A few days ago I found out my most recent project, the Diorama/Luminaria card, was chosen as Project of the Week at Bitten by the Bug 2 in their Window to the World Challenge. I am so thrilled. Thank you so much!!
They have a great design team and list a new challenge every Monday, so be sure and check them out. I just completed my project for their challenge that ends today, so I am off to get busy writing so I can post it here.
I’m not sure what to call my latest project. I like to think of it as a hybrid — a cross between a window and diorama card and a luminaria.
It all began with the Window to My World Challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2. I knew immediately what window I wanted to use for this challenge — the cute little dog and cat looking out the window at the snow on the Enjoy the Seasons Cricut Imagine cartridge. Then my brain started spinning with what I could do to make the card unique. For a couple of days that’s all that happened — my brain spun and not one good idea. Then it hit me — I wondered what it would look like if I printed the window part on vellum and lit it from the back.
That is where the diorama card comes into play, as it has sections. I used the tutorial for a diorama card posted on splitcoaststampers.com as my guide.
I altered the measurements so that a battery operated tealight candle would fit in the back section. My two print papers I used on the diorama were printed from the Elise Imagine cartridge. I wanted a print that was not necessarily holiday looking and thought the prints on Elise went well with the cat and dog image. My finished card/luminaria measures about 6″ x 6″x 2.5″.
I cut my print paper so that the two blue pieces (the outside) were 11″ x 6″, cutting an oval from George & Basic Shapes out of one section for the front. I scored 2.5″ from each end and folded on those marks. Because the oval takes a huge chunk out of the front of the card, I found I had to stabilize it. I cut a piece of plain white cardstock with the oval, this time a little under 6″ wide, and glued it to the inside center to give it some strength.
The middle section was cut from the mocha print at 9″ x 6″ with a 2.5″ x 1.5″ window cut from the center. I scored each end of this piece at 1.5″ and folded. This is what my pieces looked like.
I printed the cat and dog on the Imagine at 4″, printing it on vellum and then in layers on regular white cardstock. I took my craft knife and cut out the sky between the window panes from the cardstock piece, so that the vellum sky would show through. This pictures shows both the vellum print and the piece with the sky cut out of it.
I added some Stickles to the snow on the vellum and let it dry. I trimmed the vellum and glued it on the mocha piece, lining the sky up with the cut-out rectangle. Then I attached the cardstock piece with the cut out sky over that. I did two layers of the love seat and attached it, then layered the cat and dog twice and attached them with pop-dots. I printed a little sign from Enjoy the Seasons to hang above the window and added a blue pearl on each side.
I started assembling my pieces, putting the mocha and back section together first. Before attaching the front, I cut a snowflake frame from Lacy Labels that I adjusted in Design Studio to fit the oval on the front. I cut two layers, the top layer from a glittery cardstock and attached the frame around the oval. I cut extra stars and snowflakes and popped them up on the frame. Then I attached the frame to the other sections. I used a tealight with a white LED flame, which I ordered online. All I could find at my local stores were tealights with amber flames and I didn’t want an amber cast to my snow. This picture shows the card from above, showing the different sections. The tealight sits right below the vellum window. Because there is no bottom to the card, you just have to set it over top of the tealight.
This picture shows the card from the side, so you can see how the front and back overlap each other.
It was hard trying to take a picture showing the lit window, but I think this one gives you a good idea of what it looks like. The card will fold up, but it doesn’t go completely flat. I think I stuffed it too much. I would not send it in an envelope — it would have to hand delivered or sent in a box. But this one I plan on keeping for myself!
I had a lot of fun creating this card — it’s a little different from what I usually do. I am already thinking of other projects using this concept.
I think this is my first time making a card using the card feature on a Cricut cartridge. I searched through the suns I had and found this cute shaped card on Something to Celebrate. This is also one of the few times that I have used only one cartridge to make a card.
I cut the card base out of white cardstock and then started adding layers. My colored cardstock is all from Stampin’ Up. I added a layer of turquoise, three layers of the yellow/gold and two layers for the white cloud. Inking was all done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks.
