Seaside Notecard

 

I bought this great seaside paper last month and it has been sitting on my table just begging to be used.  The paper is from K & Company and the designer is Tim Coffey.

I like to buy mat pads and 6 x 6 stacks since the scale is often better for cards (though some companies just cut down the 12 x 12 papers so you do need to check).

 A piece like this is easy to cut up for several projects.  

I still have two more sections that I can use as is for cards or cut up into individuals motifs (they are offset on another piece of the same paper so you can see how it was cut).

The card base is ivory cardstock in A2 size (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches).  The seaside paper is cut at 2 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches (along the lines of the design and trimmed just a tad) and it is matted on a piece of dark blue Core'dinations cardstock cut at 3 x 5 inches.  The lighter blue textured layer is cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches and is also Core'dinations cardstock.

I added some aqua or "Caribbean" twine along the left side.   I got this in a sampler pack from The Twinery about a year and a half ago.  You can see the pack I bought HERE - they now have many more colors and lots of sampler packs to choose from.

I strung a few sea themed charms from Creative Charms on the twine before I wrapped it around the card layer.  The color is almost a perfect match.

I taped the ends of the twine on the back of the card layer.

Then I shifted the charms to be near the top of the card and tied a bow around all three strands with another piece of twine and trimmed the ends.

 

This will make a nice note card for a thank you for a beach vacation visit or could be used for an invitation.  It might even work for a Father's Day card

I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

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Complex Starbursts with Silhouette Studio

The Silhouette Studio software makes it fun and easy to create intricate original designs.  By mirroring, rotating and arranging simple elements, you can quickly end up with something quite complex and interesting.  I have purchased the designer edition of the software but haven't upgraded my program yet.  All of the designs I have created so far were made with the basic free version of the program.

If you are thinking about getting a Silhouette Cameo, you can download the software from the Silhouette site to "test drive" it.  You can find the download links HERE.

Once I created the starburst shape, it was a simple matter to overlap the points and create a four by three grid of stars.  I sized the group to 5 x 3.75 inches to fit on an A2 card with matting.  Whenever I create a design like this, I also cut a rectangle around the grouped shapes the size of my mat.  This gives me a secondary shape that I can use on another card - I hate to waste anything!

For the first cut I made of this design, I set the material to "heavy cardstock" and checked the box for a double cut.  I do this when I use the Cricut often to insure that the cut will be clean if it is very detailed like this.

The extra cut may have been overkill on the Cameo - some of the tips on this design are a bit ragged and I think it is from the second set of cuts.

I did another cut of the design, just slightly larger (for a 5 x 7 inch card) and set the machine for a single cut - it cut perfectly.  I'll have to try the smaller size with a single cut to see if it was the size of the design or if you really only need one cut.  My blade was set at 5 and I was using a Cricut mat (I have so many of these that I thought it was worth giving them a try since Silhouette mats are not readily available locally).

Here are the two cuts on a plain blue A2 card base - the star grid above and the "offcut" frame below.

I had planned to mat the cut with a layer of white on the card front.

When I looked at the design, I thought the edges needed more definition for the star grid cut.

The frame will work nicely for another card with the white layer cut at the same size (5.25 x 4 inches).  I could also cut a slightly larger piece of white cardstock to get a thin white line for a different look.

You can also take all of the leftover pieces that you remove from the mat to create the negative of the design by adhering the offcut squares in the frame. 

I decided to add an additional layer for a framed effect on my card.  I cut a piece of the same red  cardstock to 4 x 5.24 inches and trimmed the white cardstock to 3.75 x 5 inches.

It is tricky to adhere such a delicate design to the card mat.  You could use spray adhesive but that can be a bit messy (and you need good ventilation for the fumes).  I use LetraTac adhesive for these cuts (you can read my first review of the LetraTac adhesive HERE).  You place the cut on the adhesive and cover the cut with the release sheet, then rub with this little scraper.

When you lift the cut off the adhesive sheet, there are lots of tiny dots of adhesive that will hold the cut to your card or page securely.

Here is the card with the layers and the design adhered.  Of course, I couldn't just leave it like this - it needed a bit of bling!

I added small blue gem stickers to the outer ring of stars, and placed medium size clear gems on the two center stars.  I alternated red and blue stickers in the open spots between designs in the center.

I made this card in red, white and blue for Memorial Day.  I think it would also be pretty with the design cut in green and stickles added to the tips of the stars - they look a little bit like tulips to me!

If you have any questions about how I made the design, please leave a comment and I'll try to answer.  If you have the software already - just start playing with it.  You may be surprised at what you come up with!

After a weekend of beautiful weather we may get rain today - we are lucky that it stayed away for the holiday.  Have a great Tuesday!

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Super Simple Cards

It seems that life has been busier than ever lately - I think May is just a busy month for most people.  We have had lots of events to attend and more coming up this weekend.  I am a little off my usual schedule for posting - I have had less time to be in my craft room and even less time to get to the computer and write up the projects I have been making.

Since many of us are pressed for time, I wanted to share a super quick way to make a card.  Not a prizewinning, over the top fabulous card, just a simple card to send when your time is limited but you still want to send a card.

