Neighborhood Mailbox Project - Part Two

It is great to get a community together to achieve a common goal.  We all had a lot of fun despite the hard work and the neighbors who were unable to help on Saturday have been surprised and happy to see the results.  The final finishing touches to the mailbox house restoration were added on Sunday and Monday.

At the end of the day Saturday, the difference was dramatic.  It's funny how you get so used to something looking run down that you stop noticing the problem.  I think we all will be more aware of the condition of this area and more likely to keep it maintained.

The flower boxes on the sides needed some repairs so my husband brought them home Saturday and fixed them.  Once he put them back on Sunday, Michelle filled them with flowers.  With hot summer weather coming, we opted for artificial flowers so no one has to water and tend them constantly.

 I thought it would be nice to add a welcome sign to the top of the structure, so on Monday I cut some dark brown vinyl to match the color of the flower boxes and finished the project.

I used the Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Cakes Cricut cartridge and set up the cut with my Gypsy.  I thought about using my Cameo with a standard true type font but I have read reports of people clogging their Cameo blades when cutting vinyl.  I have used the Cricut a lot for vinyl so I decided to stick with it to finish this project.

I arranged all of the words together to conserve the amount of vinyl I needed.  I used the 24 inch mat and set the blade at three and the speed and pressure at three for a perfect "kiss cut" (the vinyl is cut but the backing remains intact).  Then I "weeded" the vinyl, removing the excess external pieces in sections.  It helps to use scissors to cut the excess as you go along.  Then all I had to do was remove the trapped center pieces.  The little hook tool works very well for this job.

Here are my final letters.  I decided not to weld the letters because I thought it would be easier to read.

Next, I applied transfer tape to each word.  I burnished the tape to the letters and then lifted each word and returned the tape to the backing material until I could take it to the mailbox.

Here are all of the words with the transfer tape applied.  Since there were only four words I didn't think it would be too difficult to line them up.  In hindsight, it might have been simpler to do a long row so the spacing would be totally consistent.

I measured the distance from each side and put the words up with a few pieces of regular tape to check the placement.  Then I marked pencil dots at the start and finish of each word so I could remove the transfer tape backing and put the words into position.

I've never put up vinyl outside and the breeze and sun made it a little tricky to get everything perfect.  The brown vinyl was Cricut brand (Oracal 631 vinyl).  Even though it is indoor vinyl, I think it will be fine here.  The area is protected and I wanted the matte finish so it would look like it was painted on.  I find this vinyl to be a bit thinner and prone to static which makes it a little harder to work with than the Wall Pops vinyl.    The "Partridge" section stuck to itself after the backing was removed and a few letters tore a little as I pulled it apart.  I decided to realign then and burnish everything down and it worked.  If I decided to fine tune the spacing, I can always cut another set.  I think I'll wait until these show signs of age...

We are due to get some very hot weather - in the 90's - this week and I hope that the bench in the shady spot will give someone a place to rest when they walk to get the mail. 

My Dad will most likely be discharged from the hospital today and I am going to Pennsylvania to see him.  I might not be able to do much to help but I haven't been there since Easter.  Thanks for all of the kind comments.  I will try to keep up with the blog but I'll just have to see how things go...


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Crafty Thank You Card

The Martha Stewart Crafts cake cartridges are some of my top "go to" cartridges.  These cartridges were designed with cakes in mind but they have so much content that is equally useful for paper crafting projects.  The borders and sentiments are great for all of the typical card making occasions.

I own lots of Martha Stewart border punches but I find it frustrating sometimes that they don't exactly fit the space where I would like to use them.  With the cartridges and Design Studio or the Gypsy you can adapt any of the border images to fit the space perfectly.  For this card I used the border shown from the MS Elegant Cake cartridge and then adjusted the size to exactly five inches in Design Studio using the handle in the lower right corner.  On the Gypsy, you can use the proportional resizing to make the border the perfect size.

 

The "Thanks!" sentiment is also from the MS Elegant cartridge.

The sentiments all have shadow options which is a great timesaver.

I decided to add a stamped border from a new set that I found recently (at Marshall's - always check their stationery section when you are there).  I added some white pen stitching above and below the stamped border.

This is the stamp set from American Crafts.  I bought it for the wedding images but the border is good for all sorts of projects.

I wanted to use this paper from the DCWV "Crafty" stack.  This stack has lots of homespun, textured designs. 

In case you haven't seen this stack, here is a photo of the front.  I really like the sewing motifs (buttons, little scissors, etc.).

I wanted to be sure to center this striking design.  I am a bit compulsive about aligning and centering items and I always notice when someone just cuts from one end of the paper instead of thinking about the design of the paper.  I cut a strip with plenty of extra paper and adhered it to the border strip.

 

Then I carefully trimmed it even with the blue border strip on my small trimmer.

I added the sentiment and the decorative layer to a kraft cardstock A2 card.

The sentiment is raised on foam dots to add some dimension.

The sentiment needed a little more punch so I did some white pen stitching in the letters.

For a finishing touch, I tied some twine in a bow at the top of the card.  This is "cappucino" twine from The Twinery (I ordered the "original sampler pack" a while ago to try out the eight colors they offered at the time - they have added more colors since then and there is a larger sampler pack now called "colorful bunch" with 11 colors).

