The post with the butterfly shadowbox.

Guess what happened to me today?

Clue #1: My employer called me at 5:33am.
Clue #2: I did a happy dance at 5:34am.
Clue #3: I'm still in my pajamas at 3:58pm. (Don't judge. They happen to be very warm and comfy.)

This surprise COLD day meant that I had plenty of time to clean the apartment, catch up on grading, and read for my grad classes. And I did do some of that...but I also made this paper butterfly shadowbox:

This is yet another Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot project. The software for SCAL makes it so easy to cut out any. shape. you. want. without buying an expensive Cricut cartridge. I could even cut out the shapes in this picture:

But I don't know why I would want to do that. So I won't.

For the shadowbox, I found a free vector image of a butterfly, traced it with SCAL, then cut out nine winged beauties in different coordinating papers.

These colors are the real colors--this was the only picture taken in actual daylight.

I inked the edges of the butterflies with leftover ink from this gratitude project to give the edges a slightly more textured and dimensional look. It helps the wings pop a little more on the white background.

Then all I had to do was arrange them in a way that looked right, attach them to the white background (I used this rare adhesive product called Scotch tape), and fold up the wings to make them 3D.

I like that no butterflies were harmed in the making of this project. :)

The post with the wine bottle wrap.

We went to a friend's Christmas party this past Saturday, and our wine gift was looking a little naked, so I made this festive wrap for it (inspired by a similar project I saw in my holiday Paper Crafts magazine).

I started by cutting some lightweight cardstock to cover the height of the label and snugly wrap the circumference of the bottle, and then I used my Cricut to cut out circles from regular scrapbook paper in sizes between 1" and 2".

The next step was to arrange the circles on the lower edge of the cardstock before adding some coordinating buttons.

Then, while I coaxed the accordion fold accent into staying glued together and not coming wildly undone, it nearly coaxed me into breaking into the wine right then and there. Seriously, I have never tried to accordion-fold paper into a circle before, and let's just say that I was almost as frustrated as the day we had to learn about proofs in math class. (If Fluffy is a poodle, then Fluffy is a dog. If Fluffy is not a dog, then Fluffy is not a poodle. If Fluffy relieves himself on the carpet and chews up my favorite pair of high heels, then Fluffy will wish he was never a dog nor a poodle.)

Well, that last one might not have been in my textbook. Although it would have made 9th grade math class significantly more interesting. As it was, we had to amuse ourselves by placing bets on when the dead plant in the window would spontaneously combust.

Anyway, I was feeling considerably agitated with Fluffy the accordion-fold medallion, but I did figure it out eventually. And it got easier after I did it more than once.

I would try to explain the process in writing, but it would probably make even less sense than that Fluffy nonsense above. Maybe I'll make a video of it--with Rick playing the accordion in the background! Get it? Clever, right?

Consider yourself warned if you ever click on a video we produce. ;)

The final touch was tying on the wired ribbon and adhering the bane of my existence the accordion-fold medallion with double-sided foam. I also added some self-adhesive gems to the bottom rim for extra holiday sparkle.

Voila!

We don't deal with full bottles very often (I tend to prefer the empty ones from strangers' recycling bins), but I thought this was a fun way to dress up a hostess gift for our friends.

And in case you were wondering, Rick can actually play the accordion. He taught himself, which was a process much speedier than the process by which I taught myself how to accordion-fold paper (and not full of nearly as many dramatic sighs).  If you're feeling skeptical, just ask our downstairs neighbor to vouch for his musical abilities. Or Gingerbread. She takes up residence under the bed when he breaks out that particular instrument. :)

The post with the dear little deer art.

Sorry, but the corny English teacher couldn't resist using homophones in the title. :)

The said "dear little deer art" below was inspired by a similar piece that I saw on the Better Homes & Gardens website,  but I can't, for the life of me, find the page anymore. If anyone spies it out there on the world wide web, please let me know so I can link to it!

I simply used my Cricut to cut out 8 baby deer and one plant in different color paper (that all mesh with my craft room color scheme), then adhered them to a larger white piece of paper to go in the frame. I put my own spin on the BHG idea by matting three of the deer on old book pages instead of just on the white paper. The extra varied texture created by the pages is a nice touch.

I could hang it on the wall, but for now, I think it looks sweet just leaning on my craft table.

You could use any shape you wanted for this particular project, but the reason I selected the baby deer is because A) they made me say "awww..." and B) Rick and his family have gone camping in Allegany State Park--where there are typically tons of deer around--just about every summer since he was crawling around in diapers and eating bugs off of the ground. So I thought it would be a sweet representation of his traditional childhood--and now adulthood!--vacations. And in case you were wondering, he no longer crawls around in diapers, but he still does occasionally eat bugs off of the ground. Oh wait, that's our cat. Sorry, sweetie. :)

So that's my simple die-cut frame project that cost me $0 since the frame had been a gift and the paper was already on hand. How about you? Any free, or close to free, projects happening lately? Any decor that reminisces on your childhood or vacations? Feel free to share! :)