May Basket Class (and a little giveaway...)

Thanks for all of the responses about your card making - it's always nice to hear what other people do.  It was funny to see how many of you had questions about the folder and the pansy image.  I usually give so many details in a post that I worry it may be overkill - but if I don't, there are always lots of questions!  So today I have a long post with all of the details about the projects we made in the class and a little surprise too...

The original idea for the class was to make a May Basket.  Traditionally, a May basket is filled with flowers or treats and left anonymously on a neighbor's door.  I don't know if many people do this anymore, but the ladies in the class knew the tradition.

The basket is from the Easter 2010 seasonal Cricut cartridge.  I cut it at 11 inches.  This size will fit on the 12 x 12 mat but there is one little trick to make it work.  The basket and handle are all one image (two pieces that add to the mat in one box).  When the basket is this large, the handle extends just a bit into the "uncuttable zone" at the edge of the mat.  To solve this problem and get as large a basket as possible, I made two pages in the file.  In the first, I centered the basket on the mat and hid the handle and for the second, I centered the handle on the mat and hid the basket.  You just load the mat and cut one page and then the next page without unloading so you only need one piece of 12 x 12 cardstock for each basket.

This basket is designed with small circular holes in the scallops.  I have used this basket before and I wasn't happy with the way the circles cut.

They tend to slant into an oval shape and were off center to the "bumps" of the edge design.  The simple solution was to hide the circles and just leave the decorative edge.  I also hid all of the scoring "tick" marks.  I think they make the folds looks very sloppy.  If I am not sure about the scoring, I will cut a sample with the marks in ugly paper and score it to use as a pattern.

The only interior cut lines I kept were the two side slits for inserting the handle.  If I wanted to delete all of the scoring marks, including the handle slits, I could have simply checked weld.  I would still have to hide the little circles but this doesn't take very long.  The baskets were much faster to cut without the circles, which was a help for making a larger quantity.

I decided that it would be best to do the scoring at home.  The angles are a little tricky and I wasn't sure it anyone would have used a scoring tool before.  Since we had limited time to work, I also added pieces of Scor-Tape on the flaps for assembling the basket.

The handle has a flower and leaf shape at the center but there are no layer cuts on the cartridge to add to the top.  I used a Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch to punch two light and two dark green leaves from glittered Core'dination cardstock (Core Couture).  I also punched a scalloped circle from purple Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock with the Creative Memories scallop circle maker punch.

One leaf of each color on each side fits nicely over the cut shape of the handle.

The scalloped circle covers the stems and the flower shape on the handle.

The white flared flower from Creative Charms adds a nice sparkle to the top of the basket.

I was concerned the the handle might pull out easily if the basket was loaded with goodies, so we punched out hearts and flowers from adhesive cardstock to secure the ends on the inside of the basket.

Some of the ladies chose to add the sticky shapes as reinforcement on the outside of the basket as well (this photo shows the Martha Stewart Cosmos punch shape on the inside).

I gave them some crumpled tissue paper to fill the basket and a mini chocolate bar as a start on the goodies to go inside!  We also added tags punched with the Creative Memories Tag Maker and secured the tag to the basket with a small butterfly brad from Creative Charms.

The sets that include these butterflies are on the inventory clearance sale now at Creative Charms.

I knew that the baskets would be fairly quick to put together, especially since I did all of the scoring and taping ahead of time, so I decided we should also make a card.

The pansy image I chose is from the Art Nouveau Cricut cartridge.  The style of the flowers on this cartridge is so appealing to me.  I made several of the flowers for part of the display for the center's gallery.  I decided to add the "thanks" sentiment as an option since most people can always use a thank you card.

Here is the location of the image on the keypad.  I cut all of the layers in groups to be more efficient for making up kits.

I hid all of the guideline marks again.  These shapes are very simple to assemble and If the lines show, they can look a little messy.  It also made the cutting go more quickly.  I arranged the shapes with Design Studio to fit as many as possible on the mat.  I labeled all of the mats with the color, the number of images on the mat and, if the mat needed to be cut more than once, I added "X2" to remind me.

 I played around with the colors a little in another file.  I lined up all of the layers and filled them with colors approximating the color I would use.  Since each mat will only preview in one color, you need to make quite a few pages in the file and move the images into position to get an approximation of the completed card.  This "Thank You" is from the Martha Stewart Crafts All Occasions Cakes cartridge.

In the end, I opted to use the Cuttlebug "With Gratitude" die to cut the sentiment.

There are five layers for the pansies and they are easy to assemble (but you do have to watch out for the tiny lighter green strip that layers to create a woven effect for the stems).

The background layer of the card is cut from heavy watercolor paper.  This paper takes the embossing very nicely.  I centered the piece of watercolor paper,  cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches, in this checkerboard embossing folder which creates a basket weave effect.

