Caramel Apple Bear Card

I was able to join in the Anything with Fall Colors Challenge on svgcuttingfiles.com’s blog.  You can create anything, as long as it uses fall colors and one of their files as the main focus.

It wasn’t hard to choose what cut file I wanted to use — this cute bear is one of their newer files.  The file is called Candy Apples.  I also used one of their card bases to make the card — it is the Oval Card Base.

The stamp and the die that the tag is cut from are both from Jaded Blossom.  The stamp is called Caramel Apple and the die is Mini Tag Dies 2.

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The background paper is from Doodlebug Designs and the collection is called Happy Harvest.  I added a twine bow to the tag.

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  • svgcuttingfiles.com – Candy Apples and Oval Card Base
  • Jadedblossomstamps.com – Caramel Apple and Mini Tag 2 dies
  • Doodlebug Designs — Happy Harvest
  • Twine

Circleville NSD 2014 — Winner Announced

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I just had hubby draw a name  — and the winner of the $20 gift card from Michaels is……

Nadia (WithGlitteringEyes.blogspot.com)

Congratulations, Nadia!!

Please contact me so I can get your gift card in the mail.

And a big thank you to all who took the time to leave a comment.  I really appreciate it.

Linda

 

 

Ornament Christmas Card

 

I needed a Christmas card and had very little time to create one, so I turned to my Cuttlebug and some Memory Box dies that I had just received.  This was my first time using Memory Box dies and I am very impressed with them.  I will be buying more!

I used a color scheme of aqua and red for this card.  The polka dot paper is from My Mind’s Eye Merry & Bright collection.  The card matches a project that I will be posting soon, made from the same collection.

Card3 

The white cardstock is Stardream Metallic White Gold and I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Snow Flurries.  I inked the edges in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

Three Memory Box dies were used to create the ornament — the Classic Ornament die, the Snowflake Ornament die and the Crisp Bows die.  I used glitter cardstock for the snowflake part of the ornament and for the bow.  The background of the ornament is Stardream Aquamarine cardstock.  The die cut pieces are very intricate (and delicate), so I ran them through my Xyron to adhere them.

And that’s all I did — this was a very quick card for me.  I’m entering this card in the Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge, which is to make a Christmas project using non-traditional colors.

Card5

  • Cuttlebug Snow Flurries embossing folder
  • Memory Box dies:  Classic Ornament, Snowflake Ornament, Crisp Bows
  • Stardream metallic cardstock
  • My Mind’s Eye Merry & Bright
  • Distress Ink
  • Xyron

Circleville NSD 2013 – Did-I-Mension? Challenge

 

Here is my project for the Circleville Did-I-Mension challenge hosted by Renee.  Be sure and check out her blog and see the beautiful boxes she made for this challenge.

Renee challenged us to created a 3D box, bag or some other project.  Since I had just finished making my cupcake for the previous challenge, I thought a box to put the cupcake in would be the ideal project to make.  I used Sweet Tooth Boxes to cut my box, using the Cube Box cut at 11.5″.  All the cardstock used to construct the box is from Bazzill.

Set8

It didn’t take too long until I realized I was faced with a challenge.  I could only make a box that would fit on a 12″ x 12″ piece of paper.  I needed a square box and I could get the size I need (barely) for the cupcake to go inside, but I couldn’t get  it tall enough.  I spent a good two hours going back and forth on what to do.  I was looking at making something completely different for my project, but I kept coming back to the cupcake because I really needed a box.

Box3

I finally decided to see if I could add a separate piece of cardstock to the top of the box without it looking too funky.  I cut 2″ strips and had to piece them together to get four 4″ sides.  I used a Martha Stewart punch on the bottom edge.  I think it is called Laurel Leaf.   This is what the box looks like without the lid.

Box

The added piece gave me the height I needed, but I’m not too sure on the overall appearance.  I think it looks OK.  I made a rosette to put on the lid, using the Graphic 45 paper from the cupcake.  I then added a bow to the rosette.

Set8

  • Cricut Cartridge – Sweet Tooth Boxes
  • Bazzill cardstock
  • Martha Stewart Laurel Leaf punch
  • Ribbon

Circleville NSD 2013 — On Pins Challenge

 

I just completed this cupcake for the On Pins Challenge that was hosted by Sis.  Be sure and check out her blog to see the beautiful mini album she made for her project.

The challenge was to make a pin-inspired project.  I had no trouble deciding which pin I was going to use.  It is the one here.   I wanted to make one of the cupcakes.  Miranda has some gorgeous projects on her blog and I was lucky because she had a video on how to make the cupcake.  You can find the link to her video on her blog here.

