Blog Celebration & Challenge - with Gifts!

My favorite numbers are three and seven. A few days ago I checked my blog and noticed that the visitor count was a very "lucky" number and the subscriber count and guestbook signatures also had lucky numbers





So...I decided to have a bit of a celebration!

I had been working on the designing the file you see pictured at the start of this post for a lace edge card (after creating some cuts that mimic punches I decided to work out my own pattern). I created this in both George in an A2 size



and Plantin Schoolbook in both A2 and 5 x 7



so that anyone with either bug and the trial version of the software could give this a try.

Here is the Challenge!

Create a card using one of these files and post it on the Cricut.com message board in this thread BLOG CELEBRATION AND CHALLENGE

Since I did not get this posted until Sunday afternoon (and next weekend is a holiday weekend -Memorial Day in the USA), I will give a deadline of Wednesday, May 28th to post the card you create. There are three prizes - you can ask to be in all three drawings or choose the ones to enter if you already own one of these gifts.

I will put slips of paper in three cans with the name of the each person who posted their interpretation of my card - if no choice is given you will be entered in all three drawings. I will post the winners in my blog and on the message board on Thursday, May 29th.

So what could you win? As you know I am a Creative Memories consultant and there are a few limited edition items that I love and in cleaning my scrap space I found that I happen to have brand new extras on hand. I will send one of these to the person whose name I draw from each can.

The first gift is pictured here - it is an adorable 7 x7 seven album in a pretty shade of lilac with a beautiful sparkling star on the front. The album has 12 white pages (24 sides) and I am also giving a set of the Fairies and Frills stickers that work well with this little album.



The second gift is a wonderful hole punch that cuts a detailed maple and oak leaf and comes with a plastic storage container for extra punched leaves. I know that I am often create files that imitate punches but I still do use punches in addition to my Cricut and this is a favorite for the beautiful detail of the shapes.



Finally, I have a set of templates for journaling, page decoration and page layout that were an exclusive gift for hostesses and are extremely versatile. There are four templates and they are great for adding some interest to your pages and some parts could even be used for cards (stickled flower and swirl shapes, etc.)



All of these items are no longer available from Creative Memories and they are hard to find.

Show me that you actually do use my files after you download them!

Use your imagination to create something unique with one of these files. I purposely cut the samples in plain ivory card stock so you would have a "blank slate" to start from.

Here are the links to download

Circle lace edge A2 card - George

Circle lace edge A2 card - Plantin Schoolbook

Circle lace edge 5 x 7 card - Plantin Schoolbook

Good luck - I look forward to seeing what you create!

Wall Words on the Window

I helped a friend do a bit of decorating for the traditional senior class Faculty and Staff Appreciation Luncheon at our high school. I used Wall Pops and the Alphalicious font at six inches for most of the words. I welded the "Class of" at a four inch size and also welded the "from the" at a 2 inch size. The apostrophe for the "'08" is actually the top part of the exclamation point sized to look proportional.

I had the electric blue wall pops that had been on special at Lowes on hand and by using the Design Studio software I was able to fit the letters together and use only 8 feet of the 6 1/2 inch roll so this was a very economical project. I wasn't sure about the color since the theme was a sort of western picnic but we found that it was almost and exact match for the blinds in that room - a bit of serendipity!

No file here - just another example to show you of vinyl lettering - it was very easy to apply to glass and will come off without leaving a residue (though a quick cleaning will probably be needed for fingerprints!)

Castle Card

The Design Studio software opens up so many possibilities for creating unique cards. There are many shapes that can be used to make interesting "shaped cards" for all occasions.

I created this card with my neighbor to help her get started on using the software - I will explain how we did this step by step to help others learn this simple technique.
Here is the inside of the card



To create a card, find a shape you would like to use and place it on the right side of the mat - we used a castle from the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge.



Click "weld" in the shape properties box while the first castle is selected. Then copy and paste the castle image using the quick buttons at the left of the screen (second and third from the top)
Then click "flip" in the Shape Properties box at the top right of the screen (both "weld" and "flip" should be checked on the second castle).



the result will look like this



Select the top "flipped" image and use the blue "handle" in the center of the left side to pull the image to the left along the horizontal axis



Move the second castle into position so that a symmetrical image is created and preview to check the cut. You will notice that the interior detail lines appear "grayed out" - this means that they will not be cut - leaving a solid area for your message



By using the 200 view you can check the center weld - here you can see that due to the shape of the castle there will be a cut going up about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the fold.


To minimize this, find another shape to weld on top of the area that you do not want to cut - try to use something on the same cartridge - for a bit of fun I chose the canoe to demonstrate! Be sure to click weld after selecting this filler shape.



The canoe is entirely "grayed out" and will not cut but will weld the two sides together in the area we wanted to cover - I left it up a bit from the base to make the scoring of the fold of the card easier (the line will be more obvious because of the little notch).

