Jennifer Marker Star Lantern Alternative

Yep, you read it right, I altered the star lantern from Jennifer Maker.  My youngest has his own little tree in his room with his favorite ornaments and last year refused any attempt at a tree skirt or topper.  This year I offered to make him a Mickey topper or a star.  He asked for a star and as soon as I saw Jennifer's, I knew with a little tweak, it would be perfect.  Her team was wonderful about answering my question about how big the finished star was so I had an idea of how much I needed to downsize.
The original star lands around 14 inches and each arm is around 7 inches, way too big for a little 4 foot tree.  My wonderful engineer hubby said that a six inch star would keep the proportion just fine, so I needed each arm to be around 3 inches once folded.  Now, when you are adjusting the size, it's hard to tell on screen, but I cheated by using the score line image and stretched it over the point to the inside.  That gave me a realistic idea of the actual size, then I deleted the score line.  I also deleted the piece with the notch for the pendant light and duplicated an extra of the regular points.  I cut the image on glitter cardstock.  Be ready for a long wait as it took nearly 45 minutes to cut.  The glitter paper setting on the Cricut will cut it twice.  I found it did not need the second pass as it only made more of a mess so I stopped it half way through the second cut.
Be sure to follow Jennifer's suggestion to only assemble 4 of the points before gluing them together.  The last point is much easier to add when you can glue one tab at a time and save the long point for last.
How did I attach it to the tree?  I used scissors and cut a small notch in the base of the star and slid a chopstick with hot glue in it up to the top.  The stick hides well in his tree so I did not feel like I needed to paint.  I do recommend a twist tie to keep it in place.  Thanks for looking!  April

Maleficent coffee cup

I saw this great svg on Pinterest and couldn't resist since we are all Disney fans in this house.  I found the cup in the $1.99 bin at Michael's and used permanent vinyl.  I had a little issue with the super skinny lines behind Maleficent, but it seems okay without them.  I will be sure to show off my reindeer one next.  Thanks for looking!  April

HLMS Cricut challenge Day 1

I will be honest coming out of the gate, it will most likely be next year before I do any of the other challenges Cori at Hey Let's Make Stuff has up.  It is not because of difficulty!  She does an amazing job of choosing differing levels of projects so even the most basic crafter can feel like a rock star.  She give very detailed directions and has always been quick to answer if you email a question.  I just have a billion of items sitting in my craft room as a wish list.

This card was so cute and easy...ish.  I can be honest and say that paper is 95% the trouble.  Fine cuts are hard, especially on black paper.  I shredded over a dozen cuts of the cable before tossing my hand in the air and just hand drawing it on.  The bulbs are a genius use of scraps.  The svg comes set as a 5x7 but I resized the card to an A2 4x5.5.  That said, I could get 2 cards from a 12x12 instead of one but again, fine cuts can be tricky.  I made the mistake of using heavy white cardstock, so next time, I need the thinner cardstock for a cleaner cut.  

TIP: Stampin Up cardstock will often shred or flake into layers if the cuts are ultra fine.  Same for cheaper bulk papers like the Recollections black stack from Michaels.  

I strongly suggest a new blade or sharpen your blade with some aluminum foil.  The foil helps keep gummy stuff and small shreds of paper off the blade.

In the end, it still turned out super cute.  I may end up making a stack of these for next year.  Thanks for looking!  April

Double sided chalkboard signs

I saw this adorable sign on Pinterest.  While there was no svg file, the directions stated the fonts used and where the wreath image was found.  I tweaked the design a bit then ran to Michaels to track down the cute chalkboard.  What was not said was that these were small table signs from the wedding section and were on clearance for $7.97 for 6!  Yep, 6.  The are much smaller than the picture shows, only 4.5x6" without the wood base.  So, I made all 6 to give as gifts this year.  I used permanent vinyl and found crayola chalk at the Dollar Tree.  I included 2 sticks tied with jute twine.  The photo shows both sides of the board.  Thanks for looking!  April

Frosty's Hat treat holder

I had a ton of black cardstock scraps from making the penguin gift card envelopes and saw this idea on Pinterest.  The top of the hat used all my scraps.  The top is a piece of 3x8 inch paper, scored at 1/2" down the long side.  Snip the paper up to the half inch mark to give you tabs to glue to the hat base.  Use a bone folder to help curl the paper, then use some tear tape to join the two ends, push down the tabs and use a 2 1/2" circle to hold the shape.  I used the largest circle in the Nestabilities set for the brim.  The hat is finished with a 1/2"x8" scrap of Real Red cardstock, but you can use ribbon as well.  I found the felt leaves at Tuesday Morning in a package with poinsettias for $1.99 for 30 pieces.  The berries are extra large pearls, colored with a copic marker.  Be sure to leave some dry time or use a heat gun to set it.  I also dropped another 2 1/2" circle into the hat to hide the tabs and make it look more finished.  Last, I stuffed a bag in the tube and filled with Hershey's kisses and tied with an organza ribbon.  Thanks for looking!  April