Butterfly Birthday Card

My neighbor and I have birthdays that are just two days apart.  We finally got around to exchanging our gifts last week (our birthdays were in July!).  I made this card for her using some of my favorite things - shimmer cardstock, gems and vellum.  She likes butterflies so I chose a sentiment printed on a butterfly from Craftwork Cards for the front of the card and added some more butterflies on the inside.

The card design is an original that I created and I cut it on the Cameo.  I wanted to use vellum as a liner so the inset cut design would be highlighted.  I attached the liner only at the top of the inside of the card. 

The tape tends to show through vellum so I cut a strip of silver glitter paper and adhered it on top of the vellum to finish the top.

I placed clear gems at the tips of each teardrop shape around the oval center of the card.

The vellum has a subtle pattern.  When I bought it, it was a package of 25 sheets and the colors looked much brighter with all of the layers stacked.  You can see the pretty design better in this photo. The two butterflies were punched with the Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch in the same silver Dazzle paper as the strip at the top.

By adhering the vellum only at the inside top of the card the layer can float free and the cutwork design is highlighted.

This scalloped oval "hides" behind the oval on the front of the card so when it is closed you do not see the sentiment (smudged out for this photo).

I added more small clear gems along the outer edge of the design and used a black pearl for the head of the butterfly.  The butterfly is creased in the center and adhered on just one wing so it can "fly."

Several people have asked me when I will have my original design files available for sale.  I am still planning on offering files but some recent family injuries and illnesses have postponed the launch of my store (family first!).  I'll keep you posted...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.

I did manage to find a few "treasures" at our town ReUsit day on Saturday.  The best find was an old Scrabble game.  I have some plans for those tiles!

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Real Flowers - printed and cut for a card

Monday was a "catch-up" day for me.  I was finally able to find the top of the pool table in my craft room "annex" (after our sons left home I spread out into the adjoining room - and filled it up too!).  I was sorting through piles of projects and I found something that I started a couple of months ago.  So I finished this card to share with you.

This photo of a rudbeckia (brown-eyed susan) from our back yard was the starting point.

I did some photo editing and heightened the contrast to make the flower stand out.  One of my favorite things to do with my flower photos is to turn them into digital elements that I can use for my digital scrapbooking.  I have accumulated quite a few flower images as PNG files that I can use for page layouts, cards and other projects.

I used the Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0 software (on sale this week for only $41.40) to remove the background and create a clean image of the flower.  I realized that with my Silhouette machines I have the capability to take these flower images and cut them out perfectly.

I saved the PNG file to my desktop and then dragged it into the Silhouette Studio software.  (You do not need the designer version of the software to do this).  Then I used the trace function to create a cut line around the edge of the flower.  I filled a page with various sizes of the flower.  For some of the images, I created an offset to leave a white edge around the flower when it is cut.  

Once my flowers were cut out, they looked very realistic - because they are actual flower images.  I could also skip the printing and use the cut lines that I traced around the flowers to cut plain cardstock in the same shape. 

I chose three flowers in small, medium and large sizes, and cut some basic card mats for an A2 card.  The card base is Bazzill heavy textured cardstock, the brown layer is Core'dinations cardstock and the green design is from Momenta.  The yellow chevron ribbon is from May Arts and the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards (I rounded two corners to make it a little more interesting).

 I placed the ribbon across the front of the top layer and folded it over onto the adhesive on the back before I placed the green layer (3 3/4 x 5 inches) on the brown layer (4 x 5 1/4 inches).

I inked the edges of the layers with some Vintage Photo distress ink.  Here is the finished card base before I added the flowers and sentiment.

I chose this ribbon because the chevron pattern matches the design in the green dragonfly cardstock.  I used Scor-Tape to attached the sentiment to the ribbon and the cardstock.

To add dimension to the flowers, I used some foam dots.  I adhered the largest flower with Scor-Tape in the center and curled up the ends a bit.  For the medium flower I used one foam dot and for the smallest flower I stacked two foam dots.

I overlapped the flowers as I placed them on the card.  This photo shows the different levels.

I have also done a print and cut project with some daisies and I am working on other flowers that I have photographed.  I really enjoy taking my photos and finding new ways to use them.  You can make a totally personalized card and once you take the time to create the files you can use them over and over again.

I am linking up this project to Link Up Tuesday HERE.  The past few months have been such a busy time for our family.  I don't go to the message boards much anymore but I'd like to keep in contact with the blogging community - I may even start a link day here.

