May 23, 2011

Cricut-Tastic Award!

I am so excited that Teresa over at Totally Love Cricut gave me the Cricut-Tastic Award! Thank you!

I have to share 5 Cricut facts about myself.
1. My wonderful Auntie got me hooked by letting me borrow her baby bug way too many years ago.
2. My first bug was the expression and it was a Christmas gift from my parents!
3. My newest bug is the Cricut Cake and it was an 'Easter gift' just this year, thanks mom!
4. I own way to many cartridges so I bought a Gypsy just to not have the cartridges taking up space in my craft room :-)
5. My cricut went from having a home in my closet to having a permanent spot on my desk once I bought Make-the-Cut. I use it almost everyday now.

I am sharing the love by awarding this blog award to the following 10 people. All you need to do in return is wear it with pride and share the love with 10 other blogs. Don't forget to share 5 cricut facts about yourself!

1. My Thoughts Exactly http://www.mythoughtsexactly.co/
2. Happy Life Crafty Wife http://happylifecraftywife.typepad.com/blog/
3. Alvina's Creations http://alvinascreations.blogspot.com/
4. Crafty Shell http://crafty-shell.blogspot.com/
5. Crazy About Cricut http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/
6. Creativita http://creativita-jovi.blogspot.com/
7. Savory Sweet and Sparkly http://savorysweetandsparkly.blogspot.com/
8. Scrappin 5 Little Cupcakes http://scrappin5littlecupcakes.blogspot.com/
9. Squirly Girl Creations http://squirlygirlcreations.blogspot.com/
10. White Ruffles http://whiteruffles.blogspot.com/

Happy crafting!
Jessica

And the winner is...

Lucky number 13, I used a program called Matlab to generate my random number, yes it's a nerdy math program.
That's Curly Girl with her comment: "I absolutely love the word book!!! Forgot to tell you that! MTC curly girl"

Congratulations Curly Girl, I will be contacting you soon to pick your prize. Thanks everyone for all the wonderful comments. Most of you got it right Darja is our puppy. I have to give the most creative answer award to Alyssa Leanne with "Ok, I also had to take a guess at Darja... I want to say the dog as well but since everyone has said that that feels like a cop-out... So I'm going to go with horse since the pictures were all taken on a little horsey thing. Though if we are being judged on accuracy that is probably incorrect :P" Very creative answer!

If you haven't heard about the Link Up Love Party hosted by K Andrew at Getting Cricky you should check it out, it's a lot of fun. You can see my entry here.  To get more info on the LULP there is a link to K Andrew's blog in my LULP post.

Happy Crafting,
Jessica

May 22, 2011

Link Up Love Party with K Andrew!

If you don't know what the Link Up Love Party is all about head over to K Andrew's Blog to learn all about it. In short it is a fantastic way to find new blogs, make some new blog friends, and get some great crafty inspiration. Once you link up your blog post about your favorite project take in all the inspiration that has been linked up. It's that simple and fantastic!

If you are here from the Link Up Love Party, welcome to my little spot! I am very happy you stopped by.

Picking my favorite project is like picking your favorite child...I think I'm gonna have to go with an altered painter's tray. It is hanging in the hallway that leads to my craft room and it makes me smile every time I walk by. I apologize for the photo the light here today is awful and it's raining so I couldn't get outside to take pictures like I like too. Maybe I'll post some better pictures once the weather clears up.


Thanks for stopping by and taking a gander at my project. Feel free to look around at the previous posts and as always, happy crafting!

Jessica



May 18, 2011

Make-the-Cut Blog Hop: Day 18!

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet. Today is May 18 which means it is the 18th day of the Make-the-Cut (MTC) blog hop and my day! If you are just joining us please go to Christy's blog, (http://everdaylittlethings.blogspot.com/), to catch up.

I'd like to start off by introducing myself. I am a graduate student studying bio-based composite materials. In short I spend my days creating new composite materials using agricultural by-products (like the shells from sunflower seeds) that will hopefully someday be in all your vehicles, in particular under the hood in your engine bay. As I work in a lab, I don't get to be very girly at work...my outlet is crafting and baking. Lucky for me I work with mostly guys who will eat anything I make :-) As for the crafting, that's what I have a blog and the MTC forum for. Although I have just recently entered the both the MTC and blogging world please look around at my previous posts, everything you see has been created using MTC!

If you have been following along with the hop you know by now how wonderful MTC is. If not, please go to the MTC website for more information regarding what machines it works with and to download a free trial. Or if you'd like to see more of what can be done with MTC take a gander at the forum, I warn you though it is very addicting.

Now on to what you really came here to see, some projects!

First I have a shaped chipboard book. It is a Mother's day gift for my mother who spent Mother's Day in Germany (she just got back on Monday), so if you are reading this mom...Happy Mother's Day, I love you very much!


The owl is from the Lettering Delights' Felt Owl Right SVG set and the MOM text is Lettering Delights' Kracken font.

Next I have a word book for you.




One of the best things about MTC is the ability to cut fonts that are installed on your computer. The letters of this book are from the Berlin Sans font, one that comes installed with Windows or Microsoft office. The book part is made by welding a rectangle to each of the letters. Each letter has a second page that is blacked out, another awesome feature of MTC. Another great thing about MTC, if it doesn't do something that you'd like it to...just ask nicely and Andy will do his best to implement it.

Finally I have two cards. The first is an envelope card, a tutorial can be found here. The card base itself does not require MTC, but the decorations and the insert were made with MTC. The insert also features another great feature (I know I think they are all great) print and cut. The celebrate text at the top was printed onto the cardstock and then a rectangle was cut around it! How cool is that!?! By the way the title can be found at Dana's blog.


The last card is a tent card, a tutorial can be found here, and a cut file can be found on the MTC forum here. The chrysanthemum was a freebie file I got form SVGCuts. These cards are really fun to make and hold endless possibilities.


If you are still reading, thank you for staying with me. As you can see I truly love my MTC! I am going to offer some BLOG CANDY (who doesn't love blog candy). I have decided that the winner will get to choose their prize from a short list of hand made items, you have until Sunday May 22 at midnight central time to enter.

To enter please:
1. Become a follower on the right hand side near the top of the page
2. Leave me a comment, it can be about anything you'd like
3. Leave me a way to contact you, MTC forum ID is just fine
For an extra entry:
4. Leave me a second (there must be two comments to be entered twice) comment with your guess as to who Darja is...there is a hint within one of the photographs

I will pick a winner on Monday May 23, good luck!

Until next time, happy crafting!
Jessica

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, we were at the park for the 'photo shoot'

May 14, 2011

Make-the-Cut Blog Hop Sneak Peek

I know it had been awhile since I have posted anything...the last few weeks have been a little hectic for us between birthdays, weekend company, research, and finals week. I have managed to make a few cards here and there and today started working on my project for my day of the Make-the-Cut blog hop (Wednesday). If you haven't been following along just click on the MTC blog hop button on the right side of my blog, it will take you to Christy's blog and you can catch up. The hop runs the entire month of May, that's right 31days of inspiration! Here's a sneak peek of what I'll be showcasing.

































Can you guess what it is?

Here are a few cards I have made for Dylan, a nine year old boy that has an inoperable brain tumor. I thought he could use a little humor so I sent him some joke cards.

 
















































I think I will save the rest of the cards I've made for another day, I will say that two of them have earned me some prizes!

Until next time, happy crafting!
Jessica