I could not find the name of the embossing folder.  It was part of a set that was exclusive to Oh My Crafts with stripes, bricks and a tile pattern.  I think these came out in 2009 and I don't know if they are available anywhere now.  (Thanks to Debbie who left a comment with the names for the folders - Checkerboard is the one I used and the other three are Pajama Stripe, Brickyard and Window Panes.  Hers came in a promotional set with the Cuttlebug machine)

Since the folder is 5 x 7 it was easy to line up the design with my trimmed piece of cardstock to get an nearly perfect edge.

A single gem sticker in the center of the flower finishes off the image.  Some of the ladies chose to use this as a general note card and centered the flower shape on the card front.

The card base is a deep purple Bazzill cardstock, so we needed a liner to be able to write legibly inside the card.  I cut some plain white cardstock to 5 1/4 x 4 inches and punched one long edge with the Martha Stewart Pansy Punch Around the Page border punch.  I centered it carefully to make the pansies come out evenly.

I made this quick digital page with the photos of the class.  I'll drop off an 8 x 8 copy at the center for their bulletin board.  I used Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0 to make this page and I'll have more details about the page another day.  Remember, the software is on sale for 35% off (making it only $42.22) until the end of April.  (You can click HERE to go to the page for the software on my Creative Memories site).

There is also a three day sale on Mother's Day digital content for 30% off - this sale ends on Saturday the 21st.  There are many items included - basically anything flowery or feminine! Here is a LINK to the sale page on my site.  Some of the Creative Memories digital content is now available in universal format so you can use it with other programs - be sure to check the format in the description (most of the universal format items are at the end of the list).

As the mother of two Eagle Scouts, I have learned over and over to "Be Prepared."  I made sure to have plenty of kits for the class in case someone came unexpectedly or there was a piece missing or a part was damaged before the card was put together.

If you have read this far - it must be a slow morning for you!  By now you know that I like the number three, and I have three complete card kits (just the card, not the basket) that I'd love to send to three readers.  This card would be pretty for Mother's Day with the appropriate sentiment added.

If you'd like to receive a kit, just leave a comment on this post.  Please be sure to leave a way I can contact you if your name comes up in the random draw.  I'll pick three names next Wednesday (a week after the class) and post them on Thursday.

Please tell me in your comment a favorite crafting tip - a tool you love, a site that inspires you, a source of unique items to use for your projects, or a way that you organize your craft space.  It's much more interesting to read tips than a series of "please pick me" posts and it will be helpful for other readers too!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Stylized Pansy Card

The class at the Senior Citizen's Center was a lot of fun yesterday.  We made May baskets and then put together this card to go with the baskets.  I had a meeting last night, so I'll have to catch up with the details and a few photos from the class later today.

It turned out to be a good thing that I had prepared most of the pieces ahead of time.  Everyone was able to finish their projects while having some fun, so that was great.  We did a little embossing for the background and embossing is like magic if you haven't seen it done before.  It is such a quick and easy way to transform a piece of paper to make it much more special.

I hope to have a good stretch of time to be at the computer later today so I can catch up on editing photos and write up the descriptions for the blog.  I also need to answer some email that has piled up while I was busy making things!

What type of card do you send most often?  Do you make batches of cards for a personal stash so you have one ready when you need it or do you create the card as a "one-off" for each occasion?  Do you mail most of your cards or hand deliver them?  Just curious...


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Art Nouveau Daffodils

I have been getting more and more emails from people with questions about choosing between the Cricut and other brands of die cutting machines.  Since I have been showing some of the projects I have done using my Silhouette machines, lots of readers have asked if they should "switch" to a different brand.

Last Spring I bought the Silhouette SD and I added the Cameo to my craftroom in January (the SD was the smaller model and is no longer available).  There are features and capabilities that the Silhouette machines offer that are not available from the Cricut line.  I use the Silhouette Studio software and a variety of other software programs to create my own designs.  I have really enjoyed the freedom to design and cut whatever I can imagine.

However, it does take time to make your own designs and some people do not enjoy the process the way I do.  There are times when I like the convenience of the Cricut cartridge system, particularly with some cartridges that offer lots of designs in a style that appeals to me.  I have a large collection of cartridges that I still use and enjoy (but far less frequently than in the past).  I haven't purchased a new cartridge for quite some time, but if I see one that has value for me, I might consider adding a few more to my collection.

Art Nouveau is a cartridge that has been out for a while that I never got around to buying.  I didn't see it in my local stores and I thought that maybe I shouldn't buy more cartridges since I am using them less often and have so many already.  A good friend recently gave me a copy of this cartridge and I really like it a lot!

