A Patriotic Challenge

Hi all! This is officially my first post. My  friend Maggie made me this awesome blog and used some previous postings to start it for me. Thank you, Maggie! Welcome. I hope you will become a follower and come visit me often.

My project today is for the Cricut Circle Patriotic Challenge over on the Circle Blog. It seems most of my projects these days are made for, or inspired by, the Circle Blog. I'm not even sure what the prize is this time, but wish me luck!

My project is a wreath. I had a naked grapevine wreath just hanging around the house for several months and a bare door that needed an adornment and decided I'd take this opportunity to do something about both of them. The challenge requirements were simple, at least two Cricut cuts and a patriotic them.

Here's what I did:

• The stars were cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge-cut at 3.5 inches (5) and 1.5 inches(10). I scored each heart from  point straight across using my Scor-pal. I folded each point along the score line and then pinched each leg of the star . This created the 3D effect. I cut 5 Circles at 2.75 inches and hot glued a large star to each. 

• Glue each star/circle to a pleated circle (not sure what these are officially called). They were made by cutting 2 12"X2" paper strips. Each strip was scored at 1/2 inch intervals and then accordion folded. The accordions were attach end to end and then joined to made an accordion circle. I had to hold the accordion in place while hot gluing the circle/star to it and it was a bit tricky.

• You can see at least one of my accordions turned out rather wonky (if you look closely). The USA sign was made using a simple frame and shadow from Lacy Labels (cut at 3.5 inches). The USA font was from the Birthday Cakes cartridge (cut at 2 inches), also with shadow. I'm really liking this cartridge. Thank you Kris S. (my Circle pal) for gifting me this awesome cartridge.

• I added some eyelets and bakers twine and there you have it. I really did not have high expectations for this project but really like the way it turned out. And it was very quick and simple to put together.

The small  stars were scattered around the wreath and adhered with hot glue. This was an extremely economical project. Materials were a grapevine wreath, cardstock, a few eyelets and bakers twine.

Maggie would be so proud of me for not being perfect...and yet still liking this project! Thanks to Daphne and Angie for giving me the patriotic paper I used, and to Maggie for teaching me how to make these stars 3D. I also used red, white and blue cardstock from Stampin' Up and Bazzill.

Please become a follower and leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!
Carole