September Promotion

We had our drawing yesterday, for a pad of ProvoCraft paper. We had Patrick (our youngest) draw out the name again this month, since he's becoming such a pro at this!

Thank you to everyone that e-mailed me with their guesses, to get their name the basket. The correct number of Cricut logos on the website was 7! The lucky winner is . . . Theresa Dowell!

Congratulations Theresa!

We're going to have another promotion, starting in October! Be sure to sign up for the mailing list, if you haven't already.

Thanks for stopping by the craft room!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

Cricuteer Scrap Night!

First things first . . . the name of our blog, thanks to your votes, is now called the "Craft Room". Karol, our web developer and graphic artist did a wonderful job on the graphic design work on the Cottage's Craft Room, didn't she?! She's so good at what she does! If you have a chance, be sure to check out her online sale at http://homesweethomedecor.blogspot.com/. Karol has alot of cute home decor items for sale!

I hope you had a wonderful week! I have definitely had a busy crafting weekend! Darn good thing I have a great and understanding husband! He even made us warm brownies with ice cream both nights! :o)

Friday night: I hosted our "Cricuteer" Scrap Night, last Friday night! We had a great time! We even had tornado warnings . . . guess it's a good thing we were already in the basement! :o) This didn't stop us though . . . we're Cricuteers . . . all for one and one for all! Swarming around the Cricut is (standing left to right) Cyndi and Jenny, (sitting left to right) Janice, Laurie, and me.

Saturday night: My sister, Theresa, came over to finish up her Holiday Magnet board! Although she LOVES cutting out with the Cricut, she absolutely HATES to adhere/glue things down. :o) This makes us a great team, since I don't mind gluing at all! Actually it goes pretty fast doing it this way! We've had alot of fun creating all the magnets for her and her family! We're going to start selling these as kits, so be sure to check back to our website for details!

Sunday afternoon: I then went to Jeri's (my Stampin' Up demonstrator) for a make & take. We made some really cute cards. I "scraplifted" the design of this card and tweaked it to use my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities. Here's how you make it:
*Take a 8.5"x11" piece of paper and score it in half, both ways.
*Lay the paper good side down (in the portrait position), the side you want to show the most of.
*Cut the bottom right portion out, cutting it along the score lines (to meet @ the center score point).
*Place back on table (with bottom/right portion gone) and flip paper over. Now your empty portion should be on the bottom/left.
*Fold the bottom right corner diagonally, to meet the center score line.
*Take the top left corner and fold it 2.75", diagonally.
*Take the left part of your card and fold it to the right.
*Fold the bottom side of paper to the top.
*If you'd like to use your Cuttlebug, at this point take the piece that you cut out and run it through the Cuttlebug and the front piece of your card (with it folded - but only the little portion is needed to be run through).
*Adhere all open sides down, so your papers won't fall out.
*Decorate the front as you wish.
You're done!! See . . . it wasn't as intimidating as you thought, right??

I placed a check in the card, to show how cute it could be if you wanted to give this to a couple getting married. If you're a visual gal, then go out to www.YouTube.com and search for "double pocket card" . . . there are some great instructional videos on these cards.

I hope you have a wonderful week! Thank you for stopping by the Cottage's Craft Room!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

"Brr"thday Party Invitations

Hope you had a wonderful week! I had a great time making these cards/invitations, with my sister on Sunday afternoon! Nothing like some special "girl time" with your sister!!

I had gone to a local stamp store a little while ago, where we made this particular card as a $1 Make & Take. The card we made was orange and stamped, of course it was a stamp store, with a silhouette of an orange slice. I had shown the card to my sister and she went crazy over it! She asked if we could some how make this card for her son's birthday party. Since I have a Cricut, I wanted to try and reinvent this to use the Cricut instead of using stamps. She came over on Sunday and we whipped out the invitations!

To make the card/invitation, we cut a piece of card stock 4.25"x5.5" and fold 5.5" part in half. Once folded, you can put dots on the front of the card with either a stamp or dot the card all over with a pen (coordinate the same color as the cardstock). Corner punch all the corners. Cut your white piece of cardstock (for the inside) 4"x5.25" and corner punch the corners of this also. Cut out a 3" ice cream cone and a 1" popsicle (for the inside), both are on the Doodlecharms cartridge.

To get the bite mark: lay the white cardstock inside the card, meeting all corners on the top/right. Run the card through the Cuttlebug with Nestabilities (second smallest size). We did had awesome luck with the Nestabilities cutting all three pieces.

Place glue all over the inside (right side) of your card. Place a popsicle stick down and then place your white piece of cardstock over this. For placement of the popsicle stick, we laid the card on top of one of the envelopes my sister is going to use. This way, you know how far up to place the popsicle stick. :o) We didn't do this at the stamp shop and now I can't mail it, because it's too tall for any of the envelopes I have! We used pop-dots, to place the ice cream cone and popsicles onto the invitations.

Tie a piece of ribbon (missing the pictures) around the base of the card/invitation. This will also help your card/invitation stay shut. WAHOO . . . you're done!

Have a wonderful week! Talk to you next Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

Cuttlebug Combo +

Okay . . . with the holiday on Monday, I am a day behind . . . kinda! :o) Hope you had a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!

