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Friday, November 25, 2011

Theme Day Thursday and Festive Friday November 24-25, 2011



I am so sorry for not posting yesterday.... I stayed up all night to get the store up and it crashed overnight.... Anyway.... I still have so much to add it is crazy.....

But here is yesterday's project.....

Audrey made a Harvest Blessings Layout. She used George & Basic Shapes, Straight from the Nest, and Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut cartridges. Her blog is http://www.scrappyemt.blogspot.com/ 









Gayle used Create a Critter for this Thanksgiving charger plate!
To check out her creation please visit her blog at http://gscraptime.blogspot.com/



Audrey made a Warm Wishes Snowflake Card.  She  used Winter Lace Cartridge.
Please visit her blog http://www.scrappyemt.blogspot.com/ 




Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Would You Ever Guess Wednesday November 23, 2011


Don't forget next Thursday begins our 25 projects A DAY!!! I am so excited. My Design Team, friends, family and local ladies are so amazing and are helping me get everything ready for the store's GRAND OPENING tomorrow and HUGE Black Friday sale that starts on THURSDAY! I figured everyone is starting Thursday.... why not join them! For me, I am Thankful to have Christmas right around the corner. So for me tomorrow is Merry Almost Christmas!
Also another exciting thing that is around the corner..... We will be exploring ONE cartridge each day of the week. What this means is on a Card Creating Tuesday... part of the design team will be making cards and the other part (myself included) will be showing you some great projects with a certain cartridge that day. This begins this Friday with Paper Lace 1 or 2, Saturday is Damask Decor and Sunday is Create a Critter, Monday is Sophisticated, Tuesday is Boys will Be Boys, Wednesday will be Digital Cartridges. Then Thursday December 1 We will be making Christmas projects for the kick off of the 25 projects a day in December! I am so excited for this!!!  

Now onto today's Would You Ever Guess Wednesday projects.... Do you ever wonder why we call it Would you ever guess Wednesday? On these days we try to use a cake cartridge to make a paper craft or food from a regular cartridge, we might also use just the feature keys on the cartridge.

I have to share with you one more thing. This is just a fun thing we are doing within the Design Team. I bought a stack of paper and it was called Snacks by DCWV. I though the idea of food would be cute and practical. But the images are so large. Imagine a lime that is 12" big.... not really what I thought it was going to be. Last weekend we did a design team Ustream. Melissa was here to help me and we kept laughing about these papers. So we decided to send these out to do challenges amongst us. Then we decided to call it the box of doom. Then I had a great idea, when the design team signs up for a day and for whatever reason (sick, kids, family..etc) if they don't post, they get a paper from the BOX of DOOM. I even let them pick their own papers from the box.... One has threatened me to make something with the papers then send the project to me! So in a lighthearted mood, which is how the BOX of DOOM is intended..... I did not see one of the ladies emails last week.... so she asked me if I get a paper from the BOX of DOOM.... I think it is only fair for me to get one paper from the BOX of DOOM also.... so Jenny R>>>>>> I too will make a project from the BOX of DOOM! Thanks for taking it as it is a fun way to laugh about our mistakes :) So fair is fair ..... I am part of the team too....... Don't worry you won't be able to miss it when we create from the BOX of DOOM!!!!!


Tammy S used the Lyrical Letters cartridge.
Please visit her blog at http://thepurplemuse.blogspot.com/ to find out more on how she created this card.




Laura used "A Child's Year" to create this card...
For more details, visit her blog at http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com/




Jen L used end cap feature from Mickey Font cartridge and Mickey and Friends Cartridge



Don't forget to bookmark the shop for tomorrow.
You will not want to miss the specials and new products!!!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Card Creating Tuesday November 22, 2011

As the Holiday is coming upon us here are some great cards..... I LOVE the theme! I also made a QUICK card for my Nephew's birthday party tonight!

Please don't judge it, this was made in about 12 minutes.....
So it is not the best work, but I am sure my 2 year old nephew will like it.

Suzy's Crafts made some GREAT cards though....


