Love Card - For Valentine's Day or anytime

I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day.  I meant to post this earlier in the day but I got busy with some projects and didn't sit down to write it up until evening.  I am close to figuring out a way to make a cut that has been very tricky to figure out...more about that later.

 

This is a special Valentine but could be used for other occasions too.  I used mirror cardstock for the heart which is very difficult to photograph effectively.

Here are the pieces of the card.  It is a simple design made more elegant with the glitter and mirror cardstock.  The A2 card base is Papertrey Ink dark chocolate - I like pink and brown together.  The heart paper is from K & Company - Kelly Panacci Valentine - cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches.  The red mirror cardstock is DCWV from the Citrus Cardstock Stack and the white glitter cardstock is also DCWV.

 

I designed the card with Design Studio.  The card base and the pink layer are just guides to help me see how to size the heart and floral decorations.  I do not cut these from the file.  I used the heart from George but altered the shape slightly to fit the floral pieces.

Here is the floral spray I used - they look a bit like lily of the valley.  The size was about 2 1/2 inches - I adjusted it with the "handles" in Design Studio to 2.561 inches.

The "Love" sentiment is from Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art.  I really like the word art on all of the Martha Stewart cartridges - it is great for card makers as well as cake bakers!

At the 1 1/4 inch height the word is far too wide to fit in the heart, so I used the "handles" to adjust the size to 1.959 inches to fit nicely.

 Once I had my elements sized appropriately, I moved them to one mat to set up the cutting.  I label the tabs with the color and size of cardstock needed for each cut.  In this case, I put them on separate mats so I could change the blade and pressure settings since I planned to use vinyl for the heart.  I made one screen shot to post to show the placement.

I originally planned to use some of the red glitter vinyl for the card but I decided it was too flashy and did not have the elegant look I wanted.  I'll be able to use the heart I cut on another project.

When I cut the DCWV glitter cardstock I use blade depth 6, high pressure and multi cut 2 times.  Sometimes one cut will work but I prefer to do the second cut to get clean edges.  Occasionally, I need to do a third cut.  I cut the mirror cardstock with blade 5, high pressure and speed - there is no need to multicut.

I added all of the glitter elements to the red heart.  You need to be careful with your adhesive as it is difficult to remove marks from the mirror cardstock.  If you get extra adhesive showing you can try using a gum eraser to pick it up and polish the cardstock with a photo polishing cloth.

I added foam circles to give a little more dimension to the card.

Just that slight elevation adds a lot to the card and it is still easy to mail.

 I think the slight gap between the heart and the white stem that allows the pink cardstock to show through is interesting.

The mirror finish on the cardstock is so pretty - I tried another photo with different lighting to try to show you the effect.

I broke my usual rule of using only one or two cartridges - sometimes you find just the right thing in a lot of different places.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day - we had a quiet evening at home with a special home cooked dinner.  We'll be eating lots of restaurant meals on the cruise so we weren't very motivated to go out tonight!

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How to make the "Stained Glass" card

Several of you thought I had used one of the Creative Memories cartridges to make this design - but I have a surprise for you - it was the new Cricut Lite cartridge "Twinkle Toes" that I just bought from Walmart online over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The main image used for the design is this tiara I have highlighted on the keypad.  The size of 2 1/2 inches worked out perfectly for an A2 card.  If you don't have this cartridge I am sure there are other tiaras or similar shapes that could work nicely - just take a look through your cartridges.   (Remember, you can click on any of these images to enlarge them so you can see the details more clearly).

Here is the tiara exactly as it appears on the cartridge.

I used "hide selected contour" to eliminate the outer line of the cut and create the inset pattern.

I also hide these two lines at the top of the tiara.  By doing this, I eliminated the problem of having the one hidden line reappear when the file is closed and reopened in Design Studio.  I could have used another workaround for this problem, but the latest version of Design Studio makes it more difficult to layer designs precisely and then move them apart.

I wanted to have a full shape cutout at the top of the tiara so I used the layer shown on the keypad above.  I kept the size at 2 1/2 inches to make the layer match the original tiara.

I placed the layered element in position to create a larger cutout in the area where I had hidden the two lines from the original design.

