Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #157 ~ 3-D Project

Good Monday morning to all my crafty friends! I’m on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog Design Team and today we are starting a new challenge – create a 3-D project with at least one cut image cut with your Cricut! Well, this challenge was right up my alley. I LOVE creating 3-D items! So I decided to use one of the Cricut Craft Room Exclusives that I bought a while ago when it was on sale but until now I have never used it. I created the Branches Lantern from 3-D Lanterns. If you are just coming from FCCB, then this is the lantern that you saw -

But after living with it for a while, I had to add some more stuff to it! It’s not finished until I say it’s finished and it just was not finished! So here is my new and improved 3-D Lantern -

As you can see I added layered flowers to all of the branches, a handle at the top that is secured with a bundle of beautiful rolled flowers and leaves. But let’s start at the beginning. These lanterns are so easy to put together and make great pieces for your home. If you use flameless candles you can even use these as night lights for little children.

You just need to cut out 4 of the same panel for this lantern and the 4 pieces of vellum for the inside. I cut this lantern out at 11.11”. But I added something a little different – I cut out 4 extra panels in Kraft cardstock to make the branches look a little more realistic.

First I carefully cut out all of the branches from 2 of the pink panels.

Then I cut out the branches from the Kraft cardstock but this time I left a small border around the branches.I only had to cut out 2 sets of branches from each panel of the Kraft. I left them in sets of 2 and 3. I attached a very thin (1/8”) piece of Scor-Tape to the pieces that I cut out but not actually on the branches.

I carefully placed the pink panel directly over the Kraft – hiding the sides and only letting the branches show through.

I then punched out tons of little flowers from different punches in different sizes.

I inked all of the flower edges to give them more depth.

After the flowers were all inked, I used my flower shaping tools from McGill to give all of them even more dimension.

I also added some Martha Stewart Branch Punches in green and Kraft.

Here are the flowers that I put on each side of the lantern top. They were cut with a My Favorite Things die, Embossed with my Cuttlebug, inked and rolled. There are some made from cardstock and a couple made from vellum. I added a clear jewel in the center of each flower. Each butterfly was punched out in white cardstock and stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with detailed embossing powder. I added some bling down the middle of the butterflies. The white on white embossing is so gorgeous – I really wish you could see the detail!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I added the tiny layered flowers with clear jewels in the centers to all of the Kraft colored branches.

A handle was added and then I put a votive candle inside and turned off the lights. (I know that a flameless candle is so much better but unfortunately I couldn’t find any and this was just for a quick  photo op. Besides I’m still here, but thanks for your concern!)

Isn’t that beautiful?!?!?!? I am really liking these right now and I plan to make more. They’re so quick and easy, even if you makes alterations like I did. Think of the gifts you could create and match these to the recipients home décor! Please comment and let me know what you think! Will you be making some 3-D Lanterns soon? Also, think out of the box – the image that you cut with your Cricut does not need to end up looking like the picture in the handbook – make some changes – make it your own! There is no right or wrong in Art ~ just beauty!

Please visit the other designers at FCCB and see what designs they have come up with. And don’t forget to leave some “Blog Love” for everyone!

Supplies used:

• Cricut Expression
• Assorted cardstock, Vellum
• Punches – Stampin’ Up, Fiskars, EK Success, Martha Stewart, The Paper Studio,
• Die – My Favorite Things
• Ink – VersaMark, Colorbox Chalk
• Stamps – Background stamp by SU, Damask Chair by Stampendous
• Rhinestones – Colorbok, White Blossom
• Adhesive – Scor-Tape, Glossy Accents

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my project today! Now it’s your turn – go create a 3-D project and link it up at FCCB!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Soar Layout–FCCB Challenge #153–Spring is in the Air!

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a happy St. Patty’s Day! Today on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog our theme was ‘Spring is in the Air’ and the challenge was to create something with a kite or a balloon. So I decided to create a project with a hot air balloon! I liked the idea of soaring and dreaming as high as you can go and made a layout for my new grandson’s photo.

The hot air balloon is from the Everyday Pop-Up Cards cartridge and I cut all the layers out at 6.5”. I think there are 5 layers to this balloon but it was very easy to put together. The clouds are from Art Philosophy and were cut out at 1.5” and 2”. I love the background paper because it reminds me of wind blowing the balloon through the sky.

I ran some of the images through the Cuttlebug to give them some texture. I used the Polka Dots embossing folder for the top layer of the balloon, the Swiss Dots folder for the basket of the balloon, and D’vine Swirls for the clouds. I inked all of the edges and then inked very lightly over the embossing with a sponge to make it stand out a little.

A closer look at the clouds.

As you know, I love dimension so I HAD to use my pop dots to put the balloon layers together and pop up the clouds!

I used the Art Philosophy cart by CTMH to cut out the word “SOAR”. This font doesn’t have a shadow or second layer but I really wanted those little holes in each letter to stand out. So with the Cricut Craft Room, I created a bottom layer for my title. This is just one of the reasons why I love using CCR so much – you can do so many things with your images! First, I placed my title on the virtual mat, sized it, and then tilted it a bit. Then I made a copy of it. On the original title I simply highlighted each letter, one at a time, and hit the “Hide Contour” button that comes up when an image is highlighted. Just move your mouse over your image until the part that you want hidden, or gone, is red in color and click it. Hit “EXIT” and that part of your image has magically disappeared! I hid all of the little circles in each letter so when I cut out my title and layered it together, the circles in the top layer popped a little more with the solid white cardstock underneath.

I don’t know if you can see this next part very well but on each side of the balloon I put a dot of a liquid magic transparent pearl pen from Viva Décor. I’m really trying to use stuff in my stash that I’ve bought, put away, and then quickly forgot about! (Don’t even try to pretend that you don’t what I’m talking about!!! Go take a look in your stash and I’ll bet there’s something in there that you forgot about too! LOL!)

Then I found this poem on the internet about soaring and dreaming and it fit my layout so well that I had to include it. (The author is unknown.)

Well now it’s your turn! Please play along with us at FCCB and create your own project with either a kite or a balloon and link it at FCCB. Don’t forget that your project needs to have a least one Cricut cut. Come visit us and check out the other Design Team members wonderful projects.

Thanks for visiting and playing along with this weeks challenge. These challenges really are a lot of fun and help you get some projects done and also help you to use images and carts that you may not have used yet! I know it’s helped me – this was the first time I’ve used any image from my Everyday Pop-Up Cards cart and I’ve had it for a while now!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,