Sunday, July 24, 2011

Banners from the Ohio Meet Up

There was a contest for the Road Trip to CHA that you could make a banner representing your state or country.  You can see the banner I made on THIS POST.  I promised I would take pictures of everyone's banners as they were hung around the room.  It turns out that due to the hotel's requirements, the banners couldn't be strung about so they all ended up on one wall together.  I thought there would be more but they do all look so great!

Check 'em out - a view of the whole wall:

Close ups from left to right.  I hope you see yours if you sent one in!  Remember, you can click on the pictures to see them larger if you would like to see more detail.






There's my WI banner!



The #1 winner was the pennant below that says Skyline Drive.  It has 3D elements that you really can't appreciate in the picture.  Beautiful! 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Cricut Circle Ohio Meet Up


Today I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Cricut Circle meet up in Mason, Ohio.  ProvoCraft brought CHA to us.  The theme was Road Trip From CHA.  It began at 9:00am.  Here are some Circlets waiting to get in:


We checked in and received a make and take box to complete on our own.  It is really cute because when you open it up, there is stuff hanging down from the lid.  Here's a picture: 

(There also was a Halloween box but you only got one or the other.)

From there you picked a spot to sit (I made sure to score a seat next to the Chicago crew that included Missie Todd and JaniceA. Woohoo!).  Here is what the room looked like:

It was really a great space for a meeting.  There was plenty of room, a mic system, great lighting and had air conditioning.  That last part was a down fall for me - I swear, I must be cold blooded!  Brrr! :)  There were two people per table.


Next, I lined up to look through the store.  They brought some great stuff including the Cricut Plushies (I bought a big one) and the Cricut silk scarves.  They also had the world premiere of the little Cricut collectible guys.  I was able to buy two! It was fun because we were told not to open them and then everyone opened them all at the same time.  I ended up with two red ones but I traded with my tablemate, Pattyk, and now have these:

We heard from a few PC folks throughout the day.  They answered questions, talked about the Circle past and present, and explained the Cricut Mini and the E2. 
 (Chris Dodge above; Chris, Michael, and Christy below)

There was plenty of time to trade calling cards and swap magnets. Here is MissieTodd teaching LauraCharko how to make a bottle cap magnet:


I will take pictures of all the calling cards and magnets I received and post those separately later this weekend.  It really is amazing how much creativity the world holds!!

After lunch they talked some more about PC and the machines/updates.  There was more cropping time in the afternoon, along with 11 giveaways.  They also announced the banner contest winners!  I took pictures of all the banners and will put them up in a separate post.

Last but not least, we had a visitor!  Look at this cute little guy!! 

And here I am with him! 

I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting my fellow Circlets the most.  That really is a huge part of the Circle for me and I love it.  It is so amazing to meet the people that I "talk" with everyday.  Thank you to KimH for putting so much hard work into this day.  It turned out great!

Ohio Thursday night dinner

Dinner was so fun!  I only took a few pictures because I was mostly busy gabbing with all the ladies!  Here we go...

Michael from PC stopped by to say hello!  He talked to the whole group about what to expect tomorrow and then spent time visiting each table.   Gotta love a WI boy!  :)  I took a picture of the back of him because look at his awesome shirt!

That's AmyS there in the red shirt, Makeupgirl217 in the middle, and Scrapalette taking a drink.  A HUGE thank you to Scrapalette for organizing the dinner!
Nadia talking to the Chicago crew...


I ate with Pinkbug (Kim, right) and Debbie (left).  They are so nice!  Just from the three of us, we represent the US friom  South Floirda to Wisconsin!  I love the variety of people you get to meet at these events.

