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Who Needs an Outdoor Activity?

We interupt your regularly scheduled Cricut tutorial to bring you a fun lifestyle post, a nature scavenger hunt!

I think I speak for all parents everywhere when I say that keeping the kids off of an electronic device during this particular time is difficult, particularly while parents are trying to work.  I don't know about you, but I desperately needed an outdoor activity.  In fact, before I even publish this post, I'm likely to need another one. 

If you follow my blog and YouTube channel, you will have heard me talk about Lia Griffith before.  She's kind of amazing, and one of those people I feel like I would be friends with if we met in real life, you know?  Anyway, Lia posted a nature scavenger hunt on her blog and offered it up to us all for free.  I thought I would share that link with you, as well as the fruits of our scavenger hunt! Lia Griffith's free printable scavenger hunt.  I also feel that it's my duty as a fan, and someone who is a lot like you, if you are here reading this, that once you get to the site you might get stuck there for 45 minutes...there's a raging amount of cuteness.

Little Bits of Things

Lia arranged the scavenger hunt items into little squares so you could cut them up and put them on something like an egg carton to collect your findings.  

LiaGriffith.com scavenger hunt photo

I was pretty positive that if I implemented this particular form of scavenger hunt, I was going to end up with an egg carton full of dead bugs and muddy things in my house, so I made an adjustment.

I took the scavenger hunt somewhat virtual.  We still got outside and walked around for over an hour looking for stuff, but when we found our items, we took a picture to "collect" them.

So, our printed scavenger hunt page ended up being more of a coverall bingo card. 🙂

The Thrill of the Hunt

Looking at the list of items we needed, there were some that Spencer and I thought for sure we wouldn't be able to find, like a shell.  We don't live near a beach, we are in a residential neighborhood, and I thought short of finding shells in someone's landscaping display, it probably wasn't going to happen.

Spencer did not take that as an answer, and actually ended up discoverying a creative solution to this issue.  For him, the hunt was ON and he was going to prevail!

This was his "shell".  Frankly, I can't argue with him...it's a shell of something, it's just not the seashell I had in my head.

That's it, in a nutshell.  (Sorry, I couldn't help myself)

Nut shell of some kind

Scavenger Hunt Results Collection

Here are some of our other finds, which I'll include, because nature is pretty and if you are stuck inside while you are reading this, maybe it will make you happy.

Pinecone
Pinecone
Green leaf
Green leaf
Pine needles
Pine needles
red leaves
Red leaves
Grass
Grass
phlox
Flower
acorn
Acorn
Twigs
Twigs
Seed / pod
Seed/Pod
Yellow leaf
Yellow leaf...like it was waiting for this scavenger hunt so it could be found!
Rock
Rock
Bug
Bug - he blends in a lot, but he's right in the center of the image. This is the bug I didn't want in my house. 🙂
brown leaf
Brown leaf
Sand
Sand
Dirt
Dirt
Bark
Bark

The Final Hunt for an Elusive Feather

Pretty, huh?  But you may notice that this is 16, plus the "shell" is 17...and there are 18 items in our scavenger hunt.

We could not find a feather to save our lives.  We followed the sound of chirping birds into the woods, hoping there would be a stray feather on the ground, but we got nothing.  Plenty of birds, zero feathers. 

Luckily, we were able to be a little creative again.  When we got back home, there was a feather on the couch cushion!  I put it outside so we could "hunt" it.  

It felt better to check all the boxes, but admittedly it was a sneaky solution!

Couch feather
Couch feather in the wild

But there you have it, a couch feather "in the wild".

If you try this scavenger hunt, enjoy!  I was honestly amazed by the assortment of things all around us that we don't bother to look at.  

Love,
Amanda

Is This Not the Most Adorable Gift Box You've Ever Seen?

In this Cricut tutorial, I will show you how to make a few adjustments to turn a Cricut file for a sweets box, into this Mother's Day spa gift box!  You could really adjust this design to any number of purposes, but I have some bath bombs that Spencer and I made in this video, and they needed a gift box.  

I'm layering the specialness of homemade bath bombs with a homemade gift box...and it feels GOOD.

A Before and After Look at the Cricut File

Original Sweet Tooth Gift Box Design
This is the original file in Cricut Design Space. I assume it was a goodie box for sweets.
Mother's Day Spa Gift Box
This is the finished design after a few file alterations!

