M&M Holiday Cards

I decided to make a card and mini-present in one for my colleagues this holiday season. These adorable M&M cards are made with Oreo cookie molds by Wilton, used to make candy-covered Oreos.

To make these cards you will need the following supplies:

-Wilton Oreo cups

-Cardstock cut down to 8.5" x 5.5" (when folded will make a standard A2 card, I used Michaels' brand)

-Scraps of cardstock to layer behind ribbon and behind cup

-Various coordinating ribbons (I used 5/8" ribbon from Michaels from probably 2 years ago)

-Adhesive (I used my Pink ATG gun and Zip Dry glue)

-Something to cut a 2" circle in your cardstock with (I used Creative Memories shape cutter system with the medium circle cutter and green blade, but you could also use a punch or your Cricut)

-M&Ms (I used Mint Chocolate ones, as they came with red, white and green M&Ms)

The steps are as follows:

1. Fold your paper to form an A2 card

2. Cut your circle in the front of the card

3. Trim your Oreo cups individually (they come in a sheet of 8 I bought a 2-set at JoAnns for under $2 on sale)

4. Adhere your cups to the card, so that the shape sticks out of the front of your card (I used Zip Dry to make sure the cup stayed adhered

5. Adhere your ribbon to your scraps (I used a 1" piece and a 1-1/4" piece), and then adhere finished embellishment to card (I used my ATG gun for all of these steps - make sure you push down hard as some of mine started to come up the next day)

6. Fill your cups with M&Ms and adhere your scrap behind the cup so the M&Ms stay in the cup (I used my ATG for this step as well)

7. Add ribbon or sentiment to interior of card (I haven't done this yet, but will probably stamp something on the inside)

Below are the finished cards, as well as some close-ups of the cards.

*I'm not sure why, but the paper seems to have a tonal striped shading to it, however it actually just solid either lime green or red cardstock. Probably because I used my iPhone as I left my camera charger in Minnesota - oops!

Sour Cream Containers

I finally made a project I've been wanting to make for months now - sour cream containers! What are sour cream containers you ask - well they are paper containers that hold candy or a little trinket and are fashioned after the paper sour cream containers that you used to get in elementary school.

Now that you see it, you remember it right? I believe I also had frozen icee type desserts in these as well in elementary school.

I decided to make them for my first-year seminar class that I teach as well as for my colleagues. I ended up making 36 of them in total, with 5 different papers.

These are quite easy to make - in fact it only took me a few hours total to make, including a trip to Target to buy the contents for inside (which in this case is a mini candy cane, 2 Hershey kisses and 2 candy cane Hershey kisses). For the ones that I made you will need the following supplies:

-Paper cut down to 4.5" x 5.5"
-ATG gun (I used the pink one from Michaels)
-Paper Crimper (I have the Fiskars one from Michaels)
-Contents for inside
-Tag/Embellishment for each paper (this could also be ribbon)

1. Put adhesive on both long sides of the paper and one short side of the paper.
2. Form a cylinder, adhering the short side with adhesive to the short side without adhesive and pinch together one end.
3. Fill your container with whatever candy or trinket you would like.
4. Turn your container 90 degrees, so that the you only see an edge of the side you pinched, and pinch the open side to close your container.
5. Place one pinched end into your crimper and crimp approx. 3 times. (Not only does this add extra security, but it provides a pretty, finished edge)
6. Secure your tag/embellishment to your container. (I punched a mini hole and used a mini-brad, however you could just use adhesive and secure it to one side)

This is actually a fairly simple, and quite fun project that is easy to mass produce. Below is a close up of each patterned paper I used (I used last year's DCWV 365 paper pack) and details about the embellishment I added. I hope you enjoy and try this project for yourself!

Embellishment Used: Stampin' Up! scalloped circle punch with white cardstock and paper tree from Tuesday Morning (was inside little plastic containers that I now use for my flowers).

Embellishment Used: Stampin' Up! scalloped square punch, and punched 1" squares from extra of snowflake patterned paper

Embellishment Used: Stampin' Up! scalloped circle punch with white cardstock and more of the embellishments from Tuesday Morning.

Embellishment Used: Stampin' Up! small tag punch with red carstock and Martha Steward embossing present punch with white cardstock

Embellishment Used: Stampin' Up! 1-3/4" circle punch with blue cardstock and paper snowflake embellishments, again from the set from Tuesday Morning.

Cupcake Holder Directions

Reminder of what it looks like :)

I promised I would come back and post the details to my Cupcake Holder box and here they are!

You will need 1 piece of 12"x24" paper/cardstock for the box itself and 1 piece of at least 8"x8" coordinating cardstock for the interior.

First you will need to trim your 12"x24" paper to 21 3/8" x 11 3/8". You should score the long side at 3", 9 3/16", 12 3/16" and 18 3/8". I used my Martha Stewart ScoreBoard for all scoring and cutting of the box. Next, score the short side at 2 5/8" and 8 13/16". Then cut along the long side into where your score mark intersect. You'll then fold all pieces up and in to form the box. I adhered mine with my Pink ATG gun. See my three pictures below for how it looks scored (this is the box that I had originally purchased and then took apart and measured. Please excuse the foot roller thingy that you can see through to window top of the box and my coffee table - pretty nice device after a long day at work). Also, while mine doesn't have a window in the top of it, you could always cut a window and add some acetate to get the same results as the store-bought one.

