Fresh and Pretty Love You Card

Happy Wednesday!  I have been busy sorting and organizing around the house (and yes, I am still taking down Christmas!).  We do finally have snow on the ground (not much) and it feels more like winter.  I promised that today I'd give more details about the second card I made for the Creative Charms blog.

 Here are all of the cardstock layers.  The card is a vertical A2 card (4 1/4 x 11 inches folded in half).  The printed paper was cut to center the design so it is a bit narrower than the usual cuts at 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches.  The white layer is 4 x 5 1/2 inches, the aqua layer is 3 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches.

The patterned paper is from the Enjoy the Seasons imagine cartridge.  I printed a full sheet to use for several projects.  The pink and aqua cardstock is from a Martha Stewart value pack - these colors were a great match for the Imagine printed paper.

I wanted to use the  Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon as a border on the patterned paper so I added 1/8 inch Scor-Tape along the two long edges of the paper. 

I peeled off the Scor-Tape on one edge and carefully lined up the edge so that one row of dots was showing.  I also tried to make the scallops line up with the end of the cardstock.

If you look carefully at the patterned paper you can see that the vines come together to form some heart shapes - three are visible on the card front.

If your pieces are slightly off (a little movement while trimming can cause this) you can just neaten up the edge with a quick cut across all of the layers after assembly.  I added the white cardstock layer to give a nice clean edge between the bright colors and to echo the white scallop of the ribbon.

Can you see the three full hearts formed by the vines?

I cut the sentiment from the same pink cardstock as the card base with the Cuttlebug Love Language die.  The busy patterned paper makes it a little bit difficult to see the words. 

There is no shadow option when using the dies so I just cut another set of the same words with white cardstock.

By offsetting the two sets of words, I was able to create a sort of "drop shadow" which helps to make the words more legible against the busy paper.

These Groovy Petals string flowers are a great match for the printed cardstock.  I removed the brad from the larger flower and put the two sizes together with the pink brad from the smaller flower.

I used a small square of 1/2 inch Scor-Tape to adhere the flowers to the center of the card between the three hearts.

The finished card is cute and casual - perfect to brighten up a winter day!


There should be some new deals up later today on Blitsy.  If you haven't joined this free membership bargain shopping site yet, please use my link to sign up.

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/  

Once you have joined, you can refer friends and family to earn credits that you can use to shop on the site.  If you "like" Blitsy on Facebook, you can also get a fan code for a discount on your first purchase.


Are you working on any organization projects?  Every magazine I see seems to have articles about getting your home into shape.  I am hoping that I'll be able to put my hands on the receipt for my camera - it turns out there is a five year warranty on the lens so I may be able to get the lens repaired by Nikon.  I found all of the other paperwork but the receipt wasn't there - it is here somewhere!  Yet another reason to keep your files in good shape - I am sure I wouldn't have thrown the receipt away...but where is it...?


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Valentine Cards with Creative Charms

Today is my day to post my projects for Creative Charms.  The Design Team has been creating lots of great projects - if you haven't checked out the Creative Charms blog lately be sure to hop over to see what is new.

I made two cards that will be perfect for Valentine's Day.  This is the more formal card with a medallion created with Spellbinder's dies.  I'll give the details for this card to day and post more about the second card tomorrow.

I was able to pick up this set of dies with a 50% off coupon last week.  There are four circle dies with heart details around the edges.  The larger two dies cut tiny hearts on the edge of the circle and the two small dies emboss hearts on the edge of the circle.

I cut the circles using Core'dinations gemstone cardstock and found that the small pieces stayed lodged in the die.  This might not happen with lighter weight cardstock.

The dies are made with holes that allow you to poke out the small shapes that are stuck after the cut.  A pair of tweezers or another pointed tool will help you to quickly pop out these pieces.

If you pop out the outer ring of shapes first, you will have a nice little group of 20 tiny hearts to use for another project.  You could also save the triangle shapes to use for confetti in a shaker card.

Here is one of the smaller circles with the hearts embossed  (they are really too small to be done as cuts).

I added pink Gradient Pearl Stickers in alternating sizes to the outer ring of hearts on the largest circle.

The smaller ring is accented with the smallest clear Gradient Gem Stickers.

I used lots of foam dots to raise the large medallion from the card front.

The second circle is also raised with foam circles and a red Vintage Velvet Poppy is fastened in the center.  I pierced a hole in the center with a sharp tool before inserting the brad of the flower.

The base card is white cardstock cut at 5 x 10 inches for a 5 x 5 inch square card.  The red layer is cut at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches and the heart patterned paper (from K and Company) is cut at 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches.

You can add a verse or sentiment to the inside of the card and leave the front of the card as is - it could even be framed or used in a shadowbox after the holiday.

 

This is the second card I made - I'll post the measurements and directions tomorrow.  Do you recognize the patterned paper?


It snowed again last night but the temperature should be in the 40's today so it won't last.  In a little over a week I'll be getting on a plane to go to Germany.  I hope all of the snow will stay away - there is nothing worse than being stuck in an airport with a weather delay!

Have you started on Valentine's Day cards yet?  Do you make a lot or just a few for the very special people in your life?

Have a wonderful crafty day! 


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Holiday Happiness at Scrappy-go-Lucky

I made another Christmas card using both the Imagine and the Expression 2 for Scrappy-go-Lucky.  This is just a little peek at the corner of the card - please click HERE to see the full post on the Scrappy-go-Lucky blog.

