Happy October!

Happy October!  A new month means there are some new deals available from Creative Charms.  This month there are two "Deal of the Month" offers and something new - the "Kit of the Month."

The October Kit of the Month contains some of the newest and most popular products and is available for $14.99 (a 25% discount from the regular price of $20.00).  I just received mine and I will be posting some projects made with it next week.

 Vintage Halloween – 125 Pieces

o   Halloween Vintage Frames

o   Halloween Twinkle Stickers

o   Amber Vintage Jewels

o   Amber Vintage Brads

o   Black Vintage Velvet Poppies

o   Black Gem Stickers

o   18” Black Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon

o   18” Black Velvet Ric Rac

The Deal of the Month is $6.99 this month (a savings of over 60% from the retail value of $20) and you can choose between the Early Christmas Set...

Early Christmas – 145 Pieces

o   Clear Itsy Glitzy

o   18” Red Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon

o   Clear Pure Blossom

o   Green 3D Sparkly Brads

o   Red Gem Stickers

o   Red Fuzzy Daisy

o   Green Braided Daisy Medley

...or the Fall Harvest Set.

Fall Harvest – 145 Pieces

o   Orange Itsy Glitzy

o   18” Yellow Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon

o   Amber Pure Blossom

o   Orange 3D Sparkly Brads

o   Amber Gem Stickers

o   Orange Fuzzy Daisy

o   Orange Braided Daisy Medley 

I had some bits and pieces sitting around on my craft island and I thought I'd make a quick card to share.  Sometimes I try out a new tool without a particular project in mind and I end up with lots of little extras that I throw into some of the containers I have sitting around my room.

When I got the set of Basic Gray/Sizzix embossing folders that I used for the Turkey Card (here is a LINK to that post) I embossed a trial piece of white cardstock with the "Snow Cap" folder.  The cardstock was cut at 3 3/4 x 5 inches and I was careful to center the embossing.  I also had some extra ATC (Artist Trading Card)  bases (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) in textured lavender cardstock.  I ordered some cardstock online that turned out to be a brighter shade of pink than I expected but I started to see how all of these layers could work together,.

I wanted to add an additional mat layer to tie the card together so  I used some Core'dinations Core Couture glitter cardstock.  I hate to squander my pretty specialty cardstock on a lower layer, so I trimmed out the center of the layer to use for another project.

To cut the center section out you need to use an exacto knife or a trimmer like this older Creative Memories model with a grid and an indicator on the blade to help you see where to start and stop the cut.

When adhering the heavily embossed cardstock to the glitter layer it is important to apply tape right to the edges all the way around the rectangle.

Here is the card with the base and two layers.  the glitter mat sets off the embossing nicely.

The lavender layer seems too plain with straight corners but adding some bling takes care of that problem!  I had these pink sparkle buttons from the September Deal of the Month and the color was a good match to my "oh so bright pink" card base.

I added a pearl gradient gem sticker to each sparkle flower to tone it down a bit and to match the pearl brad that I used in the center of the larger flower.  The pearl brad is from a Vintage Velvet Poppy - I had replaced the center with a sequin flower for the Candle and Card project ( here is a LINK to that post).

The dark purple flower cut is from the Spellbinders Nestabilities Blossom Two set - I did a few trial cuts when I bought this set and now this one has found a home!  The small pink flower in the center is a Prima from the "Got Flowers" Valentine collection (the ones that come in the cute ""milk" bottles).  I don't know why it was out of the jar but it found a happy landing spot.

I used a foam square to lift the center flower a bit.

Here you can see how all of the layers and embellishments work together.

I chose the "Thanks so much" sentiment from the Stamping cartridge and cut it at about 1  inch (I adjusted it slightly to fit the space perfectly).  I used the same glitter cardstock that I used for the lower mat layer and cut with multi-cut 2.  You can never have too many thank you cards so I tend to choose a thank you if I don't want to leave the card without a sentiment.

This card is very sparkly in real life - it is difficult to capture the effect with the camera.

We are having terrific rains here and some parts of the country have had major flooding - I hope you are staying dry and can be inside crafting to keep out of the storms.

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A Birthday Card and a surprise meeting...

I did warn you earlier this month that our family has many birthdays in August.  Here is yet another birthday card.  This one is a "tri-shutter" card - one of my favorite styles to make.  I have posted several other cards in this style - here is a LINK to the older posts.  Scroll down to the oldest two posts to find all of the directions on how to measure, score and fold these cards along with the dimensions of the layering pieces.

Here is the closed card.  I used both striped and solid papers for the layers and  outlined the solid paper with a Martha Stewart glitter pen.  I used some of the felt embellishments from Creative Charms to decorate the card.  These are part of the August "Deal of the Month" in Pink and you still have a couple of days left to place an order for the pink or blue deal.  Here is a LINK to the page on the Creative Charms site.

I added some pink gradient gem stickers to decorate the felt embellishments.  I used the darkest pink on the butterfly and flower on the front of the card and the medium pink on the inside flower.  These were also part of the Deal of the Month.

I used the Core'dinations Core Couture glitter cardstock for the "Happy Birthday" inside.  The sentiment is from the "Stamping" Cricut cartridge.  This is a solutions cartridge (not to be confused with the "Stamped" full cartridge) that is often overlooked.

There are lots of simple sentiments and some wonderful frames on the base level.

The shift level is full of great images that have a shadow and a blackout option so you can make three layered images.

