12 on the 12th and the Pixie card

  

Guess what?  It is the 12th of the month again.  For those of you doing the "12 on the 12th for 2012" project, today is the day to take those 12 (or more) photos.

Here is my little eight year old neighbor with her special birthday card.  Everyone loves to see their name in print.  It is also nice to know that the card you give is custom made just for the recipient.

I used digital papers and embellishments from the Cosmo Cricket "Pixie-Licious" line to create the card.  I'll do another post explaining how I used the digital elements to create all of the parts of the card.  Once I had everything set up in the Silhouette Studio software, I printed two sheets of white cardstock with registration marks for cutting.

Here are all of the card pieces after cutting.  I chose a blue card base from my stash of Papertrey Ink cardstock, this color is Spring Rain.

I continue to be impressed by the detail and accuracy of the cuts I get with the Silhouette Cameo.    The narrow frame that I cut from the sentiment page is nearly perfect.

I left a thin white border around the Pixie image to help it stand out on the card front.  Some parts of the design needed a little added sparkle so I went over them with the Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust glitter pen.

I also added some sparkle to the words with some glitter gelly pen touches on the curves of each letter (the font I used is called "Curlz").

 

The spots around the circle are actually tiny flowers and I added some sparkle to the center of each flower.

I even added a bit of sparkle to the tips of her toes!

I cut four pixies so I would have a few extras.  I did notice that the calibration was off a tiny bit on a couple of the images.  I'll have to work through the calibration process to see if I can fix the errors.

I added large foam squares to the back of the printed scalloped circle to raise it from the first layer of pattern on the card front.

I wanted the pixie to "float" above the circle so I added a second layer of dots to all of the spots on the back except the one for the heart.  I wanted the images to work together and stay level.

This side view shows how the stacked foam squares work to raise the pixie higher and keep the images level.

The inside of the card has an inner liner that was adapted from a large square piece of digital paper.  I got the Pixie-Licious paper and elements in digital files from Jessica Sprague.com, you can find them at the top of the page HERE.

This card was a lot of fun to make.  It amazes me when I do a print and cut to see how easy it is to just start with white papers or cardstock and produce all of the pieces for your card.

If you'd like more information about how to take the digital images into the Silhouette software and create the cutting lines, please leave a question or comment.  I'll try to do another post to show the step by step process.

In other news...our world travelers are home - we picked them up at the airport last night and we are all looking forward to some fun times together before they head out to California.  My crafting and blogging time will be limited while they are here but I have lots up my sleeve for later this summer!


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Cheery Strawberry Card

It all started with the strawberries...  These knitted strawberries are one of my favorite items from Creative Charms and when I saw the paper (Garden Variety by Cosmo Cricket) I knew they needed to be together.

The paper I had was six by six inch squares and I wanted to make a five by seven inch card.  As you can see - this paper is not big enough to make a conventional layer, however, there is a little trick you can play to make this work.  The strawberry paper above is cut to six inches by four and one half inches.

Simply slice the paper at about one and one quarter inches from the short end and move the two pieces into position on the card.  The card base is kraft cardstock.

I decided to add a red lower mat (cut at 4 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches).  You could stop here, but I chose to add a layer to hide the divided strawberry paper.

My first plan was to use the red and white polka dot paper as the coordinating layer.  I thought it looked passable for the strip of paper but the words were lost.  The "For You' is from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge (this cartridge is only in the Gypsy so you would need to have a Gypsy to cut it - you could use a different phrase from a different cartridge if you don't have a Gypsy).

First I tried changing the top layer of the words to the same green as the medallions but I didn't think there was enough contrast.

So, third time is the charm as they say and I finally decided to change both the strip that hides the gap in the paper and the top layer of the sentiment to this lively yellow floral paper.

The small medallions were cut with the Spellbinders "Lacey Circles" dies.  I still like using metal dies to get perfect shapes with the slightly rounded edge that only a die will produce.  The smaller circle is adhered with foam dots centered on the larger scalloped lacey circle medallion.

The base medallion was cut from some dark green Cor'edinations textured carstock and it is also raised with some foam dots.

The double layering and the berries themselves make this a very thick card so I would plan to hand deliver the card when I used it.  It would be a nice "welcome to the neighborhood" card if it was delivered with some strawberry treats!

Creative Charms has a special weekend deal for you.  First, blog candy is back on the Creative Charms blog so you can visit and follow the Creative Charms blog and leave a comment on the post HERE (on the Creative Charms blog not my blog) to have a chance to win a free deal of the month for June.

Creative Charms has also packed up a great deal for this weekend only. The amber marble vintage brads, blue marble vintage brads and grey pearl vintage brads together are 50% off. That is 27 brads for only $5.25. Grab your Vintage Brad Sale right away and remember - the Simplicity items are all still on sale at 70% off HERE.

Is it cold where you are? The weather here has been quite chilly and rainy for several days - naturally it started raining right as the carpenters were taking off a big section of our house to frame in the repair and addition.  Fingers crossed for a nicer weekend.  If it rains we will just have to focus on indoor jobs and there are plenty of them to go around!

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Birthday Card - take two...

I finally got things sorted out with the computer and Blogger.  We were at a family graduation party most of the afternoon and evening on Saturday so I decided to put the full post up for today.

