Batty about You

If you have ever been a fan of Christmas in July, perhaps you will also like Halloween in April!  Recently a number of online Scrapbook stores have seriously reduced the prices on last year's Halloween lines.Because I acknoweldge I have a papercrafting addicition, I know I need to feed it as cheaply as possible. This means I rarely buy a line when it is newly released, but I do go a bit nutty when it is cleareanced out. I just received all sorts of awesome Halloween products and just couldn't resist sharing a few projects I made from them throughout the rest of the month.

This little bat is from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cartridge - isn't he just the cutest! I love that this cartridge includes a number of shaped cards on it and the bat itself opens while the rosette is the card base.

Recipe:

Cartridges: Provo Craft: Hello Kitty Greetings, George Basic Shapes
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug: Textile Texture
Dies: Spellbinders: Nesting Scallop Circles
Patterned Paper: Echo Park Paper Co.: Happy Halloween
Pearls: Want 2 Scrap (Black)
Ink: VersaMark
Paper Piercer
Embroidery Floss: DMC (Black)
Adhesive: Stampin' UP!: Stampin' Dimensionals, Tombow: MonoAdhesive, Beacon Adhesive's ZipDry


How To's

1. Use the "Bat" cut on page 72 of the Hello Kitty Greetings Cartridge with the "Card" Function selected to cut hinged bat card from black cardstock at 4 1/4 inches.

2. Select the "Clothes/Clothes" function and  the "Bat" cut and cut the black layer pieces out from black cardstock at 4 1/4 inches.

3. Use the Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder to emboss all of the layer pieces cut in step 2.

4. Ink the edges of the wing and feet embossed pieces with VersaMark ink and adhere to bat card base.

5. Adhere a piece of patterned purple paper between the eye holes of the bat head.

6. Layer the bat's head over the belly layer piece and add interest by using dimensional adhesive.


5. Remove the remaining black card base border around the head with scissors as seen in pictures so that the head is the only portion of the bat without a solid black outline of cardstock around it.

6. Use a paper piercer to punch a border of holes around the wings and feet.

7. Embellish bat head with pearls so that the eyes have a small purple outline.

8. Use DMC floss to add thread to button and adhere button nose with glue dot.

9. Cut two scallop circles by using Spellbinders' largest scallop circle nesting die.

10. Score between every scallop.

11. Use scissors to cut from the end to the mid point of one score line. Repeat this for both scallop circles.

12. Accordian fold on the score lines to create two pleated half  circles.

13. Glue half circles together to create a full pleated circle by overlapping one scallop on each side and adhering with glue dots.

14. With orange cardstock cut at a 3 1/2 inch circle with the "circle" cut on page 108 of the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.

15. Adhere orange circle to back of rosette with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry for stability.

16. Adhere embellished black card to rosette with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry.

My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious Blog Hop

Welcome to the third stop on the My Pink Stamper's Pinkalicious Blog Hop.

If you are coming from Court's blog at Court’s Crafts you are in the right place. If you just happened on the hop be sure to start at the beginning at Robyn's My Pink Stamper blog.

This month we got to play with some of Robyn's brand new release sets. If you haven't seen them be sure to check them out here.

Rosettes and county fair ribbons are all the rage at the moment. I discovered this very inexpensive and fun way to make a rosette baby shower invitation and matching thank you card using the Old West Cricut Cartridge and My Pink Stamper's Sweet Baby Stamp Set.

I am giving away two bottles of Viva Decor's Paper Soft Color (Violet and Cream). If you haven't played with this product yet, you will have a blast doing so. One lucky winner will be drawn on February 25th. To enter you just need to leave a comment on this post.

If you are just looking to mosey on to more My Pink Stamper Design Team Inspiration Sonia is up next! If you are interested in project details and how to's they are listed after the blog hop list.

