USA Decor

Welcome to the "Hurray for the Red White and Blue" Blog Hop!

Today we invite you to come check out this great group of crafters who will be showcasing cards, layouts, or projects featuring America's Patriotic Colors. 

Connie Can Crop is the  first stop on this fun Blog Hop.

This is a one day blog hop and we appreciate  your leaving a comment to encourage all my fabulous crafty friends to continue  sharing their ideas and creations.  

We have an awesome sponsor and giveaway for this hop!

Heartstring Designs

Heartstring Designs has given us an awesome monthly kit to raffle off to one lucky person.  

 So what do you need to do to win? Easy... become  a follower of each of the fabulous blogs in this hop and leave each of us a  comment letting us know what you like best about our projects.  

Then come back to Connie Can Crop and post that you  followed the rules.

You will have until 9:00 pm Sunday to finish the  hop and leave your comments. 

Be sure to follow everyone and leave a comment  along the way!

 Ready to join in the fun?

Now on to my project:

I started out with my Gypsy.

I cut out three stars from George at 3.50 inches.  I used red glitter paper from Michaels for the stars.  When cutting glitter paper, I put it glitter side down on my mat and it cuts much better.  Then I have to scrub the glitter off my mat!!

For the bigger stars, I cut them at 5 inches.  I cut three out of blue cardstock.

I used Base Camp for my font and sized the letters and shadow layer to 1.62 inches.

I cut them out in blue and white cardstock scraps.

I took my Fiskars 1.5 inch punch and punched out three circles out of white cardstock.  I use music   note washi tape to cover the circle.

I layered the letters and stuck them to the circle.  I pop-dotted the circle to the red glitter star.  I adhered the red star to the blue star.

I used 14" Wilton lollipop sticks and attached them to the back of the stars with tape.  I tied some ribbon on the sticks.

I found a bucket at Target in the dollar section and filled it with rocks.  You could also use marbles or sand - whatever you have on hand.

I had a 2" vinyl star left over from another project that I stuck on the front of the bucket.

This makes a fun centerpiece for our 4th of July picnic!

Your next stop in the hop is AJ.

I included the lineup in case you get lost along the way!!

1.  Connie - http://conniecancrop.blogspot.com

2.  Lucy - http://love2createitall.com

3. Angela - http://www.crazy3monkeys.blogspot.com/

5. Pam - http://lovebugcreations3.blogspot.com/ 

6. Carla - www.racincrafts.blogspot.com

7. Vicki - http://scrapbookingcreationsbyvicki.blogspot.com/

8. Lori - http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/****HERE

9. AJ- http://anjenicgibson.blogspot.com/****NEXT

10. Sandy- http://scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com

11. Miranda - www.nanasscrapspot.com

Baseball Photo Decor with Square 1

I have been playing with Square 1 Masterpiece Repositionable Adhesive Fabric and I have to say - this is by far my favorite project I have made!!!!

I bought these canvases LAST summer to make something for my cousin's wedding.  She never got me the photos I asked for so it just sat and sat and waited for a different opportunity.

I don't have the exact project so show you but here are two similar ones I found on Pinterest:

 

Take the wedding photos from the left and put them on the canvas and add wedding words - that was my original project.

Being a baseball mom, it just hit me to create a baseball canvas.  I did not want to mod podge photos onto the 4x4 canvases, so I just copied them onto the repositionable fabric on my copy machine/printer!!

This stuff is amazing and the best part is - as Tanner grows I can replace the photos!!!

If you want to find out more information on this product, just go HERE.  It is on sale through Sunday, June 30 2013!!!

I trimmed three of the photos to 4x4.  The last photo I kept 4x6 because it was going in a scrapbook page.

I trimmed the photos and put them on the canvas pieces.

You just peel them off the backing like a sticker!  If they go on crooked - no worries!!!  You just try again!

You can see I was stuck on the vertical positioning at first.

I came up with my own baseball sayings and they were not fitting in the space, so I turned it horizontal.

I used my gypsy and MyCutSearch.com to find all my fonts!!

I use MyCutSearch all the time to find images on cricut cartridges.  I did not know how to search fonts until I asked.  I wanted to share what I learned with you - so HERE are the directions with photos!!

I used:

 Hannah Montana, Hello Kitty Font, MS Seasonal Art Cake, Base Camp, Artiste, Craft Room Basics, and Nate's ABC's

I cut the words out in vinyl and transferred them to the top half of the canvas.

I adhered black ribbon around the edges of the canvas.

I used washi tape, a ruler and my 12x24 cricut mat to space my small canvases on the bottom half.

I love that washi tape doesn't stick too well for this project!!

I used hot glue to adhere them down and peeled the washi tape off.

Here is a side view so you can see the dimension.  I originally covered the small canvases with ribbon, but did not like the gaps it had - so I took it off.

Tanner played his first season of select baseball this year and we are coming up on our state tournament.  I am very proud of him!!  He is 7 on an 8 year old team.  He has been watching his brothers play baseball his entire life and now is his turn!!!

I purchased frames with special mats for his brothers several years ago and can not find anything similar now.  I have to say, I like this one MUCH better than his brothers frames!!!

Teresa's First Blogaversary Blog Hop

Welcome to Teresa's First Blogaversary Blog Hop!

If you are looking for the All About Penguins Hop, please go HERE.

A little over a year ago, Teresa began her new blog to celebrate the fact that she wanted a change in her life.  And for that change to be permanent came lots of prayer and leaning on God to give the right answers.  The answers He needed to give, not the answers Teresa desired.  Well, here she is 1 year later and Teresa is a stay at home wife loving life and doing all she needs to do to create a warm, loving atmosphere for her family!

