I am so very excited to be the Guest
Designer on the October Afternoon (OA) blog this month and playing with their
AWESOME products! Like all of you, I am
a huge OA fan! Their products are
so versatile and they have a wonderful throwback feel that just makes you feel
warm inside.
I came to love OA
products even more when I went to the OA Warehouse Sale last fall and met some
of their employees. They are wonderful
people and they live in Minnesota, which makes them even more awesome! Yes, I am a fellow Minnesotan, which
you may have guessed already or read in my introduction on the blog last
Friday.
I am a big die-cutting fan too, so you can expect to see me
incorporating die-cuts (particularly SVGs) in my projects. Die-cuts create so many possibilities
with paper, as you will see with my project today. With the exception of wooden dowels used for support, it is
entirely constructed of paper!


I primarily used OA’s Midway collection to create the Ferris
wheel (SVGs from the Summer Street Carnival collection at SVG Cuts) and the
base it is standing on. I used
bits of other collections as well – Witch Hazel (wheel), Cakewalk (twine), and
Sidewalks (buttons). You can fill
the carts on the Ferris wheel with treats and/or plastic toys, and you can
embellish it so many different ways.
It is a great center piece for a carnival themed birthday party! Disclaimer – the Ferris wheel does take
patience to assemble. The great
news is that there is a video tutorial here that shows you how
to put it together.
When I am tackling a big project like this, I start by
cutting out all of the SVGs that need to be assembled.
Tip: Use
lightweight cardboard for the base of the Ferris wheel. This creates a sturdier base.
Tip: Cut each
of the carts out twice – once with the Midway paper and once with a solid-color
coordinating cardstock. Then glue
them together prior to assembly. This will allow you to put heavier treats in
the carts and it makes the patterned papers really stand out.

Next is assembly time!
Tip: Use Spray
Adhesive to glue the wheel together – it is faster and easier to reposition
before it dries.

And more assembly!

Now for the embellishments!
I created a fun star embellishment on the face of the wheel! To create this embellishment, you will need the Midway brads,
Sew Fun Banners, and Label Stickers, a 1-1/8” circle punch, foam
dimensional stickers and decorative star pins. Start by taking one of the circle banners and poke a hole in
the center of it.

Then put a Midway brad in the center (I liked the red star
one) and apply one layer of foam stickers to the back of the banner circle.

Next, add the 1-1/8” circle punch to the back of the
banner circle. Apply two layers of
foam stickers to the back of the circle punch. To finish the layered circle, add the label sticker to the
back (I liked the gray star-like one).

To finish off the embellishment, add star pins by pushing
them into the foam stickers inside the layered circle. I added a rhinestone circle-shaped
sticker that I had lying around too.


I used buttons from the Sidewalks collection on the ends of
each wooden dowel on the wheel. I
added rhinestones to the center of each button for some bling (adds to the
glitzy feel many Ferris wheels have).


I chose to embellish the right side of the wheel base with
stickers from the 12” x 12” sticker sheet in the Midway collection and I added
a star pin too.
Who wants some cotton candy! I do! I put
mini cotton candy bags into the carts.
I used 4” x 3” bags, cotton candy, and twine from the Cakewalk
collection to assemble these. Yes,
I ate some of the cotton candy during assembly!


Lastly, I created a base for the Ferris wheel using a
corrugated box (It is the one I got from OA filled with goodies and it is the
standard scrapbooking paper box size).
The first thing I did was take extra tape off the box and cut off the
4 top pieces of the box using a utility knife.


Next, I cut 4 sheets of the Midway paper so they were 11x11
and would fit perfectly together on my box. Then I started at the center of the box and taped down the
sheets of paper as shown below. Don’t
worry about the tape showing, you can always cover it up, as I will show
you. To make it look like a
wrapped gift box, I folded the paper in the corners as shown below. Don’t worry about the tape showing, you
can always cover it up if you don’t like it showing.

When done adding the 4 sheets of paper, the box looks like
this.

Next, I cut two strips of the Midway patterned paper to
cover up one of the taped areas on top.
You can use any paper you like.

Then I added some ribbon and a bow to cover up the tape line
running horizontally.

There are so many different ways to embellish this paper
Ferris Wheel. You could add your
own unique take - use flair, Midway miscellany, and/or goodies from other
collections!

To share in my excitement as the Guest Designer this month, I have a surprise for you! The box I made for the base of the Ferris Wheel has some goodies inside! Stop by my blog http://www.thepaperretreat.blogspot.com, to see what is inside and to enter to win the goodies inside! I hope you stop by my blog and celebrate with me!
Melanie
(For more from Guest Designer Melanie Fink, check out the OA blog every Friday during the month of April!)