Button, button, who has the button....

I am making progress (slow progress) on sorting out my scrap studio.  The main problem is that I keep discovering all sorts of treasures and stopping to play with them!  At least it has kept me out of the craft stores so far this year.

I have collected buttons for years.  Some are from family, others have come from estate sales, antique & flea markets and car boot sales when we lived in England.  Our younger son used to spend a lot of time with me sorting through all the shapes and colors when he was little.  There are so many that they have been subdivided into quite a few tins.

While I was sorting the leftovers from other projects I found these stylized flower cuts from some cards I made using the From My Kitchen cartridge.

Here is one of the cards I made from the recipe cards on From My Kitchen.  The original post is at this LINK.

Once I arranged the leftover stems on the card base I started trying different buttons for the blossoms.  The white and ivory buttons did not provide enough contrast.

So I checked for the more brightly colored buttons - and found all sorts of interesting shapes and sizes.

I "auditioned"  a lot of buttons and ended up with five that seemed to work well together.  The second button from the left is purple and not as dark as it appears in the photos.

The buttons needed some cord or string to make them appear to be attached by sewing.  I found this set of ribbon and cord on sale not long ago and I thought the blue and white string would be perfect.

I tied the string through the holes using lengths long enough to knot easily.  The strings needed to be trimmed with sharp scissors so the ends would be neat.

After I tied and trimmed the string I used a couple of glue dots to hold the each of the buttons to the card.

I will probably add a sentiment and possibly some white pen stitching or doodles.  I might use this as a note card for a friend who also likes buttons.

I wonder what I'll find next - and how long it will take me to finish sorting out the room!

Simple Scalloped Edge notecard tutorial

Someone asked about a card template for a plain card with a scalloped edge.  If you have the New Arrival Cartridge, you can easily adapt the cards on the cartridge to create a plain card.  I thought I'd make a quick post to explain how to do this.

I have used the New Arrival card to make these monogram cards last year.  Here is a LINK to the post explaining how I made these cards.  If you don't have New Arrival, you can check the posts for the next couple of days after the linked post to see the Plantin Schoolbook and George versions of the files.

I started with this card - but you can use any of the cards (some will have more contours to hide so look for a simple one).  This card has an odd preview but will cut fine.

All  of the other cards preview like the card at the top of this image.  For some reason this one card has the preview reversed which can be a bit confusing.  I went ahead and used it just to be sure that it would work.

 

To make sure that your card will end up in the correct size (to fit an envelope for an A2 card), it is helpful to place a sizing rectangle on the mat.  You can start with a square or a rectangle - this shape will not be cut (it is just a "helper" shape).

Adjust the size and position of the shape as shown in the Shape Properties box above.

Add the card shape to the mat with the slider bar set at 5 1/2 inches.  Slide the card into position to match the sizing rectangle - you will see that the card is a bit too wide.  You should then use the handle in the center of the right side to adjust the width and make the card fit in the sizing rectangle.

Sometimes the selection box is larger than the exact size of the image.  In this case you can see that the shape properties box says the card is 8.668 wide and positioned at 1.586 on the x axis.  By using the sizing rectangle as a guide you can be sure that the cut will be exactly what you want it to be (even though these values are "wrong" you can see that the shape fits properly).

Once you have sized the card properly, go ahead and hide the center image and the tick marks.

To hide these lines, left click on the line to select it (turns red or pink).  Then right click on the mat and choose "Hide Selected Contour" from the bottom of the pop-up menu.  The hidden line will be a very pale blue.  Be sure to delete your "helper" sizing rectangle before cutting.

Here is the card after cutting - a very simple and useful card form.  You can save the file and use it over and over again.

In order to have the scallops show when the card is folded you need to score the card slightly off center.  I scored the card at 4 1/8 inches from the straight side on my Scor-Pal.  To do this you just need to use the extra lines in the first inch section and align the card with the 1/8 inch mark and then score at 4 1/4 inches as usual for an A2 card.

The result will be a card with a small border of scallops showing.  If you use cardstock with white on the back there will be a nice contrast and the card will be easy to write in.

Whenever I have leftover papers from a project I save the small pieces and use punches to make useable shapes.  This is a good activity for when you are sitting watching TV or visiting.  These elements accumulate along with my "offcuts" from larger mesh designs and I keep them in a few handy containers so that I always have things I can use to decorate a card or scrapbook page.

I added the three scalloped squares and snowflakes to make another simple winter note card.  I am accumulating a set of designs that will make a handy gift at some point.

Thanks for all the good wishes on our wedding anniversary - and congratulations to those of you who shared that you are also celebrating an anniversary around this time.  I will show you the "new" wedding album as I work on it over the next weeks and months.

Twenty Nine Years Ago...

Today is our 29th Wedding Anniversary so this post is very short!  The card above was made with some "leftovers" from another project that I will share in a day or two.  I put it at the top of this post so my wedding photos wouldn't be showing up in the blog lists on all of the blogs that link to me.

The wedding doesn't seem so long ago - until I look at the photos and see how young (and skinny!) we look.

The littlest flower girl in this photo is now 32 and has been married for over six years.  The ring bearer is married with two children and the older flower girl is engaged and will be married in September.

Here we are with our parents.  My mother passed away in 1996, but we are lucky to still have my Dad and my husband's parents (who just celebrated their 55th anniversary).