Preview the new cut by clicking on the "eyeball" (second from the bottom of the left buttons)



For a clearer view, click on the top button for a new page and preview on that page - it will look like this



We decided that the font from ZooBalloo would be a good choice for this card (there was also a pre-made "Happy Birthday" phrase on that cartridge), but you can make your words in whatever font pleases you. You can use pre-made words, weld your own words or do your own lettering by hand.

I left the second page of the file intact so you could see the approximate size for the words that will fit on this card




This card looks cute standing up



and fits perfectly in an A2 envelope



The offcut will be centered and could be used for a scrapbook page - possibly for journaling or as a creative cut out around a photo



Obviously you will need to change the name on the second page of this file which I left for sizing purposes.

Simple Castle Card

Ribbon Threading Variations

Once again, I resisted spending money on a hole punch because I was convinced that by using Design Studio I could create a .cut file which would achieve the same effect. Many people on the Cricut Message Board have mentioned the Martha Stewart ribbon threading punch lately. It creates a series of slots to thread ribbon through on a card or a scrapbooking layout.

The trickiest thing was getting the size right - here are my first attempts - the holes are a bit too big!



So I went back to work and found the best dimensions for one eighth inch and three eight inch ribbons.



I also created a file for smaller intervals between the holes for the one eighth inch ribbon



I designed this file to avoid the "uncuttable" area on either the baby bug or the expression mat I needed to position the cuts in a way that would result in slightly uneven spacing on a full 12 inch strip of paper. You can compensate by placing the paper a bit to the left as you see here



You can also vary the distance from the edge by moving the paper up or down.

I didn't want my first attempt to go to waste so I tried threading five eighth inch ribbon through the half inch holes on one of my first files - you can use this if you like a more puffy effect. The ribbon in the lower part of this photo was unlabeled but it apparently is a bit wider than three eighths inch so there are smaller gathers at the edges.



These files can be used for cards - simply place the card in the area of the mat where the spacing works for you. Once again there are endless variations!

I designed these using George on the baby bug mat - if you have the Expression they will also work because I set the file up to avoid the slightly larger "uncuttable" area on the Expression mat. You will need the George cart until I get a chance to do some files with Plantin Schoolbook (this time I did George first).

You can also just make your own file by copying these using the Plantin Schoolbook rectangle - check the Shape Properties box on my files for the sizes and placement of the rectangles. Then you can create further variations by changing the spacing as you please.

This file has four pages - each page is labeled to indicate which cut it will make.

Ribbon Threading - George

Check or Money Holder (baby bug version)

Thanks for waiting patiently for this one - as promised in my last post here is a version of the check or money holder made using only George and the baby bug.

Since the baby bug mat is not wide enough to cut this in one piece there are three pages to this design. The first page cuts the back and flap of the holder and the second page cuts the front of the envelope. To make a window for a cash holder, cut the second page, leave the mat in the bug and then cut the third page.

When scoring the sides of the holder you can follow the lines of the flaps, making the score exactly even with the cut edge.



To score the long line which forms the flap, you should score at 2 3/4 inches. If you use a Scor-Pal shift the paper to the 1/4 inch mark and score on the three inch line (see below).



The piece for the front on the holder should be scored at the half inch mark - I am right handed and find it easier to do this on the right side of the Scor-Pal (so my left hand can hold the paper steady).



You will have two pieces that look something like this.



I used my Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive pen to attach the two pieces - you need a strong bond to be sure that the bottom of the holder does not open up. Here you can see it ready to adhere - the color has changed from white to clear.



Line up the fold line with the bottom of the larger piece and adhere



then apply adhesive to the flaps on the larger piece and fold the front down on top of the flaps.

Here are a few more ideas on decorating these holders .

First I tried some more embossing - inserting the front flap into the embossing folder as far as possible - first on one side and then the other. This results in "overlapped" embossing that looks a bit muddled and odd in the center of the holder



So I embossed a 1 3/4 inch strip of contrasting paper in the same folder and adhered that to the front.



You can see in the above photo that the embossing did not quite reach the bottom of the back of the holder so I added a strip of the same color paper (unembossed) to cover that area



Here is the finished money holder



For another holder I used some leftover flower cut outs and a strip of paper as decorations. First I punched 1/8 inch holes in the strip and the flowers



Then I attached the flowers to the strip using eyelets



I adhered this strip to the front of the holder and turned up the petals on the flowers



You can also simply tie a ribbon around the holder - here I used 1/8 ribbon cut to a length of about 20 inches. Thin ribbon will keep the holder closed without crushing the paper.



There are so many possibilities for decorating these holders - adding names to personalize them, stamping on the front flap, all sorts of embellishments will work so just let your imagination go wild!

Check or Money Holder - George