A couple of "improvised" cards

On my way to and from Pennsylvania to see my Dad, I stopped over at my sister's home in New Jersey.  It makes the trip shorter and gives me a chance to visit and help her with projects.   I can't share our most creative project right now - it is for a surprise that hasn't happened yet!

This time I had a few craft supplies with me, actually a rather odd assortment.  She needed a couple of cards and so I figured we should try to make them.  Since I didn't know ahead of time that she would need the cards so we had to get creative with the things I had along for one card the first day.  On my way back, I added a few items that I bought when I checked out the Tuesday Morning shop near my Dad's.  When you have less to work with, it can be fun to tackle the challenge of making a card even though you don't have all of your usual tools and supplies.

I found the baby ribbon from American Crafts and some Martha Stewart "It's a Boy" rub-ons for less than $1 on clearance.  As is often the case with things you find on clearance, the rub-ons were a bit old and we had some trouble with them.  The sentiment was supposed to be surrounded with a circle of small parallel lines.  When these failed to transfer properly after a few attempts, we simply punched out the words and added layers of punched circles and a star that we made with her Creative Memories punches.

This baby boy has an unusual name, "Arlo" (I couldn't stop humming "Alice's Restaurant" while we were working on the card!).  Fortunately, I "enabled" my sister into buying a Cricut Create when Michael's had a clearance a year or so ago so we were able to use the Don Juan cartridge to cut out the letters inside the card.

At home, I often use a border punch to create an attractive white insert to write on for a dark card but we didn't have any to work with.  I looked through her small selection of cartridges and remembered that Winter Woodland has some nice tag shapes.  The blackout on the shift level created this solid shape and we added a few more punched stars to tie everything together (I smudged out the personal message written on the card in this photo).

The card is an unusual size - we made it to fit a spare envelope that she had already.

The other card we made was this simple sympathy card.  The decorative paper is from Webster's Pages (the warehouse sale box that I purchased recently was one of the things I had tossed in the car to show my sister).  The sentiment is one of the Craftwork Cards printed shapes that my friend Enfys gave me.  It is very handy to have these on hand and I happened to have thrown them in my box of goodies to take along.  The green in the printed design was a close match to a Martha Stewart travel themed mat stack that I had in my box - you never know what will end up working together until you try it.  I didn't have any appropriate ribbon for the left side but two strips of the same green paper were an acceptable alternative.

I had a nice time with my Dad.  He is better than he was but still having some problems with strength in his legs.  With some more physical therapy we hope he will soon be able to go back to his own apartment.  Thanks for all of your kind comments and get well wishes.  Special thanks to Mary Ann who has sent him some lovely get well cards.

I was worn out from my travels and didn't get to post this for an early morning release as I usually do - I am home now and starting to catch up!
 
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Double Birthday - a little late...

I suddenly realized that I had missed sending cards for a significant family birthday - our twin niece and nephew turned twelve this month and I wished them Happy Birthday when we saw them just before their birthday but then totally forgot to send cards!  So, these cards will be late - I hope they will like them (along with the "flat" presents inside!).

The inspiration for our nephew's card was this leftover piece of blue mirror cardstock. (I cut the accent stars for the card yesterday from this and the negative space looked rather interesting - sort of modern and space-age...).  I had a piece of the green shimmer cardstock left as well, so I started with those two pieces.  I rounded all of the corners on the green cardstock and decided to round just two corners on the blue piece.  I added an extra piece of white cardstock to the back of the blue layer so that only white would show through the openings.

I happened to have an extra "Happy Birthday" cut from Lyrical Letters in my "leftovers" box.  I thought the star shape was very similar and would be great for the inside of the card.  I had misplaced the dot for the "i" but a tiny green gem fills in very nicely.  To make things coordinate, I wanted to cut his name using the same font on Lyrical Letters (the "Connected" font).

The first time I cut the name I used this bronze metallic cardstock but it was too dull and the card did not balance nicely.

I looked around and found this pack of foil cardstock I bought a while ago - there are two types of texture in this, one is ribbed and the other more of a woven effect.  There was a nice orange/copper color so I chose that to coordinate with the orange "Happy Birthday" inside.

I welded the name and then adjusted the size to 3.5 inches long and 1.5 inches high.  As you can see, this is very small and the upstrokes in some of the letters are very thin.  You have to be extremely careful in lifting a cut like this from the mat.

It was very difficult to get a photo with the shine on both the blue and orange cardstock showing.  I hope you can get an idea of the effect from this photo.  Since I had already adhered the bronze name I simply layered the shinier orange one right on top.  This actually gives a nice raised effect.

For our niece's card I wanted to use this piece of glitter cardstock with cupcakes.  It was left from a larger piece in the DCWV Sweet Stack that I use quite a while ago for a project.  I used the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock again for the pink layer.  Since I knew that my cupcake layer would cover some of the pink gemstone cardstock, I punched out a few flowers that I can use on another project.