I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the sun, using a new folder called Charles. It has a neat chevron pattern of small dots. I used Divine Swirls on the cloud and Swiss Dots on the pink “Happy”. I traced the lines of the swirls on the clouds with Glossy Accents and sprinkled with Martha Stewart crystal glitter. Then I used Glossy Accents around the edges of the cloud and sprinkled with MS coarse glitter.
A friend’s daughter graduated from middle school a few days ago. I wanted to make her a card that was not the average grad card — I wanted something a little funky and feminine. I know she enjoys music, and just to prove how old I am, I have never heard of the groups she likes!
I decided to go with the phrase, “You Rock.” I found the phrase on the Cricut Phrases cartridge and liked the bold design. However, this particular phrase came with a lightning bolt at the end of it. So to make it more feminine, I welded a rose from the Indie Art cartridge over top of the lightning bolt. I also decided to make this a shaped card.
The fun part of this card was printing and cutting the layers on my Imagine. I used the Floral Emporium cartridge for the prints and solid colors (excluding the black cardstock). I love the bright colors and fun prints on this cartridge. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the bright pink print paper on the phrase and rose. The grad hat was cut from Everyday Pop-Up cartridge.
I used pop dots on the grad hat, rose and the “you” on the phrase to add depth.
For the inside of the card, I printed and cut a greeting from the Imagine cartridge, Greeting Cards Inside & Out.
When I was laying out the card in Design Studio, I was trying to keep the dimensions so the card would fit into a #10 envelope. However, this is a big card and ended up being about an 1″ too large either way, so I made a custom envelope for it. Luckily the card was hand delivered so I didn’t have to worry about postage.
As I was working on this card, Bitten by the Bug 2 announced their latest challenge — the Rose Challenge. I was so happy because I would be able to enter this card in the challenge.
This is a card I made to enter in Bitten by the Bug 2‘s Water Theme Challenge. The Design Team made some fantastic projects that provided lots of inspiration. Donna, a member of the Design Team, makes wonderful shaped front cards and I have always wanted to try making one myself. When I saw her card for this challenge, I decided it was time to give it a try.
The patterned paper is from a me & my Big ideas paper pad that I picked up at their warehouse sale a few years ago. What a fun day that was — Erin & I brought home a car load of goodies! The solid cardstock is from Bazzill.
Besides not knowing what I was doing, all the welding proved challenging. I laid out lots of shapes in Design Studio and welded them together. For the card front, I welded a rectangle from George and Basic Shapes cartridge with waves from Life is a Beach, a sun from Mickey & Friends, letters to spell “Surf’s Up” from Mickey Font, and finally the little dog with the duck floaty from Paper Pups. All these shapes I then welded to a larger rectangle to form the back of the card.
I cut out lots of layers, did some inking, and then applied them using lots of pop dots. My card doesn’t have the depth that Donna’s cards have, but I am happy with my first try.
I added a piece of pattern paper to the inside, but I have to figure out where I will write a message. The paper I used is flocked, so it is bumpy and will not be good for writing. I liked the paper, though, because it reminds me of air bubbles.
I made this card for the Kitchen Challenge over at Bitten by the Bug 2. Your project must be based on something you would find in a kitchen and have a Cricut cut on it. I started out with all sorts of ideas but narrowed it down to a teapot. I was laying out my design in Cricut Design Studio and thought it was looking pretty good. I decided to try making an easel card, going for a floral, frilly teapot.
Then, a couple of nights ago I was checking out one of my favorite embroidery websites, EmbLibrary.com, and happened upon a strawberry teapot. I kept looking at it and wondered if I could make something similar using my Cricut. So I started playing around in Design Studio and ended up with this card.
I used Core’dinations solid cardstock for the base of the card. All the dotted printed paper I did on my Imagine, using The Good Old Days cartridge. I am really having fun using my Imagine.
The teapot I used is from Kate’s ABCs cartridge and I welded a strawberry from Preserves over top of the teapot, so just the spout and handle were sticking out beyond the strawberry. I then welded an oval from George & Basic Shapes onto the bottom of the teapot, to form the base of my easel card. Here is a side view of the card, so you can see how it stands up.
