Simple notecard - waste not, want not

I have been working with all sorts of pink and red products this week as I am getting ready for my Guest Design spot next week which will be all about Valentine's Day.  For a break, I picked up another "leftover" and made a card with not a bit of red or pink and no hearts in sight!

 

In early December, I posted a card that I made with a stained glass effect.  I created the file using "hide selected contour" and I thought the end result was really pretty.  Here is a LINK to the original post.  The directions for creating the file are at THIS POST.

Another version of the card and the files are at THIS POST.  If you can't download the files, I think you will be able to make the card by following my directions.  The cartridge I used for this design is the "Twinkle Toes" Cricut Lite cartridge.  I can't guarantee whether the files will be available since 4shared seems to be incapable of discerning the difference between a music file and  files for die cutting and my account could be frozen at any time with no notice to me.

The cutouts on the mat made such a pretty pattern that I saved them on a piece of vinyl transfer tape.  I found the tape with the bits still on it while I was searching for one of the embellishments for my Valentine's project.

I just added some adhesive to the cuts and then applied them to an A2 card.

I thought I'd show you an easy way to make sure that your design will be properly centered on the card when you flip the transfer tape over and apply the pieces to the card front.  I used an A2 card which is 4 1/4 (4.25) inches x 5 1/2 (5.5) inches when folded.  I have several self healing mats that I use in my craft area.  This one is from Creative Memories.  Any mat with a grid will work.

I placed my card on the mat so that it was centered with the bold lines indicating the center of each side.  Half of 5 1/2 (5.5) is 2 3/4 (2.75) so the card is placed with 2 3/4 inches on either side of the bold vertical line.  Half of 4 1/4 (4.25) is 2 1/8 (2.125) and the card is placed on the mat with 2 1/8 inches above and below the bold center line.  There is not a grid for 1/8 inch increments on this mat but it is easy to "eyeball" the measurement.

Here you can see the the center of the design is aligned both horizontally and vertically.  You can extend the line formed along the center of the design to the mat and be sure that it is lined up properly (placing a straightedge on top of the transfer tape will help you to see this if you are having any trouble).

Once the design has been placed, adhesive side down, on the card front, you burnish it to the card and peel back the tape at an angle.  The transfer tape can be reused several times.

Here is the plain card.  It is pretty as it stands but could use a "little something" to give it some spark!

I am making an effort to use the things I have accumulated in my craft space (and trying not to buy more until I have made a noticeable dent in my stash!).  I have a lot of these Prima flowers that I got on sale at Michael's a while ago.  I also have lots of gradient gem stickers from Creative Charms.

First I tried the flowers alone but they just needed a bit of sparkle to really set them off.

I added a green gem sticker to the center of each flower for the finishing touch.  I can write a note in this card or stamp a sentiment in the corner to make the card suit a special occasion.

Just a few more things to share...

If you were one of the many people who wanted to try the ProMarkers but didn't get selected as a winner this week on my blog, you can go visit my "evil twin" Okie's blog.  She has made the most adorable card and she has a set of the same markers to give away to a lucky winner.  So hurry on over to Okie's blog to enter - tell her I sent you!  The deadline is midnight on Saturday, December 8th.

If you are a Facebook user, Creative Charms has a chance for you to win a great gift this week.  The prize is a free Kit of the Month and all you have to do is to post on their Facebook Page about how much you like this month's kit and you will be entered.  The deadline is Sunday at midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Be sure to also check out the Creative Charms Blog for some great ideas on how to use the Kit and Deal of the month.

I have had more questions from readers about Design Studio and the grouping and resizing that I showed in the video last week.  I am hoping to be able to post another video explaining some of the "quirks" of the Design Studio software and how I work around them later today or tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

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Variation on the "Stained Glass" card (with .gypsy and .cut files)

I made another card with my test cut of the gypsy file for this card.  When I converted the file to a gypsy file and loaded it on my gypsy there was one "glitch" - the images for the opening in the liner did not stay welded.  I am not cure why this would be but you should be sure to check the file in preview carefully before you cut.  It won't ruin the card but you won't have the "extra" pieces to play with for another project.  You may also need to change the mat size to suit your Cricut.

Here is the card base I cut with the Gypsy - looks just like the card from yesterday but it is blue this time!

The liner works perfectly - you do need to be sure to line it up to see which direction it fits best.

I decided to try something different in place of the tissue paper I used on the first card.  Whenever I get a new Cricut cartridge, I carefully cut off the clamshell packaging and trim the flat pieces from the top and bottom.  I have stacks of these (a result of too much cartridge shopping!).

I have been keeping up with the Tim Holtz "12 Tags of Christmas" so I was itching to get out some inks and play a little.  (If you haven't been following this series you owe it to yourself to go HERE and take a look - fair warning, you may be on his site for hours!).  I got out these three bottles of alcohol ink - sail boat blue and the silver and pearl mixatives.

I dotted the three inks on a felt pad on the wooden tool.  Then I "sponged" the ink all over the piece of plastic packaging until I had the coverage and shimmer that I liked.

I had the two cut out pieces in white cardstock from the card liners so I also experimented with these. 

