Something a Little Different...a game!

Happy Friday!  Today is the last day of my week of Guest Designing over at the Everyday Cricut blog.  It has been a lot of fun and I want to thank Joy and Melanie again for asking me to be their Guest Designer this week.

If you have just arrived here from the Everyday Cricut blog welcome!  If you are visiting my blog for the first time, I hope you will find lots of interesting and helpful information.  At the top of the right column you can click to subscribe by email or follow this blog if you want to keep up with my projects and tutorials. It has been a very busy week and I have many more Valentine's projects that I am working on - I hope you will continue to visit my blog to see them in the coming weeks.

Today on the Everyday Cricut blog I have posted my Tic Tac Toe game project.  This was easy and fun to do - the key ingredient is the "make it yours" Vintage Frames from Creative Charms. 
You can read all about the game and how I made it HERE.

I was asked to show how to make the second style of candy holders I posted a few days ago on the Everyday Cricut blog.  I have made a lot of different candy holders for table favors or little gifts.  This is one of the easiest styles to make.  You can see step by step on a slightly different set of favors HERE and I thought I'd also show you one more time, using this as the example.

This is the heart I chose.  There is a blackout version which I could use for the base and to layer below this heart.

Here is the screen shot of my design.  I simply welded the heart shapes to a rectangle to create a shaped base.  You could just cut a rectangle and glue on the toppers if you didn't have access to Design Studio.

The welded cut is centered and scored to create a one inch base.  Score at 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 and be sure that your cut is centered so it will line up.

I cut the hearts for layering with Design Studio.  This allowed me to "nestle" them together as you can see above.  I may use this offcut for something!

The heart layers are cut from that red fuzzy contact paper again.  They came out beautifully with multi cut 2 times and blade depth 4 pressure 4.

I embossed the white heart backgrounds with the "Love Language" Cuttlebug folder - I love the tiny hearts!  Here you can see what a difference it makes!

This candy holder also works with a small treat bag (3 x 4), and I needed to trim it a bit from the top to make it fit comfortably.

You can check the fit before assembling.  I didn't fill the bag with candy (cruise diet, remember!) but I prepared it to take some candy if I decide to give this token to someone.

 

I cut two hearts layers but you really only need one for the front of the candy holder.   I can save this one to use on a card.

I added the layers to the base of the holder and made sure that the tops and the plastic bag were aligned.

Then I used the Cropadile to punch through all of the layers at once.

I made sure the hole would be in the fuzzy red area.

There is room on the heart to add individual names if you want to use these for place cards.  I used a Gradient Gem Brad from Creative Charms to hold the bag and the cover together.  Don't forget to visit the Creative Charms Blog and sign up as a follower - they are having a great giveaway this week.  You need to leave a comment on the post linked HERE.  Tell them Diane sent you!

 This is how it looks on the back - the brad is not very noticeable on the bold patterned paper.  If you were giving this to a crafting friend, the brad could be saved by your friend to use on another project.

You can adapt this basic design for any season or occasion - these are fun to make and also quick and easy!

I tried to answer most of the questions that have come my way about this week's projects on the post today on Everyday Cricut HERE.  I have had a crazy schedule but I will get the videos and tutorials that were requested finished and posted as soon as possible.

Be sure to check in later today or tomorrow to find out about a couple of fun things - if you liked this week's projects you won't want to miss one of them!

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My Fuzzy Valentine

(This post originally appeared on the Everyday Cricut blog where I was the Guest Designer for the week of January 10-14, 2011)

Hi, it's Diane from Capadia Designs and I am happy to be here with you this week.  I am honored that Joy and Melanie asked me to return for a second Guest Designer week.  I was Guest Designer for the week of March 8 - 12 in 2010.  Last time I did a lot of Easter  projects, however, for the next week it will be all Valentine's Day Projects.  There is only about a month to go before Valentine's Day so it is time to get busy with all of those sweet and special cards, candy holders and other lovable projects!