If you didn't receive our September promotion e-mail . . . our promotion this month is to count the number of Cricut logos are on our website and e-mail your answer to pmfullbright@MyCraftCottage.net. If you'd like to be added to our e-mail list, be sure to put that in the e-mail also. Everyone that answers the correct number, will be entered into a drawing held on September 20th! Only one guess per person, so be sure to count correctly the first time! :o) The winner will receive his/her choice of 12x12 ProvoCraft Scrap Pads (Tuscany or Euro Vintage)! Good luck!

This was a pretty easy card. I made this for my boss, he's from Texas (hense the star). Cut 1" strips and glued them down to a piece of paper, however you wish. The back of the paper does show, so be sure to coordinate with your card. I then cut out the star with my shape cutter. The "Thanks" is from the new Cuttlebug™ Gratitude Combo. Run the card through the Cuttlebug, using the swirls embossing folder. Take a sanding tool and "antique" the strips. Adhere the sentiment to the card and the strips behind the front of the card and viola . . . you're done!

You could really use and cut out anything . . . you could try cutting out the negative shape on the Cricut and then putting strips behind that. Uh oh . . . I think I just came across my next week's idea! :o)

Have an enjoyable week!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

p.s. See the blog below on 8/15/08, for what the logo looks like - hint, hint - be sure to count that one too! :o) Keep going!

Accordion Photo Card

Here is the accordion photo card I gave to my sister, that I had made during the Saturday on-line crop.

Here's how I made it:
Take a 12x12 piece of card stock and cut 4" off (you'll have a 8x12 piece of cardstock). Fold down the middle, so you end up a 4x12 piece, then score every 3 inches. Fold it into 4 individual pockets and I used wonder tape to adhere at every fold and the ends (this will make individual pockets).

Punch a scalloped edge on the front part of the card and adhered the ribbon (only on the 3" on the front of the card). Once you fold the card, see if there is any overlapping on the front section. If there is, try and punch with an overlap so that it looks right when it's folded. Otherwise, you might have a little "extra" showing. Does that make sense?

I embellished with a matchbook card (instructions given on previous blog from 8/16/08) and an unfolding/exploding card, so she could place even more pictures! On the pull-out tabs, I used my shape cutter and again for each of the little red circles. You could also use a punch, if you have ones that would fit.

On the unfolding/exploding card, select the size that you want your bottom piece to be and then cut out 4 more pieces, with about 1/4" added. Score the 4 pieces 1/4" in and then glue to the bottom side of the card, as you fold over each other. Place a brads and a thin piece of ribbon and tie (as you would seal an inter-office envelope). Adhere to card. Tie ribbon and give it to someone you love to enjoy, your save it for yourself!

Cricut Cartridges used: Palm tree is from Doodlecharms cartridge, the Boys Rule is from the Locker Talk cartridge, and the letters are from the George and All Mixed Up cartridges.

Hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

Key Lime Crop

Okay, I'm ready for all of you to call me nuts on this one!

You know what a fan I am of Scrapbook Memories. Well Stacy Julian, a frequent guest co-host on the show, started her own website (www.BigPictureScrapbooking.com). Stacy's website sponsored a 30 hour "Big Wig Bash" crop, which was run by Key Lime Crops (www.KeyLimeCrops.com). Yup . . . you guessed it . . . I registered for this crop and actually stayed up for the whole 30 hours! I still can't believe it! The online crop started Friday @ 2:00P CST and ended tonight @ 8:00P CST. I hadn't ever even heard of an "online" crop before! Who would have thunk?? Well these two gals, that started Key Lime Crops, did an awesome job! Every hour there would be a challenge, which you would try and complete within that hour time frame. Some examples of the challenges were to create a card or page with numbers on it, create a page with your best "big" hairdo (saw LOTS of 80's hairdos on that challenge), to create a card or page with scallops, and to create a card or page with strips.

I'm including some of the cards that I submitted, for a couple of the challenges. I didn't win any of the drawings, but it was still a great time! Here's the one I submitted on the numbers challenge. I plan on giving this to my husband on our anniversary . . . so shhh . . . don't tell him! You can't tell on the picture, but I Stickle'd the diamond part.

For the strip challenge, I submitted two entries:

I "scraplifted" this idea, off the strip gallery/message boards. I just thought it was too cute AND easy!

When they were closing the crop tonight, there were talking about doing another "online" crop sometime in January. If you get a chance to go to either of these websites, be sure to sign up for their e-mail newsletters! This way you're in the loop too!

Thanks for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

p.s. I made the cutest accordion picture book, for my sister, during the crop. I do have one more little section left to do. I'll post pictures on Tuesday, with the instructions, if you'd like to duplicate it. The website I got the idea from used a 12x12 paper folder . . . but it made 14 individual little pages. Oh . . . that's WAY too many for me! So I improvised and made it out of a piece of 12x12 cardstock. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out! Okay . . . I'm off to bed to hibernate now!! :o) Talk to you on Tuesday night!

