May Flowers from Creative Charms

Happy Wednesday!  Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog.  I hope you have been checking out all of the great projects by the new design team members.  I always enjoy seeing what other people do with all of the Creative Charms goodies!

 

I think this pink chenille flower from the Fuzzy Daisy Kit has a warm cozy feel - it makes me think of a stuffed animal!  For this baby card, I took out the red polka dot center and added the large brad from the pink Blooming Garden collection.

A strip of pink Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon finishes the top of the card.  The 1/8 inch Scor-Tape is perfect for adhering the ribbon to the card.

This is an A2 card.  The card base is plain white with a layer of dark pink DCWV cardstock cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and a layer of paper printed as a full sheet from the Imagine More Cards Cricut Imagine cartridge and trimmed to 5 x 3 3/4 inches.

I originally thought I'd make a vertical card, but I changed to the horizontal format.  With the horizontal layout I was able to tuck the sentiment close to the flower.

The sentiment was cut with the Cuttlebug Welcome Baby Combo Set from the same cardstock used for the first layer on the card front.

I used a large 3D glue dot to adhere the flower to the card.

You could also use the large brad from the "It's a Girl - Felt Stickers and Brads" to replace the center of the flower.

This card began with the blue lacy flower medallion that I designed a couple of years ago using the Calligraphy Collection Cricut cartridge.

The original post is HERE with complete information on how to make the lace flower and photos of many variations on the theme.

The card is  five and a half inches square with the fold along the top.  There is a blue layer (in the same cardstock that I used for the lattice flower) cut at 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and the top layer is from a K & Company stack.  I fussy cut the top layer to be sure that the large flower was centered on the card.

I always seem to have some extra gems and pearls - the gradient gem stickers have 76 pieces in each package and they go a long way.

 

This is a blue Multi-layered Organza Flower - these flowers are so lovely and shimmery.  I thought the center pearl was a bit small for my card design, so I snipped the thread that holds it and added a larger white pearl Gradient Gem Sticker.

Here is the card with the gems added before I placed the flower in the center.  I added medium pearl gem stickers and clear gem stickers to the outer points and some small gem stickers to some of the intersecting lines in the center section of the blue flower. 

A foam square lifts the flower a bit from the center of the card.

The colors are calming and the flower and gem stickers make this an elegant card for a special occasion..

I am still amazed at the thin lines that the Cricut was able to cut - this cut was originally made nearly two years ago on my old Expression.

If you check out the Creative Charms website you will see lots of other beautiful and unusual flowers that will make great focal points for your cards and projects.

link to Discussion Day #4  -  How do you decide?

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Fancy Cards can be Simple too!

(This post originally appeared on the Everyday Cricut blog where I was the Guest Designer for the week of March 8-12, 2010)

Welcome to Fancy Card Friday.  This is Diane and it is my last day as Guest Designer here on Everyday Cricut.  The week has been jam packed with creating, experimenting, testing, photographing and writing about all of the projects I shared.  I want to thank Joy and Melanie again for inviting me to join you this week.  I know that some of you were already familiar with my work, but some of you are new to me and I hope that you will continue to visit my personal blog, Capadia Designs,  for inspiration and help as you create with your Cricut.

I just want to answer a question that comes up frequently - "Who/what is Capadia and how do you pronounce it?"  When I first got my Cricut, I went to the Cricut..com site to look for the educational videos about how the machine works.  I discovered the Cricut Message Board and "lurked" for a few weeks and then got brave enough to sign up so I could post messages.  I didn't want to use my full name and all of the clever "crafty" names I could think of seemed to be taken.  So I took pieces of my name and combined them to come up with a message board name - CAmpbell PAyne DIAne = CAPADIA.  That's really all there is to it!  I pronounce it Kuh-PAY-dee-uh (as you may have heard on one of my videos).

 So, let's talk about the card(s) I made for Fancy Card Friday.  In an effort to have something for everyone, I created one card (and a sister card)  in Design Studio, but I also made some additional simple but elegant cards that can be made with one cut directly from a wonderful and versatile cartridge that is one you should have on your shelf (or add to your list).  More about that later...

One other question that has come up several times is "Why don't you use your Gypsy more?"  I have worked with the Gypsy and I enjoy it, however, I find that there are features in Design Studio that are not available to me on the Gypsy and I prefer to use the Design Studio.  According to Provo Craft, the goal is to make the two programs have true "design parity" but there is a lot of work to be done to get there - I am hoping that they are getting closer!

 For this card, I started with the A Child's Year cartridge again - it truly is one of my favorites for it's incredible variety, the font and the realistic images.  There are also great tags and a full set of interesting cards all packed into this one cartridge!  I started with this fancy shaped card and used it as my base for an A2 card.

Here is a screen preview of the card - it took just a little Design Studio magic to get there!

To cut the base card, you could just set the size on the machine to 5.5 inches and cut.  I have a "pet peeve" that means that I usually cut my card bases using Design Studio so I can hide the little "tick marks" that are included to show you where to score the card.   It is pretty obvious how to fold the card in half and the cuts from those guides marks can be unsightly and look a bit sloppy.

