4th of July Bunco Decor

Hi everyone!  It's been a while since I have posted.  I decided to take a break over the holiday while I spent time with my family and also prepared for the Bunco Party I hosted on the 5th. 

I have seen so many great decorations on the Circle Blog and on all the MBs that I had to make some for my Bunco party to make it special.  Here is what I made!

Here are the carts and materials I used.

Carts and Materials

• Shall We Dance - Hat
• Cindy Loo - exclamation marks on the hat
• George and Basic Shapes - Stars
• From my Stash - various buttons, twine, doillies, and paper

Notice that I did not mention the Stand and Salute Cartridge.  That's because I don't have it.  So how did I make the hat???

I found a hat on my G that I liked.  I then put some exclamation marks inside the hat to make the cutouts (I hid the dots).  I then made a second hat without cutouts for the background.  I cut out some blue stars seperately and added them to the hat with popdots.  I think it came out great!

I also made some pinwheels in small and large sizes.  These are very easy to make since I didn't have the Mother's Day bouquet cart either.  Once I pulled my corners together on the large one, I put a doily and 2 stars in the middle.  I finished it off with a button with postmail twine running through it.

The small ones were a bit more simple with a scalloped circle punched out of white glitter paper in the middle.  I then placed a star that had a contrasting twine bow glued to the middle of it on the circle. 

The red tissue paper bursts of color are what I call my "fireworks".  Don't they look like the fireworks once they have exploded in the sky?  I made these by folding 3 sheets of tissue back and forth like you are making a fan.  Snip the ends in a V for a decorative edge.  Next I stapled the fan in the middle and then spread the sheets of tissue paper apart.  Last, I hot glued some dowels in the middle so I was able to put them in the jar with the other stuff.

You can make multiples of everything so you can place them all around the room to carry the theme to everywhere your guest will be.  I even put a few in the bathroom!

Lastly, I welcomed my guests with a Southern Living plate that I ran holiday ribbon through.  I finished the plate off with a bow and a cute sentiment. 

I hope you get some inspiration from this project and make some cut decorations for your next gathering.  Until next time...

Smooches!

Ballet Bag for Layla

Our God Daughter, Layla, had her first Ballet and Tap dance recital this past weekend.  So of course I had to make something for her to commemorate the occassion.  I decided to make her a tote bag and I knew just which cart to use.  Here are the details!

Cart and Materials

• Shall We Dance (Cricut Circle Exclusive) - ballerinas
• MS Seasonal Cake Art - font for name
• Tote Bag - Simplicity brand from Joann's

Let me tell you, this bag took some trials to get it right!  For all the fabric, I used Heat & Bond Fabric Adhesive that you can buy by the yard at most fabric stores. 

I started with the ballerina's and I cut them with the Silhouette feature.  My first mistake was fabric choice.  I orignally went with a black duck cloth which turned out to be way too thick.  I set my gypsy to cut the image several times and it still wouldn't seperate cleanly from the fabric.  So I switched to a basic black calico fabric which is much thinner. 

It took me cutting the images 3 times before I got a clean enough cut.  I still had to snip them in a few areas in order to free them.  But they were done.  The Heat & Bond has a paper backing on it for cutting so I removed that and they were ready to iron on to the bag.

   

Cutting the letters was much more simple and I don't know why. I used a calico fabric for this as well.  Oh well!.  They came out crisp and clean.

Because you can't have a ballerina without a tutu, I decided to add some tulle to embellish this part of their silhouettes.  I took a stip of tulle, doubled it over and ran a running stitch through it so I could gatther it.  I then used Fabri-Tac to glue the tulle to the silhouettes just where I wanted.  I then glued a ribbon rose at the waist from my stash to add some femininity and to cover up the thread.

Here's our tiny dancer with her bag and her beautiful peonies.  She is a star in the making!  I hope you like the bag and try cutting fabric with your Cricut.  If you have any questions or want to leave me some blog love, leave a comment below!

Smooches,