I decided to try cutting some different types of materials for some of my projects this week.  Quite a while ago I bought some Con-Tact paper at our local 5 & 10.  I just grabbed the red color in a hurry and paid for it.  Later I realized that I had purchased fuzzy, felt-like contact paper.  This is the back of the paper (the wrapper is long gone).  It is called "Ultra Covering" if you want to try to find some.

It occurred to me that it might be a good way to have my letters and shapes look "flocked" with out a lot of mess so I experimented with cutting the paper.  I normally cut vinyl at medium speed, medium pressure and blade depth 4.  This creates a "kiss cut" where the vinyl is cut and the backing stays intact.  In this case, the material is much thicker and I thought it would be best to try to cut through the backing as well.  After some experimentation I found that doing a 2 times multi-cut with the pressure at 4 and the blade at 5 produced a consistently clean cut.  (You may have to experiment a bit to find the ideal settings for your machine).

You can hardly tell if the cut has worked when the mat is still in the machine since the thickness of the material hides the cut lines.  If you look very carefully at the photo above, you might be able to see a few places where the cuts show.

 By using multi-cut 2 times, I was able to get a very clean cut that lifted from the mat easily.

 In one of the first attempts, the blade kept snagging in one place on my heart design.  I think this was due to the pressure being set at 6 - just a bit too high.

I didn't think I could cut a perfect mirror image of the curve, however, I was able to trim both sides of the heart evenly so these cuts can still be used.

The heart I used is from the Wedding cartridge. This is a solutions cartridge and I believe it has been discontinued.  If you can find it, I would highly recommend picking it up.  There are lots of lovely images and some nice favor boxes, including a couple of pillow boxes.

I used Design Studio to help me set up the cut to use the least amount of material.  In the screen shot above you can see that when you enter two hearts directly from the keypad they take up more room than they did when I rotated each heart and slid them together on the mat.  I like being able to see how the items would cut straight from the cartridge and then to see how I can improve on the cut with Design Studio.

I also always use Design Studio to help me figure out the right size for the cuts on my cards.  I set up guideline card blanks and then I can see exactly how big to make each element for the card.  It also helps me to decide whether to make a horizontal or a vertical card.  I knew I didn't want to cut the "Sweetheart" word any smaller than 1 1/2 inches to keep the lines of the letters from becoming too thin.  I could see that  the word would not fit at this size on a vertical A2 card.

 Here is the keypad screen shot showing the location of the "Sweetheart" cut.

I thought the "Conversations" Cuttlebug folder would be perfect to emboss the background.  This is a five by seven inch folder so I was able to selectively place my card layer (cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches) to have the embossing include the words on the hearts that I preferred to show.  I used 140 lb watercolor paper to get a lovely thick embossed layer.

When I was ready to add the word to the card, it was easy to peel off the backing because this material is much thicker than vinyl.

I used the section I peeled off to check the placement one more time since the sticky backed material would not be easy to move once I got it on the card.

Here is a close view of the fuzzy word on the card front.  I like all of the texture from the embossing and the dimensional word.

I used my Creative Memories Multi Purpose tool to help guide the sticky cuts into position.  The cut can be moved a bit if you are careful not to push it down firmly.

The finishing touch was this red faceted gem which is one of the Vintage Jewels from Creative Charms.

Here is the final card.  The red card base is "Pure Poppy" from Papertrey Ink.  I wish you could touch it to feel the thick embossed layer and the fuzzy heart and word!

Here is another Valentine's card in a much more traditional style.  I cut the sentiment from glitter cardstock.  You can read all about this card on my blog, Capadia Designs, at THIS POST.

Don't forget to leave a comment to have a chance for the Country Life cartridge.  I look forward to sharing a sweet project with you tomorrow!

Diane


Be sure and check out Joy's and Melanie's personal blogs for more creative goodness at Obsessed with Scrapbooking and Courtney Lane Designs! Have a great day!
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Valentine's Week at Everyday Cricut

I was honored to be asked by Joy and Melanie to be the Guest Designer this week on their popular blog Everyday Cricut.  They are sponsored by ProvoCraft and give away a Cricut cartridge every week.  This week it is the Country Life cartridge. If this is your first time to visit my blog, welcome!  I hope you will enjoy it and follow or subscribe so you can keep up to date with my projects and tutorials.

