Another Snow Globe Ornament

Hello everyone! It's time for my monthly post on The BugBytes and I am going to share with you another snowglobe ornament, like the one I made for the blog hop, but this one is a little more grown up. I also took a few more pictures so hopefully it is clearer how it all comes together!

 The details: 
So this is a very similar process to my previous post, I begin with a two piece ornament from Micheals and a  3.05 circle cut out of a recycled cartridge clamshell. Then I placed my scene on the acetate with black and white vinyl. The Santa (1 inch), trees (1.80 inch) and the church (1 inch) are from the Christmas solutions cartridge. I cut each image twice (once regular and once flipped) so that it looks the same from both sides. So this is what it looks like before I assemble it.

I filled the two halves with snowflake glitter and then I get ready to place the acetate inside. In this picture you can see there is an inner lip where the circle will fit (ignore badly manicured finger):

The circle fits in perfectly cut at that size and then I have one half of my ornament complete. 

And then I carefully slide the other side of the ornament in and add a ribbon to the top to keep it together. I didn't think it was necessary to add glue until I came home and saw what my two year old had done to it when my husband was "watching" her *SIGH* all that wasted glitter.

Apologies for the bad picture, but I think Yukon Jack is peeking out there to say hi! I hope these instructions help in understanding the process a little better and I really hope there are some of these left on clearance by the time I get to Michael's again!

Holiday Blog Hop & Snow Globe Ornaments

Hello all! Today is the Holiday Blog Hop for the BugBytes Design Team. This is your last stop on the hop and you should have arrived here from Melissa's blog, and when you are done, make sure to go back to Pam at TheBugBytes so that you can add your holiday project to the linky! If you are joining this party already in progress you can also start the hop with Pam's blog!

Apologies to my regular followers for being a bad blog mommy lately and neglecting my blog, I have projects done just no time to write the posts! And more apologies to the hoppers because I really love this project but it totally does not meet the requirements of having red or green or silver or blue. So what my migraine medicine is telling me is that I should go with my inner lawbreaker and say since there is purple in this project and red + blue = purple then this project qualifies. Yeah - let's go with that!!

The details: 

This is a snowglobe ornament that I picked up at Michael's  - they come in two pieces and allow you to place something in the middle. I decided that they were dying to be made into snowglobes and I have had this idea for a long time - so glad it actually worked out! This is also another one of my "recycling" projects because I used my cartridge clamshells as the center of the ornament! (I have a few clamshell pieces....or perhaps a alot). My original photos are taken on my daughter's purple Christmas tree so I thought I would take some without the distracting background so the directions would be clearer.

 I cut a 3.05 inch circle out of the clamshell using my Gypsy - and yes it has to be that size - 3 inches is too small and 3.10 is too big and then placed a 2 inch snowman from Winter Frolic cut in vinyl with some of the layers on one side of the plastic circle. I flipped the image and all the layers and placed the other snowman on the other side of the plastic circle, layering it as exactly as I could over the first snowman. I stamped two different snowman faces using my Peachy Keen Stamps and Stazon ink and colored in the nose with an orange sharpie. I felt like he needed some bling and I especially appreciated I could use two different kinds - one for each side! Who wants buttons when you can have MS mini bling??

I added some Martha Stewart snowflake glitter to one half of the ornament, placed the circle over it, added glitter to the other half and sandwiched them all together. I did add some glue to the inside rim but I am not sure a) that it was necessary or b) that it really worked. Since this was going in my daughter's room I mixed some glow in the dark glitter with the snowflake glitter too, but you can only see it when the lights are out. Oh well - it was still fun!

This project just reinforced my love of vinyl + acetate - they are a match made in crafting heaven! My only regret is I only bought two of these ornaments which means a trip to Micheals is now a necessity and I don't know when I will have the time! I will strive to post my other snowglobe ornament next week.

Make sure you go back to Pam at TheBugBytes and particpate in the linky party! And in case you need it, here is the full blog hop list:

1. Pam 
2. Jeannie  
3. Jen 
4. Carole
5. Lisa Brooks 
6. Audrey  
7. Mila
8. Sheila aka sassylady 
9. Elizabeth 
10. Kelly Millet 
11. Dayna Sabrina 
12. Lori   
13. Denine Vajja
14. Melissa 
15. Allison - you are here! :)    

I hope you found lots of inspiration and have a wonderful holiday season! Happy crafting!

