Archives for September 2012

Cricut Art Nouveau Hummingbird Birthday Card

September 23, 2012 by 10 Comments

 

I wanted to make a card to enter in a couple of challenges and this is what I came up with.  The first challenge is Things that Fly in Nature over at Bitten by the Bug 2. The second challenge is Texture at Cooking with Cricut.

I made a 5″ x 5″ card and the patterned paper was all printed on the Imagine using the Country Carnival cartridge.  I love the paper selection on this cartridge and have been wanting to use the design that is on the background of my card for some time.  The reason I bought this cartridge is because of the paper — and the very cool font that it has.

 I cut the hummingbird (at 3″) from watercolor paper using the Art Nouveau cartridge and colored him with Copics.  This is only my second time trying to color with Copics, and I have lots to learn.  I discovered I don’t have enough green markers — I didn’t have enough in the same color group to do any blending.

After I colored the hummingbird, I used a crystal glaze (something I got years ago) to go over sections of his body to try and simulate the iridescence you see in their feathers.

Oh, dear — after looking at the close-up I’m not too sure I should be posting it.  My coloring definitely leaves a lot to be desired!  The circle behind the hummingbird was embossed using the Forest Branches folder.

I recently got the Art Philosophy cartridge, mainly because of the flowers I have seen so many crafters make with it. The roses on this card represent my first time using this cartridge.  I cut them at 2″ and 2.5″ using some Recollections paper from Michaels.  I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I used a quilling tool from one of my Cuttlebug quilling kits to roll up the flowers.  I was surprised at how quickly they went together.  The greenery behind the roses is also from Art Philosophy.

I wanted the sentiment to be subtle, so I stamped it in the upper right hand corner (using distress ink) trying to make it look like it is part of the print on the paper.  I added a couple of pieces of lace across two corners and used my sewing machine to stitch around the card.

For the inside of the card, the white area is a shape cut using Art Philosophy.  The corners are a 2″ square of vellum, cut diagonally, embossed with the Swiss Dots folder, and trimmed with lace sewn across the top edges.  I then secured them to the card by stitching around the entire piece.

I originally planned on using the vellum corners on the front of the card, but when I laid everything out, I thought they hid too much of the paper on the front.  So they got moved inside, which worked out fine because I had no plans yet for the inside of the card.

  • Cricut cartridges:  Art Nouveau, Art Philosophy, Imagine Country Carnival
  • Cuttlebug embossing folders:  Forest Branches, Swiss Dots
  • Copics
  • Vellum, scraps of lace
Filed Under: Art Nouveau, Art Philosophy, Bitten by the Bug 2, Card Challenges, Cards and Projects, Cartridges, Challenges, Challenges, Cooking With Cricut, Copics, Country Carnival, Cricut, Cuttlebug, Supplies Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cricut Create a Critter 2 Owl Witch Card

September 18, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

I was able to use my new Create a Critter 2 cartridge last night to make a card to participate in the latest challenge at Cooking With Cricut,  their Card Outreach Challenge.  The challenge is to make fun Halloween cards (no scary ones) for the I Feel the Love Project.

The “I Feel the Love” Project for September is to make Halloween Cards to be given to the kids who live at Casa Pacifica.   Casa Pacifica serves abused and neglected children and adolescents, and those with severe emotional, social, behavioral, and mental health challenges on California’s Central Coast.  Each year the facility has an amazing Halloween party for the kids. It is IFTL’s goal to send a card to each of the 70 children who reside there. (For more information about Casa Pacifica please visit their website.)
I laid out my card in Cricut Craft Room, cutting the owl at 3″.  The owl’s body was printed and cut on my Imagine, using the Bubblegum Stripes cartridge for the small purple stripes.  I did not use CCR for this step, as it still is not compatible with the Imagine.  I embossed the small tummy piece with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.
For the owl’s eye, I hid the cut that forms the pupil in CCR.  On the mat in CCR, the circles look perfectly round.  But when I cut the eyes with my Expression, they did not come out round.   I had what looked like a cross-eyed owl.  So I took black paint  and a stylus (you can also use the round end of a paintbrush), dipped the stylus into the paint and then formed black circles on the white part of the eye.  Once the paint dried, I put a white highlight on the black dot.
I added a moon behind the owl, which is a circle that I also cut at 3″.  I embossed the moon with a new Cuttlebug folder I recently got, the bat folder from the Midnight Hauntings set.  The phrase was cut at 1″.  Because of the small size of the phrase, I cut it out of vinyl.  The Cricut easily cuts vinyl.  Vinyl is great for small pieces because it already has adhesive, so you don’t have to fuss trying to put glue on them.
I added Stickles to the band and buckle on the hat.
For the inside of the card, I lined it with a couple of pieces of patterned paper.  I cut the pumpkin treat bag and candy piece, also from Create a Critter 2, at 1.5″.  I cut the shadow layer from cardstock and the black and orange layers from vinyl.
The background paper and print paper inside my card are from a K & Company Halloween collection that came out a year or so ago.  I picked it up on sale and don’t remember exactly when I bought it.
  • Cricut cartridges:  Create a Critter 2, Imagine Bubblegum Stripes
  • Cuttlebug:  Midnight Hauntings embossing folder set
  • K & Company Halloween paper pad
  • Stickles
Filed Under: Bubblegum Stripes, Card Challenges, Cards and Projects, Cartridges, Cooking With Cricut, Create a Critter 2, Cricut, Stickles Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Eyelash Yarn and Tutorial on How to Make Your Own Using Grosgrain Ribbon