I never made a wedding scrapbook, in fact, we never even ordered wedding photos so I only have the original shots.  I took them out of the photo sleeves they were in  a couple of years ago because the adhesive that holds the sleeves together had disintegrated and left some white residue on the edges of some photos.

One of my goals for the coming year is to put together an album in time for our 30th anniversary. I will have to do a lot of touch up on the older photos that I have scanned, however, since we were married "pre-digital," I don't have thousands of them to sort through.  I do still have all of the "memorabilia" to include (which is pretty incredible considering the number of times we have moved since getting married).

Thanks for taking a short trip down Memory Lane with me.

A few Digital Sites ...

Today I want to pass along a couple of links to sites that may be of interest, particularly if you are doing digital or hybrid projects.

The first is Lettering Delights.  I am not sure if they are part of Provo Craft, but I have found that they have many of the same images that are on the Cricut cartridges in digital form.  The picture at the top of this post was made using items from the Oriental Garden Collection.  They are the same as items on the Pagoda cartridge.  I haven't had a chance to make a full project yet (I just bought these yesterday) but I think it would be fun to do cards that have the Cricut cuts on the front and some of the coordinating images printed inside.

There is a great bundle sale going on now.  In addition to the sale, if you spend $15 or more you can use the coupon code "BundleUp" and get an additional 25% off.  The sale is on through January 6th.  Some that I noticed that will be of interest are:

 Peppermint Holiday Card Kit (like Winter Woodland)

Wonders of the World Collection (like Destinations)

Modern Miss Collection (like Forever Young)

Hello Cupcake Collection (like Sweet Treats)
It's Your Birthday, Cupcake Super Bundle (even more of Sweet Treats)

There are hundreds to check out - lots of really nice sets of images and fonts too.  They also have printables for party favors and cards.

The other is a brand new site Design House Digital.  They officially opened yesterday!  If you sign up for the newsletter you will get a great freebie kit designed by Jen Allyson. There are also three freebie kits for the month of January.  I am looking forward to exploring this site some more - there is a forum and there will be classes, challenges, and lots of fun things to do!

Design House Digital has quite a roster of fabulous designers including Deena Rutter, who designed the Cricut cartridges Storybook and Stand and Salute.

Have fun exploring these sites.

It is snowing here - again!  We finally got our older son's boxes mailed to him (he traveled with only carry on bags so we had to mail nearly all of the Christmas gifts he received to him in California).  The day was full with an afternoon movie (Sherlock Holmes) and dinner out so I didn't get much time to do Cricut projects.  Not much organizing progress today either....oh well, tomorrow is another day!

Happy New Year!

 Welcome to the new decade!  I wonder what these next ten years will bring?  I spent most of the day making and breaking resolutions - well, there is always tomorrow!  I think I will redo my list and possibly share it here on my blog.  Doing that may make me more "accountable" and perhaps help me to accomplish some of the things I'd like to in the coming year.

I promised that I would give you the details on this card.  It is a simple file that you can make yourself if you have been reading my blog for a while.  I imagine that there are many people who may have just received a Cricut and Design Studio for a gift, so I will do a bit of explaining.

The file is for the two butterfly layers. The cuts are delicate at the antennae so take care when you lift them from the mat.

 The shadow layer of the butterfly is highlighted in this screen shot of the keypad.

 The top layer of the butterfly with the detailed cuts is highlighted on this keypad shot.  To create the welded top layer, place one butterfly on the mat, check weld and then copy and paste three times, rotating each butterfly an additional 90 degrees.  Once you have the top layer to your liking, preview and be sure that you have "Keep Preview as Mat Background" checked in the View menu.  Then, on a new page in the file, you can choose the blackout version, check weld and copy and paste three more butterflies on the mat.  Use the preview image as a guide to align the background layer for the second cut.

I used the large Pinking Circle Nestabilities die for the brown glitter cardstock behind the butterflies and cut the striped layer with my trimmer.  You could use a different die or a cut from a cartridge that you own - the Accent Essentials has several shapes that could work. Here is a LINK to a post from September that shows you how to create a "pinked" circle using Accent Essentials.

The card is a standard A2 card (8.5 x 5.5 inches folded in half).  The striped glitter cardstock layer is cut at 4 inches by 5.25 inches.

The actual pages to cut the layers are on the first and third pages of the file (they are marked "CUT").  The second and fourth pages are for preview purposes only - you can use these to "audition" some ideas for the color scheme. The fifth page is a rectangle to represent the card base.  The sixth page is for previewing the file as a whole.

If you preview the file on the pages where the top layer of butterflies are located you will see the black outline for the cuts.  You will notice that there are some very tiny holes just below the top wings.

 This close  view of the card as I posted it yesterday shows the tiny holes - I thought they looked a bit untidy so...Stickles to the rescue!

In this very close view you can see the dots of Orange Peel Stickles that I added to disguise the holes.  I put three dots on each side of the body - the holes are too closely place for a dot on each hole.

The butterfly medallion is added to the pinking circle background with foam squares for added dimension.

The cardstock I used for the butterflies and the striped background are from the DCWV "Mi Casa" stack (think this may have been a Michael's exclusive).  The brown glitter cardstock for the pinking circle is from an older Spring glitter mat stack.

Here is one more view of the final card with the Stickles added.  I'd love to see your version if you download and use the file.  You can also try this design with another cartridge if you don't have Hannah Montana - there are quite a few butterflies to choose from!

Butterfly Medallion Card