Thankful Thursday Design Team Post--Wall Hanging

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! Here is the current project for the Design Team and I am ultra excited!  The challenge this week was to create a wall hanging!  Here is the project that I made with my daughter Maddie.  We had a blast coordinating colors, cutting with the Cricut and chatting while we made this!

 Here's the completed June calendar in a frame.  This was a wonderful project that will sit up on the dresser in our master bedroom so we can see the major events as they come.  The neat thing is that all I am "out" at the end of the month, is the paper, the rest is reusable.  Plus, I am thinking of putting each one in a scrapbook to show the day to day life of our family at this time in our lives.

First, I had this great Dad paper that has been sitting in my stash for YEARS!  If you follow my blog, you know I am in a major "use-it-up" phase, so I based my entire design on the paper.  The paper says Dad, Daddy, Pops, Papa, etc, diagonally across it.  Unfortunately it wasn't a true 12x12 and I only had 1 sheet, so I never used it.  I decided to use it as my title block background.  I then used an orange patterned paper to go under the "calendar" portion.  I found the Dad paper to be too busy to use behind the dates.  I then cut the orange/dad paper to be 11 1/2 x 11 1/2.  I matted this on a solid blue cardstock and then on another patterned orange paper.  All the orange patterned papers are from a Me and My Big Ideas Value Paper pack.  This helped get the paper back to 12x12 size.    

Next, I used my new (Thanks Mom!) Color Box Cat Eye's (cerulean) to stamp the numbers onto the paper.  I used rubber stamps from All Night Media "Stamp Squares Swirls" to make the numbers.  This was honestly the hardest part because I couldn't see how the grid would lay over it and stamp at the same time.  Finally I made tiny hatch marks in pencil at the left edge and bottom to create a "grid" that I could follow.  Of course, I didn't think of that until I had stamped the top row, so they are slightly off.  As my daughter watched me juggle 10 number stamps, she calmly said, "Mom, just stamp all the 1's in the teens, and then go back and put the one's place in."  That worked much easier than juggling the stamps for each number!  (Great thinking Maddie!)

Then I used some old letter stickers to spell June for the title.  I inked the edges with the same blue ink pad.  I also used my gypsy to create the two other decorations for the top.  The Super Dad is a direct "steal/copy/scraplift" from the Father's Day cart that I don't  own!  I used Indie Art to make the shield and hid the layers and the lions that accompanied it.  I then used Jubilee to write Super Dad.  Whenever I "make" my own cut, I make the whole thing large, link it altogether and weld it and then resize it to the size I actually need.  This is much easier on my eyes and I get less frustrated with the tiny details.  I also cut the ribbon from Locker Talk and used a white gel pen to add little pen marks.  I removed the center and stamped the 1 using the same stamps as above.  I mounted both on white paper and fussy cut them both so they pop a little more from the heading.  

Here's a blurry picture of the blank calendar grid.  It is a clear plastic calendar grid that fits a 12x12 frame so you can put anything you want behind it and reuse it over and over again!  I found this at my local craft store.

I also bought a 12x12 piece of sheet metal to go behind the paper and calendar grid to make the entire thing magnetic.  It is really thin and not heavy at all.

Here is the order of everything getting ready to go in the frame.  The calendar overlay, then the paper, then the sheet metal and that creates a magnetic calendar that fits inside a 12x12 frame.  

Lastly, I used Felt Shapes (Harvest from Fancy Pants Design) to make little magnetic embellishments to move around the calendar as I want.  (These were a steal!  My LSS had a garage sale and the MSRP was $17.00 for 4 12x12 sheets of precut felt pieces and I purchased them for $4.00!)  I used Glue Dots to stick the felt shapes to bar magnets.  They magnetize through the plastic calendar grid, the paper and all the way to the sheet metal behind!  It also adds some cute dimension to the calendar.

We have an awesome prize this month, it's a Post-it prize pack!! Don't forget to head over to Crazy About Cricuthttp://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com%20and/  and enter your family project!

Also, be sure to check out the other Design Team member's project for some more inspiration!  They are a talented group of ladies!

Jenny @ crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com

Cheryl @ cardsbycg.blogspot.com

Christel @ onescrappinsista.blogspot.com

Erika @ cricutlove1.blogspot.com

Sharon @ simplysweetbysharon.blogspot.com

Tanya @ www.scrappinkymomma.blogspot.com

Bobbi @ rockgirlcustomdesigns.blogspot.com

Angie@http://sitrestdownplay.blogspot.com

Paula @www.owlbescrappin.com

Jen   http://mccalleyhouse.blogspot.com/  (This is me!!!)

