Easter Goodie Bag Toppers

Hello!  Happy Thursday!

     As promised, today I am sharing the Easter goodie bag toppers that I made to go inside the kids' Easter pails.  To refresh your memory, here is another look at the Easter pails for my grand kiddies.  They were featured in yesterday's post.

     Each one has a different critter featured on their Easter pail, so I coordinated the critters on the goodie bag toppers so the kids don't get confused as to whose candy belongs to whom. 

     I purchased these Easter bags at the store some time ago (and I can't for the life of me remember which store...sorry!).  The toppers were easy to make.  I simply cut a strip of paper, punched the edge with my Martha Stewart punch, folded it in half and added a piece of patterned paper to the front.

     Next I cut a small critter to match the Easter pail.  For this one I added tiny eyes, but I mixed it up and did different eyes for each one.  After adhering the critter to the front of the topper, I filled the bag, folded the the bag over twice so it didn't open, and then I added the topper, securing it with my stapler.  Didn't they turn out so cute?

     Here is a sneak peek inside each one of the pails...

     We'll start with Missy's pail...and here is the inside.  If you look closely, you'll see that I included a clear tiny pail (which I found at Michael's) filled with jelly beans.  :o)

          Next is Sissy's pail and here's a look inside!  Those are baby bunnies, in case you're wondering, lol! (It's getting late here and I'm getting slap happy...)  :o}

     Little Sammy's frog pail turned out so cute, especially when you pair it with the darling little baby froggies inside!  I thought they looked even cuter with big eyes to match their daddy frog!  :o)

     And, finally, Baby Sissy's Easter pail with that cute little chick on the front...and who knew there were babies inside...a stuffed duckie AND a paper chickie!!  Baby Sissy's bag isn't filled with candy...no, she's got her tasty teething cookies and toddler yogurt bites in strawberry--her favorite flavor!  

     If you noticed the difference in the toppers at the beginning of the post and the ones inside the pails, the toppers at the beginning of the post were made for Mommy and Daddy's pails.  After all, I couldn't leave them out!!

     Well, this brings me to the end of my post for today.  I hope you enjoyed my Easter goodie bag toppers and hopefully you'll create some for yourself.  They are quick and easy and great for many different occasions.

     Have a wonderful day and I hope to see you again soon!

Merilee

Easter Pails

     Hi Everyone! Today I am featuring Easter pails that I made for my grandchildren. Sadly, my grandchildren live quite a distance from their Nana and Papa, and because of this I have to come up with creative ways to send them gifts for each of the various holidays.

(You can click on any of these photos for a closer look.)

     For Easter, of course my first thought was an Easter basket, but I realized that those baskets would be tossed around during shipping, their contents scattered about the inside of the box. I clearly needed something with a lid and these pails fit the bill perfectly.  

     Each pail began life as an unused paint can. You can find them at your local hardware or paint store. They were easy to repurpose for this project and the perfect containers to hold Easter goodies. 

     I started out by covering each pail in strips of coordinating patterned papers from the All Seasons paper pack by The Paper Studio. To frame them out I used solid cardstock punched with my Martha Stewart punch in hues to match the various color schemes.

     Then came the fun part! I knew right away that I wanted to use my Create A Critter cartridge for these. This cartridge has the cutest animals and there are so many to choose from!  :o)

     Each little critter was cut with my Cricut Expression using all of the various layers and then popped up on pop dots for dimension. I also added wiggly eyes to each one to make them all come alive. I purchase my wiggly eyes at Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  They generally come in large bags containing all different colors, sizes and types.  Below are some close-ups:

     First up is the blue bunny. She is for my oldest granddaughter, Missy, whose favorite color is blue. The wiggle eyes are pink with eyelashes--aren't they so cute?!? I love the little heart-shaped nose on this bunny!  :o)

     Next up is the lavender bunny. She was made for Sissy, whose favorite color is purple, of course! These wiggle eyes are yellow with curly lashes, as well. You can see how dimensional they are when they are popped up from the background. They would have been adorable mounted on Action Wobbles, too!

     Since my grandson, Sammy, loves the color green, this darling little frog was the perfect choice, don't you think? His wiggle eyes are big, but don't have any girlie eyelashes, lol!  ;o)

     Last, but certainly not least, Baby Sissy's Easter pail was crying out for a darling little chick. Didn't she turn out cute?

     Mommy and Daddy's pails were done simply and cleanly.

     The lids needed a bit of embellishment, too, so I measured just inside the rim and, using my Cricut Expression, I cut large circles from each of the patterned papers. I then cut the flowers out using the Flower Shoppe cartridge in coordinating colors.

 

     The flowers were cut in various coordinating solids, but they would have been just as cute in patterned papers.  The edges are all inked and the petals curled.  

