How to design a custom candy bag topper

Happy Tuesday - today it is 1-11-11!  This is the second day of my week as Guest Designer on the Everyday Cricut blog.  If you are visiting here for the first time, I hope you will find lots of interesting and helpful information.  At the top of the right column you can click to subscribe by email or follow this blog if you want to keep up with my projects and tutorials.

These sweet little treat bags are great for anyone to share for Valentine's Day.  I filled 3 x 4 inch plastic ziplock bags from the craft store and used Design Studio to create a custom topper to fit the bags.  To see all of the assembly steps, please go to THIS POST on the Everyday Cricut blog.

Today I will explain how I created this topper and how you can make your own from many of the designs available on your favorite Cricut cartridges.   You can click on any of the screen shots to enlarge them so you can see the details more clearly.

I started with a border element - this one is from the Reminisce Accents cartridge and I chose it because it has hearts!

I measured the bags and I knew that the topper needed to be three inches wide.  I checked with a piece of scrap paper to be sure that a three inch square would work to cover the top once the topper was folded.  Then I placed a square on the mat and sized it to 3 x 3 inches.

Next I added the shadow version of the border element to the mat.  I sized it at one inch.  You can see that it is not wide enough so I used the "handle" at the right center of the selection box to stretch it to fit the square.

 I made sure that the shape fit neatly in the square.  Then I copied and pasted it, rotated the pasted image 180 degrees and slid the image to the bottom of the square.

Next I pulled down the square and pulled up the  bottom of the square to line up nicely with the heart design.  I kept the two rows of hearts in position to keep the size of the final topper to about 3 x 3 inches before folding.

Once this was done there was an awkward spot in the design which would cut a very tiny area and had the potential to snag the blade.

I added a couple of filler rectangles and welded  the design to eliminate these tiny cuts.  Here you can see the preview of the base of the topper - only the dark lines will cut.  If the welds don't work out the way they should, remember to work from the inside out to build your design so the welds will work correctly.  You can create the design and then copy and paste the elements in the proper order on a new mat in the file.

Next I added the top layer of the row of hearts located at this key.

I adjusted the heart shapes to fit the bottom layer and previewed the design.

Then I set up a page to cut the topper and the layer at the same time.

You can use any border element with layers to make a similar design.  I will try to make a quick video to show this procedure for those of you who learn more easily from a video than a written tutorial.  It really is quick and easy to do and there are so many variations possible.

Please go to THIS POST on the Everyday Cricut Blog for the assembly directions.

If you have any questions about making the topper please be sure to leave a comment and I will try to answer your questions.  The candy bag toppers are a lot of fun to make and you can do all sorts of embellishing - I kept these very simple.

Here is another type of candy holder and you can find the directions and the file for these at THIS POST from last year.

Answers to a few more questions and comments from yesterday's posts...

You do not need the deep cut blade to cut vinyl or contact paper.  I cut the fuzzy contact paper with a regular blade.

We have a fabulous old style five and dime (5 & 10) in West Concord.  They have pretty much anything you need and if they don't have it in the store they will get it in a day or two.  I will try to find out more information about the contact paper I bought there so I can give better information for those of you who are looking to find some for your projects.

I think the contact paper I used might be meant to be applied to the bottom of bookends and vases to keep them from scratching table tops  - I was surprised that it is red since that sort of adhesive paper is usually green.

The "Conversation" Cuttlebug folder I used was part of a bundle of six folders I got last year from HSN - I checked and found it on the Cricut.com site HERE, Creative Express HERE, Custom Crops HERE, and many others.

I checked today and the Wedding cartridge is available on the Cricut.com site - here is a LINK to the page.  I also found it on the Oh My Crafts site HERE, Custom Crops HERE, Creative Express HERE, Hallmark Scrapbook HERE, and many others when I searched online.  I think it must be "discontinued" but not gone yet!

A "card guideline" is simply a rectangle sized at the size of your card that you can use to plan the sizing and placement of your design elements.  You can do this even if you only have the trial version of Design Studio and you will save a lot of time and paper.  I'll be posting a video in the next day or so which will take you through the process step by step. Be sure to check back to my blog to see when it is posted.  You can also subscribe or follow so you won't miss a post.


One more note - The Reminisce Accents cartridge is sold exclusively through independent Creative Memories consultants.  I am a consultant and, if you do not have a local consultant, I would be happy to help you.  Here is a LINK to the page on my personal website where you will find the Cricut cartridges (Reminisce Accents and Cheerful Seasons).  You can order from the website and have your items delivered directly to you anywhere in the US.

I had another sweet to share but it will have to wait until later in the week.  Thanks for stopping by today.

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