On one I did a similar sponging effect and for the second I smoothed the ink to get a more solid effect.

I decided that the smooth effect was a bit boring so I got out the blending solution and added some to the felt pad.

I did some more dabbing and sponging and produced this effect.  I was really just having fun trying things and would love to spend an entire afternoon just "messing around" with inks - maybe after the holidays!

Here are my two "extra" pieces, ready to use on another project.  (I have an idea in mind and you will probably see these very soon...).

Back to the card...I trimmed the inked plastic to fit the card just like I trimmed the tissue paper for the other card.

Here you can see the light shining through the card before I added any embellishments.

The effect on the inside of the card is fairly dramatic.

I chose to put the inked side facing to the front of the card so the inside is very shiny.  You can place the plastic whichever way you like - both sides are shiny but one is a smooth shiny and the othe is more textured from the ink.

I added some pearls to the front of the card - I just love blue and white together.  I used gradient gem stickers in pearl from Creative Charms - they come with three sizes on the same sheet so it is easy to get this effect.

I had a question yesterday about the liner for the card - this photo shows the way it is attached a bit better.  I only adhere the liner to the front of the card where it is sandwiching the tissue paper or plastic.  By leaving the back part free the card will open and close easily.

So there you have it - another variation on the same card - and the files to share.  Remember to check the Gypsy file before you cut it to be sure that the opening in the liner is welded so you will get the one piece cutout.

Pierced Ornament Card - .cut
Pierced Ornament Card - .gypsy

 If you download the files I'd love to see your variations on the card.

I have been working on a few things - one is a new series for Scrappy-Go-Lucky that will be starting at the end of the week.  My "evil twin" Okie and I are also busy with some ProMarker projects and you won't want to miss what we have to share!

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How to make the "Stained Glass" card

Several of you thought I had used one of the Creative Memories cartridges to make this design - but I have a surprise for you - it was the new Cricut Lite cartridge "Twinkle Toes" that I just bought from Walmart online over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The main image used for the design is this tiara I have highlighted on the keypad.  The size of 2 1/2 inches worked out perfectly for an A2 card.  If you don't have this cartridge I am sure there are other tiaras or similar shapes that could work nicely - just take a look through your cartridges.   (Remember, you can click on any of these images to enlarge them so you can see the details more clearly).

Here is the tiara exactly as it appears on the cartridge.

I used "hide selected contour" to eliminate the outer line of the cut and create the inset pattern.

I also hide these two lines at the top of the tiara.  By doing this, I eliminated the problem of having the one hidden line reappear when the file is closed and reopened in Design Studio.  I could have used another workaround for this problem, but the latest version of Design Studio makes it more difficult to layer designs precisely and then move them apart.

I wanted to have a full shape cutout at the top of the tiara so I used the layer shown on the keypad above.  I kept the size at 2 1/2 inches to make the layer match the original tiara.

I placed the layered element in position to create a larger cutout in the area where I had hidden the two lines from the original design.

I added a second tiara and made the same changes to it, rotated it 180 degrees and aligned it with the first tiara and added the extra element to create the cutout at the base.  If you copy and paste the element instead of adding a new one to the mat, you will need to close and reopen the file to make it possible to hide the lines in the copied image (the option to hide contour will be grayed out until you do this).

I needed a shape to cut the card base.  I always challenge myself to use a few cartridges as possible to create a design and I found this shape with rounded corners on the Twinkle Toes cartridge.  This worked perfectly for my card - I liked the effect of rounding the corners.  I adjusted the size to 8 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches tall in the Shape Properties box.

Here is the preview of the card.  I checked weld on the card base just to make it easier to see the detail of the design cutout.  By checking weld I eliminated color from the preview of the card and only the dark cutting line shows.

In order to create a liner, I used the same shape that I used for the card but changed the size to 8.3 wide x 5.3 inches tall in the Shape Properties box.  I needed to create a blackout shape of the tiara image since there is not one on the Lite cartridge.  I did this by hiding all of the interior lines in the design.  I aligned the two images for the liner cutout to match the placement of the filigree image on my card front.  I did make a few minor adjustments using the handles to get a perfect fit.

By previewing both mats at once I could make sure that everything was lined up properly before I cut the file.  I was confident enough in the preview that I cut my "good" cardstock for the first cut (sometimes I use "ugly" paper if I want to tweak the design a little or need to do a few prototypes to get a design to work).

There are lots of photographs of the card assembly in yesterday's post HERE but I thought I'd show you the liner again in this post so you could see how it works a little better.

The tissue paper is sandwiched between the card and the liner and the opening in the liner allows the light to shine through the card front.  The liner is adhered only to the front of the card to make it easier to open and shut the card (and to give a little extra space to add an additional message).

Please leave a comment or send me a note if you have any questions about the way I designed this card.  You can apply the same basic concept to many images and have a lot of fun experimenting with the various effects.

If you want me to post the file for this card, please leave a comment.  I think I have explained it clearly enough for you to try your own, however, I know how busy everyone is this time of year and if you want to try this card my file could save you some time.  I want to convert and test it as a Gypsy file before I share a download link and I hope to do that later today.


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