Another Simply Sweet Simple Card

I have been looking at the piles of paper all over my craft space - I am truly addicted to paper! I tend to buy paper stacks and add them to my "collection" instead of using them, so I am making an effort to do something with the accumulation. After all, how can I justify buying more if I don't use up some of the paper on the shelves!

If you choose the design carefully, and "fussy cut" to get the exact area of the design that will suit your project, you can add a Cricut cut or two and have a quick and simple card (of course, you can go on and add lots of embellishments and detailing, but sometimes quick and simple is the goal). I like to let the paper do the work!



Earlier this month, I posted this card to highlight the "Love" cut on the new Simply Sweet cartridge.



I used the lower right corner of this piece of paper on the card.



The paper is from this K & Co. Stack which came out for Valentine's Day earlier this year.



So....I had a piece of paper with a bit cut from it on my table. I took a look at it and I decided I liked the design in the top right corner, the little butterfly was cute and sparkly and the flourish lines in the background were spaced just right for another A2 card. I measured to be sure I could cut a card layer at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and I was careful to have the little square with the heart line up exactly at the bottom right corner.



All I needed to do was to cut the "just Because" words from the Simply Sweet cartridge. I used purple cardstock to coordinate with the paper. Believe it or not (!) I didn't even use my computer and Design Studio. I used the "fit to length" feature on the Expression to cut the longer word "Because" at 3 1/4 inches to fit the card. The Cricut calculated the height at 2 inches. Then I cut the "just" at 2 inches as well.

I resisted the temptation to add stickles or gems - the glittery bits on the paper are just enough. The paper and the Simply Sweet font work very well together for a whimsical card to send to a friend - just because!


Jen and I are teaching a couple of classes tomorrow (Wednesday) and we do have room for a few more students in in the Getting Started Class at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time - check the LMSYHTDT blog for the class description and to register if you are interested.

Just Because - Simply Sweet

Sometimes you want to send someone a card - "just because" - well, you can make a quick card that says just that with the Simply Sweet cartridge. This is an extremely simple design - the charm is in the rather unusual background paper and the whimsical font.



I cut the words using the "Blocked" Creative Feature - this cuts the word in stencil fashion into an irregular rectangle. I used pink paper for this layer and then I used blue paper to cut the same "words" again using the "Blockout" Creative Feature. This actually cuts a matching irregular rectangle with the word blocked out. The card is 5 x 7 inches and the words are cut at 2 3/4 inches high.



If you layer the two cuts exactly, your card would look like this. I thought it was a bit dull this way so I offset both words to allow more of the "Blockout" rectangle to show.



Here is the card standing up - super simple. The more sophisticated background paper helps keep it from looking "too sweet." When I was writing up this post I suddenly noticed that I had not removed the dot on the "i" - I thought it was an upper case "J" until I looked closely and realized the dot was cut but sitting in the paper.



So I took it out and took another photo. I left the "wrong" photo to show you that, once we can use this cartridge in Design Studio, you could "hide" the dot and have both words start with an uppercase letter.

(I know that it is Thursday and you may have been expecting to see another FCTSC Digital Challenge but there were no participants last week. I think it is a busy time for people with graduations and school finishing for the summer so I decided to skip a week. I will post a new challenge next Thursday).

Valentine's Day in June

Ok - so I have my seasons mixed up - yesterday Christmas, today Valentine's Day! I wanted to use this little "love" cut from the Simply Sweet cartridge, so I made a Valentine's card. The whimsical font replaces the "O" with a heart in this sweet little "love" word art.



I chose this paper from last February's K & Co. Valentine paper and carefully cut a piece 5 inches x 3 3/4 inches from the lower right corner for the background.



I wanted to use a second layer of dark red behind the patterned paper . It always bothers me that when you layer there is a lot of extra paper used, so I decided to cut the "Love" for the top of the card from the lower layer of the card front.



I had some paper from some of the Stand and Salute cuts I have been making, so I tested the exact placement of the cut on one of the scraps. When the new cartridges are added to the Design Studio program, I will be able to precisely place my cuts in the layering piece so they won't show. When I looked at the test cut above I realized that it might be a bit too close to the edge. I placed my paper a bit further out in both directions so the reveal would not have any cuts.



Here you can see the word cut into the layer - not too close to the edge!



I applied adhesive to the top layer and centered it on the dark red layer - here is a view from the back.



Then I attached both layers to my purple card and placed the "Love" cut carefully to allow the printed and glittered flowers to show.

So - I saved a bit of paper and had an exact match between my bottom layer and the "Love" word art. Simple and Sweet - a quick little card!

Simply Sweet (more enabling!)

As I promised yesterday, here are some images and information about the second new cartridge I am reviewing, "Simply Sweet." This is a full font cartridge and the letters and the images are cute and childlike - in fact, very sweet!



I did not photograph every single page this time - above you can see the upper and lower case letters in this font. While it looks somewhat similar to some of the current fonts - it has a special sort of charm and the letters are a bit more "regular" than some of those on cartridges like "Making the Grade" (which was the cart it reminded me of on first glance).



I just photographed the first two letters so you can see the special features a bit better - this is full cart with six Creative Features - Shadow, Blackout, Heart, Stitched, Blocked and Tab. The handbook is printed in pastels (a bit hard on the eyes) so I did my best to darken the image to help you see it better - there is a bit of "show-through" from the other side of the page.




As you can see above and below, there are three foundation keys for the creative features - these can be used alone or as layers when you use the creative features. (Foundation shapes are the solid versions of the creative feature images).



I did photograph the pages for the bottom row of keys with the extra images and phrases. There is a stitched circle and a variation with the center cut out - this will be adorable for ribbon threading on a layout or a card. The flower and the heart are cute and whimsical - I particularly like the flower and the heart in the heart shape!



The word art for "Love and Birthday" is charming.



The butterfly and diaper pin will also be great on cards or layouts - I can imagine a baby photo in the top of the diaper pin for a birth announcement.



One of my favorites in the "get well soon" and the pill bottle - it would certainly bring a smile to someone who is under the weather.



The Christmas tree for the "A" in Merry Christmas is also fun - just add some Stickles or a few gems and it will look great!



"To" and "From" - it is always good to have these for tags and gifts or even envelopes and the "just because" can be used for all sorts of things - just because it is so cute!

I think we will get a lot of use from the "blocked" feature - it is similar to the options in Printing Press but this font has a much more youthful look. The Tab option will also be great to use for making a type of word book if you don't have Design Studio (once again - if you don't have it, we need to talk - I consider the software an essential cricutting tool!).

So there you have it - if you are not "into" cute - this may not be for you, but I am sure that you will see lots of great project examples from my fellow previewers and that we will be able to tempt you into adding this one to your wish list as well!

I am sorry it took me a bit longer than expected to get these posted. I was at the dentist most of the morning (a new crown - ouch!) and I also learned my lesson and decided I needed to add watermarks to my photos since it seems they were copied without my permission yesterday.