Fancy (but simple) cards for Friday

Today is Friday - my last day as Guest Designer for the Everyday Cricut  blog.  It has been a busy week with so many projects going on (and a few more "secret" ones that you'll find out about soon!).  Be sure to visit Everyday Cricut and leave comments on each post this week in order to have a chance to win some of the great giveaways Joy and Melanie are offering this week.  There are Cricut Cartridges (Serenade, Destinations & the Spring mini cartridge bundle - Love Struck, Easter & Mother's Day) and also Claire SEI paper pack and embellishments.  There is also a great prize package from The Original Scrapbox in a special multi-blog giveaway.

Fridays are for fancy cards on the Everyday Cricut blog.  I created these cards with Design Studio and all of the details are in my post on Everyday Cricut - here is a LINK to the post.  Despite my best efforts to convince every Cricut owner that they need Design Studio, I know that some of you do not use the software.  So I made some alternative "Simple Fancy Cards" to share.

These are ultra simple cards to make - the "fancy" comes from the choice of cardstock and the jewels.  All three card toppers are on the Lyrical Letters cartridge - one of the hidden treasures on that cartridge which also has seven different fonts (add it to your list if you don't have it yet!).

The images on this key are proportioned to fit an A2 card perfectly.  If you cut them at 5 1/4 inches you will get a nice layer for a card with a thin border around the edges.

For the first card I used the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock for both the card base and the layer.  Here is the plain card - very pretty, just like this.

To ramp up the "fancy" factor, I simply added some gems.  It is difficult to see in the photo but there are five light purple and three dark purple gems.

Here is the location of the second card topper.  This is my favorite and it is one that I discovered shortly after I got the cartridge about a year ago.  Here is a LINK to my first post about the cartridge when I was "forced" to use it with the machine alone since it had not yet been added to Design Studio.

Here is the "plain" version of the card - not so "plain" since I cut the top in white glitter cardstock.

Adding blue gems (the complementary color to orange) makes the card really sparkle!

The third topper is located as shown in the screen shot.  It does have a bit more room for adding a stamped sentiment right on the card front.

I made this a horizontal card - here is the plain version.  This time I cut the layer in  DCWV "shimmer" cardstock.  This cardstock is pretty but it does have a white core and there are a couple of tiny cuts in the design which have a tendency to show the white.  I solved this by flipping the image.

This is the slightly embellished card.  I used gems and a vintage brad from Creative Charms for the accents.  Here is  a LINK to the page with the vintage brads. I removed the legs of the brad and adhered it with a foam square to fill in the empty backing.

These cards are so quick and simple to make but they still have the "wow" factor - thanks to the lovely cardstock.  These three cards were made with the large center sections of the 12 x 12 sheets of cardstock that were left over from the Easter Egg cards I posted on Monday.  I have to say that the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock is now a favorite and I hope it will be on sale again soon since I have used a fair bit of mine up this week - with very happy results.

If you were new to my blog this week - thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will stick around even when I am no longer the Guest Designer for Everyday Cricut.  I do not have sponsors for regular giveaways on this blog  but I occasionally do a blog celebration to mark a milestone.  I do love to get comments and I try my best to answer any questions readers send me.  I hope you find it worthwhile to visit and that I can help you be a bit more adventurous when you are crafting with the Cricut!   Have a great weekend!

(the link to download the "fancy" card I shared on the Everyday Cricut blog is here)

Filigree Oval Fancy Shaped Card

Some Thanksgiving Deals - direct from Cricut.com

 Well - the day was far busier than I thought it would be so there was no time to make a video.  I did get a lot of preparations finished for tomorrow - including five pies!

I want to make sure you know that there is a great deal on cartridges available directly from Provo Craft on the Cricut.com site.  I just ordered three cartridges (Designer's Calendar, When It's Cold Outside and Stamping Solutions) for a total of $75.98 with free shipping!  Full cartridges are $36 and solutions and mini cartridges are $19.99.  Most cartridges are available (but not the exclusive or bundled cartridges).  Pagoda, Dinosaur Tracks and Old West are some of the most recent cartridges listed that are available now.

