The simplest of cards...

I have been busy with projects around the house and some other projects that I can't share just yet.  I had a frustrating time with one of these but I will figure it out!  I needed to take a break and make a quick card.  This is the simplest kind of card to make.

I have a weakness for buying stacks of paper - particularly the DCWV (Die Cuts with a View) stacks which I can usually get for $9 at Joann's with my VIP discount card.  There are often some pages that are not just a pattern but more of a pre-designed scrapbook page.  I don't use these for scrapbooking - I prefer to build my own pages.  I do use them to make cards,  With a little "fussy cutting" you can often get several cards from each page and have some leftover cardstock to accent other projects as well.

I have written about this before - you can read about the cards in the photo above at THIS POST.

I cut two sections from the 12 x 12 page.  I cut the pieces at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches and then trimmed the edges to fine tune the image.  You need to think carefully about the location of your cuts and "measure twice, cut once" to get the best results.

I inked the edges of the decorative cardstock with a coordinating color.  For the bird section, I used blue.

For the abstract flower section I used a yellow-orange ink to coordinate with the flower centers.

For the bird card, I found a stamp with the perfect sentiment - those are some very special birds after all!  It is difficult to see in the photo but the birds are totally glittered.  I didn't add any sentiment to the flower card - I will either use it for a notecard or add a sentiment to suit the occasion later.

I am on an organizing mission and trying to get many parts of the house in better order.  My craft space is overrun with projects so it is time to do some serious sorting.  I also have been working on reorganizing the labels and navigation on my blog - more changes are in the works.

One more note - I have added the link to download the file for the confirmation card I posted last week.  Please go to the original post HERE to download the design.

Alice in Wonderland

This is the last Artist Trading Card I'll be posting for a little while.  One swap group has come to the end of the planned swaps and I participate in a couple other groups on a semi-regular basis but probably won't join in while I finish up some new projects.  I do have a large series to make by the end of the year (and I hope sooner) with a quilt theme.  I am still in the planning stages for that group of cards.

The small group had a theme of "Alice in Wonderland" this month.  I recently downloaded a lot of images from the original illustrations of the book from Twisted Papers.  They are beautiful, crisp images that can be enlarged a great deal without becoming pixelated.  This LINK will take you directly to the page with many Alice in Wonderland images.

I brought the image into my StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software and started doing some digital magic.  I applied a color wash in tan to the image and then softened the edges.  I added some background paper for the base layer.  The phrase "go ask Alice" from "White Rabbit" by the Jefferson Airplane kept going through my head as I was working, so I added that and made it the same color as the background paper.  Then I used the filters to add a three dimensional edge and sphereize the image.

I adjusted the size of my image to ATC dimensions (3.5 x 2.5 inches) and then took the image into my printing program to fit eight on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of matte photo paper.  I cut heavy brown cardstock as a backing for the photo paper - I like my ATCs to be on the thick rather than the thin side.

I got out my colored pencils and did just a bit of hand tinting.  I haven't wandered into the world of coloring with Copic markers...yet... The pencils were a good way to add a bit of spark.

For the backs of the cards, I cut the teapot from A Child's Year at 2 inches in a pretty pink patterned cardstock.

I hand wrote the details on the back with my white Signo gel pen.

Several of you have asked what people do with the ATCs.  I have all of the ones I have traded for in a binder or a basket and look through them from time to time.  It is fun to see all the different "takes" on a common theme and to see and try new techniques.  I need to get the groups of ATCs together and take some photos so I can have a quick reference back to these ideas.

I haven't seen the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" yet - have any of you?  I have heard mixed reviews, but I am sure I would enjoy the visual treat with all of the bright colors I have seen in the previews.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Earth Day!

Today was Earth Day and I decided to try out the "Give a Hoot" cartridge to make a card to celebrate.  I took a look through the sentiments available and settled on "Go Green" (this sentiment could also work for St. Patrick's Day!).

Here is the location of the sentiment.  All of the rest of the cuts for the frog are made by using this key and changing the special feature and shift keys.  I sized the sentiment at 1 1/2 inches and the rest of the cuts were made at 2 1/2 inches.  I did not alter anything in Design Studio and the elements can be cut without using the computer.  Design Studio is so helpful in allowing you to determine exactly how to cut and arrange your elements and saves you from wasting your good cardstock with cuts that turn out to be the wrong size.  So you could say by using Design Studio you are "going green!"

Here you can see how I figured everything out on my Design Studio mat.  It looks like a big mess but this is not the cutting page.  I just used this page to check on the sizing and to be sure I found all of the layers I needed for the frog.  The rectangle is sized at 5 1/2 inches wide by 4 1/4 inches tall to give me a guideline for a standard A2 card.  There are a lot of layers involved.  This cartridge is one with the new style of layering.  There are no tiny pieces to add - the eyes and mouth are cut into the layers and the background shows through.  This style of layering uses more cardstock and produces thick elements but it is very easy to do with no stress over losing tiny pieces before you can glue them down!

