August 2, 2009

Jelly Belly Halloween surprise

It's been raining since 8am. It's now 3:00pm and it's still coming down; drizzling. Shortly I'm about to head outside with my sketch pad, to enjoy the rest of this weather while it last.

Today I decided to try my hand at some hand-made crochet flowers. I've seen them all over the Internet and have been itching to create one. They're so tiny and feminine. Here's a few Cindy Van Sluys created. Seeing her lovelies is what first put the idea into my head.




I took me close to 3 HOURS to make just one of flower. Now, it didn't take me three hours to crochet. Some of that time was spent looking for suitable fiber, a needle, getting old books from the attic, browsing through said books and looking for info on how particular chains were made.

As a last resort I opted for an online video from You Tube. I still had trouble with it. My flower was twice the size of the instructor. I was never good a crocheting. Still, I'm persistent in getting one made that is nice enough for my art. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Now on to the second project of the day. A fun little jellybean treat card for the kids. The card uses From the Crypt stamp set (SU!)., a few circle punches and one recycled object.



A close-up of the side of the card. The container is filled with pear flavored Jelly Bellies. Those gourmet can be quite pricey, but they work well for this particular project; any project really where you need to 'color coordinate'.





Here is what the jellybean case is made of. Great idea huh? I have some of those mini Mott's Applesauce containers saved for another project very similar to this. Maybe fill it up with cookies or marshmallows. YUM!



SU! will be coming out with something very similar in September. Unfortunately I didn't want to wait. Besides, isn't it great to recycle the things you have?

The images below will show you the basic assembly. You can make the square the main cup is in any size you want. What's important is the size of the hole for laying over the cup. I used a 1 7/8" circle punch to make the hole. You could probably use another size but that seemed to work well. You want the circle large enough to go over the cup and lie flat on top of the card.

The green circle inside the cup is simply for extra support (to keep the jelly's in). Lay sticky strip over the cup; this will secure it to the main card.


Turn the cup over and lay it on your base square layer (refer to the main image for layering). Press down on the cup to secure those strips of tape.


Attach your stamped image right over the top of the olive green base. Note: both circles use the same circle punch. Two dimensionals were placed on top of the cup to 'lift' the skull image away. You want to lift it up, it will not lie nicely flat on the cup; the inner circle has a recess.

That's it! Now, it's your turn. Save those crystal light containers, applesauce and other plastic cups to create your own. I'd love for everyone to see what you have created. Send me what you've done by August 7th and I'll post all the images here for others to see.


3 comments:

dn said...

Great idea Mel, the price is right and recycling is always a good idea, cute too!

Germaine Ferrao -Lenn said...

WOw, love your flowers, I too want to give that a try, made these 20 odd years ago, so will have to hold that needle again! like yours very nice, and also the jelly belly jar is nice! Hugs always!

Nikki Bond said...

Great idea! Thanks for the info! {SMILES}