Every so often I am asked if I sell my photographs.  I haven't done that (yet) but I am considering creating and selling SVG files to print and cut my flower images.  Please let me know (by leaving a comment or by email) if you'd be interested in these or other SVG files.  I can't sell them as .studio files (see Kerri Bradford's recent blog posts) but SVG files can be cut by a number of machines, including the Silhouette machines if you have the designer edition of the software or another program such as Make the Cut.

Our weather has started to cool down a bit and fall will be here soon.  The schools here usually start after Labor Day but I know that in many parts of the country children are already back to school.  If you have school age children, I hope that they are off to a good start for this year.

I wonder what other projects I'll find as I continue to sort out my craft room!

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Simple Birthday Card

I never seem to have enough birthday cards, so I decided to make up some simple cards to have on hand.  I see many beautiful cards with multiple layers, stitching, lots of flowers and bling but they look like they take hours to make.  Sometimes you just need to choose a few shapes and get the card made quickly!

Here are the pieces of the card.  The yellow card base is textured Bazzill cardstock, The plaid layer is from Martha Stewart, and the green sparkly strip is from the DCWV Cotton Bloom stack.  The scalloped circle was made with the Creative Memories scallop circle maker from DCWV Shimmer cardstock and the light green circle is from Martha Stewart.  The Happy Birthday sentiment circle is from Craftwork Cards.  The sheer yellow dotted ribbon is from May Arts.

The card is an A2 card (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches) and the plaid layer is cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches.  The green sparkly strip is 1 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches.  It is handy to have a mat with a grid to help center pieces that you are layering.  I put the four inch side along the grid lines and then used the bolder center line at 2 inches to align the green strip.

I assembled the scalloped circle, plain circle and sentiment circle and added a piece of sheer yellow dotted ribbon, taping it on the back of the card layer.

Then I adhered the layer to the card base and tied a bow around the ribbon strip (it is much easier to get a straight bow when you add it on top of the longer ribbon like this).

I added some foam dots on the scalloped circle, leaving the center blank so it would fit neatly over the ribbon.

Then I nestled the lowest scallop into the area where the bow was tied.  When I put the sentiment on the scalloped circle, I aligned it so there was a scallop "bump" at each of the four compass points and the words would follow a straight line.

This card is quick and easy to make and the sparkly and shiny elements in the center make it feel special.  The sentiment circle from Craftwork cards is printed on shimmer cardstock with metallic gold.  If you can't find these (mine were a gift from my friend Enfys) you could make a batch of sentiments to have on hand using stamps and gold embossing powder.

I think this card looks a little like a flower with a ribbon stem and I particularly like the fresh look of the plaid paper!

The Creative Memories "Just Can't Wait" sale on albums and hardcover Storybooks has been extended to June 30th.  To go directly to the sale page click HERE.  You can see all of the details in my first post about the sale HERE.  I have already ordered a couple more custom album credits so I could get the 25% off price and make the albums any time in the next six months.

The Creative Memories Birthday Bash sale will start July 1st and run for 25 days.  The 25 top picks will be 25% off as Creative Memories celebrates their 25th year.  I'll post all of the details and a list of the products - there are lots of great items, including a sale on both software programs (Memory Manager 3.0 and StoryBook Creator 4.0) and 30% off on digital artwork, downloads and CDs.

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Birthday Card from a Prototype Cut

Sometimes I design an image and want to do a quick test cut just to see if my machine will be able to produce a clean cut.  I usually use some relatively heavy cardstock for these test cuts.  I might use a color that I am not particularly fond of or a piece of patterned paper that would go in my "ugly pile" when sorting out the craft room.

When the cut works out well, I have these random, slightly odd blanks sitting around, waiting to be recycled or finished and embellished.  This bright pink cut was one of the samples I tried for the interlocking petal design that I drew in the Silhouette Studio program.

I like to make designs that are actually cut into a card front for a lace doily effect.  I have done this with Cricut images by using the "hide selected contour" feature to eliminate the outer line of some medallion cuts.  For my test of this design, I cut some of the cards in pink and some in green and started trying different variations by eliminating rows of cuts or adding layers.

There was some Card Candi sitting on my table - it was a variety of all sorts of pieces that my friend Enfys (Going Buggy) brought for me when we met up in Germany last January.  I pulled out some of the pale pink pieces and started making an alternating pattern around the image.  I wanted to use the dark pink pieces in the alternating spots and then I realized that I didn't have enough pieces.  So I dug through and found the periwinkle color to alternate with the dark pink.

