View-Master Nostalgia Travel Card

Do you remember using a "View-Master" as a child?  I was fascinated with the 3D images you could see on those odd round slides.  Lately I have seen View-Master images and even actual discs popping up everywhere.

We used half of a View-Master slide at the top of the "Heart and Soul" project in one of the Tim Holtz classes.  (This class was a lot of fun and we learned to do the "faux metal" effects - more about that another day...).

When I was at the Tim Holtz classes and exploring the Absolutely Everything store during the lunch break, I found this sheet of paper from the "Note to Self" collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park.

I loved the look of this paper and "needed" to buy it.  When I was waiting to pay, I noticed that the label in the center says "Payne Bros." so I will definitely be using this for a project about our two sons - the Payne Brothers!

I thought that it would be pretty easy to make my own View-Master type image - so I opened up the Silhouette Studio software and gave it a try.  (I like to make my own files - after I was finished with my card and writing up this post, I thought to look in the Silhouette store and there are two files available there - one is by Lori Whitlock and the other is a Silhouette file). 

I will share the details about how I designed my file in another post.  It isn't difficult, but there is some math involved (!)  Here are all of the bits and pieces for my card.

I cut the two phrases using the font "Reklame Script Regular" Demo version (available at dafont.com HERE).  I welded most of the letters together.  Sometimes a phrase is easier to read if you don't weld all of the letters.  I used the LetraTac adhesive again - it is so easy to use for these small pieces.

I recently found this "Travel" paper pad from Martha Stewart Crafts and I thought it would be perfect for my corny sentiment!

I chose this paper with foil accents for the card front and cut a layer at 4 x 5 1/4 inches.  I chose the lower right corner of the sheet of paper so I could have the word "adventure" showing above and below the View-Master slide.

I inked the edges lightly and adhered the paper to a blue A2 card base (5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches folded in half).

For the inside of the card, I chose this paper.  I cut a piece from the lower left corner, a little bit over toward the center so I could include the Turtle Crossing, palm tree and signpost.

This allows a nice space for the sentiment and a clear spot at the bottom of the card for a message and signature.  I also inked the edges lightly just to take away the white that shows on the cut edge.

I added the View-Master disc with some foam circles for a little dimension on the front of the card.

The raised effect makes it look like you could lift the disc off the card and put it in a viewer!

I think that my little film windows are a bit more rectangular than the actual View-Master version.  I didn't check the exact dimensions of a disc when I designed the file.  I may tweek the file a bit to resize the windows and I may also do a print and cut version to add the numbers and a title.

It was fun to figure out how to make this simple file.  You could also do this in the Cricut software (Design Studio, Gypsy or Craftroom) fairly easily.  The only tricky thing would be to make the little notches on the outer edge.  I would just make a couple of small squares, turn them on the diagonal so they would notch the circle and make sure that you didn't weld the pieces together.

Did you have a View-Master?  Did you know that there are at least 25 different models, thousands of titles and one and a half billion copies of discs!  View-Master is part of the National Toy Hall of Fame in the United States (source - Wikipedia article HERE).

Have a nostalgic day!


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Complex Starbursts with Silhouette Studio

The Silhouette Studio software makes it fun and easy to create intricate original designs.  By mirroring, rotating and arranging simple elements, you can quickly end up with something quite complex and interesting.  I have purchased the designer edition of the software but haven't upgraded my program yet.  All of the designs I have created so far were made with the basic free version of the program.

If you are thinking about getting a Silhouette Cameo, you can download the software from the Silhouette site to "test drive" it.  You can find the download links HERE.

Once I created the starburst shape, it was a simple matter to overlap the points and create a four by three grid of stars.  I sized the group to 5 x 3.75 inches to fit on an A2 card with matting.  Whenever I create a design like this, I also cut a rectangle around the grouped shapes the size of my mat.  This gives me a secondary shape that I can use on another card - I hate to waste anything!

For the first cut I made of this design, I set the material to "heavy cardstock" and checked the box for a double cut.  I do this when I use the Cricut often to insure that the cut will be clean if it is very detailed like this.

The extra cut may have been overkill on the Cameo - some of the tips on this design are a bit ragged and I think it is from the second set of cuts.

I did another cut of the design, just slightly larger (for a 5 x 7 inch card) and set the machine for a single cut - it cut perfectly.  I'll have to try the smaller size with a single cut to see if it was the size of the design or if you really only need one cut.  My blade was set at 5 and I was using a Cricut mat (I have so many of these that I thought it was worth giving them a try since Silhouette mats are not readily available locally).

Here are the two cuts on a plain blue A2 card base - the star grid above and the "offcut" frame below.

I had planned to mat the cut with a layer of white on the card front.

When I looked at the design, I thought the edges needed more definition for the star grid cut.

The frame will work nicely for another card with the white layer cut at the same size (5.25 x 4 inches).  I could also cut a slightly larger piece of white cardstock to get a thin white line for a different look.

You can also take all of the leftover pieces that you remove from the mat to create the negative of the design by adhering the offcut squares in the frame. 

I decided to add an additional layer for a framed effect on my card.  I cut a piece of the same red  cardstock to 4 x 5.24 inches and trimmed the white cardstock to 3.75 x 5 inches.

