Sparkly Butterfly Hello Card

I was out of sorts all day - trying to get paperwork done (not the creative type of paperwork!) and wondering if the stormy weather we are having in the Northeast will ever end.  We have had nearly a foot of rain in some areas!  There is a lot of flooding - fortunately we live up a hill and our lower level has stayed dry.  We do have a bit of a leak in the roof in our family room.

I wasn't on the computer most of the day and I haven't had a chance to finish up the comments/questions from last week.  I did take a quick break to make a card - I needed something bright and sparkly to cheer myself up!

I started with this butterfly on the Lyrical Letters cartridge.  As I mentioned last week - this cartridge is full of hidden treasures and is far more versatile than the average font cartridge.  I used Design Studio to determine the sizes I needed for my card.

The butterfly image is designed to be used as a layer on the "congratulations" word art so it is easier to set the mat up using the real dial size to avoid a lot of sizing guesswork.  Once you figure out the size you can cut the butterfly directly from the machine if you have only the trial version of Design Studio.

I also selected this frame and set the real dial size at 5 1/4 inches to fit an A2 card.

 
The cartridges does not have a blackout option for the shapes (this butterfly was meant to be layered on the word art which has a blackout version connected to the "congratulations").  You can create a blackout version in the proper size by using the "hide selected contour" on a second butterfly entered at real dial size 3 1/4 inches.  (Left click to select each dot - the line will turn red - then right click and choose "hide selected contour" from the bottom of the pop up menu).

I wanted to add a sentiment to the front and, since I was using glitter cardstock for the frame, I thought it would be best to cut my sentiment and not try to stamp it.  I needed to make the sentiment very tiny.  I used the preview to size the cut.

The smallest size you can enter from the keypad is one inch.  You can adjust the image to a smaller size by using the "handle" in the lower right corner.

This screen shot shows the difference between the two.  The final word is very tiny and I was a bit worried that it would not cut properly.

As you can see in this close view - it cut perfectly!  This was cut in the pink Core'dinations gemstone cardstock I used for my Easter projects last week.  I turned it over so the darker matte side would show.

I added some "Star Dust" Stickles to the dots of the butterfly and some small pink gems to the tips of the antennae.

The butterfly seemed to something more, so I added a heart shaped gem for the head and some more Stickles to make a body for the butterfly.  The butterfly is raised up with foam squares for more dimension.

Here is how the card would look totally unadorned with bling - still very pretty.  I use multi-cut 2 when I cut this heavy glitter cardstock from DCWV, pressure at maximum and blade at 6.

You could cut the frame, save it for another card and use the interior section behind the butterfly for a different look.

Patterned paper for the background creates yet another look (this is my oops! butterfly when I forgot to change the page of the file and cut the blackout version twice - it won't go to waste...).

I hope this card will bring a smile to the person who receives it.

Gelly pen Card (& a link to the "Mystery Project")

Here is a simple card I made using the gelly pens I reviewed yesterday (here is a LINK to the review). I used one of the frame designs on the Lyrical Letters cartridge.



This screen shot shows the location of this image. It was such an nice surprise to find all the extras on this cartridge when I first bought it. Here is a LINK to a post from last April showing some of the cuts available on this cartridge. You can click on the label for Lyrical Letters in the side column to see other uses of this cartridge.



I did several trials with the gelly pens - at three, four and five inches. I chose the red pen to get the effect of stitched "red work" - a type of embroidery often seen in quilts. I used Bristol vellum art paper - here is a LINK to an older post where I explained in detail about this paper. I like using this paper for embossing and I thought it would accept the gelly ink very well. All three images were perfectly drawn with no skipping at all.



I had been using my machine to cut and for the first drawing I forgot to change the pressure setting back to medium (the recommended settings for the gelly pens are speed 2 and pressure 3). In the photo above you can see the difference - the design on the left has thicker lines (but still far thinner than the Cricut Markers). As you can see, the lines are very smooth, straight and even.

I trimmed the paper around the four inch image to 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches. Then I cut a red mat at 3 1/2 x 5 inches and used my Martha Stewart Arch Lattice border punch on the lower edge.



I centered the paper in the punch, paying attention to the edges of the paper to see where the lattice would cut. After you punch the center, slide the paper to the right or left using the printed image on the punch to align the design perfectly.