I know, I know...the design is pretty cute all by itself, and I probably could have just done nothing and had a perfectly lovely gift box...but I had visions of a tiny spa dancing in my head, and the changes were pretty easy.

Come on, I'll show ya!

Manipulate the Original Cricut Gift Box File

I started by selecting the file and taking a look at the components.  There's not a lot to the structure, but I was immediately turned off by the dozens of tiny flowers, and knew pretty immediately that I wanted them to disappear...but first things first.

  1. I began by making a few rectangles that will fit over the window holes so I could put acetate in them.  I made 2 of those, one for each window.

Rectangle for window acetate

2. Then I started working on the spa sign for the roof.  I went into images and searched for something Mother's Day-ish.  I finally settled on this image.

Selected image

3. To make the sign, I grabbed another rectangle to put under the image, and used the text feature to write the word "spa".

Adding spa to sign

4. I selected all of the pieces of the image (mother's day message, rectangle, and spa) and flattened them into a single printable image.  Then I grabbed another rectangle to put behind it as a border (which I cut out of patterned paper).

Up close spa sign and background

5. Finally, we deal with the irritating flowers.  I deleted those...

Deleted flowers from original design

6. Back in images, I found cut then print flowers I thought would work better, and duplicated and sized them for the bushes.

Then cut it all out!

Replacement flower images

Assemble Your Gift Box Base

Fold along the score lines of you two main box base pieces. It's also a good time to attach the acetate to the inside of the windows (which I neglected to do before I closed up the box...so don't make my mistake.

If you use some acetate, make sure you check to make sure you've removed the protective film on the outside.

Remove film on acetate
Installed window acetate

I started assembly thinking it would be a piece of cake.  Turns out, there is a WEIRD box bottom on this project.  I tried to fit it together every which way I could, but eventually decided it needed to be glued shut.  Maybe if you were putting something light inside it would matter (although I kind of doubt it), but knowing I had heavy bath bombs to go in, I needed a sturdy bottom.

Bizarre box bottom

I recorded the struggle in the video tutorial, so maybe that will be an easier way to visualize the struggle.  Regardless, this solution worked in the end!

Add Embellishments to the Outside of Your Gift Box

You are ready to add the embellishments to the outside of your gift box. You should start with the windows first, and then the shrubs.

You'll notice here that the door sits on top of the shrubs, and the shrubs sit on top of the window.  So, windows, shrubs, door, and then flowers is the best order.

You can also add the triangular pieces to the underside of the roof, but DO NOT add the roof yet!

Side of gift box

Fill Your Gift Box with Goodies, and THEN Seal It Up!

It's important to keep in mind that this design is kind of like a little milk carton.  The "handle" at the top of the gift box is going to be sealed before you put the roof on, so you must get your goodies inside the gift box before you close it and add the roof.

When you glue the top closed, make sure to hold it for a little longer than you think you should.  It wants to pop open and it will take it's chance if you let it!  I think I did it for a solid 2 minutes, which feels like an eternity.  Put on a YouTube tutorial to play in the background to kill the time. 🙂 

Add goodies to gift box before sealing
Glue top of gift box shut

Put the Roof on, and Your Gift Box is Finished (and Super Cute)

There is a slit in the top of the roof piece where you can gently squeeze the top into place.  Do this gently, and slowly.  There isn't a lot of space between the slit and the edge of the paper, so your opportunity to tear it is abundant.

Once you've got the roof in place, glue down both sides of the roof.

Insert roof on top of gift box

Finish off your gift box with your Mother's Day sign.  I used some foam squares to pop it out a little.  

I'm in love.

Mother's Day Spa Gift Box

If you'd like to save yourself the changing-the-file bit and go straight to playing with glue (I hear you), I have a link to the Cricut file as I have adjusted it.  All I ask in return is for you to sign up for my email list so I can grow my circle of friends here.  You can unsubscribe anytime you like, I respect your privacy.

Once you fill in your email address, you will be emailed a link to the file which will open in Cricut automatically for you.  If you have Access, everything should be free!  If you don't have Access yet, here is a link for you.  If you don't know what Access is, start with this post!

Here's a link to the video tutorial:

https://youtu.be/NjVHsG0-Mb8

Materials used for this project are listed below.  Some links in this post are affiliate links, and if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.

