Butterfly Thank You Card

I am sure some of you were starting to wonder when you'd see another paper project on my blog.  Things have been hectic with travels and family but I did find time to make a card today.  I used Design Studio to help me plan the card - by choosing and sizing the elements on the computer I can experiment without wasting paper.  

 
Here you can see the Design Studio preview of the card.  The only item on the preview that is cut with the Cricut is the sentiment.  The other shapes are simply used to represent the pieces that I will use for the card and to try various color schemes.

The color scheme for the card was determined by the patterned paper from the "Chloe's Closet" collection by Making Memories.  I found some of this paper at Tuesday morning recently.  There were six sheets each of four designs and one shaped and pierced page in the package, a total of 25 pieces for $3.99 and I was helpless to resist!  I don't use a lot of orange but the bright citrus colors appealed to me along with the great price.

Here are all of the pieces of this card.  The card base, cardstock layers, ribbon and butterfly were represented in the Design Studio preview, however, only the sentiment (and the sentiment shadow) were actually cut with the Cricut.

This is an A2 card (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of cardstock folded to form a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch card).  The first layer is cut at 5 1/4 inches x 4 inches.  I tried plain white but it was too stark a contrast with the shiny floral cardstock which has more of an off-white shade around the flowers (you can see the white at the top and the dotted cardstock I chose at the bottom in this photo).  I remembered the DCWV Citrus Stack which has similar bright colors and I found this off-white dotted with orange cardstock in the stack.  The two lines work together nicely.  The floral cardstock is cut at 3 3/4 x 5 inches.

The ribbon is from American Crafts.  I cut a piece to wrap around the floral patterned layer and simply added a bit more adhesive with my ATG to hold the ribbon.

This basic layering is a great start for many cards - all you have to do now is add an embellishment and a sentiment for a quick and easy card.

In my preview, I used only the top layer of the sentiment.  I didn't have the option of adding the patterned paper to preview the effect (one of the things that I really like about the new Craft Room online design tool is the ability to fill images with patterned paper - I just wish we could add papers other than the ones available on the Imagine cartridges).  By looking at the sentiment on the card front it is obvious that I needed to add the shadow layer.

You can see what a difference adding the layer makes - the sentiment is easy to read now.  I used the same DCWV paper that I used for the first layer for the shadow.

 

I added a butterfly instead of a bow on the ribbon.  This butterfly is from the Creative Charms Kit of the Month for April (available for just a few more days).  I used a large dimensional glue dot to hold the bulky butterfly securely.

Here is a closer view of the butterfly - the colors work together perfectly.

The dots in the first layer and the sentiment shadow also coordinate with the dots in the floral patterned paper.  This cardstock is shiny but not glittered.  The card base and the top layer of the sentiment are Bazzill cardstock which also coordinates well with the blue color in the design.

 

I would probably send this card to a crafty friend and hope that the butterfly would be plucked off and reused for another crafty project!

I have explained about the use of color previews before - here is a LINK to a post from last fall.  I'll try to post another explanation of exactly how to plan a card in Design Studio tomorrow.  I have been doing this for years to save paper and help myself make color choices.  This is something you can do with just the trial version of the program if you want to have a better idea of the proper size and placement of your cuts.  I'll be driving back to New Jersey for a quick trip to attend an award ceremony at our son's college - he was chosen to receive the Annual Award for Music and we are very proud of him!  If things get too crazy it may take a day or two to add this post.

link to Discussion Day 2 - How much is enough?

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Color Previews in Design Studio

I have had several questions about how to use the color preview option in Design Studio.  One reader suggested that I answer in a blog post so others who have the same question would see the answer.  I am happy to do this - in fact, if you have a particular question you would like me to write about, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me to let me know.

I find the color preview to be very helpful in figuring out the layers for the more complicated cuts.  It also helps me make decisions about a color scheme without wasting a lot of paper.

