Creative Cutter Room Talk Time Tuesday - Birthday Planning Tips

***Click here to see the thank you card I created for My Cricut Craft Room.


Birthdays; they come around once a year and are a big deal to many. Growing up birthdays were not a big deal in my family and I think that’s why I go a little over the top when birthdays roll around for my kids!

As fun as birthdays are they can be expensive and a LOT of work. This is where my Cricut comes in. There are a number of party cartridges out there that take all the guess work out of planning the party.

Robot Party

Space Party

Girl's Makeup Party

Princess Party

Elmo's Party

These carts are great providing invitations, thank you notes, favor bags, hats, decorations and so much more. But don’t think you need a party cart to have a great party. Last year my daughter had a gymnastics party so I put my thinking/creativity hat on and decided the theme would be Tumble Bugs and I would use my Create A Critter cart to make all the decorations and invitations.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning a party.

• What are the birthday boy/girls favorite things? Your theme should start from here.
• Food. Keep it simple. Pizza is always a good bet but depending on your guests ages and the season so are burgers, chicken nuggets or tacos. Also don’t think you have to provide a meal. Snacks are perfectly acceptable; that’s what I served at my daughter’s party.
• Start early. If you can take your time you’re less likely to get burnt out and more likely to enjoy the process.
• Take shortcuts. Whether it’s using an event cartridge or going to the party store don’t think you have to make everything from scratch with all new, original ideas.
• Recruit help. The more people helping you out the less stress you’ll feel. Remember birthdays are supposed to be fun!
• You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Pin the tail on the donkey has worked for YEARS so why not use it at your party. Sure you can change the donkey to Minnie and the tail to a bow but don’t feel like you need to come up with new games to play.
• Pinterest can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It’s a great site for getting ideas but you can easily start feeling like your party isn’t good enough. Always remember the party is all about the birthday boy/girl. Their likes, dislikes and interests should be what guide your every decision.

I hope you find these tips helpful! And now IT’S YOUR TURN.

What are your birthday party planning tips? Do you have a favorite birthday memory as a child? Or maybe you’ve planned a party that you really enjoyed. I’d love to her about it!

My Cricut Craft Room - Thank You Card

I have a Graphic 45 thank you card to share with you today.

I used their Le Cirque collection along with one of their metal key plates.

I used Art Philosophy and the coordinating stamp set for my Thank You ticket (1").

I just love how this card turned out! If you'd like to see more projects like mine please stop by Erica's blog.


Challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - B - blue

Creative Cutter Room - April Showers

If you're looking for Theme Day Thursday with My Cricut Craft Room click here or scroll down.


Thank you for joining us for our new challenge! We saw such sweet and adorable Easter and Bunny projects! We appreciate you joining us and hope you will join us for this next challenge!

Challenge and Theme: April Showers bring May flowers! Incorporate rain, puddles, clouds and or flowers and must include a bow made of ribbon.

Here is my project!

I used Art Philosophy to cut my tag at 5 1/2". My flowers are also from this cart and cut at 4", 3 1/2" and 2". The flourish leaves are 1 1/2" and the rain drops are 1".

So you already know I LOVE this bow maker. This time I spaced the pegs with one hole between them.

For my blue drops I used the negative from the silver, a paint brush and some liquid pearls. The paper I used is from the new Lawn Fawn collection Bright Side.

The CCR Design Team will be showcasing the Creative Cutter Room Bow maker!

If you have troubles making bows, big or little here is the solution! You can check out Cathie's Video HERE and see this Bow Maker in action! Each design team member used the Bow Maker to make the bows you see today!

Compact and easy to use!


You can check out the CCR Shop HERE! It is only $8.00!

** Guest Designer opportunity**
Would you like to be a Guest Designer with the Creative Cutter Room? Send us your project using the Bow Maker and we may feature it on the CCR!! Use the Contact tab!

Submit your new project for a chance to win a prize!

THE PRIZE

A BOW MAKER!!

Challenge Starts today April 19 and runs until May 2, 2012.

Follow the rules then submit your new project over at the

Creative Cutter Room!

Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Only entries that fit the challenge guidelines will be entered to win the prize!

