Spiderweb Tea Lights (with files)

Last week I posted some tealight holders for Halloween.  The bases are actually the lids from some Tropicana Orange Juice bottles - a great way to recycle.  If you missed this post you can find it HERE.

On the original tea lights, I used vellum rolled into a cylinder and embellished with punches and Creative Charms gems.  These are fast and easy to make.  I mentioned that you could design covers to cut on a machine and had several requests for files.  I decided to make a file for the Cricut and one for the Silhouette.

 For the Cricut file, I used a rectangle (from the George cartridge but you can substitute any rectangle) and the spiderweb from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge (this cartridge has lots of great extras on the feature keys).

I have used this spiderweb before for other projects and I set the size at 2 1/2 inches since this size had cut well in the past.  The overlaps for welding are very tiny but they cut neatly.  The base rectangle is 6 inches by 1 1/4 inches.

The overlap needed to make the six inch strip fit the juice lid holder is about 1/4 inch.  I added some strong adhesive along the edge and rolled up the base.

 Here is the spiderweb in the holder without a vellum liner.  I don't really like the look of the plastic flame from the battery operated tea light.  Of course it would be too dangerous to use an open flame candle, so I decided to use some vellum again to mask the plastic flame.

 The vellum softens the effect of the flame and gives more of a glow to the light.  I could have made the black collar a bit shorter but i wanted to be sure that there would be a good amount of overlap for the adhesive.  If you prefer to have the black band hidden,you could start with a shorter rectangle.

For the Silhouette version, I used the spiderweb that is one of the free designs included with the Silhouette Studio software.  I have cut incredibly tiny lines with my Silhouette SD so I tried a smaller size spiderweb for this design (about 1 1/2 inches tall).  This spiderweb is not slanted so I could make more of a grid pattern with the webs.

These very thin webs cut beautifully.  I used ordinary black cardstock that is usually sold quite inexpensively in packs of 25 or 50 at the big box craft stores.  I set the Silhouette at "Medium Cardstock" but I left on the pink cap that is used for heavier cardstock instead of changing the cap to yellow.

Once again, I didn't care for the exposed look of the plastic "flame" so I added a vellum liner.

The vellum gives a more finished look to the candle.  I found it easiest to simply roll the vellum a bit tighter than the spiderweb cut and slip it inside. 

When I added the adhesive to the edge of the vellum rectangle, I left a little bit exposed and then I could push the loose ends of the webs against the adhesive to keep everything in place.

Here are the two lights side by side - the different styles of spiderwebs create a different effect for each light.

The light in the center is the first one that I made with a spiderweb strip from a Martha Stewart border punch.  There are many more variations possible - so have fun experimenting with whatever tools and machines you have!

I have files to share for the two examples in this post.  I made the Cricut file in Design Studio but saved it as a .gypsy file so you can use it with Design Studio or the Gypsy.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email.  If you download the files and use them, I'd love to see your web candles!

Spiderweb Tea Light  (Silhouette)

Spiderweb Tea Light (Gypsy)

It was another lovely day here and we saw lots of colorful foliage on our way to visit family.  When we got home, I made the Swedish Apple Pie (recipe was in the post HERE) and remembered to take a photo of the finished pie - so easy to make and super delicious!


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National Scrapbooking Day

 

The sun was so bright shining in our kitchen window Friday afternoon - I had to grab a quick photo to share.  I will tell you more about what is in the vase another day.  I thought the colors were so pretty in the strong sunlight - almost like stained glass.

Today is National Scrapbooking Day.  There are events planned all over the internet and in local stores.  I have events planned morning , afternoon and evening - and none of them involve scrapbooking.  It is just a very busy weekend with our town's spring recycling day in the morning, an Eagle Scout ceremony this afternoon, and a musical  (The Secret Garden) that we are attending tonight.  I hope that some of you will be able to participate in crafty activities.  Have fun!

I made some more flowers - just trying out different methods of adhering them and varying the number of petals in the circles.

I decided to use a ten petal flower which was the size used for the bouquet I received.  I found one on the Forever Young cartridge (this was only the second time I have used that cartridge!).  I filled up an entire mat in Design Studio to make good use of my paper.  The key pieces are, once again, 5 - 4 inch flowers and one each cut at 3 inches, 2 inches and 1 inch.

The folding and assembly are just the same as I described yesterday.  You will have to fold the center flowers with a crease or at least a bend in one petal.  You can also add some glue dots to hold the folded layers together so the flowers can be "fluffed" a little.  

I used a punched one inch circle instead of the smallest flower layer for the red and white flower above.  The brad is a five petal flower that works perfectly on this shape.

You can find a nearly identical flower on the Serenade cartridge if you don't have Forever Young.  My friend Susan used this flower to make her version of the bouquet.  There are probably more ten petal flowers if you look carefully at your cartridges.

You can also make your own flower with ten petals using the oval on the George cartridge or another cartridge. The degrees of rotation are 72, 144, 216 and 288. To resize the flower, draw an imaginary box around the shapes by dragging your mouse across the mat and then hold down the control key while using the lower right handle to resize.

Once the pieces are cut, these flowers go together very quickly.  It took me far longer to write up the directions than it did to actually put the flower together!  I hope you have been able to make some more flowers and will keep trying lots of variations.

It would normally be the start of a new Discussion Day today, but since so many people have lots of plans for the weekend,  I am going to let the current question run a bit longer and change things out next week.  Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all who are mothers!

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

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Love Card - For Valentine's Day or anytime

I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day.  I meant to post this earlier in the day but I got busy with some projects and didn't sit down to write it up until evening.  I am close to figuring out a way to make a cut that has been very tricky to figure out...more about that later.