I was a Guest Designer on Everyday Cricut once before (from March 8 - 12, 2010) and I will be doing a similar style of posting with a project on the Everyday Cricut blog and a "companion post" here on my blog.  You'll want to be sure to visit the Everyday Cricut blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the cartridge. 

For today's posts I made a couple of cards.  I cut some slightly different materials with my Cricut.  The card above is the one featured on the Everyday Cricut blog and I used fuzzy contact paper for the heart and the sentiment.  You can read all about it HERE.

After Christmas sales are a great time to pick up materials for next year's projects.  Sometimes you find things that can be used even sooner.  There is always a lot of red and green for Christmas and you can often use the red items for Valentine's Day and the green for St. Patrick's Day.  (I used to do this with the leftover Christmas candy assortment of M and Ms!).  I found some beautiful Anna Griffin items on clearance at Michael's and the red and white border in this package caught my eye.

I thought the design would be lovely for a Valentine's Day card.  The strip was twelve inches and when I cut it into two sections of three squares and set aside the partial squares on the ends I had pieces that were just under 5 1/4 inches long and perfect for A2 cards.

This was my "first draft" of the card.  I used an ivory cardstock base and found some "Ruby Red" Stampin' Up cardstock that was a near perfect match for the patterned strip for the layer.  The layer is cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches.

I wanted to add some texture to the layer and I remembered that the "Love Language" Cuttlebug A2 Combo Set has a folder with tiny hearts.  Unfortunately the hearts are designed to emboss on a vertical card front, however, it was easy to make the folder work for a horizontal card.  First I carefully lined up the hearts on the left side of the cardstock and embossed the left side.

Then I inserted the embossed cardstock in the folder with the last row of hearts overlapping and ran it through the Cuttlebug again.  The A2 folder will fit through in this direction easily.

After these two steps, I ended up with a nicely embossed horizontal card layer.

I found this lovely "Happy Valentine's Day" sentiment on the Martha Stewart Crafts Seasonal Cake Art cartridge.  I cut it at 1 1/2 inches to fit the card comfortably.

I decided the card needed some more sparkle, so I used DCWV Glitter cardstock for the sentiment.  This particular gold is from the Holiday Collection Mat Stack in 2009.  Many glitter cardstocks will cut well in the Cricut.  It is best to find the ones that have the glitter embedded or under a glaze.  If you try to cut a rough glitter cardstock (the kind you can run your hand across and remove some of the glitter) it can get very messy and the loose bits could get into places they shouldn't and interfere with your machine.

 For this cardstock I used blade depth of 6, pressure at 4 (high) and did a 2 times multi-cut.  Multi-cut is almost always the answer if you are having trouble with cuts snagging.  You can reduce the pressure just a bit and when the cut is made twice any places that were not cleanly cut the first time are usually fine after a second cutting.  I use this Creative Memories Multi Purpose Tool to lift the cuts and help to separate the waste sections.

I liked the old fashioned look of the border strip and I decided to add one of the Red Vintage Poppies from Creative Charms at the top of the card.  I replaced the pearl brad with a gold one from the 3D Vintage Brads - Antique Flower Medley.

Here is a close view of the brad in the poppy.

I decided to add a red Gradient Gem Sticker in the smallest size and darkest shade of red to give it a bit of spark.

I used a large 3D Glue Dot to attach the poppy to the card.

I added two more medium size gem stickers to the centers of the other two designs in the border strip.  This was my final card - but then I remembered some tiny cherubs that I found at a local antique shop.  I knew one of them would add a little touch of nostalgia to the card.

The cherub is a charm but I slipped the loop under the border and it is hidden.

Here is my final card - don't forget to check and see what you can find in the Christmas clearance that might work with your other seasonal projects.

Tomorrow I'll be bringing you something sweet - I hope you like it!

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