Robyn

Courtney-Court’s Crafts

CarrieAnne

Sonia

Lori

Julie-readysetstamp

Agnes-Flowerdisco

Helen

Angela’s Simple Creations

Tracy-Craft Junkie Too

Pam

Cristi

Shelley

Shauna at Craftee She

Edna

Kassidy

Andrea

Raechel

Bling Queen Wendy

Michelle-Meesh’s Pieces

Karlee

Alex-You Had Me At Craft

Maria

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Recipe:
Stamps: My Pink Stamper: Sweet Baby
Cricut Cartridge: Old West (ribbon), Sweet Treats (circular card base)
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Argyle , Swiss Dots
1/4 inch Circle Punch
Ink: Stampin' UP!: Cool Caribbean
Stickles: Ranger: Star Dust
Stick Pins: Jenni Bowlin Studio: Pewter
Patterned Paper: Making Memories
Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives: Zip Dry
Tulle, Ribbon Scraps

The How Tos:

Rosette Shower Invitation:

CREATING THE PLEATED CIRCLES

1. The base of this card is a circle shaped card with a hinge on the left. It was cut from white card stock at 3 1/4 inches from the Sweet Treats Cartridge. It can be found on page 69 under the "cards" function.

2. The rosette is created from the ribbon top cut on the Old West Cartridge on page 73.

3. Using the icon function and shift key cut out 5 ribbon tops in a variety of patterns. The ribbon tops need to become progressively smaller in order for them to layer. I cut one ribbon top at 10 inches, 8.5 inches, 7 inches, 5.5 inches, and 4 inches.

4. Beginning with the 10 inch ribbon top remove the center circle by snipping at the few places it is attached the "pleated" outline.

5. Choose any scored line and cut the pleated outline. It is no longer a closed circle now, but an open circle.

6. Accordion pleat this open circle piece backwards and forwards at every score or cut mark.

7. Dry emboss the open pleated circle with the Argyle Cuttlebug Folder

8. Use glue dots to reattach the open circle ends so that it is now a pleated circle.

9. Adhere the pleated circle to the circle card base with Beacon Adhesives' Zip Dry Glue.


10. Excluding the dry embossing, repeat steps 4 thru 8 with each progressively smaller ribbon top.


BUILDING THE ROSETTE

1. Freehand cut tulle circles that are slightly larger than each of the 4 smaller rosette layers. I cut 3 tulle circles in each size.

2. Free hand cut circles from tulle that are slightly larger than the ribbon top they will go under.

3. Using Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry adhere tulle than ribbon layer, tulle than ribbon layer. I also randomly added scraps of ribbon. As you are building your layers be sure to nestle them firmly one inside the other and flatten them to retain the circular rosette shape.

4. Stamp "Baby Shower" from the Sweet Baby stamp set on off white cardstock and punch out with 1 1/4 inch circle punch.

5. Outline stamped circle with Stickles and adhere to rosette with Zip Dry Adhesive.

6. Place something marginally heavy on the rosette (I chose a box of checks) and allow to dry for 30 minutes.


Thank You Card

1. Create a rectangular card base from solid cardstock. Mine is 4 x 3 1/4 inches.

2. Adhere a rectangular card to the base.

3. Now its time to use those circles you cut out fro the rosettes. Stack the circles one top of another.

4. Using a crop-o-dile pierce all the layers at once and secure them with a brad.

5. Spray the stacked circles with water and crumple them all in towards the brad. Allow them to dry for 10-15 minutes.

6. Once dry slowly uncrumple circle layers. Rotate the layers to add interest.

7. Adhere two pieces of green ribbon to the card base and the flower on top of the card with large glue dots.

8. Apply Stickles to the edge of every other flower layer.

9. Stamp "Thank You" from the Sweet Baby stamp set on white cardstock and layer on top of hand cut blue and black rectangles.

10. Add pierced corners to card base with paper piercer or needle.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

***UPDATE***

VIDEO TUTORIAL NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLPLwrWNf7k


I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries. When I pass a bakery window display with this dessert in the window I almost always begin to contemplate a life of crime. They wouldn't notice if I nabbed just a few right? Besides 10-20 in a low security prison isn't such a bad exchange for a dozen really good chocolate covered strawberries.

This year I made each of the girls teacher a heart shaped box. Inside is a 1/2 a dozen white and 1/2 dark chocolate covered paper strawberries. I made each strawberry big enough to hold two Hershey kisses. This way they have something pretty and yummy to open on Valentine's day. The box also smells very chocolaty!

TIPS

The box is made by using the heart from the George Cartridge.