September 14, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

 

I received a couples on inquires on my Pig Card With Pinwheels asking what eyelash yarn is.  Eyelash yarn is a novelty yarn that has long strands (that resemble hair) coming out from the main thread.  It looks like a strand of eyelashes.  The yarn I used for the pink fringe dress on the pig is from Bernat and is called Boa.  I found it at my local Joann’s store.

Many years ago when I was into making dolls and teddy bears, I learned a technique to make something similar to eyelash yarn using grosgrain ribbon.  I used this technique using wide grosgrain ribbon to make eyelashes for some of my critters.  I simply glued the eyelash ribbon behind the eye buttons and had nice, long black lashes.

To make a fringe from grosgrain ribbon, cut a strip of ribbon.

You will notice that the ribbon has a bound edge on both the upper and lower edges.  Take your scissors and trim one edge off the ribbon.  You want to do this on just the one edge.

I then take a pin and start raveling out the threads that run the length of the piece of ribbon.  I usually do just a couple at a time, and then repeat until all the threads are pulled out.

Once you have removed all the threads, your ribbon should look like this.  Notice that the color is not as bright as what you started out with.  The brighter color can be seen on the top strip of the ribbon.

Then you can cut your ribbon into pieces and lay them on top of each other to fill in your cut shape.

For the pig’s dress, I layered all my yarn on top of each other on the cut Cricut shape, glued it down and then turned the piece over and trimmed the yarn to the shape of the dress.

Filed Under: Cards and Projects, News, Tutorials

Wee Wee Wee!! Pig With Pinwheels Shaped Card

September 9, 2012 by 12 Comments

I wanted to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law and I wanted to create one that was very whimsical — and I hope I succeeded.  I enjoy making shaped cards and when I found the All Shaped Up Challenge on Bitten by the Bug 2, the idea for my card was hatched.

I love the pig with the pinwheels in the Geico commercials.  You can’t help but smile when one comes on TV, and I have been wanting to do something along those lines for while now.   I decided to make my pig a girly girl and give her a fancy party dress, complete with a birthday party hat.

I started laying out my design in Cricut Craft Room.  Unfortunately, the program still has issues and I ran into some of them while creating this card — and ended up wasting time.  I find CCR so frustrating at times that bad words will just start popping out of my mouth.

When I got ready to cut my card, Cricut Craft Room was down and I could not log in.  I kept getting a message that the program couldn’t connect to the internet.   I kept trying and after an hour or so, I was able to log in and cut my layers.

All the solid color cardstock is from Bazzill, except for the glitter cardstock on the hat — that is from Core’dinations. The patterned paper I printed on the Imagine using the Blast Off cartridge.

I used Create a Critter for the pig and pinwheels and B is for Boy, a Lite cartridge, for the “wee” words.  I welded them all together to form the base of the card.  I used the Swiss Dots folder and my Cuttlebug to emboss the words.  I found some eyelash-type yarn at Joann’s that I used for her dress, layering it so it looks like a fringe dress — reminds me of a flapper dress.  I added some pearls at the neckline and a bow on both the dress and hat.  I used Stickles on the center of the pinwheels.

The inside of the card features a computer-generated sentiment.

I hope this little piggy card brings a smile to my sister-in-law’s face.  I need to make an envelope so I can get it in the mail.  Since it is a over-sized card, I will probably send it in a padded envelope.

