Spring Scene Card with Lori

Update: Don't forget, one lucky commenter this month will be winning a fabulous Flower Soft prize, so be sure to check out all of the projects this month and leave a comment!

I had great fun making this cute card!  As usual, it took me a while to think through what I wanted to do, but actually making the card did not take long at all.  My finished card is 8"x3.5", perfect for a gift of money, or just a card that's easy to mail.

To begin, I pulled out the new Spring collection from Echo Park and a set of cute little hedgehog stamps from my stash.  Using my Make The Cut software, I imported a Vector PDF for the "hill" piece from a sketch pattern book.  (I love that I don't have to print PDFs and cut them by hand!)  I will point out that if I were making this card again, I would have found a scrap piece of a different green for the straight piece, as they blend together a little too much.  I did define the edges some by sponging some green ink on the top edges.

I cut one of the trees from the paper that has the strips of various patterns, and placed it on my hill.  I selected my hedgehog stamp and stamped him once directly on the card, and once on a scrap of white CS.  I colored in his body, then adhered it over the stamped outline on the card.  I filled in the quill area with my Flower Soft glue, then covered him with Nut Brown Flower Soft.  While I let that dry, I stamped the kite portion of the image on various patterns of the paper, cut them out, then adhered them to the kite stamped on the card front.

Once the Flower Soft glue was dry, I rubbed off any excess Flower Soft and returned it to the container.  Lastly, I peeled off a sticker sentiment from the sticker sheet and stuck it to my card front.  I'm currently thinking this will make a cute birthday card for my daughter (she turns 8 near the end of March), but if I change my mind I'm sure I will find something else fun to use this for!

Products available at Cutters Creek:

• Flower Soft Glue
• Flower Soft, in Nut Brown
• Echo Park Springtime Collection Kit

Cutters Creek is also an affiliate of Make The Cut.

Flower Soft Tutorial Tuesday with Kim B.

Welcome to another Flower Soft Tutorial Tuesday! I hope you enjoy your journey with me. I am going to start you off with a quick video first. I want to apologize in advance as there are a couple points where it is a bit shaky as I shot it with my iPhone and had a super crazy computer weekend, I would have reshot it if time had permitted. I really need to buy a new camera and a tripod! So here is your first introduction to Flower Soft:



Now that you have watched my video, let's get going with my newest project. For this project I selected a new item to Cutters Creek. I used one of the Charlie's Ark Creative Kits and there are eight die cut pages in each package. For this project, I selected the the elephant also known as Hoff. Pictured below is the topper that I already popped up out and added the decoupage elements to this with foam squares, which also just pop out of the sheets (no scissors required!).

The next thing I did was grab my Ultra Fine Flower Soft and used Koala Grey to outline Hoff's ear and Sage to add some dimension to the paint can behind Hoff. I then puched out the cute Hoff decorative paper and the paint can border piece and attached them to my 6" x 6" card front and then attached my Hoff topper pictured above. I then punched out the cute paint can that says "You Color My World" from the kit and curved it a bit with my scissors. I set that aside and pulled out my Flower Soft wires and cut one wire in to four pieces. Here I had a bit of fun! I coated my wires with Flower Soft glue and added the brand new mixed color Meadow and did not worry if all the glue was covered in Flower Soft. Then I went back and sprinkled a bit of the new Flower Soft color Marigold to add a bit of miscellaneous color. I then took the leftovers of each color on my craft table and put that into a container and put some Flower Soft glue down along the top of the paint can and spots down the side and put this new mix down on the glue to tie everything together.

I also put some of my "new mix" on the inside of the card to again tie everything back together and you can see that photo further down in my post. I took a piece of green cardstock and shaved tiny pieces off to add those dark green spiky things in the pot. Very easy and fun! And lastly, I added some Kaiser Craft Rhinestones, as I did not like so much white area at the top of my topper........lol! Here is my finished card front and a close up of my paint can flower pot.


For the inside of my card, I cut a piece of yellow cardstock with a pair of paper shaper scissors, remember those............lol? I popped out another topper from the Charlie's Ark Creative Kit that had a sentiment and attached it to the piece of yellow cardstock then punched out a sentiment from the kit and attached that with foam squares. This is were I also used that mix I made of Meadow and Marigold and added a few drops of Flower Soft glue and sprinkled it on the lower left corner. Then to round it all out, I attached some smaller matching Kaiser Craft Rhinstones to the inside topper to tie everything all together in a nice neat card. I also left room at the bottom to put a personal message and signature. Here is my completed card on the inside.

I hope you enjoyed my Flower Soft Tutorial Tuesday! I had a lot of fun and this entire card took me less than 30 minutes (not including drying time of course). Please leave me a comment to tell me what you think and please ask any questions you may have!

