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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Reindeer Games

It has been unseasonably warm here in Massachusetts - the high today was 73 degrees!  The warm weather makes it hard to believe that Christmas will be here soon.  Are you making holiday cards this year?

I stopped in at a small Joann's store the other day and found a stamp in the dollar bins that made me smile.  The stamp is by Studio G and is part of a series of six Rudolph stamps that I was able to find on the Hampton Arts site HERE.  I just had to buy the stamp and make a quick card.

I needed a reindeer that was "cute" to make this card.  I don't do a lot of "cute" and usually would prefer a more stylized and elegant reindeer.  There are several reindeer on the "Christmas Cheer" cartridge that were just the right type.  This is an older cartridge and it was one of the first (dozen or so) cartridges that I bought when I got my machine in 2007.  I cut the layers in several colors - since the pieces were small I didn't bother to use the Design Studio, Gypsy or the Cricut Craftroom to hide contours to cut only certain pieces in the colors I wanted.

In case you don't know how to do this, click here to go to the post with a video that I made a couple of years ago - just before the Gypsy came out.   The video explains how you can conserve your paper by using Design Studio to cut just the pieces that you need in the color you prefer when the cartridge has multiple items on the same key.  You can do this with the gypsy and the new Cricut Craftroom as well.  Hiding lines to change shapes is one of the best design tools these programs have to offer.

When you are adding all of the tiny layer pieces, it is easiest to put the adhesive on the base and then put the tiny pieces on the adhesive.  I wait until the adhesive has dried to a tacky state and then add the pieces.  This tends to be much neater with less chance of the glue spreading and showing on the top of the image. 

I stamped the sentiment in red on white cardstock and used a long rectangle Nestability die to cut and emboss the sentiment block.  The distinctive font was one of the main reasons that I was attracted to this stamp - I have many fond memories of watching the television special. 

I checked and the font is called 'Island of Misfit Toys" and it is available from dafont.com HERE.  I think I'll be using this for several holiday projects.  If you can't find the rubber stamp, you could just print out a sentiment on your home printer and cut it out with a die.

I added some green eyes and a big red nose to the deer.  I used a white pen on the detail lines of the face and then decided that I didn't like the way they looked, so I used a black pen to go over the white and add definition to the face.

I tied red and green twine around the card layers before I adhered them to the card front.  Then I put lots of foam squares on the back of the sentiment and the reindeer to raise them from the card face.

The patterned paper is from K and Company.  I added a thin white cardstock layer to help set off the design.  The reindeer is cut from several colors of Core'dinations cardstock

Time for bargains..

Black Friday specials are starting already - Thanksgiving is two weeks away and the merchants want to tempt us to shop now and not wait for the season to start.  Cricut.com has a sale on many Cricut cartridges - they are reduced to $19.99.  A few of my all time favorites, like "A Child's Year" and "Three Birds on Parade" are included in the sale.  Just click HERE to go to the sale page.

I have also seen images of the Walmart Black Friday ad online and there is a Cricut Imagine with two bonus cartridges for $187 - this will be on sale starting at 10 p.m. Thursday through Friday, while supplies last.

If you are looking for another way to save, there is a new bargain site called "Blitsy" that will be open to members only (membership is free).  You will need to be a member to receive notice of the special sales and deals.  You can sign up now and be ready to start receiving notice of the sales as soon as they start.  To sign up for "Blitsy," please use this link.  If you refer friends, you might have a chance to win the new set of three seasonal Winter Distress Inks by Tim Holtz. 


I'll be working on some Christmas tree decorations today - but not for my house.  My neighbor and I are doing a tree for our local museum - I'll tell you more about this in a week or so when we actually put up the tree.  Have a happy and crafty day!

Crafty Thank You Card

The Martha Stewart Crafts cake cartridges are some of my top "go to" cartridges.  These cartridges were designed with cakes in mind but they have so much content that is equally useful for paper crafting projects.  The borders and sentiments are great for all of the typical card making occasions.

