Table Grace 2011 - Peacock-Themed Table Decorations

Hi friends!  I'm so excited to share a big project with you that occupied most of my November craft time -- an entire peacock-themed table!

Each year, my church's womens ministry hosts an event called Table Grace.  Ladies decorate 70+ tables in any theme -- the bigger and more elaborate, the better! -- and invite neighbors, coworkers, and friends to the event for a catered meal and inspirational speaker.  It's a great outreach event and accessible way to invite others to church who might not necessarily be open to coming to a Sunday worship service.

My friend Monica and I did a table together.  She's been wanting to redecorate with peacocks, so we took the opportunity to get a few key items for her new decor.  Our inspiration piece was her peacock feather runner and some gorgeous turquoise peacock ribbon we found in Hobby Lobby's Christmas section.  We set the table together, and I got to make some super awesome paper items with my Cricut!

Here's a photo of the entire table:

And some close-up shots of the centerpiece, place settings, and my Cricut creations:

 

 

 

Place Card Details:

• Paper - patterned paper from Recollections: Charming; cardstock and glitter specialty paper by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - feather from Sentimentals, page 57 (many thanks to Glenda from Glenda's Cards for loaning me this cartridge!)
• Other - names printed in FineSerif font from MS Publisher; glitter paint applied to outer feather cut; gem from Michaels $1 bin; inking with cyan Colorbox ink pad

Chair Tie Details:

• Paper - patterned paper from Recollections: Charming; cardstock and glitter specialty paper by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - background with Elegant Edges, page 51; peacock from Give a Hoot, page 37 (and more thanks to my mom for loaning this cartridge to me!)
• Embossing - peacock feathers with Cuttlebug's D'vine Swirls
• Other - gems from Michaels $1 bin; inking with cyan Colorbox ink pad; peacock on pop dot

I hope you enjoyed our peacock table -- it was a hit with the ladies at our table and all those who viewed the tables before the event.

I'm entering this project into the follow challenges:

Decorate to Celebrate: Challenge #12 - Surprise, It's a Birthday - The event wasn't a birthday party, but we did have a birthday gal at our table!  And these items could easily be transferred to a fabulous adult birthday party.
The Paper Variety: Inspiration Challenge - I was inspired by the teal color and leaves that actually looked like feathers to me.

Celebrate the Occasion: Challenge #41 - Birthday Sketch

It's another challenge day at Celebrate the Occasion!  For Challenge #41, we have a birthday sketch -- which is perfect because today is my sister-in-law's birthday!  I made this clean-and-simple card for her:

Card Details:

• Card Base - Studio G (5x5")
• Papers - Recollections
• Embossing - Happy Birthday by Cuttlebug
• Other - sentiment stamp by Hampton Ink stamped with Colorbox purple ink pad; doodling with white Gelly Roll pen

What a departure for me -- this card is completely Cricut-LESS!  My sister-in-law's style leans more toward modern than mine, so I kept my interpretation of the sketch simple.  I like how the embossing and turning the words in different directions turned out, too.

Head on over to Celebrate the Occasion to see how the other design team members interpreted the sketch -- and upload a photo of your creation, too!

Re-Draw of Blog Candy Winner - FCCB Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl

My blog candy from the FCCB Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl was unclaimed, so I've redrawn a winner:

Congratulations, Shelby of Shelby's Card Designs!  Please email your mailing address to jesscoll <at> att <dot> net, and I'll send your goodies.  (You have one week to claim the prize.)

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge Me Monday #87 - Thank You

Happy Monday!  It's time for another challenge at Fantabulous Cricut!  The theme for Challenge #87 is Thank You -- your card or project must include the words "thank you" somewhere on it.

