Crafty Chatter

I was lucky enough to finally get my ATG Gun thanks to a wonderful person on the Cricut Message Boards ! It arrived earlier today via UPS and as soon as I had it in the door I set to making "mine" ! Not that they don't look ok right out of the box, but well, they look even better after you play around and personalize them to fit you.

Mine was simple to do. I just painted it with a pinkish metallic paint then added a flower and some bling...voila, I have a very personalized ATG Gun :) Hope you like it !

In celebration of her 20,000 visitor she's offering some SWEET blog candy ! Head on over to her BLOG HERE and check it out !!

I'm a day late on my Thanksgiving wishes for everyone, but at least I got to it eventually ! I do apologize, it's been crazy at my house the last few days. I am the head cook and dishwasher for all holiday dinners, and that means cooking for at least 20 to 25 people and I NEED my football on Turkey Day so I'm really busy trying to cook and watch the games at the same time.

Just so you know I haven't been sitting around doing nothing I have a few projects to post for you all. I'm gearing up for a Craft Show in 2 weeks so in addition to the holiday I've been crafting like a madwoman !

I'll be posting my newest goodies soon :)

Ok, using a random # generator, the winner of the surprise blog candy is....

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Drum Roll Please....

Tigger62

She said :

tigger62 Says:
November 13, 2009 4:14 PM

I'm learning so much! I wish I had known there were people like you out there, bbut then you wouldn't be so special. I am working on a blog...don;t fully understand it yet. I have 2 teenagers that are helping me. I do have a FB but not sure how to link that either. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

EMAIL
the1simp@msn.com
blog? //tigger62.blogspot.com/

So tigger, I'll be sending you an email sometime tomorrow to get your shipping details ! Congrats on the win :)

Blog Candy Contest CLOSED - Winner was Tigger62 - Congrats Tigger, you should have received an email from us !!

So we've decided it's time to do a Blog Candy giveaway. Since the holidays are fast approaching we thought it would be fun to do a "surprise" candy giveaway. It'll be like Christmas morning if you're the winner. You won't know what all you're getting until the moment you open the package. Consider it a grab bag of crafting goodies !!!

Now I know you at least want a HINT of what you'll get if you win the candy, so below is a list of items that you can definitely expect to find in the box...we're not posting photos because we don't want you to know EXACTLY what the candy consists of, but this list will give you an idea of what you'll receive. You will definitely receive some of everything on the list, plus some extra items. What you don't know are the details...colors, quantity, etc.

Stickles
Perfect Pearls
Embellishments
Stickers
Card Stock
Patterned Paper
Distress Inks
MS Punches
Adhesive
Ribbon
Clear & Rubber Stamps
Michael's Gift Card

The candy will have a minimum retail value of $100.00 - probably more because I'm a shopaholic and will continue to add goodies to the box up until the day the contest ends.

Entering to win our blog candy is easy...just follow the simple steps below.

1. - Sign up as a follower of Crafty Chatter Blog
2. - Make a post on your own blog or website linking back to this post
3. - Leave a comment to this post with the link to your site where you posted about our blog candy

When will the blog candy contest end ? When we reach 100 followers or November 22nd, whichever comes first :)

So there ya go, good luck to all who decide to enter :)

Wow, the day has finally arrived !! I'm so excited to see that I'm up to 70 followers, that is sooooo great. I really do hope you all enjoy the little stuff I do around here and I hope I have a good idea now and again that you can use !

Today is all about blog candy !! Today is the day I pick the random winner of the surprise candy box ! Oooooh you're going to LOVE what's in it ! I've been tossing goodies in there for weeks now and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger !

I think we'll do the drawing at 12noon EST, so check back then to see if you were the lucky winner. Anyone can still enter up until then too, so it's not too late for those of you who just found us !

This is the card I've done for the PKS Challenge Blog for challenge 16. It didn't really matter what you made as long as you used a PKS stamp.

I used the PK-540 Funshine Faces stamp for the snowman here. The paper is DCWV, a little fiber ribbon for the snowman's scarf, a few skittles, and some stickles on the house rooftops.

Pretty simple, but I think it came out ok :) Hope you enjoy it.