I had cut the bright pink flower shape from the extra side piece of the 12 x 12  cardstock I used for the sample cuts.  I thought is was too bright so I tried two other possiblities - the third one (the pale pink) looked like the best option to me.  I wanted to coordinate with the circle sentiment which is also from Craftwork cards (the source of the Card Candi paper "brads'). 

I like the way the open fronts look on cards but it can be tricky to add the inside sentiment with so many holes in the card front.  I decided to create some additional layers.  At this point, I wasn't quite sure if I'd adhere them to the inside of the card or to the back of the card front.

 

I decided that the large shadow of the inset cut design would look best on the right hand inside panel of the card.  In order to place it correctly, I added the adhesive and lined it up behind the cut out pattern on the card front.  Then I simply closed the card to pick up the sticky circle which was now properly aligned on the inner panel.

I designed another "blackout" ring to fill the center section of cut out shapes.  At first I thought I might adhere it inside the card front but it would have been very fiddly with such a small outline area to add the adhesive.  I ended up repeating the procedure for the large background piece and aligned the cut and folded the card back over again to layer it on the white piece.

Now the inside was nearly finished, I just needed to add a sentiment.  I pulled out an appropriate one and punched a 1 1/2 inch circle from the same pale pink cardstock that I used on the front of the card to mat the sentiment.

After the card was complete, I realized that the inner sentiment was in silver and the outer one in gold (next time I'll try to make sure they are the same...).

I used the same procedure once more, adding adhesive and centering the sentiment disc on the card front - then folding the back over to pick it up in the proper position.

Here is the finished inside of the card.

I adhered the pink flower section directly to the card top.

Then I matted the front sentiment on another punched circle from the white Gemstone Core'dinations cardstock and  used foam dots to raise it up a bit.

I was lucky to be able to find cardstock that coordinated pretty well with the Card Candi and sentiment pieces.  The pearlized periwinkle color is from an American Crafts specialty pack of pearl finish cardstock and has an alligator texture.

After doing all of these extra layers and adding the Card Candi there is just one problem.  I still am not very fond of the minty green color - which is why I chose to use it for the "test cut" in the first place!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

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Punched Border Valentine Card

After sorting and reorganizing my punches, I was ready to actually use one for a card.  I pulled out one of the most recent additions, the Daisy Lace deep edge punch.

These deep edge punches are some of my favorites.  They add so much detail to a card and are quick and easy to use.  I could design a similar border for one of my die cutting machines but it would take a while for it to cut so many small details.

I had the leftover hearts and swirls from this gift bag sitting on my table, just waiting to be added to a card or some other project.  (This bag is one of the free cuts that came with my new Silhouette Cameo machine).

This is a standard A2 card (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 folded to make a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card).  I cut the card base from Bazzill textured cardstock in a rosy red.  The top layer is 4 x 5 1/4 inches, also from the red Bazzill cardstock, punched along one long edge.  It is important to center the punch to get a nice symmetrical look for the card.  The white layer is 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  The punched top layer is adhered in the solid section but the lace part is not stuck down on the white layer.

These little bits were left from the punch.  I noticed the flower petal teardrop shapes and thought they would make a nice addition to the border so I pulled out five of them.

I added the pink heart cut and the thin swirls along the sides.  The heart is cut from Core'dinations gemstone cardstock and is textured with a pearly shine.

I used Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive for the swirls and the tiny teardrops.  I let it dry to clear and then it is sticky but won't ooze out from behind the tiny pieces when they are placed on the card.

The extra little teardrops make the border a bit more dramatic and fill the space nicely.

I added foam squares to lift the oval sentiment tag.  This is one of the Craftwork Cards sentiments that my friend Enfys gave me.  They are so handy and work well for quick cards.

The sentiment is printed in metallic silver on a pearlized white card.  All that was missing now was a bit of bling.  The fine points at the bottom of the swirls tended to pop up a bit so I decided to add a few gems to keep them in place and add sparkle (every card needs sparkle, right?)

Three tiny clear gem stickers from Creative Charms are just right to finish the base of the heart and the swirls.

This card is quick and easy to make.  If you don't have this particular wide border punch, there are lots of others that would also be pretty along the lower edge.  I think it is important to always look at the scraps and leftovers from one cut to see if they can be used for another purpose.

I am doing a bit of experimenting with the timing of my posts - and wondering if those of you who subscribe prefer the early morning emails or just check out the posts whenever you read your email.  I thought I'd mix it up a bit  - let me know if it matters to you...

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