Suzy's Crafts used Scandinavian Christmas.
Her blog is http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com





Suzy's Crafts used Celebrate with a Flourish.
You can see more details at her blog http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com/.




I used Winnie the Pooh and Friends AND Winnie the Pooh Font to make this card. I only took 15 minutes to make this...  I always cut my characters at 4" I do this because I do not like scraps of paper, so when I cut images for a character I do Auto fill and have the Cricut cut all of the image it can fit on one page.
The next time I go to make that character I have many pieces already cut.
I never have to think or measure what size I need because all of my pieces fit a 4" character.

For the yellow I just used my Your Story Trimmer and cut the Yellow card stock to 5" square.
I then used a corner rounder to make it look nice and smooth.

I also cut a 2 right out of the Yellow, but I put a price of plain card stock down and cut first so that I can make sure where I want the 2 to cut. So I lay white card stock down first and cut a two. Then I remove the 2, but keep the scrap paper that was around it. I then slide my yellow paper under the white until I line up my 'good' paper right where I want it. Then I press it down and remove the rest of the scraps. I then load the paper back into my machine and LOAD PAPER and hit REPEAT LAST. I get a perfect cut right where I want it every time. I waste so much less of my "GOOD" paper.
I then used my Crop-a-dile to set the eyelets around the outside of the yellow card stock.

Here is Eeyore hiding inside also cut at 4"


So I tried to do the coloring with Copic markers.... But I don't think I had enough shades. So I used my Orange glitter stickles to go over the orange that didn't color well. I liked it so much I took White Liquid Pearls and colored Tigger's tummy and face. The white had shimmer and the orange was glitter and the black was flat, so it gave him 3 different dimensions. I also used pop-dot to POP Tigger up! I also used pop dots to pop the yellow from the black.

Here you can see how the pearlized look shines so nice.

Monday, November 21, 2011

My IMAGINE-ation Monday November 21, 2011


Oh MY! November 21st ALREADY?????? Where on earth did OCTOBER go???
I get so excited about Christmas that I lose track of time in the weeks before....
I am a looking forward person....

A few things to look forward to is our
25 days of Christmas, Special 25 projects a Day in December.
That's a mouthful isn't it?
EVERY day in December you will see us use our Cricut machines AND the following;
 5 cards
5 Scrapbook layouts
3 Home decor items
Cuttlebug
Embossing powders
K. Andrew Designs Stamps
Pink By Design Stamps
My Pink Stamper Stamps
Peechy Keen Stamps
Cricut Imagine
Made with Kids
2 food items
An ornament
A gift

How exciting is December????? I cannot wait.

Now for today, We used our IMAGINE-ations to make these creations...


Laura used the Imagine cart "Best of Seasons" to create this card!
For more details visit her blog http://laurascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/






 Jenny R created this Home Decor for Thanksgiving.




Amanda used Yummy Cricut Cartridge.




I will begin also having a MINI-Monday project 2x a month using this Cricut Mini and
Digital Cartridges from Cricut's CraftRoom

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Erica's Craft Room Recipe & Baking Blog Hop

Looking for the Getting Cricky Blog Hop?
Click HERE



Welcome to Erica's Craft Room
Recipe & Baking Blog Hop



We have a wonderful line up for you today.....
I can't wait for you to see what everyone has made
for today's Blog Hop....
Here is the line up... Happy Hopping....
you will see my project around the middle of the hop!

Don't forget to comment on EVERY blog along the way....
I have several giveaways, but I pick the winners from the
comments you leave on the other particpants' blogs.

Today's Blog Candy is the Bo Bunny Paper that I used to make my project. You will get a 6x6 pack of all of the papers that I used.... Also a chance to win a Surprise Cricut Cartridge!!!


Remember the ONLY way to win the blog candy is to comment on all of the blogs, I pick the winners from the comments that you leave on the participating blog.
Don't forget to follow all of us!
Just 10 short and SWEET blogs today!!!