  Cricut AcetateCricut cardstock used for windows, doors and shrubs110lb kraft cardstock I used 110lb cardstock from Michael's, but can't find it on their website.  This link is for Amazon instead.  I've used this brand in heavyweight 12 by 12 paper and it was great.Foam squaresCarta Bella Our House pattern paper Used for the roofCarta Bella Home Again enamel dotsCat's Eye Chalk InksDew Drop Chalk Inks Links to favorite glue and Cricut supplies are on my blog resources page here.

Love,
Amanda

Perfect for Mother's Day: A Handmade Gift Using a FREE SVG File From Dreaming Tree!

I would say most Mom's appreciate a homemade gift, generally speaking, but if there is ever a year not to go out shopping for Mother's Day gifts, it's this one.  Instead, I offer you this tealight holder tutorial, so you can make one with your Cricut, just a few pieces of paper from your craft stash, and a free SVG file courtesy of Dreaming Tree!

"But Amanda, It Looks Like There is Vellum In This Project, and I Don't Have Vellum in My Stash Right Now."

It's okay, neither did I.  I gotchu.

Know what that lovely, white, moderately see-through paper on the petals of the daffodils is?  PARCHMENT PAPER FROM MY KITCHEN DRAWER.  I was trying to figure out what might be a good on-hand kind of substitute, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It worked!

I have some generic parchment paper variety from Sam's Club, but I imagine they are all mostly the same, with the exception of perhaps Reynolds parchment paper, which (I think) has it's name written all over it.  So maybe try some wax paper if I'm right about the Reynolds writing...

In the end, I think the parchment paper had just enough translucency that the candle flame really showed through well.  I left this picture kind of dim so you could see the soft glow.  Don't you think your Mom would like this softly lit, handmade, paper tealight holder next to a nice warm bubble bath?  

YES.  On behalf of Mom's everywhere, the answer is yes.

My Cricut Can Cut Parchment Paper?

The answer to this question is also apparently "yes". 🙂 

The setting I used to get a successful cut from my Cricut, was the dot between "iron-on" and "light cardstock".  I used the blue light-tack Cricut mat (a relatively new one, so it was pretty sticky), and it cut like a charm.

Okay, the first few settings were a hot effing mess, but THIS setting worked like a charm, so use this one. 🙂

Cricut setting for parchment paper

Dreaming Tree SVG File

The SVG file for this paper tealight holder is a FREEBIE from Dreaming Tree.  On the resources tab of this blog, you will see a square with links to my favorite SVG sites, of which Dreaming Tree is one.  Here is a link to the file.

The file link is an affiliate link...an affiliate link to a free file, so you can do the math on that one.  BUT, it's a great introduction to Dreaming Tree if you aren't already a fan.  They haven't been around for very long, just a few years, but they've been cranking out quite the body of work.  My first few projects of theirs were freebie files, and then I got some of the more complicated files once I was comfortable.  I posted a picture of my Dreaming Tree bunny from last Easter just a few days ago.  It was pretty advanced, but I worked my way up to it, and you can too!

Paper Tealight Holder = Excellent Beginner Cricut Project!

Finally, I would just like to offer that this paper tealight holder is a great beginner Cricut project.  It LOOKS impressively complex, but it's really just a few pieces, and basically 2 boxes.  It went together easily and quickly and I think it's just lovely.


Paper tealight

I have a full video tutorial below, but here are the basic steps for construction:

Glue button panels onto front of tealight holder
Glue bottom panels onto FRONT of main piece
Glue top panels (parchment paper) to FRONT of main piece
Glue top panels (parchment paper) onto FRONT of main piece
Glue pattern cover pieces on TOP of panels you just applied
Glue pattern cover pieces on TOP of panels you just applied
Fold score lines and close up box
Fold score lines and close up box
Glue down the bottom flap
Glue down the bottom flap
Glue cover panel into the inside to hide the seams and provide stability
Glue cover panel to the bottom of the inside, to hide the seams and provide stability
Fold score lines on tealight base
Fold score lines on tealight holder base
Glue sides and bottom of base
Glue sides and bottom of tealight holder base to form a small box
Glue bottom of tealight holder to base
Glue the bottom of the tealight holder to the top of the tealight base

Some Assembly Tips

I learned a couple of things during the construction of this project:

1. Even a small amount of glue will make your parchment paper look all wiggly and weird.  This is okay. Once the covering panel is down, you can't tell at all.

parchment paper and glue
Thin line of glue example

2. Work quickly with super thin lines of glue so it doesn't squish out onto your thin panels, and so the glue you applied at the top of your panel isn't dry by the time you're done applying to the bottom of the panel.