All products used can be found at the Cutters Creek online store! Here is a recap of the products used:

Charlie’s Ark Creative Kit
Flower Soft-Meadow
Flower Soft-Marigold
Flower Soft Ultra Fine- Koala Grey
Flower Soft Ultra Fine-Sage
Flower Soft Wires
Flower Soft Glue
Foam Squares
Kaiser Craft Rhinestones

Fairy Thank You Card by Vicki

I have been needing a lot of Thank You cards lately, so here is one I made for a family member. Since I have needed a bunch, I felt like my mojo was out of sorts, so I used a sketch from a new Facebook friend I made, Sketch Support.

I used a simple kraft paper base, and then challenged myself to use a color I normally do not gravitate towards...Orange! Since it was a simple 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card, I was able to use paper scraps in my stash - I didn't need to cut up a bunch of sheets of full cardstock!! I used my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper to round the corners of the nested squares.


The 'Thank You' sentiment was cut from the Wild Card Cricut cartridge. I sized it up just the right size on my Gypsy, and cut it in orange cardstock. Then, I used my markers to outline the sentiment in brown, so it would stand out better on the card.

The sketch called for a variety of hearts cut in matching papers, but I wanted to make this a little more personal for my family member, so instead, I used a digi-image. I used an image called Fairy Belle, from The Character Cafe. I printed the digi on my laser printer on Bazzill Simply Smooth White Cardstock. I colored her with several of my Copic markers. I used G24 and G28 on her dress, E21, E00 on her skin, R20 for her cheeks, and E44 and E47 on her hair. I didn't have any orange Copics, so I supplemented with my Sharpies. I thought she still needed a little something, so I used Rusty Hinge Distress Stickles for her flowers, and Diamond Stickles in her hair. The Diamond color has flakes of orange, gold and green tinged glitter that matched perfectly! I was making her wings separate from her body, so I cut around the image closely with my Cutterbee Scissors. The images from Character Cafe often come with little extras. In this case, they have a separate image of just the wings on the PDF file. I cut her wings out separately, coated them with Flower Soft Glue, and used Polar White Diamond Range Flower Soft to make her wings look like feathers. Although the Flower Soft has a touch of glitter in it, I thought it need a little more, so I used more Diamond Stickles as a thick outline on the edges of the wings.

Just a hint - when using Stickles AND Flower Soft - allow PLENTY of time for the products to dry before you try to assemble them. Otherwise you end up with glitter and glue all over your fingers!!

So, after waiting a sufficient time to let them dry, I assembled her on the card, using 3-D Dots. The result is a fairy that appears to 'fly' off the card with a little bit of magic dust.


Just a reminder that EVERY comment left this month will be eligible for our Blog Candy drawing at the end of the month. You can comment once per project so make sure you check back often!!!!

Cutters Creek Shopping List:
Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper
Cricut
Bazzill Simply Smooth White Cardstock
Copic Markers: G24, G28, E21, E00, R20, E44 and E47
Rusty Hinge Distress Stickles
Diamond Stickles
Flower Soft Glue
Polar White Diamond Range Flower Soft

Spring Treats by Mindy

Spring is in the air and it's time to start working on your Spring craft projects. I thought it would be a good idea to make some treat boxes using the new Spring Holiday cards seasonal cricut cartridge. This cartridge has really cute (and simple) card designs for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day,and Easter. The cards can then be layered on card bases or treat boxes like I have done.

I made my boxes at 5.5 inches which is the biggest you can get with a 12x12 sheet of paper for this style of box. I cut a pattern from my Cricut Imagine on white cardstock, then I cut the card design aslo at 5.5 inches.

For the St. Patrick's Day box, I used a green pattern from Audrey cartridge.

I cut the design again out of yellow cardstock so I could layer the horseshoe. I backed the design with some kraft paper and added some wiggly eyes.

The Easter treat box uses 2 different patterns from the Hopscotch Cartridge.

I layered the yellow pattern with the striped pattern and stitched them together. I gave the chick some wiggly eyes with fancy lashes and chalked the beak with some orange chalk. These went together so quickly they would definitely be easy to do for your child's class or sports team.

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Cricut Spring Holiday Cards mini cartridge

Cricut Imagine Hopscotch pattern cartridge

Cricut Imagine Audrey pattern cartridge

White cardstock

Springtime Hannah by Laura C

Are you ready for spring? Wow, I sure am!! This sweet little Hannah card is a little burst of springtime until the real thing gets here!!

This started with the "Hannah On Stepping Stones" stamp.


