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.
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!
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.
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.
3. To make the sign, I grabbed another rectangle to put under the image, and used the text feature to write the word "spa".
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).
5. Finally, we deal with the irritating flowers. I deleted those...
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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. 🙂
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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. 🙂
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!
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.
I have a full video tutorial below, but here are the basic steps for construction:
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.
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.
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!
https://youtu.be/19bXmHXiZ50
For this post, I teamed up with some fellow bloggers. Why not go check out some other creative 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This box card has only 3 main pieces, the crate, and 2 insert pieces (where we added all the flowers and bits).
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
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
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
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!).
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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, 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.
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...
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!
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!
https://youtu.be/Izt9yoI7TJE
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/
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
Spencer and I set out to make bath bombs with the DIY Bath Bomb Making Kit from Grow and Make. If you're new to my blog, or my YouTube channel, you have probably not seen Episode 1 of Fun and Son, or heard of it's genesis, but you have found us at Episode 2, and we're glad you're here!
We set out with the intention of making some bath bombs for ourselves, and some extras to use for Mother's Day gifts, and we had a little bit of a struggle along the way, but that allows us to share some insight with you if you want to give it a try. Failure is important...I just finished drafting a blog post on the subject that is going up soon.
Grow and Make is an affiliate of mine (no need to bury the affiliate statement, the links here are affiliate links), but I paid for the kit on my own, it was not sent to me and this is not a sponsored post. The products are fun and the ingredients are natural and their website is really pretty. It's one of those sites where you start poking around and suddenly 45 minutes has been lost and there's a ton of stuff in your cart that you have to figure out how to edit into a "now" and "next time" pile. As someone who ALSO has some interest in new and exciting Mandatory Activities like making soap and candles, I got pretty excited about these kits.
The bath bomb kit from Grow and Make contains enough ingredients to make 2 batches of 6 bath bombs, with fun fragrant rose petals, calendula leaves, and lavender buds. The whole process smelled heavenly. We made a few mistakes with our first batch of 6 though. Here's what happened first:
Not ideal. Also, not the end of the world...in a way, we kind of ended up with 12 bath bombs. 🙂 At least, that's what I told Spencer.
But it wasn't a complete failure...we got one perfect bath bomb.
The one perfect bath bomb led to about 10 minutes of gloating. 🙂
But the fact that we got one, and that it was Spencer's got me thinking that it was one of the earlier ones we made...and that it was likely we had spent too much time talking and let the mixture dry out too much.
We tried again with the remaining ingredients, and used a little extra liquid. I also reached out to Grow and Make to ask if we had done something wrong and they advised that humudity can play a big role in the success. The kit instructions say to mix until it's the consistency of sand, but for me, on a kind of dry day in Maryland, that means pretty wet sand. If I compare it to something, it's like the top layer of wet beach sand. It's not the sloppy wet beach sand you put in your mold for a sandcastle, it's like 12 inches further into the dry area of the beach. Kinda like this texture:
THAT texture, my friends, is what led to our bath bomb success.
Unfortunately, bath bomb success also meant a "victory dance". If you want to see that trainwreck of a dance, you'll have to go watch the video. I could barely keep myself from editing it out, I'm certainly not going to grab an even more embarrassing freeze frame and post it here. 🙂 We hope you enjoy!
https://youtu.be/5vKXsY3kpxU
I'm at home. You're at home. The KIDS are at home. This feels like a test....how much do I love my spouse/children? We're going to get through it, we will, but if you're like me, you need some distractions. Let me show you how to make free paper animals at home with little more than your printer!
There are not a lot of ways to make things feel normal right now, and one of the things we've done over here is develop some new habits. Eventually, those habits start to feel like something normal and familiar. We downloaded Disney+, so in the evenings we now watch The Mandalorian together. In the afternoons, my husband I make bubble tea. We walk in the neighborhood as a family, which feels like a luxury we never used to have.
But in addition to finding your new normal, I personally need some distractions too. I get caught up in my head, imagining the worst, questioning every cough or touch of asthma I may feel. It's too easy to go down that spiral...so, distractions it is! Straight-up down time for my brain.
You want in?
There's a website I found when I was just starting to tinker with papercrafts. It has a wide range of paper projects available, from super-simple to uber-complicated. Here's an example:
This is the Canon Creative Park website, and it's chock full of fun ideas. The first one I made was, in hindsight, probably a mistake, because it was complicated...but it did allow me to learn a lot quickly and so now here I am, making tutorials on how to put together the Canon Creative Park paper animals. 🙂
Here was my first project, from about 4 years ago (he's seen better days and got played with a lot before I took him back for posterity.
