Simple Vintage Card with digital images

Yesterday I told you about the Twisted Papers site and promised I'd show you how to use one of the images for a project.  Much to my surprise, I had a nice comment from Russell & Stan, the owners of the site, and they said it would be fine to post one of the images, so I have edited yesterday's post.  I am so impressed at the quality of the images - very sharp and clear and I was able to enlarge them quite a bit.

I made this simple card using one of the images and my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software (here is a LINK for more information about this program).  I downloaded the jpeg image from the Twisted Papers site and saved it in a file on my desktop.  Then I opened a new project in StoryBook and imported the image.

The next step was to resize the image to fit perfectly on an A2 card.  The original image is on the right and the slightly altered on on the left.  I sized it at 3 3/4 inches x 5 inches so I could have a mat layer on the card.

Once I had resized the image, I copied and pasted to set up four images on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I used the properties box to get the alignment and sizing perfect.

 Next I added a plain black rectangle to fill the entire sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 page and moved it behind the images.

Then I filled the black rectangle with the tan color by sampling the background color from one of the images - I do this so there won't be a harsh contrast if my trimming of the image is a bit off.

I selected all of the images and grouped them - here you can see the individual selection boxes around each image.

After grouping, there is just one box.  I could now copy and paste these images to another page and keep the perfect spacing between images.

I printed the full sheet on letter size matte photo paper.  Here you can see the page before I trimmed the images.  I cut green mats at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and cut 8 1/2 x 11 white cardstock in half for the card bases.

I did not ink any edges - I liked the crisp look and contrast from white to green to the tan of the image background.  I did add some Stickles - you know I can't resist that bit of sparkle!

I used Crystal Stickles on the snow on the tops of the bells for both cards.  For the card on the left, I also dotted Christmas Red Stickles on all of the holly berries.  I hope you can see the sparkle if you click on the photos of the cards to enlarge them.

This is a fast and easy way to make a card - you are adding some personal touches but you can easily create a lot of cards in a hurry!

I haven't had a lot of time to use my Creative Memories software lately - I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with images for card projects in addition to the digital scrapbooking I usually do with the software.

This angel is also one of the images that Stan & Russell are sharing.  I added background paper, a flourish, a title, used a corner punch on the image and added shadows and glows to the elements.

Here is one more little experiment I made using one of the filters that creates a mosaic effect.  The mosaic seems to make the Santa even more twinkly!

So, if you want a change of pace - try doing some digital/hybrid projects.  They are lots of fun and a bit less messy.  I will definitely be buying a month subscription to Twisted Papers so I can download lots more of their great images - I will just need to wait until after all of the holiday festivities so I can spend time choosing my 500 images!

Sorry, no Cricut today but don't forget about the chance to win a free copy of the Cricut A to Z instructional DVD.  You need to go back to yesterday's post - here is a LINK - and leave a comment on that post to be included in the drawing.  Thanks again to Megan of Above Rubies Studio for donating this DVD.

We are watching the weather news very carefully again - tomorrow, if all goes well and there are no more airport closings and flight cancellations, our older son will arrive in Boston.  We can't wait to see him!

Sparkly Snow Cards

While I was working with the book cover material to decorate the Harvest Lanterns I posted yesterday, I had an idea for another project.  I would need clear book cover material to try this idea.  So, today we had to get new ink cartridges at Staples and, as usual, I checked out the clearance section.  Well, it must have been meant to be - in the clearance section there were rolls of clear bookcover material for only 50 cents!

I used this element from the Graphically Speaking cartridge.  It is designed to be a square image  but I used Design Studio to change the proportions for an A2 card topper.

Here you can see the changes I made - the original image is on the left.  There are some detail cuts in the original that I hid for my card topper so you need Design Studio to make this project since it is not possible to hide cutting lines on the Gypsy yet.

I made several trial cuts - in two sizes and two different cardstocks.  The top piece of lighter blue is Bazzill textured cardstock and the bottom piece is Coredinations "vintage" cardstock.  The second trial cut for each is slightly smaller than in the screenshot above - 3.75 x 5 inches.

I cut a piece of the bookcover material large enough to cover the cut out areas of the design.

I adhered the cut piece to the back of the card topper so the sticky side was exposed in the openings (it may be a bit hard to see in this photo but the areas behind the letters and snowflake are the sticky side of the bookcover material.

I then found this glitter that I bought last year after the holidays - it has a interesting texture and is coarse but very sparkly.

I dumped glitter all over the the exposed adhesive.  It is very fine and sticks to the adhesive backing easily.  I used my fingers to smooth down the glitter and then applied a second layer.

By rubbing on the glitter you can flatten the pieces so they stick securely to the adhesive.  You can feel the little bits standing up on end and they will flatten as you smooth over the area with your fingers.

I tried several variations for the cards - you can see them above.

For the first card I rounded the corners of the card base and added a dark blue layer below the light blue topper.  The sparkle of the glitter against dark blue is pretty but I thought it lost the "snow" effect.

For the other versions of the card where I added a dark layer below the topper, I inserted some white paper so the snow would look more like "real" snow.

This version uses the larger version of the topper directly on a dark blue base with the white paper liner between the two.

For this card I put the layer directly on a white card base so I didn't need an extra layer.

I think this is my favorite version - but I have a few more variations in mind to try...

Fun with Glitter Cardstock

I was looking through the designs on the Happily Ever After cartridge, thinking of doing another Disney character, when I spotted this faceted gem cut and my mind started turning. I had just cut a title from glitter cardstock (DCWV stack) and had been using my Stickles glitter glue - I guess I had glitter on my mind! I thought that this would be fun to do in two or more colors....so I tried it!

I set the cut up on Design Studio - this is not technically necessary since I used the design exactly as it appears on the cartridge. I just like to use the software so I know exactly where to place my paper and also how large a piece of paper I need for the cut.I set up a red and a pink piece of cardstock to cut in opposite corners.



Here is how the red one looked right after cutting - I used the multi cut feature and cut three times - blade depth 6, pressure at 4 and speed at 1. This glitter cardstock creates a lot of "dust"



You may be able to see the dust more clearly in this close up photo after the outer piece of cardstock was removed



I carefully removed the outer frame using my handy scraper



The goal is to lift up only the frame, leaving all of the other small pieces on the mat.



When you have removed the frames, flip them over and mark the top as I did here - this step will save you a bit of time later. (The "T" shows at the bottom of the flipped frames).



I then used my Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive and adhered these frames to black notecards.



When using this adhesive you should dot it on and then wait for it to turn from white to clear - it will then stick down very nicely with no oozing of glue. Once these frames were stuck down, I dotted glue in the openings of the frame



I then followed the rotation of the smaller bits and inserted them into the frame of the opposite color. By leaving the small pieces on the mat it was very easy to work my way around the circle and fill in with the correct piece (they fit perfectly with a smooth finish once they are set in).



Here is how they looked when I finished with that step



Finally, I added in the centers (but did not glue them yet - I was starting to think of more variations!)



I decided to cut an additional set of frames in white and red again so I could do some experimenting.

Here are the two cards with a white center substituted for the pink or red one





Then I started playing with all of the various combinations - I still have not finished these cards - I am debating on which version is my favorite! Here are just a few of the possibilities...















Be careful when you remove these triangular pieces from the mat - this cardstock tends to separate into layers and to avoid having to glue it back together you should use a gentle touch to peel it off the mat!



It will be fun to try this in other color combinations - I think I will next try to use the "brown" version that came in the glitter mat stack!



Now - maybe I can get back to choosing another Disney character to layer!