I never thought my life could be anything but catastrophe
But suddenly I begin to see a bit of good luck for me
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket
I’ve got a golden twinkle in my eye
I never had a chance to shine never a happy song to sing,
But suddenly half the world is mine what an amazing thing
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket.
I’ve got a golden chance to make my way
And with the golden ticket it’s a golden day.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one my favourite films from my childhood and this is a song from it. I’m a huge fan of this film (1971 version) and think that it’s so much better than the more recent Johnny Depp 2005 version. Gene Wilder was simply fantastic in Willy Wonka as this, and all the kids in it are incredibly talented actors. Jack Albertson who played Grandpa Joe (and who sang the above song) was also excellent in this and watching it just brings back a wave of nostalgia…
Anyway, this is not a film review so…
After my Mendl’s boxes surprisingly took off, I was racking my brains for ages thinking about what other similar things I could make ie: 1) a popular somewhat kitschy and somewhat
‘cool’ object that’s featured in a film, 2) something made of paper that can be easily printed at home. And one day (many months ago) voilà ! I came up with the Golden Tickets (yes yes, I know I’m not the first but hey, there’s enough room in this world for more golden ticket creators and I’m about to show you how you can be one too!)…
I found some images online and went about to try to reproduce it as faithfully as I could (like the Mendl’s box design) without copying it 100%. Afterall, I had to put my own spin on it.
My first thought was how to cut out those finnicky curves along all four edges? I thought if I could find a tool to cut it, it would make life so much easier. So I did some research online and found the Fiskars cloud and scallop scissors. I know they are a good reliable (Finnish) brand and specialise in manufacturing scissors, knives and cutting tools. I have a Fiskars paper trimmer that I bought more than 15 years ago and it is still working very well.
After not being able to find the information I wanted online (namely how big/wide were the bumps?) I sent Fiskars an email (not actually expecting a reply given how big their company is). To my surprise, a few days later, they replied.
Dear Livia,
Thank you for your e-email.
In answer to your query, the bump of the cloud paper edger is 15mm and the bump of the scallop paper edger is 6mm.
Thanks. Hmm.. I decided that the 6mm was way too small so I decided on getting the cloud one. It’s a bit hard to find it but if you search online you can usually find it from US scrapbooking stores.
Then I enlarged the image that I’d found online so that the width of each bump was 15mm and then I sort of traced the border. Well obviously I only draw one bump and multiplied it where necessary but had to draw the corner curved elements.
The text took much much longer. I created some of the fonts from scratch (because I could not find anything similar) which took a long time (a tutorial about that is coming up later).
Anyway, I’m happy with the final result and did a little photoshoot to show it off. What do you think? You can check out the template in my store here.
Now with your golden ticket you can sing along with Grandpa Joe “And with the golden ticket it’s a golden day!” :)
