Friday, February 25, 2011

Ah, Nuts!

So it seems like all I want to do these days is work on things for the baby's room. In related news, I have been through 7 paint samples...all blues and greens. I think it's between the last 2 that I tried so at least there's progress. The nursery theme is forest friends...you know, woodland creatures and such. We got this Carter's crib set. Although the Gnome loves squirrels, there are no squirrels featured in this crib set. To make up for this slight against squirrels, I decided to feature them in one of my crafty projects for the room. 


I saw a project in a magazine a while ago that involved cutting out a shape multiple times in different patterned papers or fabrics and then placing them in a framed grid. The project I saw had a grid of teapots with a teacup in the bottom right corner. Enter my Cricut Expression and Give a Hoot cartridge. There are actually several squirrel shapes in this cartridge. I chose some patterned papers from my stash and swiftly ordered my Cricut to cut some squirrels. I got a little squirrel-happy and cut too many out, but that left me with more of a selection so it's okay. There's also an acorn shape on the cartridge so I cut out one of those too for the bottom right corner.


For the grid, I used my Martha Stewart 12 x 12 cutting mat and some scrap yarn. The frame I bought was a 12 x 12 frame so I used a 12 x 12 piece of textured cardstock for the background. I taped down pieces of yarn to outline exactly where each squirrel would be placed. Here's what the grid looked like:
I got out my adhesive roller and started positioning those squirrels. Here's what the page looked like after gluing and grid removal:
And here is the completed project:
Last week, I ended my post with a peep of a project that was still in progress. Well, it's still in progress, but here is a pic of the next step:
I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software to cut out the tree. LollyChops made the tree .svg file, which you can find here (the tutorial for her original project is also in that post). I cut the leaves out of different colors of felt and cardstock. The buttons are from my grandmother's stash. I haven't glued the tree down yet (in fact, the buttons aren't even attached). I can't figure out what to do next. LollyChops put some strips of felt along the bottom with the word "home." Any suggestions?


That's all for now! See you next Friday!


Leaf out.



4 comments:

  1. Hi there - I love it! Along the same lines my grandfather made wood stuff and in our upstairs bathroom we have one that has a grid of 9 or 12 apples. All the same, then the last one has a worm coming out of it.

    On your tree art, "home" could work since you have the woodland creatures theme. I like the idea of a word - maybe brainstorm on other baby/ woods/ squirrel themed words? "Habitat" would be cute! Or even just "tree". Or you could put the same acorn in the bottom right and skip the word. I love the woodgrain look of the background.

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  2. Or what about a nod to the Etsy shop and do "Leaf" or "Leaf Out"?

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  3. @EG
    Thanks EG! I think I want to put a word, and I like Tree or Leaf.

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  4. That tree came out really cute! I love it...I have free SVG's on my blog too.
    I love squirrels but they are the nemesis of my Irish terrier...It's like the dogs in that movie UP...heee heee

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