Celebrate Sunshine

Jen over at Jen's Scrap Closet is having an Imagine Challenge. The Challenge is to use the Sun from the Image More cartridge that came with most machines. This is what I came up with.
I started a with a 4 1/4” X 5 1/2” portrait card base from Kraft card stock. I used my Imagine More Card cartridge and printed a 5” blue mat and the patterned mat using the square stock image in the Imagine. I cut the blue mat down to 4” X 5 1/4” and the patterned paper mat to 3 3/4” X 5”. I cut the sun from the Imagine More cartridge at 2” using the layer feature.  Using the Straight From the Nest cricut cartridge I cut the grass image from page 41 of the handbook. I flooded the the layers with two different green patterned papers from the Imagine More cartridge. I used the border feature shift image to cut the flowers also at 2” and flooded them with a light purple color from the Imagine More Cards cartridge. I pop dotted the grass and the flowers. I also pop dotted the sun image between the layers as well as to the card. I added some yellow pearls to the middle of the flowers and stamped my sentiment Celebrate Sunshine.

Cupcake Card

Despite many roadblocks this weekend I was finally able to finish a card. I apologize for the poor photo quality. My computer died this weekend and had to be replaced. Of course the photo editing software I used doesn't work with Windows 7 so will have to upgrade my software. I used a free download software to edit this but it was limited compared to the Photoshop Elements I usually use. And then of course it was a gray, foggy, cloudy day and late in the day when I was finally able to take the photo. I plan to enter this card in a couple of challenges and was fortunate that they all worked together.

My card base is a 5" X 7" white pre-folded card that I had. I bought a pack of these at Christmas time to make Christmas cards with and still have some left. I used scraps from my scrap bin and found this pink I cut for a mat at 4 3/4" X 6 3/4". The patterned paper is a scrap from the DCWV Sweets paper stack. This was cut at 4 1/2" X 6 1/2". I sprayed this patterned with some Pearl Glimmer Mist. Unfortunately it doesn't show up real well in the photo but does look sparkly in person. The cupcake and cupcake stand are a cut from the Straight From the Nest Cricut Cartridge. This was cut at 3 1/2". I cut the stand out of some Kraft card stock and sprayed it with quite a bit of the Coffee Shop glimmer mist. Again, it doesn't show up well in the photo but is very sparkly when looking at the card. It gives the stand an almost metallic look. The cupcake is part of the layers of this cut so it also was cut at 3 1/2". Once I layered all the parts of the cupcake together I added some pink stickles to the cherry and cotton candy stickles to the cupcake's icing. I also used some Crystal stickles on the white stripes of the cupcake wrapper. I added some light aqua satin ribbon. I also added a layered pink Prima Flower that I also sprayed with the Pearl Glimmer Mist. It really adds some glimmer to the flower. For the flower center I used some glossy accents on the end of a light pink brad and dipped it in some dark pink Martha Stewart glitter. Thanks for visiting.

Flower Soft Birthday Card

I needed to make a birthday card for my boss and thought this would be a good masculine card. My card base is 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" green card stock. The orange mat is 5 1/4" X 5 1/4". The patterned paper is cut at 5" X 5". The smaller green squares are cut a 2" x 2". For the leaves, I cut them from the Straight From the Nest Cricut cartridge at 1 1/2".  I used my Ultra Fine Flower Soft to cover the leaves. To get the variegated look I mixed together some of the Burnt Sienna, Toffee, Pine, and Sage. I ran two of the leaves (the upper left and lower right leaves) upside down through my Xyron and coated them with the Flower Soft, pressed down firmly on the leaves to be sure the Flower Soft was adhered and then tapped off the excess. For the other two leaves I also added a little of the Strawberry Flower Soft before applying the Flower soft.  I used some quick dry adhesive to attach the leaves to the green squares.  I added the Happy Birthday stamp with some Moss green ink. I really like the look I got with mixing the colors, the leaves look as if they are in the middle of changing colors.

 

This card was one I made as a guest designer on the Cutters Creek Design Team blog.

Autumn Leaves

I received in the mail yesterday my order from Cutters Creek. It included several containers of the new Ultra Fine Flower Soft and some Diamond Range in Gold and Silver and some beautiful American Crafts glitter card stock. Of course I had to use something right away so decided to start with the Ultra Fine Flower Soft. Love it! The card is 4 1/2" X 6" from some Kraft card stock I bought at Joanns. The orange  paper is 3" X 6" and I used my Fiskars Treading Water border punch along the bottom of the mat. The patterned paper mat is from DCWV a Fall stack I bought last year and is 2 1/2" X 6. The narrow orange mat is  1 3/4" X 6". I inked the edges of everything with some brown ink. The leaves are cut at 1 1/2" from the Straight From the Nest. I ran them through my Xyron sticker maker upside down so the adhesive was on the front and then flocked them with Burnt Sienna (the darker orange) and Toffee (the lighter brown) Ultra Fine Flower Soft and attached them to my card with foam tape. I added some gold colored hemp cord at the top of the card. The sentiment says  Wishing you a Beautiful Autumn. I am really pleased how this turned out and am super excited about trying my other new Flower Soft purchases from Cutters Creek. Thanks for visiting.

Swing in for a Party!

