You will never believe what I have been doing today. I was checking out my blogs to day and 2 of them posted a challenge today. A recent blog I discovered is Cuttlebug Challenge where they post weekly challenges to create cards or projects using your cuttlebug. On Friday the post was to make Thanksgiving Basket and they provided you with some awesome directions. I decided to give this a try so I began by making a sample with white cardstock. Since I wanted to create easy directions (just in case anyone wants them I can create a tutorial) I had to modify their directions.
I wanted to use a yellow for the basket and saw my Marigold Morning paper and decided to use that. I was looking through my Cuttlebug embossing folders and saw my Distressed Stripes and thought they would look cool on the side and look a little like tree trunks. I cut my paper and embossed it and brayered Creamy Caramel on it to highlight the stripes. Now the fun begins with the decorating. While looking at my embossing folders I ran across my Leaves dies and decided to use them. I cut them out but wanted to give them some character so I smashed the leaf in my Versamark pad then using a paintbrush I brushed on some Pearl Ex in random spots. I then used my heat gun to dry and set the Pearl Ex. I realized the leaves had some dots of Versamark ink from the smashing that dried darker when I use the heat tool This gave the leaves some depth and was a surprising result. I’m not sure you can see the leaves to see the sparkle and depth but they are really cool in real life.
The original basket had a handle but I was not sold on adding one. I decided to see what it would look like if I used some ribbon to decorate the sides. I again went searching in my ribbon stash and found this copper ribbon that was wide and had wired on the edges. I started twisting and playing with the ribbon on the box and like the look so decided to go with it. I will say adding the ribbon took some time as I had to use my Crystal Effect to attach the ribbon to the box so I would be sure it would stick. That meant gluing the ribbon on one side and placing something heavy (in my case I used my stapler) on the ribbon to make sure the ribbon was against the side of the box as it dried. Once the ribbon had been applied to all the sides I was ready to decorate with my leaves.
Since I had my pattern done and put together I decided to go ahead and decorate it also. I used the Holiday Traditions paper to decorate this one with a tag. I added a Snowflake garland as a handle on this one for some variety. I am thinking these would be great to put a votive candle in, some travel size hand lotion, or any other small gift you need to give to someone. The bus driver or mail lady came to mind as these would be nice for them. Since I also read the Our Creative Corner blog when I checked out their challenge for the upcoming week they had a Handmade for the Holidays challenge. This challenge was basically open ended so these 2 projects can be used for both challenges. I love when that happens. So, are you ready to see the boxes? Here they are and I know you are going to think I am so creative but it really wasn’t hard. Give it a try and see what you can make.
Stamps: Happy Winter (retired) Paper: Always Artichoke, Creamy Caramel, Marigold Morning (retired), Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, white, Holiday Traditions DSP Ink: Creamy Carmel, Old Olive, Versamark Accessories: Cuttlebug Distress Stripes embossing folder, Cuttlebug dies – Leaves, small and large tag punch, scallop edge punch, Pearl Ex, copper ribbon (Offray outlet a few years ago), brayer, white brad, Snowflake garland (Merry Minis – Michael’s last year at end of season) crochet thread, paintbrush, sponge dauber, crystal effects, Zots, sticky tape, dimensionals
Which one is your favorite? I’m off to check out a few more gift ideas I ran across. I saw a really cute tag project that I am going to try. Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great evening!
Your baskets are just beautiful!
I love the white fabric handle on the green on.
Great job!
I love your baskets! Thanks for participating in the workshops this weekend!
These are darling Robbie! I love both of them! Such great colors and details! Thank you so much for playing this week!
All right! Just what I like to see-someone who takes an inspiration and runs with it :)! Both baskets came out so cute! Great job!
Barb
Loved the baskets. The green one is my favorite. You are so adventuresome. And creative. Sandy
Fabulous baskets Robbie, love the beautiful colours and details.