Falling for Halloween Blog Hop

Welcome to day one of  The Falling for Halloween Blog Hop!  It's so exciting to be the host of this hop and be joined by several super talented paper crafters. I'm also glad you decided to join in on the fun and I'm sure you will see lots of wonderful projects for Fall and Halloween.
What's a hop without blog candy?  As the host, I will be giving away  a Cricut Chic and Scary Halloween cartridge. To be eligible to win, simply visit all the blogs in the hop and leave a comment on each one.

I have a separate prize that includes Anna Griffin Halloween paper, ribbon, rub-ons and glitter letters and two cute stamps by Recollections. The winner for this prize will be chosen from comments left on just my blog. You can double your chance by commenting on both days of the hop.

Winners will be announced next Friday, October 12th. Be sure to leave a way for me to get in touch with you in your comment!
 Now, on to my project!

For today's post I created a cheerful Fall wall hanging. I started with a piece of blue  Coordinations card stock. To add some subtle texture I stamped some small fall images and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. The paper was machine stitched around the edges  with a large zig-zag stitch. The tree and leaves are from the Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The tree was cut twice, the, each piece was layered with foam tape. Some of the branches were outlined with Cinnamon Stickles.  The leaves were cut in different fall colors with some  cut smaller and placed along the bottom of the page. The cute kissing squirrels are from  Live Simply. They are placed on the page with double layers of pop dots for more dimension. The phrase is from 3 Birds on Parade. Gold adhesive jewels were added to the letters after they were outlined with a brown sharpie.

 

Hope you enjoyed today's project for the hop! Next up is the talented Michele at  Scrap and Dance  

Remember, if you visit everyone in the hop and leave a comment you will be entered to win the Chic and Scary cartridge! Below is also a list of all the hop participants.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you back tomorrow for day two of the hop!

Maria      stampcutcreate.blogspot.com

Michele   scrap-n-dance.blogspot.com

Paulette  http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

Cindy      http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/

Beth          http://seaswancreations.blogspot.com/

Renee     icameisawicreated.blogspot.com

Debbie @ www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com

Khrista @ http://creativeandcraftyteacher.blogspot.com/

Angela @ Angie's Paper Passion 

Nadia @ http://www.withglitteringeyes.com/ 

Donna @ http://CarolinasCreativeCropper.blogspot.com/

Diane @ http://dianesdribble.blogspot.com/

Sara @  http://sarawandrews.com/

Michele @ www.michelegreen.com

Christmas Gift Project: Grocery Bags with the Yudu

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great, but I am still in awe about how quickly it came and went. I was busy up until the last minute making gifts and baking so I didn't get a chance to post some of the things I made this year and I guess it's not too late to do it now. Sometime this summer I came across a site that sells blank grocery bags and thought of using the Yudu with them. (The city I live in is actually contemplating banning plastic grocery bags, so these would come in really handy here.) Anyway, my original intent was to personalize sets of them to give as gifts, but I waited too long to actually start working on them, so I did two more generic designs, using one for each side of the bag.

This is the biggest project I've done with the Yudu, and now I feel like a pro! (not really) The design had to be created so that it would fit between the raised areas on the bags where the straps are sewn down. Then the hard part was making sure each bag was put on the platen just the right way. I got smart after pulling the first bag and marked  the Yudu with painters tape so I would know exactly where to line the top and bottom centers of the bags. I had a few that went astray, but overall they came out like these. Also, since I was working between the two raised areas, I found it easier to pull from side to side rather than top to bottom.
The design on the left is from Word Collage and done in Brown Yudu paint. On the right I used images from Home Accents (apple and pear), Gypsy Wanderings (cupcake) and Stretch Your Imagination (ice cream). The paint color is Putty. The images were cut with vinyl then placed on transparencies which were used to burn the screens. I'm sure there is an easier way to do that step, but it works well for me.
I ordered the bags here and must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. They are well constructed and even came with the rectangular rubber pieces to put in the bottom of each bag. I ended up with 32 screened bags when it was all said and done and used 25 for gifts. The left overs were ones that I deemed unworthy of gift giving, but will probably use myself. I gave sets of 5 to each of my kids and my friend's daughters along with gift cards to their favorite stores. Not too bad of a gift idea, if I do say so myself!
Thanks for stopping by!