Creative Charms Deal of the Month for November (and a quick tip)

A week ago I told you about the two Kit of the Month offers from Creative Charms.  I mentioned that the Deal of the Month would be revealed on the 15th.

Well...there were so many people asking about the Deal of the Month that Creative Charms has decided to release the deal early.  Here it is!

Deal of the Month – Falling for Fall – 128 Pieces $6.99 (Regular $18.43)

·         Orange Sheer Flowers – 3 Pieces
·         Red Sheer Flowers – 3 Pieces
·         Orange Gem Brads (assorted sizes) – 12 Pieces
·         Red Gem Garden – 12 Pieces
·         18” Red Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon
·         Red Sunflowers – 4 Pieces
·         Loop d’Loop Brads (assorted colors) – 9 Pieces
·         Red Gem Stickers – 76 Pieces
·         Orange Groovy Petals – 8 Pieces

I received my deal package earlier this month and I'll be posting some projects made with it next Monday, the 15th.  As always, it is a great value and you will have enough items to make lots of beautiful cards and layouts.  The card at the top of this post is one I made a while ago using some of the "Groovy Petals"  flowers and "Loop d'Loop" brads.

The gem brads and gem stickers are perfect for adding bling to a Christmas ornament - I think there might be a golden snowflake appearing on my blog soon!  I think my favorite item this month might be the orange and red sheer flowers - lots of possibilities with these!

I have one more quick tip for you.  I love the idea of the new Gingerbread cartridge but I was not overly impressed with the images.  I thought for a moment and remembered Stretch Your Imagination - I think I can make all of the gingerbread items I want with this cartridge which is one of the first I ever owned (it came in a bundle with my first Expression three years ago).  I did not order the Gingerbread cartridge and now I can put that money toward Ornamental Iron, Quarter Note, Wrap it Up and Paper Lace (and maybe even Car Decals...) - well... every little bit helps!

I am finally starting to get over the cold and have almost recovered my voice.  I have a lot to do this week but I will try to get a snowflake tutorial or video done so you can see how easy it is to build a snowflake.  I need to get my layout for the Cricut Cruise contest done and submitted by the end of the week - I think I have a plan but I keep changing my mind!

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Skinny Cards

This card was made for a swap group.  The theme was "skinny cards" and we each had to choose a particular color combination.  I chose blue and green.  We needed to make a card 3 1/2 x 8 or 9 inches and use the colors we chose with the optional addition of black and white.


I immediately thought of Stretch Your Imagination  - one of my very first cartridges (it actually came with my machine when I bought it as a bundle at ACMoore).  The entire shift function is full of images that have been "stretched" and I was sure one of them would be a perfect fit.

This is the stylized flower that I chose to decorate the front of my card.  I decided to make a card that was 9 inches by 3 1/2 inches.

I was not planning to cut the card bases with the Cricut, however, I set up a rectangle in the correct size to represent the card front on the mat.  I always use guideline shapes like this to plan cards.  It makes it very easy to size all of the decorative cuts so you won't waste paper.  I set up a layer sized a 3 1/4 x 8 3/4 to use for previewing the design and to make sure that the cuts would fit.

 This preview show the card base (represented by the pink background) and the layer (dark green) with the flower and a sentiment added.

 I chose the "happy birthday" sentiment from the A Child's Year cartridge.  There is a layer for the word " happy" on the shift key.

I set up a mat with six sets of words placing green cardstock on the full phrase area and metallic blue cardstock on the "happy" layers.

After adding the layer the cut looked too plain, so I pulled out some lime green Stickles and glittered the word "birthday" on each cut.

 

I set up another page in the file to cut the flowers.  I could cut four at a time by nestling the shapes together.

 The flowers were cut in a dark navy blue and needed a bit of white pen stitching to brighten them up.  This is a simple way to add interest to the card.  I use a Signo White Gel Pen for pen stitching - it is very smooth and lasts a long time.

 The words did not contrast enough with the green and blue background paper layer I had chosen (from a big K & Company paper box) so I added a scalloped oval to help set them off.  The oval was cut with the second to the largest standard large scalloped oval Nestabilities die and embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.  For the final card, I added a second layer to the card front to give a nice bright line of white around the edges.

 Here are all of the components for a single card.

I needed to create a dozen cards so there was quite a bit of pen stitching and stickling to do!  This photo shows all of the components ready to assemble the cards.

I enjoyed the challenge of making a different size and shape of card - I sometimes get stuck in an A2 card rut!

I did not post a file because I don't imagine that anyone else needs to cut twelve sets of these card elements.  If you need any help with setting up a file and cutting just the items that you need for one card, let me know and I can try to help.




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Love Corner Flourish

Here is the little design you saw sitting on the scalloped square page in my post a couple of days ago (here is a LINK to that post).