I could find free Art Nouveau style images online or in pattern books and do the work to turn them into complicated layered files that I could cut with the Silhouette, but sometimes it is fun to just "plug and play."  So I did just that and cut this group of daffodils - one of my favorite flowers.

For images with lots of layers, I still find it useful to look at the handbook to be sure I understand the layering and color options.  The newer handbooks make it easier to see which keys to use for each image.  This book also gives the recommended sizes for the intricate images - to avoid frustration you should cut at this size or larger.

I chose five pieces of Core'dinations cardstock - three green and a pale orange and a yellow.  I set the size at 4 1/2 inches (the minimum recommendation is 3 inches).  If I wanted to take the time to trim pieces of cardstock and either move the blade to each color (not possible with the E2) or set up a file, I could have cut all of the pieces at once.  It was really just as easy to load and unload the mat with each color for this single sample.  If I needed to make a lot of the same image, I probably would create a file that I could save for future use.

Here are the first two layers of green assembled.  The Art Nouveau style involves many curves and tendrils and the images on this cartridge have lots of layers carefully thought out to give the interwoven effect.

The third layer of green is the lightest.  I didn't have a third green that I liked on the front side but I discovered that the back of one of the Core'dinations whitewash pieces of cardstock was just the right shade.

The layering of this design was simple but you do have to add things in the proper order to get the entwined effect in the foliage.  The flower bases pop right into place, just be sure to pay attention and be careful when you flip the pieces over to add the glue - with the textured papers it is pretty easy to tell which is the "wrong" side.

The flower centers have a second piece that is cut in the same color. This forms the top of the trumpet and give a nice dimensional effect.

It only took a few minutes to layer all of these pieces.

The flower on the left ends up with a total of six layers which makes it almost like a chipboard piece.  I wanted to do this as simply as possible but I think some chalking would help to add definition to the flower shape.  I may go back and give that a try...

 

I adhered the finished image to a blue card base cut at five and one half inches square.  Quick, simple and very pretty.

Someone asked me to show how I take photos of my cards.  Here is a quick peek.  I made a mini photo booth from four sheets of white cardstock and I use a couple of daylight lamps that can be angled and adjusted as needed.  I should have something to diffuse the light a bit more since the lamps can create "hot spots" of light.

I can show you how to construct the booth in another post (if you want me to do this, please leave a comment).  I found the idea for making the setup a long time ago and I am trying to find the source so I can link it up for you.  I do prefer daylight for photos when possible but I am usually a late night crafter!

So back to the questions about choosing machines.  Many of the people who read my blog have Cricut machines.  If you are happy with the system and enjoy the art styles of the cartridges you don't "need" to change what you are doing.  I just want you to know that there are many more possibilities with machines like the Cameo if you want to spend a very small amount of time to learn to use the online store system and the software.

Some people are tired of constantly updating their Cricut machines and have had lots of issues with updates - and some people have the updates work smoothly every time.  I also have a lot of issues with the circles and scallops that do not cut correctly on any of my Cricut machines.  I tend to make a lot of symmetrical designs and cutting problems become very obvious when the shapes do not line up properly.  If I can't get the result I want from one machine, it is nice to have the option to use a different machine.

The best advice I can give is to really think through what you want your machine to do and what method of operation you are most comfortable with.  If you hate working on a computer, the cartridge system is probably better for you.  If you love to design unique images on a screen, you'll want a machine that can cut whatever you design.

If you can afford to have more than one machine, you will be able to have the "best of both worlds" and use each machine for the particular task that it does the best.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts and questions (and beware the Ides of March!)

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Design Studio Updated

The Design Studio update for the latest cartridges is now available.  (Thanks to Nancy for giving me the heads up - I have been really busy with family things the past few days and didn't think the update would appear on the weekend!).  Click HERE to go to the download page.  You will need to sign in to the Cricut.com site to do the update.  The cartridges which have been added are...

Art Nouveau

Art Philosophy (CTMH exclusive)

Simply Scarecrows

Something to Celebrate
Sophie (Circle Exclusive)

...from the July release, and

Chic and Scary from the August release.

The page for downloading the updates was changed in June and you can now click on "more info" to the right to go to the shopping page for each cartridge.

Be sure to save the executable file and then run it.

When you click to install the files you will also need to give administrator permission on a separate page for the files to install.

Once the files have installed you will need to close and reopen Design Studio if it was open in order for your computer to load the new files.

It's good to finally be able to get a good look at all of the items on these cartridges.  I find it very helpful to view them in Design Studio because I can experiment with the color previews.  This makes it much easier to get a clear idea of the layers for the shapes and fonts.

The Gypsy had an update for the July cartridges in July.  When I ran Cricut Sync on Saturday, I did not find an update for the new Chic and Scary cartridge.  It should be available soon, so just check every few days if you have a Gypsy.


Have a lovely day - happy designing!

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