Blog Hop Twine Winner

Happy almost Thanksgiving! (and more importantly Black Friday - yay!) I finally got around to drawing the winner for the twine set and according to random.org the winner is...

which means the winner is.....

Congrats Missie! Please email me your address at goodybagdiva@gmail.com so that I can get that twine in the mail for you! And I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a thrifty Black Friday with lots of wonderful deals!

Nemo Game, Centerpieces, and Mickey Blog Hop!

Hello! we are at the end of my Finding Nemo birthday party week here AND it is finally time for the Me and Mickey's Birthday Hop! Thanks so much Michelle for asking me to hop with  you all and Happy Birthday to Rexann! You should be arriving here from Laura's blog and if you came here directly you can start the hop at Michelle's. Be sure to stop by and wish Rexann a Happy Birthday!

I am going to share with you today the game I created for the kids to play at my daughter's birthday party. Instead of pin the tail on the donkey we played help Nemo find his home! (If you are new to my blog you can check out my other Nemo projects here.)

The details:
The game board is a 12x24 piece of paper and all of the cuts are accessories features on the Best of Pixar cartridge. They were all cut at 11 inches.  To create the "anemone" in the middle I welded two of the cuts together and then did the same with the layer/shadow cuts. By using different shades of pink and doing some light inking I got the anemone effect I wanted. The larger pieces of coral I cut out in different colors and flipped the image for the other side.

For the game pieces I printed out a bunch of Nemos on my printer and hand cut them out (no way was I putting together more Nemos after doing the invitations) and then I laminated them with my YourStory, well actually my daughter laminated them all and it was lovely because it kept her from pestering me and she thought it was soo cool. Because they were laminated, the girls at the party were then also able to write their names on the Nemos so we could see who put what fish on the wall.

This really was a fairly easy to assemble project - I just wish that PC sold 12x24 laminating sheets so I could laminate the board! (It is the same concept I used for my Halloween Haunted House game I just posted that first.)  Here is a picture of my daughter playing the game (and missing).

And then finally I have some super quick centerpieces to wrap up the party that were a big hit (especially with my youngest who is a candy junkie). This is a scraplifted idea that I got from Carrie aka greenbean on the messageboard and again - quick and easy to put together.

The details: 
With some white vinyl and some 77 cent fishbowls from ACMoore (in fact they are currently that price on sale today) I cut some 6's (1.20 inches and 2.5 for the the larger) using the heart font on Rock Princess and a fish from Animal Kingdom (1.50 inches) and I had a pretty fish bowl to fill with gummy and swedish fish. The middle one I stuffed with tissue paper and stuck in the Nemo light up wand we had bought the year before when we went to see the Nemo on Ice show.

Those fish went face and I am sure because they were in pretty bowls and not just because they were candy (yeah right). Here is a picture of the party room all dressed up!

Over to the left you can see the craft project we made, wooden frames from Michael's covered in glitter with seashells from Oriental Trading.  Here is the sample we made to show the girls what it should look like: 

I highly recommend the Martha Stewart craft glue - it held those shells on like nobody's business!

And here are all the works of art drying: 

Whew!! I am tired all over again just typing all this about the party!! It was a huge success and I was so proud that my daughter was able to fill the back of my car with her donations for the SPCA (and happy I didn't have to bring a ton of toys home). She made a new friend when we went to drop it all off, but that friend was most certainly NOT coming home with us.

And that is it! I hope you got some good ideas here - and I can't wait to see what all the other ladies have done. Your next stop on the hop is LaShavia's blog. I also have some blog candy to give away - I will give away a sampling of Divine Twine to anyone who leaves a comment (make sure you leave a way for me to contact you) - you don't have to be a follower but I would love it if you became one! Happy Mickey Hopping and one last Happy Birthday to Rexann!