That's it!  I know, not many pictures.  I promise to take more at the event and share!  Be back later!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wisconsin! Ohio Cricut Circle meet

I am so excited to be going to the Cricut Circle meet up in Ohio this weekend!!!  There were a few things going on that I needed to prepare for.  One was to make a calling card to trade with other Circle members.  On one side, you decorate it to represent yourself or something you like.  On the other side, you put your contact information.  This is helpful so that after the crop, you can contact people, visit their blogs, and just have great memories of them!  I made 111 of these cards, hence all those tiny little pieces of cheese I teased you with the other day!  :)


Here is mine:


The recipe:
The card is 3x3 and I used a CM corner rounder to soften the corners.
The light green layer is embossed using a Disney Princess Cuttlebug die. It was then sprayed with Honey Dew Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to give it a little bit of sparkle (hard to see in the pics).
WI is cut from 50 States, at 6".
The circle logo is cut from Cricut Everyday at 2".
The cheese is cut from Create a Critter at 0.75".    I love cheese and WI is famous for it!


There also was a banner contest going on. Each person was to make one pennant representing the state or country they are from.  I played off of my calling card and came up with this:


The recipe:
The banner is from Birthday Bash at fit to page on a 12x12 sheet.
WI, the circle log and cheese are the same as above. 
I hand cut the cow's behind and tail :)  I then flocked the end of the tail with Black flocking powder.
Wisconsin is from Birthday Bash, both regular and shadow, cut at 1.25". 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Generations - My Pink Stamper design team call

My Pink Stamper is having a design team call!  I think it is so wonderful that bloggers like her take on design teams and have other people also share on their site.  Here is the layout I made, using her specifications: 


Here is the challenge:  Make a card, scrapbook page, or other Cricut project with your favorite Cricut cartridge (I used Storybook, my favorite for flourishes, and Baby Steps, my current favorite font!) using the following colors......


Orange
Turquoise 
Green
Brown
(other optional color of your choice) - I chose yellow

First I picked the picture I wanted to use.  This is my husband with his mother, grandmother, and our daughter last year on Mother's Day.  We really had a wonderful dinner out all together to celebrate these wonderful women.  This is a 4x6 picture but I wanted it to take up more room so I matted it at 5x7 and 5.25x7.25.  The punch along the bottom of the green paper is a Fiskars punch but I don't know the name of it!
 
I wanted to do some sort of flourish so I went to my favorite cart for that, Storybook.  I cut the flower vine from the letter K key, in the border and main cut at 3" in multiple colors.  The smaller yellow main cuts are 2".  I cut the corner cut from the same K key at 2" in brown and 1.5" in yellow.  



I used the Baby Steps cart to cut my title, both in regular and shadow at 0.75".  


 
When I was finished, I used my i-Rock to add a few gemstones hidden in the flowers.  I just wanted a minor touch of sparkle. 
 
And that's it!  A big thank you to Robyn at MPS for hosting a design team and allowing anyone who wants to, to enter!  It would be a huge honor to be chosen to design for her!  Thanks for looking!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Winners, winners, winners!

I have two winners to announce today!  Exciting!

The winner of the Sew Easy set from my 200 follower celebration is: 
Scrappin with the bug (Terri) 

The winner of the envelope set from the It's a Wrap blog hop is: 
Lisa's Creative Niche (Lisa) 

Thank you everyone for visiting and supporting me!  I will contact the winners so be looking for that.  Tomorrow I will post what all that cheese was for!  I am so excited to go to the Ohio Circle meet up this weekend!! Woohoo!!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

It's a Wrap Blog Hop

Welcome to the It’s a Wrap Blog Hop hosted by Cool Beans By L.B. Do you like to receive gifts? How about give them? Well this hop is all about the outside…the wrapping - gift bags, boxes, baskets and more! There are 22 wonderful stops on this hop and we hope you will take some time to stop in and see everything we have created for you.

Hopefully you arrived here from Anabel. If you just happened to stop by, you can go to the beginning at Cool Beans By L.B.

