Spring Card For A Friend by Chris

I am loving trying different techniques for making background papers and just knew I wanted to do the Brayer Resist that was on Paper Imagery Designs. I gathered some glossy magazine paper and my three distress inks (yes I do need to get more colors), a flower stamp, clear embossing pad and powder. Once I made my paper, it needed something more. I decided to deboss using my new Butterfly Impressability and my cuttlebug. I inked up the back of the metal plate with the Memento Bahama Blue ink, layered my sandwich: the A plate, B plate, Spellbinders embossing pad, cardstock and then my Impressability, inked side down. I topped it with another B plate and needed to shim it a bit more and used two old cards. Love how it came out. I cut it to 4.25 x 5.5 and then glued that paper to a sturdier piece of cardstock (5.75x 4.5).

To embellish the card I decided to make a stacked acetate flower that I saw on a blog. It’s super easy. Take a transparency sheet and rub it with a Magic Embossing Pad (anti-static). Then, using any solid stamps you have, ink them and stamp on the acetate sheet. I used my distress inks, a stazon white and my clear embossing inks. I then sprinkled them with the clear embossing powder and heated it from underneath. To deepen the color I used my copics and colored on the back (B06, YR16, R24). I cut them out with my cutterbees and stacked them with pop dots, made a pearl drop as its center and mounted on the card. I love the bumpy texture and the mix of five different flower stamps.

I cut out the “thinking of you” border from Walk in My Garden (3” length), glittered it with fruit punch stickles and mounted it between two ribbons from my stash. Added three more pearl dots and its done—a flowery, spring card for a very good friend.

Cutters Creek Supplies:
Liquid Pearls—Baby Blue
Walk in My Garden Cricut Cartridge
Superfine Embossing Powder Clear
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad-Clear
Spellbinders Impressabilities Dies—Butterfly
Tim Holtz Distress Inks—China Blue, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade
Stickles Glitter Glue—Fruit Punch
Memento Bahama Blue Dye Ink
Cuttlebug
Spellbinders embossing pads
Magic Embossing pad
Cutterbees

A Special 50th Anniversary with Melissa

So this year is my grandparent's 50th Anniversary. On Mother's Day we surprised them with a visit from Elvis (my grandmother LOVES Elvis) and a book telling them about what they will be doing for their anniversary this year. My grandparent's were married in the Little White Wedding Chapel off of the strip in Las Vegas. My aunt and sister were also married there so it has become something of a family tradition! We are having them renew their vows as well as providing their room, gas money, gambling money AND tickets to their favorite show, The Price is Right! Aren't they a cute couple!! You can see more of their SURPRISE here!


I made the book inspired by the tutorial found here. I chose golden papers that I picked up at my LSS, as well as the Core'dinations Gemstone papers and Bazzill Dotted Swiss Paper. I think it only took about 10 minutes to make the book and an hour to beautify it. I chose to use a golden vellum for the front and back as I used some cereal boxes to make the heavy duty covers. I stamped “Congratulation” in Versamark and embossed with Ranger Super Fine Clear Embossing Powder. You can see the words a little in the picture below. I was trying to make it look reflective. The stamped images are some from my stash, stamped on Prism paper and colored with copics. Also, the ribbon on the front and used for binding are from my stash. I used 1/2” pop up dots to make the dove's and corner ”Congratulations” stand out a little more. What do you think so far? I had a really hard time giving this to “Elvis” to give my grandparents; I wanted to put it on display!

You can see how I used Smooch Accent Ink-Moonlight to highlight the dove's a little. First I used my C00 and C1 copics to add a little dimension and finished with the Smooch! I also used Smooch ink on the veil and the carriage. FlowerSoft Fuschia was used on the back of the carriage as well as my Atyou Spica pens. I also assembled the whole book using Scor-Tape in 1/4” and 1/8”. The Inside: My LSS had a small section of Las Vegas themed papers and it was PERFECT for what we needed. I just have to say I LOVE the internet!! I found a lot of my pictures and logos on the web and was able to print them out for the book!

