I found this online.  I have no idea who wrote it, but I thought it was so cute!

Twas the night before Christmas, 
And all through the home,
Only one creature was stirring,
A late night scrapper alone.
While she cropped and she trimmed,
Under her breath she was muttering,
"He hid my darn Herma fix!"
The poor wife was stuttering!
When out on the lawn
There arose such a clatter,
She sprang from her table,
And dropped her Magic Matter.
Away to the window
She flew like a flash,
Thinking maybe it was UPS
Bringing more for her stash!
But what to her wondering eyes
Should appear,
But a miniature (die cut) sleigh
And 8 (punchie) reindeer!
With a little old driver
So lively and quick
She knew right away
It was Jolee old St. Nick.
He carried a sack
Filled up to the brim,
With paper packs, cardstock,
And templates crammed in.
There were punches, and stickers,
And eyelets galore,
There was even a Sizzix font
Not yet in the stores!
He went quickly to work,
Stowing it all under her tree,
The wire, the fibers,
And all Acid Free!
"Those Whale Punches are heavy!"
She heard him exclaim,
Then he turned to his reindeer
And called them by name:
"On Buyer and Stasher,
Puncher and Cropper.
On Scrapper, on Matter,
On Trimmer and Cutter."
And he sprang to his sleigh
But before he could leave,
The woman yelled, "STOP!"
And pulled a camera from her sleeve
She snapped some quick photos
For future keepsake,
Thinking all the while,
Of the layout she'd make!
And she heard him exclaim.
When she finally let him go,
"Happy Scrapping to All"
And to all, "HO HO HO!"

Last Christmas Card

This is going to be the last Christmas card that I post for the season.  It is a card that is similar to the one that I posted yesterday.  I used the same ornaments cut from glitter paper, but I think this shows how even when you are using the same cuts and the same paper, you can create a totally different card.

I used some neutral paper that had a lot of swirls on it, and then a scrap of paper from another project.  Then I went digging into my old sticker letters . . . I have not used those much since I got my Cricut!  I thought that the gold ones would make for a nice accent with all of the glimmer and shimmer of the glitter ornaments.

A little glitter

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here?  What am I going to do when I don't have any more Christmas cards to showcase?  Oh wait . . . I have other projects I have been working on that I have been saving to show you until after Christmas.

Here is a card that I made using he ornaments from the Christmas Cheer Cricut Cartridge.  The cut actually does three ornaments in three different sizes, so I loaded some glitter paper . . . purple, teal and a bright pink . . . and I made the cut from all three colors.  The really nice thing about this is that I had extra ornaments when I was done, so if I wanted to make another card (which I did) I could use a different color combination of these ornaments.  I will show you the other card tomorrow.

I cut the words Merry Christmas from the Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge.  For this card I cut the words from gold paper using the shadow cut feature so that the letters came out thicker and bolder.

I might have just found January's new Cricut release!

If you are a Cricut Fan, you know that the third Thursday of the month is Hello Thursday and when they tell us about new Cricut cartridges coming out.  You can see my blog on the December list of cartridges here.

Well, I may have found something that could be a sneak peek into the January list of cartridges.  There are suddenly some new cartridges on the JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts website.  So that you don't have to go over there to find them all, I have put them all here for you.

The first one is called All Sports.

The images are really hard to make out, but it looks like this is kind of a re-do of the Sports Mania cartridge, with a variety of different sports.


The next one is called Florals Embellished, which looks like it has a lot of very detailed and elaborate flower and garden images.  It looks like it could include some words or phrases also, by the information on the lower right part of the front cover, where they show the special features.

Sorry . . . there was not a back cover picture for this one.

The last one I found is called Formal Occasions.

From what I can see, it looks like the Wedding Solutions cartridge turned into a full cartridge.


Remember, if your list of cartridges is getting so long that you cannot keep track of what you have, be sure to use CricutSearch.com to help you find what you are looking for.  For example, today I am making a scrapbook layout where I want to use a teddy bear cut, so I typed in the words teddy bear to CricutSearch.com and found 15 different images to pick from, along with a preview of the handbook page that they are found on.

Christmas Tree Card

I have been wanting to cut this image from Lyrical Letters since I first got the cartridge, but it was so intricate and delicate I was worried that the paper would rip.  But now that I have my Expression and I can go really slow and then use the multi cut function, which goes back and cuts the image again right over itself, I had faith that I could get it to work.

Since that worked so well, I cut the word Celebrate out of gold paper, and off of the suggestion of someone else I added glittery dots to the tree for the ornaments.  Simple but pretty.

Archiver's coupon for those last minute needs!

If you are shopping for a crafter, or you need a few last minute supplies for yourself, make sure to follow our link and print out this Archiver's coupon for 30% any one regular priced item.

Winter Anniversary

I have some very good friends who are celebrating their wedding anniversary today.  I wanted to make them a card, and I wanted it to reflect the season also.

I had so much fun cutting snowflakes of different colors and sizes out of glitter paper using the Graphically Speaking Cricut Cartridge.  Personally, I think this cartridge has prettier snowflakes than the winter or Christmas cartridges I own.

