All Aboard the Babycakes Express! "It's All About Baby" Blog Hop, Sept. 14

It is my pleasure to participate in the It's All About Baby Blog Hop, hosted by Miranda at Nana's Scrap Spot. As I'm the last stop on this great event, I'll make this a "linger longer" sort of post to describe my project in depth.

I thought of this project when considering what to make for a monthly "scraps to treasures" blog hop. I'd recently emptied a cylindrical container that held Panko bread crumbs -- and if you're like me, you'll relate to this: I looked at that container and instantly thought, "What can I make from this?"

...and don't ask me WHY, but I thought of a train, using Close To My Heart's newest "Babycakes" line of paper. Here is the finished project: 

Starting with the engine, I covered the clean can with a wrap of the dotted Babycakes B&T Duo. I trimmed it out with the zip-strips on the edge of the designer paper.  I made the engineer's house just by guessing the measurements ("eyeballing"). I decided to make windows all the way around, and cut them out using an X-Acto knife. I lined the windows with scrap acetate, to give the structure body.

Here's a view of the front of the Engine:

I decided to make the "nose" of the Engine using rosettes that I stacked on top of the removable plastic can lid, leaving the can empty for a gift onesie for baby. If I was feeling really industrious, I'd design and make the matching onesie -- maybe later!

On the tip of the "nose", I put a beautiful rhinestone gem that I cut from some scraps from The Buckle Boutique.  I'm newly appointed to The Buckle Boutique's first Design Team ... you can see my first post for them by clicking HERE.  (It's a whole different project that I'm featuring today! Talk about industrious!!  I've been BUSY!!)

I crafted the hinged roof over the engineer's house, punching the edge with a CTMH new scallop edge punch. (Love that thing!!) 

TIP:  Oh, let me give you a hint on the rosettes:  Normally, I'd make these using hot glue to hold them securely. But this year, CTMH introduced Adhesive Dots that are super-duper strong and WAY easier to use for rosettes. Really! Try them!

The wheels are also made with rosettes, these cut from CTMH "Whisper" cardstock.  The monkey hanging from the roof is from the "Wild Things" CTMH stamp set.  I dubbed the train the "Babycakes Express" and set the little sign on my computer, trimming it and inking the edges in CTMH Exclusive Ink in Sunset color.

Moving on to the Cage Car:

This car was cut on my Silhouette Cameo using a file purchased from the Silhouette Online Store. 

I had to manipulate the file a little bit -- and the Silhouette Designer Edition software makes this super-easy! -- to be the right size.  Again, the wheels are rosettes cut from CTMH Whisper cardstock. 

The adorable giraffes (love them!) are from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge, cut in 7.5".   I inked the edges of the giraffes, and also tied bows on their necks using yellow seam binding ribbon.

For the "box car", I further manipulated the file for the cage car (above) by running the Cameo's digital "eraser" through the horizontal center of the cage. I joined the sides together digitally, added the word CIRCUS, and dropped the flourishes onto the swirled top edges.

Pardon my pun (but I'm like that!), but since this is a "box car", that is what this car holds -- a dozen 1.75" cube boxes that can hold candy or other baby gifts like socks, gift cards, binkies, etc.  The back of the car has intentionally off-center stacked layers under a sign that says "It's about to get Wild Around Here!"  I tied some giraffe-stained ribbon to the sign. It's wild!

The only other detail that I want to show you is how I opted to link the rail cars together. I cut apart a CTMH "Base and Bling" Necklace to use the discs to be attracted to magnets I put on the railcar perimeter. Nifty, huh?

BACK to the BUSINESS of the BLOG HOP:

If you care to comment on my post here, and also choose to become a follower of my blog, I'll put you in the running for my delicious BLOG CANDY!  You see, writing this post in this yummy brown color has gotten me thinking about ... CHOCOLATE!  And I have an extra Close To My Heart "A Chocolate Affair" stamp set to give away to a randomly picked person who comments/follows this blog.

As I mentioned earlier in the Hop, I'm the last (and not least) stop on this fun Hop. So there's no one to send you off to -- I'm just going to say THANK YOU for hopping along with us.  Do come again!

P.S. -- If I can help you purchase any Close To My Heart products, it would be my honor to be your Consultant.  You can find an online catalog at http://cardmonkey.ctmh.com.

Defiantly DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,