Inspirational Card

I received this card from a friend who bought it on a trip to England.  She was sure that I would love it and she was absolutely right!

The intricate design is printed in gold ink on the pale pink card and cut inside the shape of the rabbit (probably by a laser).  The card is from Roger la Borde First Press and there is a website listed rogerlaborde.com.  I looked at the site but couldn't find much information about this type of card.

 Here you can see how incredibly delicate the cuts are.  The outline of the rabbit is printed with black ink to add definition.

The eye is also printed with black.  The width of the black line along the edges varies when it overlaps the cut areas.  You could make it more consistent if you were adding it by hand.

This card has all sorts of ideas spinning in my mind.  I can't wait to try a Cricut version of a card using this concept.

My mind is also spinning from spending hours and hours today on the phone with various computer support people.  My not-so-very-old computer (new last September) has been giving me trouble and I can't access some of my programs.  It looks like I will need to do a complete recovery due to software issues, possibly caused by allowing a Windows update.  This will take many additional hours of reinstalling programs, transferring data and generally sorting things out.  I hope to have it done later this week and I will try to get some projects uploaded before I start the process.  Wish me luck - I have such a love/hate affair with technology at times - so fantastic when it is all working and so frustrating and time consuming when it develops problems!

Thanks for your patience...

I will be going home tomorrow - I want to say thanks for your patience while I have been away.  You may remember that I recently shared a photo of some cardstock and ribbons in some of my favorite colors.  I had hoped to write up one of the posts showing how I used these but my internet connection has been somewhat problematic and my time limited.

Here is a quick peek at a close up of the butterfly on this card.  When I get home I will fill you in on all the details along with the other part of the project.  I know that a lot of people are busy with Easter preparations and many school age children have Spring Break this week so I imagine that many of you don't have much time right now to check your online sources of inspiration and information.  I just want to be sure that those of you who do count on getting a morning email from me have something to look at!

I will have lots to share when I get home and I will soon be able to tell you about some of the exciting new projects I am working on!

Sparkly Butterfly Hello Card

I was out of sorts all day - trying to get paperwork done (not the creative type of paperwork!) and wondering if the stormy weather we are having in the Northeast will ever end.  We have had nearly a foot of rain in some areas!  There is a lot of flooding - fortunately we live up a hill and our lower level has stayed dry.  We do have a bit of a leak in the roof in our family room.

I wasn't on the computer most of the day and I haven't had a chance to finish up the comments/questions from last week.  I did take a quick break to make a card - I needed something bright and sparkly to cheer myself up!

I started with this butterfly on the Lyrical Letters cartridge.  As I mentioned last week - this cartridge is full of hidden treasures and is far more versatile than the average font cartridge.  I used Design Studio to determine the sizes I needed for my card.

The butterfly image is designed to be used as a layer on the "congratulations" word art so it is easier to set the mat up using the real dial size to avoid a lot of sizing guesswork.  Once you figure out the size you can cut the butterfly directly from the machine if you have only the trial version of Design Studio.

I also selected this frame and set the real dial size at 5 1/4 inches to fit an A2 card.

 
The cartridges does not have a blackout option for the shapes (this butterfly was meant to be layered on the word art which has a blackout version connected to the "congratulations").  You can create a blackout version in the proper size by using the "hide selected contour" on a second butterfly entered at real dial size 3 1/4 inches.  (Left click to select each dot - the line will turn red - then right click and choose "hide selected contour" from the bottom of the pop up menu).

I wanted to add a sentiment to the front and, since I was using glitter cardstock for the frame, I thought it would be best to cut my sentiment and not try to stamp it.  I needed to make the sentiment very tiny.  I used the preview to size the cut.

The smallest size you can enter from the keypad is one inch.  You can adjust the image to a smaller size by using the "handle" in the lower right corner.

This screen shot shows the difference between the two.  The final word is very tiny and I was a bit worried that it would not cut properly.

As you can see in this close view - it cut perfectly!  This was cut in the pink Core'dinations gemstone cardstock I used for my Easter projects last week.  I turned it over so the darker matte side would show.

I added some "Star Dust" Stickles to the dots of the butterfly and some small pink gems to the tips of the antennae.

The butterfly seemed to something more, so I added a heart shaped gem for the head and some more Stickles to make a body for the butterfly.  The butterfly is raised up with foam squares for more dimension.

Here is how the card would look totally unadorned with bling - still very pretty.  I use multi-cut 2 when I cut this heavy glitter cardstock from DCWV, pressure at maximum and blade at 6.

You could cut the frame, save it for another card and use the interior section behind the butterfly for a different look.