I added a second tiara and made the same changes to it, rotated it 180 degrees and aligned it with the first tiara and added the extra element to create the cutout at the base.  If you copy and paste the element instead of adding a new one to the mat, you will need to close and reopen the file to make it possible to hide the lines in the copied image (the option to hide contour will be grayed out until you do this).

I needed a shape to cut the card base.  I always challenge myself to use a few cartridges as possible to create a design and I found this shape with rounded corners on the Twinkle Toes cartridge.  This worked perfectly for my card - I liked the effect of rounding the corners.  I adjusted the size to 8 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches tall in the Shape Properties box.

Here is the preview of the card.  I checked weld on the card base just to make it easier to see the detail of the design cutout.  By checking weld I eliminated color from the preview of the card and only the dark cutting line shows.

In order to create a liner, I used the same shape that I used for the card but changed the size to 8.3 wide x 5.3 inches tall in the Shape Properties box.  I needed to create a blackout shape of the tiara image since there is not one on the Lite cartridge.  I did this by hiding all of the interior lines in the design.  I aligned the two images for the liner cutout to match the placement of the filigree image on my card front.  I did make a few minor adjustments using the handles to get a perfect fit.

By previewing both mats at once I could make sure that everything was lined up properly before I cut the file.  I was confident enough in the preview that I cut my "good" cardstock for the first cut (sometimes I use "ugly" paper if I want to tweak the design a little or need to do a few prototypes to get a design to work).

There are lots of photographs of the card assembly in yesterday's post HERE but I thought I'd show you the liner again in this post so you could see how it works a little better.

The tissue paper is sandwiched between the card and the liner and the opening in the liner allows the light to shine through the card front.  The liner is adhered only to the front of the card to make it easier to open and shut the card (and to give a little extra space to add an additional message).

Please leave a comment or send me a note if you have any questions about the way I designed this card.  You can apply the same basic concept to many images and have a lot of fun experimenting with the various effects.

If you want me to post the file for this card, please leave a comment.  I think I have explained it clearly enough for you to try your own, however, I know how busy everyone is this time of year and if you want to try this card my file could save you some time.  I want to convert and test it as a Gypsy file before I share a download link and I hope to do that later today.


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Creative Charms and Creative Memories together for A Time to Celebrate Card

When you combine two of my favorite companies you can be even more "creative" - so this card is "creative squared"!  I made a square card to showcase the Reminisce Accents Cricut cartridge from Creative Memories and the Vintage Velvet Poppies and Vintage Jewel Brads from Creative Charms.

The two Creative Memories cartridges have quickly become part of my group of "go to" cartridges.  The artwork is very versatile and they cover a wide variety of occasions and styles.Today's card features Reminisce Accents with two of the layers and the words slightly altered in Design Studio.

When I first got the cartridge (I ordered mine as soon as it was available) I was so excited to find this frame feature.  There are fifty multilayered and beautiful frames that would keep any crafter busy for weeks.  These will work for cards or scrapbook pages and are similar to the Lacy Labels cartridge.  However, Reminisce Accents has so much more than just the labels for a price that is just a little higher.

I wanted to use the beautiful velvet poppies and I saw this frame with flowers at the top and realized it would work perfectly.  I sized it to fit the flowers - the larger one is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter - and 4 1/2 inches turned out to be just right.  Since I knew I was going to add the flowers I hid the lines that cut the flower centers in the original design.

It is so helpful to be able to do color previews in Design Studio.  This feature has often helped me improve a design choice and saved me from wasting a lot of paper.  I set up a rectangle and some squares to represent the size of the final card.  (I cut these with a trimmer but I can figure out the sizes to cut in Design Studio).  The image above is the preview with all of the cuts in their original format.

I knew the sentiment would be in black and when I did the preview I realized that the shadow layer is designed to show through the center of the medallion (since it is a frame) so I needed to hide the interior cutting line on the middle layer to prevent this. There is only one line to hid and there are only two lines in the image so you will have to "re-hide" the line each time you use the Design Studio file.  On the Gypsy the line will stay hidden.

