Merry Halloween! A Fall Blog Hop with Creative Charms

Happy Friday and welcome to the Creative Charms Fall Blog Hop!  The hop officially begins at 9 a.m. so if you are reading this on the early morning email feed, please stop back a little later this morning to follow the hop.  The hop begins on the Creative Charms Blog and there are just ten stops so it won't take too long to get around and see all of the projects.

The grand prize giveaway is November's Kit of the Month and Deal of the Month from Creative Charms. Plus, throughout the weekend, Midori will go to one or another of the blogs on the hop, randomly pick a comment and that person will win a prize. She has tons of prize kits made up just for this weekend. So be sure to leave a post on every blog you visit. All prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st. To win the grand prize, leave a comment on Midori's blog to be entered.

Here is the complete list of blogs in the hop - in case you get lost along the way.

• Creative Charms 
• Lisa
• Kristal
• Diane   (you are here)
• Arlene
• Laura
• Amy
• Ellen
• Angi
• Christine
• Midori 

 So, enough about the logistics, let's get on to my project for today!

Did you know that people used to say "Merry Halloween?"  It sounds funny to modern ears, but there are vintage images that use this greeting.  I love vintage images and it's been a while since I have used any for a project.  One of my "go-to" sources for great vintage images is Twisted Papers.  They have all sorts of wonderful things (over 7,000 images) and I could spend hours just looking through the categories.  While I was looking at Halloween images, I noticed several "Merry Halloween" cards.

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd make a few simple cards and enhance them with some Creative Charms vintage items.  Using vintage images is fast and easy.  I just selected some images that I liked and downloaded them.  The images are jpegs so after downloading you can edit them in your favorite photo editing program and also make any adjustments to size that you need for your project.  Most individual images at Twisted Papers are 99 cents but they have a terrific deal on a monthly subscription which allows you to download up to 500 images in a month for only $24.95 - about a nickel an image!  The subscription does not renew automatically. 

I printed out three images on letter size matte photo paper.  I sized them at 5 1/4 inches tall and kept the aspect ratio locked so they would stay in the proper proportion.  The images were a little narrow for a standard A2 card.  To make things fit neatly I either added a strip of paper, matted the image or added trim along the side of the image.  For the first two cards, I wanted to add some velvet ric rac ribbon so I placed a piece of Scor-Tape in the center of the the contrasting strip of paper and then placed the ribbon on the adhesive.

On this card, I used a brown card base and black velvet ribbon on the orange pearl shimmer cardstock strip.  I aligned the ribbon and then trimmed it at the ends.  The Scor-Tape is a strong adhesive and holds the ribbon neatly with none of the marks that you might get with a liquid adhesive.

On the second card, I layered the printed image on a piece of 5 1/4 x 4 inch piece pf the same orange pearl cardstock.  This time I added brown velvet ric rac ribbon to the strip and used a black card base.

There is something about the zig zags in ric rac that seems "Halloweeny" and the velvet adds some fun texture to the cards. 

The finishing touch for each of these cards was the addition of three small gem stickers along the ric rac ribbon.

For the third card, I used a brown card base and aligned the image with the right side of the card front.   Then I added some vintage trim that I found at a rummage sale.  I think it is actually the edging strip that is used for upholstery.  I thought the curves in the trim worked well with the curves in the font used on the card.

The finishing touch is a vintage velvet poppy, another all-time favorite Creative Charms item.  I replaced the pearl brad in the center with a vintage marble brad in amber.

In no time at all I had three cards finished - they may even get delivered in time for Halloween!

If you are interested in vintage images, be sure to check out Twisted Papers - they have over 1,000 Christmas images and can be used with your Creative Charms items for easy and elegant cards.

My Giveaway -
Thanks for visiting - I have a small prize that I will give to one person who leaves a comment on this post.   I'll send some velvet ric rac, velvet poppies and a few other goodies to use for a vintage card.  All you have to do is tell me which card of the three is your favorite - easy peasy!