The final card has a ""crafty" homespun look and will be good to send to one of my crafty friends!

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Martha on Monday - a bordered card with some "Imagine-ation"

It's Monday morning and time for another installment of "Martha on Monday" over on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.  This week I posted a quick tutorial showing how you can use the many borders on the Martha Stewart Cake Art cartridges to create perfect borders for your cards. 

I love the Martha Stewart punches (and I have even more than I realized once I started the grand reorganizing of the craftroom!) but it is frustrating sometimes to realize that they don't always come out even on your card edge.  With Design Studio or the Gypsy (and soon the Cricut CraftRoom!) you can get perfectly sized fancy edges on your cards quite easily.

If you pop over to THIS POST on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog you can see how easy it is to do this.  In honor of the fantastic Imagine Giveaway that Mandy is hosting this month I made my sample card using some Imagine components.  Be sure to check out the details of the giveaway  HERE, make a flower and send it to Mandy and you could possibly win an Imagine!

For the card front, I chose these roses from the Imagine More Cards cartridge.  I selected the layers option and eliminated all of the design except for the two rose cluster and the red rose layer.

I cut the card base with the open scallop border from a sheet of cardstock I printed with the second full sheet of paper in the handbook.  The details about designing the card base are on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.

 I set the imagine to cut with no borders (changed the default from 4 to 0).  It cut nearly perfectly but I decided to use some brown ink to cover any misses and to add depth to the roses.  Here you can see the difference side by side.

 After the pieces were inked, I added Stickles glitter glue to the flowers and the leaves.

I used Fruit Punch, Yellow and Star Dust on the roses and Lime Green on the leaves.

When I scored and folded the card base the edge was a little rough so I decided to add a ribbon to help finish off the top of the card.

I figured out the position for the roses and left them sitting on the card while I add the peel-off "Happy Birthday" sentiment.  

Then I adhered the pair of roses directly to the card front.  The red rose is not "Stickled" since it will have another layer on top.

For the top red rose layer I added some foam dots for dimension.

The slightly raised image adds a lot to the card.

This card looks more complicated than it is - but you do have to allow time for the Stickles to dry.  I found that the flowers were curved after the Stickles dried so I put them under a heavy stack of books overnight to get a nice flat image.

I haven't used my Stickles much lately - I think they were perfect to give a finishing touch to the flowers which are the focal point of the card.

This was my first test cut of the bordered card.  I usually use cardstock in the same weight that I am planning to use for my project but in designs that are not my favorites for my test cuts.  I may find a way to make this into a card that I will post - the colors are a bit unusual but that is a challenge!  I did not post a file for this card since I explained exactly how to create the file in the tutorial.  If you are having trouble and need a link for the file I made, please leave a comment to let me know.

You can make the files for bordered cards and cut a small supply to have on hand when you need to make  a quick card.  If you have an Imagine, you can cut and print the images for the card front very quickly so be sure to get your entry in to the Scrappy-Go-Lucky contest.  

Don't forget that there is something special happening on my blog this week - be sure to check in tomorrow to get all of the details

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Another Friend Card

I really enjoy using the Martha Stewart Crafts Cake Art cartridges.  There are so many beautiful designs to work with.  I am such a fan of the Martha Stewart border punches and these cartridges have many of the same borders that I have in punch form.  The great thing about using the cartridges is that you can adjust the sizes for a perfect fit on your card or page.  You can also use the borders to create new shapes with decorative edges - similar to the "Punch around the Page" sets.  By using Design Studio or the Gypsy you can make the design in any size you want.

For this card, I chose one of the short border segments, then copied, rotated and welded it to form a decorative square medallion for a card.

I also chose a flower shape with the matching shadow to layer on top of the medallion.  I set up a mat to have all three pieces cut at the same time.

My original choice for the card base was this soft green cardstock but it didn't look quite right to me, so I changed to a medium blue instead.

 I decided to do the layers a bit differently.  Instead of centering a mat on the card front I aligned it at the bottom of the card and trimmed the sides a bit.  The resulting piece is about 5 1/8 x 3 3/8 - the top part is completely covered by the medallion.

The sentiment is a stamp from a set by My Sentiments Exactly stamped in "Close to Cocoa" ink from Stampin' Up.

I adhered the flower to the shadow and made a "starter hole" for the large gem brad in the center.

The large gem brad fits almost perfectly in the center of the flower cut.

I raised the flower above the medallion with some foam squares.

I added some gems to the edges but I thought the card needed a bit more bling.

I added some pink pearls around the edges of the flower...

...then I added more white pearls near the center to finish off the card and make the flower really stand out.

The gems and pearls are all from Creative Charms.  The card base is Bazzill, the patterned papers are K & Company and the medallion mat and the flower are Core'dinations gemstone cardstock.  This card would be a good one to send to a friend who also is a crafter (and one who loves bling!).

I have written about the Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Cake cartridge for the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.  There are some helpful tips for using the images to the best effect.  You can see that post HERE.  If you would like to use my Design Studio file for the medallion and flower you can also download the file from that post. 

Thanks for all of the cruising tips - just a few more days until we are on our way!


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