I've always lacked coloring skills, I mean seriously lacked coloring skills. I think my 4 yr old grand daughter colors better than me. But, I'm a firm believer in try and try again, so this week I was lucky enough to have someone send me a set of the Marvy LePlume II markers in pastel and I was bound and determined to color something with these things. I blended and added color and blended some more and I hope my first attempt came out ok. I know the sunflower is the wrong color, but humor me, it's my first time remember ? LOL

So what do you think ? Will I someday become proficient at coloring ? LOL

Here are a few more magnets I did last night, I really like the gold with the leaf on it. I'm not sure how good it shows up in the photo really, but it looks FABULOUS in RL !

I'm on a magnet kick let me tell you LOL these are so quick and easy to make and so fun to look at when they're done.

I have been so busy the last few days I haven't had time to post at all. I'm sorry for that, because I have a bunch of fun stuff to share with everyone and I'm wanting to get it all posted but have had no time.

I promise today I'll get some new projects posted and some great ideas to save serious money with your crafting !

Remember to tell all your friends about the blog candy giveaway too, it ends in 3 days so let them know time is running out :)

I've been working on a bunch of fridge magnets the last couple days. I know I posted a pic the other day of a couple of them...but since then I've gone back over a few of them and added more "bling" and finished a few others too. Not to mention this picture is much better than the other !

Hope you enjoy the photos :)

These things are just too cute. I love them and everyone I give them too enjoys them so much ! I just whipped up a few of these to give out at my hubby's work. I'm going to a do a batch of them in the shape of mugs as well. I'll post pics of those when I have them finished as well.

They're super easy to make :)

I've been making twice weekly trips to my local M's for about the last 4 weeks - which is still 20 minutes away hoping to land one of the MS Scor Boards. Each time I run thru the door and head straight to the Martha section only to be disappointed when I see the empty space reserved for the Scor Board.

Yesterday I went in the door and really didn't expect to see it in stock, but you know, I had to go look anyway. Imagine how happy and surprised I was to see they had them !!

Sadly I was then left in a huge bind. What to do ?? Should I buy it and only get it on sale for 30% off ( all MS goodies were on sale yesterday ) or wait until today and go back hoping they still had them and use my 20% off coupon that I had for today ? Decisions, decisions, decisions...in the end I decided it wasn't worth the risk of them not having it today and I bought it yesterday. I can't complain though, I paid $13.99 sale price for it. Compared to the Scor Pal that I was going to get I saved a butt load of money :)

So here it is, my newest baby :) I know, I need a life. I get too excited about things like this LOL

Passion For Crafts is celebrating her 20,000 visitor by giving away some fantastic blog candy !! I don't know about you, but I would LOVE to win this goody box !! There is so much cool stuff she's giving away.

So stop on over and enter to win :)

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/11/wow-200000-hits-blog-candy.html

I'm working on getting ready for a small Craft Show in a few weeks so I'm making a ton of small items with low price tags in hopes of making quite a few sales :)

These are just a couple of the things I did yesterday. The top items are magnets, just simple little things for on the fridge, the bottom row are bookmarks. I made them from small salon clips, they work GREAT ! I took one to bed with me last night for the book I've been reading :)

I just have to share my newest goody :)

A wonderfully talented woman on the Cricut Message Boards made this for me. I received it today and all ready my bug is purring with warmth :)

I absolutely love this cricut cozy she made. I chose the print, dolphins are my favorite...but then she surprised me by putting my name on it and embroidering another dolphin above my name. Ok, did I say how much I LOVE this thing yet ?

Oh and if you want one for your very own, she makes and sells them !! You can find her at the Cricut Message Boards - OrangePower

I thought I'd share the card I made today with everyone. It's just a real simple Christmas card. The red paper is a metallic paper it looks fantastic when you see it real time, the white cardstock with the stamped Santa is DCWV glitter stack.

The Santa stamp is from Inkadoodoo, I stamped it with clear embossing ink, then embossed with red tinsel embossing powder. The inside sentiment stamp is just a $1.00 studio G stamp out of Joann's $1.00 bargain bins.

Hope you like it :)

I've been sitting here thinking that I know I love to shop for craft supplies. It's really one of my favorite things to do. I'm fairly certain many of you feel the same.

I've had an idea and I'm tossing it around in my head, let me know if this is something that would interest any of you ??

A shopping rewards program for craft items.

How it would work is you would have a membership at our rewards site ( 100% FREE ) and everytime you shopped through special links in your member area you would receive points...those points would add up and after you accumulated a certain amount of points you would receive a gift card for your favorite store.