The project I made is for giving out little goodies.  I love to make treat bags for parties, school treats, etc.  Recently I was able to go to the warehouse of The Paper Cut.  While I was there, I saw a great idea for a different way to do treat bags and I thought, "Hey!  I can do that with the Cricut!"  Here is my version: 

To make these bags, you take a standard 8.5x11 piece of cardstock and cut it in half vertically.  Then you take your 4.25x11" piece of paper and score it at 1.25", 5.5" and 6.75".  Fold on those lines.  

I used the Centerpoint button on my Cricut Expression to cut an image in the center of what will be the front panel.  That space is 3" tall once you account for the inch the flap takes up.  I found that generally cutting my image at 2.5" works the best.  On this bag, I used Doodlecharms and cut the tree border at 2".  I then used my I-rock to add a gem to the top of each tree.  I put ribbon around the flap to decorate the top.  It is easiest to decorate the entire thing how you want it before adding your candy to the inside. 

To put the candy in, I used 4" sealing bags.  I did also try regular clear party treat bags and those work too, whatever you have.  I staple them in the inside, like this:

Just make sure that your staples will be covered by the flap.

For the fall bag, I cut the leaf using Doodlecharms at 2.5", again using Centerpoint to place it in the middle of the front panel.  For the top, I cut a variety of leaves from that key between 1 and 1.5".  I then inked them with brown to make them a little more "fall".  I glued them on to the flap, stapled in the candy, used one strip of ATG tape to seal the whole thing closed.  This will hold it well but not so much that a person can't get it open to eat the candy! :)

I made one last bag, this one being more of a summer theme.  The ice cream cone is from Sweet Treats, cut at 3".  This one also has the top flap glued into the inside of the bag, so that gives you more options as well.

I used glitter in multiple steps to create the ice cream cone with a purple scoop.

The tag is also from Sweet Treats, cut at 1.5".  The stamp is from My Pink Stamper and I inked the edges purple to soften it.  Here is a side view so you can see what these bags look like from the side:

I hope you have enjoyed this look at another way to make treat bags!  I love to give gifts and sometimes a little candy is all you need to cheer someone up!  

I am offering some fun blog candy on this hop.  Since the theme is giving and wrapping, how about an envelope package?  I'd love to send you these three envelope packages from The Paper Cut!


To win, please leave me a comment telling me one gift you have given someone that has made YOU happy.  Be sure to leave me a way to contact you!!! You do not have to be a follower to win.  If you are interested in following me, please also see the post below this one, as I am celebrating reaching 200 followers and I have a separate giveaway for that!  I will randomly choose one winner for each drawing on Sunday, July 17!

Thanks for stopping by on this fun hop! Your next stop is my personal friend, Alicat!

If you get lost here is the whole list for this hop!

IT’s A WRAP BLOG HOP LINE UP
Cool Beans By L.B.  http://coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/ (HOST)
Debbie from Deb’s Eclectic Thoughts http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/
Cindy from In Love With Paper http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/
Amy from Amy’s Digi-Scraps http://scrap-pix.blogspot.com/
Cindy from Scrap Obsessed http://www.scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com/
Scrapalette from Around the Block with Scrapalette http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Confessions of a Scrapoholichttp://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie from onceuponapaperhttp://onceuponapaper.blogspot.com/
Brenda from Random Thoughts of a Scrapbookerhttp://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/
Maria from Stamp Cut Create http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/
I Came, I saw, I Created   http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/
Anabel aka cricutaddicted from  http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/
Michele from Green Girl Scraps www.michelegreen.com <---You are HERE
Alicat from
http://scrappingwithalicat.blogspot.com/ <--- Go HERE next! 
Robin, TheScrappin' Delta Diva http://scrappindeltadiva.blogspot.com/
Paper Crafting Chic:  http://www.papercraftingchic.com/

Friday, July 15, 2011

200 followers = Celebration!

Hello everyone!  I am so very excited!  On the 5th of July, just a mere 14 months after starting my blog, I reached 200 followers!  Thank you to all of you!!  

