Kickin' Off Christmas Blog Hop plus BLOG CANDY!

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This giveaway is now closed and entries are no longer accepted.
The winner will be announced on Nov 29, 2010.

Thanks for playing!

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Welcome to the Kickin' off Christmas Blog Hop, everyone! If you are here from Linda's then you are on the right track. If not, you might want to start from the hop's starting point, by popping by Amy Chomas' blog and hop from there.

The following is the list of participating blogs. Check out the wonderful projects that these talented ladies have in store for you and don't forget to put your name down for some blog candy too!

Amy Chomas:  http://amychomas.blogspot.com/
Amber Holden: http://stayingcrafty.blogspot.com/
Donna Mundinger:  http://donnamundinger-popsicletoes.blogspot.com/
iCopic:  http://blog.icopic.com/
Maria McGuire: http://www.believedreamcreatewithmaria.com/
Stephanie:  http://seastephscreations.blogspot.com/
Penny Duncan:  http://pennyduncancreations.blogspot.com/
Susan Edwards:  http://spartansusscraper.blogspot.com/
Linda:  http://cardsbylinda.blogspot.com/
YOU ARE HERE -->Jin Yong: http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/  <--
Calypso:  http://calypsocandycraft.blogspot.com/
Dana Ansell:  http://www.svgmtcfiles.blogspot.com/
Lori:  http://inkinglyyours.blogspot.com/
Samantha :  http://thescrapmaster.blogspot.com/

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I use my Cricut machine and Make-the-Cut software to cut out images from Lettering Delights. This post will tell you more about the philosophy behind this blog. I welcome you to take a look at this blog for card ideas and tutorials.

(Note: Provo Craft/Cricut does not endorse the use of any 3rd party software. Cutting or communicating to any Cricut machine with any 3rd party or non-Cricut endorsed software or device will void the warranty of the Cricut cutting machine. As such, it might be prudent to wait until the warranty expires on your Cricut machine before attempting any  3rd party products).

Today I will be showing you how I made this card with Amy Chomas' Gel Pen and Gel Pen Holder. I used images from Lettering Delights' Trim The Tree graphic set with Make-the-Cut (v.3.0.0 beta).

Using the Pixel Trace tool in MTC, I traced and imported the ornaments images. This is how the layers look like:

 

The pictures above show the completed layered ornament (far left) and the layers that it is made up of. Notice that I saved each colored ornament in it's own page. I have also replaced the chain of the red ornament with a copy from the blue. Since the step for cutting each ornament is the same, I will illustrate with just the green ornament.

The concept is really simple.

Step 1: Replace the cricut blade with the gel pen and holder. 

 

Step 2: Close the eye (Toggle Off) on all the layers except the one that you want to draw. Click on the scissors button to draw.

 

Step 3: Without removing the mat, remove the gel pen and holder and place the blade back into the Cricut machine.

 

Step 4: Open the eye (Toggle On) on the layer that you want to cut and Close the eye on the layer already drawn.

 Step 5: Click on the "Cut" button to cut the layer out.

Continue cutting the other layers out the usual way and then adhere them to a card front.

I embossed the card front with a Cuttlebug ornaments embossing folder and printed the sentiment using MS Word and the LD Cursive font.

I hope that you've enjoyed my little tutorial on how to use Amy's gel pen and holder to draw and cut out. And now, let's go on to.....

Blog Candy!

I had so much fun giving away the i-rock rhinestone setter by Imaginisce that I am offering it here again as blog candy. 

How to Win

You do not have to be a follower to enter in the drawing.

Leave ONE comment on this post to be counted as ONE entry.

If you are a follower of this blog, you may leave a second comment for a total of 2 entries. Just mention some where in the comment that it is your 2nd entry.

Make sure that you leave your email address or any other form of contact so that I may inform you should you win.

Entries to the giveaway will be accepted from now until Sunday, Nov 28, 11:59pm PST. The winner will be chosen by RANDOM.ORG and announced on Monday, Nov 29.

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Thanks again for stopping by my blog. Your next stop on the hop is Calypso's blog. Don't forget to hop all the way to the end at Samantha's blog. A little birdie told me that she has a great blog candy for you. ;-)

Enjoy your blog hopping!

A Chinese Thank You Card

One and a half hour to go before we leave for the kids' last Chinese class for the year, and I realize that I forgot to make a card for the teacher. I did buy her a gift card but how dare I space out on handmade card!

Almost instinctively, I flipped open my laptop and while Cricut Design Studio is taking its own sweet time to load up, I started to look for my Pagoda cartridge. I found the box while CDS was still loading, and finished looking through the handbook just before CDS finally loaded up. I thought this card would be a breeze to make. Just a simple thank you card for the Chinese Teacher and I had assumed that the Chinese character for "Thanks" would be on Provo Craft's only Asian-themed cartridge. I was flabbergasted that I was not able to find it on the handbook. I even went through the book twice and searched through the Keyword feature on CDS. No Chinese "Thank You" on the Pagoda cartridge? Epic fail, Provo Craft!

Annoyed, I closed CDS and opened Make-The-Cut. I found the "Thank You" character online and traced it in MTC. Sized it for a quarter-fold sized card and clicked on the "Cut" button.

I needed the negative image to make the card but I was not willing to waste the positive image. I had some scrap pieces of clear Contact Paper from my canvas project so I placed it over the character-cutouts and rub it until they stick onto the contact paper.

Using my spatula, I gently coaxed the cutouts from the mat.

So now I have the positive cutouts ready to be used for another project.

For the sake of those who are not familiar with Clear Contact Paper, this is how the backing looks like. You can buy a roll at most mass merchandisers (e.g. Target, Walmart) for a couple of dollars.

Just to illustrate in this blog that the positive image cutouts can be used, I peeled off the contact paper backing and applied some glue to the cutouts while they are still stuck on the contact paper.

Once I decided where I want to place them, I lay down the contact paper and gently rubbed down the cutouts. When I am confident that the images have stuck onto my cardstock, I slowly peel away the contact paper.

This is a simple but effective method to save cutouts that cannot be welded into a single piece. I had also used the same trick to save the words left behind from cutting the "Campground" label from my last classroom project.

So, what did I do with the negative cutout from the Chinese characters? Well, I layered it onto a piece of black cardstock and adhere the whole thing to a card front that was previously embossed with Sizzix's Three Dots embossing folder. To finish the card, I adhered a 2-inch Create-A-Critter panda onto the card with mounting tape to give it some dimension.

There were 2 corners of the Chinese characters that I had missed putting some glue on, so I reapplied some glue carefully on the red layer and voila! A Chinese Thank You Card is done. :-)

To download the MTC file for the Chinese Characters for "Thank You", 

please click here.

Please note that you will need Make-The-Cut program to open the file. This file will not open in Cricut Design Studio.

Enjoy. :-)