Slide Show: click here


Additional Items used:
Inkssentials White Pen
Liquid Pearls Baby Blue
Scor-Pal
Souffle Pens
Multiliner SP Pen 0.3 Black
FlowerSoft Glue
Fingertip Control Craft Knife
Ultimate Cutting Kit
Copics
Multipurpose Heat Tool

Mandi's Baby Card

Today I have made a super cute baby card using the New Arrival Cricut Cartridge! This card is super easy to make and the recipients LOVE them! To begin I cut a baby carriage out of the orange card stock at 3 1/2". Next I cut the carriage parts (use the shift key and select the carriage) from each of the 3 patterned papers. I used the Basic Grey Oh Baby! line for this one.

You will have to trim the top from one and the bottom from another as shown in the picture. The "blanket" cuts separately. To layer them, apply glue with the Quickie Glue Roller Pen to the blanket and stick that down first. Then glue down the top and bottom of the carriage too. Then pull out a great ribbon off of your Ribbon Ring. If you don't have your ribbon stored on these great rings you might want to think about investing in them! For just $7.99 you are on your way to having all your beautiful ribbon nicely organized. For this project I chose a nice light green ric rac. Trim it to fit along the edge of the top and across the middle as shown. Then add a beautiful button or brad to cover that hole in the middle and your ribbon end.

Now you have an adorable carriage! Since this card is going to a beautiful baby girl I decided your never too young for a little bling! So I grabbed a sheet of American Crafts Glitter Paper in the Raspberry color. I used the George and Basic Shapes Cartridge which comes with the Cricut Personal Cutter to cut a rectangle silhouette at 5" from my glitter paper. Then I cut a solid white rectangle at the same size and applied the glitter piece like a frame. I adhered them both to the front of my card, which I made from the same orange card stock, with my Tombow Mono Adhesive. Then I applied a couple of Pop Up Dots to the back of the carriage to pop it up a little bit. Now it's on it's way to meet a brand new baby in Texas!

Please stop by Cutters Creek to purchase products used in this gorgeous project!

Spring Has Sprung with Chris

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers. I just love them and never know what to do with all the pictures I take. Today I got out my SCAL and Cricut Expression and decided to make a 12x12 LO. I started with a free font called StripedCaps (fonts101.com) and used SCAL and my cricut markers to write my title; after which I freehand cut and matted it. I then cut and glued an svg mat design over my cardstock. I needed to do a bit of trimming where my blade didn’t go through but my cutterbees served me well in the small intricate spaces.
Using Walk in My Garden, I choose several flower heads as templates. I used the hinge method discussed on the web (http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com) and cut patterns for the each of the photos. I taped a scrap piece of cardstock to my mat along the outside edge and then carefully noted the left/right and in/out numbers of where I began cutting. When the cut was done I hit load paper, removed the cut pieces and fit my photo into the cut image adjusting until I had it just right. I then flipped the paper out of the way and returned the carriage to the numbers I wrote down and cut the photos. The starflower, blossom, and coneflower mats were cut at 3.25 inches. I then cut a shadowed piece of each flower to mat the photos on. The iris top and shadow was cut at 7” and the hydrangea heads (shift key) were cut at 9”.

Once all the flowers were matted and glued down I knew I wanted to use some Flower Soft. So I took the four small petals that cut with the hydrangea, popped them with pop dots and dotted on some dark lavender and light lavender. On the pink flower I dotted the stamen in the center and added some citrus crush ultra fine Flower Soft. I absolutely love the fine grains of this product. I had a leftover purple flower from the inside of the starflower—waste not, want not—that I also dotted with flower soft and added 3 felt flowers from my stash and it’s done.



Cutters Creek Resources:
Cricut Expression
SCAL
Cricut Color Inks
Walk In My Garden Cricut cartridge
Cutterbees
Flower Soft: dark and light lavender, citrus crush

Laura C's Father's Day Card

I don't know about you, but I always have the toughest time coming up with guy cards, but I really love the way this one turned out!!

Base is chocolate brown cardstock cut 4 1/4" by 5 1/2". Large blue piece is a 5" by 5" piece I ran thru the cuttlebug using the herringbone A2 folder, and then trimmed to 3 3/4" by 5". The placket is a 1 1/2" by 5" piece that is pierced using a paper piercing tool at 5/16" intervals and stitching was made using a clear sakura gel pen. The collar is a 1" by 1 1/2" piece cut on diagonal (from corner to opposite corner). The placket piece is adhered to the middle of the blue herringbone piece, and the collar pieces centered as shown.....I then trimmed the end points off so they are even with the "shirt". This piece is then adhered to the brown base card. I used a spellbinders die to cut out the brown tag, I cut a second one out of the blue. Just the oval part of the tag is cut out of the blue piece, and then it's stamped with the "Happy Father's Day" sentiment and adhered to the brown tag. I took 4 basic shirt buttons and stitched in a criss-cross pattern around the button. Then used glue dots to adhere the buttons and the sentiment to the center of the card.

