Halloween Challenge!

erin lee creative has been sponsoring a Halloween Challenge for ohmycrafts this week...  Just 50 minutes before the contest ended, I was frantically cropping, editing, and uploading my photos from the projects I was working on today!!  I am sooooo glad I made it in time!!  :)  I spent a glorious day with my BFF, Christi, creating this fun little jar just for the occasion...  

I started with a clean, dry jar...  (yes, it's a spaghetti sauce jar... Ragu... The Girl-Child and I used it for our homemade vegetable soup since I forgot to buy tomatoes...  The soup turned out perfectly...  And since I recently vowed to find a way to use every jar and can we would otherwise throw in the dumpster, it has found a happy home filled with deliciously sweet candy corn...  But I digress...).       

Oh...  Does anyone want to guess how many candy corn pieces are in that jar now??? 

I added a 3.5" strip of black around the center of the jar and topped that with a 3.25" strip of (what else!?!) candy corn paper (from Creative Memories Primary Halloween Additions Kit).  The letters were cut from orange and green paper using the basic font on the 'Cheerful Seasons' Cricut Cartridge (shadowed in black).  With the letters squeezed onto a yellow rectangle (2"x3.25"), I triple mounted the yellow onto orange, green, and black.  The lid was covered with black vinyl so that I could add the ruffled paper 'ribbon' (made from 2 9" strips of 3/4" paper crinkled and folded).  To keep the ruffle in place, I adhered the yellow strip on top.  The final touch is a set of hand-cut candy corn attached with some black twine.

As it turned out, the project didn't start out so smoothly...  When I cut the letters out the first time, I cut them WAY too big!!  But ya know...  I couldn't just let those letters go to waste (especially since my project was inspired by my desire to 'recycle' the spaghetti sauce jar used for the candy corn!!)...  So I used the letters to create this 12x12 layout.


The photo mat on the left is sized for a 4"x6" photo that will easily slide under the paper 'ribbon'.  The photo mat on the right will accommodate a 3.5"x3.5" photo or can be used for journaling.




Of course, what treat could be sweeter than my adorable nephew dressed up this Halloween?  (hint, hint...  hey, sis-in-law...  you know who I mean!!!)

Overall, this project (turned into TWO projects) was LOTS of FUN to create!!  Thanks erin lee creative for encouraging me today!!  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out what I've been working on...  I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment.  And remember to stop by again...

Back To School Challenge!

Cricut Cardz Challenge offers a new challenge every week for those that love to make cards with their Cricut, and I thought... 'Hey! I love to make cards with my Cricut!!'  So I'm joining the challenge!!  :)

This week the challenge is to make a 'Back to School' card...  So here it is:

This delicious-looking apple can be found on the 'Cheerful Seasons' Cricut Cartridge.  I cut the main shape twice in red at 5.75".  One of these is used on the front of the card, but the second one was a bit tricky...  I could have done it much more easily with my Design Studio software, but my brain just wasn't thinking that way today :)  This is especially amusing when I think about what my brain actually DID think of to get this to work...  Of course, I am sometimes known for doing things the hard way!  After cutting one of the red apples, I reloaded my mat (without unloading) so that the blade was back at the beginning corner of the mat.  I then selected the Layer feature and cut the inside of the apple out of the original apple.  This also removed the leaves and stem at the top (it just cut 'em off!), so I was pleased with the result.  I kept the seeds and core so that I could add it to the center of my leftover apple 'frame'.  

I then cut the 'shift' shape three times (this is actually a shadow, but it's found on the shift of the main shape)... Twice in yellow cardstock and once on yellow vellum (for the inside sentiment).  

And, finally, I cut the green leaves  (okay, that's pretty self-explanatory)...

To assemble the card...  I first scored the second apple (the one with the core) and the vellum apple at the base of the leaves and stem...  this became the fold line when all the pieces were attached.  I then stacked all three apples and adhered the layers of leaves.  

By scoring the back layers, the front of the card does not have a crease or score line.  I hand wrote 'Welcome to 3rd grade!' on the vellum layer, but any other sentiment would work just as well...  'You're the apple of my eye!  Enjoy your first day of school!  Love, Mom :)'  Just imagine The Girl-Child finding that little piece of fruit in with her ham'n'cheese next Tuesday!!  :)  :)  :)

I really love these 'free-form' cards I can make with the Cricut...  I look forward to making a few more of these in the very near future!!  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts about my projects, so please leave a message...  And come on back for more, friend...