Another thing to celebrate is that I will soon be switching to a new web address.  It will be www.michelegreen.com!  Yay!!  I am also very excited about this.  I couldn't believe the domain was available!  I had a few hoops to jump through and am still working my way through the last ones but I will be there very, very, very soon!  I am so, so, so pumped about that! 

To celebrate these two fantastic things, let's have a giveaway!  I would love to give one lucky reader this prize pack:


Here's what you have to do to win this awesome Sew Easy pack:

1. Be a follower. 
(I typically never require this, however, since I am celebrating actually having followers, I think it fits.) 

2. Leave me a comment.  
It must include an email address or Cricut message board name for me to get a hold of you.  

That's it!  This giveaway will end Saturday night, 7/16. Thank you to all of you who come read my blog, leave me comments and encouragement, and support me in this avenue of my life.  Most of all, I love sharing ideas with all of you and that is what blogging is all about!  Thank you!!  I hope *you* are the lucky winner! ;)

Oh, PS - One last thing.  Check out what I have been doing lately.  

Ladies and gentlemen, that is over 100 pieces of three quarter inch cheese right there.  Nope!  I'm not telling just yet what it's for! :)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Thank you sign

There recently was a group that put on a benefit for a wonderful man named John.  John is an older gentleman who has been having some health issues.  He lives in a small, Northwoods community and he is the man you would call if you need help, an odd job done, a buddy to do something with.  Rather than calling it a benefit and having it's purpose be to raise money, the purpose of the get together was to thank John for all he has done for you and to celebrate him.

I was asked to make a sign for near the entrance to direct people where to bring cards if they brought one.  John loves to fish among other things so here is what I came up with on a piece of white foam board:

The fisherman is straight out of Everyday Paper Dolls, cut at fit to page, which I believe ended up being a 9 inch doll.  The accessories are cut at 9" to fit.  I cut the basket a few times to get the pieces that I wanted to make a flap to cover his big catch o' the day.  (I have a thing about the faces on EPD so I left that up to the woman who requested the sign, if she wanted to outline his face or leave it plain.  You can see the cuts when you are up closer to the sign than this picture shows.)

The font is Alphalicious.  I used the phrase feature for thank you and the regular letters for the rest.

I didn't attend the event but I heard John was very well thanked by many of his community members!  I think that was such a great idea, the thank you party!

*Don't forget to scroll down and enter my 200 follower giveaway!*

Monday, July 11, 2011

Brewer Car Decals

Back in the early Spring, I had a fellow crafter design and cut Milwaukee Brewers baseball car decals for me.  I finally got around to having a clean car and a nice day to put them on!  (I'm not sure why 10 minutes of time was so hard to come by but anyway...)

Missie from Created By Missie designed and cut these vinyl decals:


On my car
On the truck
A father away view so you can gauge the size

 Thank you Missie!!! We are loving them!

Don't forget to enter my 200 follower giveaway!  And this Saturday I will be in a blog hop so stop back!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Are we there yet?

Thanks for stopping by!  Today I am sharing the second layout I was able to complete at a crop night I recently attended.  This layout uses the Cricut cartridge Campin' Critters.  I am so excited about this cart!  I love it!

A closer view of the left side:
The car originally had a bunch of bags piled up on top but that's not how we traveled so I cut them off.  The car was cut at 4.5".  The saying was cut at 5.5".   It is up on pop dots so it's coming out of the back windows where the kids travel.  In all seriousness, the kids were great travelers but we were all ready to get there after being in the car for most of two days!

And the right side:

This scenery cut is 6.5".  It originally has mountains in the background but being that we ended up in middle Georgia, there are definitely not any mountains there!!  Check out what I did to accentuate the road and trees:


Stickles - yay!  The road has white stickles along the outside and white dashes along the middle (even though it looks the opposite in the photo).  Then if you look closely at the trees, I put a brown dot at the end of every branch.  I thought that just made it a little bit cuter. 

This layout completes my scrapping of our Spring Break trip to Georgia.  Finally! Only a year and a half after it occurred!  LOL!