I cut a scalloped oval and doily shape from Lacy Labels to go on my base. Through the holes of the doily shape, I threaded seam binding that I dyed using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. Where my seam binding met, I tied a bow. Here is a close-up of the base so you can see how I threaded the binding, and also how the three small flowers allow the card to stand up. I used Liquid Pearls to add some dots on the doily.
I also used seam binding to tie a bow around the handle of the teapot. I used Glossy Accents and Martha Stewart coarse glitter to add some sparkle to the flowers.
I made the tag using my Imagine and the Imagine More cartridge. I am very happy with how it came out — it is my first cut and print piece that I have used on a project. I changed the color on one of the layers and left off the sentiment that was on this particular tag. I then took a Studio G stamp and stamped Happy B-Day on the front and tied it up with some twine.
And here is a picture to show you what the card looks like when it is flat.
When I finished my card, I thought it would be nice if I embroidered some tea towels using the strawberry embroidery design that inspired my creation. I found a couple of blank striped towels that I thought the design would look OK on and proceeded to stitch them out. So now I have a nice gift set to give to someone.
And, finally, I want to thank the wonderfully talented Design Team at Bitten by the Bug 2 for the prize that I won in the frame challenge. My number was picked to receive the Smash Book prize — and I am so excited! Thank you everyone at Bitten by the Bug 2.
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.
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.
Wow, it has been so long since I posted something on our blog. A couple of weeks ago, Bitten by the Bug 2, posted their Princess (the Word) Challenge and I decided I wanted to participate. Of course, I waited until the last minute to finish my project. Time is running so short, in fact, that I am going to post pictures right now so I can link my project to their blog and then come back and post the details. I am hoping I can come back and add comments without creating a disaster — we’ll see how that works out 🙂
OK, now I will see if I can add some details. The picture in this layout is of our dog and it was taken in 2006, shortly after we adopted her from a rescue group. Fifi was in foster care for about a year before we got her, so we decided to keep the name she came with — even though it was not high on my hubby’s list of dog names.
Fifi also came with a few issues, the most worrisome was that she nipped. We talked with our veterinarian about the problem and she recommended a dog trainer–Fifi likes to refer to her as her personal trainer. Anyway, the trainer seemed to do the trick as Fifi has not nipped since getting individual and group training.
At the end of the year, the trainer had a party for the dogs. She does this each year and always chooses a different theme. For 2006 the theme was Prom. The dogs all came dressed up, but once they walked for judging they got to get undressed and get down to some serious partying — which included running in the dog park and lots of doggy treats.
This was the first (and so far only) time that Fifi has dressed up — and I wanted to make her something special to wear. I altered a dog pattern to make her frilly dress. I also made a matching cover for her leash. I was surprised that Fifi did not mind wearing the dress. After walking for the judges, Fifi was chosen as a Prom Princess and her award was a new chew toy.
I used a paper stack from Die Cuts With a View called The Chateau Lavender. I laid out my design in Cricut Design Studio and I used the Once Upon a Princess cartridge for the title “Princess” cut and Don Juan for “Prom”. The frame was cut from Elegant Edges, the throne from Formal Occasion and the dog and crown from Paper Pups.
I did some heat embossing on the frame using some Stampendous products that I recently bought. The embossing powder I used all over the frame is called Fran-tage Shabby White Opaque. It is chunky and has lots of gold glitter in it. I also added some Stampendous Shaved Ice on top of the powder before I heated it — the Shaved Ice adds chunks of bling. My only problem was trying to keep it from blowing all over. I heated the frame from underneath, as Stampendous recommends.
I cut a throw rug to go underneath the throne using George and Basic Shapes. For the white on the crown, I heat embossed it using the same Stampendous products that I used on the frame. I did some chalking on the pup.
I used Stampendous Fran-Tage Lavender Crushed Glass Glitter on the princess hat in the title and used Stickles on the star that dots the “i”. The last step was the small flowers, which are Recollections brand from Michaels that I recently got on clearance. I used Stickles in the center of the flowers.
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