Just go to the Products section of the Circut.com site (here is a LINK) and do some easy Black Friday shopping - starting right now (the offer is good from November 26 - December 1, 2009).  The Jukebox and Design Studio were both listed at $20 but are showing out of stock right now - with luck they may be replenished before the sale is over....

I hope you have a wonderful holiday and much to be thankful for.

The file for the Happy Thanksgiving with the detailed welded turkey is available to download

Turkey Happy Thanksgiving (with details)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Many of us will be very busy with Thanksgiving preparations tomorrow.  I had a long drive home today and I am too tired to make a lengthy post tonight.  The visit with my Dad was great and I am so thankful that our family was together to celebrate his birthday - as he told me when I left, he is now in his 86th year!

The Thanksgiving image above was made by welding the turkey from My Community to the "Happy Thanksgiving" phrase from Wild Card. If you look closely you will see that the "webbing" or detail lines are cut on the turkey.  Normally these lines disappear when items are welded but you can get them to cut by using "hide selected contour."  I have explained this before on my blog (here is a LINK to an old post and a LINK to the follow up post).

In between baking and last minute food shopping tomorrow, I will try to get a video showing this method of preserving the details in welded cuts posted.  Many people have told me that they find these videos very helpful and easier to understand than a long words and pictures post.

Good Luck with all of your last minute preparations (and with planning your purchases for the Thanksgiving sales!)

Thanksgiving Card with Design Studio

Last weekend I shared a quick and easy way to make Thanksgiving cards using sections of patterned paper from a Debbie Mumm stack - here is a LINK to that post.

Today, on Cutting Above, you can see a card I created using Design Studio. This one is much more complicated but, if you like it, you are in luck!  I have done all of the design work for you and you can download the file from my post on Cutting Above - here is a direct LINK to the post.

You will need Stretch Your Imagination and Wild Card to cut the file but you can alter the file and substitute another font cartridge for the sentiment if you don't have Wild Card.

Be sure to check Cutting Above tomorrow too.  My fellow Design Team member, Happy Happy Joy Joy (one of the fabulous Christmas with the Cricut team), will have a Thanksgiving card to share.

Today I am busy getting some swaps finished up and out the door - I may be back later today but maybe not...  Tomorrow I will post the booklet for Pagoda - the third cartridge I was able to get at Michael's this week.  I have already used it for one of my swaps and this is a definite keeper - check back tomorrow to see why I think so!

Happy Father's Day!

I hope you all had lovely day for Father's Day. It was rainy and chilly here, but we still had a nice time. Unfortunately, it was too wet to use the new croquet set!

We have been working on some reorganization in our house and today we moved some furniture around. I am adding some shelves to my studio (there are never enough shelves, are there?) Many people have asked to see photos of my space and I think it may soon be "ready for a closeup!" I just don't seem to be able to take the time between projects to finish the painting I started last summer (I did the easy part - what is left requires moving some large bookcases and other heavy furniture that is loaded with supplies, books and tools.



I made some very simple Father's Day cards - these two both use the Father's Day cut from the Wild Card cartridge. This cartridge has so many great sentiments in addition to all of the unusual cards. There is even a full upper and lower case font. I have had some fun recently experimenting with this cartridge in Design Studio. I have a few designs that I need to test cut but I think I will be able to post them later this week.

So just a quick post tonight - I have some email that needs answering and I am worn out from moving things around the house!

Happy Mother's Day!

By the time most of you will be reading this post, Mother's Day will be over. I hope you had a lovely day. Today I thought I'd show you a quick and easy way to make a card - it's all about the paper!



I chose a piece of 12 x 12 paper from this DCWV stack. There are often beautiful papers in these stacks that I know I will not end up using for a scrapbook page - so they become card ingredients!



Here is the full sheet of paper I chose. I wanted to use the glittery roses. I was making a large card - an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock folded in half - so I knew that the width would be five inches (allowing a 1/4 inch border all around). I cut the sheet of paper at a bit beyond five inches to be sure I wouldn't cut off the pale pink rosebud on the left of the cluster, then I trimmed the right side to be exactly five inches.



