Another "Leftover" Card

You may remember the cards I made a couple of weeks ago. I added some frames made with different cartridges to cards cut from the Life is a Beach cartridge.



I was impatiently waiting for the new cartridges to be added to Design Studio so I tried creating some additions to customize the cards.



When I cut this frame (adapted from the Storybook cartridge), there was an interestingly shaped piece left from the center of the cut. So, I thought I'd use it on another card...



I added some ribbon on the left side, making a slit in the top fold of the card and adhering the ribbon to both sides of the card. Some flowers and a gem cover the overlap of the ribbon.



Then I used a cupcake stamp and sentiment using a purple ink.



The plain stamping seemed a bit too dull - so I added Stickles to the flowers, the cupcake and the "Y" and the "S" in the sentiment.



I think we have attended the last of the Graduation parties and the next week looks like it will be a bit calmer. Jen and I are scheduling a few more Design Studio classes and I have some designs that I have created for another project - to be shared soon. In the meanwhile, here is a sneak peek at one of the designs I am testing - can you guess which cartridge I used?

Life is a Beach card

We all have been waiting for a Design Studio update to add the latest cartridges to be released. I have heard that it will be here "soon" but it is hard to wait! I decided to use the Design Studio I have now to try to do something different with one of the Life is a Beach cuts.



Life is a Beach has two great card options. One is a photo card and one is a square card. For this little project, I used the square card, cut at five inches. As you can see above, the basic cut makes a very nice card - I particularly like the details in this cut - here is a closer view.



I decided to "dress it up" a bit by making a frame using elements from the Dreams Come True cartridge (there are some seaside items for Ariel - the little mermaid).



Here is a screen shot showing how I hid some contours to make a frame from the wave cuts on Dreams Come True. The waves are in a set of three but I only wanted one wavy line for the frame.



This screen shot shows the location of the waves I used on the virtual keypad.



This is the frame I designed and cut along with the extra layers for the shells - I cut the shells in pink glitter card stock.



I like the bold graphic look of the simple aqua and white card with the frame added.



Here is a closer view of the card once I added the sparkly shell layers.



The inside of the card has a 3.5 inch square of white cardstock backing the aperture cut. You could add a matching square on the right side.



If you cut a few extra shells, they could be used for decoration inside the card.



So, until the update is issued and we can use the newer cartridges for designing, why not try to do some Design Studio embellishing of the cuts from the new cartridges. It is fun to imagine the possibilities, and there will be so many more options once the cartridges are added to the program!



If you download the file, please pay attention to the instructions on the tabs to help with paper size and placement. There is a sizing frame on the first page that I used as a guideline for creating the file - I left it in the file so you could see how I planned this cut to fit the card. If you check the "this project" it will say that Dreams Come True and George were used - this is correct but you will not need George to cut the file.

Frame for five inch LAB chair card

Another Disney Princess - Belle #2

I was doing a bit of reorganizing of my files and found this one which I hadn't shared before. Many people have questions on how to make all the layers for the complex paper piecing on the licensed character cartridges. Here are links (Cinderella and Belle #5) (Mulan) to a couple of earlier posts that have some tips on how to make cutting and piecing these characters a bit easier.

With the Design Studio software you can plan out all the cuts needed and load the mat just once to cut the pieces you will need in the correct colors. This is explained in more detail in the posts linked above so I won't repeat it all here. You use page two of the file only for information about the paper sizes and placements and page one to actually cut the character (the rest of the pages of the file are just there to separate the colors for a screen shot of the preview).

Here is a screen shot of the mat ready for cutting Belle #2



This is the actual mat loaded and ready to cut



When I cut this last year, I didn't have any plain cardstock in the right shade of brown so I tried using some adhesive backed DCWV textured cardstock. I was not very happy with the cutting - I don't care for the white core for cutting these small pieces - below you can see how it looked on the mat after cutting.



Using the adhesive backed cardstock did make it easier to adhere the hair piece to the base but the white bits that showed made Belle look older than her years!



I resorted to touching in the white areas with a pen that matched as closely as possible to the brown cardstock color - when you look at the close up below you can see the tiny pen marks.



The overall effect was fine after the touchup but, in the future, I will try to have solid core cardstock available in all the colors I need for a character before cutting!



Belle #2 at five inches

Seaside Fun

I did another adjustable title design - these really are addictive! (The tutorial explaining how to create this type of design is linked at the top right corner of the page). If you choose your elements carefully, you can take advantage of the layering available on many of the Cricut cartridges.

I selected the ocean elements (waves, seahorse, starfish) from the Dreams Come True cartridge (they go with Ariel from the "The Little Mermaid") and also used the upright upper case font from Opposites Attract. The original design in a few sizes is on the first page of the file. After I created the full design, I used the shape properties box to create a border/title for a 12 x 12 page by setting the height at 3.5 inches and the width at 11.5 inches. This is set up on the second page of the file. The third page just shows the design stretched to cover most of the page - you can play around with it to get comfortable with using the "handles" (but remember to always keep at least one copy of the original design so you don't need to download it again)!

