Squares at River of Creativity March 2022

 Hi everyone!! I am so excited that River of Creativity is back with a revamp! We have a few changes that we have made to the challenge; first, we are now ANYTHING BUT A CARD - yup, no more cards allowed! We really want to see you stretch yourself and work outside the box; well except for this challenge because our theme is SQUARES and all my squares happen to be boxes.  I suggested it when we were all discussing what we should start with and, surprisingly, we have decided to use it as our first challenge. My very first thought was to make a menagerie of these adorable little critters that Lawn Fawn puts out. Let's get to it, shall we?

As you can see in the picture I've made a fox {he's the orange guy standing up}, a white bunny, a green frog, a bumble bee, a gray bat, a raccoon and 2 cats.  Each one of these begins with the Tiny Gift Box
as the body of the critter, and then the Add-On set brings the critter alive with all the accessories to make that particular animal. One of the best features of this Tiny Gift Box is how easy it is to put together; the creases are perfect coming out of the die cut machine, no need to go over them with a bone folder or anything, 2 strips of double sided tape and the box is done!  And these are tiny, the assembled box is 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1 1/8"; Kelly, the box creator {and owner of Lawn Fawn}, made this to be part of an advent calendar but the ideas kept coming and so as of now there are a total of fourteen cute little animal Add-Ons to decorate the Tiny Gift Box!  OK, enough about that let's check out my creations! Grab a cuppa and let's go!

I did take the liberty of giving a few of these little lovelies googly eyes and they just make me happy.  I got an assortment of eyes from Amazon for cheap - I think they range from 3mm to 8 or 9mm and I doubt I will ever use them up, but the price was right and now I have googly eyes for every occasion.

First up is the frog; he would of looked a bit different if I had waited for Lawn Fawn to send me the die I lost! While cutting the dies apart the freckles {some of you might call them warts} went flying somewhere in my craft room and I have learned if I don't find it right away, it's probably gone.  I proceeded to make him anyway and of course got the freckles die in the mail {cause all you have to do is ask for a replacement die and Lawn Fawn will happily give you one - amazing!} the day before yesterday.  That's OK, he is still a handsome little frog in my opinion.   

Next up are the cats. Every other critter I made is a new die set except the cats
{I know, if you know me that is no surprise!} I had intended to make a black cat, but I forgot how some of the die cuts go together and needed a white die cut so I figured I just make both a black and a calico cat.  I used all the different pieces included in the set except the ball of yarn. I love how you can make the little paws hold onto something!

The racoon and the fox come in the same set, so it's a 2fer!  I made the fox standing up and I can use those standing up legs with many of the other critters, you can mix and match the dies as much as you want since they are all sized the same way! That would be an awesome rainy day activity if you had little ones, or even middle or big ones - a fox with wings, a cat with frog legs and on and on! I made my racoon hold a little red stitched heart that comes with the Add-On set; there is even a tiny bow tie I made to see if I could do it and I did!

Seems there are lots of cards and whatnot with bees on them lately and putting together this sweet bee was so simple! I love the little antenna {antennae?} and the stinger! I considered making the wings from vellum; or even
double up on the wings, one pair could be flat, the other bent to simulate movement or even this one pair could be bent {you'd be surprised at the ideas you come up with!} but I kept this bee traditional.  I really love all the little details on these critters; like the paws on the legs of the fox, the stripes on the cat and way you can put the paws on to hold something.

Spring is the perfect time for this adorable bunny Add-On; imagine a whole bunch done up in pastel colors and using them on Easter for pace tags, or even just around your home holding a few jelly beans!  Every one of these gift boxes are usable - I made sure each one could still be opened so they would all be as functional as they are cute! I also edged the bunny's legs and tail with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink just so it would be a little easier to see his legs. For each one that comes with paws to cut out you can do it either way, have the long side of the paws at the top, closest to the head, or facing the bottom. For example, in the picture below the racoon has his paws with the long side facing down while the bunny has theirs facing up.  It all depends on what YOU want to do, and I think whatever the little guy is holding.  I used some clear tape to hold the pink in his ears, but you could just as easily leave them

open.

Lastly, we have the bat. I gave him some candy corn to hold so he wouldn't be too scary.  This critter has SO many possibilities for him I would have had to make a lot more than one to show them all off but the biggest change you can make to him, I think, are his wings.  I gave him the large, folded wings and the set also has a shorter wing that are more directly out of his body {it will make sense if you check out the link}.  I also used the tuxedo piece included with the set just to class him up a bit. 

All the Boxes Open

I was going to link the You Tube video for each critter but if you go to the link I have posted for each make there is the Introduction Video on that page. They aren't long, maybe 20 minutes and it is fun to watch these boxes come alive :) 

Wow - thank you for reading this far! Now,  the revamped River of Creativity will accept any project as long as it is NOT a card, and I am hoping for next month’s challenge I'll have some time to get messy with something! I have quite a few projects lined up, well, they are made, just need pictures taken, edited, blog post written, edited and then finalized; I need a secretary! Anyway, I hope to see you joining in and showing us some of the other things you made besides cards {but if it is chocolate, I will need to be bribed for my vote to choose you as a Shout Out, message me for details}.  We hope to have a list of upcoming challenges since we know that some projects take longer than others {as soon as we figure them out ourselves!} Thank you SO much for reading all of this and I hope you enjoyed my Square Critters and I hope to see YOUR Square stuff at River of Creativity! Hugs, Christi

I am entering my Square Critters in the following challenges:
Craft Rocket, #90 - Use an Animal (Or 8)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use a Die Cut
The Sisterhood of Crafting - Favorite Pet (Cats - there are 2 of them in there)
Creative Creases - Anything Goes w/ a Fun Fold (hope these qualify, they were fun!)
Critter Crazy Challenge, #90 - Anything Goes w/ a Critter
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, #628 - Not A Card