On my first try, the third punch to finish the border was a bit off - it is important to hold the edge level and it is harder to do this after several punches have been made. I could probably get away with using this but it would bother me ... so I will trim this piece down to use on another project.



I was a little more careful the second time and ended up with a nice even border (on the right in the photo above).



This card is simple but the intricate drawing and the punched border make it interesting.


If you haven't already gone to see the Mystery Challenge projects on the Custom Crops site, please take a few minutes to check them out - here is a LINK to the page that explains the challenge and the seven projects are linked in a list at the bottom of the page



I used all of my "ingredients" to make this cropping apron - Here is a LINK to the page where you can read more about my project. Please be sure to leave a review on the Custom Crops site - this is the first time they have tried a challenge like this and they are really interested in hearing what people think. For the next challenge a lucky customer will get to "play along" with the design team!

Lyrical Letters with Design Studio

Today was Graduation Day for our local high school. Several of our young friends graduated and this weekend is very busy with parties and celebrations. I also need to do some serious tidying in my studio - there are very few horizontal surfaces that are clear to work on right now. It seems like things are conspiring to keep me from having time to do some designing with the newly added cartridges in Design Studio.

I did have a little time to try out "Lyrical Letters" and there is so much on this cartridge that will work well in design studio. Here are just a couple of quick examples.



The Lyrical Letters "connected" font welds beautifully as you can see in the example above. I think this is one of my favorites of all the fonts available in the cartridges.



You may remember these cards - I made them "the old fashioned way," using the Cricut without the computer. I particularly like the design on the card on the left and I now can use it in Design Studio and make lots of variations. Here is my first trial cut. I did a number of different designs on the computer but this is the only one I had time to test cut,



I cut this design in a pearlescent card stock and I did have a bit of trouble with the blade lifting the paper and snagging when I used multi cut. I had cut some glitter card stock earlier today with multi cut and I forgot to change the menu option back - you do have to remember to change this in the preferences menu to "Multi Cut - Off (Default).

I hope you have had a chance to update your software so you can have some fun working with the new cartridges. We have another party to attend tomorrow, but I should be able to find some time to test more designs to share with you later in the day.

(If any of you are wondering, the concert last night was great - we saw a group called "Pink Martini" - they do a very eclectic mix of music styles and are all incredibly talented musicians. Here is a LINK to their website if you want to find out more about them).

Lovely Lyrical Letters....

WARNING - This is definitely an "enabling" post! If you don't want to be tempted to buy a new cartridge, skip today's entry!

I was lucky enough to get the new "Lyrical Letters" cartridge yesterday. I was excited to get it, but started wondering what I would do since the Design Studio software has not yet been updated to include this cartridge and I nearly always do my cuts from the computer. Even if I am using the image exactly as it appears on the cartridge, I like to check the sizing and maximize the use of my paper by setting the cuts up on the screen.

I went through the handbook and found so many unexpected and exciting images. Not only are there seven fonts on the cartridge, there are also lots and lots of welded phrases and greetings as well as some fantastic "extras." So I went ahead and tried some cuts the "old fashioned" way!



Here are two cards I made very quickly using the framed images cut at five inches. They end up perfectly proportioned for an A2 card front.



For this card I added Stickles glitter glue in turquoise and a gem to make the cut sparkle.



On this card I just added a few "skittles" (these are small acrylic flat sided beads that are usually sold as floral supplies for filling vases but have been adopted by paper crafters for accents on cards and scrapbook pages).



Here is a photo of the page from the cartridge handbook showing all of these lovely framed images. (You can click on the photo to make it larger).



Here are a few more images from the frame set.



The cuts can be turned in various directions for a different look.



Above you can see some of the offcuts on the mat - I am just crazy enough to try to save some of these and create negative images on a second set of cards.



This is a prewelded image in the "connected" font - I can hardly wait to weld my own words in this font!



This Christmas tree is beautiful! It has a "Celtic knot" look. I just tried the cut and placed it on an A2 card but you can imagine how a bit of bling will really make it spectacular.



One more cut - aren't the heart shaped leaves and cutouts in the flowers pretty?

I think this cartridge is a "must have" and I can think of all sorts of things to do with these fonts and images once the cartridge is added to Design Studio by an update- I hope that happens soon!


(Our younger son is home from college for a quick Easter visit and I have had a lot going on the past few days - if you have sent me an email or comment and I haven't responded yet, please be patient - I will catch up as soon as I can...)