Happy Birthday Notecards

I had a request from a reader for a ready made file with "Happy Birthday" in the opening - she had not been able to work with the software much due to health issues - so I put these two files together quickly. Since everyone can use birthday cards I thought I would post the files here for anyone else who might want them.

The first is Plantin Schoolbook only - here is a closer view. Be sure to keep track of the dot for the "i" - you can attach it to the "b" with a dot of glue (if you lose it you could always use a dot of marker or glitter).



The second is done with George only - I think the glitter card stock looks nice as a background for these, if you have a mat stack you can cut one mat in half and it will fit the behind the opening very neatly.



Use your imagination and add as many embellishments as you like to these. You could also add additional cuts in any or all of the four corners (just remember not to check weld on those so they will cut out!)

Happy Birthday in Oval Aperture - Plantin Schoolbook

Happy Birthday in Oval Aperture - George

Update on Oval Aperture cards

I received a comment from someone who liked this design but did not have Printing 101 or Plantin Schoolbook, and I started to think ....(this can be dangerous you know!). Maybe there would be a "George only" way to get this done - and there is!

This .cut file also produces a 4 x 5 card and the center oval is larger than in the card which requires both George and Printing 101 - so if you do have both, you now have choices.

This was possible once I remembered that there was no need to be concerned with the outside of the oval - just the center. I was able to manipulate the "C" on the George cartridge to produce an oval.

Here is another view of the card with a white background to help you see the design.



In this photo the "Thanks" card is on top of the "Birthday Blessings" card so you can see the difference in the oval shape and size.



One more photo showing the two cards side by side.



The file is set up just like the ones I posted yesterday - follow those instructions and you should have no problems.

Remember - you can orient the items you weld in the center to produce a vertical style of card using the same file - I will post some of those soon.

I hope that more of my readers will now be able to make these cards - I particularly like the idea of putting a name inside the oval - what a special gift a box of personalized note cards would make for Mother's Day, or a new graduate. The monogram of a newlywed couple would also be lovely for a gift of notecards.

4 x 5 oval aperture card - George only

Oval Aperture Cards

It all started with a simple request for help on the Cricut message board. Michelle wanted to make invitations for a celebration of her husband's 20th anniversary working for Peterbilt and was having many frustrations in trying to create the card in Design Studio. I love a challenge and so I told her I would give it a try. I had been working on trying to weld in circles and ovals on and off since I got the software (I finally did get the circle - see post from March 16th).

I went to the company website to see what the logo looked like and, fortunately, the typeface looked pretty similar to the upright version of the script font on the Opposites Attract cartridge. I first tried to just get the company name and "20" inside an oval frame - but I just couldn't get a satisfactory oval. Here is a screen shot of that attempt



I posted that and Michelle liked it but it bothered me - the outside was too uneven, so I decided to sleep on it. The next morning I had a thought - the inside of the oval looked pretty good so why not try to build a card around it which would eliminate the problem of the uneven outer oval shape.

So - back to the drawing board (or rather the laptop!) and I started working on this - adding shapes to build out the sides of the card and trying to get all the welds to work correctly. I finally succeeded and this photo shows the card I created



Michelle thought that was a fine card and I was pretty pleased with it but did not like the way the 20 looked - I thought it was hard to read. So I thought I'd "quickly" change the "20" in the Opposites Attract font to the "20" in the Plantin Schoolbook font. Well...that did not turn out to be a quick substitution - I could not get the welds to work correctly to produce a final card.

I had saved the file from the first version and was about ready to give up when I got it - and found the secret to making this sort of card. I was so frustrated by deleting and adding back elements to "burp" the design that I thought of a new strategy - I started a new page and added elements one by one - checking the the welds each time.

Here is the final version of Michelle's card - the "20" is much clearer - I did not weld it side to side - just to the word above and the oval below.



So I started to experiment and try new versions of cards using this concept. Many message board members were interested in this design and directions of how to make the cards. I realized that my first file required both George and Plantin Schoolbook and some people would not own both of these so I set to work to find a way to make this work for as many people as possible.

The end result is one file that requires only Plantin Schoolbook and one the requires both George and Printing 101 (unfortunately the parentheses on George are not suitable for forming an oval).

Here is a sample card made with the Plantin Schoolbook file - the first photo shows the cut out as the card is open and the second with a white liner so you can see the design better.





Here is a sample card made with the George and Printing 101 file





Once again it is easier to remove these delicate cuts using a large scraper and leaving the offcuts on the mat.



Once you have your card cut you can embellish it as you please -



HOW TO USE THESE FILES

Here are the directions for using these files. Each file has three pages - the template page, the card building page and the blank page for previewing as you go along. Do a "save as" of the file and name it to suit your project - this way you will preserve the template for future cards.

Start by deciding what you want to put in the center of the oval. Using the first page, get those items sized appropriately and be sure that you check weld on each element (eliminate the design that I left in the center - "Spring" or "Birthday Blessings" - so you can see more clearly where to put the items). When placing your elements it can be helpful to use the 200 size view to see if the elements are touching the edges of the oval.