Someone asked about how to use "hide selected contour" - I have a video on my blog at this LINK that goes into some detail but the quick explanation is that you left click on a line to select it - it will turn a pinky red color.  Then, right click on the mat and choose "hide selected contour" at the bottom of the drop down menu.  The line will turn a very pale blue and will not cut.  (It turns blue so you can find it if you want to "show selected contour" by using the same procedure).

Here are a few things you should know about "hide selected contour" to save frustration -

You can not hide a contour on an image that has been copied and pasted.  You will have to save and reopen the file (just the file not the whole program)  to make the feature active on a copied image.  

If you hide lines on an image and then copy and paste it, the lines will come back and you will have to reopen the file and hide the lines on the second image.

If you hide only one line on an image, it will not stay hidden when the file is closed and you will have to "rehide" it every time you use the file.  I have a workaround for this if the image you are using has at least three lines - here is a LINK to the post on my blog.

For this card, I also needed to have the card in my Design Studio file so I could adapt the size of my top layers to fit the shape of the card.

If you watched my video about making the Easter Egg card on Monday you know about the "guideline rectangles" I use to help plan my cards.  I just want to point something out.  If you use the Shape Properties Box to set the size on some objects there may be a difference between the size you set and the actual size. This is due to the bounding box not being exactly on the lines of the image.

In this case, a 5 1/2 inch card base will have these values in the Shape Properties Box.  I just wanted to mention this to help you avoid a problem with sizing. 

I wanted a scalloped oval for the card topper and there is a very handy one right here on the A Child's Year cartridge.

I needed to adjust the oval slightly to make it fit on the card base.  I kept the preview of the card on one mat on while I adjusted the sizing with the handles until it fit nicely.

OK - now for the "fancy" part!  I went to the "Wild Card" cartridge and chose this card - but I am not going to use it as a card.

I wanted the lovely filigree to be cut inside my scalloped oval layer.  To do this, I simply used the handles to shape the filigree area to fit the scalloped oval with a nice even border.  Then, I hid the outer cutting line of the card and the two "tick marks" for the scoring.  Since I hid two or more lines, they will stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened.

That's all there is to it - takes much longer to explain than to do it!

I cut a plain scalloped oval, the fancy filigree center scalloped oval (in white glitter cardstock) and the card base and I was ready to assemble my card.  I tried the plain oval in the gemstone cardstock (above) and also in some matte finish blue cardstock (below).

I liked the color of the plain cardstock better but it was too plain - so I embossed it using the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

The embossing is just enough to balance the filigree and keep all of the pieces of the card interesting.  The shaped card can stand by itself - I like that in a card!  I was thinking that this would be a nice baby card and I could add a tiny sentiment in the bottom section - but I might use it for something else...

So, what about the "leftovers"?  When the scalloped oval filigree was removed from the mat these pieces remained.  I decided to try the same "trick" I used on another card from the Love Struck cartridge and lift these pieces with transfer tape to place them on a second card.

This is the card I made earlier this year using this method (here is a LINK to that post and the file).

 I placed some vinyl transfer tape over the pieces on the mat and burnished it down as well as I could.  It was much more difficult to lift the glitter pieces than it was to lift the paper pieces on the valentine.  The glitter surface did not cling as easily to the tape so I had to be very careful to peel it up evenly.

Once I had lifted all of the pieces on the tape, I applied adhesive.

Then I centered the filigree on the blue gemstone oval I had "rejected" and adhered the glitter pieces to the scalloped oval - it looked very pretty in the end!

Glitter cardstock tends to separate and there was one spot where this happened very noticeably.

I used a liquid adhesive to try to hold the glitter layer down - unfortunately it showed through after drying.

Remember,""there are no mistakes"- they are simply "creative opportunities!"  I decided that what my card needed was this lovely sequin flower from Creative Charms.

 The gemstone oval is raised up with foam squares and the card base is the large piece left from the pink sheet of cardstock I used for the Easter Egg cards.

The file for this card is available on my blog in today's "sister" post - here is a LINK.

Can you guess what is inside this pretty box?

Eight of the cards that I made using the "leftovers" from the projects for this week.  I designed the note card folder over a year ago when I made some cards for a gift and needed a way to present them.  The folder is made with a single sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock and the only "leftovers" are the two strips you can see in front of the box.  I used the Scor-Pal to make the box and the owner of the company was planning to include it in an Ezine last Spring, but the issue never came out.  The complete directions to make the folder are on my blog - here is a LINK.

 I did promise a truly simple but still elegant and "fancy" card or two with no Design Studio involved for today didn't I?  Well here they are - all lovely and easy .  With beautiful cardstock and the Lyrical Letters cartridge you can make these in no time at all.  Since I have run very long in this post today, I will send you to the sister post on my blog  to get all of the details.  Lyrical Letters is a fantastic cartridge with seven fonts and all sorts of surprises - like these perfect card toppers.