Patterned paper for the background creates yet another look (this is my oops! butterfly when I forgot to change the page of the file and cut the blackout version twice - it won't go to waste...).

I hope this card will bring a smile to the person who receives it.

Pretty Pink Butterfly

It is snowing again here.  I am really ready for Spring to come.

I woke up this morning with an unwelcome problem.  I can't stand up without getting very dizzy - so I have been resting in hopes that this will stop the problem.  I haven't been out of my room all day so I had my husband bring my laptop so I could  post a little something (fortunately it is Saturday and he has been here to take care of me).

I made this card a long time ago but I don't think I ever posted it.  With luck, tomorrow will be a better day and I will share the details.  I wonder if you can guess which cartridge I used?

I hope you all are having a nice weekend and not too much snow!

Vintage Valentine

I made this card recently and I was very happy with the way it turned out.  The image is one that I was taken by the minute I saw it.  I have always liked topiaries and the little hearts are just charming!  I did some editing and resizing to make it work for my card.  The image is from Twisted Papers - here is a LINK to the page.

I was planning to post the details and file for the card.  However, my computer has stopped communicating with my Cricut and I have been trying to resolve this problem.  I think there must be an issue with my USB ports but I have no idea what caused it and so far I have not been able to fix it.  One minute everything was working and the next it wasn't.  I can't use my wireless mouse either which makes me feel clumsy and frustrated so I won't be able to do a full post for today.

So enjoy the pretty picture and send some "good vibes" my way.  I have so many things to do this weekend and I need to use my Cricut with Design Studio for them.  My fingers are crossed that tomorrow will be better.

Martha's Pansies

I bought a magazine called "Stamper's Sampler Take Ten" at Borders a couple of weeks ago.  It was a surprise that it cost $14.99 (magazines cost more than books sometimes!) but I have really enjoyed looking at all of the cards and ideas.  Here is a LINK to the web page for the magazine (along with a lot of other interesting publications by the same company).

There were quite a few cards based on a challenge which involved a basic A2 card (5.5 x 4.25 inches) with a strip removed from the front and the corners rounded.  I liked this style of card so I decided to give it a try.

Another recent purchase was this new Martha Stewart Pansy punch around the page set.  I have always loved pansies and I fell in love with this design - I am sure you will see it in many future projects!

When I made the card base I ended up with a one inch strip just sitting on my table - so I had to try the punch on it!  Here you can see the design I made by punching the strip from both sides evenly.

Then I started to experiment with different widths of paper strips.  The example at the top is a one inch strip and the one on the bottom is a one and a quarter inch strip.

I tried the punch on some DCWV glitter cardstock and it worked well.  I trimmed the ends straight and then decided that it would be a better idea to try to curve the cuts to make the flower petals.

Here you can see another dark purple strip where I did not make the straight cut and trimmed around the petal ends for a more pleasing cut.

Here are all of the pieces for this card.  The dark purple strip is 1.25 x 4.25 inches.  The pink cardstock is cut at 3 x 4 inches with two corners rounded to match the card base and embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.  The pink glitter cardstock pansies are evenly centered and punched on both sides of a 1.25 inch strip and then trimmed.  The dark purple pansies are punched from a one inch strip of cardstock and trimmed.  The "love you" and the interlocked hearts are from the Cuttlebug Embossing and Die Set "Love Language."

 Here is the card with the base layers applied.  There are so many possibilities with this basic card form.

Here is a view of the assembled card flat on the table...

...and one more view of the card standing.

I got home after a long drive Tuesday so I can finally get caught up with a lot of pending projects and emails.  It will be nice to stay put for a while!

Heart Medallion Card

I spent much of my day assembling multiples of several items - most are swaps that you will see here soon and a few are surprises that you "might" see somewhere else.  I did take the time to cut out the card design I showed you yesterday and I used the papers that I had tried out "virtually" for everything but the small heart in the center which is pink glitter cardstock.

I set up an additional page in the file and copied and pasted the items I needed for the card front, segregating them by paper choice.

Here you can see the actual pieces of paper on the mat.  I used the 12 x 12 mat (I usually cut with the Expression at home and travel with the baby bug).  I did make sure that the file would work for either machine - the "cuttable" area is slightly different on the 6 x 12 mat and the 12 x 12 mat.

After I did the sample with the Creative Memories papers, I set up the cutting page make full use of two 4 x 6  pieces of paper in pink and red.  I added extra hearts - we can all use extra hearts!  When you cut these be sure to first hide the center of the top layer or your tiny heart will not be large enough to cover the center cutout.  I did put a note on the tab of the file to remind you to do this.

