All American Blog Hop! (With Blog Candy!!!!!)

Hi Everybody!

If you just came from the very creative Paula's blog @ http://www.owlbescrappin.com then you are in the right spot!   If you just stumbled into this Blog Hop, then by all means join us!  This is a great hop featuring All American Crafts. Please head over to see Jenny at http://www.crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com to start from the very beginning.  Be sure to read to the very end to have 2 chances at blog candy!

Thank you for joining us for the All American Blog hop!  We are sharing projects that celebrate anything American!  So anything like BBQ's, family picnics, 4th of July, or more.  I created a 4th of July layout using pictures from 2009.  (Yes, I'm still behind in my scrapping!) 

Sorry for the bad picture!  It's raining outside and unless I wanted the flash reflection, this is the best I could get today!  I made a two page 12x12 layout for the Fourth of July.  I based it all on textured cream cardstock and used a deep red to mat all the photos.

Here are photos of each page separately.

Left page...

Right page...

I then used EK Success Fresh Cuts FC014 Free & Brave.  This is a page of cardstock accents that you hand cut out (yuck!)  and then can use.  I love that they are pre-done, but sometimes I feel like spicing them up.  That's what I did today.  Although the cardstock accents are 2-d, they have buttons, brads and fibers printed on them.  Today I added whatever accent they had printed myself, creating 3-d embellishments.  This is a combination of three accents that I set together to make the title.  I popped the title up with foam tape and adhered buttons with fibers to everywhere that they were printed.  Using glue dots helped make the buttons stick!

Another accents featured cute white stars.  Luckily I had these brads in my stash and they looked great, so I added them to the hat!

Another accent were these cute photo corners (all 2-d) with printed fiber knots on each one.  I tied my own little red fiber knows and stuck them over the printed ones.  This is the only photo I didn't mat, but with the photo corners, it stands out on its own.

This heart accent was cute, but with a little spicing up, it is adorable!  I added the white button over the printed white button and then hand sewed the red fibers where it was printed.  This was a pain because I couldn't find my needle so I had to hand sew the heart and all the little ties in the buttons.  What one will do for creativity, right?

This is one of my favorite accents.  It was a 2-d flag with buttons printed where the stars should be.  I layered blue buttons with khaki fiber knots over the top. I actually threaded three buttons per fiber and made a string of them so it would be flatter.  (I tied a knot, then threaded one button, then a second and then a third and then tied the last knot.  This made little rows of three buttons!)

Blog candy chance #1 Scrapping at the McCalley House:

There are several ways to get an entry!

1.  Comment on today's post = 1 entry

2.  Become a follower (or already are one) = 1 entry

3.  Mention my blog on your blog (give me the address of yours to see!) = 1 entry!

**Just be sure to leave your contact information for me!**

I will use the Random Number Generator on Sunday, July 11th to find a winner!  Winners must be within the US and respond to my email within 5 days to claim the prize.

Blog candy chance #2 From CrazyaboutCricut 

There are a couple of GREAT prizes to win today!  You can win a Scrap 'n Tote!!  You can also enter to win this AWESOME prize pack from Post-it! There is also the BBQ set of stamps from Peachy Keen!

To enter to win the prizes:

1. You must leave a comment on all of the blogs in the hop.

2. Please be a follower of Crazy About Cricut.

That's it!  Winners will be announced July 7th!  

Thank you, now please head over to see Sandra's amazing project at Sandra @ http://www.sweetpeascards.blogspot.com/

Here is the lineup in case you get lost or need to stop along the way:

Jenny @ http://www.crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com

Cheryl @ http://www.cardsbycg.blogspot.com

Sharon @ http://www.simplysweetbysharon.blogspot.com

Tanya @ http://www.scrappinkymomma.blogspot.com

Bobbi @ http://www.rockgirlcustomdesigns.blogspot.com

Angie@ http://www.sitrestdownplay.blogspot.com

Paula @ http://www.owlbescrappin.com

Jen  @ http://www.mccalleyhouse.blogspot.com/

Sandra @ http://www.sweetpeascards.blogspot.com/

Lola @ http://www.purplepeepstechniques.blogspot.com/

Heather @

http://www.paper-junkie.blogspot.com/

Leah@ http://www.leahscarddesigns.com