CC2

I followed Miranda’s directions, except that I cut the flower petals with my Cricut rather than using a punch.  I used George and Basic Shapes <Flower2>, cut at 1.125″ and I hid the center hole in CCR.  I ended up using more than one 12″ x 12″ sheet full of flowers.  I think I placed mine a little closer together than Miranda did.  I used pearl pins I got at Joann’s to place the pins on the stryofoam.  The paper is all from Graphic 45.

The cupcake opens and inside is a little banner that says “Happy Birthday.”

Open

I cut the banner from Birthday Bash at 1.5″ using the print Graphic 45 paper.  I cut the shadow layer from Bazzil cardstock.  I threaded it together using some DMC pearl cotton.  The letters are from a Cuttlebug Plus Embossing folder, Monogram Seals. I inked the letters with Distress Ink.

Banner2

I also made a box for the cupcake for a different challenge.  I will share a picture here, but will put the details for the box in my next post.

Set

The butterfly is from Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art and was cut at 2″ from Graphic 45 paper.  I cut several layers and on the top layer I added some coarse crystal glitter.  I put brown pearls on the body.

CC3

  • Cricut cartridges used:  Birthday Bash, George and Basic Shapes, Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art
  • Cuttlebug Plus Monogram Seals embossing folder
  • Graphic 45 paper
  • Bazzill cardstock
  • Pearl pins
  • Coarse crystal glitter
  • Distress Ink
  • 3″ stryofoam ball
  • 9 oz paper cup
  • Brown adhesive pearls
  • DMC pearl cotton

Circleville NSD 2013: It’s All About Perspective Challenge and E-I-E-I-O Challenge

 

On this project, I combined challenges.  I was making a card for the E-I-E-I-O challenge, hosted by Jenny.  She wanted us to make a project using a barnyard animal.  When I took a close look at the cut pieces, a light bulb went off — I thought this would also be a good project to do for Nadia’s challenge.  She has an excellent tutorial on how to add perspective to flat die cuts.  Be sure and check it out on Nadia’s blog.  Her challenge is to make a project using some of the techniques she shows in her tutorial.

So, I would like to present to you the premiere of………………

EXTREME MAKEOVER:  FDC EDITION

A flat die cut (FDC) is just that — flat.  This case presented itself when it landed on my desk after coming off the Cricut mat.  I looked at it and said to myself “this cut could definitely benefit from Nadia’s ideas.”  Something I really enjoyed in Nadia’s tutorial was her before and after photos.  So I took a photo of my die cut (from the County Fair cartridge), without any enhancement, as it went together after coming off the mat.

Before

It’s cute, but it could be so much more.  I began with the fence, which was cut at 2.25″.  I added some grass to it by welding the shapes in Cricut Craft Room.  The grass is also from County Fair, cut at 3″.  I cut several of the same fence shapes so I could cut them apart and use only the pieces I wanted.

FencePieces

 I took extras of the upright pieces and inked them.  Two of them, the second from the left and the far right, I inked darker because I wanted them to look like they are farther away.  I adhered them to the fence.

Then I began working on the cross pieces.  I inked the edges and ran them through the Cuttlebug using the Distress Stripes folder.  Because the paper was not real thick, I doubled the layers on these boards.  I then began attaching them to the fence.  I glued one end with liquid glue and put a piece of foam on the opposite end.  Where the boards attached to the uprights that were farther away, I adhered that edge with the liquid glue.  Where the boards are supposed to be closer to the viewer, I attached that end with the foam.  I ended up with sort of a zigzag effect.  When I finished gluing the boards on,  I inked the edges of the grass and adhered the pieces to the fence.

Fence

Next up was the little chick.  

PlainChic

He is cute as is, but this little guy wanted some major work done.  I began with several layers, as I knew I would be doing some nipping and tucking.  He was very happy when he started getting inked.  I cut a separate head from one of the layers and inked it.

He wanted a  beak job done, but I recommended a little tuck instead.  I creased his beak in the middle and folded it. Then I adhered it to his face  and he ended up with some nice dimension.

The comb (his topknot) was next.  I cut two slightly larger than the original piece and cut those into separate sections.  I then adhered the three layers of the comb.  This was a microscopic procedure, done under my lighted magnifying glass because the pieces were so small.

Now we came to what was perhaps the chick’s biggest issue — his wings.  In the original cut, he has no wings.  Just sort of an outline of wings.  This little guy had more than wing envy, he had a wing obsession.  He wanted me to do wing transplants, but in my opinion that would be too drastic.  Without ruffling his feathers, I explained that wing transplants aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.  I thought wing extensions would be a better solution, especially since the little guy is still a spring chicken.

