Get Whale Soon!

I received a call from my son’s teacher that the class needed a “Get Well” card for one of the school secretaries that had an emergency appendectomy. The teacher asked if I could run out and buy one and bring it to the school. I told her no problem.

When I received the call I was on the treadmill, so I decided to think about this card while I was finishing up. As soon as I hit my 30 minute mark I had the entire plan in my head. I went to the Craft Room to grab “Create A Critter” and get to work.

Ooooooppps! Only I forgot that I had loaned CAC to a friend going to a weekend crop. Oh well, never fear…I have the GYPSY! I designed the card quickly on the G and put papers on mats. Because this card would be signed by the entire class I figured I would use one of the bigger 5x7 card blanks that I have in my stash.

I cut some blue and embossed it. I actually cut it wrong (my brain was in 4x6 mode) so I improvised and cut that in half and made it work! I added the whale, some stickles, and wrote my own sentiment since I didn’t have a “Get Whale Soon” stamp! I think My Pink Stamper may have some similar in her "Punny” series, so I may have to check those out!

Here is what I ended up with:

Now, let me say that the colors on my cell phone picture are not great. The card is bright yellow and the whale is a lighter shade of blue than it appears on the picture. Oh well…it turned out cute in person and you get the general idea, even if the photo isn’t the greatest.

Have a crafty day!

Lori

Easter Egg Card

I wanted to finish up one more Easter card project to add to my contribution to the Cards For Soldiers project. I saw an egg shaped card on someone’s blog and was able to create the egg shape using my Gypsy and the Designer’s Calendar cartridge. From there I created a smaller egg shape for the top. I made these cuts directly from the gypsy.

For the design I thought the bunny from Kate’s ABC’s would be cute. Unfortunately, time was a factor so the Imagine was my hero! I used Kate’s ABC’s and pulled in the layers. I used the Imagine Blossom cartridge for the fills. Once I had that done I made all of the layers 2.5 (relative) and then used the Auto Fill so that I ended up with 4 full sets on the one page.

Print and cut and there you have it! I didn’t have to search for the “just right” shade of paper. I just let the Imagine do the work, which was a great time saver on this project. You can see from the photos that I did not do all 6 cards the exact same way. I kept tweaking it to try and get it just right. I think the one I liked best was with the blue ribbon tied on the front. Had I had more time I would’ve cut some of the “top” eggs in a solid, embossed it and then put the bunny on the front. I may try that for some Easter cards for my own use!

I really like the shaped card. The gypsy made it really easy to do. If you need instructions on how to do this, please comment below and I will post full instructions. I have heard of people sharing Gypsy files, and although I have not done this yet I’d be happy to give it a try if anyone wants the file.

That made 6 fairly quick cards to add to the CFS bundle. I need to box it up tonight and send it tomorrow. I have 70 cards to donate this time (see below). If you’re interested in this project, check out the “Cards For Soldiers” section of the Cricut message board! If you need a link let me know and I’ll be happy to direct you there.

Happy crafting!

Lori

Thank You card

I used the Imagine to make a quick Thank You card. I decided to go ahead and print and cut 2 of the image that I chose so that I could try 2 versions of the card. It’s always good to have a back up Thank You card on hand, right?!?

I got the image from the Better Together Imagine cartridge. The card base and pink background are papers out of my stash that I chose after the “Thanks” image came out of the Imagine. It’s easier to match the colors once you see the print!

I ran the pink base through the Cuttlebug for some texture. Then when I laid the “Thanks” on there it just looked too plain, so I grabbed the twine and added that for some extra accent.

Keeping in my Stickles frenzy I used those to add some sparkle to the card. I went gold for one and diamond for the other…each have their own appeal.

This was a fast project to put together. If nothing else, the Imagine makes it possible to do a quick project. I (thankfully) have had NO problems with my Imagine. Some of the posts I’ve seen on different message boards are really scary. I don’t know if I got lucky or what, but I am really happy with mine. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to sit down and hammer out a project using the Expression. That machine is great. But, when I need a quick card and I don’t have time to do a lot of layers, the Imagine is perfect. I hope to play with the features of the Imagine more and more and start getting some more complicated projects done to share.

Go forth and craft….