It is tricky to adhere such a delicate design to the card mat.  You could use spray adhesive but that can be a bit messy (and you need good ventilation for the fumes).  I use LetraTac adhesive for these cuts (you can read my first review of the LetraTac adhesive HERE).  You place the cut on the adhesive and cover the cut with the release sheet, then rub with this little scraper.

When you lift the cut off the adhesive sheet, there are lots of tiny dots of adhesive that will hold the cut to your card or page securely.

Here is the card with the layers and the design adhered.  Of course, I couldn't just leave it like this - it needed a bit of bling!

I added small blue gem stickers to the outer ring of stars, and placed medium size clear gems on the two center stars.  I alternated red and blue stickers in the open spots between designs in the center.

I made this card in red, white and blue for Memorial Day.  I think it would also be pretty with the design cut in green and stickles added to the tips of the stars - they look a little bit like tulips to me!

If you have any questions about how I made the design, please leave a comment and I'll try to answer.  If you have the software already - just start playing with it.  You may be surprised at what you come up with!

After a weekend of beautiful weather we may get rain today - we are lucky that it stayed away for the holiday.  Have a great Tuesday!

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Celtic Medallion for St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I hope you have fun celebrating today.  If you find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, let me know!

I wanted to make something that "looked Irish" for the holiday.  When I saw this design in the Dover Sampler offerings, I had to give it a try as a cutting file.  (Remember, you can sign up for the Dover Sampler here - it's free.  I have no connection to the company - just a happy customer).

There is actually a vector file that you can download.  I could tell it was too finely detailed to cut well at a small size but I tried to cut this directly from the Dover file in a larger size (about 8 inches) using the Make the Cut program and my Silhouette SD.  It worked pretty well except for one segment where the paper pulled up from the mat and the blade and carriage then chewed up the cut.

In this closer view  you can see just how tiny some of the cuts are - particularly the cuts inside the "pretzel" shape.  I decided to bring the file into my Silhouette Studio software, trace it and eliminate areas that I knew would cut poorly.

I eliminated many of the interior cuts to come up with a design that I hoped would be "cuttable" in a card size.  Then I created layers so I could add colors to create the interwoven effect of the image.

I was very happy to see how cleanly the design cut after I had modified it.

 A lot of the lines in the design are less than 1/16th of an inch!

Most of the inner pieces stayed on the mat when I gently lifted the top layer of the cut.  Sometimes I save the negative space pieces to make a second image but I decided this would be too fiddly to try to adhere to another card.

I tried several color combinations, adding in some orange and yellow but I decided it would be best to use just shades of green.  I found two glittery sheets of Core'dinations Core Couture - one light and one dark green - to coordinate with the two solid shades I started with.

Once I had all of the layers cut, I did a "dry fit" to stack them up and create the design.  This design is not totally symmetrical and I wanted to be sure I had it lined up correctly.

I flipped the pieces over and made a light pencil mark on the back of the same point on each layer.  This gave me a quick reference when I was adhering the pieces together.

I used the Letra-Tac adhesive sheet for the delicate top layer.  These tiny dots are great for holding the thin layers together.  (Click to see my first post about this adhesive with more details).

Here is the adhesive side of the second layer after I burnished it on the Letra Tac sheet.  The adhesive holds the cut very well but you can peel it up and realign the layers if you get a bit off.

Each of the layers fills in a section of the design - the first two alternate with three triangles each and the last is for the connecting "ribbon" that weaves through all of the sections.

The second layer adds the darker green glitter cardstock.

Finally, the shadow background fills in the "ribbon" and adds an outer border.

For a little more sparkle, I added a light green Vintage Gem from Creative Charms in the center.  (These are included in the Inventory Clearance right now).

I looked around a bit more and added some gem stickers in three shades of green at opposite points.

I used lots of foam circles to lift the heavy layered medallion off the front of the card.  The card base is Papertrey Ink cardstock in "New Leaf" from the Perfect Match series.

 

I didn't want the medallion to just sit alone on the card front so I added a punched ribbon that I made with my Martha Stewart Infinite Loops punch.

I do not recommend using this punch with the glitter cardstock - I had a very hard time getting the punch to release and had to use a tool after each punch to pop it back into starting position (fortunately it only took three punches to get the border piece long enough for the card).

I cut the strip a bit longer and then trimmed to bottom to match the card.  At the top, I wrapped it over just a bit to avoid the "not quite long enough" look that you sometimes get when you try to cut the border flush to the fold.

I punched a four leaf clover from some of the dark green cardstock and added it to the back to finish the raw edge.

The width of the loops is about the same as the width of the lines in the medallion so I thought they went together nicely.

You could stamp a sentiment on the lower right corner...

...or add a couple more shamrocks.

You could also make this a vertical card.  Once you have the medallion made, there are lots of possibilities for using it.  I think it would also look pretty on a scrapbook page.

If you have questions about how I used the sample image to create this final design, let me know.  I'll add it to the list of videos I need to make!

Have a great weekend - we expect some nice weather from Sunday into the middle of next week (in the 70's!).

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