Materials used for this project are listed below.  Some links are affiliate links, and if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.

Main piece paper is Cricut paper in teal-green
Patterned paper for side panels, as well as the green paper used for the base: Natalie Maran Little Terrace pack from Cricut
Cricut light green paper used for leaf panels instead of vellum: Light green from the pastel pearl paper sample pack
Favorite glue, and papercraft recommendations are on my blog resources page here!

And finally, a link to the video tutorial!

For this post, I teamed up with some fellow bloggers.  Why not go check out some other creative Mother's Day gift ideas?

Group post, Mother's Day gift ideas

Cupcake Liner Carnations - Manda Panda Projects

4-in-1 Mother's Day Gift - Thirty Minute Maker

Gifts Mom Will Love - Victori's Creations

How to Make a Mother's Day Card on Cricut - Pocket Wonders

Love,
Amanda

Make Placecards Out of Box Card Designs!

I have spoken about this once on my blog, and no doubt I will speak about it again and again, because this is a common hack that I use for holidays and entertaining.  I LOVE making placecards out of box card designs.  This Cricut Tutorial for Easter Crate Placecards is a perfect example. 

Easter crate placecard

Isn't she lovely?  Placecards make me unnaturally happy.  Miniature versions of things are cute...and this one is no exception.  

Box cards are the perfect foundation for a perfect placecard.  Box cards are, by design, already designed to stand up on their own.  They fold flat, and pop up, and are ready to go for your holiday table, or party table. 

 

Box card from below

Box Cards Are Gathering/Theme Friendly

If you read my blog or watch my YouTube channel long enough, you will see a lot of box cards turned into placecards (although, in my defense, I also make box cards to use as cards, because they're just kind of awesome anyway).  Box cards are often very theme friendly, because cards themselves are theme-friendly!  

Need a placecard for a birthday party?  Search for birthday box card designs.  Christmas? Easy.  Thanksgiving? Totes.  We will have so many fun themes to explore over the years, my friends.

The file for this box-card-turned-placecard is here: Lori Whitlock Box Card Easter Crate

Need help getting the file from Lori's website and into Cricut Design Space?  I have a step by step video tutorial for that!  If you are new to importing SVG's, I would start there.  

 

Just a Few File Adjustments to Be Made

Obviously, we need to make the file smaller...that's kind of a given.  This file was pretty small to begin with, so there's wasn't a ton of manipulation to be done.  But to make the placecard functional, you need NAMES.  

I usually like this part of the project...figuring out a creative way to get a name into a box card design.  In this case, I just added a leaf in Design Space and put the name on the leaf in the front of the design.

Design Space screenshot placecard name

And A Couple of Embellishments!

This project was pretty straightforward in terms of construction, but I did make a couple of quick embellishments.  I like to use the Cat's Eye inks to add dimension to paper pieces, and I did that here, all with the same Cat's Eye set.  I inked the egg to make it look more round, the flowers to give them some depth, and the leaf to give it a little outline.

Inked egg
Inked base of flower
Inked edge of nametag

For some reason, the blank white inside part of the flower was bothering me....kinda like it was looking at me (?) So I decided it needed an embellishment too (so it would stop looking at me funny, don't judge).  So I finished it off with some bling.

Empty flower center
Final bling embellishment

Assembly Is Simple, Just 3 Main Pieces

This box card has only 3 main pieces, the crate, and 2 insert pieces (where we added all the flowers and bits).  

Inside image of construceted Easter crate placecard

The assembly tutorial video below will walk you through making the adjustments in Cricut Design Space, doing the embellishments, and putting the pieces together.  Boom. Easter crate placecards!  

https://youtu.be/Cg57fBgGUYE

Materials used for this project are listed below.  Some links are affiliate links, and if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.

 

My favorite glue can be found on my blog resources page, along with Cricut machine recommendations and supplies. 

Most of the papers used in this project are from the Recollections packs that are frequently on sale at Michael's. 

Cricut paper used for the green insert was: Cricut cardstock 

Patterned paper used in this project was from an Echo Park Easter pack that I can't find online at the moment, but this is a similar pack.

