Spring Bling with Creative Charms

This week it was my turn to post a few projects on the Creative Charms blog.  I hope you are in the habit of checking the blog regularly to see all of the projects my fellow design team members post to inspire you.  I always have fun working with these embellishments.  Here is a LINK to my post.  I have some more details about the cards to share here.

I decided to make some bright and happy cards to help chase the winter doldrums away.  I am happy to report that the snow is finally melting in New England and Spring is just around the corner!

For the "spring" card I made a flower stem and some "grass" from the fancy polka dot ribbon (from the deal and kit of the month for March).  You can use an ATG to apply the ribbon but I find it easier to use 1/8 inch Scor-Tape for the narrow ribbon and 1/2 inch Scor-Tape for the wider ribbon.

 

I cut sections of the ribbon and angled the ends for the "leaves"- the bottom ends will be hidden under the "grass" strip.  The base card is an A2 card (5 1/2 x 4 1/4 when folded) and the layers on the card are cut at 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 inches (white layer) and 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches for the blue layer.

The wider and darker green ribbon makes the "grass" along the bottom.  I tried a few Cricut cuts for the "spring" word (cut from white gemstone Core'dinations cardstock).  This version was from the Cheerful Seasons Cricut cartridge.

I ended up using the "spring" from the Cupcake Wrappers cartridge.  I dotted the "i" in spring with a purple gradient gem sticker.

It is from the layer or topper section of the cartridge and the word is cut from the center of a circle.  I simply adjusted the size so the word would cut to fit the space I had on the card.

I used a purple and white sunflower for the flower - the gingham center is fresh and cute and makes me think of Spring.  

 

I used a large dimensional Glue-Dot to secure the flower to the card.

 

I added an extra green gradient gem sticker to form a head on the green sparkled butterfly.

I also made some simple birthday cards (for significantly numbered birthdays!).  I use a lot of the gradient gem stickers in my projects because they are simple to use and come in such nice gradations of color.

 

First, I colored some chipboard numbers with my Promarkers.  This was a quick and easy way to make them coordinate with the papers I chose for the card fronts.

 

I added lots of bling to the numbers for the cards that were for our nieces.

The cardstock for this card is from the DCWV "Sweet" stack - an older stack but still a favorite of mine.

These were 5 x 7 inch cards and for the 18th birthday card I added some peel-off borders around the edges.  The colorful glitter cardstock is from the DCWV Citrus stack.

 

This pattern from the"Sweet" stack is one of my favorites - but hard to look at when you are watching your weight!

The decorative tag is for the Display Board in my kitchen.   In some other parts of the country, St. Patrick's Day is not a very big holiday but it is greatly celebrated in the Boston area!  The tag is cut from heavyweight watercolor paper with a Nestabilities long scalloped  rectangle die.

The word "Lucky" is from the Straight From The Nest cartridge.

It always pays to search for a pre-welded version of a word you want to use on a card or page.

I cut apart a  Pure Blossom dark green gem and used the sections to make a four leaf clover.  The word was cut from metallic American Crafts cardstock.  I like the texture with the ribbed design.  Four of the pieces are arranged like a clover and I added a stem with some more gradient gem stickers.

A couple of notes...

I am excited to tell you the Dollar Days are back at Lettering Delights.  This is the time to stock up on digital content and printables for the holidays.  You can visit the site by clicking my affiliate link in the left side column or the image below.  I'll have some new examples of my digital scrapping projects using some of the Lettering Delights fonts,  images and papers soon.



Here are some of the special offers:

1) Over $40 in FREE PRODUCT with new account sign up.  SVG's have been added to the new account product.  If you already have an account, you will find the new product available in your library.

2) 9 Free Fonts are available to everyone who signs up for the newsletter

3) $5 off if you refer a friend who signs up for the newsletter.  You'll both receive a $5 coupon good on any purchase of $15 or more.

4) Monthly freebies.  This month's freebies are the Modern Miss Alphabet (available through Try Me Now Tool) and the Fancy That Digital Paper Pack.

There are also some early bird specials for orders placed by the 23rd:

Early Bird savings from March 15-March 23rd. 
Save 10% on $15 purchase or more with code: InBloom.
Save 25% on $35 with code: BiggerBloom.


I hope Spring comes your way soon! 
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Another A2 Card Border - Fall Card

 A couple of years ago the Fiskars "Threading Water" border punch was extremely popular.  I remember working for hours to create a similar .cut file using circles and tiny circles and nudging them all into place.  There are many more cartridges available now and some of them have borders that can be used to quickly and easily make a "Threading Water" design.

I used this element from the Straight From the Nest cartridge.  (Remember, you can click on any of these screen shots to make them larger and read the notes).

I entered four of the strips in one group and nudged them together, then adjusted the size to fit an A2 card.

This is a punched strip centered on a 5 1/2 inch wide piece of cardstock.  As you can see, even though I took care to center the punch, it doesn't fit perfectly - there are tiny returns on both edges.

The first file I made had 11 "bumps" so it wasn't a perfect match - the scallops were slightly larger than the scallops formed by the punch.

I used a very heavy Martha Stewart cardstock and set the multi cut to 2 times.  This is usually enough for this cardstock but I had a bit of trouble.

There were two cards in my file and on one of them a couple of the tiny circles did not cut through. 

I checked my blade and discovered that the tip had lifted and carried another circle cutout and this kept the subsequent cuts from working properly.  I might have been able to "save" the cut by checking it before unloading the mat, removing the blade to find the problem and then re-cutting just the circles (by altering the file and using "hide selected contour") but I didn't notice until it was too late.  It is almost impossible to reload the mat and get the same alignment.

