That's a Wrap!

I had to wrap a Boxed CD set for my Husband's Birthday last year and wouldn't you know I'm unable to just do it like a normal person.

Instead I altered a cigar box to do the job.

Click on images to see larger sizes

We have a room for his guitars, a garage for his fishing gear and we like to play scrabble. So, keeping all that in mind I started by photocopying a Scrabble board and reducing the size till it fit my little Scrabble tiles. After printing the image I dunked it in very strong tea, and then used a blow dryer on it. I have to say this is my favorite distressing technique and I use it often. The recipe was found online and already distressed, I only brushed on a light spot or two of tea.

The pole is a twig and I added a real fishing fly to the string (with the hook cut off).. but I see it's missing.

For my manly projects I like to use black nylon screening and natural papers such as Mulberries and plain old brown paper bags. The screening can be cut to size unevenly and then if you pull the threads off a few at a time you get that eyelash effect along the edge.

On the inside there is more of the same idea.. I also added a little
brown bag that holds a tag. On the flip side of the tag is a description of a fishing trip I planned for us at a cozy lakeside cottage.

I wrapped the CD set in plain Kraft paper (not shown) and I made the tiny tag on twine to add to it.. I lined the inside of the box with torn pieces of paper bag instead of the usual tissue. Recycle! It made a nice cushioning for the CDs.

The long edges of the box were plain so I spruced them up with some music sheets, mulberry paper and a couple of sentiments I had around the scrap room.

The bottom of the box is a lovely wood. So, I only added another old recipe I found online for Possum Stew.

Here is the card... simple but effective.  Inside verse is on vellum and reads "Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words"- Plautus.

I made the envelope with more paper bag and cut a corrugated heart to make a seal.









So, next time you need to wrap a gift,  see what you have laying around!

This project is being added to : Inspire Me Fridays link up party!
                                                : Salvage it Saturday linky party!
                                                : Creative Cutting Room linky party!

Free beez..

I had to make some pages with tabs. So, I quickly designed these and thought I'd share. Handy when you need them. There are a few other free SVGs on my download page, I'm trying to add more as I have the time or I create one for myself. Enjoy!


Six Tabbed Pages

All of my free SVG files at Cropacabana.com can be opened with Safari or Firefox browsers. Internet Explorer will not open them. To download any SVG, click on the download button. When it opens, right click and save (“save page as” in Mac) to your computer. If you have any trouble contact Patricia directly.

Download the SVG. Open in SCAL, resize to your needs and then ungroup to cut individual pages. If you need pages ungrouped by me, please contact me.

Dirt Bike Cake!

So I had to make a cake..

Not just any cake, but a dirt bike cake.

I have only been making fondant cakes for about 4 months now and learned all I know through trial, error and the Internet. So, being a bit nervous about creating the actual bike (I was certain it would break apart), I bought a toy model and made the guy riding him out of fondant. Everything except that bike is edible. This cake was so much fun to make I'd do it again in a minute. I used marshmallow fondant for this one, as it didn't need to be perfect. I did use Duff's fondant in Black and brown as I had them on hand and black is almost impossible to get the black dark enough. The client wanted certain things such as "Over the Hill", "40" and "BRP" (Big Red Pig) what he calls his bike. I accidentally added an apostrophe, but didn't have another sign made up and dried to correct it. Oh well... they were very happy and "Paul" loved it so much he didn't cut the cake at the party. He saved it till the next day.

Petal Envelope tutorial

I give my apologies in advance. I seriously need a new camera.

Mine has died a slow and pathetic death, tattered images marred with eerie bars of light where none exist in the real world.. I swear my last video had The Milky Way running through it, complete with stars.

I'm really not sure what, specifically, caused it to stop working but I'll assume it was "delicate". Yes, I've tossed it into bags while vacationing, dropped it and dragged it around the beach all summer.

So?

Sand, humidity and falling over never hurt me. What a wimp.

