Boy Howdy—it's cold in Utah!

Guess that means that Fall is officially here. And tomorrow is October first. Time to think Halloween! And have we got some fun cards to show you! These darling looks were created by our very own Katie Rasmussen. Well...check 'em out!

Supplies:

Imaginisce "Spooky Town" Paper Kit

Bazzill Paper Jubilee

Bazzill Paper Desert Marigold

Bazzill Paper Black/OP

American Crafts Memory Marker Black

Stickles Purple

Stickles Lime Peel

Stickles Yellow

Stickles Diamond

Craft Blade

Paper Trimmer

Cricut Machine

Cricut Cartridge Lyrical Letters

Glue Glider

Glue Pen

Opaque Pen

Step 1:

Cut all your papers

• Fraidy Cat (borders paper from paper kit): With your paper trimmer, cut a piece 5 1/2 inches wide, 12 inches long.

• Boo Buttons (black papge with buttons from paper kit): With your paper trimmer, cut one piece to 5 1/2" x 3". Then cut four small strips about 1/2" thick, 6 inches long.

• Bazzill Jubilee: Cut a piece 4 1/4" x 11".

• Bazzill Black/OP: Cut a piece 5 1/2" x 2 1/2".

• Monster Mash (orange with characters from paper kit): with scissors, cut out a ghost, a skeleton in the coffin, a moon, and an old tree. Cut out the details with your craft knife (between branches).

• Bazzill Desert Marigold: With your Cricut machine and Lyrical Letters Cartridge, cut out the words "Come rest your bones at our halloWEENY roast!" in 1 1/4 inch size, with the Jack Sprat function. Then cut three more exclamation points in 2 inch size (you'll only be using the periods for the ellipses at the end of "our"(ie. "our...").

Step 2

• Center and adhere the Jubilee paper to the Fraidy Cat paper with your Glue Glider.

• Center and adhere the Black/OP paper to the BACKSIDE of the Boo Buttons paper, so the green is visible, not the decorated side.

• Arrange your pieces on the Jubilee paper. Put the words "Come rest your bones at our..." at the top of the paper, then place the Black/OP and Boo Buttons piece with the words "halloWEENY roast!" on that piece. Next, place your old tree, skeleton in the coffin, moon and ghost. Then place your four small strips on the bottom (slanting, not in straight lines). Once you come up with an arrangement you like, adhere them in place. Adhere the "halloWEENY roast!" on the black paper first, then adhere the "Come rest your bones at our..." at the top of the page. Then adhere the Black/OP and Boo Buttons piece under those words. Next, write your "when" "where" "time" and other instructions on your four strips with an opaque pen (Katie used the Olive Acrylic Pain Pen from Marvy) and adhere your strips to the bottom of the page, cut off the ends that stick off the page. Last, adhere your old tree, skeleton in the coffin, ghost, and moon to the page.

Step 3:

• With your black Memory Marker (medium end) go around the edge of the Jubilee paper and the edge of the Fraidy Cat. Then outline around the sides of the Black/OP and Boo Buttons paper and the "when, where and time" slats. With the fine tip, outline the ghost old tree, and skeleton in the coffin.

• With the Yellow Stickles, go over all the words.

• With the Lime Green Stickles, make a scallop design around the Black/OP and Boo Buttons piece.

• With the Diamond Stickles, go over the ghost and skeleton in the coffin.

• With the Purple Stickles, fill in the spaces between the "when, where and time" slats.

• Wait for the stickles to dry before handling.

And did you see this tutorial for the darling "Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble" card that Katie also made? Check it out here.

Happy Halloween—in a month. And happy crafting!

More cruise sponsors!

Our cruise takes off THIS SATURDAY! We're so excited, and we know it's going to be a blast for all who attend. There's going to be crafts up to our ears, fun ports to take bazillions of pictures (and scrap about later), glorious food, and prizes prizes prizes!

