Monday, January 24, 2011

Christmas Crackers

Last week I about pulled my hair out over the challenge at Bah Humbug Blog but this week I'm set.  Last week was stencils (I could show you how to see what I made but honestly, I'd like to forget that creation).

Go get your coffee or a little something to hold you over.  I've got a story and something to show you.

The challenge was to make something to do with Christmas Crackers.  Here is the post so you can see what the design team made and the exact challenge. I recommend playing along if you get a chance. 

I decided to make Christmas Crackers.  I had been thinking about making these since Christmas Night but I hadn't gotten around to actually putting it all together.  My family normally has Christmas Crackers on the table when we have our traditional Trivial Pursuit game and a light meal.  We normally have this lovely meal of salmon, shrimp, cheese and crackers and some veggies and dip. We break open the Trivial Pursuit game and after a couple of glasses of wine we open our Crackers.  This last year we didn't have enough crackers for everyone.

I should be clear, we live in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and Christmas Crackers are not a normal part of the holiday.  We can sometimes buy them but they are terribly overpriced and not very good.  While I have a brother that flies home from London to Atlanta for Christmas, whatever extra space he has in his bags is reserved for Wine Gums (people claim you can buy these in the states but they aren't the same).
This is a box of wine gums.

So, I started thinking on Christmas night about making crackers for next Christmas.  The Wonderkid thought crackers were fantastic and couldn't understand why we didn't have them every night.  Half of this year's were musical instruments and the other half were random.  We wore the lovely tissue paper crowns for the remainder of the night and periodically I still find the whistles from the musical crackers in random places (hidden by the Wonderkid).

Enough about my excitement for this challenge.  Here is what I did.

I bought some paper at the post-holiday sales at Michaels.  This is the paper.





Then I went and searched SVGCuts.com because I thought they had a cut so I could make these in my E.  They did, it was even a freebie (have I mentioned how much I love SVGCuts?)  They keep all of their freebies on their blog.  Here is the cracker freebie.

So, I resized the cracker to the largest that would fit on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.  It ended up being 6.5 inches wide and 10.75 inches high.  I cut 6 of them out of three different pattern papers.

These are the three different patterns.

Then I added a tag.  The scallop is from Mini Monograms.  The sentiment is from The Cutting Cafe (a great place to find digi stamps, especially sentiments in a circle). 
Then, I added a brad to the scallop to attach it to the cracker.  I added 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon to tie the crackers shut. 



This is what it looks like.  I haven't added the candy but I have a tissue paper hat inside already.  I'll open one end up and add the candy in December.  I read online you can purchase the mechanism that make them "crack".  I'm off to purchase some for this year.

I hope you like my creation.  If you know where to get the internal pieces, I'd love to hear.  Thank you for looking and have a wonderful day.

6 comments:

Annie said...

These are just fabulous - wow to have a machine that will cut them too that's brilliant. Yes you can buy the snaps but I don't know where sorry. I use to make my own, but now (being a skinflint LOL) I buy ready made ones in the Jan sale and decorate them to my taste and also add things to the inside. Better crackers.
When my daughter worked in Spain she introduced them to crackers as they had never heard of them.
Thanks for sharing both your creation and some interesting chat with us at Bah! Humbug!
Ann xxx
Bah! Humbug! DT

Georgiana said...

Wow! These are neat. You did a great job and I love that paper.

Georgiana

Christine B. said...

Wow. Love your crackers they look great and I love the paper you have used. Great you can cut them out. Hugs x ChrisB

DonnaMundinger said...

What totally elegant crackers! Would love to find the snaps, too. Congrats on your Spot Prize win! xxD

Max said...

Apologies for the tardiness getting around to commenting on your entry for our Cracker Challenge, but am only now up to sitting for any length of time in front of the computer following my surgery.
Anyway ... I have to say your set of crackers totally blew me away when I saw them and am so pleased that our challenge motivated you into action for this year. How ironic that you then went on to win the pretty cracker Spot Prize at Bah! Humbug! ... must've been fate or something. Hope you enjoy the crafty goodies hiding inside. Thank you for sharing with us at Bah! Humbug!

Luv'n'Stuff
Max
xx
Max's Craft Creations
Bah! Humbug! Challenges DT

Michelle (aka Meechelle) said...

Just now seeing these thanks to your WOYWW post. These are gorgeous!