Giving Back Blog Hop for Erica

Welcome to the Giving Back Blog Hop!  We wanted to give back to the person who has given so much to us!   So, this is in honor of Erica from My Cricut Craft Room. 

You should have come from Samantha's blog. If you are starting at my blog, you will want to start with Kat’s blog so you don’t miss any of the great layouts.   When you get done hopping, you will want to go to Erica’s Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/EricasCraftRoom)    and leave a comment on her page.   We will be randomly selecting someone from those comments to win blog candy.

I have a long list of things to be thankful for this year, but there are many reasons just to be thankful for Erica....I won't type the entire list here but my page showcases just a few of those reasons.  Thank you for everything you do Erica!  It does not go unrecognized or unappreciated!

The next stop on the hop is Pattie's blog.  Here is the entire lineup in case you get lost....thanks for visiting and be sure to pay a visit to Erica's page and show her some love of your own to let her know how much we appreciate her generosity and all she does for us!  Have a great day!

http://katscrapfever.blogspot.com                    kat schriber
http://papercrafteranonymous.com                  heather flaherty
http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com       melissa pinter
http://grammiejudys.blogspot.com                   judith ashmore
www.lezlyes.blogspot.com                               lezlye lauterbach
http://gscraptime.blogspot.com/                      gayle schrader             
http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com               sue-ann lovell

http://kleymanr.blogspot.com/                         rosa kleyman
http://cema1cema.blogspot.com                      christina bartels capps
http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com/              madison
http://micraftygal.blogspot.com                        patricia holloway

http://samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/  samantha sickles
http://manicexpressionsdesigns.blogspot.com/   ricki sholler tidd
http://sweetpsscrapbooks.blogspot.com/           pattie mcginnis
http://craftsbyamanda.blogspot.com                 amanda haynes
http://conniescraftycloset.blogspot.com             connie benford layman
http://craftyandgreen.blogspot.com                   tina ondrus keller
http://allmadebylisa.blogspot.com                     lisa
http://mississippihippycrafts.blogspot.com         enjoli collums
http://kccroppers.blogspot.com                        shelly lynn
http://www.creativecraftcorner.com                  karey
http://www.lauriecandoit.blogspot.com             laurie

A Time For Thanks

Hello ladies and gents...you should have made your way here by way of  Laura's blog and if not then you definitely want to go back to the beginning at http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ so you don't miss anything!  Yep, it's that time of year again when we all turn our thoughts to the holidays.  Naturally most of us think of Christmas shopping and the stress that goes along with it, who we must purchase gifts for, will they love it, did I forget anyone....I absolutely love Christmas but I also tend to skip ahead and stress a little over all the parties and events and sometimes forget to stop and remember all that we have to be grateful for.  I believe that Thanksgiving should be every day of the year and I try to live by that but when we are really stressed and busy I know it is sometimes hard to think about what we do have instead of what we don't have or need to do, etc.  Especially in this world where everything is so materialistic it seems.  So to slow down and remember what is important I decided to create a Give Thanks banner to decorate for Thanksgiving day and leave it up for the entire month until then just as a reminder of all I do have to be thankful for and to take a moment to appreciate it.  I began with basic brown kraft paper for the banner pennants and cut at fit to page from the Teresa Collins Chic and Scary cart.  The paper I used for the font was from the DCWV Citrus Bloom Stack

. The white background of the paper was a bit stark in comparison to the kraft paper so I inked the edges with a Tim Holtz distress ink pad in antique linen.   I also inked the edges of the pennants with Staz On ink in Timber Brown for added dimension.  The font was cut at 4 inches from Lovely Floral.

I then embellished the pennants with some die cuts and Inkadinkadoo stamps using Tim Holtz distress inks in Frayed Burlap, Wild Honey, Dried Marigold, Antique Linen, and a few were done with the Staz On Timber Brown also.  I used Mini Monsters to cut the pumpkin at 3 in and the Pilgrim Bird was of course 3 Birds On Parade and he was cut at 4.25 in.  I have to give a special thanks to Shelly Lynn for the cute little leaves on the center pennant.  We exchanged these in a swap last month and although I have the same little punch I decided to use hers just because I loved the colors she chose and I appreciated the extra little surprise!  ;)

I apologize that my pics are not as good quality as normal, I am having issues with my laptop connection so I did most of this through my hubby's iPhone and my Blackberry so my editing software had to be eliminated.  I hope you like my little project and more importantly I hope that when it gets down to the last shopping trip of the season and people may be getting a little testy in the malls, I hope you are reminded of the little things we have to be so thankful for...like having people we love enough to go through all this for just to see their face light up on Christmas morning.  Happy Holidays everyone, I'm thankful for each and every one of you as well.  You should be moving on to Madison's awesome blog because I know she has something there you'll definitely want to see!  Have a great day! 

Ricki

In Case you get lost along the way here is the line up for today hop

1.My Cricut CraftRoom- http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
2.Sharon- Sharon  http://simplysweetbysharon.blogspot.com/ - 
3.Melissa http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com - - 
4.Holly  http://hollys-hobbie.blogspot.com/ - 
5.Yvette  http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/ - 
6.Samantha http://samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/ - - 
7.Heather F http://www.papercrafteranonymous.com/ - 
8.Suzy's Crafts http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com/ 
9.Tracy http://www.scrappininthewoods.blogspot.com - 
10.Heather S http://operationcricutdesign.blogspot.com/ 
11.Shelly http://kccroppers.blogspot.com - 
12.Laura  http://laurascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/ - - 
13.Ricki http://manicexpressionsdesigns.blogspot.com/ - 
14.Madison http://funkycards.blogspot.com/ --NEXT--
15.Jen BowkerRanney -http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com 
16.Blog candy- http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/