If you are like me, you can't resist buying paper, cardstock and more paper.  This 8 x 8 stack was at Marshall's for a few dollars and I liked the look of a lot of the designs - so I bought it.  I don't know how long it has been sitting on my shelf.  I think I have used one or two pieces since I got it.

Flipping through the stack I saw this design and I knew it would convert to a card topper very easily.  I cut it in half through the plain center area to make two pieces that measured four inch by eight inches.  Then I looked at the design and decided where to cut each half to showcase the floral design to suit a card front.  In this case, I thought the section with the larger dark blue flower would be the best so I cut a piece at 5 1/4 inches to make a card topper.

I stamped the sentiment in blue - not quite an exact match, but close enough.

I wasn't quite happy with the stamping, so I used a Sakura Stardust glitter pen to soften the stamped image and add some sparkle (it may be difficult to see in the photo above but when the light hits the card it is really sparkly - see below).

You don't have to be perfect - just trace the letters as best you can and they will shine prettily.

I added ribbon along the shiny pink section of the cardstock and taped it to the back before adhering the topper to the card.  Then I tied a knot with a shorter piece of ribbon near the top of the card.

Whenever I use a darker shade of cardstock for the card base, I add some sort of liner to make it easier to write the message.  You can just add a plain piece of 5 1/4 x 4 inch cardstock but I like to use one of my many border punches to dress it up a little.  It takes just a few seconds but it really makes a difference!

To finish the card, I added pearls in a few sizes to the centers of the flowers.

Quick and simple - but still a nice way to say thank you!

Do you have any favorite shortcuts for making cards?  What is your favorite "go to" style when you have just a short time to make something?

I am planning on starting the scrapbooking challenges soon so think about an event or a set of photos that you have "been meaning to get to."  Then print the photos if they are digital and you want to make traditional pages so you will be ready to go (digital pages are fine too if you prefer them).  If your photos are already printed - great!  The plan is to finish pages in a simple style and to tell the story behind the photos instead of burying them in embellishments.  If you prefer sketches to get you started, I'll be happy to post some - just leave a comment to let me know.


Have a great day!

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Creative Charms Inventory Clearance

New items have been added to the Creative Charms Inventory Clearance Sale.  They will be on sale at a special price of 85 cents a package for a week and then any remaining items will be available on the SALE page (most items are $1 per package on this page).  All items are sold in quantities of six packages.

The Sparkled Butterfly Medley includes one 2 inch and three 1 inch butterflies that make adorable accents for cards and projects.  The clearance price is $5.10 for six packages.

The Sparkled Flowers measure one inch with a gem center and there are six flowers in a package.  There are eight colors available and the clearance price is $5.10 for six packages.

The Sequin Trimmed Butterflies come in four colors with two butterflies in each package.  The clearance price is $5.10 for six packages.

I have added some photos of a few of my projects using these embellishments - just click on any of the photos in this post to see the full blog post for the project.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

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May Basket Class (and a little giveaway...)

Thanks for all of the responses about your card making - it's always nice to hear what other people do.  It was funny to see how many of you had questions about the folder and the pansy image.  I usually give so many details in a post that I worry it may be overkill - but if I don't, there are always lots of questions!  So today I have a long post with all of the details about the projects we made in the class and a little surprise too...

The original idea for the class was to make a May Basket.  Traditionally, a May basket is filled with flowers or treats and left anonymously on a neighbor's door.  I don't know if many people do this anymore, but the ladies in the class knew the tradition.

The basket is from the Easter 2010 seasonal Cricut cartridge.  I cut it at 11 inches.  This size will fit on the 12 x 12 mat but there is one little trick to make it work.  The basket and handle are all one image (two pieces that add to the mat in one box).  When the basket is this large, the handle extends just a bit into the "uncuttable zone" at the edge of the mat.  To solve this problem and get as large a basket as possible, I made two pages in the file.  In the first, I centered the basket on the mat and hid the handle and for the second, I centered the handle on the mat and hid the basket.  You just load the mat and cut one page and then the next page without unloading so you only need one piece of 12 x 12 cardstock for each basket.

This basket is designed with small circular holes in the scallops.  I have used this basket before and I wasn't happy with the way the circles cut.

They tend to slant into an oval shape and were off center to the "bumps" of the edge design.  The simple solution was to hide the circles and just leave the decorative edge.  I also hid all of the scoring "tick" marks.  I think they make the folds looks very sloppy.  If I am not sure about the scoring, I will cut a sample with the marks in ugly paper and score it to use as a pattern.

The only interior cut lines I kept were the two side slits for inserting the handle.  If I wanted to delete all of the scoring marks, including the handle slits, I could have simply checked weld.  I would still have to hide the little circles but this doesn't take very long.  The baskets were much faster to cut without the circles, which was a help for making a larger quantity.

I decided that it would be best to do the scoring at home.  The angles are a little tricky and I wasn't sure it anyone would have used a scoring tool before.  Since we had limited time to work, I also added pieces of Scor-Tape on the flaps for assembling the basket.