 

This is a special Valentine but could be used for other occasions too.  I used mirror cardstock for the heart which is very difficult to photograph effectively.

Here are the pieces of the card.  It is a simple design made more elegant with the glitter and mirror cardstock.  The A2 card base is Papertrey Ink dark chocolate - I like pink and brown together.  The heart paper is from K & Company - Kelly Panacci Valentine - cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches.  The red mirror cardstock is DCWV from the Citrus Cardstock Stack and the white glitter cardstock is also DCWV.

 

I designed the card with Design Studio.  The card base and the pink layer are just guides to help me see how to size the heart and floral decorations.  I do not cut these from the file.  I used the heart from George but altered the shape slightly to fit the floral pieces.

Here is the floral spray I used - they look a bit like lily of the valley.  The size was about 2 1/2 inches - I adjusted it with the "handles" in Design Studio to 2.561 inches.

The "Love" sentiment is from Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art.  I really like the word art on all of the Martha Stewart cartridges - it is great for card makers as well as cake bakers!

At the 1 1/4 inch height the word is far too wide to fit in the heart, so I used the "handles" to adjust the size to 1.959 inches to fit nicely.

 Once I had my elements sized appropriately, I moved them to one mat to set up the cutting.  I label the tabs with the color and size of cardstock needed for each cut.  In this case, I put them on separate mats so I could change the blade and pressure settings since I planned to use vinyl for the heart.  I made one screen shot to post to show the placement.

I originally planned to use some of the red glitter vinyl for the card but I decided it was too flashy and did not have the elegant look I wanted.  I'll be able to use the heart I cut on another project.

When I cut the DCWV glitter cardstock I use blade depth 6, high pressure and multi cut 2 times.  Sometimes one cut will work but I prefer to do the second cut to get clean edges.  Occasionally, I need to do a third cut.  I cut the mirror cardstock with blade 5, high pressure and speed - there is no need to multicut.

I added all of the glitter elements to the red heart.  You need to be careful with your adhesive as it is difficult to remove marks from the mirror cardstock.  If you get extra adhesive showing you can try using a gum eraser to pick it up and polish the cardstock with a photo polishing cloth.

I added foam circles to give a little more dimension to the card.

Just that slight elevation adds a lot to the card and it is still easy to mail.

 I think the slight gap between the heart and the white stem that allows the pink cardstock to show through is interesting.

The mirror finish on the cardstock is so pretty - I tried another photo with different lighting to try to show you the effect.

I broke my usual rule of using only one or two cartridges - sometimes you find just the right thing in a lot of different places.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day - we had a quiet evening at home with a special home cooked dinner.  We'll be eating lots of restaurant meals on the cruise so we weren't very motivated to go out tonight!

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Creating the "over the top" Valentine

Welcome to a snowy Wednesday in my part of the world.  The school cancellations started yesterday afternoon and there is a prediction for over a foot of snow so it seems like a good day to craft!  If you are visiting my blog for the first time, I hope you will find lots of interesting and helpful information.  At the top of the right column you can click to subscribe by email or follow this blog if you want to keep up with my projects and tutorials.  To see the steps for assembling this card, please visit the Everyday Cricut blog at THIS POST.

This fancy Valentine was made using a design on the Reminisce Accents cartridge.

I started with this frame element and realized that it would create an interesting pattern if I added another frame rotated 90 degrees and welded the two together.

I repeated the process of copying, pasting and rotating 90 degrees with the shadow layer and also with the shadow blackout layer.

Here is the location of the shadow blackout on the keypad.  Once you have chosen your size (in this case five inches) you should not change the value on the slider bar to be sure that the layers will fit properly.

 

I added a couple of squares to the mat to represent the card base and first layer.  These will not be cut with the Cricut - they are just in the file to help with the previews to visualize the colors.

When I did the color preview I realized that there needed to be better contrast to make the words "pop!" 

I added an extra ring at the top (this is from the George cartridge) and decided that the colors would work.

Answers to some more questions...

Karen (and others with new computers) - If you have Design Studio installed on an old computer and want to transfer it to a newer computer you should go ahead and download the trial version from the Cricut.com site.  There are step by step directions on how to do this at THIS POST on my blog, along with a video.  Do not install the version on the CD - it is out of date and won't work at all on a Windows 7 computer.  You can try to use the serial number (found on the CD envelope) to activate the software but you will most likely have to call Customer Service for help in transferring the program.    If you get through right away it will only take a few minutes to complete the process.

Here is the contact information - I would call rather than email as it can take a while to get an email response.

Cricut® support hours
	Monday - Friday 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (MST)
	Cricut® support: 801-932-1144
	toll free service phone: 877-7CRICUT
	fax: 801-794-9001
	email: support@Cricut.com

KTbirdiegirl said...Wonderful projects! The recipient will certainly feel special! I had a thought, you could cut the letters L - O - V - E and adhere them to the individual candies and arrange them in the block fashion. I think I've seen postage stamps designed that way. TFS.
Kathryn

That's a great idea - I thought about adding initials to the candy bars for a special person but  I also like the twist on the famous painting and sculpture by Robert Indiana.

The bags I used for the candy holders are small ziplock bags from the craft store.  My bags were sized about 3 x 4 inches.  You can adapt the design of the topper to fit whatever bags you find - that is one of the beauties of working with the Design Studio or the Gypsy.

One more note - The Reminisce Accents cartridge is sold exclusively through independent Creative Memories consultants.  I am a consultant and, if you do not have a local consultant, I would be happy to help you.  Here is a LINK to the page on my personal website where you will find the Cricut cartridges (Reminisce Accents and Cheerful Seasons).  You can order from the website and have your items delivered directly to you anywhere in the US.

Here is a sneak peek at tomorrow's project - it is another sweet one...


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