An Earth Day Project

Hi everyone! Let me introduce myself really quickly. My name is Elizabeth and I am a recent college graduate. I was introduced to the Cricut world about a year and a half ago and I have never looked back! I have a big Expression and a Gypsy as of Christmas of last year. My style is pretty simple, but I love it! I love to make cards and gifts, but my favorite thing is still scrapbooking. I hope you enjoy this project!

So, let me start off by saying I am a little nervous to be here, but am also excited to share my project with everyone. I have a small blog that I mainly started for keeping an archive of past projects for personal use, so this is my first time sharing with a large audience.

I had the tree box on page 127. I am sad to admit that although I have owned this cartridge for over 3 months, I had not used it yet!!! I hadn't even linked it to my Gypsy! Ok, please tell me at least a couple of you have some cartridge sitting somewhere on a dusty shelf that hasn't been touched in forever... it might help me get over my guilt...

I will admit that I am very glad this was not a video! Because it did not work out at all how I planned it. At first, I thought this was a box like one you would open. After I assembled a test cut I realized that it is more like a 3-d object, but you will see how I worked around that so I could still put some goodies inside.

Here is the tree box after all the scoring. I used my Scor-Pal to make the scoring a little easier. It worked really nicely to line up each score mark. I was surprised by how many flaps this box has, but this was the first box I have made.

This is the box after I inked up the edges. I was going for a distressed, recycled look to fit the Earth Day theme. Keep an eye out for more recycling later on in the post.

Then I had a brilliant recycling idea! I asked my fiance if he had any old papers from college that he didn't need anymore. He gave me a funny look, but handed me some papers.... he is used to not asking why I need strange things in the craft room anymore. :)

Then I got out my crimper that I bought at Michael's with a 50% coupon (the only way to shop really) :) and started crimping all the strips. After I crimped them, I squished them and shaped them until they had the look I was going for. Then I filled the box using the window as my opening until it looked nicely full, while still having room for other goodies.

Okay, let me address the green triangle I added as a layer. This was a big issue as I was working on the project. I was originally going to use this paper for the entire box, but then I didn't think it felt stable enough. So then I had the brilliant idea to use the Gypsy to create a layer! After all that's what the Gypsy is supposed to do! Unfortunately, I only own one cartridge with a triangle. No problem, right? Big problem. The cartridge is George and I am one of those unlucky people who still have not been able to link George to my Gypsy. Ugh. So I did something kind of crazy. I hand cut all the triangles. Woah. I was worried that I had forgotten how scissors worked that way after using the Cricut and my Gypsy exclusively. Don't worry I guess it's like riding a bike. :) I just traced the box and then cut slightly smaller so it would layer. In order to cut out the window, I traced the piece that had cut from the window originally and traced that. Then I cut that out and prayed that it would work as I had used up all of the one sheet of patterned paper I had bought. Note to self: Always buy at least two sheets. Anything less is tempting fate. The next picture shows the back of the box. This triangle was much easier. :)

I wanted to include a small packet of seeds as an Earth Day gift in the box. Then I came to another roadblock. The seed packet was way too big! No problem, I told myself as I took calming breaths. ;) I just folded it in half and glued it together with my ATG. That ATG is seriously a life saver! Here is a picture of the box with the packet of seeds inside.

Then I stamped a piece of cream cardstock with this awesome clear stamp I found at Hobby Lobby. Recently our local Hobby Lobby expanded by 8000 square feet!! It is like Christmas every time I stop in. I am constantly finding products they didn't stock before. The best part is they mix them in with the old merchandise so it feels like a treasure hunt! Oh, the simple pleasures in life. :) Anyways... I found a spring themed clear stamp set that had this adorable sentiment. I cut around the edge and distressed it with my Tim Holtz Paper Distresser. I couldn't decide where to adhere it down. Then I had an idea! I would tuck it inside the window and make it a little card or gift tag.

Here is a picture of the back of the card. I just wrote a small note on there and signed it. Here is another place where things did not go as planned. The pen I grabbed was slow to start and the 'H' on "Happy" just did not look right. I decided to widen it out and stylize the letters a little. Again, I am so thankful this was all not on video! I don't know how everyone does it!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this long post! I hope you enjoy my project! I actually had a lot of fun making it once I got over the nerves. :) If you would like, feel free to check out my blog ScrapSweet Designs Again, thank you so much for looking and have a great day!