You can see a few of the Creative Charms gems that I added to this card.  If you are an email subscriber, you should be receiving an email with two posts today - please scroll down to see the new Kit and Deal from Creative Charms and find out how you could win a free Kit of the Month for October.

The Creative Memories StoryBook 4.0 upgrade is now available to download or order on CD.  I always do the downloads - instant gratification and no shipping costs!  If you currently have StoryBook Creator 3.0 you can upgrade to 4.0 for $24.95 and you will receive over $60 worth of free content. Click HERE to go to the page on my CM personal website for more details or to order.

There is also a free trial version of 4.0 available HERE so you can see all of the things that the program can do.  The trial is good for 30 days.

Here is another peek at all of the bits and pieces of my card - you can get the details on the Scrappy Go-Lucky blog HERE  
Be sure to look back at some of the other posts the Design Team has made - there is lots of inspiration to be found there.

Our trip home was long but problem free.  Before we left, the sun came out and we did get to pick a few apples.  I'll try to catch up with messages as quickly as possible.  We still have work going on at our house so it may take me a day or two to catch up.

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Bright and Cheerful - after the storm...

We did not have any major problems from the arrival of hurricane/tropical storm Irene on Sunday.  There was lots and lots of rain and very high winds but our power stayed on so that is a big relief.  Many people in our area do not have power so we are very lucky.  I hope that things get back to normal for everyone soon.

 Today is my day to post on the Scrappy-go-Lucky blog and I made a quick and simple card using the All Wrapped Up Imagine cartridge.  You can see the card and read the post HERE.

I do have a couple of tips to share.  When I made this card I planned to make it an A2 card so I set the height on the Imagine touchscreen at 5 1/2 inches.  As you can see in the photo above, the actual height was a little less than 5 1/2 inches.

 

The width was 8 inches instead of the standard 8 1/2 inches.  This isn't a big difference but you should be aware that the size of the cuts on the Imagine doesn't always match the numbers you select.  I had a similar problem when I tried to match up a shadow cut that I made from the Heritage cartridge on my Expression set at 4 inches with the top layer cut that I printed and cut on the Imagine, also set at 4 inches.

The colors and patterns on the All Wrapped Up cartridge and so bright and cheerful - I decided to make some extras of the scalloped mat layer filling the shape with a variety of the patterns.  These will be handy for making quick cards.

Just a few more days to go before we leave for the wedding - so I am going to be pretty busy finishing everything and packing.  I haven't been able to keep up with all of the email that has come recently but I will eventually answer everything - thanks for your patience!

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Martha on Monday - a bordered card with some "Imagine-ation"

It's Monday morning and time for another installment of "Martha on Monday" over on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.  This week I posted a quick tutorial showing how you can use the many borders on the Martha Stewart Cake Art cartridges to create perfect borders for your cards. 

I love the Martha Stewart punches (and I have even more than I realized once I started the grand reorganizing of the craftroom!) but it is frustrating sometimes to realize that they don't always come out even on your card edge.  With Design Studio or the Gypsy (and soon the Cricut CraftRoom!) you can get perfectly sized fancy edges on your cards quite easily.

If you pop over to THIS POST on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog you can see how easy it is to do this.  In honor of the fantastic Imagine Giveaway that Mandy is hosting this month I made my sample card using some Imagine components.  Be sure to check out the details of the giveaway  HERE, make a flower and send it to Mandy and you could possibly win an Imagine!

For the card front, I chose these roses from the Imagine More Cards cartridge.  I selected the layers option and eliminated all of the design except for the two rose cluster and the red rose layer.

I cut the card base with the open scallop border from a sheet of cardstock I printed with the second full sheet of paper in the handbook.  The details about designing the card base are on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.

 I set the imagine to cut with no borders (changed the default from 4 to 0).  It cut nearly perfectly but I decided to use some brown ink to cover any misses and to add depth to the roses.  Here you can see the difference side by side.

 After the pieces were inked, I added Stickles glitter glue to the flowers and the leaves.

I used Fruit Punch, Yellow and Star Dust on the roses and Lime Green on the leaves.

When I scored and folded the card base the edge was a little rough so I decided to add a ribbon to help finish off the top of the card.

I figured out the position for the roses and left them sitting on the card while I add the peel-off "Happy Birthday" sentiment.  

Then I adhered the pair of roses directly to the card front.  The red rose is not "Stickled" since it will have another layer on top.

For the top red rose layer I added some foam dots for dimension.

The slightly raised image adds a lot to the card.

This card looks more complicated than it is - but you do have to allow time for the Stickles to dry.  I found that the flowers were curved after the Stickles dried so I put them under a heavy stack of books overnight to get a nice flat image.

I haven't used my Stickles much lately - I think they were perfect to give a finishing touch to the flowers which are the focal point of the card.

This was my first test cut of the bordered card.  I usually use cardstock in the same weight that I am planning to use for my project but in designs that are not my favorites for my test cuts.  I may find a way to make this into a card that I will post - the colors are a bit unusual but that is a challenge!  I did not post a file for this card since I explained exactly how to create the file in the tutorial.  If you are having trouble and need a link for the file I made, please leave a comment to let me know.

You can make the files for bordered cards and cut a small supply to have on hand when you need to make  a quick card.  If you have an Imagine, you can cut and print the images for the card front very quickly so be sure to get your entry in to the Scrappy-Go-Lucky contest.  

Don't forget that there is something special happening on my blog this week - be sure to check in tomorrow to get all of the details

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