Larger (5 x 7) oval aperture card

When I posted the oval aperture note cards I said I would put together a template for a larger size - here it is. This is done in Plantin Schoolbook since you need the Expression to cut a card this size (sorry baby bug owners).

Here is another photo of the card taken with a flash to show the details a bit more clearly.




In my sample, I glued in a piece of embossed card stock with birds to go along with the birds in the "Welcome" from the ZooBalloo cartridge. I taped it lightly to the side when I applied the glue to be sure it ended up in the position I wanted (then I gently removed the tape after flipping it over into position). I also cut just the birds from the Welcome by positioning most of the word off the mat and cutting yellow paper (and then hand trimming). I added a touch of Stickles for the eyes.



You should follow the directions I gave for the smaller cards to build your own like this. I will repeat them here...

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 - "Welcome" - 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!

5 x 7 Oval Aperture Card

From Quilt to Card - Diamonds into Stars

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I am also a quilter (well...at least a fabric collector and quilt planner!) and I have been thinking about trying out a particular type of quilt pattern with the Cricut. A few years ago I became interested in a type of kaleidoscope quilt developed by Bethany Reynolds - I attended a workshop and completed a quilt top which you can see here



The book with this pattern and many others is called "Magic Stack and Whack Quilts" by Bethany S. Reynolds (ISBN 1-57432-704-6) and I highly recommend it if you are interested in these sorts of designs. In a nutshell, her technique involves aligning identical repeats of fabric and then cutting through the entire stack to create diamond or other shapes which can be combined to form new patterns. The best sort of fabric for this technique is a bold busy print with lots of colors. The designs are always a surprise when you separate the stacks and assemble the stars.

Here is another quilt top using 45 degree diamonds for eight pointed stars.



So, I thought, why not try this with paper - I can't stack layers of paper on the Cricut but I could use the Design Studio software to cut in exactly the same place on identical sheets of paper over and over.

Here is the paper I started with (many thanks to my friend Nancy who picked this up for me while she was shopping via cell phone instructions about the type of paper I needed).



My scrapbook style is very simple and I can't imagine ever choosing this for my background 12 x 12 paper but it was perfect for this experiment!

I started out using the diamond on the George cartridge at a 1 inch size - it looked to be the right type of diamond so I cut an entire row of these, taking care to put the paper on the mat in the exact same position each time. Unfortunately, after all this cutting, I discovered that the diamond on the George cartridge is not quite right!

Here are the results - the diamonds need to have a 60 degree angle and these are slightly too big which means that they can't be assembled into a six pointed star (and the angle is not big enough to form a five pointed star). Here are a couple of examples - they just won't fit together...






So, back to the laptop to try to manipulate the diamonds. This took quite a while (I am sure there is a clever mathematical way to figure it out but I "tweaked" the diamond and tried assembling the diamonds on the screen until I got a size that worked!).'
'
This time I was more cautious and test cut first on plain paper - it worked!



The only slight problem is that the diamond does not have sharp points - they are slightly rounded so the joins are not entirely perfect but close enough!

So - on the second round, I had better luck on the cuts but there is an operator error element that can affect the precision of the cuts - Even though I was careful to put the paper on the mat in exactly the same position and tried to load the mat evenly each time - there were slight variations (there may even be variations in the printing of the paper). So I would recommend cutting a few extra sheets in each position to assure that you will get six nearly identical diamonds - even the slightest shift will make the star look "wrong" as you can see below



There are many small pieces to keep track of so try using an old, not-so-sticky mat to hold them all in place (a tip I got from the Cricut message board - sorry, I can't remember who said it) - this helps to insure that you will be able to put the stars together easily



While this design requires only six diamonds - I cut eight sheets of paper to give me a few extras to compensate for any errors in loading the mats. This was a good decision, as you can see below, there is at least one diamond in each set that is slightly "off.



Once you get all your sets of diamonds cut you can have fun seeing what designs result when you combine them - depending which tip of the diamond points to the center you will get a totally different "look"



Here are some more photos showing the fascinating combinations that can result - in each set of three below the top row shows a set of six diamonds with one end of the diamond pointing to the center and the bottom row shows the opposite way around - see how different they can look!





I used a few of these to make some cards - one is at the top of this post and here is another



Here is a close up of the star - done up with gold outlines and "Stickles" glitter glue!



So - if you have the patience, give this a try. I plan to do a few larger sizes and to try the eight pointed star too. These are great for cards or decorative accents on scrapbook pages - use your imagination and see what you can do. Remember, the wilder and more colorful the paper, the more exciting the results will be. Have fun with this!

Diamonds for making six pointed stars

Frame of Hearts

I was just trying some simple page border frames and did this one with all George hearts - it might be good for a Valentine's Day, Prom or Wedding page.

It is interesting to note that you can get two pages from this one cut - here is what the offcuts create on a second page.



This is super simple - you could look at this file and then try something similar with another shape - maybe a star?

Have fun with this and if you try designing your own, create the design for one side of the frame, then copy-paste-rotate to be sure all sides are identical. Be sure to pay attention to centering each side along the grid lines. You may have to adjust the length of the side to get a good corner effect.

Frame of Hearts

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