It's like getting paid to shop :)

Let me know in the comments what you think about something like this !!

I was sitting here this morning thinking of making some new, exciting, fun craft project and video taping the process for everyone...and then it dawned on me that I don't have a video camera to do it with !

Someday I think I'll go grab one of those adorable little flip video cams for just such occasions.

These are just pics of a bunch of items I have here available for trade or sale :) Your choice. If you see something you like leave me a comment and I'll contact you or just email me :)

I LOVE, love, love this program. Did I mention how much I love it ? You can use any font you have on your computer and cut it with your Cricut using SCAL. Images, drawings, clipart, they're all easy to convert to svg files as well with another program for use in SCAl ( the other program is inkscape and it's free )

Anyway, you should check SCAL out...I have a ton of carts for the Cricut, but I use this program as much if not more than all my carts combined.

The Christmas CD wall hanging I did earlier today inspired me to keep going :) This evening I did a fall one, so I could use it now !

I used the DCWV indian summer stack to cover the CDs and for the lettering. I inked all the edges on each layer with vintage photo distress ink. For a little bling I sprayed some small leaves I cut and colored and a few flowers with a copper tinted homemade glimmer mist. I also embossed the flowers about 4 times to give them a really glossy look.

Hope you like it as much as I do :)

I have stacks and stacks of old CDs that we no longer use or need...you know, outdated software, old scratched music CDs, old file backups, etc. What do you do with those old CDs ? Toss them out ? Use them as mini frisbees ? LOL I asked myself that question 100 times, and I finally figured it out ! We alter them, repurpose them ! Make something crafty out of them !!

I did this Christmas decoration this afternoon, nothing fancy, just some old CDs covered in pretty cardstock with the word NOEL spelled out. I think I'm going to make a bunch of these now...one for each of my grandkids with their names on them so they can hang them on their bedroom walls !

They're simple to do, and don't take much time.

Materials Needed

Old CDs ( how many depends on your project )
Cardstock to cover them
embellishments
ribbon for hanging or twine
Glue

that's it, that's all you need to make a great new wall hanging out of those pesky old CDs you know you have laying around the house !

I figured out fairly quickly after buying my Cricut that you can go through mats pretty darn fast ! They lose their stickiness rather fast if you use them frequently. I also tired of buying new ones so often and at $12.00 for a 2 pack it was getting expensive. So I decided to figure out a way to make them sticky again and it's much easier and cheaper than you probably realize !

What You Need : You don't have to use these specific products, but these are easy purchased locally to me so I went with them.

Adhesive Remover : Duck Adhesive Remover - you can buy this at Kmart, Joann's, OfficeMax, etc.

Repositional Adhesive : Aileen's Tack-It Over & Over - I buy mine at my local Michael's - I'm sure you can get it at virtually any craft store.

How You Do It :

1. ) Apply adhesive remover to your cricut mat liberally. Allow it to set for about 1 to 2 minutes.

2. ) Scrape off all the adhesive and remover with your cute little cricut scraping tool, or the lid of the duck adhesive remover. If you don't have the scraper or the duck brand remover. You can use an old, used up gift card or something similar.

3. ) Once the adhesive is all off, wash your mat with warm soapy water and dry thoroughly.

4. ) Tape off the edges of your mat that you don't want to be sticky !!!

5. ) Apply a thin coat of the Aileen's Tack-It Over & Over with a foam brush. Allow it to dry thoroughly.

6. ) Use the same process you use with a new cricut mat - pat your hands over the sticky stuff a few times to reduce the amount of stick you have and enjoy.

You can do this over and over again, saving a TON of money in mats ! You can also use this process to make your own mats out of the flexible kitchen cutting mats you can buy at Wal-Mart :) saving even MORE money !

I've been cooped up in the house since last Saturday. My DGS had swine flu and he chose to share it with me ! Today was the first day I've felt reasonably normal all week and since I had a couple 20% off my total purchase coupons for Joann's - you just know I had to venture out and see what I could find !

I came home with quite a haul and without spending an arm and a leg ! My biggest purchase today was my crop a dile - I've been wanting one so since J's had it on sale 30% off and then I got the extra 20% off I HAD to get it !!

Anywho...I came home with the following goodies today !!