I went back and revised my file to make the border strip have 13 "bumps" and created two more card bases.  I used this square from Straight From the Next to form my card base.

I adjusted the size of the rectangle and then rotated my border strip to add to the right side.  All of the measurements are given on the image above.  In Design Studio it is very easy to adapt and fine tune a shape by using the handles - this is something I miss when I work on the Gypsy.  On the Gypsy, when you enter a new width the rectangle will recenter and you have to keep putting it back in place on the x axis as you try to guess at the final size you need.  The handles are much quicker for this function.

Here is the comparison of the punched edge and the second version of the card cut by the Cricut.  I was able to make the fit exact so the edges are smooth.  However, the smaller the size of the circle, the more likely you are to get some distortion.  These are acceptable but slightly oval when compared to the punched circles.  I have had two Expression machines and they do not cut perfect scallops and circles at small sizes.  I am eager to see how the Imagine does with these types of cuts.

I decided to go ahead and make a quick card with the "11 bump" version of the card.  I cut some patterned paper from the Making Memories "Autumn Splendor" 4 x 6 mat pack to fit.  The first layer is 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches and is placed at the top of the card along the fold.  The second layer is 5 x 3 1/4 inches and is centered on the yellow layer.  I inked all of the edges with brown ink.

The "Fall" chipboard embellishment is from the Creative Charms Thanksgiving Multi-Dimensional Chipboard Sticker set.  There are six substantial embellishments in the set.  (I used the Turkey on the card I posted a week or so ago - here is a LINK to that post if you missed it).

There is a lot of glitter detailing and even some twine bows on a couple of the items.

I wanted to make the border stand out more when the card is closed so I used the strip that I cut off to create the top layer, inked it and added it to the inside along the bottom.  I inked three sides and then adhered it to the card.  Then I could snip off the extra bit to have a perfect fit and ink the final edge.

Here you can see the card flat on the table - the contrasting strip shows through the holes. 

A2 Card with Threading Water Edge   The file in the download is the "13 bump" version.


Happy World Card Making Day!  Don't forget to visit Christina at Creations With Christina - she has a great day planned.  This is a busy weekend full of  blog hops and special events - I hope you have time to enjoy at least some of them!

I also want to let you know that the new Cricut Circle Blog is open to everyone for a limited time.  There are some fabulous projects posted by each of the Design Team members.  If you are not a Circle Member you can't enter the contests and giveaways but you might like to take a look to see a bit of what the Circle is all about.  If you are not a Circle member you do have lots of chances to win some great prizes by visiting the blogs of the Cricut Circle Blog Design Team members - and you won't want to miss the inspiration or the chance at amazing prizes!  The list of Design Team members is at the top of the Cricut Circle Blog home page (or you can try this LINK to see the list).


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Sweet 16 Birthday Card

This birthday card was for a "significant" birthday - our niece turned 16 last month and I wanted to make her a special card.  When I was a child, I always liked the cards that had your age on them because they were so obviously chosen especially for you.  This is one of the reasons I now enjoy making cards - everything can be personalized for the individual and the occasion.

I created this card base by welding together shapes from the Straight From the Nest cartridge.  I used Alphalicious for the "16."  I have made several cards using these corners. 

You may remember this favor box and menu card I posted in June (here is a LINK to the post about these designs).  There are many variations possible with the interesting corner images and I have a few more of these to show you in the next week or so.

This screen shot shows the keypad location of the image I used for the birthday card.  Some of the corners will work better than others so you just have to look around for the ones that suit your project.  You can also get even more creative and insert other images into the open frames.

I added layers and used two of the sentiments from the cartridge that seemed particularly appropriate for a 16th birthday.  This screen shot shows my file preview.  It is a little bit complicated so I think I will do a "guided tour" video to explain some of the techniques I used to make sure that everything will fit together properly.  I'll try to post that tomorrow - today I was a bit preoccupied with following the Imagine launch!

I cut the card base and all of the layering pieces from Core'dinations cardstock.  I used the gemstone cardstock for the base and the liners and the couture glitter cardstock for the sentiments and layers.  The large pink flower is from Creative Charms.   It was one of the items in the Deal of the Month for August.

This is a variation on some of the aperture cards I like to make - I think this style works well because there is a nice large area inside for the sentiment but you do have the open cut on the front for the "how did you do that?" impact!

You could add another liner piece to the inside front if you need a large area to add a handwritten note and don't want to write directly on the card base (or if the color of the card base is too dark for writing a message).

I added a few gems to the ends of the swirls for a little extra sparkle.

I also added a gem to highlight the head of the butterfly on the inside of the card.

Here is one more view of the card.  I am sure you can see that there are many ways to create variations of this basic design.  The card would also have a very different look if I used some printed cardstock for the layers.  I can't wait to try this sort of design on the Imagine - once we can cut and print our own designs through the Gypsy or an updated version of Design Studio.

I hope you all enjoyed finding out more about the Cricut Imagine yesterday - it was an exciting day for a lot of people.  I was interested in the comments and emails I received and surprised that many of you were able to resist temptation to jump right in and purchase now.  It sounds like there will be upgrades that will eventually make it irresistible - but that will give you time to save and analyze how this machine fits with your crafting needs.

During the Cricut Imagine Launch there were several very informative video chats with some of the people at ProvoCraft who have developed this product.  There was also a session with some of the PC designers  You can view the recordings at this LINK.

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