I used the same strategy for the top and bottom cuts, knowing that I needed to end up with an eight inch tall piece and adjusting the cut so the dark pink rosebud would be at the top of the paper. I also cut an 8 x 5 inch piece of the patterned area of the cardstock for the inside on the card. The photo above shows the remainder pieces after I made all the cuts.



I wanted to keep this card very simple and let the glittery paper do the work for me. I added the word "Mom" from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge cut in white glitter card stock.



Above is a close up view of the "Mom" on top of the largest rose (it is very pretty in real life but difficult to photograph effectively). When cutting glitter cardstock you need to use multi-cut of two or three to be sure that it will be cut cleanly.



For the inside of the card, I used the Martha Stewart cornice border punch to create a decorative edge. I worked from the center out on each side. The corners did not turn out with an attractive overlap - so I improvised and used some leafy fronds I had cut from the Storybook cartridge for another project - these covered the uneven corners very nicely.



The phrase "You're simply the best" is from the Wild Card Cartridge. I cut it from glitter cardstock and used Design Studio to adjust the shape to fit my card perfectly.



Even though I carefully saved the dot for the "i" and put adhesive on it - when I went to assemble the card it had disappeared. I ended up using my trick of dotting the "i" with a little gem (I am sure I'll find that dot stuck to something else soon!).

So there you have it - a quick and pretty card (and you even have a few bits of the original sheet of paper left over which you could use for another project or to decorate the envelope).


A note about the Design Studio classes - our first two classes are full - we are sorry if you weren't able to reserve a spot but we will be scheduling more classes and will post them soon. We will continue to have classes as long as there is interest and the dates and times will vary in the hopes that one of the sessions will work for everyone who wants to attend a class.

JenC and I are excited to welcome our first students to these introductory lessons and we will also schedule some classes on different topics based on the topics you are voting for in the poll on the "Let me Show you How to Do that" blog.

Swirly Egg Card

Easter is nearly here so I thought I'd share this egg shaped aperture card while there is still time to make and send a card.



I used a card from the Wild Card cartridge but I adapted it to make a standard A2 card with an aperture.



The screen shot above shows the card I used - it is a very pretty shaped card, but I wanted an Easter Egg look for my card instead of the long flat oval shape of the original card,



This is the cut straight from the mat after scoring and folding.



The card needs a liner if you want to add a message inside since the opening is so large. I chose this paper from a Debbie Mumm stack I bought last fall at Joann's. I couldn't see a name on the stack but here is a LINK to the website page showing the stack (and it is even on sale right now!).



I used my Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive on the back of the swirls and around the oval to adhere the card to the liner.



Once the adhesive has dried to clear (a few minutes), you can place the folded insert (cut at 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 and folded in half) inside the card and gently fold the top over the liner. I don't adhere the back of the liner to the card back - this gives a little extra room for writing a message if you are a talkative person!



Here you can see the liner adhered to the card with a light shining through to highlight the cut. I think this paper looks like a mosaic and adds to the Fabergé egg effect.



To get the full "jeweled" look I needed to add some bling - in the form of Stickles glitter glue. There are several types of white/clear/sparkle colors and they each have a slightly different look and color. The "Crystal" has a green/blue look and the "Diamond" is more of a gold tone. I chose "Star Dust" for the pinky purple color which coordinates with the card stock I used for the test cut.



Above is the card front after "stickling" but I thought it needed just a bit more decoration. I looked around my studio and found some "peel-offs" which were sent to me as a gift from a blog reader from Scotland (thanks again Agnes!).



Here is a close view of the peel-off corner - it has swirls that are very similar to the swirls in the card.



The card works either as a vertical or horizontal card - whichever you prefer.



I may add two more corners to this card - or I may save them for another card since I got a bit carried away and made this card using my test cut on plain cardstock and I think I'd like it better cut from a nice textured cardstock. You could stamp a small sentiment in a corner or add other embellishments to suit your taste.

You need only Wild Card to cut this card and it is set up to cut on the 6 x 12 mat so all three machines can cut it.

Swirly Egg Card