July ATCs - Toys

The July theme for one of my ATC (artist trading card) groups was "Toys." I was getting ready to do something completely different (involving legos) when I received the "A Child's Year" cartridge to preview. I really liked the image of a tricycle on that cartridge and decided to change my plan and make my cards using the tricycle cut.

ATCs are only 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches so I needed a small tricycle to fit the card. I did a test cut in paper, however, I found that the tiny details were very difficult to remove and seemed to "stick" in the image. I had just been using vinyl for a couple of projects and it cuts very easily with great details, so I thought I would try using vinyl for my cuts.

The vinyl worked beautifully - most of the little details stayed stuck to the backing paper when I lifted the cuts and it was much easier to remove the remaining little tiny detail slivers from the vinyl cut than it had been with the paper cuts. (When I cut vinyl, I set my blade depth at 4 and use medium pressure and medium speed - this creates a "kiss cut" which cleanly cuts the vinyl but leaves the backing paper intact.).



I chose a background paper with a swirly dot design in a bright green pattern - I liked the contrast of the hot pink tricycle and the bright grassy green. (Unfortunately, this color combination was difficult to photograph in artificial light). I cut the word "play" from the A Child's Year cartridge as well - it is one of the pre-welded words on the cartridge.



I like to do the backs of my ATCs on the computer and try to coordinate them with the theme of the card. I wanted to use a bright and colorful design from my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus software to match the playful spirit of the card.



I chose this paper from the Everyday Digital Kit - but the colors did not coordinate well with my card front. So I went to the Enhance tab and altered the hue using the slider bar - very simple to do. I was able to get shades of pink and green that looked nice with the front of the card.



I did not try to get the exact same little piece of paper to cover the back of each ATC - I just let the random nature of the motifs add to the fun.

It takes a while to make fourteen of anything but I did get these sent off to our hostess last Saturday - if you want to see what other people did for this theme you can check out KER's blog to see the entire group - if they are not there yet they will be posted soon.

"Thanks" card with Scor-Bug

I have been getting all sorts of exciting mail lately. I ordered the eleven new Cuttlebug embossing folders and they arrived yesterday. Today, UPS delivered the "Don Juan" cartridge I ordered using my Cricut Rewards points - I can't wait to give it a "test drive!" When I got the mail this afternoon I had yet another package, and it it was the Scor-Bug, a nifty little gadget from the Scor-Pal company.



Here is the Scor-Bug closed, It has a handy little chain that you can use to attach it to a tote or purse.



When you slide the knob forward a wheel with sharp tipped little pegs is revealed. You run the Scor-Bug over a piece of card stock on the Scor-Pal, following along one of the grooves. There is a very natural feel to the Bug in your hand and the finger grip is built in.



First I scored the front of my card at 1/2 inch from the long edge of the folded card.



Then I lined up the center fold of the card with the five inch mark on my Scor-Pal and ran the bug along the line 1/2 inch away.



I then placed the unfolded card along the edge of the Scor-Pal and ran the Scor-Bug down each long side of the piece of cardstock one/half inch from the edge.



On the top side, the Scor-Bug creates evenly spaced dots, debossed into the surface of the cardstock.



On the bottom of the cardstock, the tool creates a series of bumps that give the effect of stitching (without the work of actually stitching!).



These dotted lines formed a new center area of my card - the measurement (after removing one-half inch from each side) is 4.5 inches x 3.25 inches. I cut a piece of pretty paper to 3 inches x 4.25 inches and stuck in in the center position.



Then I added the word "Thanks" which I cut from blue glitter card stock with my Cuttlebug using the die from the "With Gratitude" A2 combo set. I deliberately placed my "Thanks" die cut a bit off center to add some interest.