The Cat's Eye chalk inks can be found here.  I find they are frequently out of stock in the stackable variety, but you can still usually find singles.  There are dew drop chalk inks that I also enjoy, which are here.

Enjoy!

Love,
Amanda

I Love Free Printables, But I Hate Cutting Them by Hand

Is anyone with me?  The internet is FULL of free printables that are adorable, but the fact of the matter is, I'm spoiled.  

My Cricut has spoiled me.  

I don't cut much by hand anymore unless it's a paper animal pattern, or a coupon for the grocery store.  So, it became necessary for me to figure out how to cut free printables with my Cricut, because I certainly wasn't going to do it!  Lemme show you!

Before You Cut, You Need to Import Your File

First things first, you need to get your free printable file into Cricut Design Space.  I did a whole post AND step by step video tutorial on how to do this.  The issue is that most free printable files are downloaded as a .pdf file.  PDF is not a file format that is supported by Cricut Design Space.  So you need to tinker a little, but I show you how to do that in the tutorial linked above.  

The file I used in today's tutorial is a free Easter printable from Lia Griffith.  I love Lia Griffith.  Lia Griffith's website (www.liagriffith.com) is one of those sites I go to when I want to cheer myself up.  Everything there is lovely and joyful.  

Once You Have Your File in Design Space, Then What?

Ok, now the fun starts.  Here is what happens when you import your file into Design Space and it has a lot of white space near the edges.  The white bits disappear!

Free printable imported into Cricut for cutting

Do not panic.  We're going to fix that as part of our process.  If you didn't want the stickers with the missing clouds, you could totally stop here.  All you would need to do is shrink the page a little, hit "make it" and have your machine print them and cut them out.  That would be the easiest way to have your Cricut cut your free printables.  

But I want that image with missing clouds and I want a little border around each one.  So, I want to separate these stickers into individual stickers instead of a giant single sheet.  I'm going to teach you how to use some of the tools in the Design Space tools section in order to do it.

Master the Slice Tool

I used to find the entire tool section really intimidating.  Anyone else?  It wasn't until I needed to do something and said to myself "I wish I could just use my scissors" that I started to understand what they did.  

The slice tool is easily the Cricut tool I use most.  And what we are about to do here, is the most common way that I use it.  

In order to separate a sticker from the page, I wished I just had a pair of scissors so I could just reach in there and cut off the sticker I wanted.  Well, we have those scissors, they are just virtual scissors!

First, go to the left side and select a square from the shapes menu:

Select a square from shapes

Drag the square into a rectangle and make sure it covers the part of the image you want to cut away, or slice, away from the rest.  I'm starting with the upper left sticker. Once you cover the item you want to slice off, use your mouse and select the rectangle AND the sheet of stickers. 

Put rectangle on item you want to slice

When they are both selected, you will notice at the bottom right, the slice tool is now available to use. NOTE: the slice tool only works when you are separating two things.  I think about the slice tool the same way I think about traditional scissors.  We wouldn't be able to cut more than one thing out at a time if we were doing it by hand.  We would cut one, and then go cut the next one.  That's what we are doing here, just with our virtual scissors.

Once items are selected, the slice tool is able to be used

When you hit the slice button, you cut through all of the layers.  As you pick the layers apart, you have both the cut away part of the rectangle, plus a grey shape in the shape you sliced, and finally, your sliced image.

Sliced image pieces from free printable cut with cricut

You can delete all of the grey pieces.  All you want is your sticker, and now it's free and ready to live it's best life!  You can move it away from it's friends and we can fix the missing clouds with my second favorite tool.

To do this, grab the same square you grabbed before form the shapes menu on the left, and drag it over to your sticker.  Choose a border size you want around your sticker (if you want a border, otherwise line it up with the top edge of the sticker).

Next, make sure the rectangle is selected, and then head up to the color selector at the top of the page and change that rectangle from grey to white.

Design Space color selector panel
Sticker background is now white

Now, It's Time to Use the Flatten Tool!

Your rectangle is white, but it's still not connected to your sticker.  You need to make it permanent.  In order to do that, make sure the sliced image AND the white rectangle are both selected, then head down to the tool bar and select flatten.  Flatten squishes those two items together, so now they will print as one, and the cut will be only around the edge of the rectangle.