Nemo Tags - Turning a Negative Cut Into a Positive

Today I am going to share with you a quick post about the tags I used on the goody bags for the party. These were pieces that were already cut from creating the invitations, which you can see here. These tags were the window in the invitation that was cut out for the acetate - and being the green person I am (and maybe a little bit cheap) - as I was peeling all those pieces off the mat I really did not want to throw out all that nice paper!

The details: 

So since my tags were already cut out by creating the invitation, all I had to do was gussy them up! I added a picture of Nemo and friends that I printed on a clear adhesive shipping label from Staples and cut out. This really is my favorite way to add text to my crafts - just a quick print and a stick and I am done! I use the large 8 1/2 by 11 size labels so I am not limited to any one size item - if I want to print two big things and one small on the same page I can. 

Then I cut some more of the coral pieces that are on the Best of Pixar cart, did a little hand trimming, ran it through the Xyron and placed it partially over the picture. And I finished off by stamping with a Fiskars stamp, had my daughter sign them, punched a hole and attached it to the pencil bag with some baker's twine. 

I was fortunate to find a Nemo school set at a local dollar store that I used instead of a traditional goody bag. They each had a necklace from this post, a lip gloss and nail polish, and a Finding Nemo watch that I purchased in bulk from this ebay seller. She has a variety of watches with different kids themes available like you can see in this listing and I had a really positive experience purchasing from her - great communication. The girls thought they were terrific and I was proud of myself for my restraint with the goody bag fillers this year. (Yes I do consider that restraint.) 

Saturday I will finish off Nemo week with the Mickey and Me Blog Hop where I am going to share the game I made for the party and some of the decorations! I hope you will join us!

Nemo Bottlecap Necklace Tutorial

It is my day on The BugBytes and I am bringing you a quick goody tutorial! Today's installment are the necklaces that I created to go in the birthday goody bags since I was having trouble finding Finding Nemo theme items (oh the irony - it was hard to find Nemo!). For this we chose five of the characters and with some easy steps and almost no time at all I had the necklaces put together. The packaging on the other hand....we'll get to that later, first let me show you the necklaces!

The details: 

I begin by looking up pictures of each character on the computer. I copied them into a Microsoft Word document and in the same document I used a one inch circle shape to make sure each picture was the right size for my bottlecap. Then I printed it out and gathered the rest of my supplies: 

• Xyron
• One Inch Circle punch
• Recollections brand Bottlecaps
• Jewelry Findingsand Pliers
• Ball Chain Necklaces purchased from Creative ID Supply
• Clear Epoxy Stickers purchased from Beadaholique

I gathered all my supplies and begin by centering the circle punch over the printed image. 

After punching the image out, I ran them throught my Xyron machine and then added the epoxy sticker on top before I remove it from the Xyron backing. This made it easier to burnish the sticker over the top and get a good seal on it. 

Then you peel it off the backing, add to the center of  bottlecap, add your finding and chain necklace!

These really are super easy to put together - I put together 25 necklaces in less than half an hour. So if you do this - stop now. Do NOT do the next step unless you are a glutton for punishment. 

I cut a shadow image of each character at 3 inches and added two circles from George on each cut. Then I threaded the necklace through the holes. 

Then I used a piece of double sided sticky tape to position and hold the necklace in place. 

Then I piled the rest of the necklace on and sealed it with packing tape. 

And they were all done and ready to be presented!

But in all honesty - the packaging was a HUGE pain in the hiny and I don't know if I would do it again. Sometimes I am my own worst crafting enemy. I DO however recommend investing in the necklace supplies as a quick and easy party treat - just stop when they are done! The next Nemo installment will be about how I turned a negative cut into a positive!

Disney Week begins - Nemo Birthday Invites!

This is going to be a Disney week here on my blog as I am going to share with you the creations I put together for my daughter's birthday party and ending in the Me and Mickey Blog hop. Last year she was all about the princess party, and you can see all of those creations here, but this year she decided that it was going to be a Finding Nemo swim party. This presented quite the challenge since Finding Nemo party supplies have been discontinued everywhere except for people trying to scalp you on ebay - so I had to get creative! And so we will being today with the invitations!

The details: 
These are,  believe it or not, regular A2 size invititations, in fact just a wee bit smaller since I had to cut two out of each 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. Those of you who are familiar with the Disney carts will maybe realize that layering the characters at such a small size is a HUGE pain in the behind, but I have a solution - and its name is vinyl! But first some closeups of each design - we chose four of the characters - and I made 8 of each design (because yes I am nuts).