Your next stop is Melissa


Melissa  http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com/

Amanda   http://craftsbyamanda.blogspot.com/

Tracy   http://scrappininthewoods.blogspot.com/

Beckie   http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/

Erica-  http://ericascraftroom.blogspot.com/

Tammy-    http://thepurplemuse.blogspot.com/

Wendy    http://gilbyscraftster.blogspot.com/

Sheila   http://2pawprints.blogspot.com/

Laurie  http://lauriecandoit.blogspot.com/

Carol  http://huffandpuffscrap.blogspot.com/

Blog Candy -   http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 18, 2011

Festive Friday November 18, 2011

Please scroll down for Festive Friday

Getting Cricky Blog Hop
Welcome to the "Holiday Wishes" Getting Cricky Blog Hop!!



If you are just joining me from your dashboard, or reading this via email, please be sure to CLICK HERE to start at the beginning with Kristal's blog (you'll want to catch up on all the FUN!!)...

For my project, I'm featuring the Winter Wishes Stamp Set





K Andrew Designs
 
I used the A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge to cut this card out at 7" and the snowflakes at 2 3/4" or 3 1/4" I used the I-top to make the middle of the snowflakes and Bo Bunny Paper Snowfall for my card! I will have it in my webstore on Wednesday. To see all of my current contests, please scroll down....
 


Here are some additional photos as I was making this card.


This was the way the card was cut out with the snowflakes and snowdrops....
Before I added the 3-D snowflakes.

This is the inside of the card. I couldn't write on the brown so I added another piece of paper which was lighter for me to write on. I also had extra pieces so I used the tag and the extra snow flakes for the inside.
I will be using a small Flat Rate Box to send this 3-D card to my mom.
Not practical for all of my Christmas cards to spend $6 to mail it, but for my mom, worth it!


Here is a side view to see how dimentional this card really is....


This weekend thru Sunday you can get 20% off your
ENTIRE PURCHASE of K Andrew Design Stamps
enter the discount code: cricky20




Here is the line up in case you missed the beginning of the hop.....  CLICK HERE

1. Kristal

2. Ellen (guest designer)

3. Deb

4. Shawn

5. Lisa

6. Janis

7. Faith

8. Ildi

9. Amy

10. Amanda

11. Charlotte

12. Christel

13. Heather

14. Jana

15. Jessie

16. Linda

17. Miranda

18. Patti

19. Sherry

20. Erica




 The Official Christmas Countdown is ON! Only 37 days until Christmas. I know most people don't think that the Christmas Season Begins until the day AFTER Thanksgiving.... BUT I begin my Christmas Season on December 26 for me it is 364 days long. I begin Christmas shopping the day after for the following year. Santa has been done shopping for Bella since January 2. It is so great for me that she shares that love, joy and passion about Christmas that I do and she knows that it is not just about the presents. Her and I talk about Jesus and the Nativity, and she really gets it! When our dog passed she told me "that's ok mommy she is going to be in Heaven for Baby Jesus' Birthday" As a proud mom--- I think she really gets it. We haven't really talked about what Christmas REALLY is about since last December. For her to remember that from almost a year ago.... I think it was presented in the proper manner. I just can't believe at the age of 3 she really gets it. But I couldn't be more excited!


     My exciting list of upcoming events for you.....

1. Festive Friday where I announce today's winner of the Cricut Cartridge..... Tonight!!!
2. Tonight I will show you my Christmas Creation for the Getting Cricky Christmas Wishes Blog Hop
3. Tomorrow will start MY Recipe and Baking Blog Hop
4. Previews of Black Friday deals will be popping up from now until Wednesday. On Wednesday my store will be closed but you can preview everything that will be available on Thursday at 10:00am EST. I am so excited! We are working hard on making paper packs with printed and solid papers (10 sheets for $3)
Mat stacks of paper ONLY $9, New paper collections and a special coupon for all who have shopped before.... 
5. Great news for shipping.... Everything (except cricut cartridges) will ship within 7 business days and will be shipped priority mail. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, flat shipping of $9 no matter how much you order (this is great for those heavy packs of paper)
6. Gift Cards and Gift Certificates will begin next week! You don't even have to make a list and give it to your family and friends for Christmas, They can get you a gift card and you can buy EXACTLY what you want. ALL gift cards will come with an additional coupon to use when you make your purchase!