This is an extremely simple card but the Scor-Bug lines just give a little extra pizazz! I want to try more complicated and intricate patterns very soon. I would not recommend trying this on thin patterned paper but it works great on heavy cardstock (I was using Bazzill card stock in this example). If you'd like more information about the Scor-Bug, here is a LINK to the Scor-Pal site page where it is fully described,



I happen to need some thank you cards right now to thank my "Walking Goddess" friends for birthday gifts. On Monday, we had a "girl's night out" to celebrate the four birthdays that fall in July. I am very lucky to have such a fantastic group of friends. I just had to share a picture of the fabulous birthday cake that Debbie made from scratch(!) with whipped cream, raspberries and drizzled chocolate. Check out those crazy twisted candles on top!


(Jen and I are holding a Basic Cards class on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern - there are still a few slots available if you are reading this in the morning and would like to attend. Follow the directions on the LMSYHTDT blog to request a space in the class).

Beach Party Card - hide contour makes it work!

I did another test cut of the Beach Party card and it cut perfectly. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I had the file ready to share but then noticed that the line between the "e" and the "a" on my second test cut was very thin (as you can see below).



I am not sure why that second cut was "off." I occasionally have files that cut perfectly once and then imperfectly in the same cutting session. After checking the files to be sure that the design is correct, I can often get a good cut again simply by closing and reopening the program



For this test I used a K & Co paper with a very cute beach theme. You need to add a liner if you plan on printing information or writing a message on the inside of the card.



Since the paper I used for the card was double-sided, I just cut a piece of paper to 4 x 5.25 inches to adhere to the inside front of the card.



The paper was dark blue on the front side. If you use a patterned paper for the card design, it is important to have a strong contrast for the liner.



The multiple openings make a very interesting card front.

I also promised a quick tutorial to show you how I designed this card. The key to making this work is the use of "hide selected contour." I always try to find ways to use my cartridges efficiently and I enjoy the challenge of trying to make a new design using as few cartridges as possible. Since there is not a plain rectangle on the "Life is a Beach" cartridge, I used one of the square cards for my basic card shape. I chose one with only a few contours to hide to keep things simple.



Hide the interior contours as indicated above. Remember, to hide contour you left click on the line you want to hide - it will turn red and dotted to show that it is selected. Then right click anywhere on the mat and click on "hide selected contour" at the bottom of the pop-up menu. The line will turn a very pale blue. I always hide the "tick marks" on the cards which are included in the design for the location of the fold - I don't care for the little cuts that show on the final fold. Once all of the contours are hidden, adjust the size to 8.5 inches wide and 5.5 inches high using the Shape Properties Box.



For the words, use the "charm" feature and nudge the letters together until the circles overlap. Then hide the outer line and the hole of each charm.



For the center of the card, I used one of the images in the charm feature but stretched it a bit to make the opening an oval rather than a circle. You can choose any of the images for the center and then hide the outer line and the hole of the charm again.



In this screen shot you can see the large number of hidden contours (all pale blue lines).



This preview shows how the design will look when it is cut. By previewing on a blank page you can see the design without all of the distracting hidden contour lines visible in the preview.

I have designed many cards using this method - I will share a few more of them soon, but why not try making some on your own? It really is very easy and it is so much fun to think of all of the possibilities.


(We still have some openings in the Word Book Class on Wednesday 7/15 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and in the Basic Cards Class on Thursday 7/16 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern - registration directions are linked HERE).


Beach Party A2 Card

Century Studios (shop hours sign in vinyl)

Sometimes it can be very handy to have a Cricut crafter in the family! My brother and his partner have a wonderful shop in the Twin Cities. They create Tiffany reproduction lamps, custom stained glass windows and other stained glass art. After 20 years in Minneapolis, they have moved the shop to St. Paul. Along with all of the other work involved in renovating the new shop and moving the business to a new home, there are the little details that need attending to - such as posting the store hours on the door.

After a local sign shop quoted over $60 to make the lettering for the door, my brother asked if this was something I could do. I told him that my Cricut and I could do almost anything....(well, a lot of things anyway...) and that I could easily cut him some vinyl lettering for the store door.