The next stop on the hop is Arlene's blog.

Have fun hopping!  Remember, to qualify for the prizes throughout the weekend you need to leave comments on each designer's blog hop posting.  Prizes will be announced on Tuesday, November 1st.

Oh, by the way....

...it did snow here last night!


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Fabulous Fall Frame - Disney/Pixar Blog Hop

Happy Saturday and welcome to your next stop along the Disney Pixar Blog Hop.   Thanks to Shawn and Melissa for inviting me to join in for this hop - there are lots of great projects for you to see and some prizes too!

You should have arrived here from Lori's blog.  If you are here on a regular visit and want to follow the hop, please start the hop on Shawn's blog.

If you get lost along the way you can refer to this list - there will be a second group of blogs to hop to tomorrow (Sunday).  Please click on the name to go to the blog hop post directly if you are reading this after Saturday the 24th.

Shawn   http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
Melissa  http://www.disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/
Tami   http://tamiscraftconnection.blogspot.com/
Ellen   http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/ 
Madison   http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com/
Kristal   http://www.gettingcricky.com/
Christina   http://www.creationswithchristina.com/
Jenny   http://www.crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/
Lori   http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
Diane   http://www.capadiadesign.com/  (you are HERE)
Amy   http://amychomas.blogspot.com/
Kathy   http://kathyscozies.blogspot.com/

The Disney Cricut cartridges contain many layered images of characters from various movies.  These are fun to make (as long as you don't try to make them too small!).  My children are grown and I don't often need to make these characters but I do enjoy the cartridges for all of the great extras that they contain.

 

When I realized that this would be a Fall hop, I immediately thought of the frames on the Pooh and Friends cartridge - they are on the last four key positions as shown above.

There is a cute snowflake frame...

 

A rustic wood frame...

 A pretty frame made from a ring of flowers...

 

...and this lovely frame for a Fall photo.  This is one of my favorites and I had the perfect photo to fit inside.

 

I chose four shades of DCWV Shimmer cardstock and a heavy brown Bazzill cardstock of the base.

 

I set the size at 11 inches and cut the base.  The cartridge will cut webbing lines to show you where to place all of the other cuts.

 

Once you have set the dial size, do not change it - just continue to cut all of the layers in the colors you have chosen.  For this frame there are four extra layers to cut.  Here are all of the cuts from the Shimmer cardstock.

 

The DCWV cardstock has a white core which I find distracting so I chose ink colors to coordinate with the layers so I could ink the edges.

Inking also adds some nice dimension to the leaf shapes (bottom cut has been inked, top cut is direct from the mat).

Before adhering the top pieces, I do a "dry run" and place them all in the proper spots on the frame.  Then I can lift them off and flip them over to apply adhesive.  Some of these shapes are unusual and this helps avoid confusion about which side to stick down.  I use the Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive pens for odd shaped cuts like these.   These are not particularly tiny cuts, but the odd shapes make this adhesive a good choice - you can just scribble it on!  I let it set until it is nearly clear to avoid smearing.  The adhesive will also be repositionable when you let it dry to clear before adhering.

Here is the completed frame with all of the Shimmer layers added.  It looks fine like this but I decided to add a few bits of sparkle.  I had the Fall Medley from Creative Charms in my stash so I decided to add these leaves in some of the open spaces.

The Shimmer cardstock and the sparkly leaf gems make a very pretty and festive frame.  I placed the decorated frame on another piece of Shimmer cardstock in a deep purple.

 I auditioned my photo before adding the gems.  I didn't like the way the red leaf overlapped the photo and the photos had some distracting tree trunks and the edge of a building at the top left so I made a few adjustments.
 

 

I did some more editing and cloned some leaves to cover the tree trunk.  I also printed the second photo on glossy instead of matte photo paper.  The revised photo is on the right.

I realized that one turn of the frame would solve my problem with the protruding leaf.  When I checked the booklet, I saw that it was designed with the leaf in the top left corner - so that worked for me!  The full page looks quite nice in this simple black frame.  This type of frame is sold inexpensively at the large chain craft stores and is sized at 12 x 12 for record album covers or scrapbook pages.

A more elaborate frame gives a totally different look to the project.

I had another project in mind to share but this post is far too long already.  Here is a peek at the design I made - can you tell which cartridge I used?  I'll probably post the finished project in a week or so...

A Special Disney Thank You Gift...

I'd like to thank you for coming along to the hop and I have a gift for one lucky hopper!  This is the Creative Memories Disney Magic Maker  punch which sells for $21.   You can see more about it on my Creative Memories personal website HERE.

This punch creates a Mickey head and a Sparkle star (think Tinkerbell and other fairies). 

In order to be included for a chance to win this punch, please leave a comment on this post and tell me.  I would love to have you follow my blog (top right corner) and/or subscribe to the email feed (HERE) if you would like to keep up with my posts.  I post daily and you never know what you will find here (!) but it is usually something crafty... I have been blogging for over three years and there is lots of information and inspiration to be found in the older posts so feel free to browse around.

I will use Random.org to choose a winner and I'll post the winner next Tuesday night.

LINK UP Party on Monday

Shawn and Melissa have added something new to this hop - there will be a link up party on Monday the 26th.  Here is the information about the Link Up party:

For everyone that has been asking if they can join in the Disney Pixar Blog Hops by being a stop in the hop, here is your chance!  On September 26th, the day after the official hop, we are going to have a Disney Pixar Hop Link Up Party!  We want to see your Disney Pixar inspired scrapbook layouts, cards and other creations . . . The “other” category can include banners, cake/cupcake decorations, centerpieces, wall décor, party favors . . . anything at all.

To include your projects in the Disney Pixar Hop Link Up Party go to
http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/ to post a link to Scrapbook Layouts

http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/ to post your Cards

http://www.lovetocrop.com/ to post any other creations

Yes, you can post a project at each site, as long as it fits the category being featured on that site.

This will be a great way for us to showcase the work by our followers!  It will allow people to preview your project and then go to your blog to learn more about you and the project you created.

Thanks for visiting - the next stop is Amy's Blog - have fun!

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Hidden Treasures from Disney Cartridges

If you are looking for the Creative Charms Farewell Blog Hop, please click HERE to go to Friday's post.  All of the details about the hop are in that post.

 

Welcome to Day 2 of the Disney Pixar Blog Hop.  You should be arriving from Shawn's blog.  If you are visiting by chance you should click HERE to start at the beginning of the hop.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that my posts can get long.  If you are new here, I hope you will find some help and inspiration!

I wanted to try something a little different for my stop on the hop.  These cartridges are usually sought after for the layered character images.  I didn't buy any of the Disney cartridges when I first got my Cricut because our children are older and we are "just not that into" the animated characters.  It seemed that they wouldn't be very useful cartridges to own if you didn't care about the characters.  I soon discovered that there is so much more to like on the cartridges - I think they are worth having even if you never make a character!

There are some great frames, nice flower bunches and lots of hats on the Pooh and Friends cartridge, a wonderful teapot and some realistic shells and sea life on Dreams Come True, faceted gems and a needle and thread on Happily Ever After...and so much more.

 These "extras" are always fun to discover.  I  was using Design Studio to look through the various Disney cartridges I own and I found something on the Mickey and Friends cartridge that really caught my eye and made me start thinking.,.

This shape is meant to be used as the top layer to make a swirly lollipop.  I realized that it would make nice spirals that I could use to make some rolled flowers.

 I set up a mat to cut this image in a variety of sizes.  You don't need Design Studio or the Gypsy to make the flowers, however, you can place the images closer together to save paper if you do work through the software instead of cutting directly from the cartridge.

I used double sided paper from K and Company.  Cardstock could be too thick to curl nicely and text weight paper might be too fragile.  It is important to use double sided paper so there will be color on both sides of the flower.

 When  you lift the cuts from the mat, there are two pieces.  One is already a perfect spiral...

