Pumpkin Face Tealight Holder

Happy Wednesday!  Today I want to share another way you can use the glass holder with the pumpkin faces that I shared on Monday (click HERE to see if you missed that post).   If you finish all of the candy corn in the pumpkin face dish, you can turn it into a tealight holder (or if you have sworn off candy - start with the tealight holder!).

I used some orange glassine paper to line the dish.  I bought some rolls of glassine in different colors years ago when we lived in Germany.  It may be a little hard to find colored glassine but you can try a large art supply store.  I checked online and found a baking company called Fancy Flours that offers various colors of glassine sheets HERE.  You could also use vellum (once again, a little harder to find in colors).

I cut a strip of glassine about 2 inches by 12 inches (just measure the height and the circumference of your container and make it a bit longer).  I use a tape runner to add some small strips of tape to the inside of the glass, making sure that it would be hidden by the black vinyl.

After I had added the tiny strips of tape, I started on one side and simply stuck the glassine to the tape tabs.  I found that the glassine could be repositioned easily since it has a very smooth finish.

I worked my way around the container and then trimmed the overlap.  It doesn't matter if the paper crinkles a bit due to the slope of the sides - it will look fine from the outside.

This photo show the tabs of tape a little better.  I used a Creative Memories tape runner that is made of small segments so it was easy to place very small bits in strategic places.

I like the soft effect the glassine produces.

Of course, you must not use a real candle if you put the glassine liner inside the container.  These battery operated tea lights are perfectly safe and long lasting.  I usually can find big sets of these around this time of year at Costco for a very reasonable price (they often include extra batteries for the candles too).

It would be fun to make a group of these and display them with a different face showing on each one.  I like to line up candles on my kitchen windowsill.  They would also be cute as party favors.

another reminder about Blitsy...

Blitsy will be adding new items to their sales later this morning.  If you haven't shopped at Blitsy before, please use my referral LINK to join this free membership site.  They have all sorts of interesting craft items at good prices with new sales starting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and continuing for a week or until sold out (popular items can sell out very quickly).   Once you are a member, you can get your own referral link and earn credits for future purchases.

I appreciate it when you use my LINK and help me feed my craft shopping habits.  This week, you can earn $1 for each person who signs up using your link (up to 25).  If you haven't joined yet, please use my link and then start referring your friends and family.

In other news...
We had an earthquake right after dinner last night - the first one that I can ever remember feeling!  It was very unsettling even though it lasted only a short while.  It seemed like our house was surrounded by heavy equipment and low flying planes.  Nothing fell or was broken but the dishes rattled in the cupboards.  I know some of you live in places where this is fairly common but it was a first for me here in Massachusetts!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.


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Cute Candy Corn Container

This is a quick and easy project.  I found these chunky glass containers at the dollar store sometime last year.  They have been sitting on a table just waiting for me to do something with them.  I originally planned to etch them (and I may still do that with the others).

I measured the flat sides of the container, up to the point where the corners start to curve.  I calculated that a 2 1/2 inch square would be about the right size.

Then I simply chose four fairly friendly pumpkin faces from the Pumpkin Carving Cricut cartridge.  This was one of the limited edition seasonal cartridges from a couple of years ago.  The cartridge is still available at Cricut.com for $14.99 and the digital version is $24.99 (click HERE to see the page on their site).  You can also purchase individual images for $0.99 - there are 50 images on the cartridge.

If you like a lot of the images on the cartridge, it seems the best deal is to buy the physical cartridge and get all 50 images.  At $0.99 each you would only get 15 for the same amount of money (or a few more depending on shipping to your location).  You can see all of the images HERE.

If you use a different machine, this type of design would be easy to create from basic shapes.  I cut the four square images from black vinyl, using speed 3 - pressure 3 - blade depth 4, to do a "kiss cut" (cutting the vinyl but not the backing paper).  Since the images are small and I was applying them to a flat surface I didn't bother with transfer tape - I just peeled them up from the backing and applied them directly to the glass sides.

Of course, I did think of a few variations for this project and I'll share them later this week.

Blitsy will be adding new items to their sales later this morning.  If you haven't shopped at Blitsy before, please use my referral LINK to join this free membership site.  They have all sorts of interesting craft items at good prices with new sales starting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and continuing for a week or until sold out (popular items can sell out very quickly).  Once you are a member, you can get your own referral link and earn credits for future purchases.

Blitsy has featured products from Tim Holtz (Ranger, Sizzix, Idea-ology, Tonic, Core'dinations and Stampers Anonymous), Spellbinders, Scor-Pal, Vintaj, Zutter, lots of paper companies, La Blanche stamps - you never know what you'll see each week but there is always something fun to try!  I appreciate it when you use my LINK and help me feed my craft shopping habits.  This week, you can earn $1 for each person who signs up using your link (up to 25).  If you haven't joined yet, please use my link and then start referring your friends and family.