I'm looking forward to a great Thanksgiving with family this week, so I had to use this opportunity to make just one more turkey card:

 

Card Details:

• Card Base - Recollections (A6)
• Papers - patterns by The Paper Studio; cardstock by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - turkey from Create a Critter, page 70
• Embossing - feathers with Cuttlebug's D'vine Swirls and Swiss Dots
• Other - brad by 7 Gypsys - Angelo; "Thank You" stamp from Michaels $1 bin; yarn from stash; turkey on pop dots

What are you thankful for?  Show us with a Thank You project at Fantabulous Cricut -- I can't wait to see what you create!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Cooking with Cricut: Challenge #60 - Let's Talk Turkey
Die Cuttin' Divas: Challenge #41 - Turkey Time
Exploring Cricut: Challenge #4 - Turkey
Paper Cutz Challenge #117 - Let's Talk Turkey
The Cuttlebug Spot: Challenge - Gobble, Gobble Turkey

Blog Candy Winner - FCCB Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl

Thanks for all your comments on my Fantabulous Cricut Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl project!  Now, to draw a winner for the QuicKuts embossing folder...

Congratulations, Shelly of My Paper Love!  Please email your mailing address to jesscoll <at> att <dot> net, and I'll send your goodies.  (You have one week to claim the prize.)

Celebrate the Occasion: Challenge #39 - Thanksgiving

If you're looking for my Fantabulous Cricut Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl entry, please click HERE.

Happy Tuesday -- it's time for another Celebrate the Occasion challenge!  This week's theme is Thanksgiving with the requirement to use a punch.  I've made so many turkeys lately that I wanted to take a departure for this challenge.  So I used another animal we see quite often in November -- squirrels!

Card Details:

• Card Base - squirrel card from Winter Woodland, page 57, cut at 5 inches
• Papers - stripes from Me & My Big Ideas - Autumn; cardstock by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - squirrel and card base from Winter Woodland, page 57; leaves from B is for Boy
• Embossing - squirrel body with Cuttlebug's Herringbone; squirrel tail with Cuttlebug's D'vine Swirls; acorn top with The Paper Studio's Mesh Texture
• Other - sentiment stamp by Hampton Ink; EKSuccess 1-inch scalloped punch; inking with brown Stampabilities ink pad; leaves and sentiment on pop dots

Head over to Celebrate the Occasion to see the other design team members' creations link up your Thanksgiving project with punches!

I'm also submitting this project to the following challenges:

Cooking with Cricut - Challenge #59 - Fruits, Cornucopia & Harvest Time
Cricut Cardz Challenge #95 - We're So Thankful (Use Card Feature)
Paper Playtime:  Challenge #60 - Thank You Projects
Stuck On U Sketches:  Die Cut Leaf Challenge

Fantabulous Cricut: Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl

Welcome to Cricut After Dark and the Fantabulous Cricut Harvest Blessings Crawl -- Fantabulous Cricut's version of a blog hop!

It's fall and everyone at Fantabulous Cricut has decided to create projects to give thanks for our Harvest Blessings!   Each Design Team member will be featuring an original fall project that includes brown, orange and red – along with at least one Cricut cut.

If you've come from visiting Jennie at EarthyScrap, you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to play along with our Fantabulous Cricut Crawl, start HERE .

Make sure to check out each DT member's blog for some awesome inspiration. There will be prizes along the way at some of our DT members' blogs, and there will be a Grand Prize up for grabs for a participant who submits a Harvest Blessings project at FCCB!

My project is a turkey place card/decor, inspired by this winner from Michaels' 24-hour Gypsy Challenge in 2009.  I don't have a Gypsy or the cartridges used, so I improvised with my own -- and I really like the result:

Project Details:

• Papers - stripes by Me & My Big Ideas - Autumn; cardstock by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - feathers are <trap1> (Upright) from Opposites Attract, page 62, cut at 3 inches; body is same, cut at 5 inches, rolled and taped; head is <round> (Upright) from Opposites Attract, page 63, cut at 1.75 inches; beak is <yourday1> (Italic) from Cricut Classic Font, page 71, cut at 0.75 inches folded; waddle is <turkey1> (Layer 4) from Simply Charmed, page 61, cut at 1.75 inches (real dial size); tag is <cute> from Playtime, cut at 2.5 inches; "grateful" sentiment is <pilgrim> (Phrase) from 3 Birds on Parade, page 41, cut at 1 inch.
• Embossing - feathers with The Paper Studio's Doodle Borders; tag with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots
• Other - inking with brown Stampabilities ink pad; hand-drawn eyes

Because one of my harvest blessings are you, my crafty friends, I have a little giveaway, too.  It's one of my super bargain finds -- a QuicKutz embossing folder!