Here is an example of the cake.  The shapes are relatively simple since this cartridge was designed to be used with the Cricut Cuttables stamp material to make your own rubber stamps.

I have had this cartridge for quite a while but had not used it recently.  I used Design Studio to search for the various "Happy Birthday" sentiments and found quite a few.  The screen shot above shows some of them.  Using Design Studio I was able to choose the proper size for my cut and then just go downstairs and quickly make the cut the "old-fashioned" way (yes - I actually pressed buttons on the keypad for a change!).

Here is one more view of the card that shows the folds and angles a little more clearly.  The blank area by the second flower is for a hand written note.

If you like this style of card, you can make up some of the base cards in various colors, add the layers and keep them ready to decorate with sentiments and embellishments for the occasions when you need a quick card.  People are usually enjoy this style of card because it is a bit different and it is also fun to try to figure out how it was made!

Now I have to tell you about something nice that happened today.  I left my Dad's to head up to New Jersey but couldn't resist stopping in the local shopping plaza where there are both a Michael's and an A.C.Moore store right next door to each other.  I was doing a quick cruise of the aisles looking for any great sale or clearance items and I heard someone say something along the lines of "that woman looks so familiar - I think she's the one on the computer."  I looked up and realized that I was the woman she meant.  Kimberly recognized me from my blog and the message boards!

We had a nice chat and of course "talked Cricut" while her patient daughter waited.  Ashley snapped this photo of us with my little purse camera and I told Kimberly I'd give her a shout out on today's post.  It was fun to be "recognized" and Kimberly had some very flattering things to say!  I also found out that Kimberly has a blog.  It would be fun if some of you would head over there and say "hi!" and tell her I sent you.  Kimberly's blog is HERE and you will find many lovely cards that she has made and shared.

I hope you are having a great weekend - it is hard to believe that summer is nearly over...

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Creative Charms "Deal of the Month" Projects

Today was my first day to post projects as part of the Design Team for Creative Charms.  Here are some projects that I made using just a few of the many items in the Creative Charms "Deal of the Month" for June.

The embellishments from Creative Charms make great accents for Cricut projects.  To see the inspirational creations all of the members of the Design Team have been making you should visit the Creative Charms blog - here is a LINK.

I wanted to post the specific sizes and some hints about how I made these projects.  I'll start with the polka dot card.

I cut this flower from the Sweet Treats cartridge.  I wanted to use the large polka dot brad for the flower center.

I measured the brad and then used Design Studio to determine the proper size to cut the flower.  There is a layer for the flower center and I was able to find the center that was close to one inch in diameter which is the layer for the 2 1/2 inch flower.

The lower layer of the flower has webbing cuts to help you place the next layers.  I wanted to keep the layers separate and I decided to fold up the petals along these lines for more dimension.

I also bent the petals of the top layer along the lines of the center.  I punched holes with a standard hole punch in the center of each layer.  You could also place a small circle in the center of the design and have it cut with the Cricut if you use Design Studio or the Gypsy.

The red gingham paper is some old Creative Memories paper and the white layer is cut from some embossed cardstock by Making Memories.  You could emboss the layers using Cuttlebug folders for lots of different effects.

I used foam squares to raise the flower for even more dimension.  The blue polka dot paper is from Martha Stewart.

The sentiment is from the Stamping cartridge and is cut at 1 3/4 inches.  Using Design Studio to look through the possibilities and determine the right size to cut saves a lot of paper.  I used red Core'dinations paper for the shadow and the embossed white paper again for the top layer.

Two of the second darkest shade of red gradient gem stickers accent the dots on the "i"s

I used the Sweet Treats cartridge again for the cake card.  The cake is one from the selection of cakes in the sweet tooth felt sticker and epoxy brad set.

The sentiment is cut at 2 3/4 inches cutting the base, the blackout layer and the accent words for the top.  The striped paper is by Luxe Designs and the pink and brown for the words are by American Crafts (the reverse sides of some patterned papers).

The accent layers for "that" and "cake" are cut from pink DCWV glitter cardstock.  This particular mat stack had an extra thick coating on the glitter.  I can usually cut the glitter cardstock with a 2 times multi cut on blade depth 6 but I had to cut it a second time (for four total cuts).  I always press "load paper" after a cut so I can check to see if the cut is clean before removing the mat from the machine.  If you unload the mat and find that the cut is not complete it is nearly impossible to get the mat reloaded at exactly the same place.

I used a punch for the scalloped circle but you could cut it from one of the many cartridges that have a scalloped circle.

I cut the word "sweet" for the visor from the Paisley cartridge at 1 1/4 inches.  This cartridge has an entire keypad full of "girly" words and phrases.

I used vinyl for the cut and it adhered to the foam visor easily but the bond may not be strong enough if a child is actually using the visor(!)  You might want to add additional adhesive (or just cut lots of different words and change them when one no longer stays on the visor.  The embellishments have glue dots that hold them on the display card - if you are careful when you remove them you can use these and perhaps add a few more for extra hold.

I have many more projects in mind for the "deal of the month" items.  You can visit Creative Charms HERE to see the list of all of the items included for only $6.99 (regular price $23.00!).



I hope you are busy collecting letters in the Scrappy Go Lucky blog hop - remember, if you collect all of the letters and solve the anagram you can email your answer for a chance to win a fabulous prize package of four new Cricut cartridges.  All of the details can be found at THIS POST.


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