At the time of writing this post, I have made and filmed 5 critters (plus the Easter basket and eggs you can see in the top pic...but it'll go up separately since it's not an animal). 🙂
I'm trying to do as many as I can, because:
I know my perception of what you guys want to do at home right now is probably different than your actual desires, but if you have older kids at home, I encourage you to give this a try. I used cardstock for the 5 videos I have posted so far on YouTube (if you follow me on YouTube you will have already seen them. If you don't follow me on YouTube and only follow the blog, then this is news!) but if you don't have cardstock, that's okay too. The owl was made with just printer paper, so go ahead and give it a whirl.
In each of the videos below, I've included the link to that file. Just open the video and you'll see the description link.
Go ahead and subscribe on YouTube and ring the bell and you'll get a notification whenever I post a new one. I'm aggregating them all into a playlist called "paper animals" (duh) on my channel, so they'll be easy to find.
I'll link them all for you below, but I won't be writing another blog post about them, so if you want more paper critters, please subscribe to YouTube and you'll get them there!
Stay well and stay sane, my friends,
https://youtu.be/bgy9USwUywAhttps://youtu.be/taK6obFSGu0https://youtu.be/vNtt6acThAkhttps://youtu.be/0AKqkvukzTchttps://youtu.be/qXi0ahWOdO4
You've seen those incredibly popular brush scripted signs used for decor, or on t-shirts, or on cards, and even on cookies, right? Here are some examples of brush lettering fonts...
Brush lettering fonts are everywhere these days and I can't say that I mind. I used to think I wanted to learn calligraphy, but every time I looked into it, I decided it was a little too rigid for me. That statement is not meant to offend any calligraphers out there, quite the opposite. Calligraphy is an artform, and it's lovely, and if you've ever had the chance to watch a real calligraphy artist work (I had that chance in college), it's absolutely mesmerizing. When I tried to do it, however, I couldn't get my markmaking uniform enough, I usually ended up with something that looked like a cross between calligraphy and my own handwriting (or my Grandma's). It just wasn't right. Since I knew that wasn't the goal, I always felt like I'd failed and eventually stopped trying.
BUT NOW, there are all of these very popular brush lettering techniques, with lovely free-form letters that are all kind of different and unique. So maybe we're back in business? I tried my hand at this a couple of years ago with this cookie set below, and quickly decided that this was NOT something that was going to come naturally to me either. If I couldn't do it on paper, how the heck could I expect to do it with icing?
In order to get through these cookies, I cheated.
I used a projector. 
My point in sharing these is that I think if we can learn brush lettering, and become comfortable with the ways in which your hand applies pressure and releases pressure, it shouldn't matter what medium we are using. Maybe you're making a cookie, maybe you're making a card, maybe you're designing a t-shirt? Maybe you just think it will be meditative and take your mind off of things (holding hand up). Regardless of your reason, if you have the interest, now's your chance.
Don't you love it when your email brings you exactly what you want on any given day? Or maybe it gives you something you didn't even know you wanted? Well, my email today contained a messages from Scrapbook.com (ok, every day there is an email from Scrapbook.com, we're close like that), and in that email it asked me if I wanted to learn brush lettering from one of the masters, Kelly, of Kelly Creates. I DO, I DO!
Scrapbook.com is hosting free courses right now, and one of them is here, Kelly's class (I'll imbed the link in the BRUSH LETTERED "crafty" inspiration below).
Scrapbook.com is an affiliate of mine (I told you, we're close like that), and while I do a lot of my shopping on their website and think they have an awesome collection of goodies, I didn't know they had so many classes! I got excited and inspired and wanted to share with you guys. I think I'll take some time this weekend and watch Kelly Creates magically brush letter things as she teaches me.... there are thick pens and thin pens and water pens and metallic pens (insert the "Whole New World" song in your head here).
If you try it out, send some pics. I'd love to see what you create! amanda@amandatoryactivity.com
Have you ever been strolling around on the internet and you were stopped dead in your tracks by some adorable free printables, and thought to yourself "those are so cute, but I don't want to have to cut them out by hand.
Maybe you've even decided you might want to try to get your Cricut to cut them for you. Isn't that what you got your Cricut for? To cut things so you can get back to searching Pinterest for other things to make it cut?
I'm betting if you DID go that next step and download them to upload into Cricut, you probably got this error.
Amiright??
Most often, free printables come to us in the form of a lovely little pdf document. That's great if you want to print it out and grab the scissors and go to town...but not helpful if you want Cricut to do the manual labor for you.
If you're like me, you went back to free-printable-website-of-choice and tried to "download as" to see if you could select another option. That doesn't work either.
You need to graciously accept your free printable (it was free, remember...) and then change the file type to one of the ones listed on the warning message above.