Nemo - cut at 2.25 inches

Marlin - cut at 2.30 inches

Dory - cut at 2.50 inches

Pearl - cut at 2.25 inches

I created a Gypsy file with for my card bases that welded rectangles from Plantin Schoolbook with the waves shape I also found on that cart! Talk about hidden treasures! I wanted a cut out on the front of the card where I could put acetate and then my vinyl figure -I wanted the illusion of an aquarium.  And where did the acetate come from? I used almost all of my stash of the plastic clamshells that Cricut cartridges are packaged in ~ but don't you worry ~ I have worked on replenishing it since then. 

As I said earlier - the characters are cut quite small and I would not recommend doing that with paper because the vinyl made it easy to position the pieces and re-position if necessary. I did not however cut those teeny white eyes out - since I am not completely mad - instead I used a MS paint pen to add the whites for the eyes - worked wonderfully on the vinyl.

To frame the front I cut out some coral (which is also found on Best of Pixar) at 2 inches and flipped the image for the other side. I did a teeny bit of hand trimming on the coral since there was a little piece hanging over each edge. I also added a stamped sentiment from an Inkadinkado wooden stamp. I used Stazon because I was using Recollections brand shimmer paper (also used for the coral) and I wanted to make sure it didn't smear. 

For the inside of the invite, I printed out the details on clear shipping labels from Staples and then just stuck them to the inside. My daughter decided she was foregoing presents this year and asking for donations to the SPCA instead - so the pressure was on for a fabulous party!

Later this week I will share with you the necklaces I made for the goody bags and how I was able to use the negative cut from the invites for tags, and then the decorations and game for the party. Until then I hope you enjoy these - and maybe look into playing with some vinyl!

---Allison

Blogaversary Winner!

So the long wait is over! And I have to say when I used random.org and then looked up the winner my reaction was NO WAY!! That couldn't happen! But it did, and while I thought about picking another winner I didn't think that was very honest, soooo according to random.org (and here is the photographic evidence):

which means the winner of the Teresa Collins Chic & Scary cartridge is....

So while I am suspicious that Carole might turn out to be the owner of the random.org website you all can rest assured it was purely a coincidence! She really is such a faithful comment poster that I think she deserves it! Carole I will get your cart in the mail - and to the rest of you - I thank you again for choosing to follow me - I am so thankful for that! And I am off to give myself a huge kick in the behind to get caught up on my posts!

Happy Blogaversary to me!

I can't believe it has been one year since I launched this blog! I am just blown away by my blessings in this last year - among which are 119 of you deciding to follow me and two of my projects are published in the November issue of Cricut magazine! It wasn't real until I bought the magazine at the store! They accepted two of my heat transfer vinyl baby projects (because I don't like heat transfer vinyl or anything) so if you happen to have a copy check them out!

I have a final Halloween project to share with you - this is the "Pin the Bat on the Haunted House" game I created for my daughter's class to play at their party.

The details: 

I cut out the house from October 31st at 19 inches - and how I did that was use two layers of the 12x24 mat on the Gypsy and cut it out in two pieces and then pieced the parts together on yellow poster board. I used DCWV glitter adhesive backed paper. This picture can give you some idea of the final size. 

 For the bats I used this cut in Paper Doll Dress Up at 2 inches real dial size. I drew them with my Cricut markers, then cut them out, laminated them with my YourStory (which I love love LOVE and think everyone should have one), and then added googly eyes with glue dots. 

This particular cut does not have a shadow or blackout layer so I used my Gypsy and the layers so that the markers lines weren't all cut again with the blade. The first layer was set up the cut as is and then I drew with the markers. 

Then on the next layer I used the same image with all the lines hidden except for the outside one. By keeping the layers visible you can line them up exactly. 

So after "cutting" the first time with the markers I selected return to design instead of unload mat, switched the marker for the blade, chose this layer, changed the pressure (don't forget!) and then cut  - which gave me nicely drawn bats which were only cut out around the shape.

