Making bunny candy holders with my sister...

I hope you all are not tired of following along on my travels. I got to my sister's home in New Jersey tonight and we made some bunny candy holders. As is often the case, things did not go quite as smoothly as they should! (Here is a LINK to my original post about the bunny candy holders with the file and detailed directions in case you missed it).

I am traveling with my baby bug which I actually don't use very much - it comes out primarily to test certain cut files to be sure that baby bug owners can use them. However, it is a bit more portable for travel and I have an older Creative Memories bag that fits very well to protect it in transit.

We set the bug up, got the paper loaded and I showed her how to put in the cartridges as the Design Studio called for them - everything seemed to be in order but when we pressed "cut" only the rectangle cut. I think she had not pushed the Doodlecharms cartridge in far enough. Since this bug sees little use the cartridges seem to need a bigger push to get seated properly.

Of course, I had only one 12 x 12 piece of the paper we wanted to use to make two bunnies (one for each grandson), so it was time to get creative...



I did a "save as" of my file and in the new file I copied and pasted the bunnies to a new page and then"slid" the two bunny heads away from the rectangle. We cut again - this time cutting only the bunny heads. I had unticked the "weld" box so all of the details would cut on these bunnies. We also went back to the original file and cut the second bunny box in the original format - making sure that the Cricut recognized both cartridges by watching the screen for the cartridge names to appear.



We then did the scoring and folding as in the original but for the "boo boo bunny" we just put the base box together and then adhered the head to the box.



Above you can see the improvised bunny box. It really works out fine since the ribbon will cover nearly all of the connecting seam.



We made two blue argyle bunnies for B and H (the grandsons) using different ribbon and flower colors for each of them. Then we decided to make two pink bunnies for a couple of girls from the neighborhood who are going to have some baking lessons with my sister.



When we made the pink bunnies, we decided to leave the "back" side plain. I had originally imagined these as table favors and so I put a face on both sides.

It is simple to change the file. Just left click on each eye of the bunny on one side of the mat (the line will turn red) and then right click and choose "hide selected contour" from the list. You don't need to worry about hiding the detail cuts on the main page since the bunny heads are welded to the base and those lines will not cut. Then, on the detail page, you can either click "weld" on the bunny head that you don't want to cut the details for, or hide the details lines individually. Either way will work, but it may be less confusing when you look at the page to hide the contours even though it takes a bit longer.



We also came up with a solution for the "whisker problem." I didn't really care for the plastic lacing or "boondoggle" that I used on my original example. We thought of raffia and pipe cleaners but in the end, simply cut very thin strips of the same glitter pink cardstock that we used for the noses and glue them to the faces at pleasing angles.



She hasn't decided whether to ink the mouth or not - I think I like just the suggestion of the mouth from the cut line.



To repeat some answers to a few questions I have had about the bunnies - if you don't have Plantin Schoolbook just delete the box base and place a rectangle of exactly the same size (2 inches wide x 5 inches high) from any cartridge you do have, in exactly the same position (check the "X" and "Y" values in the Shape Properties Box before you delete the Plantin rectangle X = 5 and Y = .5).



If you want to make the basket part of the holder larger you can increase the width of the base any amount up to about 4 inches, center it on the mat and reposition the heads accordingly - at 4 inches your "basket" will be 2 x 3 inches and hold more candy (always a good thing!). If you use a 12 x 24 mat and paper you can make it even larger but should increase the size of the head proportionately.



If you want both sides of the bunny head to be plain so you can draw or stamp your own details, just follow the directions above on how to "hide selected contour" on both eyes on both bunnies - then cut only the first page of the file. It might be fun to make "blanks" and let children draw their own bunny faces.

If you want to make these with a friend who doesn't have Design Studio, or if you have your Cricut but no computer handy, you can just cut the base and the head separately and put them together as we did with the cut that went wrong.

I am going to stay an extra day here - we will do some more projects and I may be spotted checking out craft stores in Northern New Jersey tomorrow!