While these strawberries are not new in the paper crafting world, I modified mine by doing the "chocolate layers". I cut out the strawberries again from glossy cardstock and then used scalloped scissors to create the chocolate edge. Puffy paint was used for the "drizzled" chocolate on top of the main chocolate layer. I used Beacon Adhesives Zip Dry to attach the chocolate layer to the red cardstock layer.

This post has to be a quick one as I am recovering from a very busy weekend. My eldest daughter was baptized on Saturday and we had lots of family in town. It was a wonderful experience for all of us, but boy do I have laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping galore to do :)

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

My Pink Stamper Blog Hop!

Welcome to the first stop on the My Pink Stamper Blog Hop. I am delighted to introduce myself and to get to know you better.

My name is CarrieAnne, and I am a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. A paper crafting veteran of over 15 years I've stayed up late snipping and gluing in my craft room, edited a magazine, taught tons of classes, and designed CHA booths. An avid scrapbooker and card maker, I also love creating 3D and altered art. From purses to pastries, I love recreating the world around me in paper. My "style" of art is characterized by strong color combinations, crisp clean lines, and lots of paper piecing and piercing. My Cricut helps me meet my eclectic crafting cravings and I am excited to share my projects with you.

For today's blog hop your challenge is to guess what our challenge was as designers. You will get a key word at each stop along the way so be sure to stay with me to the end of this post for your first clue and your next destination.

Birds and bird cages are super trendy right now and I have seen a number of variations on the web. I wanted to make a bird and cage just using my Cricut and I was able to do so with just one cartridge - Cindy Loo!

The Cage:

The base of the cage is made from the cupcake wrapper on page 74. I thought it was perfect because of the bird theme it showcases. In order that the inside and the outside of the cage bottom match, I cut two cupcake liners on "fit to page" on a 12x12 mat. They were then glued to together with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry.

The sides of the cage are four 1/4 x 12" strips of patterned paper. If you want the interior and exterior to match you will need to cut double the number of strips and glue them together as I did above. The four strips are held together by a brad at their midpoint. They are attached to the cupcake liner with small pieces of double sided red sticky tape.

The base of the bird cage is a spool of ribbon which I covered in dry embossed brown cardstock. The spool is necessary to stabilize the cage and makes it more durable. Red line tape was used to attach the spool to the cage and I tossed in some pretty pink buttons for fun.

The Bird

The bird is the sparrow from page 65. Two of them were cut out at 2" from white cardstock. I snipped off her wings and the little tuft at the top of her head. Each bird was then dry embossed with the Victorian Cuttlebug embossing folder. A 12" piece of fishing line was then placed between the two birds and they were glued together.

I added wings made from a heart cut in half, pink glitter and the pearl half back for the eye.

Caging the Bird

The fishing line goes through the hold in the bottom of the spool and is secured to the underside with tape. The other end of the line is threaded around the brad securing the strips of the cage's side. I added the glitter to the cage bottom by dipping a thin liner paint brush in white glue and dabbing the cage bottom in the glitter.

This little cage is fairly easy to assemble and would be cute on a wedding table as a decoration or hung up as Valentine's Day decor

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne
KEY WORD: DO
Next blog on the hop: Court's Crafts

Hats off ...

I went through a bit of a weaving fascination this year. This was a bare hatbox when I found it and I covered the front with quarter inch strips of green cardstock that I wove together. The ends of the strips were adhered to the sides of the purse front and then the entire side was covered with patterned paper. The weaving took HOURS and HOURS, but I love the effect and it's very durable. I handmade the flowers using a scalloped punch and metallic cardstock layered with patterned paper. I simply adhered each scallop layer together with a few glue dots and then began scrunching them all together. I added the gem center for a bit of bling. I also found that adding the gem center first gave you something centered to "scrunch" the layers around. The large solid pink flower was made in the same way, but without the patterned paper layers or bling. This cardstock was 110 lbs (quite heavy) so I wet it first to make it more scrunchable.

The "Paris," Flourishes and Eiffel Tower are Quickutz dies and the black bling swirls are Prima. Because I love poking holes in things I outlined the Eiffel Tower with holes made by my paper piercer for a bit of added interest. Hemp borders both the front and the back of the purse to hide the edges of the patterned paper and give it a more finished look.