Matchbook Card

As usual, I was watching my DVR'd Scrapbook Memories shows, on Saturday morning. Julie showed how to make a Matchbook Card (show #1003) . . . oh my! The creative juices were flowing, once again! I didn't have any small ribbon, so I improvised with DMC floss. Whatcha think??

I cut out the "Thank You" from my All Mixed Up cartridge @ 1.5".

Here's how you make it:
1. Cut a piece of card stock 3"x6". If you want a decorative edge, add it now on one edge.
2. Score 3/4" in from decorative edge. If you have a scalloped edge, as I did, this scoreline should be from the furthest edge (top) of the scallop.
3. Make another scoreline 2 3/4" from the first scoreline.
4. Fold edges in and punch two holes and tie ribbon (floss) through the holes. Once you punch the holes, make sure you can see through the holes . . . if not, trim a little off the bottom (straight) edge.
5. Add decorative paper or embellishments to the front and you're done! This is a great way to use up small pieces of scrap paper too!

This project yields 8 cards, from a 12"x 12" piece of cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by the cottage! Have a great week!
Peggy

p.s. Okay, I went a little overboard on the Matchbook cards?! They're so quick and easy, I couldn't help myself! Just try 'em, you'll see . . . they're addicting!

MyCraftCottage Drawing!

We had our drawing tonight, for a set of handmade cards. To keep it fair, we had Patrick (our youngest) draw out the name.

Thank you to everyone that signed up for the e-mail newsletter, to get their name in the basket. The lucky winner is . . . Steff Gromling!

Congratulations Steff!

We're going to have another promotion, September 1st - September 15th! Be sure to sign up for the mailing list, if you haven't already. Details will be given on September 1st.

Thank you for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy

Quick & Easy Card

Hope you had a wonderful week. I don't know about you, but between school about to start and crafting, I'm finding ourselves with something to do almost everyday until the end of August! We're super-Moms . . . we can do it . . . right?! :o)

I got a new font cartridge, All Mixed Up. I purchased this because I thought it would be cute on our boys scrapbook pages. It just looked "fun" for a kids font (see below link to view the die cuts). Although it is a "font" cartridge, I wanted to find something else to do with it - for a quick card.

Here are the directions:
1. Cut 2 - 5 1/2" flower tag , one in a decorative paper and one in cardstock. When cutting the cardstock, turn the cardstock upside down onto the Cricut cutting mat. This way, when it's cut out it will show the "pretty" side when glued to the decorative paper.
2. Cut a piece of cardstock 3"x 9 5/8" and fold at the following measurement: 1 3/8" and then again 4" from the 1 3/8" fold.
3. Cut a piece of decorative paper 1 3/8" x 3" and adhere to the first fold above.
4. Corner punch all your corners. I used a rounded corner punch, but you can use any corner punch you have on hand.
5. Punch two holes, on the outside edges of the card (on the shown decorative piece of paper). These holes will go all the way through the layers of the card. This is what will hold the outer card together. Place coordinating brads of your choice in the holes. Place a piece of ribbon. You now have the outer card completed!
6. To make the inner card, place wrong sides together of the decorative and cardstock flower tags.
7. Cut a piece of cardstock 2 1/8" x 3 13/16". You could make this any dimension you want. I wanted a bit on all sides, to show the decorative paper. Adhere this to the flower tag, sand all your edges, slip it in the outer card . . . voila . . . you're done!

To see the die cuts of the All Mixed Up cartridge, click on this link =>
http://www.mycraftcottage.net/LVAllMixedUp2.jpg. The flower tag is the fourth row from the bottom and the second one in, on the right side. The decorative paper shown is ProvoCraft Tuscany Scrap Pad.

Thank you for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy

Make a box!

I was watching Scrapbook Memories the other day, on PBS. I DVR the show everyday and then watch all the shows on Saturday morning, before our two 'lil men are up and about. If you've never watched, I highly recommend it! You can always come away with some type of new idea.

On one of the episodes, the gals were showing how you can make coordinated small gifts. They added decorative paper to a small box and then made coordinating cards to put them in. They even made a small accordion picture book to put in the box! Too cute! I ran into a little problem though; I've got the cards, but all the boxes I had were either too big or small. This got me to thinking . . . why couldn't I take the same process, but just make the box instead? So I did! I had no idea making boxes would be this easy and fun!

I measured the envelopes first (an important step, if you're planning on including the envelopes with your gift) and then added 1" to all sides. I then scored the cardstock 1" in, on all sides. When you're looking at the cardstock, you're going to end up with squares on each corner. Cut the card stock on each of the four horizontal scores to the vertical score lines. You will end up with four flaps. If you're planning on using brads, adding decorative paper to the top, gluing, adding embellishments, etc . . . I recommend adding these now, before you glue the flaps. I cut out the "For You" and the flowers using the George Cricut cartridge.

Glue the flaps and hold until glue is set. Do the same process over again, for the top, and you're done! I did make the top of the box about 1/8" bigger, to fit easier over the bottom.


Fill it with some of your handmade cards and you've got an awesome gift!

Thank you for stopping by the cottage! Enjoy!
Peggy

p.s. Here's a link to Scrapbook Memories website: http://www.scrapbookmemoriestv.com/