Archives for May 2012

Elms Bakery Truck Birthday Card

 

I made this card for the Bakery Challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2.  This is a theme challenge and you have to create a project using something you would find in a bakery.

My inspiration will definitely give away my age, but the bakery theme brought back childhood memories of when the Helms Bakery trucks used to come to neighborhoods in So. California in the 1950’s.  I remember my mom putting the blue Helms placard in the corner of the picture window in our living room.  That told the driver to stop at our house.  The Helms motto was “Daily at Your Door.”

The truck was just like having a bakery parked in front of your house.  The driver would pull out drawers filled with baked goodies — so yummy.  The Helms truck delivered the bread that my brothers and I grew up on.

For my bakery truck, since it delivers to whimsical woodland creatures, I changed the name to Elms Bakery.  I created a shaped card using the milk truck from the Cricut cartridge, Pop-Up Neighborhood.  I tried to keep the colors true to the original Helms trucks.  My cardstock is a mix of both Bazzill and Core’dinations.

For the base of the card, I welded the squirrel from the Birthday Bash cartridge to the truck in Design Studio.  I made the card so it will just squeeze into a #10 envelope.  The lettering on the side of the truck is done in vinyl and the font is from Noah’s ABC Animals cartridge.  I cut the lettering twice, in two colors, so it looks like it has a shadow layer.

For the squirrel, I decided to put a beanie cap on his little head.  I used Baby Steps cartridge to cut the cap portion. To make the propeller on top, I used a number “8” and deleted the inside cuts in Design Studio.  Then I took the sizing handles and squished the “8” close together.  The little post that the propeller attaches to is a small rectangle from George & Basic Shapes.

I cut the cupcake from Birthday Bash and placed it in the squirrels arms.  I used red Stickles on the cherry.

I decided to make this a birthday card, so I cut a sentiment from Birthday Bash to put inside.  I also stamped another sentiment on the opposite side.

  • Cricut Cartridges:  Baby Steps, Birthday Bash, George & Basic Shapes, Noah’s ABC Animals, Pop-Up Neighborhood
  • Cardstock:  Bazzill, Core’dinations
  • Vinyl
  • Stickles

Tiptoe Through the Tulips Layout — Tulip Field in the Netherlands

I was inspired to make this layout after my dear daughter, Erin, posted a picture of herself standing in a tulip field in the Netherlands.  Erin and her hubby, Brett, were in the Netherlands the first week of May looking for a place to live as they will be moving there at the end of June.  They are currently living in Taiwan — have been there about 2 1/2 years.

Erin has been to the Netherlands several times before, but she has never been in the country when the tulips are blooming.  She thought they would be too late to see any this trip, but on their way to the airport in Amsterdam to leave, they found this field still in bloom.  Brett snapped the picture and Erin posted it on Facebook.  Once I saw the picture I knew I wanted to do something special with it.

Bitten by the Bug 2 has a frame challenge that began on May 7, right around the time I first saw the picture, so I designed my layout around that challenge.  We were to use a Cricut frame on any project.  The challenge ends today, so once again I am getting my project in just under the wire.

I have to first say that on this layout I finally used my Cricut Imagine.  It has been sitting in the box for some time.  I read some of the problems people were having with their Imagines and it took me quite a while to get up the courage to fire it up.  I discovered that the cartridge that came with my Imagine (Imagine More) was defective.  Luckily I had another cartridge I could use to get the machine running.  I called Provo Craft customer service and they are sending me a new cartridge.

I did manage to get it printing and cutting.  I am having some issues with the machine not cutting each time though.  Sometimes it just spits the mat out after printing.  I will play around with it some more and hopefully it behaves.

For this layout I printed the background paper on the Imagine.  I used a pattern from the Yummy cartridge and filled an 11″ square with the design.  I love that I can now print my own paper!

The solid color cardstock is mostly from Core’dinations, with a little Stampin Up thrown in the mixture.  For my swirly frame, I used the Cricut cartridge Fancy Frames.  I made the tulip frame in Design Studio by welding four corner shapes together from the Art Nouveau cartridge.  I welded just the shadow layer (black layer) only.  I cut the other layers separately so the tendrils would overlap on the center sides.  I also cut some extra tulip petals so I could layer them on the flowers and inked all the flower petals with some Tim Holtz Distress ink.  Here is a close-up of the frame.

The title is cut from the Bloom Cricut Lite cartridge.  Erin posted on Facebook shortly after she arrived in the Netherlands that she was hoping to tiptoe through some tulips, so this was a perfect choice for the title.  I used pop-dots under the title.

And, finally, to balance out the left side of the layout I added three butterflies from the Indie Art cartridge.  I cut three different layers, and on the last layer I only glued down the inside portion of the wings so I could bend them up.  I added some Stickles to the wings.

I have been playing around some in Cricut Craft Room and have to say that I am impressed by what it can do.  As with the Imagine, I have read some problems people have encountered with CCR, so I haven’t tried cutting with it yet.  I just didn’t have time to try it with this project, but I want to share what my project looked like laid out in CCR.  It is a great design aid because you can color your layers and see exactly what your project will look like.  For my background paper, I tried several different patterns before I decided on this one.  With the click of a button I could see what a different pattern would look like with my layout.  I think the final project looks pretty much like what I laid out in CCR.  I made a few changes as I started working on the layout, but this was my blueprint for my project.

  • Cricut cartridges:  Art Nouveau, Bloom, Fancy Frames, Indie Art
  • Cardstock:  Core’dinations, Stampin Up
  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink
  • Stickles

Cricut Circle National Scrapbook Day Crop Color Challenge: Beach Pail Gift Card Holder

 

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Day ( May 5), the Cricut Circle blog hosted a two-day online event.  There were challenges, tutorials, games, question-and-answers sessions — all kinds of fun.   Unfortunately I was not able to “attend” much of the live portion, but I did manage to make a project for one of the challenges.

When the Circle blog event was posted, I had just finished making eight beach pail gift card holders for a Kelly doll convention (Kelly is Barbie’s younger sister).  So I decided to make another one for the Color Challenge.  The challenge was to create a project using the color inspiration that they provided, which is shown below.  You had to use at least two Cricut image cuts on your project.

This is the picture the Circle blog provided for the color inspiration:

I made this card so that the sand section pulls out of the pail, similar to the flower pot cards where the flowers pull out.  I laid out the entire design in Design Studio.  I used Life is a Beach cartridge for the pail and shovel.  I glued around the outside edges only, leaving the oval section at the top open so the pocket holding the gift card would slide in.  I welded a rectangle from George & Basic Shapes to the sand to form the holder.

All the solid cardstock is from Bazzill and the printed pattern paper is from Graphic 45’s Tropical Travelogue collection — such beautiful paper!  I made the trim on the rim of the bucket using the patterned paper and cut the handle from a darker shade of cardstock.  The sand is cut from some glittered cardstock I bought at my local Joann’s.

Here is a picture showing the sand pulled out of the pail — holding the gift card.

And another picture, showing  a close up of the gift card holder.

I decided to add a small tag to the card, so there would be a place for some writing.  I welded two shell shapes from Picturesque together to form the tag.  The top detail piece on the shell is cut from a piece of off-white glitter cardstock.  The shell flips open and there is a space on the top and bottom for some writing.

  • Cricut Cartridges:  Life is a Beach, Picturesque, George & Basic Shapes
  • Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue paper
  • Bazzill solid color cardstock
  • Glitter cardstock