As the structure of the purse is an actual hatbox it easily carries a wallet, keys, cellphone and is sturdy if I am cautious of the embellishments. Everything was secured with gobs of Beacon Adhesive so I am confident it is not going anywhere I don't want it to.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Box on top of Box on top of Box

Today and tomorrow I will be sharing with you the last of my trade show projects for this year. This is the first of two stacks of hat boxes that I made. The boxes were your run of the mill paper mache containers from Michaels. Because the larger containers could not be covered in 12x12 sheets I used parent sheet cuts to prevent myself from having to deal with messy seams. Parent sheets are extra large cuts of paper (the size the mills cut before chopping it down to 12x12 for retail) and they are super fun to work with as they expand your options considerably.
The top white box is really a combination of punches that I cut and pieced to make the art deco flourish. I used a scallop punch for the lid border strip and then used the same punch again to get the tiny circles in tan for the flourish embellishment.

The middle mettallic blue box is covered in 3/4 inch ovals I cut with my Cricut and a paper bow I made using two strips of paper.

The bottom pink box is my favorite. I actually used the spiral ornament die from Sizzix to make the rolled flowers. It was a super quick method for making so many and making them somewhat uniform in size. I ran the spirals through the Cuttlebug in a flourish embossing folder and then inked them for a bit of interest. I punched a number of five petal flowers out and cut them apart for the green leaves. The pattern on the pink portion of the box was created by crossing 1/8 pink strips. I used the canvas textured side of the cardstock for the base of the bottom box and the smooth side of the paper for the strips for added contrast. I then glued the pearls on by hand.

On all of the hatboxes I used a combination of red line tape and Beacon Adhesives to get everything to stay together.

Now that the boxes are done their trade show duties I think I will fill them with something yummy and give them to the girls' teachers for holiday gifts with a nice ribbon and bow on top.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Puresonally...

If your holiday season is anything like mine, it passes by in a blur and only weeks after it is over do you realize that it is gone. Between the new baby and spreading holiday cheer, my poor craft room has been missing me. I have a pile of projects from trade shows this year that I have not yet posted so I thought I would use my December posts to do so.

I am not sure if it is considered proper etiquette or not to admit it, but I love this little blue clutch. I made the pattern from scratch, sketching and cutting out different mock ups until I achieved the right size and dimension. After I cut the blue cardstock out, I lined it with Basic Grey patterned paper and then wet the entire template pretty thoroughly with a spray bottle of water. I then clipped the top together with large binder clips and let it dry overnight to achieve the overall shape and rounded bottom a real clutch bag would have.

The chandelier is from the Home Decor Cricut cartridge. The picture does not show it well, but it is cut from a very pretty glossy white 110 pound cardstock. I individually glued the bling bits on with Beacon Adhesive. The silver "frame" of the purse and clasps are from metallic silver cardstock and the purse actually opens and closes by manipulating the jeweled brads.

The sides consist of accordion folded pleats that prevent anything from falling out and I think I could easily fit a few dollars, a lipstick and a mirror it in with no worries. I am hoping for an opportunity to use it in real life, because it is just so darn cute in person.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Backpack, Backpack

Okay, perhaps it was not kind of me to get that heinous refrain from Dora the Explorer roaming around in your head. One of the things I looked forward to the most each new school year was shopping for new school supplies with my parents, especially for that cool new backpack.

I designed this backpack to be life sized (to fit my 5 year old). In order to do so I had to work with a parent sheet of paper. These are jumbo sheets 26x40 inches that can sometimes be found in art stores, but most certainly can be ordered directly from paper mills. These added inches allow you to do so much more with 3dimensional art.

I used a variety of QuicKutz dies to do the flourishes, and the Stampin' UP! Flutterby embosslit for the butterflies. I also embossed the side pockets by hand using a Stampin'UP! textured plate and the border is a Stampin' UP! punch. The tiny dots are the negative circles punched out from the scalloped border. I think I counted over 500 used on this project. They, and the flourishes were glued on with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry and a toothpick. It took hours and hours to get those puppies on there! I wanted it to be extra special for a CHA booth though, and now I can gift it to one of the girls' teachers at the end of the year.

The front flap also opens and closes with the aid of a magnet and the rear back straps are also embellished with butterflies and scallops. I really loved this combination of colors and think I will try to do a layout with yellow, green and white in it soon.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne