An Elegant Wreath

I had quite a day on Tuesday - lots of fires to put out and some unexpected complications.  I have a left hand wrapped in bandages right now so it is hard to type and I definitely can't do much with the hand for a few days.

With all of the fanfare about the new Cricut Mini and the Craft Room, I thought I'd share something to remind you to look carefully at the cartridges you own - you never know where you might find an unexpected treasure.  Using Design Studio, the Gypsy or now the online Craft Room can greatly expand the usefulness of your cartridges.  Of course, you do still have to work with the images available on the cartridges that you own. 

This wreath works beautifully to frame a page.  You can read all about it at THIS POST from a couple of years ago and adapt the idea to one of your projects.  Without peeking at the labels, can you tell me which cartridge this wreath is from?  My file is also available to download if you want to see how it was done.

I hope to be able to use my hand more tomorrow - sorry for the super short post today.  I had a minor surgery that turned out to be more involved than I expected but everything is fine.  How are your Thanksgiving preparations going? 


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One more week....

So much to do - and not much time left until Christmas.  I didn't post my file for the wreath that I shared yesterday - I had hoped to do a quick video explaining how I did a few things in the file but there wasn't a chance to do that today.  Here is a LINK to the original post.

Since I have had several people asking for the file, I will try to explain quickly what you need to do and then add a video in a few days when I get home.  You actually cut the wreath from the first page of the file.  On the second page, you can cut the stars to layer on the wreath - I found these on another key and resized them to fit - I also used "hide selected contour" to make good use of the glitter paper and eliminate the star that is too large.

The rest of the pages all have to do with adding a greeting to the center.  The two alternatives are the Christmas or Blackletter solutions cartridges.  You can use something else or just make the wreath without a greeting.  The third page has the Christmas solutions cartridge version set up to preview (positioned in the center of the wreath).  On the fourth page, the same words are set up to cut efficiently from a 4 x 8 piece of paper placed with the top left corner at 0 on the X axis and 2 on the Y axis (if that is confusing just look at the virtual mat and you can see where to put the paper!).

The fifth page show the Blackletter alternative for preview only.  I created and welded the phrase but I left it unwelded on this page to get the color to show in preview and make it easier to visualize the final result.  If you cut from this page the letters will not be welded!

The cutting page for the Blackletter version is on page six.  There is a little complication that I will explain here.  I wanted to add an apostrophe for "Season's" and there isn't one on the Blackletter cartridge so I used the semicolon.  You should hide the top dot when you open the file - since there is only one item hidden, it does not stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened .  When there are three or more contours to work with I have a way to make just one stay hidden (here is a LINK to an old post explaining how to do this).  Since there are only two contours, I can't do that in this case so you will need to do it each time the file is opened.

I also wanted the dot on the "i" to be attached to the "i" and I used the semicolon again.  You will need to hide the dot from the original "i" and the comma from the semicolon.  You can see the hidden contours in the second screen shot above.  I hope that you understand this - it will be a bit easier to show you when I make the video.  If it is too confusing - just use something else or skip adding a sentiment all together!

Here is the download link for the file - you will need the Expression to cut this.

Wreath from 50 States

The angel in the photo at the top of this post is another of my brother's stained glass pieces and was a gift many years ago.  If you are interested in seeing more stained glass art, here is a LINK to the Century Studios blog and here is a LINK to the store.

ONE MORE NOTE - today was "Hello Thursday" and new cartridges were announced.  You should update the font pack on your Design Studio - here is a LINK to the update page (you will have to log in first if you are not already logged in on the Cricut.com site).  The new cartridges are the three Spring mini cartridges (Love Struck, Easter and Mother's Day), Songbird, Heritage, Tie the Knot, Forever Young and Sentimentals.  Lots to see! (I'll have more to say about these later).

I am back in New Jersey.  Our younger son finished his exams yesterday.  He has only three semester of college left now!  Since he is a musician and has a lot of equipment and instruments that need to come home for the long break he needs Mom and the minivan to get home. We are keeping an eye on the weather and hope to sneak down to Pennsylvania on Friday to see my Dad for a day before heading up to Boston - there is talk of a storm so we will have to see how it develops...

An Unexpected Wreath

While there are several seasonal holiday Cricut cartridges available you can actually find images that will work for the holidays on other cartridges that you may own.  Sometimes I just browse through the cartridges on Design Studio looking at all of the options - there are endless possibilities once you combine the cartridges with the flexibility and creativity made possible by the Design Studio program.

A cartridge that doesn't get a lot of attention is the "50 States" educational cartridge.  I think the educational cartridges are easily overlooked because they are in their own section in the "All by Category" listing in Design Studio.  It is easier to find the cartridges if you add them to "My Cartridges" because they will appear in strict alphabetical order, regardless of category.  The 50 States cartridge has a lot to offer in addition to the state names, shapes and capitals.  The state birds, flowers and flags are also included. 

The key highlighted here is the cut I used to make this wreath.

Here is a preview of the image that the key cuts.  You could cut it straight from the cartridge and save the extra pieces, however, by using Design Studio and "hide selected contour" you can conserve your paper.

Here you can see that I have hidden the center images (they are in pale blue indicating that they will not cut).

I wanted some stars to layer on the wreath.  I found some on the key highlighted above.

This key cuts seven small and one large star.  I needed nine stars all the same size.  I manipulated the shape using the handles around the box to make sure the size was correct.  I cut the stars from glitter cardstock.

I wanted to conserve my cardstock, so I overlapped several of the cuts to nestle the stars as closely together as possible.  I  used "hide selected contour" to make this work.  If you look carefully at this screen shot you will see many blue lines.

The glitter cardstock I used was from the DCWV Holiday Collection mat stack.  Some of the colors have a very glossy finish but others, such as this gold, have a more textured feel that I like a lot.  When I cut glitter cardstock, I usually use blade depth 6, high pressure and multi cut 2.

I added Stickles to all of the "berry" spots on the wreath.  The paper I used for the base wreath is from a K & Co. Holiday Stack.  I used foam squares to raise up the stars for more dimension.

This cut makes a lovely frame on a page.  As always, the look changes dramatically with different background papers.  You could also create a framed piece for the wall with the addition of a holiday greeting in the center.

This screen shot shows a preview using the words "Seasons Greetings" from the Christmas Solutions cartridge.  Some people do not like the look of the "t" in "Greetings" - the curl can make it look more like an "f."

I tried an alternative by creating a welded phrase with the Blackletter cartridge.  (I did not check weld for the previews so I could see the phrases in color).  I think this is a bit easier to read though I would probably change it to "Merry Christmas."  (There is no "Merry" on the Christmas cartridge - the phrase is set up for "Happy Christmas" which is a more common greeting in England).

I made this wreath quite a while ago and I intended to layer it with another wreath to see it that would create a more traditional look but I haven't had time to do that or to "clean up" the file for posting.  I think the wreath on Joys of the Season would look nice with this wreath added on top.

I do something similar with the wreath on our front door each year.  I have a grapevine and ivy artificial wreath that I decorated several years ago.  Each year I buy a fresh evergreen wreath and layer the artificial wreath on top - it is a quick and easy way to have a fully decorated wreath very quickly!

I did lots of cleaning and put another tree up today - I am getting closer to finishing!   Tomorrow I'll be on my way to New Jersey.  I will try to post a file for this cut if I get a chance - you can easily replicate it yourself and add your own greetings phrase to suit.

 ETA:  Download link for file added in THIS POST - be sure to read the explanation so you can avoid a cutting error.