All sorts of Butterflies

I am heading home today and will soon be back to a more normal schedule.  Before I leave for the flight, I thought I'd share a few butterfly ideas...

A few people asked about the butterfly on the card I shared yesterday.  If you have a Marshalls, T. J. Maxx or HomeGoods store near you, you should check to see if they have some items from Brides on clearance.  I found those pretty butterflies in a pack of 12 for 99 cents.  These butterflies are a sparkly brown, beige and green and they are a great match with the colors of the DCWV Linen Closet stack.

I also found another set in sparkly silver and pink  (and a "mystery" $2 item that I will tell you about in another post soon).

On my trip I saw some beautiful real butterflies - I enjoy trying to capture them with my camera.  It can be tricky to focus and catch them before they fly off!

One card that I have not yet tried on the A Child's Year cartridge is a butterfly shaped card.  This screen shot shows the keypad location.

I was a little worried about the delicacy of the butterfly as the entire card but I had a few minutes to play around with my Design Studio before the flight and realized that you could create a blackout layer to fill in the area behind the head by using "hide selected contour."  (The area will stay hidden since I also always hide the "tick marks" for folding the cards).

You can also create the two butterfly layers and then adhere them to a plain A2 base card - there is one located on this cartridge as shown in this keypad view.  This will prevent the delicate tail pieces from bending.

When you select the butterfly card at 5.5 inches you will need to adjust the values in the Shape Properties box slightly to make it fit on the A2 base layer.  This screen shot shows the values I used for the preview shot.

I can only use solid colors in the preview but try to imagine the top layer in a lovely print.  I am eager to get home to my Cricut to test this!  By adding the butterfly to a plain card there is plenty of room to stamp a sentiment in the left or right corner.

Tomorrow is Sweet Treats Thursday on the Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot and there will be some tasty projects created by the Design Team to inspire you.  You may even want to use your kitchen for some of these projects (hint, hint...)!

Fancy (but simple) cards for Friday

Today is Friday - my last day as Guest Designer for the Everyday Cricut  blog.  It has been a busy week with so many projects going on (and a few more "secret" ones that you'll find out about soon!).  Be sure to visit Everyday Cricut and leave comments on each post this week in order to have a chance to win some of the great giveaways Joy and Melanie are offering this week.  There are Cricut Cartridges (Serenade, Destinations & the Spring mini cartridge bundle - Love Struck, Easter & Mother's Day) and also Claire SEI paper pack and embellishments.  There is also a great prize package from The Original Scrapbox in a special multi-blog giveaway.

Fridays are for fancy cards on the Everyday Cricut blog.  I created these cards with Design Studio and all of the details are in my post on Everyday Cricut - here is a LINK to the post.  Despite my best efforts to convince every Cricut owner that they need Design Studio, I know that some of you do not use the software.  So I made some alternative "Simple Fancy Cards" to share.

These are ultra simple cards to make - the "fancy" comes from the choice of cardstock and the jewels.  All three card toppers are on the Lyrical Letters cartridge - one of the hidden treasures on that cartridge which also has seven different fonts (add it to your list if you don't have it yet!).

The images on this key are proportioned to fit an A2 card perfectly.  If you cut them at 5 1/4 inches you will get a nice layer for a card with a thin border around the edges.

For the first card I used the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock for both the card base and the layer.  Here is the plain card - very pretty, just like this.

To ramp up the "fancy" factor, I simply added some gems.  It is difficult to see in the photo but there are five light purple and three dark purple gems.

Here is the location of the second card topper.  This is my favorite and it is one that I discovered shortly after I got the cartridge about a year ago.  Here is a LINK to my first post about the cartridge when I was "forced" to use it with the machine alone since it had not yet been added to Design Studio.

Here is the "plain" version of the card - not so "plain" since I cut the top in white glitter cardstock.

Adding blue gems (the complementary color to orange) makes the card really sparkle!

The third topper is located as shown in the screen shot.  It does have a bit more room for adding a stamped sentiment right on the card front.

I made this a horizontal card - here is the plain version.  This time I cut the layer in  DCWV "shimmer" cardstock.  This cardstock is pretty but it does have a white core and there are a couple of tiny cuts in the design which have a tendency to show the white.  I solved this by flipping the image.

This is the slightly embellished card.  I used gems and a vintage brad from Creative Charms for the accents.  Here is  a LINK to the page with the vintage brads. I removed the legs of the brad and adhered it with a foam square to fill in the empty backing.

These cards are so quick and simple to make but they still have the "wow" factor - thanks to the lovely cardstock.  These three cards were made with the large center sections of the 12 x 12 sheets of cardstock that were left over from the Easter Egg cards I posted on Monday.  I have to say that the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock is now a favorite and I hope it will be on sale again soon since I have used a fair bit of mine up this week - with very happy results.