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

Brynn @ http://www.flaiandfrillscreativity.blogspot.com/

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

Ruby @ http://paper-junkie.blogspot.com/

Leah@ http://www.leahscarddesigns.com/

Spy Party Invitation

April is the busiest month of the year for us!  We have three birthdays in the span 6 days!  My nephew is April 18, mine is April 20 and my son's is April 23!  To add to the chaos, Easter was on the 24th!  We also have both sets of parents in town for the big events!  None the less, it is now the beginning of April and I am able to blog some of the projects I did for the "big events!" 

Austin is all about spies and wanted his kid birthday party to center around his love for mystery and disguise. We decided to do the party at our house, so we started planning.  I made these invitations for Austin to hand out.

Using the Cricut, I created the file folder using George and Basic Shapes.  I cut it out on cream paper and then inked the edges in brown for an aged look. I wrote "Top Secret" on the file tab.  I then used Indie Art and cut the bomb out of red paper and the shadow out of black.  I used a watermark pen and added the small red highlight on the left side of the bomb. I then added Diamond glaze to the explosion part of the bomb for some shine and dimension.  I had to create the magnifying glass using George again, combining a rounded corner rectangle and two circles! Lastly, I had my son apply his thumb print underneath the magnifying glass for the finishing touch!

Inside, I adhered the note that set the stage for the party inviting all the kids to come be trained as secret service agents.    The boys loved the invitations and it really helped the theme come alive!

It's All About the Green Blog Hop Day #2

It's All About the Green Blog Hop

Day #2

And a New Project!!!!

You should have arrived from Melissa's page at http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/
If not, please go back to the beginning at Kathryn's page http://wamfamily.blogspot.com/ and enjoy all the great projects!

I am such a lucky person because of all the great things I have in my life, and I wanted a scrapbooking page to showcase that.  This was a new type of layout since I normally scrapbook events, but I really enjoyed creating it.  The hardest part was choosing what "Lucky" things to feature!

Sorry for the bad lighting, but it's pouring down rain outside and I just couldn't get a great picture without a flash!  This is a 2 page, 12x12 layout.  The all the papers except for the title are from The Green Tea Stack from DCWV.  It had 48 coordinating sheets of paper, which I love to work with! 

I cut the title in two parts.  First "Lucky" was cut from the Create a Critter cartridge.  But, I really wanted the title to read "So Lucky", but I couldn't find a great "so."  Time to improvise!  I cut the "So Cute" from Create a Critter as well, being sure to cut it the same size as the Lucky.  I made sure they were the same ratio by layering the U from cute over the U in lucky and changing the size on my Gypsy until they aligned.  I then separated the two titles and had the Cricut cut both.  (I tried hiding portions of So Cute, but I couldn't hide letters...)  I then took scissors and cut the C, T, E portion of CUTE off and layered the So and the U (from cute) over the U in lucky!  Now my title says, "So Lucky" and you can't even tell I pieced it together!  I matted the whole title on brown from the same paper stack.

I cut out several clovers from Indie Art and wrote other things that show how lucky I am!  I added a lighter green large mat (for a 4x6 photo) and wrote in brown along the bottom "to be married to Matt."  I adhered a couple pieces of green glass squares to the bottom with glue dots for a little more bling.  (The 2 clovers say "for my health" and "to be a teacher.  It is my passion!")

The second page continues the same page.  I added another green mat and then a brown mat for 2, 4x6 photos.  I wrote along the bottom of the green mat "to have a house I love" and added several shades of green glass again.  The brown mat says "for Austin and Maddie," my kids.  I used Green Magic mesh and ran it from the right side of the right page to the brown photo mat.  I layered a larger brown clover over the top and then stuck a smaller green clover to the top.  Where the green mesh overlaps the brown mat, I used more glue dots and stuck on some more green glass and then a sparkly cut glass circle.  The two clovers say "for my 2 dogs" and "to be alive, in love and happy!"

Now, for BLOG CANDY!

To qualify for blog candy:

1. become a follower (or show you already are!)
2. leave a comment on this project and tell me why you are so lucky!
3. leave a way I can get in contact with you

4. If you visit both days, and leave 2 comments, you will double your chances of winning!

I will choose a Blog Candy winner on Monday, March 7th.

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

 

Next Stop:

Lisa's page at http://www.cricutingwithlisa.blogspot.com/