As you saw above I made a different Christmas Card.... Brown and Blue.... I know not typical, but too cute!
I am going to send it to my mom for "Thanksgiving".... (Merry Almost Christmas to me)
I am also going to send her to book you will see tomorrow on our Recipe and Baking blog hop! I can't wait.

Here is the rest of what the Design Team has made to share with you today.....


I used my new Bo Bunny Paper, which will be in the webstore on Wednesday!!!! I used the 12x12 kit and made some brads with the I-top.... Also in the store on Wednesday.... ;)



I am hoping my mom will not look at my blog today, so this card will be a surprise when she gets it!

Here are my snowflakes from my brown glitter paper.

I turn my I-top punch upside down so I can center what I want for the middle of my brad... I will show this tomorrow (Saturday night)

Here is a close up of the snowflakes and Sentiment

Here are all of the items I used. My I-top, A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge, my I-top punches. I used Brilliance Brown ink not the blue pictured. I used Brown and Blue Glitter paper along with the Bo Bunny Snowfall Paper.


I cut this Journal tag from the Bo Bunny Paper, it already had the glitter around the edge of it.




This banner was made with Cricut Alphabet and Create a Critter. I see she dressed up her little Cricut too! How cute!!! To learn more visit http://kleymanr.blogspot.com/



Lucinda used Hello Kitty Greetings.
Her blog can be found at http://www.thegrowinggibson.blogspot.com/




 
Today's Countdown to Christmas winner is....

Josie0602 said...
I am laughing at myself....why did I think that the theme today was Beach? LOL....I will be checking the DT blog to see if I did the wrong theme for today! Oh well, I guess at least I finished another layout!!
Love the cards and the layout from my sisters on the DT! I will go leave you all some love after work today.

I think this is the first time a Design Team member has been picked for a Festive Friday Cartridge. There were only 11 comments yesterday and half were from the Design Team.... The odds were in their favor.
If you would like a chance to win a cartridge each week, click here for details.





I have 2 Cricut Everyday Circle exclusive cartridges for you to win.

Here are the TWO ways to win.
December is Bella (my little girl's) birthday.

The design team and I are going to be doing a Princess Bella's Birthday Blog hop December 10 & 11
They do not have to make things for HER, just princess or birthday.
But fro you to win one of the Cricut Everyday Circle Exclusive cartridges,
YOU get to make something for her. That is how you enter to win.
I am making her several birthday Scrapbooks. A 12x12 and and 8x8.

Her favorite color is purple, she loves Disney ANYTHING and Christmas. I had originally wanted Purple or Disney princess. But anything birthday, baby, little girl, dance, Christmas, Baby Winnie the Pooh (the babies on the Winnie the Pooh font cartridge) I have MANY scrapbooks to make for her. So even if you don't have kid cartridges or kid papers.... no worries. I have decided to expand the criteria for the contest. A few of my friends have asked me for ideas because they only have a few cartridges.... You can use a font cartridge to make words and just make a page with words and rectangles for pictures....

Then by December 1st please get them in the mail to me. There will be a RANDOM drawing from the pages to win ONE of those cartridges. As always I know this economy isn't the best, so there is another way to enter you can email me your entry (this means you don't have to make anything). All you have to do is send me an email with your name to be entered. That is how I will be giving away the second Cricut Everyday Cartridge. So both ways are random to win the cartridges. Here is another way to win.

The crafter who makes the BEST layout will become a full time member of my design team! I have a feeling it will be hard to pick just one (so I might pick two ;) I am going to have my local ladies help me pick the new member(s) of the team.





Want a chance to win a Cricut Cartridge every week????

With only 6 more weeks until Christmas there are only 6 more cartridges to win, so I have decided to give you more ways to win. When I post a project that was made by the design team (like up above) all you have to do is click on their blog above the picture, you will be taken to their blog. Each one that you go to and comment gives you one more chance to win the weekly giveaway.