I followed the same process for each sticker that I wanted to use.  For the circular images, instead of grabbing a square from the shapes menu, I grabbed...you guessed it, the circle.  Boom.

I printed my stickers on printable vinyl, but you could use sticker paper, or labels, or regular paper and just glue them on if you're in a pinch!

Stickers on Cricut printable vinyl
Placing cut sticker inside box
Sticker on inside of box
Finished bunny box

My stickers went on the inside flap of my bunny boxes, because the flap kept wanting to pop apart.  Plus, I thought it was a fun surprise graphic when you open the box!

Of course, I recorded the whole tutorial for you guys, so there is a video link below.  In the video, I show you the circle example as well.  Getting your Cricut to cut your free printables is a liberating skill to have, especially considering how many free printables are available online. 

What Else Can You Do with Cut Free Printables?

When I look at free printables NOW, I don't think "those are cute, but I don't want to waste my time cutting them out".  I think "I'm going to get my Cricut to cut those printables for me and make them into labels, or stickers for my planner, or printable iron-ons for a t-shirt", etc. etc. etc. 🙂

One more thing I like to do with free printables is just cut them out to use as elements in cards.  There are some elements that are perfect for birthday cards (think party hat images, or little cupcakes or cakes) that I get my Cricut to cut so I can slap into a card as a pop up element.  

Since you can separate each printable image in Design Space, you can make them any size you want.  You're not restricted to the size of the printable in your downloaded pdf.  

Like I said, liberating.  

Having your Cricut cut free printables also means you can cut multiples of things!  How easy would it be to just make yourself a sheet of envelope seals, for example? How about mini sticker sheets for a birthday party? Or stickers to seal a goodie bag?

Materials Used:

Material links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase using the links below, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this channel. 

Materials used for this project are only my home inkjet printer, and the Cricut printable vinyl sheets, which can be purchased here at the Cricut website.  Cricut often has great materials sales and as I am writing this is currently about half as expensive as Amazon: https://shrsl.com/27lle or you can purchase on Amazon here.

Enjoy the tutorial, and the new-found freedom to make your Cricut do all the hard work for you! 🙂

https://youtu.be/somgm4sbdLc

Love,
Amanda

What's Edible Moss? What Do You Do With It?

Let's talk edible moss! There are not an enor-moss (!?!) number of uses for edible moss, but when you can use it, boy does it pack a punch, visually.  The photo above is my Easter cookie assortment for this year.  The 3 cookie designs using edible moss jump out at you, don't they? EDIBLE MOSS, man. It's where it's at. 

So, let's focus on the three cookie designs below that feature the edible moss.  In this post, I will be including 4 tutorial video links (I'll post them near the bottom so you don't squirrel off right away!).

Edible Moss bunny cookie and carrot cookie featuring edible moss
Easter Mason jar cookie and flower cookie with edible moss center

What Is Edible Moss?

Just a few months ago, I was asking myself that question.  Actually, I stumbled across some pictures of woodland creature cookies somewhere on Pinterest, and the woodland creatures had moss covered logs and rock cookies and right then, I was hooked.

Edible moss can be made many different ways, and my way is, I think, the easiest.  There are recipes that start with making cookie dough, coloring it green, making cookies, letting them dry out, and then crumbling them into bits to make edible moss. Some people bake cookies, let them dry, crumble them up, and then mix in food coloring to make the moss color.  

My recipe starts with graham crackers (and if I had gone to the store, I would have made it even easier and just bought graham cracker crumbs and started there!), that I beat the tar out of with a rolling pin, tossed with food coloring mixed with vanilla rum (which bakes off but smells AWESOME), and then toasted in the oven to crisp back up.

What Do You Do With Edible Moss?

If you do a Pinterest search on edible moss, you will get a BUNCH of edible moss recipes and a few edible moss bunny cookie pics that look like mine.  I would go so far as to say that bunnies are the most common application of edible moss on a cookie.  There are also a lot of edible moss cake designs, cupcake designs, and I even think I saw an edible terrarium (which I'm probably going to have to try soon!). 

There are so many edible moss bunnies on the internet, I wouldn't even begin to know how to track the origin in order to credit someone.  It's a deep rabbit hole of edible moss bunnies. 🙂

Here's a close up of my bunny.  This helps to illustrate why I like using graham crackers vs. starting with green cookies...I really like the variety you get between the browns of the graham crackers and the various greens.  I feel like it looks more organic this way.

