A few more Tags from A Child's Year

Today I did a few more cuts with "A Child's Year." I was busy getting a few swaps finished (I can't show you those yet...), but I just couldn't resist the temptation to cut a few more things. I certainly would love to spend an entire day cutting out all of the images on this cartridge - I haven't really found any that I don't like!

These beach balls are tags and the cartridge cuts the top layer and the base on the normal and shift of the "tag" creative feature. The two balls on the ends of the center row are actually the "icon" cut which I layered on the tag base (you can easily punch a hole through the top layer to make the unit a tag).

These tags would be great for tying to dishes at a summer potluck. You could write the name of the dish in one of the stripes or indicate if the dish contained nuts to warn people with allergies.



Here are three more tags. The ice cream cone is so cute! This was cut at four inches but it would be nice larger too. The detail on the umbrella is terrific and I like the interesting top and bottom edges. Once this cartridge is added to Design Studio you could use "hide selected contour" and use the layered tag base for all sorts of images.



The bird on the tag on the right was stamped on white cardstock. I cut the base layer scalloped square from "A Child's Year" and rounded the corners of the trimmed image before I stuck it to the center of the tag.



I turned the scalloped square tag at a diagonal and added the ice cream cone - the holes lined up perfectly.



This little teapot tag is so sweet. I put the two layers from the cartridge together but the teapot by itself makes a very cute tag too!



I had to quickly try the teapot card - I enjoy designing card with images welded in apertures and this cartridge has several that can be cut with the push of a button - no Design Studio needed (of course, I am eagerly awaiting the addition of this cartridge to the Design Studio software...).



I cut a piece of purple cardstock to line the front of the card. The card itself was cut from some heavy American Craft patterned paper but I thought that after the front was lined the back of the card needed to be a bit stronger.



I cut a piece of cardstock a bit smaller than the back and attached it to the outside of the card.



By doing it this way, I left a white interior to stamp or write a message on the card.



The tag options are just one more reason that this cartridge is now one of my favorites and I know that many people will be adding this one to their "top ten."


(The Island top has been fitted and molding added to keep it from sliding around - just a bit more painting and it will be ready to complete the workstation. I am already enjoying working on the island with a makeshift top so I can hardly wait for the final surface to be completed and moved into place - photos coming soon....)

Birthday Wishes

July is a busy month for birthdays - I have one good friend who shares my birthday today and a couple others who are two days before and two days after, plus one more in another week or so. My one friend had the coolest birthday date this year "07-08-09" (and at 12:34:56 a.m. it was 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 !).

I was wrapping her gift in some heavy, glossy and very pretty pansy paper and I decided I'd like to make the card match - I don't think I have ever made a card with wrapping paper but...why not? I simply cut a piece at 5.25 x 4 inches and centered it on an A2 card. I cut the sentiment in green glitter cardstock with my Cricut using the Wild Card cartridge.



I cut the "Make a Wish" and the star for the inside from the same green glitter cardstock using the cuttlebug "Birthday Wishes" embossing and die set.



The card looked pretty with the wrapped present (I didn't put it in an envelope).

The weather was beautiful today and I had a very nice day. Thanks to all of you who sent cards or birthday wishes via emails and comments or message board posts. Tonight I went to dinner with my husband and then we shopped the "trifecta" (there is a Michael's, an ACMoore, and a Joann's within about a five mile radius from the restaurant where we ate). I got more paper (yes, I needed that!), a border punch (on clearance with a 50% coupon so it ended up at $3.50), and a deep cut blade for my Cricut - 1/2 price at ACMoore. I hadn't been shopping for several weeks, so it was fun to check and see what was new in the stores.

After we got home we had "Birthday Watermelon" instead of cake with our younger son and his girlfriend.



I just had to share the card our son made for me - I hope you like it (!) It is a folded sheet of paper and the photo above shows the front...



and the inside - too funny!

The island isn't quite finished - the top still needs final fitting and painting and we have some drawers to put together, but I hope that by the end of the weekend it will be all done. I'll share pictures once I get completely "moved in."

Using transparencies with "A Child's Year"

Today I tried a few more cuts using A Child's Year. I'd really like to just sit and cut everything on the cartridge (if only the days were longer). There are so many beautiful shapes and images and the tags and cards are very clever - I think I will be using them a lot!



I was starting to reorganize all of my "stuff" into the new island cubbies and I came across this pack of transparencies that I got a while ago when I was visitng my sister in New Jersey



I had only used one pink gingham sheet for an ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap. This is a photo of the card I made - the eggs actually move around inside the card (it is very thick). Here is a LINK to the post about this ATC if you are interested in seeing how I made it.



This little girl with a bouquet is one of the sample cuts I made the first day I had the cartridge. I decided to make a card using ivory cardstock for an "old fashioned" look.



I tried out the greenish aqua transparency as an overlay and I liked the way it looked - now the problem was to figure out how to adhere it (on my ATC's the transparency was "sandwiched" between other layers so no adhesive showed).



The first method I tried (glue lines) was too sticky and clunky and when I tried to remove it with some "Goo Gone" I found out it removed the printing on the transparency as well!



So I cut another piece and tried using a glue pen around the edges - I thought my lines were straight and even but the glue seemed pull into smaller segments as it dried.



