20 Circles Ball on the 7th Day of the Artiste in August Blog Hop

Welcome to the 7th day of the Artiste in August Blog Hop This is a circular hop and  Pamela O'Connor is the blog in front of mine.  We are a group of Close to My Heart Consultants who are making a different project each day using our brand new Close to My Heart Exclusive Cricut Artiste Collection.  Each day we will be focusing on a different shape or box that you can cut out with the Cricut Artiste cartridge.

Our project today is the 20 Circles Ball.  It is called 20 Circles Ball because it is made up of 20 Circles and it is a ball.  It can be found on pg 57 of the Cricut Artiste Handbook. This was not one of my favorite projects in this cartridge.  The handbook says that you cut the circles at 1", so I did.  That is pretty small.  The score cuts are really small and almost impossible for my old eyes to see on patterned paper.

After my difficulty in putting the baby booties together yesterday, I decided to make a prototype out of computer paper.  I cut all of the circles, scored them, and folded them - just like the picture shows in the Artiste Assembly Book, pg 35.  I was feeling very competent and on the top of the world.. . . . until I finished and looked at what I had created.  It wasn't very round.  In fact my son said it looked like what the dog lost when he got neutered.  Oh great!  Just what I wanted to make out of paper!  And my fingers were covered with Aleene's Super Tacky Glue, which worked wonders for my last night, but not so much today.

So I pulled it apart, got out the hot glue gun, and set back to making it again.  This time I made a football!  Well, football season is coming up and I am looking forward to it even though I don't know who to root for since Indianapolis exploded and sent their players all over the place.  But that wasn't the challenge.  According to the other blog hoppers, my ball was supposed to be ROUND.

Hmmmm.  I had so much glue on my fingers that I was not sure whether I was peeling off glue or the skin on my fingers.  But it was getting in the way of my creating.  Then I got the sanding tool and just sanded it down.  All the time I was chuckling because I was pretty sure that somehow or another this was either some kind of psychological test or an intelligence test and I was failing.

One more try.  I broke out my C'est La Vie Paper Pack, I mean La Belle Vie Paper Pack and decided that I might have half a chance of seeing those darn score cuts on the pink side of the patterned paper.  I cut out my 20 circles, with 5 extra just in case.  Then I CAREFULLY scored and folded these circles as accurately as I could.  They looked pretty darn good.

Now for the tricky part -  gluing those dang things together.  I heated up my hot glue gun, and armed with the advice of Lalia Harris (one of our bloggers), I was ready to put this ball together.  Apparently, the Assembly Book really could have used one more set of pictures illustrating how to put this ball together.

This is what you do.  You glue 5 circles together into a star shape and then where the circles touch, you should always have a 5 circle star shape.

So don't do what I did in my first and second computer paper "ball".  Don't make 4 sets of 5 circles (and by the way, once you fold them they are triangles) and then try to glue the 4 sets together.  Just don't do it.  It doesn't work!  Glue 5 circles together and then keep adding one circle at a time, making sure that you always have 5 circles touching, forming a star, until you have a ROUND Ball.

FINALLY!  Here is a picture of my ROUND Ball.

I love the star shape it makes on the sides.

I added pink bling to the points and decided to add Prisma glitter to it.  Not so sure about the glitter, but it isn't coming off.  I tied a knot in some pink organza ribbon and formed the last part of the ball around it.  I was thinking that you could put some potpourri inside before you close it up entirely or maybe make it with Christmas patterned paper and it could be a Christmas ornament.

 Well, I win!  My 20 Circles Ball is ROUND!  Now off to the next challenge.

I guarantee you that you really NEED the Cricut Artiste.  Look at all you receive with the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection.

• The Cartridge has 700 images - Themed Projects, Cards, Font, and 3-D Items
• Has 3 My Acrylix D-size Stamp Sets that coordinates perfectly with the shapes cut out by the Artiste
• Has 3 Coordination 12" x 9" Dimensional Elements Sheets including a Mini Album

Contact me today to get the entire collection  for just $99 (retail value of nearly $125) or you can place your order on my website.

Now please continue hopping.  Your next stop will be to Denise Hobb's Blog.  

And then please come back tomorrow!  This Blog Hop goes all August long.  See you tomorrow!

Here is a complete list of hoppers in case you get lost:
Gloria Rogers - http://www.scraptabulousstudio.com/
Tricia Rathke - http://craftingthedayawayy.blogspot.com/
Lalia Harris - http://craftylalia.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Kings - http://heartfeltcreationsbybecca.blogspot.com
Adeline Brill - www.adeline-brill.blogspot.com
Kathy Johnson - http://kathyscreativecorner.com/
Amy Edwards - http://Paisleysplayhouse.blogspot.com
Jen Patrick - http://roxybonds-scrappin.blogspot.com/
Pamela O’Connor - http://reflectionsofmyartandsoul.com
Melinda Everitt -  http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/
Denise Hobbs -  http://oklahomainker.blogspot.com/