The plan was to post the hours on the front door - in an area about six inches square. I looked through my font cartridges and decided that the "opposite" font on "Opposites Attract" had a bit of an "Arts and Crafts" feel to it. I set about laying out the sign information on my mat.



The grids made it easy to get the size and positioning right. I quickly had my design done. I wanted to cut the letters and numbers so they could be stuck to the inside of the door window and read from outside the shop. This meant I needed to have the sticky side of the vinyl "on top." So I needed to flip my design.



If you are working with letters and numbers and you try to flip them, your words won't make sense. You can see in the top example - from the outside of the shop this would say "SROUH." To get the letters to read correctly after flipping, you need to enter them on the keyboard in backwards order. Then, when they are flipped, they will be in the correct order, as you can see above.



Here you can see the screen shot of my final design (well nearly final - I did go back and add two little dashes in the phone number).



I use medium pressure, medium speed and blade depth 4 to "kiss cut" the vinyl - cutting cleanly through the vinyl but leaving the backing paper intact. After the cut was completed, I "weeded" it by removing everything but the letters and numbers of the design.



Above you can see the vinyl that was removed by "weeding" the image. The centers of some of the letters and numbers were also removed. In this photo the vinyl is "sticky side up."



Next, I applied transfer tape to the weeded design. Transfer tape is extremely helpful for a project like this where everything needs to stay lined up perfectly.



Here you can see how the design looks when you lift the transfer tape. The side that you see is the sticky side that will adhere to the inside of the glass door window. You use the transfer tape to "carry" the letters to the place where you want to install them and then stick them to the surface and burnish them on, carefully pulling the tape away at an angle.



I sent the lettering to St. Paul and the shop door is now complete with the relevant information posted and easy to read. The cost of the small piece of vinyl I used was far less than the $60 quote from the sign shop - and I feel like I contributed in a small way to the new shop. I wish them much success in the new location!

If you live in the Twin Cities area and happen to be interested in this type of artwork, you may want to check out the shop sometime. Here is a LINK to the Century Studios website and here is a LINK to the blog.

Beach Party Card

I haven't had much time to work with the "Life is a Beach" cartridge since it was added to Design Studio. Today, I finally got around to test cutting a design I created shortly after the update.



Even though there are two card options (photo card and square card) on this cartridge, I decided to create my own design. I used the alphabet and the pineapple drink to create a "Beach Party" A2 invitation card.



I did my first test cut on a patterned cardstock from the DCWV Summer Stack from 2008. I thought it was a bit difficult to read the words so I tried another cut using some cardstock from the DCWV "Citrus" stack with a more subtle pattern.



Here you can see the two test cuts. The patterned paper version is cute but the words are definitely more difficult to read.



I added a lining paper to each card using a bright blue for contrast on the patterned paper card and a more monochromatic choice for the second card.



Here is a closer view of the patterned card. The bright blue helps to make the words stand out and it is interesting to see which words from the paper are most noticeable after the cutting - "HOT" ended up nearly centered on the pineapple drink!



The second version of the card is easily read and the subtle pattern in each cardstock makes it more interesting than using plain cardstock.



I decided to add some Stickles glitter glue to the words cut in the patterned cardstock to make them pop out so they would be easier to read.



Here is a closer view of the "Stickled" letters.



I have the file to share but I noticed that the second test cut has a very thin line between the "e" and the "a" in "beach" even though the spaces appear even on my Design Studio screen. I used a new mat for both cuts and did not change the file between cuts so I am not sure why this happened. I want to test the cut again before I post the file. I will also write a short tutorial to show you how I created this file.


If you have been interested in joining a Design Studio class, please check the Let me Show you How to Do that blog (click HERE). We have posted classes for this week and then we will have a brief break next week. After the break we will be offering some new classes so this is the last chance for the Getting Started and Basic Cards and Word Book classes for a few weeks.