If you haven't had the chance to check out the Web sites or blogs from our top sponsors (links are located in the lefthand column), you totally should. These guys are great! However, we have even more! Our independent designers, Trisha Ladouceur and Janine Wahl have rounded up a great list of sponsors, whose products will be featured in their classes. So without further ado, let us present to you these sponsors for the Fall 2009 Cruise and Create extravaganza with Oh My Crafts!

Riff Raff Designs

Tattered Angels

Graphic 45

My Mind's Eye

Prima

Beacon Adhesives

Bazzill Paper

and, naturally.....

Yours truly. Oh My Crafts.

So check 'em out! Each of these companies have some gosh-darn amazing products to offer. We love having them a part of our cruise.

Happy crafting! Happy cruising! Happy everything!

P.S. Shhhh...it's a secret! We've got another cruise already in the works! So if you can't make this one—don't fret! Stay tuned for more!

Go Glitzy

Now here's a fun one for ya. Katie used the Glitz Olivia kit to make this a-maze-ing layout. And right now we're running a daily deal for the kit.

Supplies

Olivia paper pack by Glitz

8x8 vellum paper pack from Making Memories

Textile Texture embossing folder by Provo Craft

Embossing machine

Glue Glider

Glossy Accents

Craft Blade

Scissors

Pencil

Black Memory Marker from American Crafts

Stickles:

Cinnamon, Black Diamond, Orange, Xmas Red, Diamond

Page 1

Step 1: Cut Papers

•Orange Textile paper—Cut four strips 1 1/4" x 12". Run through embossing machine with Textile Texture embossing folder; you'll have to run each strip through 3 times to get the full length of the strip.

Roses paper—Cut most of hte paper individual roses; crumple up the roses.

Hearts paper—Cut one column of hearts off the side of the page; cut that strip into individual hearts.

Aqua blue vellum—Cut a piece to 8" x 5". Cut little circles, approx. 1" in diameter and crumple up.

Step 2: Assemble

Take your photo and the aqua blue vellum cut to 8" x 5" and arrange together so the picture is on the very left hand side of the strip and adhere.

Take your Music paper (this is your background paper) and place a strip of embossed paper on the top and on the bottom. In this particular case, the top strip was placed in the middle of the staff of music and the bottom one going right over the large rose in the bottom right hand corner. When they are placed where you want them, trace where they are (top and bottom of the strip) lightly with a pencil. Between these lines, use your craft blade to cut around elements of the paper (swirls and roses). Only cut the sides that are within the lines of your strip. (see picture below)

Now take your paper strips and feed them in and out of your paper where you cut, so the elements you cut out will go over your paper strip. When they're in place, glue them down where you can. (see picture below)

Do the same (tracing and cutting) with your photo piece. (see above picture) When you adhere your photo in place, only put adhesive behind the picture, if you put it outside the picture you'll be able to see the adhesive through the vellum. To adhere the right side of the vellum, only put one piece of the Glue Glider Permatac on each corner—it's small enough that you can't see it. Use a black Memory Marker to outline the photo and vellum.

Take the roses and blue circles you cut and crumpled and the hearts you cut out and arrange them on the bottom left hand corner and the top right hand corner of your page, then adhere them.

Using your Stickles, embellish the roses and swirls. Use Black Diamond on the black swirls, Cinnamon on the brown swirls, Orange and Xmas Red on the roses, and Diamond on the hearts. After the Stickles dries on the big roses that should be over your paper strip in the bottom right hand corner, put Glossy Accents over it and let dry.

Page 2

Adhere your photo to the lower right hand side of an 8" x 8" aqua blue vellum page.

You will be using the rainbow stripes paper and hearts paper as the back ground of this page.