I then cut the words Happy Anniversary out of white paper with my Calligraphy Collections Cricut Cartridge.  I took some deep navy blue paper, rounded the corners and then started layering all of the elements until I got just the look I wanted.

Happy Anniversary Heather and Tom!  I love you!

Quilted Ornament

Here is another ornament idea I want to try sometime.

Joy

Here is a card that I made for a friend of mine that lives in Florida.  I wanted to do something fun and summery since she lives in a warmer climate.

I love the bright colors in the polka dot paper, and it was easy to find solid colors that when with it.  I cut the tree from my Christmas Cheer Cricut Cartridge.

Cricut Cartridges on sale

I was just over at Custom Crops and I noticed that several of the older cartridges are on sale for $15 - $19, so if there are some that you still want NOW might be a good time to stock up.  Click here to go right to the Cricut Cartridge list.

Wine Charms . . . using your Cricut

I should try this idea . . . great gift idea for the wine drinkers in my family . . . make wine charms with your Cricut!

Ten New Cricut Cartridges

I think ProvoCraft wants to make sure that 2010 goes out with a bang . . . they just released 10 new Cricut Cartridges today!  Let's take a look at them now.

The first one is exclusive to circle members, but I wanted to share it with all of you.

Everyday Cricut is a collection of images for the Cricut owner and crafter.  It contains a variety of Cricut logo images, cuts of the different ProvoCraft machines and crafting tools.  

There are even 3D projects that include the bug icon, and a full alphabet where each letter has the bug antenna.

Life's A Party has images for a variety of events . . . birthdays, weddings, baby showers . . . and each image has a card cut and a cupcake wrapper cut so that you can do an entire party, from invitations to decorations, in one theme.

Pack Your Bags is a collection of images for your vacation and travels.  It includes images of ships, sea life, tropical flowers and there are a lot of cute phrases.

One special function cut that I found interesting was the stamp cut.  It takes each image and puts it inside of a postage stamp.

Hold on . . . we are going back to a time when Disco was King with Groovy Times.  Peace, love and good times.

With a name like Nate's ABCs I was expecting to see a font cartridge, but I was wrong.  This cartridge is filled with images of toys, animals and playtime.

Now here is one for the Disney Pixar fans like me . . . The Best of Pixar!  This cartridge includes images from several different movies . . . Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and Wall-E.

Disney Classics is another cartridge that has a collection of several different movies, but this time the focus is on the Classic Disney characters.  The movies included in this would be Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Bambi.  (I love the Thumper and Flower images from the Bambi collection)

The last three cartridges are seasonal cartridges.  Mother's Day Bouquet is all cuts of flowers and leaves that you can layer to create the perfect bouquet for any occasion. 

If you have spring fever, take a look at April Showers Seasonal cartridge.  It contains images and phrases of spring, flowers, birds and time in the garden.

If you use your Cricut mostly for card making, then you should check out Spring Holiday Cards Seasonal cartridge.  It is full of images and phrases for your cards this spring, and it includes cuts for envelops, bags and boxes.

So there they are . . . I am guessing these will be the final nine cartridges for 2010, so revise your Christmas Wish List if you need to and get ready for a busy 2011!

The gift of cookies

Every year there are a few people that I give Christmas cookies to as a gift.  I had this tin sitting around, and I think that it had cookies or crackers in it when we got it.

Not the best looking tin.  So I covered it with white contact paper and added some Christmas embellishments to it and now it looks like this.

If you don't have empty tins sitting around your house, check out a local dollar store for a way to get some cheap containers that you can embellish for putting cookies and other Christmas treats in.

Great Teacher's Gift!

I saw this and had to share it with all of you.  If you have kids, like I do, then you are always trying to think of a clever new idea for a gift for their teacher.  How about a #1 Teacher coffee cozy to keep their beverages warm!

You could even add a gift card to their favorite coffee shop along with this coffee cozy.  If you don't want to make it yourself, you can purchase one like this here.

Oh Christmas Tree

I wanted to share a Christmas card that I created with all of you.  I wanted to do something that was not in the "traditional" red and green of Christmas, and I had this fun pink and green argyle paper sitting around . . .

I backed the entire card with the pink and green argyle paper, and then cut a tree out of green glitter paper using my Doodlecharm Cricut Cartridge.  I cut it on my Expression so that I could use the multi cut function.  I learning to LOVE this function for delicate cuts, or when I am cutting thicker paper.  It goes back and retraces the cut in the same place so you don't get those images that are just partially cut out of the paper and will not peel off of the mat.

Then I cut a rectangle frame with my Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge.  I actually goofed and cut it the wrong size, so I cut off one side of the rectangle to make it work for this card.  See . . . it is not a mistake, just an alteration in the original design.

Archiver's coupons

If you need to run to Archiver's for some last minute crafting supplies, or a gift for that special crafter in your life (hint, hint) here are a couple of coupons so that you can get more for your money.  Just click on the link to print out the coupons.

30% off any one item good until December 21st
Free cardstock with the purchase of cardstock

I must have a thing for snowmen!