If you were new to my blog this week - thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will stick around even when I am no longer the Guest Designer for Everyday Cricut.  I do not have sponsors for regular giveaways on this blog  but I occasionally do a blog celebration to mark a milestone.  I do love to get comments and I try my best to answer any questions readers send me.  I hope you find it worthwhile to visit and that I can help you be a bit more adventurous when you are crafting with the Cricut!   Have a great weekend!

(the link to download the "fancy" card I shared on the Everyday Cricut blog is here)

Filigree Oval Fancy Shaped Card

The Gypsy is grouping my Design Studio files!

The update that was posted yesterday has made a lot of Gypsy users very happy! I spent some time this evening experimenting with the new possibilities and enjoying the results.  Here is a LINK to the message board post about the updates. You will need to download and install the Design Studio update and run the Gypsy Sync to update your gypsy.  Once you have the updated programs you will also need to update the firmware on your Cricut before you cut anything (you can do this from either your computer or the Gypsy).

I did have some difficulty with the Gypsy Sync giving me an error message "File string does not contain 4 parts" but, with some great help from Provo Craft, I was able to correct the problem.  I am using a Vista 64 bit computer.  If you are getting this message, you should look at the file names of your Gypsy files.  If there are any that have commas, do a "save as" and rename the file, eliminating the commas in the new name.  Then close the new file and delete the file that has commas.  Provo Craft is working on fixing the Sync software so soon this won't be necessary but it may help you until the fix is made.

I tried a few different things to test out the transferring and converting of files.  First, I went to a very old file that I made before it was possible to weld inside a frame (we had to "build" the frames from rectangles when Design Studio was first released).  This file was sized for the baby bug - at 5 1/2 inches square.

I saved the file as a ".gypsy" file in Design Studio (use the drop down menu at the bottom of the save screen to choose either ".cut" or ".gypsy").  Then I ran the Gypsy Sync and chose "upload files to Gypsy", browsed to the file and selected it and transferred it to my Gypsy.

When I first previewed the file on the Gypsy, the welds were not working correctly.  So I grouped the twelve elements of the design, working methodically around the design.  When the grouped design previewed correctly, I selected it, added a page to the file by tapping the plus sign at the top left of the screen (another new feature) and tapped the duplicate icon to add it to the new page.  Then I resized the frame to about 10 inches square, saved the file and went back to the Gypsy Sync.

In Gypsy Sync, I clicked on "Gypsy" and then "designs" in the left column - this brings up a list of all the files in the Gypsy in the right column.  I selected the file, clicked "Save Selected File(s) to PC," browsed to the folder where I wanted to save the file and saved.

The Gypsy multi page file does not currently remain a multi-page file when it moves to Design Studio so I had to copy and paste all of the elements of my newly enlarged frame to a new page in the Design Studio file.  The ability to group and resize on the Gypsy and then either cut from the Gypsy or move the file back to Design Studio is a great addition.

Next, I designed this pinwheel snowflake in Design Studio using the icon from A Child's Year.  The pinwheels are rotated at 60 degree intervals so I can not currently create this file with everything in one selection box and grouped in Design Studio.

I transferred the file to the Gypsy, grouped the elements of the design and then duplicated and resized the design.  I then could transfer the file back to Design Studio or cut directly from the Gypsy.

Here are my two pinwheel snowflakes on the mat after cutting.  It is so exciting to make the design once and then be able to duplicate and resize.  This is a very simple design but for some of the really complicated designs with many elements the Gypsy will be a great timesaver.

Just for fun, I layered the two cuts to see how they would look together.  This gave me an idea....but you will have to wait a day or two to see what I am going to try to do (!)

Be sure to read the release notes and check the Cricut Message Board for many helpful tips and hints from fellow Design Studio and Gypsy users.  There is a lot to explore and it just keeps getting better!

A Quick Card Challenge

I had one of those "just got back from another trip - too much to do and too tired to do it!" kind of days today. I got the things I needed to do for my family done and then took care of a lot of computer "stuff" and then I tried to get a video ready to share today but things weren't going my way. I needed some creative time!

So I challenged myself to go make a card - I had to use one of the many, many trial cuts stacked all over my space and to try use something that had been sitting in my space for over six months without being used - and I had to put the card together in twenty minutes or less.



I found this heart cut from the A Child's Year cartridge. When I first got this cartridge I was so excited to try it out that I cut lots and lots of images (the cartridge wasn't even on Design Studio at the time so some of them were in "surprise" sizes!). I cut some standard pieces for an A2 card - the base at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in dark green cardstock folded vertically, a 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 inch layer in ivory cardstock and a 4 x 4 inch layer in the same red as the heart. I embossed the ivory layer using the new harlequin Cuttlebug embossing folder (my neighbor and I ordered these from HSN when they had a special offer for the set of 11 new folders).