Take the other two embossed strips and line them up with the two strips from your last page, trace around the strip lightly. On the top strip, cut around the last heart on the right side of the paper, wind the paper under this heart. Don't adhere yet. (see picture below)

Take your hearts paper (the one you cut one column of hearts off for the last page) and arrange your photo vellum piece on it, decide where you want to place your vellum and trace lightly with your pencil. Cut around one column on hearts just inside the traced lines so it will go over your vellum. Adhere your vellum piece to the hearts paper (only behind the photo and hearts and then one small piece of Permatac on each corner. Use your black Memory Marker to outline your photo, vellum page, and hearts on the vellum.

Adhere your hearts paper onto the center of your rainbow stripes paper. Adhere your embossed paper strips down.

Using the rest of your roses and circles you cut and crumpled, arrange them coming from the top left hand corner down to wrap around the top right hand side of your photo (like it's coming from the first page top corner to the photo).

Embellish your roses and hearts to match the first page.

And....break.

Cutting fabric with the Cricut? Big Shot? No problem.

We often get questions about whether or not you can cut fabric with the Cricut. Or what about the Big Shot or Big Shot Pro? Well, today we'd like to offer some great tips for cutting fabric with these machines. One of our designers, Katie, recently created these baby onesies and burp clothes (out of fabric diapers), using fabric, and the Cricut.

A few tips for cutting fabric

• When using the Cricut, make sure your designs are SIMPLE. Use solid pieces, no designs with pieces cut out of the middle, etc. (If the blackout of the design is available on the cartridge, choose that.) If you want an intricate design, it is recommended that you for sure use a Big Shot, which is made to cut all mediums—including fabric.

• Cut your designs out of paper first to make sure it is the correct size. It is a lot easier (and cheaper) to keep cutting different sizes out of paper than to ruin a piece of fabric and have to prep another piece of fabric for cutting.

• Like any sewing project, make sure you pre-wash and iron your fabric to make sure it doesn't shrink after you've applied it to your article of clothing (in this case, the onesie). If you are making burp clothes out of cloth diapers, wash and dry at least twice before applying any designs.

• Using Freezer paper makes this project so much easier and yields better results and don't worry, it doesn't leave any residue on your fabric when you take it off.

• If you are embellishing with buttons, glue them onto the fabric with Fabritac first, then secure with embroidery floss. If the item you choose to make is for a baby, make sure there is no way the baby could somehow tear buttons off and choke on it. With the burp cloths that Katie made, she did not put any buttons anywhere, since burp cloths go right in a baby's face. They are embellished with stitching. You can also embellish with rick rack, secured with Fabritac. Or, you could also use a sewing maching to stitch ribbon through. The possibilities for cuteness are endless!

Okay, here's how she did 'em.

Supplies

Cricut Machine

Life's a Beach cartridge

Onesies

Cloth Diapers

Fabric (fat quarters)

Fusible Backing (Steam a Seam 2)

Blue Painter's Tape

Small Buttons from the Lime Rickey kit by Basic Grey

Embroidery Floss

Iron and ironing surface

Deep Cut Blade

Scissors

Fabritac

Freezer paper (optional—make sure it's freezer paper and not wax paper)

Cutting with the Cricut

Step 1

Prep the fabric to be cut—Assuming you know the size of the shape you'll be cutting, cut a piece of fabric the correct size for your design. Cut your fusible backing to the same size as your fabric. Iron on your fusible backing to the wrong side of your fabric. Katie used the Steam a Seam 2 because it has the paper on the back, which makes it work with the Cricut. If your fusible does not have a paper on the backside, use the paper you too off the front of the fusible backing and place it on the back, however this doesn't yield as good of results. don't try to cut the fabric without any paper over the fusible backing; the Cricut needs paper to cut through or the blade gets stuck. Freezer paper is helpful because it becomes stiff after you iron it onto the fabric and makes it easier for the Cricut blade to cut through in clean lines and it keeps the fabric from bunching up and creating a mess. If you choose to use it, iron the Freezer paper to the right side of your fabric.