When I changed the settings to fit the design to the 12 x 12 page, the elements changed in their proportions. I needed to select the layer options for the seahorse and starfish and then place each one over the modified design and use the stretching handles (lower right for both directions, center left for horizontal stretch and center bottom for vertical stretch) to size the layers individually. Once I had them matching the base layer, I placed them in positions on the mat where I could use the "multiple colors of paper all cutting at once" method to get the cuts I needed for this design at the same time (this is the method I have explained in previous posts about making the Disney Princesses).


Above is a screen shot of the placement of the elements (the layers show in solid blue since they are not welded) and below you can see how the mat was set up and the results after cutting.



Below you can see all of the elements after they were removed from the mat (all placed on a 12 x 12 sheet of card stock so you can see the relative sizes).




If you look carefully at the screen shot you can see that there is some overlap of the waves and the seahorse in the design. This area will need to be trimmed so the layers will work properly (and the blue wave will not show through the detail holes on the seahorse).

Below you can see the wave before and after trimming. In the photo I had the top and bottom waves reversed (be careful they are easy to confuse!) but when you try to adhere them you will realize which one belongs in each position. You can leave these untrimmed and just tuck them under the seahorse.



It is fine to put the adhesive on the waves base layer, but you should put the adhesive on the top layer for the starfish and seahorse to avoid any chance of glue showing through the detail holes.









Below is the title with the layers added



You can also try offsetting the layers a bit for a different effect. I think this is particularly effective for the waves.



You will also have these offcuts which can be used for another project.



This should be useful for summer vacation pages - I hope some of you will have photos that work with this design. You could cut out additional seaside elements and placed them around the layout to tie things all together.

Seaside Fun (A)

Disney Princesses - a few more tips!

The multi layered cuts of various Disney characters available on some Cricut Cartridges are very popular but they can be a bit tricky to figure out - especially if you don't use them very often. One of the great things about CDS is the ability you have to set up a complicated cut so that you know precisely how the cut will be made and then save it for future use. In my post about Mulan (linked HERE) I explained how to select and set up all of the pieces on the same mat to speed up the process of creating one of these characters.

I decided to make it even easier for future uses of the same design at the same size. I carefully placed the pieces needed into evenly sized rectangles and squares and noted the colors and sizes needed on a second mat. Now, when I want to make the same character again, I will know exactly what colors and sizes of paper I need and the precise position to place them on the mat (In other words I did all of the "thinking" once and saved it so I don't have to recalculate each time I make a certain character).

Here is a screen shot of the mat showing paper colors and placement for Cinderella #2 at five inches. I just typed the names of the colors and the sizes of each in the appropriate spaces. (You can use any font to do this and they do not have to be so big - I just wanted to be sure they would be visible for this post. You do not even need to own the font cartridge you use to do this since it is merely for reference so just choose one that you find easy to read). You could even record the specific brand and color of paper you used for that character - again saving time since it is often tricky to remember what you may have used (and you may have given that design away so it won't be handy to refer to).



Here is a screen shot showing how the elements of this version of Cinderella fit on the mat.



Here is a screen shot of the mat set up for Belle #5 at five inches



Here is a preview of the mat



and here you can see the actual mat with the paper placed ready to cut. You insert the mat, make sure the file is on page one (where the actual pieces of the design are placed) and "cut with Cricut." If you use multiple mats and are making several of the same character you can get one mat loaded while another is cutting further speeding up the process.



In order to make the screen shot showing the individual colors I made multiple mats in these files - this is not really necessary but it doesn't take long and you can even save screen shots of the second page which shows the colors and sizes and print them up to save in a separate binder so that you can refer to this while the Cricut is cutting from page one (if you are preparing a different figure to cut next).

One other tip for handling and assembling the delicate and small pieces for these figures - I have found that it is easier to apply adhesive to the base layer and then place the small pieces in the correct position when the glue is tacky (I use a Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive pen - I dot it on the area I want to work on and let it dry to clear and then carefully add my pieces). Tweezers can be helpful to move the bits into position.



Here is the finished Cinderella with a headband decorated with Stickles glitter glue.



You will end up with an interesting off cut from the base layer (the example below is Belle #5) and I actually thought I could use this to make a card - I love the contrast of pink and black and the graceful silhouette (I have not yet decided how many additional details to add in - I think the effect of the plain card is quite pretty).



I plan to save these files as I create the various characters for my projects and then I will be prepared to do future cuts much more easily. Here are my files for these two princesses to share with you - I hope you can use them and that this system makes cutting these popular designs a bit easier for you!

Belle #5 at five inches

Cinderella #2 at five inches