Some Rules to keep in mind while playing along:

Project submissions must be new, no back linking

CCR must be mentioned in the description with a link back to here

Entry must fit theme to be qualified for the prize

Prize must be claimed within 2 weeks

Please link your project posting not just your blog

Please comment after linking

You have until May 2, 2012 to enter your project.

Here is the Line Up You for some great inspiration:

Carri

Georgiana
Diana
Elaine

Jessica

Tonya

We also have some special guest designers joining us! Please check them out over at the CCR!


Challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog
Shopping Our Stash
My Craft Spot
Made Especially For You
Die Cuttin' Divas

My Cricut Craft Room - Vacation

Ahh, vacation. It's always nice to take a trip and see a bit of this, or any, beautiful country.

My layout features a "stay-cation" out family took back in 2010. I didn't actually use a Cricut cut, but I did use those fancy Cricut markers! This was my first time using them (I've had them since I've had my machine) and they're kind of cool. In fact I was inspired by this project to use them again on the project I made for our 100 Cartridge Blog Hop coming up next month, so stay tuned for that!

Recipe:
Cricut Classic Font
Close To My Heart Sparkles
Recollections White Pen
CCR Exclusive Bow Maker
Cricut Markers

To see more projects like mine head over to Erica's Blog.

Free Shipping From Ginger Snap Scraps

***Click HERE for the Rockin' Robin Blog Hop***

Are you a scrapbooker or a paper crafter? 

There is a new on-line scrapbook store for you to shop!

Ginger Snap Scraps is a brand new, on-line scrapbook store run by stay at home mom, Cori Wagner. The store has many popular brands such as Cricut, Copic, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, Peachy Keen and many more of your favorites! All Cricut cartridges are $35 and under all the time! You can shop the store now by going to www.gingersnapscraps.com

Shipping at Ginger Snap Scraps is $5 flat rate shipping to the US and $10 flat rate shipping to Canada. *Due to expensive shipping rates, we can not ship any 12x12 paper to Canada.  Shipping to military bases is always free, as a thank you for your service to our country. 

Help support small business and stay-at-home moms! Cori would like to offer all of you free shipping to her store!  Use the coupon code TM4 at checkout for free shipping on your order-good for US and Canada!

Rockin' Robin Blog Hop

Welcome to the Monthly Combined DT Hop hosted by
Made Especially 4 You!!!

The outstanding talent of the Creative Cutter Room and Made Especially 4 You have joined together to bring you projects with a Rockin' Robin Theme.

The spotlight goes first to our Grand-Prize Sponsors...

A $25 Gift Certificate to Paper Piecings by Nikki online store.

A $10 Gift Certificate to the NEW Ginger Snap Scraps online store.
Click here for a free shipping code for her store.

 

An animal themed Cricut cartridge

 Rules for Grand-Prizes 

1. You MUST comment on every stop of the hop.

2. You will have until Sunday, April 15th to hop & comment.

3. Check Made Especially 4 You on Tuesday, April 17 to see who Mr. Random Number Generator chooses as winners.

Now let's take a look at what I made...

Recipe:

Box - Art Philosophy - 10"

Paper - Close To My Heart - Dotty For You

Celebrate Stamp - Close To My Heart Art Philosophy Stamp

Bird & Branch Stamp - Close To My Heart A Bird

Ink - Close To My Heart - Gypsy (purple), Pear (green), Lagoon (blue)

American Crafts Ribbon

It's time to get hopping. Remember the Grand-Prize rules ;0)

Ashley

Elaine

Jessica

Gaby

Tracy

Pam

Tonya

Georgiana <<< Your Next Stop

Beckie
Cathie

My Cricut Craft Room - Disney

I am in LOVE with the layout I created to share with you today. I'm a huge Disney fan so this was also a lot of fun for me to create.

I love that I was able to get so many pictures on one layout.

Mickey Font
   Disney Tag - 1.52"
   Circle Tag - 2"
   Mickey Head - 1.36"
   Parade - 1.8"
   here comes the - 0.76"
Paper
   TPC Studio - Woodland Whimsy - Mini Dot
   Doodlebug Design - Beetle Black - La-Di Dot
   MME - Fly a Kite - "Wish" - Ribbon Paper
   MME - Out of the Blue - "Smile" - Balloons Paper

To see more fun Disney projects head over to Erica's blog.