Next, copy the design elements from that page and paste them on page two (the card assembly page). Continue this process adding elements step by step from the center - first the parentheses, then the small ovals, then the rectangles and squares that form the edges of the card. Check your welds as you go along but if you do it in this order you should not have a problem.

Good luck and enjoy making these cards!

4 x 5 Oval Aperture Card - Plantin Schoolbook

4 x 5 Oval Aperture Card - George and Printing 101

Fleur-de-lis frames

I actually did this frame before the Eagle Scout one from my last post - I decided to add the "Eagle Scout" to customize it for a special purpose. For the first version, I used mostly silhouetted fleur-de-lis shapes and then I did a second version reversing the sequence and using more of the solid shapes - I prefer the second version since it results in an alternating pattern but you will find both files linked at the end of this post.

One issue I finally solved for these full page frames (remember the first "nearly full page"one I posted with the leaf garlands - on March 4th) is to slightly offset the paper as you put it on the mat to compensate for the tendency of the machine to start a bit too far in on the mat when you place it in what should be the "proper" position. For me, on my machine, it seems to be about a sixteenth of an inch or so - just get out some "ugly" paper and check your machine as I suspect there may be subtle variations from person to person and machine to machine!

Below are photos of the placement of the paper on my mat - first the top left



top right



bottom right



and bottom left



When I cut the first design, I also had an issue again with bad cuts on a few of the silhouettes - reminding me of all the problems I encountered on the large doily design (one of my posts from my first day of blogging - February 1st). I decided not to stress over it, changed the blade and checked on the condition of my mat - the blade had been in use for quite a while and I had just finished doing over thirty large cuts for my Cricut Message Board recipe exchange layouts (thanks again to Kendra for organizing this!)

Here you can see the bad cuts and the roughness of some of the other areas - if this happens to you try changing your blade before getting too upset!



the cut after removing it from the mat - fleur-de-lis failure!!



I tried to salvage this cut by removing the offending cuts but it looked odd to me



so...in order not to be wasteful, I removed the solid ones too which leaves a spot for a word or title - you can see my small sharp scherenschnitte scissors in the photo - they are most helpful for delicate jobs!



When I test cut these I was first removing them from the mat by sliding my scraper under the entire cut edge and then "poking" out the waste bits - this was tricky and I came close to tearing a few of the delicate spots. So after various test cuts I finally figured I should try the opposite and lift only the design - leaving the waste bits on the mat.

Here are a few photos of my trusty scraper with the little pointed corner that works so well for these jobs (I wish I knew where I got this - I would try to get more for my fellow Cricutters!)



Just be patient and slow - particularly on the silhouetted items



Here are the remainders (negative space) on the mat - it could be fun to apply these to a sheet of paper using the actual frame as a template. I think it would make another pretty border.



This design could be used for all sorts of photos and different color combinations can be very pleasing - here is a pastel lilac and yellow version



Fleur-de-lis frame variation #1 (8 solid shapes)

Fleur-de-lis frame variation # 2 (12 solid shapes)


(By the way, if you are interested in knowing more about fleurs-de-lis, I found an entry in Wikipedia when I checked on the plural - you can click HERE to see this information)

Eagle Scout Frame

Both of our sons have become Eagle Scouts. The Eagle Scout ceremony is followed by a reception where it is customary to have displays of each boy's scouting "career." Our younger son was the only boy in his year to stay in scouting and reach Eagle rank in our Troop so, even though he is a freshman in college, his ceremony will be next month along with two boys a year younger who will graduate from high school in June.

I started to work on getting the display items together and thought of designing a frame for his photo the day he passed his Board of Review - I will see if the families of the other two boys would like to have one to display their portraits. I am sure there are some readers of my blog who have or know of a boy becoming an Eagle Scout so I am sharing the frame .cut file here.

I first used DCWV (Die Cuts with a View) paper which has a white core. While I do like the texture of this paper I do not care for the white core. It cracked when I folded my bags (see post on Easter bags, March 29th) and I found that with an intricate cut like this, some of the white inevitably shows.

Here is a close up photo of the cut on the DCWV paper still on the mat - please notice that the paper is not placed exactly in the corner but offset a bit lower and to the right to compensate for the "uncuttable" area on the mat (more about this in my next blog entry)



and on red background paper



a closer view is below - even when the cuts are cleaned you get some white showing...



Here is the DCWV frame on white paper - the white core is less distracting when it can blend with the background.



I prefer the frame cut from solid core paper - I didn't have quite the shade of blue I wanted on hand but here is a photo of the cut.



I also did a background filler for this size of frame, it is on page two of the file. Here is the frame cut in a medium blue solid core card stock with the filler behind the design



Here is the opposite effect, using the leftover center square to fill that area and white card stock for the page behind the frame.



If you have an Eagle Scout many congratulations to you and your son - as we all know "it takes a village" (and in particular some very supportive parents) for a boy to accomplish everything required to reach this milestone!

Eagle Scout Frame