I hope the kids have a good time playing the game - I only wish my YourStory laminated larger sizes than 12x12. And now - what better way to celebrate my blogaversary than to give away some blog candy?? I am going to give away the Teresa Collins Chic & Scary cartridge! Halloween is my favorite holiday and I just adore the images - who can't use more Halloween cuts?? it even has cupcake wrappers!

So all you have to do to enter is  leave a comment  and you must be a follower of this blog (anyone who wants to listen to me ramble deserves some kind of reward). I will leave it open until 12 midnight EST on November 7th. Thank you so much for all of your support this last year and I hope you have a spooktacular Halloween!

Blog Hop Winner

And the winner of the twine bundle according to Random.org is.....

and that means the winner is.....

Congratulations Carole! Email me your info so I can get your twine out!!

Halloween Hop! Popcorn and a Sweet - No Tricks Just Treats!

Hello and welcome to this stop on The BugBytes Design Team blog hop!If you are on the hop you should have arrived here from Kymberlee's blog. If you are just starting here you are going to want go back to The BugBytes to start at the beginning. My wonderful fellow designers who are taking part of this Halloween/Fall Hop and Linky Party are:

Pam

Jen

Lori

Jeannie

Audrey

Kymberlee

Allison - YOU ARE HERE!

Kelly

Debbie

Carole

Kate

Amylynne

Mila

Dayna

Elizabeth

 I am sure I am going to wake up Saturday morning and be mortified that I posted this among all the other fabulous work the designers have done, but I am going to anyway! So that being said, let me introduce you to my friends....Frank, Jack, and their Mummy!! Oh I love Halloween puns!

The details: 

These are actually popcorn treats for the "specials" teachers at my daughter's school. I have other things in mind for her regular teacher and the aides but I thought it would be nice for her to give a treat to the people who teach art, music, gym, and library. This is also a project that grew as I started to work on it, otherwise known as "why can't I ever just leave it alone?""

I started off with a 10 by 7 1/2 inch piece of paper. I scored it at 3 inches and 7 1/4 inches. 

I used Scotch brand double sided tape on two sides. (Hint: do not have regular tape on table next to double sided tape or lots of tape will be wasted. Why you ask?? no reason.)

I decided to use a single serve bag - good for a quick treat at school. 

I laid the bag down before folding the pocket together  - kind of necessary to ensure you have enough room for it. 

Then I slide the bag down so I can crimp the end. Then I add another piece of tape in the open end and crimp that side as well. Which leads me to....

one complete popcorn packet! But he was looking lonely (and a little plain) so I decided he needed something else - a mini me! (oh and stickles because you can always use sparkle)

Besides who doesn't like a candy bar to go along with your popcorn??  To make the candy bar wrapper I followed the same steps but with a 7 1/2 by 6 piece paper - scored at 2 and 4.5 inches. I also made a second pumpkin version with a different style face. 

Here are Frankenstein and  Frank Jr.  

And let's not forget Mummy and the little mama. 

The mummy took a little more time and care - I cut a bunch of long one-inch strips and inked the edges. Then I placed them randomly on top of the finished packet but hanging over the sides  - here's a picture: 

Then I trimmed the extra off the side with scissors. I had to put a little bit more adhesive to keep the edges of some of the strips down but it wasn't too bad. 

For all the faces I used the Pumpkin Carvings cartridge, which I just love so much. The only one that needed serious tweaking was the Frankenstein - his face is all cut at one size but his hair is cut much larger so it fit the width of the packet. I am perfectly happy to share the gypsy file for all three faces with anyone who wants it. Even though that means I will have to plug it in and update it - I am willing to make the sacrifice! I love the way these came out and I can't wait to wrap them up in bag with some Halloween twine! 

And speaking of twine, I am going to give a set of Trendy Twine away! I will give away 6 of their gorgeous colors all spooled on my thread bobbin system (which you can see here) and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post by Monday October 24th and I will select a winner! Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. 

I hope these inspire you to make some of your own Halloween treats - almost as much as I hope I don't die from embarrassment when I compare these to all the other work you will see on our hop today! Your next stop is Kelly's blog and then at the end make sure you go back to The BugBytes to join the linky party. Have fun and Happy Halloween!