Summertime Scene

Recently, I checked out the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog thanks to a fellow blog buddy, Arin, at A Piece of Life’s Pie. She has been picked as their new design team member! Congrats Arin! 🙂 Thanks to her blog and kind words, I decided to enter this week’s challenge called ‘BBQ Time’ where you make a project using BBQ or picnic foods. This is the second challenge I have ever entered but it was a lot of fun and made me think outside the box. Since I couldn’t find the usual BBQ foods like a hamburger or hot dog on any of my cartridges, I made a cherry pie set on top of a picnic table. To add some interest, I created a summer setting with a bright blue sky, green grass, and some fluffy clouds.

Cartridges Used:

Clouds ~ Potpourri Basket  ~ 1 inch (bonus shift)

Picnic Table ~ Camp Out ~ 2.5 inches (base, base shift, blackout)

Cherry Pie ~ Just Because Cards ~ 2 inches

‘Enjoy’ sentiment ~ Wild Card ~ 4 inches

Other Details:

I made the red and white checkered “table-cloth” using the “Paint.net” program (a free downloadable) using the fill function (large checker board) in red. I printed it out on regular copy paper and then hand trimmed it. I think it adds a nice splash of color under the cherry pie. For the pie tin, I used a silver gel pen on white cardstock. I also inked around the picnic table’s top layers with brown ink for definition. I added faux stitching around the 4×6 Kraft card base using a white gel pen. Lastly, I used a lot of foam dimensionals to make the card pop.

Thanks for checking it out!

Vanessa

Christmas Poinsettia Wreath Made from Paper

Hello all! I am excited to share with you this poinsettia wreath I made today. For this project, I used my Cricut Expression, Design Studio software, and three cartridges: Accent Essentials, Camp Out, and Wild Card. The red and green paper is textured cardstock from Cricut’s 12×24 Basic Brights pad. The brown paper for the pine cones is from the Paper Studio’s Natural Botanical cardstock pad.

Accent Essentials has a flower shape on page 64 which I think could pass for a poinsettia flower. I cut (9) shapes at 5 inches and (9) shapes at 4 inches. I ran the 4 inch poinsettias through Cuttlebug’s D’vine Swirls embossing folder. I also highlighted the poinsettias embossed petals (technically these are called leaves) with a Versamark pen. The clear ink darkens the paper a bit. The true flower of a poinsettia is the yellow center which I mimicked with either a large jingle bell or 3 small jingle bells depending on what I had in my stash. Before adhering the two flower layers together I folded them into a cup using my hand and then pushed into the center with Zig-Way-2 glue pen (a marker could also work or a wooden dowel). This causes the petals to fold up. I also used a pencil to curl the petals under. When adhering the 4 inch layer to the 5 inch layer, turn the 4 inch poinsettia layer 180 degrees for a fuller poinsettia (simply turn one upside down on top of the larger layer) and glue in place with a hot glue gun. Now you have a 2-dimensional poinsettia with 10 petals showing. Then adhere jinglebells for the “yellow flower center” with the hot glue gun. Other ideas for the flower center are seed beads, glitter, craft pom-poms, buttons, or silk flower stamens.

The wreath base is also cut from Accent Essentials at 11 inches (Accent2> on page 33. I hid the contour lines of the inside square shapes using Design Studio so that only a
solid wreath form would cut. (I did this same method for my Fall Paper Wreath in a previous post.) I cut (2) 11 inch forms out in heavy card stock and adhered them together for added strength using an adhesive tape runner.

The poinsettia’s green leaves came from the Wild Card cartridge cut at 4 inches (page 56). I cut 20 of these out in green cardstock. I used a Versamark pen to highlight the center vein of the leaf which is actually a cut line. I then ran the leaves through a Swiss Dots embossing folder for texture. The leaves were adhered to the bottom of the poinsettia flowers with a hot glue gun prior to being added to the wreath form.

The Camp Out cartridge was used to cut (4) pine cones at 4 inches. I added gold glitter glue to the inside cut outs to add shimmer and to knock down the brightness of the green paper peering through. The gold glitter matches the jingle bells so I think it works.

The finishing touch is a red bow. I also hot glued a little hanger out of twine to the back of the wreath form. Tip: I learned a lesson on not adding a hanger between my two wreath form mats. The hot glue and the twine formed a huge lump and the rest of the form didn’t want to adhere properly. So just as I did with my Fall Paper Wreath, I hot glued a knotted loop of twine to the back of the wreath mats. My Fall Wreath lasted through the season and is still hanging on the wall successfully so this one shouldn’t have any problems. If you attempt this wreath, make sure your hanger is adhered where it will be covered by leaves, flowers, or pine cones so that the nail on your wall doesn’t show through the wreath.

This was a lot of fun to make and if you choose to make one, I would love to see your project!

Thanks as always for looking!

Vanessa

A Masculine Birthday Card for My Dear Hubby

This is my very first masculine card and I thought it was going to be a tough challenge but I think this is my favorite card to date.  It was a little odd not using my usual supplies: feminine patterned paper, stickles, and ribbon.  However, once I got started using some new cardstock and my Camp Out cartridge it opened up my mind to future card possibilities.  It’s amazing what you can come up with all of the different papers available on the market and there are so many ways that these can be layered.  I have absolutely fallen in love with a new paper collection I found on Amazon.  I stumbled on this by accident because I was $3.83 short from being able to have free shipping on Amazon’s website.  So I started looking around for other scrapbooking supplies and found this 20 count stack for $4.49 and thought I would give it a try.  Now I would like to have more.  The quality of the paper is excellent.  It’s called Wausau Creative Collection Shades Specialty Cardstock “Mocha Mix” and measures 12×12 inches.  It’s a 65 lb. cover cardstock and it makes wonderful, crisp folds for cards and envelopes.  In my opinion, it looks more like a professional card than the other ones I have made.  When it folds, it doesn’t have a broken appearance in the paper fibers unlike some cardstocks I have used previously.  It’s not too flimsy either.  It’s the right mix in weight and texture.  It also cuts very nicely on my Cricut Expression.  I hope my husband enjoys receiving this card.  We both love the outdoors and I wanted to create him a nature-inspired card reminiscent of our life in the country and the fun times we’ve had camping out.  Happy Birthday hon!

