Note card with Pierced Hearts

Yesterday was quite a day - I had tons of thing to finish up for various design teams, swaps, Design Studio classes and my blog and had set myself a list of things I to do by the end of the day. However, the plans just did not work out - when I turned on my laptop it would light up and then "try" to get started, then turn itself off, try starting again, turn off, on, off in a never ending cycle - and the screen stayed black! My goose was cooked. I had been thinking that I would need to replace my laptop relatively soon - but not this week....

After a lot of phone calls, I found out that I would need to send the laptop in for repairs (to Texas) and that it could take three weeks or more to get it back. Well - that just wouldn't work - I am already behind on some things for other reasons and I need to do a lot before we go away next week. So, my upgrade to a new laptop came sooner than planned. Thanks to my wonderfully helpful brother-in-law, I was able to get the hard drive pulled from my non-functioning laptop and I am in the process of transferring over 100 GB of data (mostly photos and digital scrapbook pages) and reinstalling programs - What a mess!

On the bright side - I didn't have a crash that destroyed my data and with patience, I will get it all set up and functioning again. I am learning Vista (even though there will be a change to Windows 7 this fall) and I finally installed the upgrades to my Creative Memories Memory Manager and Storybook Creator software programs. They should be able to get the old laptop working again under the warranty so in the end I will have a back up in the event of a future technology problem. The new laptop is also pretty!

So, I am working on very little sleep - we also had two classes today. I did have a chance to get my Design Studio installed and created a new file, using what is quickly becoming my favorite feature - "hide selected contour."



Here you can see the keypad with the tag I used to create this design highlighted.



This view shows the image in a size you can see (I wish we could zoom in on the keypad view on some of the cartridges!)



I welded several tags together and resized them as a unit. I created a rectangle in the proper size for an A2 card and adjusted the tags to fit neatly. Then I hid the inner and outer lines of the tag as well as the circle for the hole.



Here is how the card looked in preview.



I did my first test cut on double sided lightweight cardstock.



The opposite side is green and could be used for writing a message.



You would want to be sure to keep the writing in the area that won't show through the openings.



For my second test, I chose this glitter cardstock from the DCWV Sweet Stack.



I wanted the scallop edge of one stripe in the design to end up on the edge of the card.



I used the first cut as a guide - you can see here that if I put the paper on the mat in the usual placement, the scallops would be cut off.



By offsetting the placement just a bit (about 1/8 inch), I was able to make the darker pink scallops line up on the edge of the card. I used the first paper as a guide to set up the cut location.



The card cut ended up in the precise location on the paper that I had chosen for my design.



Here is the card cut right after I took it off the mat. It cut very easily but since I used glitter cardstock I did use multi-cut set on "2."



After scoring and folding, the card looks like this - you could add some vellum or lightweight paper as a liner if you needed a lot of room for your sentiment or message.



In this close view you can see the alignment of the scallops.



There are lots of variation possible with this design - the paper or cardstock choice will make a big difference in the style of the final card. I think a monogram for a newlywed couple would be a nice addition to the top.



I'd love to see some finished cards made by other people using this file. If you make one, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog or a message board posting so I can see how you expand on my idea for this card - Thanks!

Pierced Heart Note Card

Heart Mesh (I'm Back from San Francisco)

I've been away visiting our oldest son in San Francisco so I apologize for the long gap in posts. I had limited internet access and was busy enjoying the sites and the food - what a great city! Now it is time to catch up and post a lot of things that have been waiting for me to have time to post!

I participated in a mesh swap on the Cricut Message Board this month. Here is one of the files I contributed. It was shared with the other swap participants by email and I am posting it now so people who weren't involved in the swap can use it. The only cartridge needed is the Wedding Solutions cartridge.

Heart Mesh

Wedding Hearts (Larger) - by request

I had a request from a blog reader to alter the four wedding hearts design I posted in June (here is a LINK to that post) to better fit a slightly larger card (5 1/2 x 8 1/2). She wants to use it for a special wedding card. Even with the new update to the Design Studio Software I can't make this an "adjustable" design because the elements I used to create it must be rotated (at this time, it is not possible to change the rotation of an element within a selection box).

So I enlarged two of the hearts and fit the four together again for a new card front. There are gaps between the hearts and I used some other shapes from the Wedding cart to fill them in so you only need the one cartridge to cut this design.

Here is the card - with no embellishments added. I cut the design from metallic silver cardstock.



If you take care in the placement of the paper for the cut and you also are very careful as you remove it from the mat and save the off cuts you can create a second card like this one - the design can be used vertically or horizontally



If you don't add back the center pieces from the cut you can have a card with a small opening as shown below (sorry for the odd difference in color in the photo)



You could add some writing, a stamp or an embellishment in this space - here is a photo with a chipboard accent added (many thanks to another online friend for sending me a bundle of goodies including a set of these yesterday). Keep this card simple or add more sparkle and embellishments - so many possibilities!




I hope you enjoy making cards using this design - I'd love to see some of them when you are finished! You can always contact me at capadiadesigns@gmail.com.

Four Beautiful Hearts Large card size

edited 8-28-08

Eight Beautiful Hearts

Yet another variation made from the beautiful heart on the Wedding cartridge. Here I simply added four more hearts in the corners.

I always like to see what patterns the offcuts produce- these are rather pretty (I might put photos in each corner and possibly trim the extra bit left in the outer hearts. I will post a photo if I do a layout with this offcut - just wanted to get these up to share first.

Here are the offcuts in in different color combinations





These are the bits that will be left on the mat - I might try to save these for another project - but perhaps that is too frugal!



Finally, here is another photo showing a lower contrast between the design and the background. Color choices make all the difference!



Eight Beautiful Hearts

More Beautiful Hearts - sized for a card!

I have been busy with lots of personal projects lately, but I finally have a chance to post some of the variations of the Four Wedding Hearts design that I posted last Friday.

Here is the first - it is the same design but made smaller so it will fit on a 5 x 7 card. I did my first test cut on Die Cuts with a View (DCWV) white core paper - because I had a lot of it on hand from a great sale at Tuesday Morning.

Here is how that cut looked on the mat - the white core gets a bit exposed in this delicate cut



When the outer area is removed this is how it looks on the mat - I left it here so you could see the size by the grid on the mat.



I discovered that it is very easy to damage these cuts when using this paper - it tends to separate as you can see where the white spots are showing here



To glue these delicate items down I use my Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive pen. The glue dots on and is white - just let it sit until it is clear and then it will adhere perfectly with no oozing.



Here is the purple cut on two different colors of card - yellow and pink



I cut off the damaged area and I think the remaining piece looks like a butterfly - I should try making a bit of a body for it!



I cut this design again on solid cardstock and I prefer these results - no separation or white core showing!



There was a tiny spot in the center due to a small gap in welding (I fixed this for the posted file) so I added a little blingy heart to the center.



I hope you can use this for wedding or romantic cards. I'd love to see some finished results!

Four Beautiful Hearts - card size

Four Beautiful Hearts

Apologies for the long gap between posts - I had been a bit under the weather and then I was away on a trip to the Midwest but everything is getting back to normal now and I have lots of new things to test cut and post for my readers!

Here is a very simple and elegant design made by rotating and welding four hearts from the Wedding Solutions Cartridge. I have several variations of this that I will be posting soon but I thought I'd get this up now so you could try it if you want to.

If you save the offcut edges and stick them to a 12 x 12 paper you will have this result which is also very pretty (and uses the "waste" paper efficiently).



Four Wedding Hearts