I wasn't planning to make a card when I started - I just wanted to show a way to add a "loop bow" under a paper medallion for a pretty effect.  I have been experimenting with ways to use ribbon since I seem to have an excellent ability to collect ribbon and I need to move more of it out into the world on projects so there will be room for me to add more to my collection!

 

I have always found it tricky to get ribbon bows to work out neatly when the ribbon is not the same on both sides.   This cute polka dot ribbon is one that I got from a Stampin' Up clearance rack sale.  The stitched border goes through but the polka dots are printed on one side only.  To make the "bow" I cut two lengths of ribbon - one larger than the other.  I folded the ribbon in half and used a sharp piercing tool to poke through the center at the join of the ends.

I did the same thing with the second piece of ribbon, adding it to the piercing tool.

 I slid the two loops up near the top of the tool to make the hole in the center larger.

 If you read my blog regularly, you know that I like to use the wired ribbon from Costco - I just pull out the wires from the sides when I don't want it for shaping the edges.  Of course, I save these bits and pieces of wire and they can be very handy for other projects.

I took our the piercing tool and held on to the ribbon stack - then I threaded the wire through the pierced holes and bound the ribbons together.  The wire is very strong but also very thin and easy to push through the pierced holes.

To finish off the wire conection, I put the opposite ends through the holes and reversed the pattern.  This may seem to be a lot of trouble but it is really quick and easy to do.  I imagine that some people just use adhesive to hold the pieces together but I find that this method is great to be sure that your bows won't come apart at the last minute!

Next I added a large foam square to adhere the ribbon loops to the main vertical ribbon on the card front.

The ribbon down the center of the card layer was added using the "cheater method" - wrapping it around the paper and taping each end.

I wanted to add the sentiment in a medallion and place it as the center of the "bow."  I originally planned to use all three of these layers,.  I decided that the green lace scalloped circle was a bit too large so I simply attached the sentiment to the smaller yellow scalloped circle.

Instead of placing the loop bow straight across the card, I set it at an angle - just to keep things interesting!

This was the first version of the card.  I wanted to keep it simple but I thought this looked too simple.  The paper ("Garden Variety" line by Cosmo Cricket) is so pretty that I didn't want to hide it - so I decided to look at my other options from that paper line and add an additional piece in a coordinating color and pattern.

I matted it with a coordinating red cardstock, leaving just a thin reveal to help set it off against the background paper.

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The sentiment is from this great group of card elements.  They are printed on pearlized cardstock and have perfect sayings ready to pop on your projects.  These were a gift from my friend Enfys.  I believe they come from Craftwork Cards in England - here is a LINK to the page on their site.

Craftwork Cards also makes the "Candi" (the paper brads or dots you can see on this card).  I saw at these at CHA and really liked the effect - there are some more photos of their samples HERE.

The added square gives the impression of a gift box for the bow to rest on.   I think the extra color was needed to add a little more "oomph" (not sure if that's how you spell it but I hope you know what I  mean!)

We'll be going to another graduation party on Sunday - and we'll be hosting our own party next weekend - this certainly is a busy time of year! I hope you are having a nice weekend.  Please remember all of the brave servicemen and women who have sacrificed for our country as you enjoy your holiday activities.

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Friendship Card (for sewing friends)

 

This is a card with no Cricut involved - pretty rare for me!  I was trying, again, to tidy up my craft space and I came across a set of stamps from My Sentiments Exactly called "friendship sentiments."  I hadn't used this yet so, instead of finishing the cleaning (boring...!) I decided to try out one of the sentiments and make a card.

The blue card base is Bazzill cardstock and the patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket "Material Girl".  I chose the paper to go with the stamp because it had stitching and embroidery.  I didn't like the way the stamp looked on the scalloped rectangle so I went back and looked through my Nestabilities.  

I found that the sentiment fit in the Labels Three set when I turned the die on the diagonal and I liked the way this looked.  I stamped the sentiment with Broken China Distress Ink on ivory cardstock.  I had a scalloped rectangle in the same blue as the card base from my earlier attempt on the card so I placed the label with the sentiment on top of the scalloped rectangle.  I wanted to add buttons to the top and bottom.  I used a sharp pointed tool to punch the starter holes for my sewing.

I sewed the buttons through both layers and brought the ends to the front to tie in bows.  I used Lemondrop baker's twine from The Twinery - I ordered a sample pack of eight colors a while ago and this was also sitting on my table.

I left the twine a bit long when I sewed so I could adjust the bows - then I trimmed the ends.

I used foam squares to raise the sentiment from the card surface.

I think this card would be perfect for a friend who sews - the stitch patterns in the paper are charming and the homespun look seems very warm and welcoming.

I am getting very excited about the upcoming Cricut Cruise.  It was a thrill to win the Creative Memories contest for a place on the cruise last fall but it seemed so far away.  Thank you again to all of you who voted for my layout.  I am trying very hard to get ready and have my packing done before the eve of the trip.  So far - just my toes are ready!

Have you ever been on a cruise - Do you have any tips or advice?  All will be greatly appreciated.  I don't think that I will have easy access to the internet on the ship so I am planning to pre-post for the time I will be away - this way you will still get an email each day...

When I get back, I will finally have my million hits and blogoversary celebration - maybe I'll have a few tropical surprises to be added to the mix of celebration gifts!

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