I made this a long time ago and discovered it as I was trying to "clean up" my folders of .cut files. I have a habit of doing a "save as" at various stages as I design something complicated in case the file suddenly corrupts (so I don't lose all my work) and, once the files are completed, I should be deleting these backup files. However, I usually get interested in the next project or idea and end up just leave them all sitting around - so every so often I spend some time reorganizing the "projects" folder and find little things that have been overlooked!



I designed this as a corner ornament for a scrapbook page - I did a few test cuts in both red and pink which you can see in the photos above and below. It is interesting to see how various color combinations can give a very different "feel" to the design.



I haven't used my Cricut markers for ages so I decided to get them out and use the red to outline this cut on pink. I usually do the cut first and then, without removing the mat from the machine, take out the blade housing, put in the marker and repeat the cut. If you use the marker first, be sure to let the ink dry a bit before you cut so the paper does not tear.

Below you can see the design on the mat after cutting and drawing with the marker.



You can actually use the markers to simply draw on your paper and skip the cutting - this creates interesting custom papers for your layouts or cards. I this case, I positioned the design in the upper portion of the mat so it could be cut with the baby bug and I would need to move it lower on the page to use it as a corner drawing.



Above you can see the cut after it was removed from the mat - it will fit on a 5 x 7 card if you tilt it into a "V" shape. The markers add a nice outline around the entire design, giving it better definition and a bit of dimension. Below you can see the comparison between a plain cut and a cut with the markers used as a second step.



Designs like this can be difficult to shadow in Design Studio if each element does not have a shadow option on the cartridge. One way to get around this is with a "faux" shadow. Cut the design twice in two different colors and then layer the two cuts, offsetting them a bit. The shadow this produces is not an outline shadow but more like the shadow from a light source and can be quite effective as you can see in the photo below.



I haven't actually finished the cards or layout but have simply taken photos so you can see the relative size of the cuts. I'd love to see a finished project you make using this design.

Love Corner Flourish

College and Recital Word Books

I participated in a word book challenge on the Cricut Message Board and today is the day for "revealing" our files. Mine are pretty simple - there were some amazing creations designed by the talented people on the message board!

Here is a LINK to the original thread where some of the books were posted as the designers finished them and you can find the thread where the other files were posted HERE . Many thanks to Joann Caraballo for organizing this swap!



The first book I did was "College." I placed the pennant on the front so that a smaller cut of the appropriate college name could be added. Of course you can choose the colors that represent the school - I used the colors of my alma mater for this sample! I chose the font from Cuttin Up for a more casual feel - I thought of this as a book for photos of college friends. The pennant is from Locker Talk and could be deleted if you don't have that cartridge - you could then cut the college name and place it vertically on the front page, allowing room for binding.



Next I did "Recital." After years of piano lessons as a child (and young adult) I think of it as a piano recital but you could change the papers and perhaps add a cut to make it work for a dance recital as well. I used the Teardrop font for the letters because the "drop" parts reminded me of musical notes. There is a page in the file with some extra musical note cuts from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge which are optional but could be used to decorate the pages. You will see that they go with a singing bird and I rotated and moved most of the design off the mat to try to cut only the notes.



For the test cut example I used black and white musical note paper but found the overall effect a bit busy and so substituted black on alternating letters. (So now I will have to do an opposite version to use up the note pages I cut as a test!).

In order to make these as useful as possible I created them using both George and Plantin Schoolbook. They are sized at 5 x 11 so will fit on either an Original Cricut, the new Create (you will need to have George or Plantin Schoolbook or adapt the design using a square/rectangle from a cartridge that you own) or the Expression.

Since I am totally occupied with family birthdays this week I have not finished embellishing and have not bound these yet (I think it is easier to work with the flat pages before binding. I just wanted to get them posted today and will add more photos of the finished books when I get a chance to finish them up!

Here are the files for each design - Enjoy these!

College Word Book - George

College Word Book - Plantin Schoolbook

Recital Word Book - George

Recital Word Book - Plantin Schoolbook

Recipe Swap Layouts (with files)

I recently participated in a recipe swap on the Cricut message board - I signed up for two groups which meant I had to make 15 each of two layouts . We had to use at least one Cricut element for our layouts and there was a contest for the most elements used on a single layout. I did my designs using the Design Studio software and making only one cut (composed of many elements) for each recipe. The swaps have been received by all participants now so I can "reveal" my designs and share my .cut files.

I did the actual recipes using my Creative Memories digital scrapbooking software - StoryBook Creator Plus (I highly recommend this program and you can contact me if you do not have a CM consultant and would like more information about it).

The first recipe I chose was my mother's Gingersnap recipe. She was "famous" for these Gingersnaps and probably made tens of thousands of them in her lifetime. We would give them out for Halloween treats (back when you could do that!) and parents would raid the trick or treat bags for the cookies! I have so many memories of rolling the dough into balls and then in sugar and I have continued the tradition of making gingersnaps with my sons. This is truly a family favorite.