I put together the layers and then used foam squares to pop up the large heart medallion.  When you remove the heart medallions from the mat be sure to mark the top of each piece so you can get them to line up properly when you stick them together.  They appear symmetrical but there is a slight variation which will make the layers uneven if you don't layer them in their original positions.

Here is one more view of the card.  I used plain white cardstock and cut a piece of the background paper to 4.25 x 5.5 inches and adhered it to the top of the card.

The file has all of the extra pages I set up for the previews.  You actually need to cut from one page only for the card elements.  If you want to cut the card base instead of using a standard half sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock, you can cut the template page from your choice of cardstock.

Heart Medallion Card

Planning a card in Design Studio

One of my favorite ways to use Design Studio is as a "planner" to create cards and page layouts virtually before I cut (and potentially waste) my paper.  I was thinking about an idea for a Valentine's Day card tonight and here is my current "take" on the card.  Of course, there will most likely be some "bling" added to the final product!

Sometimes new users of Design Studio are confused about how to use the preview function to show a design as they have imagined it.  I thought I'd make sure you know a few things that may or may not be "old news" but are good reminders on a helpful way to use the program.

 

First, in order for a color to show in preview, the item can not be welded.  This does not mean that you can't weld the items together for your actual cut, but if you want to preview the design in color you will need to "uncheck" the weld box for each item.  In order to make things simpler, I often include two mat pages in the file - one marked CUT for the actual welded pieces and one marked PREVIEW ONLY to use for the color options.  In this particular file, I used a prewelded word so I didn't need to create an extra mat.

Next, you need to think about the layers from the top down which is the way the program will build the preview. In other words, the items on the first mat should be those that will be the top layer of the card.  Depending on the way you plan to layer the items, you may need to make multiple mats that will preview in the same color.

If you click on this image to enlarge it you can see that I have seven mats in the file.  The first mat is for the tiny heart in the center of the heart medallion and is set to preview in red.  The next mat is for the top layer of the medallion and is set to preview in dark pink.

The third mat is the shadow layer of the medallion and the top layer of the word love and is set to preview in red.  I could also have included the "love" on the first page of the file which also previews in red since there is nothing else in that area of the mat.

The fourth mat has the shadow layer of the "love" and is set to preview in dark pink.  I couldn't include this on the second mat because it would block out the top layer and I would not get an accurate image of the card.

The fifth mat is a simple guideline rectangle in the size of an A2 card before folding. (If you have been in one of my Basic Cards classes you will know all about these guidelines!).  This page is not to be cut - you would be assembling the card on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inch cardstock cut in half and folded in the normal way. I also included another page with a square to help me center the medallion for the preview and the final page is a blank preview page.

Once you have your layers all set up, you need to add in the colors.

To begin, right click on the mat and select "set preview color" from the drop down menu.  There will be a random color for the preview on each page that you will need to change to one that suits you.

When you click on the "Set Preview Color"  box - this color selection box will pop up.  You can quickly choose one of the basic colors here and click OK to change the color.  You also have the option to define a custom color by clicking on the "Define Custom Colors" bar.

After you click "Define Custom Colors" the window will expand and you can click anywhere in the rainbow box to choose a color and then adjust it with the sliding scale at the right side.  You can also set precise values in the Hue/Sat/Lum/Red/Green/Blue boxes.  Then click ""Add to Custom Colors" and the color will appear in the Custom colors boxes.  Click OK to change the preview color.

Unfortunately, the program does not seem to save these custom colors (on the list of things that need fixing...). If you want to duplicate an exact color, you will need to record the values in the six boxes (or you can take a screen shot to help you remember).

I usually just work with the basic colors which are generally adequate for a quick plan.  However, I did set a custom light pink level for the background card in this file.  Ideally, I'd love to be able to add digital representations of the papers I'd be using to preview the card.  I can do this by taking a screen shot and importing it into my Creative Memories program which has digital representations of many papers.

 Here is my "paper" version of this card done with Creative Memories "Blush Blooms" digital papers.  I have these actual papers so I could use them for cutting the pieces.  This conversion process is time consuming and if you have a good "eye" you can visualize your card just by adding colors in tones and intensities that are close to the papers you think you will be using.

When you have made all of your color choices, you can copy and paste the shapes that need to be cut and set up a mat for each paper you will be using.  You will be able to be very efficient in your use of paper by doing this.  Keep your file with all of the preview mats if you think you might make the card again - it will definitely save you some time!

I hope this was helpful - I got so involved in trying to explain things that I ran out of time to actually make a test cut of this simple card(!)  I will try to share a finished version of the card soon.  By using Design Studio I know that my sizes will be correct so I will be able to cut once and be ready to assemble my card.  I have two or three projects to assemble tomorrow - several need to get out in the mail - so it will be another busy day.