These are all of the layers I cut.  There is a shadow layer in dark green, a base layer in black (to show through as the eyes and mouth), two frog layers - one to add the front legs and the other is the top layer.  There is also a layer for the lily pad.  You do have to think carefully about which layer should be cut in each color to get the result you want.  I used Core'dinations cardstock for the green layers and DCWV glitter cardstock for the lily pad.

I also cut the sentiment in the same dark green and top layer green I used for the frog.  The background layer for my card is from the DCWV Glitter Spring mat stack from last year.  It is a wild design but I finally found a way to use it. I think it makes the card so bright and cheerful.  The flower at the top left looks like a sun.

After I layered all of the pieces I had a heavy chipboard like frog to place on the card.  I used foam squares to adhere it and add more dimension.  I inked the edges of the background layer with lime green and decided to use a yellow card base instead of the white I had originally chosen.

This is a simple card but you do have to do some thinking to get the colors and textures for the layers the way you want them.

I ended up using green glitter cardstock for the lily pad - since it is DCWV and has a white core you need to be sure to ink the edges.  I also inked the top layer frog with green but it does not show up very well in the photos.

I felt a little odd using so many layers of paper to make an "Earth Day" card.  It seems wasteful but it does make the assembly of the frog go much faster.  I will be sure (as always) to use my scraps carefully.

The End of an Era - Heritage ATCs

The final theme for my Cricut Message Board ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap group was "Heritage/Ancestors."  Here is the card I made.  The woman in the photo is my maternal grandmother, Cora, when she was 18 years old.

It is bittersweet to see this group coming to an end.  The swap group started back in May of 2008 (here is a LINK to the post with my very first ATC).  For the first round we had ten members - which made it easy to keep the ATCs organized in trading card sleeves by theme.  In the second round the group increased to 14 so we have been at it for two years.  It has been a fun way to experiment and try new techniques.  The best part is that the group is a fun and friendly assortment of crafters.   They all kept up the commitment to get things in on time each month.  Many thanks to Karen (KER) for hosting for two years!  If only my 1,000 Inchie Swap would have a happy ending like this one, sadly all of that work and expense was wasted since we never received anything back from the "hostess" (though what she is going to do with all of the inchies we sent is a mystery).  The moral of the story is to pick your swap group carefully and be prepared to cut your losses if things go wrong!

I used this element on the Heritage cartridge for the front of my cards.  I set the size at 3 1/4 inches to make it a bit smaller than the 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch base card for layering.

When set at 3.25 inches tall the width is only 1.836 inches which is out of proportion for the ATC.  I changed the width value to 2.25 in the Shape Properties box to get a perfectly sized layer.

I set up a mat with the adjusted image repeated 12 times (the most that would fit on a 12 x 12 paper).  I had to cut this twice to get enough for 14 ATCs (I cut the entire second mat and saved the extras for other projects).

I did the backs digitally and used an aged looking paper with a delicate "antique" looking font.

Here is my finished group of 14 just before mailing  I punched the photos with a 3/4 inch punch and added the one inch circle in gold cardstock behind each photos.  The edges of the photo and the gold circle were inked to conceal any white edges.  The circle is strategically placed to block out one swirl section.  I flipped the design to give the impression of a heart in the swirls.

I hope you aren't too tired of ATCs - I have one more to share in the next few days and then I will be all caught up for a while. 

PLEASE NOTE:  If you received an "odd" email from me on Wednesday I am sorry - it seems that for about ten minutes my email account went nuts and sent weird messages with odd subjects and links.  I suppose my account was hacked somehow (I was at the movies when this happened).  A friend asked me about the email she received and when I looked into it I found about three dozen of these bizarre messages that I did not send.  Please delete the message without clicking the link in case it is dangerous.  I have changed my email password in hopes that this will take care of the problem.  Why do people do things like this!

A New Cartridge...can you guess?

I only have time for a quick post tonight - this is a very busy week and I have been having some problems with my hands so typing is a bit difficult.  Thanks for all the comments and feedback on the digital layout I posted yesterday.  Most people seemed to prefer the title page on the left.  I have a few things to explain about why that might be, however, they will wait for another day.

I just got a new cartridge in the mail from Mandy at Scrappy-Go-Lucky.  Can you guess which cartridge it is from this tiny sneak peek?  I have several projects that will soon be posted on the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog.  My fellow design team members have been making some wonderful projects.  This month, Mandy is sponsoring a great contest.  If you'd like to have a chance to win a Gypsy you definitely should check out  THIS POST for all of the details and the rules. 

I just had to share a couple of photos of our weeping cherry tree.  It is so beautiful right now - but the flowers only last for a couple of weeks.

Things change very quickly in the Spring - it is exciting to see what will bloom next (I think it may be the lilacs)!