     As you can see here, the upper flowers are scored and folded in mountain and valley folds for plenty of dimension.  Each lid is topped off with a flat-backed glass pebble, which is backed with coordinating polka dot patterned paper from The Classic paper collection by The Paper Studio. I used hot glue to secure the flower layers and the glass pebbles.  

     You might be able to see in this photo that the pebbles act as both a flower center and a handle for the lid. 

     The tags were cut from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge and left relatively plain so as not to compete with the fancy design of the pails (not to mention that Nana was quite tired and running out of steam by then, lol!)

     You can't see them in any of these photos, but I included a paint can opener with each Easter pail so the kids could actually get to the goodies inside.  I simply created a paper pocket on the backside of each pail to hold it and I attached ribbon to the top of the opener to pull it out (and help keep it from getting lost).  I apologize for not including photos of this part of the project...I forgot...my bad!

     I hope you have enjoyed this Easter project.  It was fun to "think outside the box" and use something unexpected.  As you all know by now, I love to upcycle and recycle, so this project was right up my alley!  :o)

     In my next post I will show you the contents of these pails and the bag toppers I made to coordinate with each child's critter.  Until then, have a great day and I hope to see you soon!

Merilee

Masculine 60th Birthday Card

Hi Everyone!  Hope your Sunday has been relaxing and enjoyable.

Today I'd like to share a masculine card made for a 60th birthday celebration.  I made this card using my Cricut Expression and the Wild Card cartridge.  This cartridge has so many fun little cards to make!

For this card I used a craft card base.  If you look closely, you will see that this image appears as though it has a torn edge.  I really liked this edge and took it one step further with my inks to create an edge that appeared to be burned.  

I used the card feature on Page 66 to create this masculine card.  The fish were cut and sketched in with my pencils to add detail.  I then used chalks to add shading and highlights.  The cattails were cut from a sheet of cork for added texture.  I held my breath when I put that cork in my machine, but it cut just perfect!  I used twine from which to hang the fish.

The inside of the card features the window "casing", as well as a pocket holding two stamped tags.  The sentiment stamps used for this card are from Hero Arts, CL148.

The pocket was stitched with my sewing machine and I added a small button for a little extra detail.

The tags were cut from my Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge and have blue ribbon threaded through and secured with a staple at the top.  I used the sentiment stamps for the "celebrate" tag, but for the "you're 60" tag, I carefully hand wrote the words and numbers, trying to duplicate the same font.  I think I got pretty close, all in all.

I try to coordinate my business stamp with the card's overall scheme.






It is always fun to create matching envelopes.  As long as I can remember, I have always been a stickler for coordinating envelopes, lol!  Long before I had my Cricut, my husband used to lose patience with me in the store when I took extra time to find the perfect envelope to match my card--a plain white one would never do, lol!  

     

Didn't this envelope turn out cute with the twine stitched across the back flap?  :o)  The front of the card was finished similar to the tags inside, since I knew it wouldn't be mailed.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my card for today!  I'll be back soon with another creation!

Merilee

Birdcage All Occasion Card

Hello everyone!  Hope your Saturday has been wonderful.

Today's post is another Cricut Expression project.  This time I used Bloom, which is a Cricut Lite cartridge.  It has a lot of cute images, but I happen to love birds and birdcages, so this is the one I chose.

The colors I chose for this card are a bit different--even a little bohemian.  I pulled all of them from the patterned background paper from the Poteeka Souffle paper pad by The Paper Studio.

I began with my base card in an olive tone cardstock--again, something I would never ordinarily choose, but I decided to just go with it and see where it took me.  I then created a border with my paper punch for the bottom in a lighter, brighter green of the same color family, and layered it on top of a scrap of hot pink.  The darling patterned paper is set above, and the whole thing is matted on a metallic charcoal gray cardstock--yet another choice that is way out of my comfort zone, lol!

To make the transition between different papers, I added a wide, hot pink ribbon base, and then two shades of orange ribbon on top of that.


The birdcage itself is cut in two layers.  The shadow layer was cut from a sparkly, gun metal cardstock (from Walmart), and the upper layer from a solid pink.

 

As you can see from this photo, I embossed the entire pink layer with my embossing powder and heat gun in order to create a sharp contrast from the sparkly shadow beneath.  I then mounted the entire cage on foam tape to lift it from the page.

The bow was tied with two ribbons--a pale peach and a bright orange.  I then accented the cage in various places with flat-backed pearls which began as white, but were easily colored in with markers to match my color scheme perfectly.

The birdcage image appears in the booklet with flowers in the lower left-hand corner, but I decided to forgo cutting the flower layer and, instead, add brightly colored daisies.  The leaves behind are velvety to add yet another texture.





The inside of the card showcases darling little birds.  This is one of the coordinating patterns in the Poteeka Souffle paper pack.  I just couldn't resist using this paper--these little birds are so cute!

