An Elegant Wreath

I had quite a day on Tuesday - lots of fires to put out and some unexpected complications.  I have a left hand wrapped in bandages right now so it is hard to type and I definitely can't do much with the hand for a few days.

With all of the fanfare about the new Cricut Mini and the Craft Room, I thought I'd share something to remind you to look carefully at the cartridges you own - you never know where you might find an unexpected treasure.  Using Design Studio, the Gypsy or now the online Craft Room can greatly expand the usefulness of your cartridges.  Of course, you do still have to work with the images available on the cartridges that you own. 

This wreath works beautifully to frame a page.  You can read all about it at THIS POST from a couple of years ago and adapt the idea to one of your projects.  Without peeking at the labels, can you tell me which cartridge this wreath is from?  My file is also available to download if you want to see how it was done.

I hope to be able to use my hand more tomorrow - sorry for the super short post today.  I had a minor surgery that turned out to be more involved than I expected but everything is fine.  How are your Thanksgiving preparations going? 


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Hello Thursday News - Design Studio Update

Today was "Hello Thursday" and four new Cricut cartridges were announced.  They are all full cartridges.  Three will be available in mid-March  - Give a Hoot, "Just Because" Cards and Preserves.  The fourth cartridge, Straight from the Nest, will be available exclusively from the Home Shopping Network (HSN), also in mid-March.

Here are the cartridge samples from the Cricut.com site:

This is Give a Hoot.  You can see more info on the Circut site at this LINK and download the full cartridge handbook HERE.

 

This is "  Just Because"   Cards.  You can see more information on the Cricut site at this LINK and download the full cartridge handbook HERE.

This is Preserves.  You can see more information on the Cricut site at this LINK and download the full cartridge handbook HERE.

 

This is Straight from the Nest.  You can see more information on the Cricut site at this LINK and download the full cartridge handbook HERE.

It was also announced that Serenade, the cartridge that was bundled with the Wal-Mart Black Friday solid-colored Expressions will be available in mid-April.  This is great news for many people who wanted this cartridge but didn't need a new machine.

Finally, there are four cartridges that will be "retiring" - this is the first time any of the cartridges have been retired.  They are all Solutions cartridges - Blackletter, Christmas, Sans Serif and Street Sign.  

I have Blackletter and Christmas and I like them both a lot.  The Christmas Solutions cartridge has wonderful images, including the swirly tree, intricate ornaments and angels, wintry houses and church and door,window and sign images.  I am surprised to hear that this cartridge would be retired .  If you don't have it, take a good look at the images and, if you like them as much as I do, try to get this cartridge before they are gone.

The Blackletter font is great for Halloween and there are some interesting emblems and shapes that I have used in some designs I have shared.  

 

Here is a LINK to the posts where I used Blackletter for projects.  Two of them are pictured above and below.

I am very happy to see that Provo Craft has been coordinating the announcement of new cartridges and adding all of the information  about the cartridges to website, including the full handbooks, right away.  It used to be so frustrating to try to find all of the images available on the various creative features keys.

The most exciting thing for me is that the updates for Design Studio and the Gypsy are ready simultaneously with the announcement so, even though the cartridges won't be available for about a month, we can start experimenting with the images, making designs and deciding which cartridges we want to add to our Cricut libraries.

To update your Design Studio program to include these cartridges, go to this LINK (you will need to be signed in to the Cricut.com site) and download the Font Pack.  Be sure to SAVE the download and then run it to install the new cartridges.  Your Design Studio software should be closed when you do this.  When you open the program, the new cartridges will be included in the "All by Category" list.

Your Gypsy will update with the new cartridges when you run the Sync program.

Some bloggers were given the cartridges to preview - you can see their projects on these blogs:

Joy Obsessed with Scrapbooking

Melanie  Courtney Lane Designs 

Tammy Creative Critters Cricut Club

Robyn My Pink Stamper

There may be others - these are the ones I know of so far...

I haven't had a chance to really explore these cartridges yet but I do have them in my Design Studio to play with!  Our older son and his girlfriend arrived from California tonight and we are so happy to have them here for a quick visit before they head to Washington D.C. Our snow is already melting and my cold is improving - things are looking up!

An Unexpected Wreath

While there are several seasonal holiday Cricut cartridges available you can actually find images that will work for the holidays on other cartridges that you may own.  Sometimes I just browse through the cartridges on Design Studio looking at all of the options - there are endless possibilities once you combine the cartridges with the flexibility and creativity made possible by the Design Studio program.

A cartridge that doesn't get a lot of attention is the "50 States" educational cartridge.  I think the educational cartridges are easily overlooked because they are in their own section in the "All by Category" listing in Design Studio.  It is easier to find the cartridges if you add them to "My Cartridges" because they will appear in strict alphabetical order, regardless of category.  The 50 States cartridge has a lot to offer in addition to the state names, shapes and capitals.  The state birds, flowers and flags are also included. 

The key highlighted here is the cut I used to make this wreath.

Here is a preview of the image that the key cuts.  You could cut it straight from the cartridge and save the extra pieces, however, by using Design Studio and "hide selected contour" you can conserve your paper.

Here you can see that I have hidden the center images (they are in pale blue indicating that they will not cut).

I wanted some stars to layer on the wreath.  I found some on the key highlighted above.

This key cuts seven small and one large star.  I needed nine stars all the same size.  I manipulated the shape using the handles around the box to make sure the size was correct.  I cut the stars from glitter cardstock.