I found some feathers from Paper Doll Dress Up and cut several of those.  I inked the edges and then attached them to the chick, gluing only the top of each feather.  The only procedure left to perform was attaching his new head.  I glued the head even at the top and popped up the chin area (do chickens have chins?) with a pop dot.

As for his new look, the chick is very pleased.  In fact, he happier than a rooster in a hen house.  So let’s pull those curtains back and take a look at the results………..

Chick

I photographed the chick alongside a ruler so you can see his size.  Altering small cuts and have a big effect.  He ended up being about three layers thick.  Here’s a before and after photo of the entire cut piece.

BeforeAfter2

Since the chick now has something to crow about, I decided to use that as the sentiment on my card.  Nadia explained in her tutorial about atmospheric perspective and how you can lose the effect you create in altering your cut by putting it on a background with a lot of detail.  I decided to go with a plain background.  I thought about embossing the background but decided I didn’t want that distracting from my fence and chick.  I used a pale blue and inked the edges.

Front

The sentiment is from Just Because Cards, cut at 5″.  The sun is from Pooh and Friends, cut at 1.5″ inches.  For the sun, I used another of Nadia’s ideas.  The orange layer was very bright and I thought it was distracting.  It seemed to draw my eye to that corner.  So I cut a piece of vellum and adhered it over the orange.  Although the orange still looks bright in the picture, it is actually more subdued.

Sun

I had a lot of fun with this project and I guess I should apologize for all the chicken puns.  Thank you, Jenny, for your fun challenge!

Front3

  • Cricut cartridges — County Fair, Just Because Cards, Paper Doll Dress Up, Pooh and Friends
  • Ink
  • Foam dots
  • Vellum

Circleville 2013 NSD – Oh The Places You’ll Go! Challenge

 

 

I just completed my second project for Circleville’s NSD Challenges.  This one is hosted by Marty (Eyelet on the message board) and she gave us a sketch to follow.  I made a card.

I used my Imagine again, printing the papers from the Floral Emporium cartridge.  It was my first time using this cartridge — it has some really pretty patterns on it.  I printed both the patterned and solid paper.

Front5

Here is the sketch:

card sketch.jpg

The blue flap (don’t know what else to call it) is from Elegant Edges <Eyelt1-s>.  I stretched it some in each direction in CCR to get it to the size of the card.  I then copied that shape and stretched it a bit more to get a shadow.  The circle of flowers is from Paper Trimmings <Flower8><Circle>, cut at 3″.  The sentiment is from Sentimentals <Letter2><Layer>, cut at 2.5″. Because the letters are so thin and small, I cut them from white vinyl.

The band on the card is two strips of cardstock, one 1″ wide, the other 1.25″ wide.  I used an EK Success border punch on them, Deco Scallops.

Front3

  • Cricut cartridges — Elegant Edges, Floral Emporium (Imagine), Paper Trimmings, Sentimentals
  • EK Success Deco Scallops border punch
  • White vinyl

Circleville NSD 2013: Go Big Or Go Home! Challenge

 

I made this card for one of  Circleville’s NSD Challenges.  The Go Big Or Go Home Challenge was created by Sara.  She challenged us to create a layout or card  using an oversized photo or title.

I made a card, since I needed one for my younger brother’s birthday today — he turned 64.  He recently bought a wood lathe and has been having a blast making some beautiful wood projects, so I wanted to use a wood theme for his card.  I pulled out my Imagine Snapshot: Nature cartridge and printed a bark pattern for the background and a lighter wood grain pattern for the letters.

Front10

The card itself is made from kraft paper.  Happy Birthday is from Something to Celebrate and is cut at 3.5″.  I inked and chalked all the pieces before gluing them together.  This card is simple, but I really like how it turned out.  I put some money inside so my brother can go to the wood store and get something he wants.

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  • Cricut cartridges – Snapshot: Nature (Imagine), Something to Celebrate
  • Chalk
  • Ink
  • Stickles

Cute Bee Card Created in Cricut Craft Room

 

I spent most of this weekend creating this card in Cricut Craft Room.  I found a cute paper piecing card from Treasure Box Designs and fell in love with it.  When I saw the card, I wondered if I could create it in Cricut Craft Room.  I thought the cute bee on the Create a Critter cartridge would be perfect for it.

When a challenge was posted on the Cricut Circle message board to create a project in conjunction with Circle Mania that was going on in Atlanta, I decided to get cutting.  I was so happy that my design for the base of the card worked the first time I cut it.  I’m not sure how to describe this card, maybe a gate-fold card with a pocket for a tag in the back.