Each mat in your file can only be one color so the first thing you need to do is to determine the number of layers in the design you are working with.  You also need to think through the order of the layers since the mats preview from top to bottom.  For example,  if you put the shadow on an earlier mat than the regular image you will block out all of the details.

I chose this apple basket from Cheerful Seasons to demonstrate the preview process.  (remember, you can click on any image to enlarge it so you can see the details more clearly).

I set the size at 4 inches on the slider bar and then found all of the layers for the image - in this case there are four.  I started off by putting them on the original mat in the file so I could look to see what some logical colors might be.

Then I added more pages of mats to the file.  In this case, I need four for the design layers, one to represent the background of the card or page and a clear mat for previewing the full design.

To help keep things organized, go ahead and change the names of the pages by right clicking on the mat and then typing the name in the box in the drop down menu.  To add the new name you need to click on "Change Page Name" at the top of the drop down menu or press "enter" on your computer keyboard.

Once you have named all of the pages start copying and pasting the images to the proper mat layer.  Click the image to select it, then click the copy button on the left side of the mat.

Then click on the appropriate page of the file and click the "paste" button to place the shape on that mat.

 To help in aligning the images you can use the center marker (the pale gray "plus" sign) and place it on an intersection of the grid lines on the mat.

 Do a preview by clicking the "eyeball" on the left side of the screen after the first two items are placed.  The colors are randomly assigned by the program and you can change them after all of the layers are placed.  I would only change them at this stage if there was not enough contrast between two layers for me to see them clearly.

Keep adding the layers by using the handles to move them, aligning each of the layers with the previewed images below.  The plus sign will not always work to align the images as the layers change in size.  Preview the images after each layer is moved into position.Be sure to delete each image from the first page after you have moved it to the mat you have prepared for that layer.

When all of the image layers are in position, add a convenient large blacked out shape to represent the card or page.  Then right click on the mat and choose "Set Preview Color" from the drop down menu.

You can choose any of the basic colors by simply clicking on the box for that color and then clicking the "OK" box.  When you preview this color will fill the shape.

 If you want more variety or a color that isn't in the basic array you can click "Select Custom Color" and create exactly the color you like.  Unfortunately, even if you click "Add to Custom Colors" this will not be saved by the Design Studio program.  If you want the exact same color on another page, be sure to take note of the numbers in the boxes.

 When you preview all of the layers you can see that there may be some changes you can make to the layers to get a final image with even more detail.

I would add some extra layers, using "hide selected contour" to separate the leaves from the basket frame and cutting the image in two different colors.  I would also cut an extra set of apples in another color that I want to use to line the basket so the solid apple color does not show through.

You can keep changing the colors to try different effects.  By changing the preview colors of the two apple layers I can see that it may be OK to have the red layer double as the inside liner of the basket - it is not nearly as distracting as the yellow layer was.

Ideally, I would like to be able to preview the images with my patterned papers.  There is a way I can do that now with some of my Creative Memories papers by taking screen shots into the StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 digital program that I use but it is a slow and cumbersome process.  The Cricut Imagine will preview with paper fill but only with the limited number of papers that are on the Imagine cartridges (though I am sure there will be many more of these cartridges coming in the future).

One more point I should make - the color preview is eliminated when you have welded shapes in your design.  When something is properly welded the preview will show only the dark cutting line.  If you want to see what your design will look like in color you can set up another page with the images and uncheck the weld box.  Be sure to mark this page PREVIEW ONLY so you don't accidentally cut the unwelded images.

I hope you had fun on "Talk Like a Robot Day" (10-10-10).  Apparently this was also the "lucky" wedding date chosen by over 39,000 couples.  We had a nice (though short) visit with our son at his college Parent Weekend.  I am trying to catch up on the emails I received over the weekend while we were away.  I should be able to finish up tomorrow.  

Monday is the last day for the Lettering Delights Dollar Days sale.  You can click the box in the left side column to go to the site - use the code BalloonFun to save an additional 10% on any purchase. The sale ends at midnight Mountain time.

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