The handle has a flower and leaf shape at the center but there are no layer cuts on the cartridge to add to the top.  I used a Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch to punch two light and two dark green leaves from glittered Core'dination cardstock (Core Couture).  I also punched a scalloped circle from purple Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock with the Creative Memories scallop circle maker punch.

One leaf of each color on each side fits nicely over the cut shape of the handle.

The scalloped circle covers the stems and the flower shape on the handle.

The white flared flower from Creative Charms adds a nice sparkle to the top of the basket.

I was concerned the the handle might pull out easily if the basket was loaded with goodies, so we punched out hearts and flowers from adhesive cardstock to secure the ends on the inside of the basket.

Some of the ladies chose to add the sticky shapes as reinforcement on the outside of the basket as well (this photo shows the Martha Stewart Cosmos punch shape on the inside).

I gave them some crumpled tissue paper to fill the basket and a mini chocolate bar as a start on the goodies to go inside!  We also added tags punched with the Creative Memories Tag Maker and secured the tag to the basket with a small butterfly brad from Creative Charms.

The sets that include these butterflies are on the inventory clearance sale now at Creative Charms.

I knew that the baskets would be fairly quick to put together, especially since I did all of the scoring and taping ahead of time, so I decided we should also make a card.

The pansy image I chose is from the Art Nouveau Cricut cartridge.  The style of the flowers on this cartridge is so appealing to me.  I made several of the flowers for part of the display for the center's gallery.  I decided to add the "thanks" sentiment as an option since most people can always use a thank you card.

Here is the location of the image on the keypad.  I cut all of the layers in groups to be more efficient for making up kits.

I hid all of the guideline marks again.  These shapes are very simple to assemble and If the lines show, they can look a little messy.  It also made the cutting go more quickly.  I arranged the shapes with Design Studio to fit as many as possible on the mat.  I labeled all of the mats with the color, the number of images on the mat and, if the mat needed to be cut more than once, I added "X2" to remind me.

 I played around with the colors a little in another file.  I lined up all of the layers and filled them with colors approximating the color I would use.  Since each mat will only preview in one color, you need to make quite a few pages in the file and move the images into position to get an approximation of the completed card.  This "Thank You" is from the Martha Stewart Crafts All Occasions Cakes cartridge.

In the end, I opted to use the Cuttlebug "With Gratitude" die to cut the sentiment.

There are five layers for the pansies and they are easy to assemble (but you do have to watch out for the tiny lighter green strip that layers to create a woven effect for the stems).

The background layer of the card is cut from heavy watercolor paper.  This paper takes the embossing very nicely.  I centered the piece of watercolor paper,  cut at 5 1/4 x 4 inches, in this checkerboard embossing folder which creates a basket weave effect.

I could not find the name of the embossing folder.  It was part of a set that was exclusive to Oh My Crafts with stripes, bricks and a tile pattern.  I think these came out in 2009 and I don't know if they are available anywhere now.  (Thanks to Debbie who left a comment with the names for the folders - Checkerboard is the one I used and the other three are Pajama Stripe, Brickyard and Window Panes.  Hers came in a promotional set with the Cuttlebug machine)

Since the folder is 5 x 7 it was easy to line up the design with my trimmed piece of cardstock to get an nearly perfect edge.

A single gem sticker in the center of the flower finishes off the image.  Some of the ladies chose to use this as a general note card and centered the flower shape on the card front.

The card base is a deep purple Bazzill cardstock, so we needed a liner to be able to write legibly inside the card.  I cut some plain white cardstock to 5 1/4 x 4 inches and punched one long edge with the Martha Stewart Pansy Punch Around the Page border punch.  I centered it carefully to make the pansies come out evenly.

I made this quick digital page with the photos of the class.  I'll drop off an 8 x 8 copy at the center for their bulletin board.  I used Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0 to make this page and I'll have more details about the page another day.  Remember, the software is on sale for 35% off (making it only $42.22) until the end of April.  (You can click HERE to go to the page for the software on my Creative Memories site).

There is also a three day sale on Mother's Day digital content for 30% off - this sale ends on Saturday the 21st.  There are many items included - basically anything flowery or feminine! Here is a LINK to the sale page on my site.  Some of the Creative Memories digital content is now available in universal format so you can use it with other programs - be sure to check the format in the description (most of the universal format items are at the end of the list).

As the mother of two Eagle Scouts, I have learned over and over to "Be Prepared."  I made sure to have plenty of kits for the class in case someone came unexpectedly or there was a piece missing or a part was damaged before the card was put together.

If you have read this far - it must be a slow morning for you!  By now you know that I like the number three, and I have three complete card kits (just the card, not the basket) that I'd love to send to three readers.  This card would be pretty for Mother's Day with the appropriate sentiment added.

If you'd like to receive a kit, just leave a comment on this post.  Please be sure to leave a way I can contact you if your name comes up in the random draw.  I'll pick three names next Wednesday (a week after the class) and post them on Thursday.

Please tell me in your comment a favorite crafting tip - a tool you love, a site that inspires you, a source of unique items to use for your projects, or a way that you organize your craft space.  It's much more interesting to read tips than a series of "please pick me" posts and it will be helpful for other readers too!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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