I added some bright green dotted ribbon, first wrapping a piece around the layers before adhering to the card and then tying a bow and attaching it with glue dots.

I added her initial cut from the Storybook cartridge at 1.5 inch in a deeper pink shimmer cardstock.

I also cut the "Birthday Girl" from the Storybook cartridge for the inside of the card in the same deep pink shimmer cardstock.  The dot for the "i" is connected to the "t" but I added a tiny diamond to accent it.

 Lyrical Letters and Storybook are two of my favorite cartridges - I very often can find just what I need for a quick card on one of them.


A small bit of enabling - I just got the sale flyer for Jo-Ann's in the mail today and Cricut cartridges are $39.99 each from April 1 -3.  Also, cardstock is on sale at 5 for $1 on the same dates so here is a chance to stock up on the Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock

I did it!

This is a card that I made for myself to celebrate finishing something that I had been trying to do for a long time!  (Why not make a card for yourself now and then?).

I cut the sentiment from the Don Juan cartridge at 3 1/2 inches.  I used green shimmer cardstock.  Don Juan is the cartridge that normally comes with the Cricut Create.  I do not have a Create but I was able to get a copy of the cartridge through the Cricut Rewards program.  Through this program you can collect points on cartridges that you buy and redeem them for a variety if items.  The rewards program started with the cartridges issued in 2008 and points are not given with the cartridges that come packed with a machine.

The font on Don Juan is a unicase font which allows the shift function to include lots of accents and images making this a more versatile cartridge.  The "you did it" word art has a few stars included.  I cut the layers in a metallic blue cardstock.

I wasn't sure if my piece of cardstock for the stars would be big enough to cut them exactly as they appear on the cartridge so I put three sets of stars on the mat and hid two stars in each set.  Then I moved them closer together so I could cut them from the small piece of metallic cardstock.  This is yet another handy way to use "hide selected contour."

For the background layer I used a piece of glitter cardstock from the DCWV Linen Closet stack.  I just got this recently at Jo-Ann's and I like it so much that I will probably go back and get another one!  I wanted to add a gem to the center of each star and this set from Creative Charms had just the right shade of green and three graduated sizes which was perfect for my card.  I inked the edges of the layer with VersaMagic chalk ink in "Ocean Depth."

Here is a close view of one of the stars.  The colors worked out nicely but I did spend a bit of time looking around for a good background.  This is one of the ways I justify keeping a lot of paper on hand - it is hard to know ahead of time exactly what colors and patterns will work together and so you need lots of options!

I saw this little bear when I was out walking this weekend - he made me smile so I thought I'd share him with you.  I have lots to do this week so I will have to keep him in mind if I start to get stressed!

A card and a Flock of Flamingos!

There have been a few non-crafting things going on this week that have kept me from having enough time to test cut and photograph some of my new designs to share. I also have some "secret projects" in the works that I can't show you just yet. I did finally find a chance to try a cut from my new "Don Juan" cartridge that I was able to order using my Cricut rewards points. I have wanted this cartridge for a very long time but I couldn't justify buying yet another machine just to get the cartridge (the Don Juan cartridge is "exclusive" to the Create machine). The Rewards program shipping cost is high (about $16 for my location), but I figured that was a low price to pay for a cartridge!



First, I want to show you how a card that I posted last month was put to good use! One of my friends has the same birthday as me and I had been planning her birthday gift for months. We both like odd "finds" from rummage and yard sales and these flamingos definitely qualify as a "find!"



I had to wait until a time when I was sure she was out of town - then I drove to her house and "planted" the flamingos. From a distance, they are fairly unobtrusive gathered by the pool fence.



When you get a little closer you can see that there are quite a few flamingos in the cluster and you can also see the card tied to the neck of one bird.



I used this card, which I created before Life is a Beach was added to Design Studio, for her birthday card. I cut the standard square card and added the light pink frame piece (here is a LINK to the original post with the .cut file for the frame which was made using the Storybook cartridge).

The flamingos were a hit (but I have a sneaking suspicion that they may start migrating from lawn to lawn under cover of darkness!).



Back to the card I made using Don Juan. The "just because" design is one of the pre-welded items on the cartridge.



Here you can see the location of the key on the virtual keypad. There is an option for a layer on the flower using the "shift" key, but I chose to cut the design only once. I thought the letters looked a bit bland so I added some white pen stitching.



I also added white pen dots on the tips of the flower petals and made a center for the flower from a punched circle and an epoxy sticker. I popped the center up on a foam square and adhered it - sometimes just adding one element with a bit of depth can make the card have a more finished look.

I think the unicase font on Don Juan is a great look and I know it will work very nicely for wordbooks. I just have to decide on a word to use!