Provo Craft sponsored a contest for the official launch of its new E2 on HSN.  The contest was to make a banner with any cut but it must spell Cricut.  Simple rule- no size, no specified product manufacturer other than Provo Craft.  Two entries allowed per person.  World of possibilities in execution.

I decided that my pennant should have a means of displaying it as opposed to either stretching one’s arms or enlisting a helper.

Entry 1 – Ghost Bug

This entry uses Country Life for the pennant shape, the chair is from Summer in Paris, and bats, spider, skull,  and ghoulish font is from Happy Hauntings and October 31st.

The chair measures about 9″ tall and the banner is attached via a homemade spring with 18 gauge wire from the jewelry crafts department.  There are multiple layers of cardstock and chipboard adhered together in order to reinforce the chair.  The chair is then “glossy accented” and sprinkled with glitter highlights.  The chair and “rug” are attached to a wooden base.

For design cohesion, I used black and white bakers twine (around of all the edges in the chair), and black, turquoise,  and yellow green for the cuts.

Here is a closeup of the banner: 

And one which shows the side of the chair and dimension of the ghost:

The second entry was something completely different for me – a nice little clothesline between two trees.

This one is pretty easy to do, and I will share the cut information in case you want to create one of your own for someone in your life.

Cut two trees from April Showers at 11 inches.  The tree trunks are also from April Showers and cut at 11 inches.   Adhere the trunks on top of the tree cut.  Pierce two holes on either side of the trunk where you want the clothesline to hang.

Cut the dress at 3.3 inches from A Child’s Year – one in pattern and another (hiding the contours) in solid.  Use your Gypsy or Cricut Craftroom to put each letter along the right hand side of the dress (Storybook at 1″).   Attach the patterned dress front to the solid dress front.  Cut away the “hangar” by hand with scissors.  If you want to add a scalloped collar, punch a 2 inch scallop or cut one using your Cricut.  Glue along the edge of the scallop and attach the scallop to the dress in the neck area.  You can get at least 2 collars from each scallop.  Trim away the excess by turning over the dress, and following along the edge of the neckline with your scissors.  Glue a small contrasting button.

Clothespin your dresses together to determine the length of your clothesline.  Mine are very tightly spaced as I wanted to make sure I could mail this (the total length of the wood base is 18 inches and the edge of the trees do not extend past the base).  Use this measurement to determine the distance between the trees and glue two 9″ dowels to a piece of stained wood.  In order to get the dowel to stand up straight, I ran the dowel through a wooden pin doll stand piece, and glued both pieces to the base board.

Attach the trees to the dowels by centering trunk on dowel.  Reinforce trunk as necessary on the back.  I cut two inch long strips and attached one end on each side of the tree and over the dowel.  Beacon’s 3 in 1 glue worked great for this.   Run the clothesline twine using the punched holes.  Make sure you go behind the tree and make a loop to attach the twine to the dowel to improve the “carry capability” of your line.

Attach the dresses to the clothesline using those little clothespins that they sell at the big craft stores.  Decorate trees as you wish.  I used Mother’s Day Bouquet and cut small white flowers at 1 inch.  The centers are more of the buttons and colors that I used for the dresses.

The width and height of the grass depend on the length of your clothesline.  The long cut is from the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake cart and the two patches around the trees are from A Child’s Year.