Card

Open

I cut the card base from kraft cardstock.  This is what the piece looked like after cutting and scoring.  And maybe you can see why it took me so long to design this card — I was doing a lot of figuring!  I used George and Basic Shapes and Cricut Craft Room Basics to design the card base.

ScoredPiece

 After scoring, the first step was folding the edges of the pocket towards the center.

FoldPocket

 I printed all the patterned paper for this card on my Imagine.  I love that I can print the exact paper that I want when creating a project.  I used three cartridges for the paper, Bubble Gum Stripes for the gold circles, Blast Off for the green checks, and Hopscotch for the gold print on the tag.

I adhered the piece over the pocket, being careful to not glue the bottom.  I applied glue to the top and side edges only.

GluePaperPocket

Next I folded the bottom piece up towards the top.  I glued the center section of the bottom piece and attached it to the pocket.  Again, I only glued three sides — the top and two sides.  I did not glue the bottom.

FoldUpBottom

The next step was attaching the patterned paper to the panels on the card.  I cut two of the gold circles for the very front pieces and four of the green checked paper.  I attached a white piece of paper to the center panel.  It then looked like this.

GluePaperFront

I adhered two green checked pieces to the back of the panels, as they show on the front when the card is folded.  This is a view of the back of the card, showing the two panels.

GluePaperBackSide

And here is what it looks like from the front, with the panels folded up.

GluePaperNoTag

The tag was cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes & More.  The dimensions of the tag are roughly 3 3/8″ x 5 3/8″.  I adhered the white panel to the tag.  I also cut a piece of green checked paper for the top and rounded the upper corners with a punch.  I adhered that to the white panel on the tag, so the white didn’t show when the tag is in the pocket.

Tag

The fence posts are also from Tags, Bags, Boxes & More.  They are the pointed tag, just made skinny and with the hole hidden.  I cut four of the posts, with two of them being slightly taller.  Those I adhered to the center front of the card.  I ran the fence posts through the Cuttlebug using the Distressed Stripes folder before gluing them down.

GlueFence2

Next, I assembled the bee, flowers and letters.  The flowers were cut at 1″ using Flower Shoppe, using two layers for each flower.  I inked the edges and curled up the petals on the top layers.  I ran some twine through buttons and glued them to the center of the flowers.

The bee was cut at 4″ using Create a Critter.  I hid the facial features and used an oval that I made using Cricut Craft Room Basics (I squashed a circle until I got the shape I wanted) for his nose.  For his eyes, I printed out a free cut file I got at The Beary Scrap.  I don’t quite feel confident enough to try and paint my own eyes.  I did think about adding eyelashes but decided not to because I cut the bee’s face from textured cardstock.  I know my pen marks would have been all over heck and I would not have been happy.

The lettering was done using Craft Room Basics and Mickey Font.

BeeFlowers

All that was left was to adhere these pieces to the card.  I attached the bee first.   After he was adhered to the card, I glued the sentiment on and then the flowers.  My card looked like this.

GluingFlowers

To keep the front of the card closed, I tied a ribbon around it.

Card2

I’ll add a few more pictures, showing the card open and the tag part way out.  I am very happy with how it turned out — made me feel all the work was worth it.  I will cut this card base again — I can picture many uses for it.  And I will also make the bee again, but with a different sentiment.  My mom is no longer living and this is the first Mother’s Day card I have made since she passed away.  I will probably give it to a friend or relative.

GluingInside

TagPartOut

Card3

  • Cricut Craft Room
  • Cricut cartridges used:  Cricut Craft Room Basics, George and Basic Shapes, Create a Critter, Flower Shoppe, Mickey Font, Tags, Bags, Boxes & More
  • Cricut Imagine cartridges used:  Blast Off, Bubblegum Stripes, Hopscotch
  • Cuttlebug — Distressed Stripes folder
  • Ink
  • Chalk
  • Buttons
  • Ribbon

I’m going to add one last phot photo, which is a screen shot of my CCR file, to show what shapes I used to create the card base.  I hope this will help others wanting to re-create it.

ScreenShot

My First Mixed Media Canvas — Cricut Southwest Contest

I have been wanting to try my hand at creating a mixed media canvas for a while now.  Cricut’s latest contest for their new Southwest cartridge gave me the push to get started.  The inspiration for my project was a picture I pinned on Pinterest of a gorgeous white dream catcher.

I watched a lot of videos online trying to gather facts on what supplies I needed and how I wanted to proceed.  I made a run to Michaels for supplies before I started.  I needed a canvas and gesso, and I also picked up a few fun items to try.  I think my favorite was the modeling paste.