I own lots of Martha Stewart border punches but I find it frustrating sometimes that they don't exactly fit the space where I would like to use them.  With the cartridges and Design Studio or the Gypsy you can adapt any of the border images to fit the space perfectly.  For this card I used the border shown from the MS Elegant Cake cartridge and then adjusted the size to exactly five inches in Design Studio using the handle in the lower right corner.  On the Gypsy, you can use the proportional resizing to make the border the perfect size.

 

The "Thanks!" sentiment is also from the MS Elegant cartridge.

The sentiments all have shadow options which is a great timesaver.

I decided to add a stamped border from a new set that I found recently (at Marshall's - always check their stationery section when you are there).  I added some white pen stitching above and below the stamped border.

This is the stamp set from American Crafts.  I bought it for the wedding images but the border is good for all sorts of projects.

I wanted to use this paper from the DCWV "Crafty" stack.  This stack has lots of homespun, textured designs. 

In case you haven't seen this stack, here is a photo of the front.  I really like the sewing motifs (buttons, little scissors, etc.).

I wanted to be sure to center this striking design.  I am a bit compulsive about aligning and centering items and I always notice when someone just cuts from one end of the paper instead of thinking about the design of the paper.  I cut a strip with plenty of extra paper and adhered it to the border strip.

 

Then I carefully trimmed it even with the blue border strip on my small trimmer.

I added the sentiment and the decorative layer to a kraft cardstock A2 card.

The sentiment is raised on foam dots to add some dimension.

The sentiment needed a little more punch so I did some white pen stitching in the letters.

For a finishing touch, I tied some twine in a bow at the top of the card.  This is "cappucino" twine from The Twinery (I ordered the "original sampler pack" a while ago to try out the eight colors they offered at the time - they have added more colors since then and there is a larger sampler pack now called "colorful bunch" with 11 colors).

The final card has a ""crafty" homespun look and will be good to send to one of my crafty friends!

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Friendship Card (for sewing friends)

 

This is a card with no Cricut involved - pretty rare for me!  I was trying, again, to tidy up my craft space and I came across a set of stamps from My Sentiments Exactly called "friendship sentiments."  I hadn't used this yet so, instead of finishing the cleaning (boring...!) I decided to try out one of the sentiments and make a card.

The blue card base is Bazzill cardstock and the patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket "Material Girl".  I chose the paper to go with the stamp because it had stitching and embroidery.  I didn't like the way the stamp looked on the scalloped rectangle so I went back and looked through my Nestabilities.  

I found that the sentiment fit in the Labels Three set when I turned the die on the diagonal and I liked the way this looked.  I stamped the sentiment with Broken China Distress Ink on ivory cardstock.  I had a scalloped rectangle in the same blue as the card base from my earlier attempt on the card so I placed the label with the sentiment on top of the scalloped rectangle.  I wanted to add buttons to the top and bottom.  I used a sharp pointed tool to punch the starter holes for my sewing.

I sewed the buttons through both layers and brought the ends to the front to tie in bows.  I used Lemondrop baker's twine from The Twinery - I ordered a sample pack of eight colors a while ago and this was also sitting on my table.

I left the twine a bit long when I sewed so I could adjust the bows - then I trimmed the ends.

I used foam squares to raise the sentiment from the card surface.

I think this card would be perfect for a friend who sews - the stitch patterns in the paper are charming and the homespun look seems very warm and welcoming.

I am getting very excited about the upcoming Cricut Cruise.  It was a thrill to win the Creative Memories contest for a place on the cruise last fall but it seemed so far away.  Thank you again to all of you who voted for my layout.  I am trying very hard to get ready and have my packing done before the eve of the trip.  So far - just my toes are ready!

Have you ever been on a cruise - Do you have any tips or advice?  All will be greatly appreciated.  I don't think that I will have easy access to the internet on the ship so I am planning to pre-post for the time I will be away - this way you will still get an email each day...

When I get back, I will finally have my million hits and blogoversary celebration - maybe I'll have a few tropical surprises to be added to the mix of celebration gifts!

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