Cropadile
non stick craft mat ( I have several all ready but you can never have too many lol )
Aileen's tack it over & over glue ( to restick my cricut mats )
Adhesive remover ( to remove the old sticky on my cricut mats )
DCWV 12" stack - The travel stack on clearance $2.97 - wow !!!!
Autumn, Christmas, & Sentiment Clear stamp sets TPC Studios - all on clearance $3.97 each
2 x Christmas Clear Stamp sets ( Inkadoodoo ) - both on sale $4.00 each YEAH !!
Eyelets
Embossing powder ( red and green tinsel )
Green MS flocking powder
A couple studio G wooden holiday stamps
A fern wooden stamp
Ranger Resist Ink Pad

Oddly enough I refrained from purchasing any stickles, distress ink pads, or alcohol inks. Strange really...I can't usually do that LOL I always come home with at least one of those, usually more than one :)

Here's a card I whipped up this evening for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge blog. Don't know if it has what it takes, but it's sure fun playing !!

You should stop by their site and enter too ! 2 Sketches 4 You

We can never have too much candy...blog candy that is :)

Pink Piggy is having an awesome giveaway on her blog, spin by and check it out. You could be the lucky winner...unless of course I WIN =)

Pink Piggy Blog Candy

Well, I'm not even close to the talent that some of the women are entering this challenge, but I figured what the heck. I'd make a card and toss it out there for everyone to see ( read laugh at ) LOL

This challenge was based on a sketch - which I LOVE, it gives you a blank canvas to work with and it's so fun seeing what others have come up with and how differently we all see the sketch in our own eyes.

Here it is, my entrance for the Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge 15 - you should spin on over to their blog and enter too !

These are really easy to do and they look so wonderful when finished. You could certainly use these as gifts for friends, neighbors, family...anyone really. They're so versatile.

Materials Needed :

Canning Jar - I'm using the quart size, but you could do this with the short wide ones, or the jelly jars as well.
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks
Ink Felt Pads ( see my post on making your own felt pads )
Ink Applicator
Twine or Ribbon ( can be jute twine, raffia, ribbon..anything you want really )



Step 1 : Put a few drops of alcohol ink on the felt pad and dab it over the entire jar. I used Wild Plum for this one, just because I LOVE that color. You can use any colors you want. Once the ink is applied all over the jar allow it to set for a few minutes to the ink dries thoroughly.





Step 2 : Take a contrasting color or like I did, use a second color and a metallic , apply it to the felt pad and dab it on the jar over the previous color randomly. Don't coat the entire surface, you want your base color to show through in areas. Once it looks the way you want it to allow it to dry. Once dry you can spray a light coat of sealer ( krylon or similar ) over the jar to seal the inks on, but it's not necessary unless the jar will be handled a lot.



Step 3 : Add raffia, ribbon, twine or whatever you like to the neck of the jar. You can add a tag or other embellishments too at this time. Add some flowers or whatever suits your mood to the jar and you have a beautiful vase :)



I hope you found this easy to follow. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'll be glad to help if I can :)

I made this fun little notebook yesterday. I had to really try out my newest toy...the Pink Bind It All ! Let me tell you, this thing is GREAT ! If you don't all ready have one, be sure to add it to your Christmas or birthday list :) You won't regret it.

It took me all of 10 minutes to put this cute little book together and I think it came out quite nice :)



Two pieces of 3"x5" chipboard are the front and back covers decorated with some patterned paper and ribbon. The front cover I also embossed a "dreamer" stamp for some added dimension and added a bit of bling :) The inner pages are simply index cards and they work great for these little notebooks !

Hope you like it, please feel free to leave me a comment...I love comments !

I love making my own dyed skittles or dew drops as some call them. I've been making a ton of them this past week. I have 17 different colors available and yes, I do sell them, so if you want some just leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with you about cost and how to order :)

Here's a photo of my one skittle case....I love these boxes for holding skittles, they work perfectly !

I was bored yesterday. I'm stuck in the house with a child sick with H1N1 and I'm getting cabin fever ! So what do I do when I'm bored ? I craft...a LOT !

I was sitting at my craft table and trying to decide what to do next when all of the sudden I decided to prettify ( I'm certain that's not a real word ) my Glue Glider Pro.

First I painted it a gorgeous dark metallic teal color then added some bling and embossed an image onto it. I think it came out looking pretty darn sweet :) But you be the judge...let me know what you think of it in the comments section.