To qualify for the giveaway, please leave a comment on this entry.  I'll select a winner with random.org on Monday, November 21, around 7am (Central).  Please note I can only ship to US residents at this time.

Now it's your turn! Let's see your Harvest Blessings projects!  Make sure to include a Cricut cut somewhere on your project and be sure to use the colors Brown, Orange and Red as well.

Next stop is Jewel's blog, My Beautiful, Crazy...Scrappy Life.  Go and see what she has in store for you today.  And when you're done, make sure to link up your project to FCCB's Fantabulous Cricut Crawl post to be entered into the contest!

Happy Crawling!

I'm also submitting this project to the following challenges:

My Sheri Crafts:  Challenge #73 - Be Thankful
Whimsical Designs:  Challenge - Happy Turkey Day

Game Day Football Layout

My husband loves football and the Houston Texans -- and "loves" may not even be a strong enough word!  His love for football is so great, he leaves church in an absolute rush on Sundays to get to the car and turn the radio to the Texans game.  He then jumps out of the car before we pull into the garage to get to the TV as quickly as possible.  Yes, my husband has issues for the sixteen weeks of football season.

For the past three years, hubby has also been working to instill his love of football in the next generation.  Our little guy is finally old enough to understand more about the game this year.  He knows a few key words/phrases like football, touchdown, and Go, Texans -- which is about as much as his mommy knows too!

I made this game day layout this week to show what a typical Sunday afternoon looks like at our house.  The photos are from last season when the little man first began paying attention to Daddy's obsession:

Here's a closer look at the embossed football and handmade "field" I made with numbers from the Cricut Classic Font cartridge:

Project Details:

• Papers - patterns from DCWV - All About Boys; cardstock by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - football from Boys Will Be Boys, page 31; banner and "GAMEDAY" font from Birthday Bash; yard line numbers from Cricut Classic Font
• Embossing - football with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots
• Other - ribbon by American Crafts; inking with brown Stampabilities ink pad; football on pop dots

I'm submitting this project to the following challenge:

BBTB2:  My Pink Stamper Challenge - Boy Crazy
My Sheri Crafts:  Challenge #72 - All About Sports

Coming Soon: Harvest Blessings Cricut Crawl @ FCCB

The design team at Fantabulous Cricut has a fun Cricut Crawl (our version of a blog hop) coming November 14.  It will be my first blog hop, so I'm super excited!

Check back here or at FCCB next Monday to follow along with some great autumn and harvest projects!

Retreat = Booked!

I just booked my next scrapbooking retreat!  I'm going to Pine Cove @ Crier Creek on January 6 - 8, 2012, in Columbus, Texas.  (Yep, this is the same retreat I attended last year that led to my catching the Cricut bug!)

I'm still trying to convince some friends to come along, but for now I'm going solo. South/central Texas folks -- anybody interested?

Celebrate the Occasion: Challenge #37 - Fall with Pumpkin

So hard to believe it's November, huh?  It's also time for another challenge at Celebrate the Occasion!  For Challenge #37, we were asked to create a fall project featuring a pumpkin.

My Halloween door hanging has gotten so many compliments -- both online and in person -- that I decided to update my Thanksgiving door decor, too. I use this wreath each year in November.  It came from either Ross or Marshalls about four years ago.  But it seemed to need the Cricut touch, so I added this:

Here's a photo that's zoomed on the cut:

Project Details:

• Papers - cardstock by Recollections
• Cricut Cuts - cornucopia and "Giving Thanks" sentiment from Celebrate with Flourish
• Embossing - cornucopia with The Paper Studio's Mesh Texture, pumpkin with Cuttlebug's Distressed Stripes; brown grapes and leaves with Cuttlebug's Victoria
• Other - inking with orange and dark green Colorbox ink pads and brown Stampabilities ink pad

I'm really pleased with the inking on the leaf, pear, and carrot.  Before the ink, they were just flat yellow, but the extra details add so much!

Do you ever make Cricut add-ons to wreaths or other wall decor?  If so, leave me a link in the comment section -- I'd love to see them!

Also, head on over to Celebrate the Occasion to share your fall pumpkin creations.  I'm off now to take down Halloween decorations and put up fall and Thanksgiving!