Have a wonderful Monday!

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Halloween Cardmaking

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful autumn day and I did find a few treasures at the REUSIT Day here in town.  ("Rescue the Environment and Us from being Smothered In Trash" is the translation of the acronym, in case you were wondering...)  We took more to the Drop Off/Swap Off than we brought home - so that made everyone happy.  I'll be posting some of my crafty recycling projects made with the items I found over the next few weeks.

I have been working on some designs with spiderwebs that are very intricate.  I haven't had a chance to test cut them yet, so I thought I'd post a couple of cards from last Halloween that use some spiderweb tricks. 

I always like to figure out ways to make the best use of my paper and it is fun to cut a design and then use the "leftovers" to create a second card. 

You can read about making the Beware card by clicking HERE to go to the post.

Information about making similar designs can be found  at THIS POST (part one) with a more detailed explanation at THIS POST (part two).  The trick for making all of these cards is the use of the "Hide Selected Contour" option in Design Studio or on the Gypsy.

Once you start to realize the possibilities that are opened up by hiding lines of a cartridge image you might understand why I have become so interested in using some of the other machines and programs that allow you to create your designs by drawing and editing the individual lines of a design.  The screen shot above shows a simple card topper that I made in the Silhouette Studio program.

Here is another more complicated design.  This was easy to make with the extra tools in the Silhouette program.  I would not be able to do this with Design Studio, the Gypsy or the Craftroom. 

Remember, you have a chance to win this bundle of Vintage Jewels from Creative Charms by linking up a project you have made with any Creative Charms embellishments - all of the information is at THIS POST and there is also a second prize of a mystery bundle of Creative Charms goodies from my stash up for grabs.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

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Haunted House Card

I have had a few more questions about the cards I make by using "hide selected contour" to cut the design right into the card front.  I know I said I would do another video but I've had a few issues that have kept me from getting to do all the things I'd like to - in the meanwhile I thought I'd do a quick explanation again for those who asked about this.

This is another card I designed by altering an image to fit a standard card shape and using hide selected contour to "embed" the image in the front of the card.  The post with a longer explanation can be found HERE.

As I explained in the earlier post, you do have to be careful to watch the exact sizes of the shapes you use to make the card.  The "handles" around the shape I used for the base were not even with the cutting lines and this card turned out 1/2 inch too short (I had neglected to check the shape against the grid).  It was close enough to the standard A2 size that I could just trim off 1/4 inch for a 4 x 5.5 inch folded card.

This screen shot shows the original image on the left and an adapted image on the right.  I used the "handles" to stretch the width and height to fit an A2 card comfortably.  If I cut the image as shown I would have a card topper piece that I could adhere to any A2 card base.

By hiding the outer cutting line, I can create a card where the design is actually cut into the card front.

An easy way to align the shapes for a project like this is to use the outer edges of the bubbles or "handles" to make sure that the borders are consistent.  Here I just pulled the shape wider (with the center right handle) and longer (with the bottom center handle) until the edges of the bubbles were next to the rectangle that represents the card front.

I adhered the cut card to the bright yellow orange card base.  The design is cut in a piece of Core'dinations Onyx Gemstone cardstock.  I have to say - this is not my favorite card, but since I had taken it this far, I decided to "dress it up" a bit.

I added some clear gems at the four corners and then filled in all of the window openings with purple gems in two shades and sizes. 

The gems represent people (or ghosts!) inside the haunted mansion.  At first I left the top layer loose but, in the end, I decided to adhere the cut image to the liner along the bottom edge.

I added gunmetal Stickles along the roof lines of the house and used Icicle Stickles to make the clouds sparkle.  It actually does look cuter in person when you can see the glitter and shine of the gems.I think it would benefit from some embossing in the yellow liner - maybe I'll do another version...

I hope you had a chance to see the Harvest Moon last night.  It was a special night because there was a Harvest Moon on the same day as the Fall Equinox.  This won't happen again until 2029.  We have one tree behind our house that has already turned a brilliant red - the others will start showing more color soon.

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Pumpkin Carving Cards (part two)

I have some more details to share about making cards with images cut into the card front.  I use this method quite often and there are a few things to be aware of when you design a card of this type.  (Remember, you can click on any of the photos or screen shots to see a larger image).

I always try to use as few cartridges as possible when I create a card - I generally work in Design Studio and I don't have a Jukebox so I challenge myself to keep the cartridge count low.  If at all possible I find an image that can be adapted to work for my project on the same cartridge that has the image I will be featuring.