Teresa invited us to celebrate with her.  Here is a list of blogs in this hop.  If you found me first, please hop on over to Teresa so you don't miss anything!!

Here is a complete list of blogs in today's hop:

Teresa~ http://freshandrenewed.blogspot.com/

An’Jenic~ http://anjenicgibson.blogspot.com/

Lori ~ http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/****HERE

Anita - http://scrappyhappymommy.blogspot.ca***HERE

Sandy- http://scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com

Miranda - http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/

Sarah - http://itswhatkeepsmesane.blogspot.com/

Michele ~ http://michelescraftroom.blogspot.com/

Melissa ~ http://iamapapermaniac.blogspot.com

We are so glad you are here celebrating and hopping with us today.  Teresa asked us all to create something that represents a change in our life.  A big change happening in our family this year is our son Tyler will be graduating from high school and heading off to college.  Unlike his brother who went to college 45 minutes away, Tyler is likely going 3 1/2 hours away.  I am not looking forward to that part, but I am excited for the next chapter in his life to begin.

I have been scouring Pinterest for ideas for Graduation Party Decorations and I combined two subway art projects into one.

I started out with my Gypsy and several fonts to create this project.  On Layer 2, I put a rectangle sized to 8 1/2 x 11 so I knew how big to size the letters.

I used:

 Base Camp (Graduation sized to 1.35 inches)

Opposites Attract (Turn the Tassel sized to 1.24 inches)

Making the Grade (diploma sized to .92 inches)

Nate's ABCs (Success sized to .88 inches)

George (Cap and Gown sized to 1 inch)

Sophisticated (new chapter sized to 1 inch)

Varsity Letter (You Did It sized to 1.08 inches)

Gypsy Font (Class of sized to .88 inches)

Hannah Montana (2013 sized to 1.94 inches)

Nate's ABCs (Hats off sized to .88 inches - rotated 90 degrees)

I put blue vinyl on my mat and changed my settings on the cricut to 3-3-3 (speed, pressure and blade depth) for a kiss cut.

I have a flat canvas sized 9 x 12.  It is hard to see, but the vinyl is cut.  Now to get it onto the canvas. 

First, I use my cricut dental tool to weed off the extra vinyl.

Once I pulled off the extra vinyl, I went back to pull out the inside cuts.

I used transfer tape to pull the vinyl off of the paper backing.  I used my cricut scraper tool to burnish (rub) my vinyl. 

Oops - I was burnishing a little too hard and broke my cricut scraper tool!!  **Note - I have used the heck out of this tool for the past 6 years!!  Good thing I have a Pampered Chef scraper!!

I carefully pulled up the transfer tape.

I placed the transfer tape to my canvas and burnished the vinyl onto the canvas.

I carefully peeled the transfer tape off the canvas.

I had extra white space at the top, so I went back to the Gypsy....

I used the graduation cap from Martha Stewart Seasonal Art Cake cartridge and sized 7 of them to .80 inches.

This time I carefully pulled up the vinyl off the transfer tape so I could place the exactly where I wanted them.

I put a few caps on some of my letters.

Here is my canvas all ready to go for Graduation (sniff, sniff)!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!!  Your next stop in the hop is the Amazing ANITA.

Werner Park Layout

Tyler's High School Varsity team got the opportunity to play at Werner Park twice this spring.  Werner Park is the home of the Omaha Storm Chasers (formerly the Omaha Royals) and moved to this awesome stadium just minutes from our house.  The Royals used to play at Rosenblatt (the home of the College World Series) until a new stadium was built in downtown Omaha.

As a Junior, we did not expect Tyler to play at all.  He is a catcher and spent most of the game in the bull pen which is behind Center field.  Coach summoned him from the bull pen in the last inning.  He had to run from center field to the dugout in between plays, put on his batting gloves and helmet and go to the on-deck circle.

I don't know who was more nervous....me or him!!!

He got a base hit!!!  We lost the game but he got a base hit!!!!

This week at Frosted Designs, our challenge is to use Stamps in our project.  Since I mainly scrapbook, I wanted to use stamps in my layout.  I used stamps from our sponsor this week Pink by Design.

I wanted to create my title to mimic the logo on the ticket.

I welded two arrows together from Art Philosophy.

WERNER is created from Varsity Letter.  I unlinked the chain and stretched taller the outer letters.

Park is the shadow feature of Base Camp.  I wasn't sure if I wanted blue or green letters, so I cut both.

My first attempt at cutting demonstrates my frustration with the Gypsy updates.  My double arrow looks like a deformed cloud!!

I copied and pasted the arrow to another layer on my Gypsy and re-cut.  This time it worked!  I will keep this trick in mind when I have other welded images....

I used my favorite trick for lining up my letters perfectly.  I used the negative piece as a template.

I used the blue letters because they are blue on the ticket.

I used Pink by Design Got Game stamps to stamp "Batter Up!" on my photo.

I used Stazon Opaque ink, but was disappointed in the ink.  I had to re-ink it and stamp a scrap paper several times to get it to look this good.

I used Pink by Design journaling stamps to create a round journal box.

I stamped on creme colored cardstock and used a 1 7/8" punch to create my circle.

I wrote out my journaling before I added it to the layout.

Eat, Sleep, Play comes from Got Game also.  It is a single stamp.  I used Post-it-Notes to mask out the areas I did not want the stamps.  I inked the edges of the banner with Vintage Ink.  I glued down some twine and pop-dotted the banner flags on top.

Here is my ticket.  I added some twine and a baseball brad.

I added some twine to the side of the journal tag and some inking to the edges.

Here is the layout all put together.  I love the paper and did not want to cover it up!

Join us this week with a project using stamps at Frosted Designs and you could win an awesome prize from Pink by Design!!