Christmas in July Blog Hop! Ornament Canvas

Merry Christmas in July!! You should have arrived here from http://betsymcreates.blogspot.com/ and I am the last stop on the hop! If you would like to start at the beginning, please go to http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/ I would like to start by thanking Scrapalatte (Paulette) for organizing this blog hop and letting me be a part of it. As you can see, it's been awhile since I have posted on my blog-two years in fact. Life has gotten in the way but I'm ready to get back to it and thought this blog hop would be a great way to do it!! When it comes to Christmas, I love projects that are simple with a big wow factor! That's why I love making these canvases. A little paint, paper, a cricut cartridge and modpodge and you've got a great custom piece of home decor for your own home or a great gift! I'm pretty traditional when it comes to decorating my living room. Lots of red, green and gold. But I'm also one of those crazy people who like to decorate every room as well (tree included!) In the last two years I have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl and of course she has to have a tree decorated in pink in her room!! I decided to make this canvas to match to hang up in her room this year. Completely untraditional colors but it's so much fun! I started with a 12x12 art canvas that I painted pink.

Then using my Imagine, I printed my own paper using the striped pattern from the Mr. Frosty Imagine pattern cartridge. (Love being able to do that!) Then, I used the CTMH Artiste cartridge to cut out the solid ornament at fit to page. I love the CTMH cartridges!! They are packed full of images for all year round!

I cut the same ornament with the shift key on to get the filgree cut using some bright green glitter paper.

After covering the canvas with modpodge I added the ornament cuts and went over them again with another coat of modpodge. Once it was dry, I added a bow with some coordinating Christmas ribbon I had in my stash.

I used clear modpodge because I had it on hand, but you could use glitter modpodge for some additional Christmas shimmer!! Wasn't that easy! I love how something so easy is going to look great in my daughters room this Christmas! You could easily do this project in colors to match your Christmas decor or for a gift! I hope you've enjoyed my "back in the saddle" project! Don't forget the prize for this week is a Christmas Solutions cartridge! Leave a comment below for a chance to win. Also I will be drawing from the comments left on my blog to receive a "Flaky Friends" stamp set from CTMH!! Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!

Butterfly Thank you Card

Life is crazy!!! And as it usually works out, right after I join the blog motivation support group on the Cricut Circle Message Board, life gets so crazy that I haven't had time to post on the Message Board, much less my blog.

Last month my grandmother passed away. She was an amazing lady. One of her favorite things was butterflies. I made these thank you cards for my church and the school where I worked for the cards and flowers. I decided to use butterflies in her honor.

The base of the card was made from white 12x12 cardstock that was cut in half, then cut at a length of 9". This makes a card that is 6" x 4 1/2" and fits perfectly into the invitation envelopes that you can find the the Walmart office supply section. The brown and rose colored cardstock were both from Core'dinations the Nostalgia stack. I cut the brown 1/8" smaller than the front of my base, and the rose 1/4" smaller than that. The patterned paper is from the Laundry Line stack from My Minds Eye and was cut 1/4" smaller than the rose piece. All of the layers were inked with Chestnut Cat's eye ink. The butterfly was cut with the cuttlebug combo die and embossing set. I used cardstock from the jewled Core'dinations stack and sanded the embossing. Some pink skittles acctented the body. The tag was from the Heritage cartridge and cut at 3/4". The sentiment was from Penny Black, and stamped in Chocolate ink from Close to my Heart. I attatched in on brown satin ribbon from Walmart, and added the antique embellishments from the Paper Studio in the corner.

On the inside of the card, I cut the layers the same size as the front, substituting the cream colored cardstock for the patterned paper. The butterfly inside was cut at 1 1/2" from Home Decor in the patterned paper with a shadow from the rose color.

I hope you have enjoyed this card. I know my grandma would have.