I used a background of CM digital paper with a nice shade of blue and polkadots and add the recipe in a text box that I floated on a white square. I changed the opacity of the square to make it more like vellum, added a blur to the edges and then at the four corners I added digital "stickers" of three gingersnaps for a photo corner effect. The "stickers" are made from actual photos I took of gingersnaps that I made with my son. I then copied, rotated and "grouped" together the individual gingersnap stickers.

My Mom collected china and glass (lots of it!) and one type of serving plate she had was glass and had an open circle design at the edges. I designed the "frame" for the recipe with this plate in mind. To make it "pop," I used the Cricut markers to outline the design - I used brown to coordinate with the cookie color! It took quite a while to do 16 of these (always make an extra one...) but I got into the rhythm of cut, ink, ink, cut, and had two mats going all the time. I used Plantin Schoolbook and Stretch Your Imagination for the frame design.

The second recipe I chose was one that my husband''s mother gave me many years ago for a quicker sort of apple pie - no crust! Apples are a big favorite in our family since my father in law grew up on an apple farm, and we all eat a lot of apples.

For this recipe I decided to make a circular "frame" around the recipe using a ring of apples. I wanted it to fill the page as much as possible and discovered that I needed to have the apples move up and down in the ring to fill the space in the most attractive way. The apples at the four compass points are "shorter" than the apples in the diagonal corners. I liked the font I chose for the title - I thought it had a "Swedish" sort of Arts and Crafts look. The font is called "Chelsea Studio." I used George and Makin the Grade for the apple ring design. There is a second mat with 16 apples that can be cut to overlay the ring - I liked it better without the contrasting apples for this project so I did not use them.

Here are all my completed layouts on my kitchen table before I shipped them off for the exchange.

Here are all of the recipes I received set out on the same table - I think they look like a quilt!

Here are the two files I created for this swap

Gingersnap Frame of Circles

Ring of Apples

Words on the Walls

One of the first things I wanted to do after I got my Cricut was to cut adhesive vinyl and put words and decorations on the walls in my house. I was inspired by a post on the Cricut message board that I saw shortly after I started using my machine. The post was of a very colorful craft room done by Alene, known as "lovemypoodle" on the message board and words can't explain how cute it is - you just have to go to this post to check it out! L@@K my craft room with CRICUT cuts!!

I started off on a much smaller scale and just wanted to put a Christmas phrase on the beam between our kitchen and family room for the holidays. I used Plantin Schoolbook at 3 inches and cut the letters out of dark red "Wall Pops". "Wall Pops" is a brand of adhesive back vinyl that come in about a dozen colors in either 13 inch squares, 13 inch circles or rolls that are 6 1/2 inches by 16 feet. They are sold at wallpaper stores, college bookstores and many, but not all, Lowes stores. At Lowes the regular price is $9.99 for a pack of five squares or five circles or a roll. You can find out more about them and the colors available and sales locations at the Wall Pops website

Here is a photo of the beam with the words



I cut sections of the vinyl that were 12 inches long and stuck it to the left side of the mat and then navigated to the corner using the arrows around the cut button and pushed "set paper size." I had my blade depth at 4, the pressure and speed dials at medium. It cut beautifully - cleanly cutting the vinyl but leaving the backing pretty much intact so I could just peel the letters off and place them one by one. The holly at the end was something I had already cut from paper using the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge and since I didn't have a "Christmas" shade of Wall Pops green I used tape to stick those up at the end.

I have not tried other brands of vinyl yet, including the new Cricut vinyl, but there are many other brands and nearly any color you want is available somewhere. You do want to be careful to make sure that the vinyl has repositionable adhesive that won't damage your walls.

After the holidays, I carefully took the letters down and stored them on some old office page protectors so that I can use them next year. They seem to stay very sticky so I hope they'll be usable for several years before I'll need to cut more.



I didn't have Design Studio yet so I just used the regular Cricut system and had it on "paper saver" - I have read that others have been able to squeeze lots of letters in for their words by using Design Studio to lay them out - just keep track of the letters as you place them so you have enough of everything! Below is the "waste piece" from my new saying for the beam...



It is important to smooth the material down to the mat very well and to make sure that all the air bubbles are out so that you will get good cuts with no shifting - some people have actually used sandpaper to rough up the backing sheet and make it stick down better.

For the next saying I used the Alphalicious cartridge - also at 3 inches. It was a bit more challenging to get such a long saying up in a way that I liked but you can keep repositioning things until you approve of the result! Here are a few photos of my beam right now - it will change when I feel the need for something new (or maybe for another holiday).

close ups



and the whole thing...



Check out the Cricut message board to see lots of other examples of funny and nice things that people are putting on their walls.

Ice Cream Cone mini doily

I designed this small doily after struggling with a very large one that I attempted to do to see if there was an upper limit on the amount of welds CDS would do (more about that later). This is only 8 cones from SYI and to make it work I had to add the circle in the center which comes from PS. It is only 5 1/2 inches in diameter.

Ice cream cone mini doily