My trip to CHA and the Cricut Circle Meet Up!

I had an absolute blast at CHA on Friday!!  It started by walking in from the parking ramp at about 9:32.  Not to fear, I saw a woman ahead of me with the same determined walk.  When we got to the hallway that looked like where we were supposed to be, she turned around and asked me, "Are you going to the Circle meeting?"  That was the start of a new friendship with my fellow Cricut Circle member, Laura.  Love her!!  We had an absolute blast all day long.  At the meet up, it was emphasized that this was done for us; it creates a way for the Circle to become personal, for us to meet each other and make new friends.  That is exactly what happened for me.  I now have a great new crafting friend!  Laura and I both came alone, found a friend in that first hallway, and were inseparable the rest of the day!  

At the Circle meeting, I found this warmth and openness through a lot of Circle members.  Everyone was very nice and it was great to put some faces to names we see on the message board all the time.  Jinger from ProvoCraft talked about the Imagine and it's features.  We then heard from a man (I can't remember his name!) with some details on the Circle, some reassurances, and some successes of the Circle so far.   It was great to hear how open ProvoCraft is towards Circle members and how much they want to create a closer crafting community for those of us that are a part of the Circle.  

One of the very first things they did was to give everyone Cricut Imagine sungalsses.  Then PC was great enough to give away some prizes at the end of the meeting too.  Everyone who won seemed really excited and grateful (which was nice to see).  The Cricut joined us for this part and was great about giving out hugs and taking pictures with all of us.  It was really a fun atmosphere all morning long.  Here are a few pics of the meeting... 

I even met Robyn, My Pink Stamper!!  I was really excited about that.  And she is just as nice in person as she seems in her blog! 

After the meeting, it was on to the CHA Supershow!  This was amazing.  There was sooo much to see and do.  Besides spending a lot of time at the PC area, since there were fun things to look at, like this giant Woody cutout...

... we (myself and my new buddy Laura!) spent time looking at a lot of craft suppliers booths.  We bought some Peechy Keen stamps, got an awesome freebie bag from Kaiser Craft for spending $20 on their product, picked up MPS stamps, and bought some Glue Glider refills buy 2, get 1 free!  We even took some pictures at the Custom Crops booth, which will be in another post since I could win a gift card for posting them!

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things that happened but overall, it was definitely worth my 4 hour drive!  I am very happy to be a Cricut Circle member and a member of the crafting community in general.  The biggest thing I will take away from the day is meeting so many nice and genuine people, especially Laura!  :) 

French Manor Layout - Mirror, Mirror

As soon as I looked through the handbook for this cartridge, this is the layout that came to mind.  I saw that mirror and immediately thought about my youngest daughter's first toenail painting.  I was painting my older daughter's toenails in the bathroom when she came to investigate.  Then she HAD to have hers done too, just like her big sister's.  It was so very grown up of her!  

(Click on any image to make it larger)

This layout was a lot of fun for me.  The mirror was cut at 9", with the circle layer also being cut at 9".  I then took the left over circle from the large mirror and the insides of the pink circle and made the right page.  After I had everything put together, I decided it was too empty and there wasn't a good place for journaling.  That led me to the hand mirrors on the right page.  Those are cut at 2.5" and 4.5".  I had to cut them out twice, once in black and once in pink to get the insides to be the opposite color.

I cut all the letters from Storybook, as I thought that font matched the theme of the page.  I cut the big letters at 1" and the small letters at 0.5".  If I ever did this layout again, I would not use 0.5" letters!!  Way too small and hard to work with! Oh well though, I had them cut so I was going to use them! I'm sure you've had that feeling before.  :)

Carts used: 

French Manor - all shape cuts

Storybook - font 

French Manor Merci Card

I needed a quick thank you card so I figured this was a great time to use my new French Manor cartridge, courtesy of the Cricut Circle!  I am very excited to be a part of this club and am looking forward to meeting others who are too! 

This card used the Merci cut and the border but from that same button, both cut at 1".  I then added some jewels to the corners so it didn't look so blank.  Like I said, a simple card. :)  

Thanks for looking! 

Carts used: 

French Manor

Children's Garden Layout 2

I finished the next pages for my daughter's summer garden program from last year.  I am very excited about this and my daughter is too!  She loves to see what mom does with her pictures.  Tonight she was sitting on the opposite side of the scrapping table from me, doing her own layout about her family.  It was nice to work alongside her and for being 7, her layouts can be pretty good! 

This layout looks very similar to the previous one (see the post below) because I decided that was what I wanted.  Plus, I'm not a gardener myself so there's not much chance of me using this paper for anything else!  :)

(Click on any photo to make it larger) 

A closer view of each side... 

And the wheelbarrow detail.  The blue thing sticking out is a kneeling pad.  My daughter faithfully takes hers every week so she doesn't hurt her knees (<- that's what she says!) 

Recipe: 

Papers are from DCSW Flower Shower stack

Font and matte papers are from DCSW Brights stack

Shape cuts are from Walk in my Garden

Font cuts are Cuttin' Up welded on my Gypsy

Children's Garden Layout

This layout has been sitting on my scrapping table for two weeks, half finished.  Between kids, activities, and the holiday weekend, there just wasn't time! I finally got to it though and am hoping to get the next pages done tomorrow night. 

(Click on any image to make it larger)

Last summer my daughter participated in a gardening program that was put on by our Master Gardeners.  She really enjoyed it and loved taking a picture each week to see the growth from the previous week.  She definitely must have gotten the gardening gene from my mom because it didn't come from me!!  :)  They do say things skip a generation... 

There were quite a few new things in this layout for me that I don't typically do.  I have never used flowers before and I rarely use brads so those are both things I am glad made it in this layout.  It was definitely too plain otherwise.  That cute little orange sign came from the dollar spot at Target.  There were 6 in a package - perfect for this memory!

Cricut carts used: 

-Walk in my Garden - signs labeling the weeks

-Cuttin' Up - font