random.on purpose.: FAST-Track? Really?!

WHOO-WEE-YAH!!! What's that saying..."If anything can go wrong, it will?" Can I just say, UH-HUH!!! I've spent the last few hours trouble-shooting computer issues, after losing my Internet connection and trying unsuccessfully to uninstall a duplicate anti-virus/anti-spyware program that was wreaking havoc with my system. All problems solved now, I believe, so I can actually post this! (Now, if I could just do the same with my cell phone...right, Sherry?)

Tuesday we played with Hershey's Kisses, and I certainly don't want to offend the peanut butter cups or make them feel left out, so today we're going to make a little package for them - EASY PEASY and FAST and IDIOT-PROOF - gotta love that! I'm showing a VERY bare-bones version, which I intend to bling up a bit later on, but I wanted to give you the fast and easy part here for Fast-Track Friday. This is the project:

And this is how you make it: First, you need to determine how many peanut butter cups you want to put in your little tube, so you know how high to make it, so stack 'em up and measure:

I wanted five, so I need my tube to be about 3 1/2" high. The tube is made of a transparency (the office supply, write-on kind) cut to size. Regardless of how many peanut butter cups, the circumference stays the same, so you will cut your transparency (or acetate or vellum or whatever) 4 1/2" x the measurement you came up with in the first step. Mine is 4 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Apply a strip of 1/4" redline tape at one end (going the 4 1/2" way), then peel off the red liner and overlap the other end just enough to cover the tape.

Next, find a piece of ribbon that is about an inch wide, and long enough to wrap completely around the tube top-to-bottom (as opposed to around the circumference) and tie in a bow. Apply redline tape around the top and bottom of the tube, with the ribbon UNDER the tape against the tube, forming the bottom and going up the sides (that way the tape is holding on the ribbon without an extra layer of adhesive - tricky, tricky!):

Cut two strips of patterned paper 4 1/2" in length x whatever width blows your hair back, peel the red liner from the tape, and adhere the patterned paper strips around the top and bottom. You should put a bit of adhesive on one end to seal the little overlap where the two ends meet. I did take a quick sec to trim around the hearts a bit before I stuck the strips on - I'm going to add some red heart sequins and a tag later on...

Then drop your peanut butter cups in and tie a bow - done!

If it bothers you to have the top open like this, you could put a punched piece or Prima or something over it before you tie the bow, but I figure after you add a tag and some bling, who's to care?

And there you have it! Another quick-and-easy project for you to play around with! Advance warning for tomorrow: one of my good friend's father died a couple of nights ago, and the services are in the morning with a gathering after, and I'm helping with setup/cooking/serving/cleanup, so I won't be able to do anything fun and/or creative until much later in the day (we have to take Greg's daughter out to lunch for her birthday, too...) HOPEFULLY I'll be able to do SOMETHING, but these days I just never know!

Have a fantabulous weekend, make something fun and link it up so I can see, and I'll be back ASAP, k? Love you all, really! Buh-bye!