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4

I laid my design out in Cricut Craft Room.  The first step was to paint the 8″ x 10″ canvas with gesso.  After it was dry, I cut out the dream catcher  at 7″ and border strips at .85″ from scrap cardstock so I could gauge where I wanted them on the canvas.  I lightly traced around the cuts with a pencil.

StepCanvasLayout

Then I added some cheesecloth to the canvas using a gloss medium.  When that was dry, I gave everything another coat of gesso.  Then I used two shades of Martha Stewart metallic craft paint to cover it.

StepCanvasPaint

For my borders, I cut the design using repositionable vinyl and made stencils.  I used the negative images for my stencils.  The stencils are the polka dot material in the pictures.  It is some vinyl I picked up on clearance.  Using the first stencil, I laid down some gunmetal metallic paint.  I would skip this step next time because I ended up covering that part of the design with some leather lacing.  I didn’t like the dark paint — it was too much of a contrast.

StepBorderDk1

In this picture you will notice the canvas looks different than the finished project. I had stamped some images on it that I decided to delete by covering with gesso and adding some more cheesecloth. I then painted the area to blend in with the background.

I laid down the turquoise color with the second stencil.  I put a layer of gesso first and then added two layers of color.  The final layer was a coat of Martha Stewart glitter paint.

StepBorderBlue

The third stencil is where I got to try the modeling paste.  I mixed some copper color into the paste and used a craft stick to smooth it over the stencil.

StepModelPaste1

I was so happy with how it turned out — the design is raised and after it dried it reminded me of pottery.

StepModelPaste

 

Before doing the last layer of the borders, I cut a stencil of the shadow of the dream catcher and stuck it on the canvas.  I mixed some glass bead gel with some glitter paint and spread it over the canvas.  This layer was pretty wet and it had to dry overnight.

StepGlassBeads

 

You can see the glass beads behind the web part of the dream catcher.  They give a really neat effect.

DCCloseup2

 

The final border stencil was a little tricky.  My first issue was weeding the correct vinyl — I kept pulling off the wrong areas.  The I had trouble getting it to stick on top of the modeling pasted.  It wanted to lift up, so I opted to add just a coat of copper glitter paint for the final coat, rather than changing colors completely.  I was afraid the paint would bleed and be noticeable if I went for a contrast.

StepBorderTopLayer

 

I was very pleased with the finished border.  The last layer added a subtle glitter design on the modeling paste.

BorderCloseup2

At this point I decided I did not like the stamped images I placed on the canvas earlier.  I painted over them with gesso and then added some more cheesecloth.  I went over the entire area with the metallic paint and blended the areas into the background.   I also glued some leather lacing along the edges of the border, covering the dark painted layer I had first stenciled on.  I was much happier with this look.

StepCheesecloth2

I used several layers to make the dream catcher.  I trimmed one layer so all I had was a circle and used that to tie on the trim and beads.  The top layer is also just the circle and I heat embossed it using a Fran-tage powder from Stampendous.  The web part is also heat embossed using a holographic powder.  I glued some small seed beads to it.  I added several layers of feathers and sketched in some lines using a marker.

StepDCLayers

 

This is what it looks like all put together.

 

DCCloseup

The flowers were cut at two sizes, 1.5″ and 1.25″.  I inked the edges and curled the petals under.  The flower centers are glass glitter from Stampendous.  I glued some feathers behind the flowers.  The owl was cut at 2″ and heat embossed with copper embossing powder.

Owl

The saying was printed using various fonts and cut apart into rectangles.  I inked the edges and glued them on the canvas.  It is actually a song lyric from Dream a Little Dream of Me, sung by Cass Elliott of the Mamas & Papas.

Here is a side view of the canvas, to give you an idea of all the texture and dimension it has.

SideView

While this project was very time consuming, I do want to try doing a canvas again.  With all the supplies I now own, I don’t have an excuse not to.

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  •  Cricut Southwest cartridge
  • 8″ x 10″ canvas
  • Liquitex Gesso
  • Liquitex Modeling Paste
  • Liquitex Glass Beads
  • Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (used to blend background paints)
  • Martha Stewart acrylic craft paints:  Light Gold Metallic, Pale Bronze Metallic, Aquarium Pearl, Turquoise Glitter, Brownstone Glitter, Sunstone Glitter
  • Cheesecloth
  • Stampendous Fran-tage embossing powder
  • Stampendous Glass Glitter
  • Yarn
  • Beads
  • Feathers
  • Leather lacing (from Michaels)