I seem to decorate with them, and the last two winter birthday cards that I have done have both used snowmen in them!  Here is one that I made using the snowman cut from the Cricut Cartridge Christmas Cheer.

I cut the actual snowman out of white glitter paper, and I used my Expression so that I could use the Multi-Cut function.  This allowed me to cut the same image twice right on top of where the original cut was.  I found that this works really well when you are cutting through thicker paper, like the glitter paper.

The hat, scarf, arms and nose are all combined in one cut, but I cut it from both brown and orange paper so that I could do the hat and arms in brown, and the nose in orange.  For the scarf I actually layered the two cuts by cutting off the fringe of the orange scarf and layering it over the brown scarf cut.

Winter Birthday Card

My sister has a winter birthday, so I like to make winter themed card.  For this one I used the snowman cut from the Cricut Cartridge Doodlecharms.  I had some blue paper with white polka dots, that I thought looked like falling snow, so I used that for the background.  You cannot really tell in the picture, but the snow on the ground is glitter paper.

I used Mod Podge Dimensional Magic on the face elements and the buttons to give them a raised effect.


  

And the winner is . . . .

A few days ago I blogged about a contest at Cricut Search, and today I am glad to announce that the winner is 

Donna Lippa


Congratulations Donna!  We will be contacting you and you will be sent a $25 gift certificate good towards a purchase at Custom Crops.


Would you like to know about upcoming contests at CricutSearch.com so that you can have a chance to win prizes from our sponsors?  Then either join our Facebook Page or sign up for our newsletter.


Make sure to tell your friends about our site, and our Facebook page . . . if we can get to 1000 followers on the Facebook Page by the end of the year, we will have another contest!

Gift Card Holder

I just got an email from Archiver's and the first suggested holiday item on their list was gift card holders.  In their example they used small pre-made bags that they decorated with stamps, embossing, stickers and all sorts of "bling".

I have also found that there are some Cricut Cartridges that you can make gift card holders from.  Here is the surprising part . . . I would have guessed they would be in a birthday or Christmas cartridge.  I found one that works great in my Paisley cartridge, and Sweet Treats also has a nice one.  The thing I really like about the ones cut with the Cricut is that they have the little closure tab built right into the cut.  You can kind of see it in the gift card holder that I made on the right in the picture below.

I had some Christmas paper that was a few years old, and I don't really like the paper for scrapbook layouts any more, but in small amounts, like for this gift card holders, it works just fine.  I cut these at 4" to get them the right size to fit a gift card inside, and there is room to write a nice message to the person you are giving the gift card to also.

Photo gift idea

Have you ever gone through your photos and found some doubles or pictures that just don't seem to fit into a layout?  Why not turn them into a gift for someone this holiday season.  I did this one year when I found a box of older pictures that were all doubles of things I had in books.  I made mini Grandparent books, with pictures of the kids from birth to that year.

Here is another idea for a way to put together some random pictures into a fun display or gift.

Purchase a Photo Tray and add pictures, paper, embellishment or souvenirs.  You can use it to celebrate a family event, trip, wedding or just the people that you love.


 

Cricut Search Contest

I would like to thank all of you for helping to make Cricut Search such a huge success in such a short time.  

To show our appreciation, we would like to have a contest and give away a $25 gift certificate from our new sponsor CustomCrops.com

I thought it would be fun to make it a "scavenger hunt", so I have tagged one of the cartridges on Cricut Search with the word contest.  To enter the contest all you have to do is

Go to CricutSearch.com

Type contest into the search bar and click on the search button

Once you see what Cricut Cartridge comes up for this search, send an email to me 

  

Subject: December Contest

Include your name and the name of the cartridge that came up in the search

I will pick a winner from all of the entries on Friday, December 10th.  The winner will then be sent a $25 gift certificate from our sponsor CustomCrops.com which can be used towards the purchase of a Cricut Cartridge of your choice, or any of the other fabulous products at CustomCrops.com

Good luck!

Snowflake pendant

Even thought I complain about the snow and the cold, I love the look of items decorated with snowflakes, or the way it looks outside after the snow has just fallen . . . as long as I don't have to drive in it or shovel it!

I found this beautiful snowflake pendant and just had to share it with all of you.

I found it while I was looking around on Etsy the other day, and it can be purchased here.

I wonder if I could cut images with my Cricut and put them on glass tiles like this?

Christmas Wreath Ornament

Here is a video on a Christmas Wreath Ornament . . . you could use Cricut images instead of the punch.

Christmas Wreaths

I am thinking about doing a new Christmas Wreath for my family this year, but I am trying to decide on how I want it to look.  I was searching online, and there are so many beautiful options and ideas out there!

Click here for more info on this wreath.  This one reminds me of my Grandfather . . . he used to pick up pinecones that he would find and turn them into beautiful ornaments.

I have always LOVED the look of these Christmas Ornament Wreaths!  I would be worried that I would break the ornaments if I made one of my own, but if you want to give it a try, you can find more info here.

I have often thought of doing the fabric Christmas wreath, since I know I have enough fabric sitting around, but they always seem to look too "country" for me.

Of course, those of you that know me know that this Christmas Wreath is more my style.

I bet I could make one like that.