I love the basic clean lines of this card, and it looks so much like a real shirt, right down to the texture on the "fabric"! It's a great way to say Happy Father's Day to any guy in your life!!

Purchase these products at Cutters Creek:

Cuttlebug Herringbone A2 folder
Sakura glaze pens
Glue glider pro: perma tac
Glue dots: Dot n' Go memory

Vicki's Grad

My son is a senior in high school this year, and I was amused by the way they called themselves "SEN10RS", designating the class of 2010. So, I thought I would create a file in Design Studio that imitates that. The font is Base Camp. I emphasized the '10' by making that slightly larger than the other letters, and cutting it in a different color. This portion is not actually adhered to the card. I have attached a tiny safety pin to the back of this piece, so that the kids can wear their 'Sen10rs' like a pin (or a bow tie, as my son says!). I also made a file that has three 'Sen10rs' pieces together, folded in a triangle, which will make a nice centerpiece at the graduation party ;-)! The basic .CUT file for the Sen10rs piece can be found at http://www.4shared.com/file/dRfJn7CV/SEN10RS_BOLD.html

The card base is the graduation cap from the Locker Talk cartridge. I figured out what size I wanted for the cap, and then 'copied, welded, flipped and rotated' my copy to the top of the first cap. I overlapped them slightly, so that there is a tiny fold at the top of the card. I cut the tassle in the school color, and the top button of the cap is in gold. The tassle itself is actually a solid cut, but I found that too bland, so I used my scissors to cut 'fringe' into the tassle. My .CUT file can be found at http://www.4shared.com/file/d8fdv7uX/Grad_Card.html

We have over a dozen seniors, and each of them will get a card and pin at the final band concert in a few weeks. I think the simplicity of this card is what makes it so nice. I will be able to easily create as many as I need, without too much hassle!

Cutters Creek Items Used:
Locker Talk
Base Camp
Design Studio
Cutterbee Scissors
Glue Glider Pro

Father's Day Card by Laura B.

This card is definitely Tim Holtz inspired! I love his products and stamps. This card was inspired by a challenge to use masks by my friend Mel LaFavers for an Everyday Card Challenge. I have had my masks for a while now, but I haven't ventured out to use them.

For this project, I started with a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of kraft cardstock. I placed my masks randomly on my paper. I put my project inside a large paper bag before spraying them with my Tattered Angels spray in Creme de Chocolat. The paper bag was great to catch the over spray, and I had no real mess when I was done.


If you don't have masks, you can make your own using your Cricut cutting machine and cartridges. Use your imagination. Butterflies, flowers, or any image can be cut to be a mask. Attach them using repositionable adhesive. You can save them on spare acetate sheets to re-use. The sky is the limit!

Next I used my various stamps and Memento Black ink to stamp random images on my card. Next I used sentiment stamp with Versamark ink and black embossing powder. I heat set it with my heat tool to allow the wording to stand out on my card. For my sentiment, I used my Inkadinkado Happy Days stamp sent to stamp "Happy Father's Day" on the card using Versamark ink and black embossing powder. Again, I heat set it with my heat tool.

I distressed the edges of my cardstock and mounted the card face black cardstock using my ScorTape. I added ribbon and a buckle for additional interest. I used ScorTape and a 3/8" Glue Dot to secure the ribbon and buckle. I mounted the finished piece on my card using Glue Dots Pop Up dots for dimension and shadow.

I love how this card turned out. It is rare that I make masculine cards, but I always seem to need them. I love how this technique turned out so rustic. I can see so many other uses for it as well. What a great option for some shabby chic feminine cards. I would love to see what you come up with using these techniques.

Products available at Cutters Creek:

Inkadinkado Stamps - Happy Days
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Creme de Chocolat
Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black
Heat Tool
Super Fine Embossing Powder - Black
Versamark Ink Pad
Scor Tape
Glue Dots

Optional ideas using Cricut and Cricut Cartridges