Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Once Upon a Princess 3D Castle tutorial

I have been eyeing the castle on the Once Upon a Princess cartridge for quite some time, but it has looked so overly involved I was scared of it. It REALLY was not that bad. The hardest part was figuring out which cut was which part of the castle so I could make sure I had the right color paper for the right cut. Once I figured that out it was not difficult...just time consuming. Once all the cuts were done it took me about an hour to fold/glue/assemble completely.




This is a very "bare bones" version. Nothing extra at all 
(it was my practice before making a very gorgeous pink one, lol).  

I figured I would post  some tips/suggestions I figured out in case others wanted to try making one.

First, I don't know how I would have done this as smoothly and as quickly as I did without my Martha Stewart scoring board. It was a life saver. If you don't have one, take your 40% off an item coupon to Micheal's and get one. I love mine! You have to score each column several times but more importantly, you have to score each roof and the lines would be a bit difficult to fold without scoring I think.

Here are images of my cartridge book with what each piece is written in.




The lower image is the white towers on my castle. 
The shifted image is the very light gray (almost white) wall that completely surrounds the tall white towers.



Sorry this one is a bit blurry. This is the layer on page 65. 
The base layer has two parts:
    The top is the piece that holds the two tall white towers in place. 
         (It is essentially the floor inside that little inner fort that you cut.)
    The bottom is the two outer side walls.

Shift on this layer is going to be the floor that surrounds the little fort (lies between the outside walls and the inner fort). **The little crown looking things on the outside of the castle are actually the tabs from this floor. They pass through a slit in the walls, fold up and glue. So, when choosing the color for the floor make it the color you want those little pieces to be on the outside of your castle.




This is the next page (76). The base image is the front wall and the back wall. The image does not show the arch door, but, the top cut is the front of the castle and the door will cut even though it is not shown.





This is Shift Layer on page 76. This will be all the roof pieces. The top two are for the inner/tall towers. The bottom four are for the four corners (Important if you are going to make them different colors :)



I used my Gypsy to make this. I used a height of "11" as the standard measurement. It took 11 layers/pieces of paper to cut. I have read online people saying the biggest you can make it using the cricut dial is to set the dial at 8.5 inches (that is how I'll do my next one so I can emboss the walls etc; afterwards. I wanted a big castle, but the pieces were too big to emboss).

Hopefully this is helpful to anyone thinking of trying the castle. It's super cute now that it's finished and I love that I can make it not so girly and my son loves it as much as my daughter!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Addicted to Create a Critter

Seriously, every time I go to make a new project my only criteria is "I will NOT use Create-a-Critter". I feel like I use it way too often and am neglecting all my other beautiful cartridges. Yet, every time I come up with a project and the picture I need to have just isn't on any of my other ones. (Well, usually the image I MUST have I don't own and a new cartridge gets added to my amazon wish list!)

I have a baby shower to attend and wanted to make a card but had "writer's block". So, I decided to check out some ongoing challenges and got some inspiration from those. I've often looked at the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge ,but have never entered it. Today their cupcake was perfect for my project!


I am also entering this project into the following challenges:
 2 Sisters Challenge Blog (use stitching). One day I might try real stitching - not quite that ambitious yet!
Crazy 4 Challenges (use stripes and polka dots). 
Desert Island Crafts Challenge (I used # 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). At first I thought you had to use all the items on the list, and was relieved when I realized you didn't. I LOVED having a recipe to follow - really helped pull my project together! I was using all browns, but added some green for the challenge and love it!

Where do you all find the challenges you participate it? Do you keep a list? I have just depended on a list my sister (Crafting Misfit) has on her blog. Does anyone else have a good link to different challenges?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Create-A-Critter Valentines

So, I have been MIA for quite some time and have been longing for a reason to use my cricut. However, when my 6 year old asked me to help her make handmade valentines for all the kids in her class I instantly lost motivation or desire to do it. She hates the gypsy and likes to do it the "old fashioned way" of pushing each button. Let me tell you, it takes a lot of patience to make a class-full of valentines with the assistance of a 4-year old and a 6-year old who are sharing a rolling office chair as they assist you. Nevertheless, I got over myself and enjoyed the time with  my kids and came up with cards she chose and I just added my touch too. I have to say, I'm not patient enough yet to let her use the tape runner or glue stick for everything, but I did let her do the corner rounder.  These were all made from create a critter.








Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I am entering these valentines into several diferent challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge  Blog
Card Makin Mamas
Cute Card Thursday
Crafty Catz
CES Challenges
My Sheri Crafts