Seasonal Expressions 1 New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Seasonal Expressions 1 New Product Blog Hop. There are approximately 25 bloggers sharing projects they created with products you will find in Seasonal Expressions 1. If you are new to blog hopping, it is very easy. Just click on the link (typically near the bottom of the post) to visit the next blog and you will be taken full circle back to the blog where you started.

You should have arrived here from ***Gina's Littler Corner of Stampin Heaven by Gina Brandstetter***. If you get lost along the way, Melinda Everitt keeps a list of participants on her blog at If You Bling It.

I always try to take a little crafted something to holiday dinners and as soon as I saw the pint-sized container in SE1, I immediately decided to create one for Easter.

This is the container in the Idea Book:

And this is my version:

Before you head to ***Haley Dyer's The Inky Scrapper***, here are some details about how I created the sleeve and the supplies I used to create my project are listed further below.

First, I am sorry for the number of photos; I hope/think they aid with describing the process to create a sleeve that fit the My Creations™ Pint-Sized Container. To create the sleeve I originally tried a cupcake wrapper from the Cricut® Artiste Collection cartridge (Z3170), but the taper for a cupcake is not the same as the taper for the Pint-Sized Container (I have since completed a search to purchase coffee cup sleeves and it appears they and coffee cups are a pretty standard shape and size). No matter what I tried in Cricut® Design Space I could not come up with a sleeve that I was happy with. Since, when possible, I do try to reuse items, I had a coffee sleeve from national coffee chain in my office. I decided to take is apart to see how it looked flat and to get a feel for how it would fit on the Pint-Sized Container. Other than being too short, it was a pretty good fit. I traced the sleeve on a piece of copy paper sliding the sleeve at the straight end to make it longer. I decided that I might need it a bit longer so re-traced the sleeve placing it closer to the edge and at a slightly different angle to make it longer.

It is hard to see in the photo above, but I wrapped my template around the Pint-Sized Container, held it up to the light and marked where the template overlapped so I could get a better sense of the size it needed to be. It turns out that putting the template on a 12" x 12" paper or cardstock and using the full 12" width, that is I did not angle the template on the cardstock, made the sleeve fit on the Pint-Sized Container.

It was at this point that my need for perfection (or as close as I can get) kicked in. After all I am sharing this with the world and giving it as a gift so it had to look its best. [insert grin] It is hard to see in the photo above, but no matter how hard I tried I could not get a smooth cut from tracing my template and cutting it out with a craft knife or scissors. I tried to find a serving platter, cooking pot, actually anything around the house that had the shape I needed so I could cut against it to get a nicer edge, but to no avail. It was then that I decided to try to find an SVG file to use. Luckily I did at The Cutting Cafe, but I was back to making some test cuts to get the sizing correct.

My first cut using the SVG file (with the width set to 12") fit around the cup, but it was too tall. Almost all of the Pint-Sized Container was covered from lid to bottom. I duplicated it, enlarged the copy and used the slice feature to make the sleeve less tall (since the tab overlap will be covered I did not work to neaten the tab).

Since Close To My Heart only makes 12" x 12" cardstock, I knew I had to make my Cricut® think it had a larger paper to cut from. When previewing my design in Cricut® Design Space just prior to cutting, I moved the image to the 1" mark on the virtual mat. Then I placed my test paper on a 12" x 24" mat at the 1" below the top. As soon as I confirmed I positioned the paper correctly, I put my Paper Fundamentals on the mat, fed it into the Explore and cut it.

The cut lines near the bottom of the photo are barely visible, but I was able to cut the sleeve from this sheet of Paper Fundamentals.

I hope this information helps you create a sleeve, cut by hand or on the Cricut®, for your projects that use the Pint-Sized Container.

All supplies are from Close To My Heart except where noted:

• My Acrylix™ Spring Critters Stamp Set (C1638)
• Spring Critters Thin Cuts (Z3207)
• My Creations™ Pint-Sized Container (Z3137)
• Penelope Paper Packet (X7207B)
• Paper Fundamentals Whimsy (Z3127)
• 12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock (1385)
• Black Memento™ Ink Pad (Z899)
• Watercolor Paints (Z3132)
• Paintbrush Set (Z3188)
• Limeade Washi Pack (Z3198)
• Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection (Z3171)
• 3L® E-Z Dots® Adhesive (Z3022)
• 3-D Foam Tape (Z1151)
• Supplies not from Close To My Heart: Cricut® Explore, Cricut® Design Space, Coffee Cup Holder Set Template - [SVG] Cutting File from The Cutting Cafe, glass mat, craft knife, Tattered Lace Baby Blue [die cutting] Machine

If you are not already working with a CTMH Independent Consultant, you may purchase all of the CTMH supplies I used on my Online Business Address.

If you have a moment, please leave a comment. I love to hear what people think of my creations.

Thank you for visiting today. So you do not have to scroll back up, the next stop on the hop is ***Haley Dyer's The Inky Scrapper***.