Close up edible moss bunnie cookie

So I made my edible moss, and I made my bunny...but there was a lot of leftover moss.  I looked at my other Easter-y cutters to see what else I could maybe do. 

Decorated carrot cookie with edible moss
YES!
Flower cookie with edible moss
DOUBLE YES!

Both of those designs were pretty quick an easy, and the tutorials are only a couple of minutes each.  I hope you enjoy them and that I have managed to answer the mystery behind edible moss

If it makes you happy, give it a try!  Let me know if you do.

https://youtu.be/NcrMgDSXZAYhttps://youtu.be/_1cVIYeD_aghttps://youtu.be/XlsOTz44meQhttps://youtu.be/PP-7XRvo568

Items used for these cookies are listed below.  Some of the links below are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through any of the links, I may receive a small comission at no additional cost to you.  If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog. 

I use tipless piping bags for all of these cookie decorations.  I control the flow of the icing by cutting different size holes in the tipless bag.  This allowed me to use one consistency of icing for outlining and flooding the cookie.  I did the outlining first, and then cut a slightly larger hole in the bag to flood.  The tipless piping bags I prefer are found in my resourced page, here

Food colors used in this project are: 
GREEN: A mixture of Leaf Green and Electric Green (I used a different brand because it was open and I was finishing it up, but the colors are nearly identical and I prefer the Americolor gels)

ORANGE: A mixture of orange and touch of chocolate brown, and I mean the teeniest tiniest amount.

YELLOW:  A mixture of lemon yellow, and then I added a blob of the orange mixed above (the icing itself, not the gel coloring) to tone it down a little bit.

Enjoy!

Love,
Amanda

Bunny Treat Box, How Sweet!

I love putting together little treat boxes for Easter for each of the kids that join us for our celebration.  I put a treat box out at the table setting of each kid.  This year's bunny box is the sweetest thing, and this Cricut tutorial is a breeze.  Let me walk you through where to get this file, how to adjust it a little, and finally, a super-easy assembly tutorial.  The assembly for this is only about 5 minutes, it's an impressively simple design! 

Easter Treat Boxes Past...

This is the first Easter that I've had my blog, so let me catch you up on a couple of prior treat boxes (which also happen to both be bunnies!)

Last Year

Last year, the bunny treat box was complicated.  Like, really really complicated.  Ultimately I decided it was so cute, it was worth it.  It was a file from Dreaming Tree, which is one of the trusted resources on my resources tab.  The link to the file from last year is here. (This is an affiliate link).

Look at the back of the bunny at the one across the table!  A small bow and dimensional tail.  Could you die??  You lift off his whole head to get to the goodies inside.  If this interests you, there is a great tutorial on the Dreaming Tree site attached to the file.  It's the tutorial I used last year when I was putting these together.  

Dreaming Tree Bunny Box

Two Years Ago

The year before that, I made little faux chocolate bunny boxes from Lori Whitlock's shop https://shop.loriwhitlock.com/3d-chocolate-bunny-box/ (not an affiliate link).  Not nearly as complex, but still very impactful.  I made them nice and large and crammed them full of toys and candy.  I think each bunny half was cut from a full sheet of 8.5x11 paper...

and...Present Day

The file for this year's bunny treat box is also from the Lori Whitlock shop.  I have an entire step by step video dedicated to how to get Lori Whitlock's files into Cricut Design Space, so the best thing to do is to watch that video first (or refresh your memory if you've already seen it?) so we start the tutorial with the design uploaded into design space. 

I made a couple of minor adjustments to the file, which I walk through in the bunny treat box video tutorial below.  The first adjustment is that I changed the score lines to be solid.  It's just a pet peev of mine...when the score lines are little dashes, which is common in some designer's files, it drives me nuts.  It's an easy fix.  Basically, I replace the square score dash marks with a solid square shape and turn it into a score line instead of a cut line.

Next, I got the file as large as I could before it wouldn't fit on a single mat.  I knew I had lots of treats, and I was worried that this design might not be big enough (it wasn't, so I ended up resizing it and using a few mats to cut it, but that'll be an upcoming post!).

There's a trick to making things fit on mats in Design Space.  If your design is just a little too large for your mat, sometimes if you just rotate the design on an angle, it'll fit!  #Cricuthack!