I inked the embossed cardstock using the "creamy brown" ink and then inked the edges using the "chestnut roan" ink from this set of six Color Box chalk cat's eye inks. I was trying to mimic the look of the wings on the heart in the chipboard accent piece. I also inked the edges of the red layer and the card itself with the creamy brown.



The chipboard accent was from this set that was sent to me by a friend - I really like the style of this artwork. I have had these quite a while so it was nice to use another one for a project.



I used my Creative Memories precision point adhesive to adhere the heart to the embossed cardstock. It is perfect for intricate open cuts like this one. I always let it dry to clear so it won't ooze out from any edges. This actually makes it removable but I have never had any trouble with anything coming off after adhering and I have even used this adhesive to hold bags and boxes together.



When I embossed the ivory layer, I tried to center the diamonds. I placed the heart so the tip would fall in between two diamonds - I think it looks more balanced this way.



Whenever I add an embossed layer to a card I place the adhesive on the layer below it so I won't flatten or damage the embossing with my adhesive applicator (tape runner or ATG gun).



I decided that the chipboard also needed a layer of red beneath it so I cut a strip 4 x 1 1/8 inches and inked the edges again with the creamy brown ink. The chipboard came with an adhesive already applied and I just peeled it off the clear backing and stuck it to the red strip.



Here is the final card - it actually took less than twenty minutes (but longer than that to edit the photos and write up the directions!). I am still not the world's best" inker" but I think this looks much better than the last time I tried inking!

I am off to get some sleep and I hope that tomorrow I will finally catch up with everything. It is hard to believe that summer is already coming to an end.

Elegant Gift Card

I made this card for yet another swap - and now I am finished with swaps for a while! This one was for a 3 x 3 card folded gift card with a quote inside. Once again I was working in a fairly small size.



I chose my basic card shape from A Child's Year - there are so many great cards and tags of this cartridge. It is the third from the left on the bottom row - highlighted in the screen shot above.



I could cut only four cards on a 12 x 12 mat. I made sure to hide all of the score marks for folding (if you have taken the Basic Cards class with me you know that these are a pet peeve of mine - I think the cuts make the card very untidy). The design of this card includes cut out areas along the fold and the card is very easy to fold without any scoring at this size.



The medallion for the front of the card is found on the Storybook cartridge - the key is highlighted in this screen shot of the keypad.



I didn't want the medallion to be quite so lacy, so I used "hide selected contour" to eliminate the middle row of cuts. In the screen shot above the medallion on the right is the cut as it appears on the cartridge and the medallion on the left is the one I cut after hiding the contours.



I set up the mat to cut 14 medallions. Unfortunately, since the contours do not stay hidden when you copy and paste an element in Design Studio, I had to do a lot of contour hiding!



I punched 1 1/4 inch circles from the scrap cardstock and adhered them to the backs of the medallions with the solid side of the double-sided paper showing through the center cuts



Next, I added a large pearl embellishment to the center of each medallion. These came from the Martha Stewart line and are larger than most that I have seen.



I used foam squares to adhere the medallions to the fronts of the cards.



Here you can see the raised effect - I like the dimension you get when using the foam squares. I dotted Stickles in the "cinnamon" color around the edges of the front of the cards.



Our hostess insists that we sign our work (and rightly so!). I added my signature along the fold on the back, as discretely as possible using a pen that nearly matched reddish brown color in the paper.



I punched 39 little flowers with my Creative Memories "Meadow Micro-Maker" punch (here is a LINK to more info about this punch). The punch cuts four small shapes, frog, flower, fish and butterfly and the size was perfect for these cards. I punched these from some of the scraps of the two sided paper I used for the card base.



Here is the inside of the card - the quote says, "The only way to have a friend is to be one" Ralph Waldo Emerson. I stamped it with brown ink.



Here are all of the finished cards just before I packed them up for mailing.



These are not colors I frequently choose, but I do think that the colors worked well together and they certainly have an autumn look.



Can you believe that I found this leaf on the deck today? I don't know how we could be so close to the end of the summer. I love it when the leaves turn but I am not ready for Fall to start yet! I hope you enjoy the last few weeks of vacation - back to school will be here far too soon!

(Jen and I are teaching just a couple of classes next week - it is a busy time with school starting for many people. We are thinking about making some changes in our scheduling of classes and possibly offering some classes on tape since we have had many requests for classes that can be viewed by the student whenever the time is convenient for them. We may be asking for some feedback in a poll or survey on the Let me Show you How to Do that blog soon - in the meanwhile, if you want more information about the classes, here is a LINK).)