Birthday Shaker Card & Nugget Box

It took me about a year to break my Zing cutter out of its box and give it a try — and now I am kicking myself for waiting so long!  I love it — it is cutting paper that I had trouble cutting with my Expression.  The paper that gave me problems was usually textured.  I had some Bazzill that the Expression would refuse to cut — it looked like it tried to gum its way through.  So far the Zing has cut everything I’ve thrown at it.

What I am really loving is cutting svg files.  svgcuttingfiles.com has some of the cutest designs and I love that jadedblossom.com has coordinating stamps for many of the cut files.  For this project I used two cutting files and two different sets of stamps.

I made this birthday card and matching box that holds little Nugget candy bars for my niece.   I love shaker cards and when I saw the Party Shaker Tag file, I had to buy it.   I made the candle card — there are three other shakers in this set.  I used the Birthday Treat Tags stamps to heat emboss the design in the shaker.  Of course I used my favorite embossing powder, from Lindy’s Stamp Gang.   I think the color I used was Cleopatra’s Copper.

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The patterned paper is from the Secret Garden collection by Graphic 45.  I used a Martha Stewart punch around the page set called Vintage Floral.  I stitched around a couple of the mats, added some lace trim at the bottom, along with a satin bow made using one of my favorite tools, the Zutter Bow-it-All.  The roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the sequins in the shaker from Doodlebug Designs.

I used two Cuttlebug folders, Dotted Swiss and Charles (for the flames).

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For the box, I used the Candle Nugget Box svg.  I wrapped each nugget and then topped it with a circle sentiment from the Birthday Candies stamp set.

Candy1This set was so much fun to make.

Birthday Tag — NSD 2014 Challenges

Since time is running out to enter the challenges on the Cricut Circle Message Board, I made this tag to enter into two different categories.  Actually, I think it qualifies for three.  The first is the XO Three in a Row, the second one is Everything’s Coming Up Rosettes, and the third is All Mixed Up.

For Maria’s XO Three in a Row challenge, you have to pick three items from a Tic Tac Toe board and incorporate them into your project. I chose the bottom row, which is Flower, Ribbon (or Twine), and Stamp.

For Colleen’s Everything’s Coming Up Rosettes, you have to make a project and use a rosette on it.

For Di’s All Mixed Up challenge, you need to use a piece of fabric on your project.

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I covered the tag with sticky back canvas and then inked it using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.  I stamped the images on the canvas using the same ink.

I used this tutorial from Tammy Tutterow for my tag, because I wanted to make the flower out of crinoline and she has step-by-step instructions.  I used a Tim Holtz rosette die to cut the crinoline and then sprayed them with Lindy’s Stamp Gang’s Starburst Sprays to get the beautiful colors.   The leaves are from a Spellbinders die, also cut from crinoline.  I stamped a butterfly on vellum and added it to the flower.

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All that was left was the sentiment and bow, which I made using my Bow-it-All.

  • Ranger Sticky Back Canvas
  • Tim Holtz rosette die
  • Crinoline (from Jo-Ann’s)
  • Distress Ink
  • Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst Spray

Embroidered Christmas Stocking

As I said in a recent post, I joined the Stocking Stuffer Swap on the Cricut Circle Message Board last month.  My secret partner was the hostess of the swap, Sherry, and I wanted to make a special stocking for her.  She likes butterflies, so I went searching for an embroidery file with a Christmas design with butterflies.  My first stop was Embroidery Library, because I knew I would surely find something I liked on this site.  And I was not disappointed.  I chose their Feliz Flutterby Winter Rose pattern for my stocking, which I made using a Simplicity pattern (that I enlarged in both width and length).  The fabric is a brocade from JoAnn and I used three different metallic threads for some of the swirls and snowflakes.

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I love all the baubles hanging from the stocking.  The bow is my first attempt at using my Bow-it-All from Zutter.  I really like how easy it was to make, once I figured out how to tie off the bow correctly.  I made a double bow with three loops, using organza ribbon.

Here’s a close-up of the embroidery.

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