When you see them on the cover of Seasonal Expressions 2 you will immediately fall in love. They have yet to sprout in your garden, but they can be popping up all over your craft room. Oh, the sweet, sweet flavor of STRAWBERRIES!
If you’ve got a green thumb and want the secrets of our papercrafted berry bliss, read on to satisfy your craving with these simple instructions:
1. Cut out the pieces.
Our adorable Paper Fundamentals make a great start for this project. The UV-coated patterns add a lifelike glossy sheen to the finished berries, making them look like they’ve just been picked from your strawberry patch.
The shapes are simple to cut and assemble using our Cricut® cartridges. For all the specifics, see the handy recipe below. We started with the strawberry box and topper from the Artiste cartridge, and then added a little extra greenery from the Art Philosophy cartridge to complete our fresh-off-the-vine look.
2. Ink the edges.
Our white-core cardstock is just the look we want . . . most of the time. In this case, we want nothing but bright, red juiciness. Ink up those edges with a color that matches your paper of choice. Here we’ve capitalized on Cranberry with a sponge dauber. We’ve also taken our Topiary leaves to the next level with some inking on the edges—it’s more magical than Miracle-Gro®!
3. Fold the panels.
You’ll find in your Cricut® Artiste carrying case some handy assembly instructions to guide you as you put together many of our Artiste projects. Our strawberries are found on page 53.
Fold along the helpful tic marks to make individual panels. There’s no need to score beforehand—in fact, doing so would take away from the curvaceous shape of the fruit. Steer clear of sharp creases.
4. Assemble the strawberries.
To construct that succulent strawberry shape, first secure the side tab with Glue Dots™ to create the “point” of the berry. Once that’s in place, pull up all other panels one by one, rounding rather than folding over, and secure on top with Glue Dots™.
5. Ink the remaining white space.
There’s that white core again, peeking through your tic marks! Take an inky sponge dauber to those remaining white spaces to make this berry extra convincing.
6. Assemble leafy top and attach.
Shape some of your inked leaves by hand to give them dimension, then layer them on top of each other to your liking, attaching with Glue Dots™. Attach your blossom (a beautiful touch, don’t you think?) to your leaf cluster, then attach the entire topper to your little red beauty with (yep, you got it) Glue Dots™.
Ta-da! There you have a summertime favorite so realistic it’ll make mouths water. If these aren’t a sweet idea, we don’t know what is.
Enjoy your harvest!
Recipe
Basket of Cricut® Strawberries
1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2033 Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment, Z2031 Paper Fundamentals Enchantment Assortment, Z2032 Paper Fundamentals Adventure Assortment, Z2642 Flaxen Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2170 Ruby Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2197 Pear Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2116 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2155 Topiary Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z1790 Cricut® Artiste Collection, Z1686 Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection
Cricut® Shapes:
Artiste
½”and ¾” Shift+Accent 2 ‹R› (cut several, p. 44)
1½”, 2″, and 2½” 3D Object ‹VlntnDay› (cut several, p. 72)
1¼”, 1½”, and 2″ Shift+3D Object ‹Valentne› (cut several, p. 72)
¾” and 1″ Shift+Accent 3 ‹F› (cut several, p. 54)
Art Philosophy
1″, 1¼”, and 1½” Shift+‹Leaf4› (cut several, p. 56)