Lori

Birthday pop up card

Well, I decided to try my hand at a couple of new things. First of all, I designed a card in my Gypsy and I used the Imagine application. THEN….as if that wasn’t crazy enough (ha ha) I decided to make this one into a pop up card.

The Gypsy layout with the Imagine was no problem at all. I thought it was pretty straight forward…just like using the on-screen Imagine. I wish the Imagine application for the Gypsy was more like the Cricut application and we could move stuff around, but it’s not so I’m not going to dwell on it! Some of these folks spend a lot of time being mad!

I used the sentiment from a cricut cartridge (can’t remember which one) and then used the Imagine Better Together to fill the image with color. I think that’s a great feature because you can coordinate your sentiment with the colors/patterns of the Imagine image that you use.

The inside of the card is the butterfly and flower from Better Together (Imagine). I printed them in layers and then used a dimensional adhesive dot to make them pop out a bit. I had directions for the pop up card but I just kinda winged it. I was in a hurry and didn’t want to read directions. One mistake I made is that I should’ve put the pop up image a little higher on the pop up mechanism. But, it works, so I’m going with it!

I just found Stickles, so I am a bit of a Stickles freak right now! I am bling’ing everything right now.

I am hoping to try out the pop up cake card and the waterfall card this week. The kids are on Spring Break and it’s raining. I hear tales of warmer weather coming this week and I am anxiously awaiting said weather!

Have a crafty day….

Lori

Welcome Followers!

I just wanted to take a quick minute to welcome my new followers. If there is anything specific you'd like to see please leave a comment and let me know. I have the Gypsy, Imagine, Expression, and Cuttlebug so if you're stumped about something with any of those let me know and I will try to help.

I started this blog to share photos and descriptions of the projects I make because I have learned so much from the blogs I follow. I'd love to "pay it forward" and help any of you with any questions!

I plan on trying a pop up card next week and a waterfall card if time allows. I've seen so much on these and really want to give it a whirl. Again...if you see something you want to know more about let me know and I might be able to help.

Lori

Easter cards!

 

I have been working on some Easter cards to add to my contribution to the Cards For Soldiers package for this month.  If you don’t know about this project, it’s awesome.  A group of people send cards they’ve made to one location and then that person ships all of the cards received to a military base.  The cards can then be used by the soldiers to send home to their loved ones.

This project is near and dear to my heart, so I have committed to send in a batch this year.  The Elmo and Cookie Monster cards and Mother’s Day card that I showed earlier on the blog are for that project.  I also use any “test cuts” that I make and make up a quick card and those go in the package as well.

Anyway…this Easter card is for the Cards For Soldiers package too.  I used Create A Critter for the bunny.  I set everything up in the Gypsy so that I knew what my end result was going to be.  Then I put each layer on a different page so that I could cut full pages of each color.  That makes these projects go quickly…I was able to cut 6 bunnies pretty quickly.

The “Happy Easter” sentiment is letters welded together in the Gypsy and then placed in a rectangle.  The great thing about doing this is you can use the letters, or you can use the box.  Both ways turned out really cute. 

I ran the strips of paper through the Cuttlebug and used a Easter egg ribbon that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby.  The card blanks were just made by cutting good old cardstock for the A2 size!

 

If you don’t have Create A Critter it really is a great cartridge.  It is probably one of the ones I use the most.  The cuts are cute and easy to make.

Wedding Card

This project took quite a bit of time, but I am so pleased with it! I was able to use the multi-cut function on my Expression, which is a feature I had not used before. I called before I started the project to find out what the “colors” are for the wedding. Black and White. Well…can it get any easier than that?

I chose the card on page 53 of Wild Card. If you don’t have this cartridge and you are into card making, make Wild Card your next purchase. Seriously! I love it!

I decided to use a white glitter card stock for the front of the card. I always start with the envelope first so I loaded a 12x12 piece of black cardstock in and chose the envelope on page 52. Use “Fit to Page” and the Expression will calculate the maximum size you can do for the envelope and card. How awesome is THAT?

Here is the envelope front.

Pretty plain, but classy. After this I cut the card base, using the size that was calculated with Fit To Page on the envelope cut. For this cut I used the “Multi Cut” function. The glitter paper is thick, and I had trouble with it before I knew about that lovely little Multi Cut button! So, I put it to the test this time and am SO glad I know to use it on really thick papers now!