I hid the lines that I needed to hide and previewed again - this is an approximation of how my card will look. I would love to be able to preview with the actual paper choices I will be using.  I suggested this possibility as a goal quite a while ago and I am wondering if eventually the Imagine will have this capability.

There is a nice script font on Reminisce Accents and there are some words and phrases in the "extra" spots on the keypad.  I chose "A Time to Celebrate" thinking that my card could be an invitation to a special party - possibly a golden anniversary.

 

The space available was about 1 1/2 inches high so I set that value on the slider bar.  The words are much too wide to fit the card but with Design Studio the fix is quick and easy.  I used the handle on the right center to adjust the width to a bit less than 2 1/2 inches (the original was about 4 1/4 inches).  Just click the handle and slide it to the left to make the entire image thinner.

 With a sentiment this tiny I have found that it is best to cut it in vinyl.  I have had excellent result with the smallest details in vinyl and the adhesive is already on the cut which eliminates a possible mess with adhesive showing around the cut.

 The cut is delicate and it helps to use a tool to place it on the card to avoid stretching or tearing the letters.

 I was even able to get the tiny dot for the "i" to cut and adhere - I don't think I could do that with paper !  (When cutting vinyl i use blade depth 4 medium pressure and medium speed to "kiss cut" - cutting through the vinyl but leaving the backing paper intact which makes it easier to lift the cut.)

 I used some beautiful papers for this card.  The medallion center is Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock and the frame is from the Making Memories Autumn Splendor collection.

There are two colors of this textured metallic paper and I used the gold on the first mat layer and the leaf paper also from that collection for the top mat.  The black card base is Papertrey Ink cardstock cut at 11 x 5 1/2 inches and scored for a clean fold.

 The Vintage Velvet Poppies come with a pearl brad in the center.  This is lovely but for this card I decided to change it out and use a Vintage Jewel Brad to compliment the paper colors.  I can always use the pearl brad for another project.  These were both part of the October Kit of the Month - Vintage Halloween from Creative Charms.

 Here is a closer view of the poppies on the card.  I used different gem colors for the large and small poppies.

This card has a lot of pieces but it is easy to put together.  The mat layers are cut at 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (gold layer) and 5 x 5 inches (leaf layer).

I used glue dots to adhere the poppies.  It is easiest to put the on the paper and place the poppies on top - adding glue dots to the velvet can get messy!

 I used foam squares to lift the entire medallion for a little bit more dimension.

 Here is the "almost finished" card.  You can see the lovely foil effects on some of the leaves in this photo.  It just needed a little something more to frame the card.

 

I added a large gradient gem sticker  to each corner for the finishing touch.

My friends Joy and Melanie are featuring the Creative Memories cartridges this week on their blogs and invited me to join in a mini blog hop this week.  Be sure to check out their blogs each day this week to see more projects and information about these cartridges.  You can find them here

Joy - Obsessed with Scrapbooking

Melanie - Courtney Lane Designs

Joy and Melanie also run the Everyday Cricut blog where you can always find inspiration and giveaways from Provocraft and other sponsors.  All of these blogs should be on your "must read" list!

If you would like to see some of my projects with these cartridges that I have posted already here are two more links for you  - Reminisce Accents and Cheerful Seasons. 


If you are interested in purchasing these cartridges you need to purchase through a Creative Memories consultant.  I am a consultant  and I would be happy to help you if you don't have a consultant already.  You can order the cartridges through my Creative Memories personal website day or night from anywhere in the country.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Here are the links

Reminisce Accents

Cheerful Seasons

These cartridges have coordinating papers that are also exclusive to Creative Memories.  You can find these in the various categories under Scrapbooking Paper on my site.

There are also digital versions of most of the papers which can be found HERE.
 
I have a goal to sell at least 40 cartridges this month so I can be included in a contest to win a spot on the Cricut Cruise.  I'd love to go along with some of my lucky friends who have already been invited so I appreciate your purchases to help in getting me one step closer.  Thanks!

(For those of you who asked - the MRI was fine.  Fortunately I am not claustrophobic since it was not an open one.  I don't have any results yet and I do appreciate all of your good wishes and prayers.)


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