The easiest conversion I have found is to take that pdf and turn it into a jpg. There's a magical site called pdf2jpg.net (they are really not burying the lead there), and it's literally a matter of 2 buttons to press and you're converted.
When I see a gripping free printable, my head goes to two places first.
#1 - what little do-dad can I attach to a card or gift or gift tag or bag topper or cupcake topper (ok, maybe that's not one thing), or
#2 - what tiny piece of lovliness can I cut out on sticker paper and use in my planner? YES. I STILL HAVE A PAPER PLANNER, and it brings me great joy, so don't judge. It's the only time in my life where I get to play with stickers and enjoy it as much as I did with Lisa Frank stickers when I was a kid.
Give me a shout out below if you feel me! Oily stickers, and scratch and sniff, and holograms! I had hundreds in an album and I would just sit and play with them...for hours. Fast forward 30+ years, and very little has changed. 🙂
As an example, I find it satisfying to get a free printable of cupcakes, print the free printables onto sticker paper, have Cricut make me a sheet of little cupcake stickers, and then stick them in my planner on days when I'm lucky enough to get to bake cupcakes. 🙂 Just writing about it is kind of getting me excited...
I stumbled across the most adorable free printable baking images on this website, so if that's your jam, it's worth checking out. I've been 3 times in 2 days. 🙂 https://www.gathered.how/papercraft/card-making/free-retro-baking-printables/
Don't say I didn't warn you about the cuteness. There are a LOT of things I have downloaded and I'm working on some card ideas to use them with. More to come...
Here is the video tutorial below. I edited out 98% of me getting distracted by things on that website, so I think it's actual content now. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/QUWBJYykRlo
Still trying to decide if you want a Cricut of your own? Check out the resources tab for my suggestions.
Prefer to cut them by hand? Let me know if you'd like to see a post making a card with some of these free printables WITHOUT the Cricut. I'm game for a challenge. 🙂
So, I haven't yet made any mention of COVID-19, and indeed talking about it and seeing the global implications does NOT make me happy...but I felt like I would drop a short blog post with one of the things we are doing. It's a small thing, but it's a thing.
Over the last few days, I've stopped into big chain stores to try to grab a few things like rubbing alcohol (because I was going to DIY some hand sanitizer and make cute labels with the Cricut and pass them along to loved ones, and blog it for you guys), but it's ALL GONE, just like half of the other things on the shelves. The grocery stores are full of people shopping in gloves, and while I have been uber-careful to wipe down grocery carts before I start shopping, I am finding it difficult to stop touching my face. Does anyone else have this issue? Why is it that my face feels so itchy when I'm actively trying not to touch it? It's like there is a phantom hair whisping around in front of me...
My in-laws are on the older side and living in a community with other similarly aged folks, and we have encouraged them to have their groceries delivered, because of the sensitivity that population has to this COVID-19. But we are also signing them up for Freshly's, at least for awhile, to get through this particular time.
We've tried most of the meal delivery services, and meal prep kits, that are on the market, and the one we have become most attached to is Freshly's. Primarily, it's a super easy way to get dinner quickly without having to eat fast food. During the work week when timing is tight, and we are struggling to get home from work, pick up our son, feed him dinner AND get him to basketball practice by 7, popping a Freshly's meal into the microwave is really helpful.
Freshly's are not frozen meals, they are refrigerated, but ready to cook. They are all gluten free, if that's something that is a concern for you. As someone without gluten issues, I will say that I don't notice the gluten-free-ness for the most part. And so I thought I would just send this out in case it was an option you wanted to consider, if not for your own family (indeed, we may all have a little more time on our hands at home to cook!), then for some of the more delicate members of our population that we don't necessarily want going out into the world for groceries.
I am not a Freshly's affiliate, so this is not an affiliate link, but since we have been Freshly's customers for many many months, I can share my referral link with you. They will send me a coupon (disclosure!) but they will give you $40 off. The link below will get you 6 dinners a week for $39, and is good for 2 weeks, which is $20 off each week.
https://refer.freshly.com/s/whittya
Like I said, it's not a big thing, but it's a thing...and if it keeps Grandma and Grandpa off the streets for awhile, it's worth it! My favorite is the mahi-mahi with romanesco sauce (which is not always available), and my husband is a fan of the steak peppercorn with sauteed carrots and green beans, for what it's worth. Freshly's has a way of making these meals so when they are microwaved, the proteins aren't weird and tough. They also suggest that you take them out of the microwave and put them on a real plate, which we do. It does make the experience feel a little more...cozy?
Stay safe everyone!
It's All in the Wrist Roll-On Perfume
by Dayna
I'm All Gears Soap
by Michael Wills II