I wanted the inside to look nice, so I used the same black cardstock as I used for the envelope and cut the “Blackout” feature for the card. Now the inside is black and the black paper peeks through the holes in the scallops. Since I did that I thought it would look nice to use the “Liner” feature for the envelope and make that cut with the white glitter paper. Here’s the inside view of the envelope.

Again, since I used the white glitter paper I used the Multi Cut function. For the Bride and Groom image on the front I used the “Icon” from page 63. I actually did a stamp wet emboss sentiment on the inside but I messed it up. SO AGGRIVATING! Here I had spent all of this time on the card only to ruin it. Oh no…all is not lost! I grabbed my scraps of black and white glitter cardstock and some Creative Memories heart punches. I used pop dots to make them stand up a bit and strategically placed them to hide the stamping mishap, as you can see below:

For a little added effect I used Stickles to decorate the back flap of the envelope where the white shows through and the front of the card in the scallop holes. I just did a little dot, let it dry, and then repeated so that it was a bit raised up, giving a dimensional effect!

So, that’s that! This is a really nice shaped card and envelope that you could customize to any event or celebration. Please feel free to leave a message and ask any questions you may have!

Lori

Birthday Card x 2

This weekend my two kids have 3 birthday parties to attend. Great excuse to get to the craft studio and make some cards!

My son requested a giraffe for one card and then a cat for the other. However, the cat card was for a girl in his class, so I took the opportunity to use the new Imagine cartridge and make the cupcake one. Ugh…it is so freaking cute! I just love it!

The giraffe is from the Create A Critter cartridge. I used the Imagine to print and cut so that I didn’t have to dig up paper. The brown background paper was run through the Cuttlebug. I think this card turned out well. I used a card blank that I had in my stash for the green base card.

This one turned out so cute! I love it. (wait…I already said that…) Anyway…the Cupcake is from the Imagine Better Together (I think). The “Happy Birthday” is from Create A Critter. Both were printed and cut on the Imagine. The background paper was run through the Cuttlebug. I used Stickles to give the card some sparkle.

Hope you enjoy! I had fun making these two projects.

Older creations

Here are some of my older creations. I figured since I didn’t post those on Facebook I’d go ahead and post them here and then continue to post my crafty creations on here instead of Facebook.

These 3 cards are cards that we did for the Cards For Soldiers project. Basically a group of us makes cards and sends them to someone in our time zone. That lady boxes all of the Central time zone donations up and ships those cards to a contact on a military base. The soldiers can use these cards to send notes home to family and friends. I thought for our first donation we’d do some cards that the soldiers can send home to their kids or younger family members.

This one is my favorite! We used the Gypsy to layout as many layers as we could get on a page and then one person ran the Expression cutting, cutting, and cutting, while another person put the layers together and made Elmo faces. I went back another day and put the cards together. I used scraps that I had for the blue and circle parts. I love these!

Cookie Monster was assembled the same way as Elmo. One person ran the Expression while another put the layers together. I used a card blank that I had in my stash and then used the Happy Birthday cuttlebug folder.

Again, same system as Cookie Monster. After doing so many Birthday cards I thought maybe some “general use” cards would be handy, so I created the “Just A Note” Elmo card above. I think in total there are about 40 of these three total.

The “theme” for this month’s Cards For Soldiers donations are Mother’s Day and Easter. I have two Easter layouts created in my Gypsy and have done a Mother’s Day one on the Imagine. I will post those later!

Enjoy!

Cinderella Card

OK...in order to post a picture of this card on a message board I had to have the photo online. So, I have created yet another blog.

I purchased a Cricut Expression on Black Friday and things have snowballed from there! I now own the Expression, Cuttlebug, and Imagine. I completely re-did my "Crap Room" and created my "Craft Room". I now have space to do my projects, whether I have one hour or all afternoon. To say I am enjoying this creative time would be a huge understatement!

Today I decided to try and use the Imagine to create a birthday card with Cinderella from an original Cricut cartridge. The trick to this is choosing wisely when assigning colors to the various layers. I learned a few things on this project. One...skip the white cut for the eyes and mouth...WAY too small. Use a white gel pen instead! Awesome outcome! Another thing I learned is that you need to apply the adhesive to the back of the TOP layer. Do not apply adhesive to the black bottom layer, as the black ink will smear. Overall, I am happy with the outcome!

Hope you enjoy looking!