Hey everyone, exciting stuff happening on my blog this week for National Craft Month!  

First up is a great home decor project I want to share with you. I found these great frames when I was out shopping and thought how fun they would be to use at home or in my art studio since they have little clips you can hang photos or artwork on. The frames are great on their own but I thought it would be cool to jazz them up a bit by cutting a warm cuddly phrase out of craft vinyl and applying it to the glass.

And, I not only made one of these...I made two! So a random lucky blog reader can win one along with a bundle of ScanNCut goodies! -Check out the details at the end of this article.

Here's a video on how I created this project:

Supplies:

• ScanNCut machine and accessories
• Photo Frame
• Craft Vinyl
• Grid Transfer Paper
• Word Art (FREE Download)
• Every_Family.fcm Cut File (FREE Download)

Instructions:

1. Use the "Scan To Cut Data" feature to scan in the word art or open up the Every_Family.fcm file onto your ScanNCut.

2. Add a test cut to your project mat and then push the "cut" and "start" buttons. Even though you have multiple designs on your mat your machine will perform the test cut first and then pause so you can make adjustments if needed before cutting your vinyl. You want to have it cut through your vinyl but not through the backing so start off with the blade barely coming out of the blade holder, and adjust it from there depending on the results of your test cut.

3. Cut out the phrase on vinyl and remove the vinyl from the machine.  Weed out the design by removing the negative part of the vinyl and leaving the words you will be using on the backing sheet.  For long phrases, like the one for this word art, I like to cut apart the vinyl I'm removing so it doesn't accidently get stuck to letters I want to remain on the backing sheet. 

4. Cut off a piece of the grid transfer tape that is a little larger than your vinyl letters an apply it on top of the letters, lining them up with the grid lines.  Burnish the transfer paper onto the letters and then carefully peel back the transfer tape to lift off the letters.

5. Once your have lifted off the letters place the stip onto the glass of the photo frame and burnish it again to firmly affix the letters to the glass.  

Then slowly peel off the transfer tape so that just the letters remain on the glass.

6. Repeat using the same piece of transfer tape for the rest of your design.

Such a quick project, but it sure packs a punch! This would make such a great personalized gift too!!  Later in the week I'll be sharing how I used my ScanNCut to create that mixed media art card I used in this project, so stay tuned for that!

Oh, and speaking of gifts, my friends at Brother ScanNCut is giving one very lucky blog reader a fun prize package! See the details and enter to win below!

 Comments are now closed, the entry time has expired.

Giveaway Duration - March 14, 2016 through March 20, 2016

Brother prize valued at $53.97 PLUS Home Decor Frame valued at $50.00

Brother prize package includes: 

-10 Sheet of assorted craft vinyl (valued at $22.99)

-6 foot roll of grid transfer paper (valued at $17.99)

-6 foot roll of black craft yinyl (valued at $12.99)

Plus you get your own Home Decor Frame that you can personalize with your own family photos and artwork.

Official Rules: To enter to win, just comment below on this blog post by midnight on March 20, 2016. By commenting on this blog post you are agreeing to the official rules and you agree to provide your name and mailing address to Erin Bassett and Brother International for prize distribution. Prize fulfillment will be done by Erin Bassett and Brother International.

Eligibility requirements: Open to USA residents 18 and older only. 

A random winner will be chosen via random.org on March 21, 2016 and contacted that day. If potential prize winner does not claim the prize in 48 hours or forfeits the prize, the prize will be re-awarded. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Void where prohibited by law.

Disclosure: Erin is a paid consultant and has received  products from Brother to evaluate. However, the opinions expressed are entirely her own and based on her use of the products.

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy from these links it won't cost you a penny more but Erin will make a little bit of money (not enough for a pony). 

I'm going through my photos from our trip to Montana this summer so I can figure out which ones to print for scrapbooking.  Here's some of my faves from just driving around...

These photos were shot with my cell phone or my little point and shoot camera that is usually with me when I travel. I promise next time I'll bring my big camera.  ;)

art by Juliann Steiner

Many of the utility boxes on the streets of Montana and Wyoming are artsy.  I'm loving this one that is near Yellowstone.

Speaking of Yellowstone, I'll post pics from there shortly.  This was my second trip to Yellowstone this year and I marveled just as much this time as the last.  You NEED to put it on your Must Do List!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy from this link it won't cost you a penny more but I make a little bit of money (not enough for a pony)

Quick, someone give me a gold star!

I actually finished my art journal swap pages before they were due!!

Hooray!!!

Supplies: PAINT - DecoArt - Pumpkin, Foliage Green, Green Tea, Moon Yellow, Razzle Berry, Desert Turquoise, Dioxazine Purple, Snow White; Golden - Prussian Blue Hue  PENS - Faber Castell PITT pens, White Uniball Signo

I'm having so much fun with this swap!  If you missed my swap page for April, you can go check that out. And you can see ones other's have made by searching the hashtag "#FJSWAP" on Instagram. (Oh, and you can follow me on Instagram here too if you so desire.)

Also, you know how I love making digi-scrapbooks? Well, I had the opportunity to test out the Mosaic app (download it here) and I made a quick video about my experience.  Let me tell you, I've made a few books with other manufactures, and this is by far the easiest & quickest to do!

Now I will say that if you're an avid digi-scrapper and are computer savvy this may not be the app you are looking for to make a detailed photo book.  It's more for the "I have all these photos, I want to make into a quick book, and I only have 5 minuets to do it" type of person. Yes, it's that easy! 

Oh, and did I mention I got it in 3 days?  Yeah, they're quick!!

And sorry Droid users, so far they only have an Apple app.  :(

Sponsor: Mixbooks, DecoArts

A few weeks ago, I was offered an early bird trial of Blurb's NEW Designer Photo Book Templates, and I of course said "Yes!" Now that I have my finished product in front of me, I'd like to share how fun and easy it was to create this beautiful looking photo album! If you have recently taken a fun family trip or want to remember a great birthday party, head over to Blurb and create one of their new Designer Books using the coupon code DESIGNMYBOOK and receive 20% off your order! You can thank me later!

As you may remember, my eldest niece spent a good chunk of her summer with us last year...which resulted in tons of photos, and a lot of them were Instagram ones.  Now while I've been meaning to scrapbook the photos, I just had been busy and hadn't got around to them yet.  Which is why I was super excited to try the new template on Blurb out!  

It was SO easy, to get started you just click on the option you want...

...and then you're good to go.  If you're using photos from Social Media sites it will have you log into them so it can grab your photos off of there for you  otherwise you can load them from your computer.  Then you can either have blurb plop them into the templates, or you can choose which photo goes where & what else you want on the page.  It's totally customizable!  

I did it quick and didn't add any words so it's just photos.  Nice and minimalist!

Go HERE and get started on yours right now!  Remember to use coupon code DESIGNMYBOOK and receive 20% off your order!

With Christmas coming up I've been working on some crochet projects in "my spare time" (which is basically any time I'm not working on CHA & other projects LOL).  

Since this is a gift I can't reveal it all yet, but here's a little peek that I shared on my Instagram feed:

I have some other things I'm crocheting as well, but I can't share those yet.  ;)

Speaking of crocheting....how do you store your left over yarn?

If there's not much left I re-roll my ball and then tag it with the type and color like this:

I would really like to know what you do with your leftovers...leave me a comment below telling me.

Also, we have a winner for the Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 random giveaway!

Congrats Debby, you're going to have so much fun! Check out the photo of her grandson that she submitted:

Thanks everyone for submitting your photos and layouts, I'm having fun going through them and checking them out!

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