Every Friday I announce the winner. On Friday that begins the new countdown. When you comment Friday-Thursday 11:59pm EST those are all of the entries eligible to win. You never know which cartridge I will be giving away that week until Friday when I announce it on my blog. You must comment the day the project was posted.

Beginning Nov 25th ALL items will be in my webstore. I have hired a few local ladies to help with shipping to make my customer service better and my shipping times. I am very happy to have new ladies added to my staff and team. With the GRAND opening of the store there will be MANY items added to the store.

So instead of just showing product images I would like to show crafted items made with the cartridges I sell. I will be giving away a Cricut Cake Machine.

So below are the cartridges that I am going to sell. What you can do to win the machine is to make something, NEW, never published, posted or shown anywhere. Make a crafted item showcasing that cartridge. Only one cartridge per project. If I pick your project to be shown in my webstore as a sample of what can be done with that cartridge you will get a 10% off coupon for the store for the rest of the year and you will be entered to win the Cricut Cake machine. The rules are it must be new and never seen by anyone else, no SVG images, only ONE cartridge used per project. No digital stamps.

You can make as MANY projects as you want. Email me your NEW project, your name, email and blog address, what cartridge you used to Contest@EricasCraftRoom In the subject of the email please name the Cricut cartridge that you used.

You need to submit your projects before December 1st.

You do not need to mail them to me, just an email with a great photo of the project. It will be published in my store and on my Website. My store and website will have its GRAND opening on November 25th. Beginning December 1st, I will slowly be adding pictures of the projects to the webstore. The final day for me to add those projects is December 23. On December 23 if you have been published on the website, you will know that you haven been entered into the drawing for the Cricut Cake machine. The winner of the machine will be announced on December 24th, and a great big Merry Christmas to you!

Those who are actually published will get the 10% off coupon. I can only publish 3 projects per cartridge.

On December 24th I will announce the winner of the Cricut Cake machine!





SEASONAL DESIGN TEAM CALL

Here is the last 'contest' per say going on. I am showcasing 25 projects EVERYDAY in December.

That is 625 projects! They can be winter, snow, Christmas, New Year's...etc

So I need a little help with it.

Many of you know in JANUARY I will be having a design team call and taking about 15 new members. But for right now I am looking for a few members to have for a December 1-December 25th SEASONAL term. The first 25 days in December I will be showcasing 25 projects a DAY. So I need alot of help with that. So I am looking for about 50-60 people to be involved in that (in addition to my existing Design Team). You would then be responsible for posting TWO projects a week from December 1-25. From these Seasonal Design team members I will also have one or two of them stay on as a full time design team member.

Beginners are VERY VERY welcome. All I ask for beginner and advanced talent, is that when you post try to give as many instructions as possible. You MUST use cricut cartridges, no SVGs and no Digi-stamps. If you would like, you may do more than two projects a week. This is really a sign up event.

You must have your finished project emailed to me 5 DAYS in advance. With your name, blog address and a picture of the project. During this event there should be NO solicitation for sales of ANY kind. This is just to showcase your talent and blog.


How do you make the seasonal team. Email me Apply@EricasCraftRoom.com ONE project you have made with your cricut.

Also include your name, email address and blog address.

Once you are approved your name will be on the website, http://25daysdesignteam.blogspot.com/ When you see your name there you may sign up for any days you would like. Remember you need to sign up for at least 2 projects a week. You may do them both on the same day or on different days. If one week you have alot going on you may take one week off and then do 4 projects on the other week. Basically over the 25 days you will be responsible for 10 projects. To sign up for the day, just comment with this information--- Also include your name, email address and blog address. Periodically I will update the blog posting with those sign ups. Once that day is full with 25 projects, no more sign ups on that day will be taken.

Tonight the sign-ups for the 25 days in December will be posted here. But remember you may not sign up until you have been approved and see your name and blog posted.

http://25daysdesignteam.blogspot.com/

You will need to email me a project you have made. It does not have to be a new project to apply, but they must be new projects to post. Once I have approved you, you will then be able to sign up for whatever days you would like.