Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop!!!

Hey everyone!  The Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop has officially started!!!  

There are some inspiring projects and amazing prizes along the way, so lets get started...

First off, the prizes: 

GRAND PRIZES (x2)

  

Two lucky hoppers will receive this incredible prize bundle exclusively from Elmer's + X-ACTO! Take a look!

Products included in EACH of the (2) GRAND PRIZE bundles include:
3  X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives
3  CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks
3  CraftBond Tape Runners
3 Mini Bi-fold 9x12 Foam Board packs
1 Painters Markers pack
1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack  
1 Circle Cutter
1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat
1 Glue Dots pack
2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)
1 Gel Pens pack
1 Tacky Glue bottle
.................................
$140/retail

 

AND
Here's a look at what Amy will be giving away in addition to the Elmer's packages!

Prize Pack #1

1- XACTO Cutting Mat
1- XACTO Gripster
1- XACTO Circle Cutter
1- Elmer's Foam Board Pack
2- Elmer's Photo Corners
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
4 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

Prize Pack# 2

1- XACTO RotaryTrimmer-
1- XACTO Scissors
2- XACTO Decorative Scissors
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
1- Elmer's Craft Bond
5 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

(See the blog hop rules at the end of this post for your chance to win.)

Now, onto my projects...

I got some really fun and amazing products to work with for this blog hop.  And here is what I created with these products.

First, a layout: 

I decided to do a layout about my dog, Phoenix.  We were sitting outside one day, and my husband decided to share his lollipop with her.  At first she wasn't sure about it, but as soon as she figured out it was food, she dove right in.  It reminded me of the old Tootsie Pop commercial with the owl.  You know the one... "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?  1..2..3"  She grabbed that lollipop up so quick, David didn't realize she had grabbed it until it was in her mouth.  Stick and all!  Luckily, she is very sweet and gentle, and she didn't put up a fight when he had to get it out. 

So, for the title, I didn't have enough of the white chipboard letter Ls for my title, so I used my X-ACTO knife to trim a letter K into an L.  The X-ACTO blade is so sharp and it made such a smooth cut, you probably can't tell which is the altered letter. 

For the photos, I used the Elmer's Tape Runner to put them down on the page.  The tape runner dispensed the adhesive very evenly and was very strong.  I love using tape runners, and I will definitely use this one again in the future.

I used the Elmer Glue Spotsots to hold my embellishments in place.  It is so much easier to stitch the buttons down when they are attached to the page.

For the circles, I glued those down with Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Glue.  I used a minimal amount, and it held my paper well without any warping.  I also popped up the date label with a few Glue Spots, layered, and I wrote the the date with the pink Gel Pen.  It wrote so smoothly. 

Next is a Father's Day card I made.  That is coming up soon.  Can't forget about Dad, now can we?!

When I craft, I don't always have a clear vision of what I am going to do.  Most times, really.  So I pull out supplies, move things around, and move them around some more.  When I do that with stickers/self adhesive products, sometimes they start to lose their stickiness.  That is what happened with those chipboard letters.  So, I used the Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Glue, and it worked like a charm!

I used the X-ACTO knife to cut out the little black stars from my patterned paper.  Very quick and easy!

I also use the X-ACTO scalloped decorative scissors to trim the edge of the striped paper strip.  I used the negative side and got a reversed scallop along the edge.

For my last project, I made a little banner for my daughter's bedroom door.  She wanted a doggie theme, so that is what she got.  ;) 

I wanted the banner to have some dimension, so I used the Elmer's Foam Board for the backing.  I ran the foam board through my paper cutter at the dimensions I wanted cut, which made a nice, defined line.  Of course that blade wasn't deep enough, so I then finished cutting the board all the way through with the X-ACTO knife.  I used the Elmer's Tape Runner to adhere the larger patterned paper panels to the foam board and the Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Clue for the hand cut paper pieces.  I did all the small, detail cutting with the X-ACTO knife. 

The wonderful thing about the foam board, is that it is SO lightweight, that I was able to adhere the banner to my daughter's door with just a couple of Elmer's Glue Spots on each panel.  And my daughter loves it!

Now that we have the projects out of the way, onto the rules:

1.  You MUST leave a comment on everyone’s blog to be eligible for prizes from Elmer’s + X-ACTO.  There are 10 of us participating in the blog hop, so you will have to leave a comment on each our blogs.  You can see the full list of participants at our host Amy Heller's blog, so you don't miss anyone. 

2.  You will have an additional chance to win (basically your name will be put in the “hat” twice) if you also:

• Write on Elmer’s and/or X-Acto’s Facebook pages that you were sent by the blog hop and share your thoughts about the blog hop.
• If you are Twitter users, you can do the same thing by using the hash tags #CraftandTell as well as #CraftandTellBlogHop and naming @Elmers in your tweet.

Here are the links: 

Facebook

Elmer's : http://www.facebook.com/Elmers

X-Acto : http://www.facebook.com/XACTO

Twitter

Elmer's : http://twitter.com/#!/elmers

3.  The blog hop will officially end on Sunday, June 12 at 11:30pm, PDT.  Winners will be chosen randomly on Monday and posted soon after.    

That wasn't too bad now, was it?  

So I hope you have enjoyed your stop here on the Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop.  Now onto the next stop:  the wonderfully, talented Jenni Hufford!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!