I wanted to conserve my cardstock, so I overlapped several of the cuts to nestle the stars as closely together as possible.  I  used "hide selected contour" to make this work.  If you look carefully at this screen shot you will see many blue lines.

The glitter cardstock I used was from the DCWV Holiday Collection mat stack.  Some of the colors have a very glossy finish but others, such as this gold, have a more textured feel that I like a lot.  When I cut glitter cardstock, I usually use blade depth 6, high pressure and multi cut 2.

I added Stickles to all of the "berry" spots on the wreath.  The paper I used for the base wreath is from a K & Co. Holiday Stack.  I used foam squares to raise up the stars for more dimension.

This cut makes a lovely frame on a page.  As always, the look changes dramatically with different background papers.  You could also create a framed piece for the wall with the addition of a holiday greeting in the center.

This screen shot shows a preview using the words "Seasons Greetings" from the Christmas Solutions cartridge.  Some people do not like the look of the "t" in "Greetings" - the curl can make it look more like an "f."

I tried an alternative by creating a welded phrase with the Blackletter cartridge.  (I did not check weld for the previews so I could see the phrases in color).  I think this is a bit easier to read though I would probably change it to "Merry Christmas."  (There is no "Merry" on the Christmas cartridge - the phrase is set up for "Happy Christmas" which is a more common greeting in England).

I made this wreath quite a while ago and I intended to layer it with another wreath to see it that would create a more traditional look but I haven't had time to do that or to "clean up" the file for posting.  I think the wreath on Joys of the Season would look nice with this wreath added on top.

I do something similar with the wreath on our front door each year.  I have a grapevine and ivy artificial wreath that I decorated several years ago.  Each year I buy a fresh evergreen wreath and layer the artificial wreath on top - it is a quick and easy way to have a fully decorated wreath very quickly!

I did lots of cleaning and put another tree up today - I am getting closer to finishing!   Tomorrow I'll be on my way to New Jersey.  I will try to post a file for this cut if I get a chance - you can easily replicate it yourself and add your own greetings phrase to suit.

 ETA:  Download link for file added in THIS POST - be sure to read the explanation so you can avoid a cutting error.

Another Candle Border

Yesterday I shared a candle border created from the Hanukkah menorah image on the Joys of the Season cartridge.  (Here is a LINK to that post).  Today I designed another candle border.  I had planned to post a different project tonight however, I found these candles on the Christmas solutions cartridge and decided to try them for a smaller card (A2 size).

This screen shot of the keypad shows the location of the candle image.  There is one tall and one short candle which will result in an alternating pattern (instead of the four - one - four pattern of the Hanukkah menorah).

Here is a closer view of the image.  I decided to use "hide selected contour" on the inner part of the flame since the candles would be very small in the border.  Since there are two lines to hide, they will stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened.

If you look closely, you will see that I hid the final short candle to get a more finished look (and an odd number of candles).  There are 21 candles so this would be great for a milestone birthday card.

The candles are welded to a rectangle.  I used a rectangle from the George cartridge - there is not a simple rectangle cut on the Christmas cartridge (though I did find one that I can use if I do some more hidden contours).  You can substitute any rectangle from a cartridge you own if you don't have George.

The weekend has been busy here - I hope you all have been having a nice holiday.  Our son is leaving to go back to college tomorrow morning.  I didn't get a chance to test cut this file today, so I will post the file as soon as I have tested the cut.

It is always fun to find new ways to use the images on the cartridges.  Design Studio can help you to create the cuts that you need (and save you money on punches too!).

More Snowflakes!

I made it back home from my trip and tonight we are expecting another storm in Massachusetts - so I decided to share this snowflake file I did last year when I got my Christmas solutions cartridge. I am getting tired of snow but I am still fascinated by snowflake designs!

I welded the snowflake designs together in the "seven sisters" pattern commonly used with hexagons in quilting. The large snowflake design looks like this (on a 12 x 12 page)



I also did the same design but eliminated the center snowflake for a frame - this variation looks like this



Below is a photo of the full seven sisters cut on the mat



After the large snowflake was carefully lifted the remainder bits on the mat looked like this



By placing the frame cut on top of these leftovers you can get an idea of how this would look if you carefully saved all of the cut out bits and adhered them inside the frame (similar to a puzzle and the Indie Art frame from yesterday's post).



Below you can see the full cut layered over the frame



and the frame layered over the full cut



Since I did this as an adjustable file you can copy and paste the design and adjust the size to suit your project. I did a few common card sizes for you to see how they look - below is a labeled screen shot



and here are the actual cuts.



When you cut the large size of the design lifts easily but on these smaller cuts you need to take care - there are many tiny pieces that may need some "help" to come away from the frame. You can see the small slits that stayed "stuck" in this photo



This is the tool I used to help "poke out" the slits



This is actually a tool to use for picking up small pieces and moving them around with a sticky substance that extrudes from the point on the other end but the tip on this end worked nicely to separate the cuts.



Here is one of the card cuts after a bit of "clean up" to remove the smallest interior pieces.



You can trim the center points away to make a more open frame as seen in the photos below





The full page offcuts left from the larger cuts are attractive and could be used as a page background





You could even add back the center from the frame cut for this effect (sorry, in the photo I have it a bit off center but you can get the idea)



Be sure you have a sharp blade and a good mat for these intricate cuts - I had a few problems with the blade snagging at corners but I was able to snip the few small uncut areas (you can see a close up of one in the photo below).



The design shown with two shades of blue for the cut and background.



I hope the snows aren't too deep where you are - but if you get snowed in have some fun with your Cricut!



Snowflake variations (A)