Anyhooo.. I digress. I have made a short tutorial video on my iPhone to see if it could stand up to the test. Bah! Ever try to mount an iPhone to a tripod? Finally, settling on standing it up in my used coffee cup that was sitting on a portable set of plastic drawers I got down to business (I know, I know.. it's delicate (a few more dirty cups and I'll be saying goodbye to my little friend.) Sadly, because of the coffee cup camera holder, I could not shoot sideways which would make a bigger picture. When your done making fun of me, send duct tape.

Honestly, thanks for hanging in there while I sort through the camera issue.

I'd like to share my simple yet effective petal envelope with you. The SVG can be found in the downloads page on my website and you can cut it on your Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot or Make The Cut. In my Baby Boy album this was one of my favorite pages. So easy to make and decorate to your liking. If you don't want the fold outs with 5 pictures, just make it and add one photo mat inside. Easy peasy. If you do that you won't even need a string closure and can just close it flap over flap (see image below.)

I also ended up adding a second large brad as I wanted to bring the string back up to the top and the little brad couldn't take the load.

And now, the iPhone video tutorial...

This weeks Feature: Cupcake card

Gosh, you ever get so busy you leave things to the last minute? Well, I did that very thing and had to have a card for a party one evening. This seems to be my mantra.. wait, panic, do! So, I came up with this Birthday idea for someone who loves to play Scrabble.

This weeks feature is a double slider cupcake card that is a pretty simple design, but adorable. Another testament to the Less is More theory. I got the double slider idea from Dawn Griffith of ‘Dawn’s Stamping Thoughts’, she has awesome ideas! Love her stuff.

The cupcake was cut using Cricut cartridge “From My Kitchen.” Of course I inked the edges to make it a little more retro. When you pull the bottom tab the card slides out top and bottom! I always say, the more interactive the better! Must have had something to do with the pop up books I loved as a child.

Hmm.. I wonder if I could make a pop up book?

www.cropacabana.com

Vintage Recipe Book

This is that surprise book I mentioned last time.

I have a friend, who like myself has trouble in the kitchen when it comes to cooking. Oh, I can bake, but don’t ask me for dinner.

In order to help her out, I asked good ‘ol Gordo (he’s my lovely, Italian, other half who actually can and does cook) to write up some of his recipes for her as he can throw anything together and it’s fabulous!

I.. on the other hand, can throw paper together. So, I made her this book to keep the recipes in. I left some blank cards so she can add more and I will try to get some more for her over time, even if I have to chase Gord around the kitchen with my laptop taking notes.

Sadly, the video I created is of very poor quality as my camera is dying.. I posted it at the bottom but there is a terrible faded bar of light across the top and it kept shutting off. Sigh, I guess I need a new camera. I’ll add some extra still pics below and more on the photo page of my site www.cropacabana.com 

Mini Chipboard Album - Baby boy

A mini chipboard album for my Grandson, Kayden.

This album has been added to the following linky parties:
Make it Monday linky party
Inspire me Fridays linky party

Moving away from traditional baby colors, I’ve mixed in rusts, browns and blues to give it more boy than baby feel. Most of the paper was from My Minds Eye “Complete Boy Collection”. I added a lot of little details and interactive pages to keep it interesting. I always try to throw in a few shaped pages for visual interest as well. As always, I never think I’m finished and the books get too thick (is that even possible?

Multi Pocket Tag holder (right)

Free Petal Envelope SVG available on my site

I’ll soon be adding tutorials on all the items you see used here. Most of it is pretty straight forward, the multi pocket tag holder (above) was the most complicated and even that wasn't too hard using a standard envelope. Unfortunately, I did forget to photograph of the back side of the photo tags, which all had something on them. 

Next up: A secret surprise book for someone special and I have a few Facebook “Pay it forward” gifts to get busy with.

See the entire book on the video below or view all pages in photos at www.cropacabana.com