Place your fabric on your Cricut Mat. If you are using Freezer paper, place fabric on the mat freezer paper side up. If you are not using it, place the fabric on the mat fusible backing side up. When you have your fabric positioned on the mat, take your blue painter's tape and tape all sides down to the mat. You can use regular masking tape, but it doesn't come off the mat so easily and might pull up the sticky from your mat, so always use the blue painter's tape. Now your fabric is ready to be cut.

Step 2

Load your mat into your machine. Make sure the pressure is on max and your speed is on minimum. Cutting fabric with a regular blade can be done, but it's probably best to use a deep cut blade. IF you are using a regular blade, at least make sure it's brand new or nearly brand new. If you cut fabric with a dull blade you might regret it.

Choose your design and size, press cut. Stay by your machine and watch it cut, just in case the fabric comes up and snags on the blade. If you're right there you could save the design by pulling the fabric back down so it can finish cutting.

After your design is finished cutting, unload your mat and take your fabric off. Remove the freezer paper and the paper from the fusible backing. Place your design on your onesie or burp cloth and iron on.

Embellish with buttons, embroidery floss, or whatever you fancy. Enjoy!

Cutting with the Big Shot

Step 1: Cut your fabric and fusible backing to the right size, iron on the fusible backing.

Step 2: Set up your fabric and die, just like you were using paper. Put through the Big Shot.

Step 3: Iron your cut design onto your onesie or burp cloth. Embellish and enjoy!

Any questions just give Katie a holler! katie @ ohmycrafts . com.

8 days out 'til Fall—are you ready??

With the change of seasons comes a whole new variety of crafting. There are so many fun ways to add spark to your scrapbook pages and other various projects. We did some fall-time scouting and here's some of the cutest projects we could find from various companies like Provo Craft, Fancy Pants, American Crafts and QuicKutz. What have YOU seen lately that YOU love?

First off, take this nicely designed layout from American Crafts. It's simplicity is what makes it so strong! Click here for more from the American Crafts idea gallery.

And here's some great looks from Fancy Pants. Don't you just love the use of the buttons??? Check out more at the Fancy Pants idea gallery.

Those of us in Utah can particularly enjoy this QuicKutz layout—it's beautiful around this time of year! Click here to view the vast ideas from QuicKutz.

And last but never least, we just adore these seating placards we found in the Provo Craft gallery. This craft was created with the Doodlecharms and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges. It'll be so fun working on the projects our Provo Craft peeps have in store for us on the cruise!!

So fun! We just love all the fall-time festivities.

What have YOU been working on?

Happy crafting!

Cruise update-a-roo

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Before offering a cruise update, we'd like to touch on 9/11. Today is a day that hits home for every American. From the whole crew of Oh My Crafts, we'd like to say that we're proud of America and what it stands for. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families of the 9/11 attacks.

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The purpose of today's post is to give a quick update on our cruise! We're 22 days away. It's really coming up soon, so there's a lot to prepare in these next few weeks. For you cruisers, we've posted a new discussion topic on our Facebook Oh My Crafts Cruise page that you'll definitely want to read through. It will tell you everything you need to know about immigration, insurance, luggage, food, attire and lots more. So make sure you familiarize yourself with that.

Here's a few other things you'll want to make sure to remember.

• Your boarding pass. They won't let you on the cruise without it. So make sure that puppy is in your hand when you arrive on the 3rd to board.

• Your camera and lots of extra pictures. For one, you'll need pictures for the Making Memories project.

• For sightseeing, you might want to bring binoculars.

• Warm clothes. It could get chilly!

• Swimming suit—there are several pools and hot tubs around the ship, and you may just find yourself wanting to take a dip.

• Extra luggage space—for all those projects you'll be bringing home. Oh, and there may be some super-amazing prizes for people to take home. But we're not saying.

• ENTHUSIASM!! This is going to be FUN!!

And FYI—

• Monday, Sept. 14 we'll be hosting Provo Craft on our Facebook fan page from 10:30 am—11:30 am MST. They'll be talking about what projects they'll be teaching on the cruise. This will also be a great time to ask them any questions you might have about any Provo Craft product.

• Wednesday, Sept. 16 we'll be hosting Trisha Ladouceur and Janine Wahl (our two independent designers for the cruise) from 7—8 pm MST, also on our Facebook fan page. They too will be chattin' it up about all the fun stuff they have planned for the cruise. So ask away, crafters!

It's gonna be GREAT! More to come! Can't wait for anchors aweigh!

Spreading a little holiday cheer

We've got a great tip for your holiday festivities. Did you know that we have Sizzix Textured Impressions holiday folders as an internet exclusive? This means that you can't get these in stores! And the design for each of these four exclusives is cute, cute, cute! We're offering the Santa and Gingerbread House set for $9.49 and the Poinsettia and Snowflake set for $9.49, and the whole bundle for $17.49.

Check 'em out.

What would you make with yours?

Happy crafting!

Here's the link to our debut on Good Things Utah

If you weren't able to watch our Creative Director, Sandy, on Good Things Utah demonstrating Imaginisce's I-top, we've got the link to the segment right here! Check it out! Just look for the video on the right portion of the screen.

Guess who's going to be on Good Things Utah?

We know that a lot of our fans and customers are outside of the state of Utah. So perhaps many of you are thinking "What's 'Good Things Utah'??" It's a segment that they do on one of the news stations here, featuring anything and everything UTAH.

WELL.

Our creative director, Sandy Cottle, is going to steal the show tomorrow! She'll be showcasing everyone's favorite new tool, the Imaginisce I-top, and teaching everyone some of the amazing things you can do with this nifty little device. We'll be sure to provide a link to the video once everything is said and done. But we wanted to give YOU a sneak peak at some of the projects that she's going to show off tomorrow.

She's using the new Polar Expressions kit from Imaginisce, and then, of course, the I-top. If you're here in Utah make sure to tune into ABC 4 News at 10:15 am!!

Take time to watch the leaves turn

Happy September, everyone! Crazy to think that summer has already pretty much come and gone, huh? The first day of Autumn for us Northern Hemispherians comes September 22! That's soon! One great thing about living here in Utah is that Fall time is gorgeous. The leaves turn all sorts of vivid reds, oranges and yellows and there's just something about the air that's crisper. Not only that, but it's a wonderful time to do some home decorating, scrappin', and card makin'!

**We interrupt this normal blog post to bring you exciting news**

Did you know that right now we've got a contest going on for fall-time home decor? Send us a picture of your projects (soon! The contest closes later this afternoon) to lana @ ohmycrafts . com and you could be eligible to win the Leafy Branch Cuttlebug embossing folder and the November 2008 Scrapbook Trends magazine. (Plus, we might just publish your project right here on our blog...)

**Back to the blog post**

We've done some digging and rounded up several Autumn-y projects by several of our fav companies.

First, have we mentioned why we love Sizzix? Well, among about a bazillion reasons, they're always on top of some great seasonal decorations! (Psssst....we've got a Sizzix sale going on NOW). Check out this darling pumpkin:

And how simple would it be to recreate a candle with a fallish look like this? Bless you, Sizzix.

If you haven't gotten much use with Ranger Ink (the wonderful company that makes Stickles!!), we would definitely suggest putting that on your list of things to do! There are so many amazing looks you can achieve. Look at this elegant design:

And QuicKutz always has supreme designs to learn from (and to view nearly a gazillion more project ideas from QuicKutz, click here. You could spend all afternoon browsing through their ideas, and we know you wouldn't regret it!)

As usual, we've got a couple of lovely Cricut designs to throw into the mix. This first decorative plaque uses Doodlecharms.

And this fun-filled scrapbook page was created with Stretch Your Imagination. A Cricut beauty, indeed.

And not to worry—we've got plenty more to show off in these coming weeks. PLUS some super-cute ideas from our very own craft room.

Happy crafting!