Playing with Colors in Design Studio

One of the reasons that I often prefer to use Design Studio instead of the Gypsy is the ability to assign colors to each mat in a layered design and experiment with various color possibilities.

I used this element from the Hannah Montana Cartridge to make this multi-layered flower.  The cartridge has only the lattice flower, a shadow and a blackout version.  By using "hide selected contour" I was able to create more layers so I could add a lot of colors in a single flower.

There are a total of six layers with an optional shadow layer.  When this is put together the flower will be thick like a chipboard flower.  I will show you screen shots of each layer.  The layers are numbered starting from the base and building up to the lattice flower on the top.

This is the base layer which can be found on the shift function of the lattice flower key.

Layer one is created by hiding four of the outer petals.

 Layer two is created by hiding the opposite four outer petals.

Layer three is created by hiding four of the center petals.

Layer four is created by hiding the opposite four inner petals.

The top lattice layer is cut directly from the cartridge image.

When all six layers are combined they look like this.

If you add the shadow layer from the cartridge you can create a flower like this.  There will be a lot of cut outs in this layer and you can choose to use "hide selected contour" to eliminate them or ignore them since they will be on the back of the flower.

By changing the preview color for each layer you can create a different look for your multi-layered flower.

If you don't know how to change the preview color, you simply right click anywhere on the mat and choose "Set Preview Color" from the pop up menu.

You will then get another pop up where you can choose the colors.  You can also choose to set a custom color by clicking "Define Custom Color."

Unfortunately the custom colors do not save on the chart when you click "Add to Custom Colors" so you will need to keep track of all of the values in the boxes if you want to duplicate the color on another mat.

I think "hide selected contour" is one of my favorite features of this program.  It gives you so much more creative potential and also helps you to save paper.  This LINK will take you to many of the posts I have made showing projects where I used "hide selected contour."  I was very happy to see this option added to the Gypsy.  Maybe color previews will be added soon.

If you would like to see a video explaining how "hide selected contour" can help you save paper here is a LINK to that video.


We are still out of town but I thought you might be a bit tired of following my travels!  I will share a few more photos from the trip soon.  I am doing my best to catch up with emails but please be patient if you haven't heard from me - I only have bits and pieces of time when I can get on the computer.

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Happy New Year!

 Welcome to the new decade!  I wonder what these next ten years will bring?  I spent most of the day making and breaking resolutions - well, there is always tomorrow!  I think I will redo my list and possibly share it here on my blog.  Doing that may make me more "accountable" and perhaps help me to accomplish some of the things I'd like to in the coming year.

I promised that I would give you the details on this card.  It is a simple file that you can make yourself if you have been reading my blog for a while.  I imagine that there are many people who may have just received a Cricut and Design Studio for a gift, so I will do a bit of explaining.

The file is for the two butterfly layers. The cuts are delicate at the antennae so take care when you lift them from the mat.

 The shadow layer of the butterfly is highlighted in this screen shot of the keypad.

 The top layer of the butterfly with the detailed cuts is highlighted on this keypad shot.  To create the welded top layer, place one butterfly on the mat, check weld and then copy and paste three times, rotating each butterfly an additional 90 degrees.  Once you have the top layer to your liking, preview and be sure that you have "Keep Preview as Mat Background" checked in the View menu.  Then, on a new page in the file, you can choose the blackout version, check weld and copy and paste three more butterflies on the mat.  Use the preview image as a guide to align the background layer for the second cut.

I used the large Pinking Circle Nestabilities die for the brown glitter cardstock behind the butterflies and cut the striped layer with my trimmer.  You could use a different die or a cut from a cartridge that you own - the Accent Essentials has several shapes that could work. Here is a LINK to a post from September that shows you how to create a "pinked" circle using Accent Essentials.

The card is a standard A2 card (8.5 x 5.5 inches folded in half).  The striped glitter cardstock layer is cut at 4 inches by 5.25 inches.

The actual pages to cut the layers are on the first and third pages of the file (they are marked "CUT").  The second and fourth pages are for preview purposes only - you can use these to "audition" some ideas for the color scheme. The fifth page is a rectangle to represent the card base.  The sixth page is for previewing the file as a whole.

If you preview the file on the pages where the top layer of butterflies are located you will see the black outline for the cuts.  You will notice that there are some very tiny holes just below the top wings.

 This close  view of the card as I posted it yesterday shows the tiny holes - I thought they looked a bit untidy so...Stickles to the rescue!

In this very close view you can see the dots of Orange Peel Stickles that I added to disguise the holes.  I put three dots on each side of the body - the holes are too closely place for a dot on each hole.

The butterfly medallion is added to the pinking circle background with foam squares for added dimension.

The cardstock I used for the butterflies and the striped background are from the DCWV "Mi Casa" stack (think this may have been a Michael's exclusive).  The brown glitter cardstock for the pinking circle is from an older Spring glitter mat stack.

Here is one more view of the final card with the Stickles added.  I'd love to see your version if you download and use the file.  You can also try this design with another cartridge if you don't have Hannah Montana - there are quite a few butterflies to choose from!

Butterfly Medallion Card

New Year's Eve (and a new decade)

We are off to stop in at several New Year's Eve gatherings.  I wanted to quickly share this card - I'll post all of the details and the file tomorrow.  I ended up making a different file using the Hannah Montana cartridge because I realized that not very many people have Picturesque yet.

Have a safe and happy time tonight and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

(A little earlier tonight I noticed that the blog hit counter has passed 500,000 - half a million!  Thanks to all of you who visit and leave comments - I am looking forward to the new year and my new projects and I hope you will continue to enjoy what you find here!)