Picture of entire paper scored and cut

Close up of right half of scored and cut paper

Close up of left half of paper that has been cut and scored.

For the inside of my cupcake holder I cut a piece of cardstock down to 7"x7" (as the inside of the box is 6"x6", the extra 1" will allow for how it "stands" inside). I then welded three circles together to make the insert (the large circle (2.5") holds the cupcake and the smaller ones (about 1") attached to it allow you to reach in and pick up the cupcake).  I then duplicated the welded circle three times and arranged them on my mat to fit within a 6"x6" square. Once it was cut I scored the square at 1" in at all sides and trimmed away the corners up to where they meet.

What the finished interior looks like.

To make the flower that decorated the top of my box, I layered the discarded interior welded circles from the inside of my box. I then used a coordinating color and some circle punches to add some dimension to my "flower". Next time I would ink the outside edges of the small circles as well for added dimension.

What completed box looks like closed up.

This was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be and easier than the directions may make it seem. It really is a bunch of scoring and cutting and then 1 simple set of welding and cut from the Cricut. This would make a great Teacher appreciation gift, Birthday gift, hostess gift, etc for the holiday and for any time of year!

Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge 2

I decided on Sunday to participate in this week's Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge, as I've been wanting to do more crafting on a regular basis. The goal this week was to use three of the following: pink, ruffles, scallops, bling, glitter, flourishes. Here is what I created from my trip to Crafts Direct in St. Cloud, MN to meet The Pink Stamper, Robyn! The scallop borders are from the bubbles punch, the top note is from Storybook and the snowflakes are from Christmas Solutions.

Here's a close up to see the stickles:

Cupcake Holder

Last Christmas I bought a set of cupcake holders on clearance at The Container Store (love that store btw!) with the intention to recreate them on my own. I finally did that about a week and a half ago. It was actually pretty easy, and while my scoring wasn't quite perfect, with a few adjustments to my design on my Gypsy it still worked out. I will have to come back and post the measurements, but the box is a piece of 12"x24" paper and the holder on the inside is about 7"x7". Super simple, I know I will be coming back to do more of these!

The flower on the top is actually the insides of the cupcake holder with some circles that I punches to add contrast.

I was surprised at how well the cardstock/heavy paper held up when put together (I adhered it using my pink ATG gun - love that thing!).

I was a little worried that it actually wouldn't hold cupcakes (well 2 unfrosted cupcakes and 2 muffins for some variety), however I think the holder will actually keep them from shifting around. I love paper crafting and coming up with awesome things for way cheaper than the store sells them!

Halloween Cards

A few weeks ago I went on a scrapping retreat, and as always we ended with some debriefing at Michaels. Well Ms had cards on sale for a really great price - I scored some large black cards and envelopes for $1.66. I also got some Halloween paper on sale for 40% off. I had some Halloween embellishments left over that I received from a secret santa a few years ago and some I got for 80% off last year. I got home and decided to put it all together for some seriously simple, yet nice cards.

To the inside I added some ribbon and some extra embellishments and stamped with some dollar images and  white Stampin' Up! craft ink. Hope you enjoy!

Creating something beautiful from a mistake

I received Create a Critter this week and wanted to cut something from it last night while I had banana bread baking. I figured, in support of the Florida game I would cut the alligator. What I didn't realize is that the size of the cut (this was pre-loading it on my Gypsy) is based on the height, not the length, so my 3" alligator was more like 7" - oops. Well, I decided I could make a pretty cute layout with it and so over the past 24 hours I have made what is probably my most complex Cricut layout.

What started with a 3" CAC alligator, was then joined by a hand-cut lake that I embossed with some embossing glue and clear embossing powder. I also welded some grass (from Sports Mania I believe) to a rectangle to get the grass. I cut a few little clumps of grass (CAC) to add some dimension. I chalked all of the grass with some Stampin' Up! chalk. I then pop dotted the alligator amongst the grass making sure that some it looked like he was amongst the grass.

One of the things that I did recently was make my own Glimmer Mist using Perfect Pearls, Mini Mister bottles and some ink. I decided to mist my clouds (CAC) with some white mist (just the white Perfect Pearls and water) and the sun (Gypsy Wanderings) with some gold mist (just the gold Perfect Pearls and water). I'm happy with the dimension it adds to the lo.

The other fun thing with this LO, is the rhinestone as the bird's eye (bird is from Hannah Montana). I purchased an iRock a few weeks ago and have been finding myself adding bling to everything! Gotta love my Michaels finally starting to get new stuff in a timely manner (and the use of coupons on said stuff!). I made the bird carry a banner (forgot which cart the banner is from, but the smile is from CAC) with some ribbon, all of which is pop dotted, of course. Overall I am very happy with how this mistake turned out, especially considering I had no plan in mind when all of this started. Now to get to the other 240 pictures I had (finally) printed earlier this week... :)