My layout was based on this sketch.

My Cricut Craft Room 100 Cartridge Blog Hop

Welcome to My Cricut Craft Room's

100 Cricut Cartridge Blog Hop

You should have started at

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

if not please start at the beginning

Be sure to visit Erica's Blog

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

tomorrow for over 50 NEW projects that you did not see today . . . also make sure to follow Erica's blog so you will know when she has contests, prizes, challenges, swaps & special online coupons.

Currently she is running a Scrapbook & Card challenge over on her challenge blog and you can win a gift certificate to her webstore!  http://ericascraftroomchallenges.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to comment along the way on all of the blogs today and tomorrow to be entered to win the Cricut cartridge that Erica is giving away today. Winners will be announced on her blog on Tuesday!

Here is my project!

For this hop I combined Robot Party and Sweet Tooth Boxes. When deciding what to make I knew I didn't just want to make something off the box for Robot Party. So I put my thinking cap on and played around with my Gypsy until I came up with this piece-meal idea. I took pieces from 4 different cuts on Robot Party and 1 cut from Sweet Tooth Boxes.

These bits are the base of my robot. I took blue tissue paper and cut it into 1" squares. Then I found two small boxes that when stacked resembled a robot. I believe the bottom one is an Amazon box and the top one is a toddler shoe box. Bonding Memories from Close to My Heart was the PERFECT adhesive for this project. When this glue turns from blue the clear you're ready to work. It stays sticky for a long time giving you plenty of working time. I also use this glue to re-stick my Cricut mats. It works amazingly well.

To apply the tissue paper I just scrunched up the squares and stuck them down. I rotated the box as I worked to give him a bit more texture.

I used foam adhesive to apply all of his features.

Cut List:
Robot Party
   Eyes - 2.88" - came from the glasses
   Mouth - 7.47" - came from one of the faces
   Belly Parts - 19.24" - came from one of the bodies
   Large Zig-Zag - 4.06" - came from battery place card
Sweet Tooth Boxes
   Bow Tie - 7.24" - did you know this cute little bow was on this cart?

Your next stop is Mary

http://mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com

Creative Cutter Room - Easter

Thank you for joining us for our new challenge! We saw such fun and creative St. Patrick's Day projects! We appreciate you joining us and hope you will join us for this next challenge!

Challenge: Easter or a bunny on the project

Here is my project!

I used my gypsy to weld together two 6" baskets from Doddlecharms. I also cut an additonal basket to cover the front and inked the edges with an AC Stamp Marker in Chestnut.

I don't think I can stress to you guys enough how much I LOVE the CCR bow maker! I used three colors of ribbon to make this perfect bow. Without the bow maker there is NO way I would have been able to tie this so nice.

My eggs are from Doodlecharms and cut at 6". One the pink eggs I used Tattered Angles Glimmer Mist in Tattered Rose. The spots on the green eggs are painted with Tattered Angles Glimmer Glaze in Icicle.

To make my grass I applied a line of Emerald Liquid Pearls at the top of the basket. Then I took a 1" foam brush and with a qucik upward stroke created grass.

I inked the edges of all the eggs with ColorBox ink. I used Lime Pastel, Pink Pastel and Ice Blue.

My rabbit comes from Winter Woodland and is cut at 3.5"

The CCR Design Team will be showcasing We R Memory Keepers Cotton Tail 4x6 Pad (I used mine to make my eggs)!

Submit your new project for a chance to win this prize!

Challenge Starts today April 5 and runs until April 18, 2012.

Follow the rules then submit your new project over at the

Creative Cutter Room!

Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Here is the Line Up You for some great inspiration:

Carri

Georgiana
Diana
Elaine

Jessica

Tonya (that's me!)

We also have some special guest designers joining us! Please check them out over at the CCR!

My Cricut Craft Room - Letter N

N

Do you remember the vinyl project I made for the March 100 cart blog hop? Well I thought I looked a little lonely ubove my stove so I made some friends for it. I used From My Kitchen, Nate's ABCs and my gypsy to add the cupcake and martini.

The cupcake is cut at 7.82" with the letters are cut at 0.76". I cute the martini at 1.43" with its letters at 0.96"

Now hop back over to Erica's blog and have a look at the other "N" projects that the design team has created!