Hats off ...

I went through a bit of a weaving fascination this year. This was a bare hatbox when I found it and I covered the front with quarter inch strips of green cardstock that I wove together. The ends of the strips were adhered to the sides of the purse front and then the entire side was covered with patterned paper. The weaving took HOURS and HOURS, but I love the effect and it's very durable. I handmade the flowers using a scalloped punch and metallic cardstock layered with patterned paper. I simply adhered each scallop layer together with a few glue dots and then began scrunching them all together. I added the gem center for a bit of bling. I also found that adding the gem center first gave you something centered to "scrunch" the layers around. The large solid pink flower was made in the same way, but without the patterned paper layers or bling. This cardstock was 110 lbs (quite heavy) so I wet it first to make it more scrunchable.

The "Paris," Flourishes and Eiffel Tower are Quickutz dies and the black bling swirls are Prima. Because I love poking holes in things I outlined the Eiffel Tower with holes made by my paper piercer for a bit of added interest. Hemp borders both the front and the back of the purse to hide the edges of the patterned paper and give it a more finished look.

As the structure of the purse is an actual hatbox it easily carries a wallet, keys, cellphone and is sturdy if I am cautious of the embellishments. Everything was secured with gobs of Beacon Adhesive so I am confident it is not going anywhere I don't want it to.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

A Balancing Act ...

Here is the second set of hat boxes I mentioned in my last post. I actually have these out in my home as Christmas decorations now. I like the incorporation of the pink, as a not so traditional Christmas color.

The top green box is embellished with Quickutz flourish die cuts and a few highlighting bits of bling. The red cardstock on the lid is heavy weight 110lb that comes embossed with columns on it.

The middle pink box incorporates a variety of heart punches in several sizes and shapes. The rows of white pearls and the individual pink pearls are from Michael's Reminisce line.

As in the previous set of stacking boxes the bottom box is my favorite. I once again used the red column embossed cardstock for the lid, but this time added a strip of smooth red embossed with the Cuttlebug Pin dot folder. The flowers were cut with the Cricut and I added different sized red bling bits for the centers. I really liked the contrast of the pink on the red for the flowers.

I am torn as to whether or not to gift these little guys or hang on to them with the rationalization that they could be used for Valentine's Day decor. Choices, choices!

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne

Backpack, Backpack

Okay, perhaps it was not kind of me to get that heinous refrain from Dora the Explorer roaming around in your head. One of the things I looked forward to the most each new school year was shopping for new school supplies with my parents, especially for that cool new backpack.

I designed this backpack to be life sized (to fit my 5 year old). In order to do so I had to work with a parent sheet of paper. These are jumbo sheets 26x40 inches that can sometimes be found in art stores, but most certainly can be ordered directly from paper mills. These added inches allow you to do so much more with 3dimensional art.

I used a variety of QuicKutz dies to do the flourishes, and the Stampin' UP! Flutterby embosslit for the butterflies. I also embossed the side pockets by hand using a Stampin'UP! textured plate and the border is a Stampin' UP! punch. The tiny dots are the negative circles punched out from the scalloped border. I think I counted over 500 used on this project. They, and the flourishes were glued on with Beacon Adhesive's Zip Dry and a toothpick. It took hours and hours to get those puppies on there! I wanted it to be extra special for a CHA booth though, and now I can gift it to one of the girls' teachers at the end of the year.

The front flap also opens and closes with the aid of a magnet and the rear back straps are also embellished with butterflies and scallops. I really loved this combination of colors and think I will try to do a layout with yellow, green and white in it soon.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne