Tom in Wonderland

As soon as Campin Critters was released, I grabbed it for my husband... no, he isn't interested in Cricut or papercrafting or camping.  He does however, have an interest in Big Foot.  I often purchase a cartridge for one image, finding other treasures once it is in my collection.  On this one, I fell in love with the animals and the old fashioned trailer-style camper!  I used the marshmallow-roasting porcupine for some last-day-of-school s'mores kits for my daughter's class last year.  If you missed it, you can click here to see that project.

When I saw the Campin Critters challenge on Curt Jensen's Typecast Creative blog, I was thrilled to have another excuse to use it.  As you may have read on a previous post on my blog, Curt Jensen is an illustrator for Provocraft.  This challenge was my opportunity to also make something for my husband, who lately has complained that I never make anything for him...so this Cricut project is ALL ABOUT TOM!

I started thinking that Tom would be in a Big Foot costume (as in my Keith in a Pickle project--click here to see that) but decided it would be more fun if he had stumbled upon his favorite silly things as himself.

I started with one of the trees with the animals poking from behind it.  This cut is from Campin Critters (page 60), flipped and cut at 9".  (All cuts for this project were made on my Expression).  I found a photo I took of Tom at a drag race.. I don't know what he is doing... looks like an impersonation of Dr. Smith from Lost In Space to me.   (He tries to entertain me and our daughter when we give up our Saturday afternoons for those kinds of venues).  After I printed it, I checked it against the cut to be sure of the scale.  It is supposed to look like those old cartoons where the large-scale critter hides behind the too-skinny tree and I didn't want to lose that with Tom's picture!

I trimmed off the bear's silhouette and replaced him with the picture of Tom.  I added a hand-cut shape to give him a shoulder.  I embossed this tree with a Cuttlebug Diamond embossing folder to give it texture and help it pull away from the trees that will be in the background.  (I thought this was a fun choice since you see this pattern stamped in metal on truck toolboxes.  I bet he notices that.)

My husband loves Big Foot sightings... has seen lots of UFOs... and adores jackalopes.  Where do I start to explain this to you?  Well, let's start with jackalopes.  This is a big topic in our home and even the word is common here as an alternative to swearing, as in That guy was a real jackalope today.  I pointed out a stuffed jackalope on the wall of the music store where our daughter takes piano lessons and sure enough, Tom had to take a picture of it with his phone and started convincing the drummer behind the counter that jackalopes were real and, in fact, vicious.  The true fun in this is Tom's amazing talent of persuasion.  The guy believed it just as readily as Tom's cousin who was convinced that Elvis really did have 11 toes ...but that's another story.

I knew that guitar-playing bunny could easily be turned into a fabulous jacklope.  (The guitar is a "Tom thing" too as my husband loves to play so I knew he would like that!)  For my jackalope, I cut the rabbit from page 32 at 3".  I added google eyes at 4mm and 5mm in lieu of die cut eyes.  The antlers are from the moose on page 29, cut at 5".  (I stopped the Cricut once the antlers were cut since that is all I needed from that image).  You can see I tape my papers onto my mat-- I like a barely sticky mat and adore the way that works to help my die cuts pop right off-even intricate ones!  (Scotch Magic Tape works even when using the Imagine and taping over the back lines!)

Once I had the jackalope and Tom, I had to start thinking about the composition...

Big Foot has been a fun diversion for Tom since he was a kid.  I first made a sign for the tree from the image on page 30, cut at 1-3/4".  To make it look like it was nailed to the tree, I bent a small brad and inserted it only to the bend.  Then the sign was applied with an 1/8" pop dot.  A bit of grass cut with an edge punch finished the tree element.

Next, UFOs... well, have you ever listened to Coast-to-Coast in the middle of the night?  This is a ritual for us as we often travel in the wee hours of the morning after working weekends out of town.  Coast-to-Coast, if you don't know, is talk radio where intelligent-seeming adult persons actually call in to discuss things like UFOs, Big Foot sightings, aliens, elves, and other things that most of us quit thinking seriously about after age 9.  If you are half-asleep, as I was the first time I heard it, you may mistake it for a regular show with impassioned callers... that is until you hear something like, "So how many elves tall was he?"  (That was an actual line that I heard.)  One night, I am sure I will be awakened by the sound of Tom's voice calling in to the show.  (Tom put himself through college as a radio DJ and by doing singing telegrams so you can imagine that he would be a perfect animated caller to that show!)  Tom sees UFOs all the time from our back deck.  I have never seen them, but then again, I don't drink... but I digress...

My flying saucer was cut out of metallic cardstock from Space Party at 1-1/4"... it is another of Curt Jensen's cartridges that I bought for Tom.  I hand-cut the beam of light from vellum.

Next, I worked on the background.  The gravel walkway was deckled with decorative scissors and the grass was cut with the same edge punch as before for the base of the tree.   I cut two wooded areas with the image on Campin Critters from page 62 at 3" and adhered them for the horizon.

I adhered the jackalope with 1/2" popdots; the tree and Tom were adhered with 1/4" popdots.  The flying saucer was adhered flat.  I adhered the vellum that formed the beam of light by running it through the Xyron so that it would be somewhat transparent, totally fixed in place, and not curl.

I originally thought the 'hint' of Big Foot with the sign would be enough, but I decided that I wanted the flying saucer to pursue Big Foot in the background so I cut him at 1-1/2", flipped, so he would fit inside the beam of light.  I used a white ink pad to lighten his head and shoulders to look like he was being showered with light. 

I hand-cut a small shadow for him to stand on. His feet were adhered flat; his head and shoulders were lifted with an 1/8" pop dot.

To finish, I hand-cut a mat and then two plain sign shapes from Campin Critters (page 66) at 5-3/4" to form a frame.  The lettering was cut from Feeling Groovy with shadow.  "TOM" was 2"; "in" was 1-1/2"; "Wonderland" was 1-1/4". 

It was so much fun to do this project for Tom.  It is one of the goofiest projects I have ever made, but I think he will get a kick out of it.  Just so you know (and because I couldn't let you leave without knowing), Tom is a creative and brilliant entrepreneur.  His fixation on this silly stuff makes him a super fun dad and a pretty cool travel companion on all those late-night weekend work trips.  He has some not-so-much-fun interests in things like history, geology, and politics, but gee, they just aren't as much fun to cut out of paper!  As a serious art lover (read: edgy), he tends to stay clear of my whimsical craft blog, so I am sure my project will remain a secret to him until I present it. 

Be sure to check the Typecast Creative Blog November 14 to see all the entries and links to the projects using Campin Critters.  It should be fun to see everyone's take on this challenge!  The two I have seen so far on blogs have been so creative and fun!

To see all of my projects in My Project Gallery, click here.