The bird in flight was fussy-cut from the pattern and popped up on foam tape.  The added bling helps set her in motion!  :o)

Had I been pressed for time, I could easily have cut a darling little bird with my Cricut machine.  There are numerous cartridges with plenty of birds to choose from.



To the side of the little bird, I placed some dimensional stickers I found in the dollar bin at Michaels, with the middle sticker atop a little pink daisy.  I just love friendly little daisies!


If you look closely, you will see that there was no bright orange in the patterned paper, so I simply outlined some of the birds with my orange marker to blend it all in with my color scheme.  I do that quite often when I want to add a little bit extra here and there.

On the back of my card, I always stamp my business stamp on coordinating cardstock to match the overall theme.

This was a super fun card to create and I really enjoyed making it.  My Cricut machine makes it so easy to cut pretty shapes to create a card just perfect for any occasion!

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you join me again soon on another project!

Merilee

Mixed Media Art on Canvas

Hi Everyone!  Hope your Sunday is bright and cheery.  It is rainy and dreary here in Atlanta, but the temperatures are wonderful--it's 63 degrees and I'm loving that, lol!  Here's something to brighten up your day if you are having the same weather as us.

Today's project carries on the new baby theme.  After making the photo frames for the big brother and big sisters of my newest granddaughter, Baby Sissy needed something special for her room, too!  So I created this mixed media art on canvas, which was made using my Cricut Expression and Straight From the Nest cartridge.  There are several other cartridges that have various types of birds and bird cages, but the bird on this particular cartridge very closely matched the birds found in Baby Sissy's bedding, so that's why it was chosen over the others.

I began this project by painting the sides of a 12x12 canvas brown and adding brown and pink polka dot ribbon over top.  I then covered the canvas with decoupage and added my background paper.  After that dried, I covered the top of the paper with two more coats of decoupage:  the first coat painted on with a brush in a vertical direction, and the second in a horizontal direction, to create the linen effect you see below.  Before it dried, I added the little birds in each corner which were cut with my Martha Stewart corner punch...they were just too cute and I couldn't pass up the chance to use them in this application, lol!  :o}

My daughter did Baby Sissy's nursery in brown and pink with a bird theme, so I cut this little bird twice--once on brown cardstock and then again on white, glittered cardstock, and then inked the edges in brown.  The wing was fussy cut from brown and white patterned paper that I dug out of my scrap bin.  I don't know about you, but I've got so many scraps and I'm always looking for a way to use them!  The eye is simply a dot from my hole punch dotted with my white opaque pen and covered with a drop of Glossy Accents.  I could have used a button or a brad or even some bling to create the eye, as well.  I cut the perch away from the birdcage and embossed it with my Big Kick and herringbone embossing folder to draw the eye inward.

The cage itself was cut twice, once from brown cardstock and once again from this pink hologram cardstock.  I found this hologram cardstock at Walmart and I chose it to give an overall metallic feel to the birdcage.  I'm happy to report that this paper cuts like butter on my Cricut machine!

Since there was no shadow feature for this cage, when I mounted the layers, I slightly offset the upper layer to the right to cast a bit of a shadow of my own.  I originally tried cutting the brown layer slightly larger, which has worked for me in the past with other images; however, this particular birdcage is quite intricate, so the proportions simply didn't match up enough to make sense to the eye.

Now, any of you who know me know that I can't resist making my projects dimensional--especially when they are for children.  For this project, I actually cut the cage apart in three sections as you can see above.  I popped up each part of the cage, including the shadow beneath, and then popped up the mid-section above that.  It wasn't easy, though...all of those rungs on the cage needed very thin cuts of foam tape, so I had quite a bit of hand cutting to do.  However, it was well worth the extra time and effort.  I think it made quite a difference in the overall depth of the project.

I used flat-back pearls placed in various areas to add a bit of bling that accents the cage.  I also used my Crop-A-Dile III-Main Squeeze, with the tag die cutting plate, to cut this tiny tag from brown cardstock.  I added the baby's monogram (her name is Carys) with a sticker, and highlighted the letter, as well as dotted around the edges, with my opaque pen.  Then I covered the entire surface with Glossy Accents.  After allowing it to dry, I added a bit of pink ribbon.

The project would have been bare without adding lots of pretty flowers.  There are silk flowers, ribbon flowers, paper flowers, glittered leaves, as well as shiny, metallic leaves, and lots of brown and white polka dot ribbon.  I always use my glue gun for this type of thing.  To accent them a bit, I pulled off the wire stems of some of the flowers and curled them up real tight to make the spirals you see here and there.

This project was time consuming, but I loved every minute of it and it looks darling on Baby Sissy's bedroom wall!

I hope you enjoyed this project and I'll be back again soon with something new.  Have a great weekend!

Merilee