It's been awhile.... so let's have a CRICUT CONTEST!!!

OH THE SHAME!! Please take note that I have never said I would be a good and efficient blogger! BUT, apart from the countless typos, inconsistencies and loooong lapses in postings, I really do enjoy the process! lol

Since November 22nd, (my how time flies), I have been WAY busy trotting all over for both work and play! I thought that we could maybe play a little game and see if you can tell where I've been!! I'll do this multiple choice so that everyone stands a chance in making the correct answers. If you reply with the correct answers in all 4 locations, you will be entered to win a Straight From the Nest Cricut Cartridge by 3 Birds Design as seen below!!

Your comment to enter the contest might look something like this:

             Hi Heather, here are my guesses at your secret locations! My favorite one is______, because ________!! 

              Secret Location #1: ___________________

              Secret Location #2: ___________________

              Secret Location #3: ___________________

              Secret Location #4: ___________________

Secret Location #1

A: The shores of sunny Jamaica

B: Chilly but incredible Niagara Falls

C: The beautiful beach in Canmore Alberta

D: All of the above

Secret Location #2

A: Back Stage at The Shopping Channel

B: Santa's Sugarland aka The Lancaster's house for Cookie Night!

C: Sugar Anonymous Head Office

D: All of the above

Secret Location #3

A: Sunny Florida

B: My home Office

C: Chilly but incredible Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side!

D: Chilly but incredible Niagara Falls from the US side! 

Secret Location #4

A: South Jordan, Utah

B: Toronto, Ontario

C: England, UK (town of Stamford)

D: Calgary, Alberta

Happy entries to everyone!! The contest will close when I return from the CHA trade show in early February! 

Stick to the Rules!

During a recent online shopping excursion, my Sister-in-law added some of this PeelnStick ruler tape to her purchase and I had to copy her! It is VERY VERY COOL and I am now trying desperately not to stick it onto everything in site! Though, let's face it, if I did and then decided that I didn't like it covering EVERYTHING, I could just pull it back off because it is REMOVABLE!! SO COOL!

Thermoweb PeelnStick Ruler Tape

And yes, I realize that I may be getting a little over excited about it, but I still like it! My favorite application so far is sticking it onto my ribbon shelf. It will be very great to have a easy accuracy when I am chopping ribbon lengths for a project!

So, fess up. Tell the truth. Would you stick to the rules? 

Let it snow, let it snow!!

We woke up this morning in Calgary to SNOW!! I guess it has been a long time coming, as I truly can't remember a year when we didn't have snow by the end of October. My back yard is officially a winter wonderland and I am glad to be home inside today and working on my daughter's new bedroom! (I'll share pics SOON!)

Anyone for a dip?!

In the mean time, here's a little bit of my world... no swimming this month for us, but we may potentially be able to dig out that hot tub for an evening. And as long as we are in the spirit, here also is a scrapbook page that I did for the Cricut bundle that we sold on The Shopping Channel last weekend. The pricing is truly phenomenal if you are shopping for yourselves or as a gift!!

Made with Winter Frolic Cricut Cartridge

Sorry about the blurry picture... I can't retake as the page is in Toronto still. Isn't blurry inspiration better than no inspiration? :)

Happy Snow Day everyone!!

Winter Frolics Appliqué

The snow is NOT flying in Calgary yet, but I can't ignore that it is lurking right around the corner! And with the flurries outside will begin the frantic flurry of shopping and preparing for Christmas! The Shopping Channel gives me the perfect opportunities and excuses to start some seasonal crafting in advance and seeing how it is time to put away my Halloween Appliqué, I thought that I would replace it's spot on my mantle with a winter one! 

Pre-plan your design by cutting the shapes out of printer paper

Winter frolic has lots of fun images to choose from, and so I pre-planned my design by cutting out some shapes and tweaking them until I got the perfect sizes. Wow, pre-planning!! go figure! Who knew that I had it in me!?

Once everything was planned, may I just must stop again to remind you that I PRE-planned, I ironed Heatn'Bond to the back of all of my fabric. I personally am loving the Ultrahold weight for applique, and while I have also cut fabric that is backed with the HeatnBond light, the Ultrahold seems to deliver the very best results.

Next step is cutting the images, which of course will go VERY quickly if you have, ehem... pre-planned your cut sizes!

Some tips on cutting fabric with your Cricut machine:

   1. You MUST use a backing on the fabric, regardless of whether you are cutting cotton, silk or rayon.

   2. Use a new super sticky mat to hold your fabric securely in place while cutting. This will help give you a crisper cut.

3. A new blade is great, but not always 100% necessary. Try putting a new one in if you aren't getting a clean cut.

4. It's ok if the paper backing comes off of the fabric before you cut. It will still cut well!

5. If you are having trouble cutting, try flipping the fabric upside down to cut. Sometimes this works better! You can even use the 'Mirror Image' feature on your Cricut Expression or Create so that your image is still 'right side up'.