This is the card I made for the Jitterbuggin Challenge this week. My card is 4 1/2" X 6. The monkey is from Create A Critter and was cut at 3 1/2". Paper is from the DCWV Summer Dreams paper stack. I cut the photo corners from the Straight From the Nest cartridge. The one on the patterned paper was cut at 1 1/4" and the two that are on the Monkey were cut at 1". I used a white card base and brown card stock for the mats. I used a Studio G Clear stamp that I picked up at Michaels for $1 to stamp the sentiment. It didn't stamp as clearly as I wanted but says Swing in for a Party! Here is the sketch and recipe for the challenge:

Recipe:

*****Follow the sketch!*****

*****Use a monkey*****

*****Use at least 3 types of patterned paper!*****

Aged to Perfection

I made this card for the Jitterbuggin Challenge this week. The recipe was to use a Cricut food cut, use plaid and use some black and to follow the sketch. I had a little harder time with this because of the plaid. My card is a 5 1/2 X 5 1/2" card. I started with a white card from a pack I picked up quite awhile ago at Joann's. I cut a light purple mat to cover the white card front. I then cut a light green mat 5" X 5" and then one with my plaid paper 4 1/2" X 4 1/2". I cut the bottle and glass from the new Summer in Paris mini cartridge at 3 1/2" and the grapes are from the Preserves cartridge cut at 3". My black element is of course the bottle base. I cut all the layers for the grapes out of scraps I had here. The sketch had a flower in each corner but flowers didn't seem to go with this so I opted to cut some corners from the Straight From the Nest cartridge. I used the new hide contour feature added to my gypsy with this latest update, to hide the inner cut on these corners so I got a solid cut and not just a frame. I cut these from the same dark purple I cat the base layer of the grapes. The corners were cut at 1". The sketch also had a tag for the sentiment, so I cut a tag using the Sentimental Cartridge. I used my Gypsy to set the width and height I needed to fit my stamp and cut that in white and again used the hide contour feature to hide the small hole in one end of the tag. I then used my Gypsy again to create a shadow of the tag and cut that from dark purple again, the same color as the corners. I used some ink by Memento in Purple Hydrangea to stamp my sentiment and to ink the edges of the white tag. To adhere the tag, I just used some my tape runner. the bottle and glass are adhered with one layer of foam tape and the grapes have two layers of foam tape to make them pop a little higher. I am please how it turned out. Thanks for looking.

Baby Girl Card

Here is a quick card I whipped up last night for a former co-worker who had a baby girl over the weekend. The card is an A2 card made from white card stock. The patterned paper is from the K & Company Best of Brenda Walton paper pack. Ribbon is from a Martha Stewart pack that I picked up at Big Lots. The onesie was cut from the Straight From the Nest cartridge and was cut a 3 1/2" using the real dial size button on my cricut. This cut is on page 46 of the handbook. The cut is actually of three shirts/onesies hanging from a clothes line. To get the cut I wanted I set the cut up on Gypsy. Since we don't have Hide/Contour feature yet, I simply placed all the items I didn't want to cut off the side of the mat. The sentiment was cut at 1 1/2" cut from the Nursery Rhymes cartridge. The cut is from page 65 of handbook using the Font feature button. The shadow was cut using the Font Shadow feature button.  I embossed the onesie with my Sizzix three dots folder using my Cuttlebug. I adhered the cuts with foam tape to provide some dimension to the card. Once I had the card done I spritzed it with some Pear Glimmer Mist to give it some sparkle and added a small Prima flower in light pink and a darker pink pearl to the center of the flower.

A Little Birdie Told Me

The challenge this week for Cricut Cardz Challenge blog is to create a card using a bird or a butterfly, any color any theme. Here is what I came up with. the card base is white card stock and is 4 1/2" X 6". The green mat is 4 3/8" X 5 7/8" and the patterned paper is 4 1/4" X 5 3/4". The pattern paper is from DCWV Stack 7. I cut the bird from page 28 of the Straight From The Nest cartridge handbook. I cut the shadow and all the layers at 2 1/2". I cut the phrase from page 29 of the handbook. I cut both the shadow and the base layer at 1 1/2". The paper is from my scrap stash. I added an orange pearl to the bird for an eye to give it a little bling. The ribbon is from Stampin Up. I added some doodle dots to the phrase to help it stand out.

Butterfly Kisses

Here is a quick card I made yesterday using the Straight From the Nest cartridge and Graphically Speaking. The card is 4 1/2" X 6" I cut the phrase out using the Straight From the Nest cartridge at 1 1/2" .I cut the base, layer and shadow features. The butterflies in the little squares were cut at 1 1/4" from Graphically Speaking. I added some stickles to the butterflies to make them sparkle. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Stack 6 paper stack, the pink and blue are Core'denations paper.

Dressed up Expression!

The Gypsy Challenge this week on the Cricut Messageboard was to use the kerning feature on the gypsy. This was hard one for me as I usually make cards and wanted to do something a little different. So, I decided to dress up my Cricut Expression a bit. I kerned the word Creation at 0.2 and the word Station 0.4. I used Plantin Schoolbook for the words. This is my first real project with vinyl and using the transfer tape. I did not get the words on as straight as I had hoped but not bad. I then cut a couple of flourishes from Straight From the Nest cartridge for the back of the Expression. It was actually a pretty fast project. I may still do a little more to the front when I have a chance.