Once the file was as large as I could get it, I cut out the pieces and went to the assembly table.  This project literally went together in about 5 minutes.  It would be a terrific project if you needed to make multiples!

Fold on score lines
Attach patterned bunny halves
Fold inside flaps
Slide together the outside flaps

And just like that, you're done!  I mention in the video that the largest I am able to get this box by using a single piece of paper, is a box about 4 by 4 inches on the bottom, so you'll need smallish treats.

I hope you enjoy the video!  Happy bunny boxing!

Supply list is below.  Some of these links are affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.

The paper used for the bunny is from the Echo Park Celebrate Easter set, which I can no longer find online. However, there is a digital download of this paper pack for just a few bucks on this website, which I use often. Digital paper is a great way to increase your paper stash without having to buy or store a ton of different paper packs!

 If you would like a physical product, there are some other Echo Park options on Amazon: https: https://amzn.to/34jfciv 

Paper used for the box: https://amzn.to/3dVJiNx 

My favorite glue and tiny refillable bottles are both listed in my resources tab here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/

Love,
Amanda

Need to Add Some Pizazz to Your Easter Decor? Make Some Paper Easter Decorations for Free!

If you have been following my blog or YouTube channel, you will have seen the growing selection of free paper animals I've been making.  These are done with the free designs on the Canon Creative Park website. The site is packed full of fun projects, and I stumbled upon this design they call "Easter set".  So, not only can you make adorable critters, you can make Easter decorations with paper too!

Finished paper Easter decorations project

My first thought was "those eggs look like they would be a nightmare".  And then I thought "how do you make it completely enclosed without a hole in the top or bottom?"  "Where do you put your fingers while you are putting it together?" "How do you get them out?"  

Eventually, I had so many "I wonder" questions, I decided I had to try it for myself.  The eggs are a little bit of a nightmare, but really just the first one.  Once you do one, the others are easy.

 

Easter Prep During Covid-19

I have tried hard not to focus blog posts on the current state of things, and to instead provide a respite and distraction for you.  The only way I am going to get through it, is if I can escape and play every now and then.   

Even though I did a significant amount of very early Easter planning, and got some goodies in advance, I feel a need to make things a little extra special this year.  It's obviously just going to be my household for Easter this year, but in my mind and in my heart, I want to make it that much more special.  

Basically, Easter is going to suck, and I want to make it less sucky.

Going for Normal

While you are visiting my blog over the next couple of weeks, you'll see a bunch of Easter projects, and cookies, that are intended to make things feel normal around here.  I think I'm even going to make placecards just for the three of us...because that's "normal" for me too.  Also, there's a design I've had my heart set on, and typically there's no turning back once I get there.  Knowwhaddimean?

It's not going to be the lovely Easter with a dozen and a half friends and family and a giant Easter egg hunt for all the kids, but the "things" will be the same.  The food will be familiar, and gosh darnit, there WILL be decorations!  

Paper Decorations Are Beautiful!

I think this free Easter decoration project is lovely!  Putting this together, and  the little black and white dutch bunny in the beginning of the video (and pictured above), really helped get me in the mood.  

So if you don't want to sit around with your shaving cream and food coloring this weekend, but still want some fun decorated "eggs", this is a great option.  I leaned into the camera as close as possible to make it easy to follow along.

The file is located here: Canon Creative Park Easter Set

To make these paper Easter decorations, you literally just need to print it out, grab your scissors and some glue and follow along.  I hope you enjoy and feel proud and a little more normal when you're done!

https://youtu.be/IbDhs7RNZPE

While you're at it, why not hit the subscribe button on my YouTube channel?  I have a TON of Easter projects that I just need to edit and upload, which I hope to do in the next couple of days.  There are also a few Easter cookie videos already up...I'm aggregating them all into a single blog post, so they made it to YouTube first.  Click the bell notification and you'll get a little notification when there's a new one. 

Until then, thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Amanda

About A Mandatory Activity

A Mandatory Activity sells artisan candles and bath products handcrafted, by me, in Maryland, USA. My candles are hand-poured using 100% soy wax.
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About Amanda

I’m Amanda, and I put the AMANDA in A MANDAtory Activity (and I like a good bad pun). I run a blog, A Mandatory Activity, focused on baking and crafting for gatherings and gifts.

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