Music box (layered vinyl)

While I was at my sister's in New Jersey on Thursday and Friday,  I helped her decorate this clear plastic box full of musical toys for her grandsons (my great-nephews).  We used the Hannah Montana cartridge for this project - it's not just for girls!

 

I set up some mats in Design Studio before I went to New Jersey, but I waited until I was with my sister to actually cut the vinyl.  I put an extra base layer of the "ready to rock" on a second page to see how the colors would look when layered.  It's great to have the smaller Cricut to take along for trips and little projects like this.

We used blue and yellow Wall-Pops vinyl.  This photo shows the mat after "weeding" the cuts.  The Wall-Pops vinyl is easy to work with and seems to hold up very well - I have had some on my car for well over a year. 

To get the top layer adhered to the base as neatly as possible we used some transfer tape.  I cut a piece of about the right size and burnished it down on the weeded cut.

Then my sister carefully peeled the transfer tape with the top layer of vinyl off the backing paper.

 

We aligned the layers and burnished the tape with the top layer to the base layer on the backing paper. We were the tiniest bit off at the right edge but we decided it was close enough!

We lifted the layered pieces and transferred the cut to one end of the plastic storage box, burnished the layered vinyl down to the box and peeled off the transfer tape.

Here you can see the final result.  The label will show if the box is placed on the shelf like a shoebox.

 

I had also prepared a cut for the side of the box using the music feature.  Remember, for this to work properly you simply move the letters together but do not apply kerning or check weld (click this LINK for an earlier post with a bit more about this feature).

 

The music staff cut out nicely - here is the weeded cut ready to transfer.

This time we didn't use transfer tape (which may or may not have been a good idea).  By bending back the backing paper and starting on the left at the correct position to center the cut, we carefully pulled back the backing, adhering the cut as we went along (definitely a two person job).

This was tricky and the lines may have gotten a bit out of parallel but we decided not to worry about it - the little guys won't be too critical of our work! It is more difficult to put the vinyl on a three dimensional object like the box since there are some slight curves to the shape.

 We used the rest of the notes and the "G" clef on the opposite end and side of the box.

I think the boys will have a lot of fun with all of the shakers and cymbals and tambourines inside the box - I hope their mother and father enjoy the concert!

The storm was a bit slower than predicted so we made it home safely - thanks for all the encouraging words!  Now we just need our older son's flight to be on schedule tomorrow and then we will all be home for Christmas!

Music ATCs

I finally have the new computer in approximately the same working order as my old laptop (which will be heading to Texas for repairs tomorrow). My brother in law even helped me get my Firefox bookmarks back (it was a bit complicated but he is a computer genius!). I have a lot of email and comments to catch up on and I am a bit behind schedule on Design Team work to submit to some of the sites I design for. I hope to be all caught up before we leave on vacation at the end of the week.

By some lucky twist of fate, both of my ATC swap groups had the theme "music" this month. I meant to do two entirely different cards, however, with so much time unexpectedly consumed with computer issues, I decided to make similar ATCs for both groups.

I wanted to use the Hannah Montana cartridge and to test out the way the Music feature works in Design Studio.



If you look at the virtual keypad in the music feature it is nearly impossible to tell what many of the keys are. It is very helpful to have your handbook available when you are working with this feature. The important thing to remember is that this feature is created to "weld" the letters on the music staff when you are using the Cricut machine without the software so you can nudge the items into position but do NOT use kerning or check "weld" - the file will corrupt.



In the screen shot above, the black rectangle represents the size of an ATC (3.5 x 2.5 inches). At the bottom of the page you can see the staff ends around the word "music" as they were entered on the mat. By using the nudge key, I was able to move the letters much closer together, as you can see in the center image.



I resized the word to 2 x 3 inches so it would fit on an ATC comfortably and prepared a mat full of these words to cut. This detailed cutting of so many images takes quite a while to finish.



When you preview these cuts they look rather peculiar - above is the full sheet of words viewed on the cutting page and below you can see how this looks on the preview page.



Don't be alarmed at the preview - the words will cut correctly.



I did have a bit of trouble with two of the corners having cuts that were not quite complete but they were easy to pop out or trim with tiny scissors.



The bottom cut is the one I used for the ATCs. As you can see, the top cut, which was done by the machine freestanding, is the same height but much wider and would never fit on an ATC.



It took a while to check the cuts and remove the inner pieces. I then chose background papers for each group, adhered the cuts using a wide Zig glue pen and set them up on my island to add the stickles accents on the hearts and the dot of the "i" - in gold for the red cards and in red for the green cards.



Here is a closer view of one of the red cards



The second group was small this month and I only needed to make five.



I usually design the backs of the ATCs in my CM StoryBook software and print them, but for the small group I punched a few notes and wrote all of the details by hand. The two notes at the bottom are punched through the backing cardstock and the note at the top is applied to the card.



Here is the larger group ready to send.



I had to reinstall driver software for my printer to get the backs to print. I must have changed a setting in the print menu because the first group printed quickly and lighter in color (less ink applied) than the second group.



I chose the papers and cardstock because they were bright and happy. I like the confetti effect on both the front and the back since music is often associated with celebrations of all sorts.



The cuts are fairly smooth but there were some ragged bits - at larger sizes they will cut more smoothly.



I took one of my cuts and imported a photo of it into my Creative Memories StoryBook digital scrapbooking program and turned it into an embellishment for a digital page. The background paper you see here is digital paper from CM - from the Disney Hannah Montana collection - a perfect fit!

I'll be doing a few more things with the Hannah Montana cartridge and sharing them soon. This cartridge has a lot to offer with really interesting fonts and great music images, guitars, hearts and butterflies. There is really very little that is strictly Hannah Montana so I'd recommend the cartridge for anyone with music and theatre events to scrapbook.