In order to create an A2 card, I needed a rectangle.  If you look at the images on the Pumpkin Carving cartridge, you will see that there are no rectangles.  This is not a problem - you can use "hide selected contour" to eliminate the interior design and stretch a square to create a plain rectangle.  I chose one of the pumpkin faces because there would only be a few lines to hide.  I needed an image with more than one line to hide so that the lines would stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened in Design Studio.  (This is not a problem on the Gypsy - when only one line is hidden it will stay hidden on the Gypsy).

I set the slider bar at 5 1/2 inches - this determines the height of the image.  If you look in the Shape Properties Box you can see that the width does not match the height in this particular example but the shape on the mat appears to be square.

Using the handle on the right center you can pull the side of the image to the right to create a rectangle.  You can also enter values in the Shape Properties box to alter an image in Design Studio.  There is a bit of a complication in this case because the handles are not true to the edges of the shape on the right side (this is true with many images so you always need to check the actual dimensions).  On the Gypsy, you can choose the "actual" size icon to get a true sized image when the values are entered in the width and height boxes.

The values that you enter in the Shape Properties box do not always match the boundaries of the shapes.  A rectangle in George will have the "handles" exactly on the lines of the image.  The image I chose for the card is about 1/4 inch "off" from the true measurement.  You can see this in the area with the red box which highlights the difference.

I adjusted the size of the second image to match the dimension of the George rectangle.  The actual width ended up at 8.75 inches.

Once the rectangle is created, you need to hide the lines inside to make a plain card base for an A2 card.  Select each of the interior lines by left clicking on the line - it will turn pink.  Then right click and choose "hide selected contour" from the bottom of the drop down menu.  The screen shot above shows that you now have a plain rectangle to work with.  (Of course, you could always just use the George rectangle or another plain rectangle from another cartridge if you want to).

Next I chose the images to cut into the front of the card.  The pumpkin face is sized at 2 inches and the "Happy Haunting" is set at 4 1/4 inches which makes it easy to center on the card front.

The outer line of each design needs to be hidden to create the cut out effect.  On the Gypsy, hiding just one line is fine - it will stay hidden when the file is closed and re-opened.  For Design Studio, an extra step is needed so you don't have to rehide the lines each time you use the file.

Add another image that is exactly the same size and at the same position on the "Y" axis.  Then hide the outer line and one interior line on the original image and hide everything except the line that you hid on the first image on the duplicate image.  If you have copied and pasted the second image, you will need to slide it to one side before clicking off the image and then close and reopen the file to make the "hide selected contour" option functional on the copied image.

In this screen shot you can see the two images with different parts hidden.  The end result is that the interior lines will cut once and the outer line will not cut at all.  You need to move the second image into exactly the same position as the original image by changing the "x" value to match.  Type the value into the Shape Properties Box and hit enter.  Once you do this and click somewhere else on the mat the two images can not be separated so be sure that you have the proper parts hidden or you will have to start over  (this is a change from the last version of the software).

Here is the card with the images aligned.  to be sure that the items you want to cut will be cut, do a preview on a blank page.  To make the preview work more clearly, check weld on the card base so it will just show the bold cutting line with no color.

Here is the preview of the final card.  The extra steps we took will make the file ready to cut as soon as it is opened and you won't have to remember to re-hide any lines.  If you would like another very simple step by step explanation of how to do this, here is a LINK to the blog post I made when I first figured out the workaround back in February of 2009.

After all the trouble you went to to create the file with the shapes cut out it would be a shame to put a liner in the card that stays attached to the front - you would hardly be able to tell the difference from simply cutting the shapes and adhering them to the card front.  So here is a way to add the liner but keep it separate from the open shapes.  Cut a piece of cardstock just a tiny bit smaller than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches.  I think this piece is 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches.

Score the cardstock at 1/4 inch and fold along the line.  It is best to score this line first in order to get a straight fold on such a small width.

Add a strong adhesive to the narrow section.  I use Scor-Tape in the 1/8 inch width.  This tape is very strong and also easy to work with.

Adhere the thin section of the liner to the front of the card.  Be careful to keep it aligned so there is nothing that extends beyond the edge of the card.

The liner will now block the center of the card so you can write on the inside.  When the card is viewed from the front the effect of the cut outs is preserved.

You can add as much or as little decoration to the card front as you like.  I will probably add some pen stitching and possibly a few brads to finish off this card.  A stamped sentiment or handwritten note can be added inside.

I encourage you to try making your own file following these directions.  If you are having trouble let me know and I will "clean up" and post my file to share.  These cards are a lot of fun to make and have many interesting variations - have fun creating!


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