The Mocha Mix colors I used for the card and envelope are:

Royal Fiber Kraft (card base and envelope)

Royal Complements Umber (tree bark, deer antlers and hooves, pine cone shadows, accent frame, and wooden frame)

Astroparche Sand (deer hide, pine cone outer layer, husband’s name on envelope)

Other papers used:

My Mind’s Eye “Simply Delightful” paper stack – green paper (pine cone greenery, pine trees’ top layer)

Cream 65 lb. cover cardstock for ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment on front of card (from desktopsupplies.com)

Glue:

Zig 2-Way Chisel Glue Pen (for intricate paper embellishments)

Scotch® Adhesive Tape Roller (for larger paper embellishments)

Hemp Cord:

Found a three-color pack at Wal-Mart for $1.97 (I used the kraft color)

Cricut Cartridges and Cuts:

Wild Card Cartridge

• Pg 66 envelope cut at 4 ¾ inches from kraft cardstock (blackout)
• Pg 66 card cut at 4 ¾ inch inches from kraft cardstock (blackout)
• Pg 56 ‘G’; Pg 60 ‘L’; Pg 44 ‘E’; Pg 67 ‘N’ all cut at 1 inch from sand cardstock 

Camp Out Cartridge

• Cut pine cone and its different layers at 2 inches (umber brown, sand, and green paper)
• Cut the trees and their different layers at 2 inches (umber brown and green paper) I manually trimmed off the green trees’ trunks to expose the underlying brown tree trunks using scissors.
• Cut two deer layers at 2 inches (umber brown and sand paper) Again I trimmed off the lighter paper’s horns and hoofs to expose the underlying darker brown layer with scissors.
• Cut wooden frame twice in umber brown and sand cardstock at 4 1/4 inch – used remnant from the sand cardstock frame and ran it through my printer to print the sentiment from Microsoft Word (Tempus Sans font at 12 pt.) I taped it to the top center of a piece of copy paper and it printed perfectly on the sand cardstock.

Storybook Cartridge

For Card

• Pg 71 Thank you shape (accent blackout) cut at 2 inches in cream cardstock.  *I cut this shape twice for the card and envelope.
• Stamped ‘Happy Birthday’ using TPC Studio’s Greetings Clear Stamp with brown Stampabilities ink prior to embossing with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.
• Pg 71 Umber brown accent/frame (accent shift) cut at 2 inches.  I used the hide selected contour feature in Cricut’s Design Studio so that the frame cut without the decorative diamonds and circles.

For Envelope

• I used the left over inside piece from the umber brown frame to glue on top of the extra cream accent piece to decorate the envelope.  Then I glued G L E N on top of the umber brown accent shape.

Easter Greeting Cards

Here are pictures of four Easter cards I made for my extended family.  I made two in pink and two in light blue using Cricut’s Walk in My Garden cartridge.  I also used the Camp Out cartridge for the bunny shape (cut at 2 3/8 inches using Design Studio) and the Wild Card Cartridge for the sun shape (image is actually an icon for the Porthole card on page 55 of the Wild Card manual) but when cut twice in orange and yellow paper it makes a nice sun graphic.  The “sun” was cut at 4 inches.  The Easter ribbon was purchased from Hobby Lobby on clearance for 59 cents and it was just enough to make my four cards.  The card base is cut from WIMG at 5 inches (card2 on page 129) and then I used a corner rounder punch to round all corners of the card.  The tulips are from WIMG’s border feature and cut at 2 inches (page 99).  I am particularly proud of my grass graphic.  I scoured my cartridges for a grass image and the only one available to me was the grass border from WIMG which I used on a previously posted turtle card and hello card (Walk in My Garden ~ Cards for Spring post).  I wanted more of a grassy hill look for my Easter card so I decided to use a graphic in a new way.  On page 105 of the WIMG cartridge manual, there is a seed packet border image (seed packets on top of dirt mounds).  I used Design Studio and selected the “hide selected contour” feature to hide the seed packets and other markings in the dirt.  Here’s how this feature works: left-click on the line you want to omit from cutting (this changes it from black to red).  While it’s still selected, right-click and choose “hide selected contour” and the red line changes to pink.  Next, deselect the image altogether and watch it change to light blue (this means anything in light blue will not cut).  Once I hid these unwanted lines, I was left with an image that resembled grass when cut in green paper.  I played with different sizes and noticed that a cut of this image at 2 inches made a good width for my 5 inch card base.  I then stretched the graphic downward just a bit to widen the look of the grass.

To give the card some needed dimension, I used my Sizzix Embossing machine and two Cuttlebug folders to add texture to the sun and the grass.   The first pink card I made was my “beta” test and I had already adhered the grass before I made the decision to run the other cards’ grass through the embosser.  At least you can see how it looks with and without embossing.  The sun was run through the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.  The grass was run through the Stylized Flowers Cuttlebug folder.

Hope you like the cards.  I had a lot of fun making them and have heard from my family how much they loved them!