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Cricut Chirp Challenge #6 – Create a Critter Craft:  use any animal Cricut cut on your project

Scrappy Moms Stamps – Terrific Tuesday Challenge – Shape Up:  create a shape project

  • Cricut cartridges:   B is for Boy Lite, Blast Off (Imagine), Create a Critter
  • Cuttlebug:  Swiss Dots embossing folder
  • Bazzill cardstock
  • Stickles
  • Yarn, pearls, ribbon

Filed Under: B is for Boy, Bitten by the Bug 2, Blast Off, Card Challenges, Cards and Projects, Create a Critter, Cricut, Cuttlebug, Stickles Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Wild About You Onesie Gift Set Using Cricut Create a Critter 2

September 3, 2012 by 4 Comments

 

One of the more popular Cricut cartridges surely must be Create a Critter.  Provo Craft is giving users of Cricut Craft Room a sneak peak of one of their newest cartridges by making five cuts from Create a Critter 2 available for free. There is also a contest, which ends on September 5,  where you can enter your projects using these latest designs through the Cricut Project Center.

My project is a onesie gift set that includes a black onesie decorated with the lion and phrase designs from Create a Critter 2.  All were cut from heat transfer vinyl.  I constructed a box from Sweet Tooth Boxes and made a small gift card using the bird that is on the Icon tab of the lion feature on Create a Critter 2.

When using heat transfer vinyl, it is important to remember that you must mirror (flip) your images in Craft Room because you are cutting the back of the vinyl.  Then when you iron it on your garment everything is facing the correct way and you can read your phrases.

“Wild about U”  is cut from a holographic vinyl that I picked up years ago at a trade show — long before I knew what a Cricut was.   I fell in love with the sparkly rainbow colors and brought a roll home with me.  Unfortunately the vinyl did not come with application instructions, so I did some test runs before applying it on the onesie.  My first attempt at ironing it on produced negative results as I was getting it too hot.  I didn’t realize it and started increasing the time I was pressing, getting even worse results.  I finally dialed back on the heat and the time to get proper application.

The lion is cut from a vinyl that can be peeled hot or cold.  Because he has four layers, I applied him first.  I put down the first layer and pressed for only 4 seconds, immediately peeling off the backing.  I let that layer cool and then added the next.  Again, I pressed for 4 seconds and peeled.  I did this until all four layers were down.

When doing layers, you have to remember to cover up the vinyl that has already been applied and is no longer protected by the clear film.  I use a teflon sheet to cover my design before pressing each layer.

After the lion and the “about” from the phrase were in place, I then added the holographic phrase and applied it.

The gift box is from Sweet Tooth Boxes.  I cut the box that begins on page 10 of the handbook, using just the bottom and lid.  I hid the cut-out area in the lid and then added the shadow feature of the lion — so my box has a lion window to tie in with the theme of the onesie.

I printed the zebra paper for the box lid using my Imagine.  I used a bright purplish cardstock and printed the stripes using the Teresa Collin’s Black & White cartridge.  This put a lot of black ink on the paper, so I used a blow dryer on it and then I let it dry for over an hour.  When I rubbed my fingers on it, the black was still smudging, so I gave it a coat of clear matte spray.

Because Cricut Craft Room does not work with the Imagine, I used my Imagine only to print the paper.  I then transferred the paper to my Expression and cut the lid.  I scored all the lines on the box and lid and assembled them, adding a layer of clear acrylic to form the window of the box.

A gift card was created using the shadow feature and welding two shapes together at the top of the head.  I used two Cuttlebug folders on the bird, Charles (a chevron design) and Swiss Dots.   I did the layers on both the front and back of the card, as I wasn’t sure which way I wanted him facing.

I added a white layer to the inside of the card so there would be a place to write a message.

To finish off the box, I dyed some seam binding using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Adirondak Color Wash.  I scrunched it up while it was wet and let it dry.  Then I tied a bow and made a couple of ribbon roses to add in the middle.

  • Cricut Craft Room:  Create a Critter 2, Sweet Tooth Boxes
  • Cricut Imagine:  Teresa Collin’s Black & White cartridge
  • Cricut Expression
  • Cuttlebug:  Charles and Swiss Dots
  • Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist
  • Adirondak Color Wash

Filed Under: Cards and Projects, Challenges, Create a Critter 2, Cricut, Cuttlebug, Sweet Tooth Boxes Tagged With: , , , , ,