Popcorn, Anyone?

Hello there!

I'm back with a teaser of a SUPER fun new stamp set, being released by MFT TONIGHT (Wednesday) at 10 pm EST. This set is SO perfect for your best girlfriend. You should see all the cute sentiments that go with it!

I was talking to Kim a while back, and she mentioned that It'd be fun if I made some kind of shaped card for this set and suggested a popcorn box. I decided that was a super fun idea that I HAD to put in motion. I feel like I'm becoming a bit of a "one trick pony," always doing shaped cards. I just like them SO much. I think I'll get back to "normal" cards soon. But I had to indulge myself one last time, first.

Here it is!




For the outside of the card, I hand drew and cut out a popcorn box shape (super easy -- basically just a triangle, without a tip!). Then I cut out "stripes" of red decorative paper and adhered them to the front to make a striped box. I stamped out "popcorn" with my Bling 'Bet set, cut out the letters, and framed them using circle Nestabilities. For the letters, I colored with a red Copic spica pen in each bling hole and added a dot of Glossy Accents on each one. I colored and cut out the adorable popcorn image that comes with this stamp set and added it to the center. Finally, I glued a bunch of pieces of popcorn (more on that later) to the top of the box.





When the front was done, I put a thin strip of adhesive on the left and right sides and the bottom edge and adhered it to another piece of cardstock that I had cut to the same shape and size. This created a pocket.

If you grab the top of the popcorn and pull (like you're about to grab a big 'ole handful of buttery goodness), an inner card pops out!





I intentionally made the majority of the inner card one-layer, because I didn't want a lot of bulk or edges to be caught when the card was sliding in and out of its popcorn box sleeve. To make it, I stamped the main image and the sentiment on the card and colored it with Copics. I did a really simple coloring job this time around, because I thought the rest of the card was wild enough. :) I inked the edges in yellow and attached tons more popcorn pieces to the top.





Here's a popcorn box and inner card together.





And here's a close-up of that YUMMY popcorn.





Interested in how I made it? It's really easy! Here's a quick tutorial for you.

(I'll apologize for the poor quality photos and bad lighting in my craft room in advance!)

First, grab a flower punch and punch out a bunch of flowers. I punched mine out of cream cardstock that had a bit of texture to it.






Next, you're going to cut off selected portions of the flower to make a popcorn-y shape. I wanted to have a couple of different shapes, so I trimmed mine two different ways. In the photo below, you are trimming off the blackened area to reveal the shape shown above it.




Next, I inked the edges first with yellow ink and then just barely "kissed" them with brown ink.




You could be done after this step and have perfectly fun popcorn! For mine today, though, I wanted a bit more dimension, so I decided to get them puffed up like real popcorn.

To do this, I swirled on some globs of puffy paint. A lot of people use Liquid Applique for this, and that would work too. I've just always used the cheap-o giant tube of puffy paint!




Next, you just heat the paint until it gets puffy. You can wait for it to dry first or heat it while it's wet -- they create two different looks. I wanted mine REALLY puffy, so I puffed it up while it was still wet.




And finally, so the pieces had a *bit* more color, I gently kissed each puffed-up piece again with yellow and a touch of brown ink.

Here are the completed pieces. Now just do that about 4,000 times, and you have a box of popcorn! LOL





Hope you've enjoyed this today. Don't forget about the release tonight! If you'd like to come hang out with us, we'll all be chatting it up in the MFT forum tonight from 8 pm EST until the stamps are all released at 10 pm EST. Come say hello!

And don't forget to check out what the other awesome ladies have been creating with this set! Kim will have links to all kinds of wonderful projects on her blog, beginning at 11 am EST today.

Enjoy your day!