I hope I have inspired you to get busy creating.  I encourage you to experiment with the vinyl and eggs, download the trial of Design Studio and use your leftovers!

Have a great weekend!

Believe Card (from the sketch)

Several people asked about the "file" for the quick sketch of the "Believe" card that I made to illustrate yesterday's post about card sketches.  The sketch was done with my CM StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software - it was not a .cut file.  Never one to turn down a challenge, I spent some time figuring out how to make a similar card in Design Studio.

This was the sketch I created using the StoryBook software.  I used papers from a digital kit called  "Cottage Garden."  I don't have that particular paper as physical paper and I decided not to print it out but instead used similar colors and textures from an older paper kit called "Starry Night."

The first problem was to try to find some word art that resembled the digital element I used for the card.   I used the keyword search in Design Studio and found three results for the word "believe."  None of them had the same look and feel that the word art in the StoryBook program had so I searched a bit more.  I looked for any prewelded words that might not be included in the Keywords (there are quite a few that are missing) but I didn't find anything.

I ended up choosing the "Matrimony" font from the Calligraphy cartridge.  I created my own welded word and adjusted the size to fit the card front.

I added a couple of swirls from the Calligraphy cartridge (I could have searched for some that were a more perfect match but I like to use the smallest number of cartridges possible to make it easier for people to use my files).  I chose not to add a flower as a cut - I knew I could add a Prima or other flower but in the end I preferred to leave the design unembellished.

I created the card base and layers in Design Studio, simply to use for preview purposes.  It is much more efficient to cut these layers with a paper cutter but it is nice to work with them for setting up the card.

Some people have trouble getting good cuts with the Calligraphy cartridge, particularly at smaller sizes since the letters are thin.  I used paper from this "shimmer" stack by DCWV.

It is a medium weight with a "hard" finish and I found that it cut very well at blade 6, pressure max, speed max (though actually controlled by Design Studio).

Next I needed to create the scalloped ribbon strip.  I tried using the strip from Plantin Schoolbook but I ran into a problem.  I thought that three images welded together were not quite "bumpy" enough and I could not put four in a single selection box even when I switched to the 12 x 24 mat.  So I looked for a scalloped square that I could weld into a ribbon strip.

I tried the scalloped square from Mini Monograms but it was too irregular for my taste.

In the end, I used this scalloped square from Storybook, overlapping and welding seven together.

I was able to get a small tight scallop for the strip to go across the card.  It is definitely a smaller scallop than the one in the StoryBook sketch but I liked the way it looked.

I created additional strips to layer on the scallop.  When I was done I realized that everything was too high on the card.  It doesn't really matter since there are actually only two items that will be cut from the file - the word art and the scalloped strip.  However, I wanted to make a Design Studio "sketch" that looked similar to the StoryBook sketch.

The easiest way to move all of the design elements to a lower position and retain their spacing, is to add the same amount to the "Y' value for each item.

I added .3 to each to get my design into a more pleasing proportion.  When I actually assembled the card I placed the items a bit lower.

Here are all of the components of my card.  I cut all of the layers with a paper cutter.  The dimensions are listed on the tabs of the file.  If you don't have the Storybook cartridge but you do have a scallop edge punch you could use that to create the scalloped strip and just cut the word art with the Cricut.

The scalloped strip in the file is 5.5 inches wide to allow room for trimming to a straight end.  First I added the gold layer.

 

Then I added the green strip.  I checked the measurements on the card front.

Here is the trimmed strip that is sized to fit the first layer (5.25 inches wide).

Now I have a nearly finished card....

I always use my Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive to adhere delicate cuts like this one.  I have tried other glue pens but  like this one the best and always have great results.

Be sure to keep track of the tiny dot for the "i" (but if you do lose it you could always use a gem!).  It is easiest to put a bit of adhesive on the card in the position where the dot will go and then add the cut piece to that spot.  I wait until the adhesive has turned clear so it doesn't ooze out at all.

So here is my final card.  Similar, but not identical to the sketch I made in the StoryBook digital scrapping software.  (It is a bit confusing - the CM software is StoryBook and the Cricut Cartridge is Storybook - no capital "B").  The file is available to download as usual.  There are ten tabs in the file but only two that you will actually cut with the Cricut.  You can cut this file with any of the machines.  You NEED the Calligraphy Collection cartridge to make this card, the Storybook cartridge for the scalloped strip is not essential - you could try another scalloped square welded into a strip or simply use a border punch.  George is used only to make the shapes for all of the plain layers and the card base for previewing.

One more tip - when there are so many mats that the tabs will not fit on your screen you need to use these arrows to scroll through the mats.

Believe Card

I am a Creative Memories consultant and I am happy to answer any questions about the StoryBook software or any other products if you do not have a consultant already.  I consider it my other essential crafting tool right next to the Cricut and Design Studio.  The link to my personal website is HERE  (and always in the side column of my blog).