When I stuck it to the card you could clearly see the adhesive...gaps and all! SO I thought a bit and decided to try to cover the edge with some pretty ribbon.



I cut 1/4 inch ribbon into the appropriate lengths and used 1/8 inch Scor-Tape on the back. Scor-Tape works wonderfully for adhering ribbon without any liquid oozing through and making the ribbon look messy. It is super sticky so be careful that you get your ribbon in the right place the first time (!).



I tried to make perfect mitered corners - they were "practically perfect" but a bit off and the card needed a little something extra to make it special.



So I added two flat backed pearls at each corner. It is a bit hard to photograph and get the effect of the shine from the transparency but the overall look is soft and shiny. I could cut a sentiment and add it on top of the transparency or just use this as a notecard.

It would be less "fussy" to just cut a paper frame in the appropriate size and adhere my transparency to the frame and then layer it on the card with the adhesive on the paper only (similar to the way I used the transparency on the ATC). I do like the extra texture the the ribbon adds.



Next I cut a lovely shaped tag at three inches. The cartridge cuts the large and small sizes for layering on the regular and shift of the tag creative feature key.



The complicated shapes layer neatly with the holes aligned.



I added the pre-welded word "baby" twice underneath the transparency and threaded a wide grosgrain ribbon through the hole at the top. This would be lovely as a decoration on a gift and could be saved to use in a scrapbook or display in a baby's room.



Finally, I cut another of the fancy shaped tags and the layer. For this one I added the cute little teddy bear under the transparency. The white pen marks emphasize the detail cuts on the teddy bear.



Here is a photo of the assembled tag with a matching ribbon.

When I cut the transparency layers for the tags I used multicut 2 times on the Expression with medium speed, high pressure and blade depth 6 to be sure that I would have a smooth cut. You may still have to apply a little pressure to separate the cut from the sheet of transparency but my cuts were clean.



I think the font on this cartridge will be one of my favorites once the cartridge is added to Design Studio and I can weld my words. The words that are prewelded are very attractive and I have already used several of them.

(No FCTSC digital challenge this week - I may do one next Thursday if there is some interest).

Sunflower Card - second time around

I decided to try another version of the sunflower card - one with no inking! This time I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to emboss the entire front of the card. I punched yellow circles for the flowers and used a green liner for the leaves. I also added ivory paper to the inside of the card to emphasize the scallops.



I adhered thin green grosgrain ribbon over the stems and added red "Skittles" (flat back plastic dots) to the flower centers. I also gave the leaves a bit of detail with some pen stitching.



Here are the two cards side by side - I am still not crazy about either of them! I love the card cut but I just haven't figured out the best way to embellish it! At least you can see two entirely different looks from the same card base cut in the same color.

(Just to remind you, this is one of the many cards ready to cut from the "A Child's Year" cartridge that does not have a child's silhouette featured - there is so much on this cartridge!).

Sunflower Card

Did you ever have one of those days...when nothing worked quite the way you thought it would? Today was like that for me. I had great ambitions for all the things I would get done - too many ambitions it turns out! I dealt with a lot of errands and house "stuff" (laundry, etc.) and then I thought I'd make a "quick" card.



I wanted to use this cut from the "A Child's Year" cartridge - another great design that has nothing to do with silhouettes of children (the variety and versatility of this cartridge is truly wonderful!). I inked the edges of the card - in part to disguise those score tick marks (which I will delete in Design Studio as soon as this cartridge is added to the program). I am not an inker, I just don't usually do it, and this became painfully obvious as I worked on the card. It looked "OK" when I had just done the edges but then I decided I wanted to emphasize the cut outs in the front of the card



I tried using a dauber for the first time - clearly this wasn't the right tool (or I was not using it properly). While I had an interesting stencil pattern left on the scrap beneath the card - the top was not a "thing of beauty" - in fact, quite the opposite.



But I carried on - attempting to make the best of my blotchy inking! I put adhesive on the three flower areas so I could adhere the one and one-half inch circles I had punched to back them.



Here the circles are in position. Then I added the backing paper to fill in the leaf and stems. These were both Debbie Mumm papers from a stack I got at Joann Fabrics. My card was cut at 5.5 inches to make a standard A2 card and the backing paper was 4 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches.



Here is a photo of the card at this point - I thought it loooked terrible with my messy inking and no dimension - so I thought I'd try adding some buttons to the centers.



(Slight digression here...I love buttons and have collected them since childhood. When we lived in England I always looked for old buttons at the car boot sales and secondhand shops. I have tins and tins of them!)



I settled on some rounded "flower" shaped orangey-yellow buttons, looked around for some string to tie through them and then "auditioned" them on the card. I still didn't like the result.



I remembered the perfect little cutouts of the flowers on the face of the card and decided to try those.



Here is the card with just the cut out flowers - with the petals folded up and placed at a slight turn from the cut in the base.



I then decided to "go big or go home" and add the buttons too - maybe that would be enough to distract attention from the inking!



The flowers really "popped" once I had the cutouts and the buttons layered.



Here is the card that I ended up with - my "quick" little project ended up taking waay too long and keeping me up too late even though I am normally a night owl. (and I am definitely going to read up on and ask my friends about inking techniques!)