Iron your cut images into place and you are ready to stitch!

Once all of my images were cut out, I layered them onto the base fabric and started machine appliquéing them into place. I found it effective to have placed my 'snow' down first and top stitched it in place before layering any other pieces on top of it. This way, I could sew one continual topstitch instead of starting and stopping at all of the overlapped pieces.

Finished Appliqué

Once I was done stitching, I put a layer of batting behind my finished piece and then put it into a frame. 

Close Up! 

I think this little penguin guy is adorable and may end up on some Christmas cards as well! 

Happy Crafting!

AND THE WINNERS ARE.....

Thank you again to all the new people who are following my blog and to my buddies for sending all the newbies over!!

It's time for my first ever Cricut AND Cuttlebug contest draw, hopefully we can make this a regular thing! I've used a Random Number Generator to pick out our winners.

So.....drum roll please......For the Cuttlebug Folders, congratulations to Stampi!!

Winner of the Cuttlebug Folders #37

 Winner of the Give A Hoot Cricut Cartridge is ap_lemos!

Winner of the Give A Hoot Cricut Cartridge #61

I will send you both a quick email so that we can get these shipped out to you asap!!

Congratulations to you both and for everyone else, keep checking back for future contests :)

A new pet!!?

Sunrise

It's really quite amazing that one part of the world can be so much warmer than another! I REALLY don't think it's fair, but I was happy to get to enjoy a few rays of sunshine in sunny Florida!

Poser!

HSN (Home shopping Network) went great! I was there for two days and we sod our original Cricut, Cuttlebug, AND the new and wonderful Cricut Imagine. We sold out of the Cricut Imagine, but you can check out the other deals online still at HSN.

Before heading to the studio my first morning, I took a walk around the wildlife preserve that is behind our hotel. It was a BUSY place! I saw TWO alligators, a dozen or more turtles that were oddly gathered all in one spot, geckos galore and some beautiful birds!

eek!

My son asked me to bring him an alligator, but I figured it probably wasn't worth the hassle that I would have in customs! So no new alligator pet, purse or shoes!!

Meanwhile, I am home again and preparing for our next appearance on The Shopping Channel! We will be there with another awesome Cricut Bundle on November 14th. If you already have a Cricut, check out our airing to add to your cartridge collection!!

Thanksgiving Pie Dough with Cricut Cake

Cutting pie dough with Cricut Cake is super fun, and while Canadian Thanksgiving has just passed, our US neighbors are on the verge of celebrating. Not to mention of course, that pie is good ANY time of year!

Just call me a turkey! 

Since the first day that I opened the box for my Cricut Cake, I have been wanting to put a turkey on a Thanksgiving pie, so FINALLY, this was my big chance! I did quite a bit of experimenting with how the pie dough would cook on the deep dish pies, whether to sugar my dough or brush it with egg or milk, and how to get the perfect final look. We had a houseful for Thanksgiving dinner and so I did about 4 pies, which also pretty much ensured that I could eat an entire one myself!!lol YUM! 

Cutting Mr. Turkey from the Animal Kingdom Cartridge!

I also did some greetings from the Designer's Calendar Cartridge and LOTS of leaves.

Even though I broke this turkey when I put it on the pie, it still cooked nicely! 

The saddest thing about making these Thanksgiving pies is that they were all EATEN before I had a chance to take pictures of them! The best pies that I did were the ones that I put leaves around the edges before the cooking process, and added the center greeting after about 15 minutes of cooking. I think that if you weren't doing a deep dish pie, the pre-cooking wouldn't be necessary. I was happy with ALL of the pies though and everyone seemed impressed?!

Here is the whole rolling and cutting process to get you started and ensure that you are successful cutting your pie dough!

My top tips for cutting pretty much anything on Cricut Cake:

    1. Make sure you roll super thin!! This goes for cutting anything on Cricut Cake! If your knife is dragging and you aren't getting a clean cut, you need to roll thinner... whether it's dough, fondant, gum paste or whatever!! 

    2. The freezer is your friend! I always freeze before I cut. Again, this applies to dough, fondant and/or gum paste. 

    3. Slow down your cutting process and ease up on your pressure. Both my pressure and speed are set to medium when I use Cricut Cake. 

    4. Cut complicated images at a minimum of 3 inches. Because you are using a more fragile medium, remember that there are a few more limitations. Definitely TRY to cut tiny objects, but if you are having trouble, try increasing your size. 

    5. After you have cut your image successfully, either freeze it or let the substance that you've cut set for a bit before trying to place it on your pie or cake. If I am doing pie dough, I freeze again before I transfer my cut image. Likewise, if I have cut gum paste or fondant, I allow my cut images to sit for a bit so that they are slightly stiffer (dried) before I place them. This step makes handling the images without distorting them MUCH more successful! 

NEXT PIE PROJECT??? Christmas butter tarts with little trees on them!! OH! Or maybe holly leaves?! Yummy yum yum!!