...and the other needs just a short snip with scissors to open up a second spiral.

Then, starting at the outer tip of the spiral, I used the quilling tool from one of my Cuttlebug quilling sets and wound up the strip tightly.  You could probably use a chopstick or skewer to wind the spiral if you don't have a quilling tool.

The strip widens a bit at the end and you should keep that area open for adding the glue to assemble the spiral into a flower.

A glue gun will be the best choice for adhering the end of the flower.  You do need to work quickly so the glue doesn't set up but you will have a little bit of "play" time before it dries.

Half of the spirals will have this type of an end to form the base of the flower.  For the others, you can bend the tip to create a small area to hold the glue.

 A pearl in the center gives the flower a much more finished appearance.  I used some pink Gradient Pearl Stickers from Creative Charms.

 It is difficult to hold on to the flat backed sticky pearl to center it in the flower.  This handy tool helped a lot.  It is a "QuickStik" from QuickKutz.

There is a low tack adhesive that will lift the pearl but then allow you to place and release it once you have the pearl in the right spot.

I prefer to make nearly flat layouts so this sort of flower has too much dimension for me to use it on a scrapbook page.  I decided to decorate a small gift box.  I took some of the smaller flowers and placed them on the box, moving them around until I was happy with the arrangement.

The box is a typical plain white jewelry box.  I could have covered the entire box with paper but I decided to just cut a backing square from paper in the same K and Company stack to fit the lid.

I also added some ribbon around the rim of the lid.  Scor-Tape is the best adhesive I have used for securing ribbon.  It sticks tightly and does not show through the way a liquid glue can.  I used the 1/8th inch tape on this 3/8 inch ribbon.

It is important to remove only a small part of the paper backing at a time - working around the sides so the sticky ribbon won't get tangled.  This ribbon is from American Crafts.

The ribbon adds some more texture and shine to the sides of the box.  You could use a paper strip or two cut to the proper size if you don't have ribbon that coordinates.

This little box would be a nice gift card holder.

 I cut a variety of sizes of spirals and some of the flowers are quite a bit larger.  These three fit nicely on a slightly larger box with just a strip of satin ribbon to dress up the top.

 They also look pretty arranged in a row.  If you cut several sheets of paper in different coordinating colors you could make a beautiful bouquet on the box top.

The finishing touch is the small white Sparkled Butterfly from Creative Charms.

I hope you didn't mind that I took a different "twist" on the Disney theme.  if you are feeling Disney-deprived, you can click on this LINK to see some older posts about the method I use to speed up production of the layered characters (yes, I do sometimes cut them out too!).  If you like videos, you can find the video explanation of this process at THIS POST.

Here is the full list of the blogs in the hop in case you get lost along the way.

Shawn	http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
Diane (HERE)	http://www.capadiadesign.com/
Susan	http://www.cricutforbeginners.com/
Tami	http://scrappinrabbitdesigns.blogspot.com/
Kristal	http://www.gettingcricky.com/
Jessica	http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
Kaye	http://yesterdaystomorrow2011.blogspot.com/
Cathie	http://www.creativecutter.org/
Bobbie Jo	http://sweetsassydiva-gspot.blogspot.com/
Jamie	http://jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/
Kim	http://uscrap2.blogspot.com/
Melissa	http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/

Your next stop is Susan's Blog - have fun hopping and don't forget to look for the hidden Mickeys so you can have a chance to win the grand prize - a new Gypsy!

I have a token prize to send to one person who leaves a comment on this post.  Anonymous comments are fine but please be sure to leave some identifying information so I can contact you if your comment comes up in the random draw (message board name, email with (at) and (dot) typed out to avoid spam, etc.).  This is a photo or photo mat storage folder from Creative Memories with 12 journaling mats with Disney characters.

The journaling mats are double sided (one horizontal, one vertical) and are from the Disney Vacation line which is no longer available.  They could also be used for an autograph book.

Have a wonderful Sunday - the first of May!

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

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