Yes....she started out on a pond, and ended up in a garden, thanks to the magic of Flower Soft! I stamped Hannah 4 times in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Twice on Bazzill Simply Smooth White Cardstock, once on pink cardstock, and once on patterned paper (the pretty pink print from the Echo Park Springtime set). The white cardstock Hannah, I colored in with Copics....the skin with E00, hair E21, E33 and E57, her bow with RV02 and RV04, the leaves and stems with G21 and the stepping stones, with E33 and E57. I cut her out using the Spellbinders Nestablilities Mega Dies Labels 8 and inked around the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Bundled Sage. Next step, was to cut Hannah's dress out of the pretty patterned paper, her boots out of the pink cardstock after coloring the soles black, and to cut out the bow on the second white cardstock Hannah after coloring it.


Then I used foam tape to adhere her dress, bow, and boots, and then I filled in the original "pond" area on the stamp with Flower Soft Glue, as well as adding a bit to the flowers in her hand, and the tall cattails....sprinkled with Heather Flower Soft, and now she's in a field of flowers!! I added a little bling to her bow and her boots with Star Dust Stickles and set aside to dry. The simple card base is 5&1/2"x4&1/4" pink cardstock, layered with a 5&3/8" by 4&1/8" piece of Echo Park Springtime paper, followed by a 4&2/4" by 3&1/2" piece of pink cardstock embossed using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. To finish the card, I used green ribbon from my stash....knotting each end and adhering with score tape to the pink Swiss dot layer. I used foam tape to adhere the finished Hannah image, and added Hot Pink Kaiserkraft Rhinestones in the corners.

Ahhh, a fresh breath of springtime! And don't forget to pop into Cutters Creek to check out the awesome Flower Soft collection....so many colors to choose from and soooo many ways to use it!!

Just a reminder that EVERY comment left on the blog during the month of March will be eligible for some sweet BLOG CANDY!!!

Available at Cutters Creek:

The Pixie Cottage Stamps (Hannah On Stepping Stones)
Bazzill Simply Smooth White Cardstock
Echo Park Springtime 12x12 paper set
Spellbinders Nestablities Mega Dies Labels 8
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Bundled Sage
Flower Soft Glue
Heather Flower Soft
Star Dust Stickles
Hot Pink Kaiserkraft Rhinestones
Copic Markers ( E21, E33, E57, RV02, RV04, G21)

Flower Soft Dimensions with Chris

Today I got out my SCAL and Cricut Expression and decided to make an A2 card using my Copics and Flower Soft. I started with a digi image an online friend sent me and colored it with my Sketch Copics. (The Hydrangea blossoms: BV00, BV02, and BV04; Leaves: G82, G94, G99; and the shadow around the flowers: BG10, C1, and 0S to blend them a bit). The butterfly was colored with my Copic Atyou Spica Pens - Set A and Set B: Black, Blossom, Buttermilk, Lavender, and Lilac. Using SCAL I cut the image with a deckled rectangle (about 3x4 inches) and then made two larger ones as mats. The purple one is about 3.5x4.5 inches and the green one is 4x5 inches. I inked the edges of both using my Tim Holtz Distress Inks. On the purple one I used Dusty Concord and on the green one I used Milled Lavender. Using 1/4" Scor Tape I mounted the purple rectangle onto the green one and then mounted the green on onto the ivory card base (8.25 x5.5 scored in half). Next I used my 1/2" Scor Tape and I wrapped the ribbon around the front of the card. I then layered the colored image over the ribbon (Scor Tape again—what would I do without it?).


To add some dimension I got out my Light Lavender and Dark Lavender - both from the Lavender and Lace Flower Soft Kit - and Pale Green Flower Soft. I started with the Dark Lavender and squeezed some tiny drops of the Flower Soft High Tack PVA Glue on selected petals. Then, working over a plastic dish, I sprinkled the Flower Soft on. I pressed it down lightly and then tapped off the excess. I repeated this process with the Light Lavender. Similarly I laid out the glue for the green, but instead of drops I made smooth smears of the glue. I set the card aside to dry.

While it was drying, I cut two one inch by 4.25 strips from where I had cut my purple deckled rectangle. On the side that wasn’t deckled I used my Martha Stewart Doiley punch. When the Flower Soft was dry, I glued the trimmed edges along the top and bottom of the card’s inside. I think the deckled edges tie the inside to the outside of the card. I will add a sentiment later when I know what I need this card for, but I am thinking it would be a lovely sympathy card.



Lastly, but not least, I used my Imaginisce I-Rock Tool and 3 I-Rock Hot Rocks Rhinestuds along the bottom edge to finish the card off.

Just a reminder that EVERY comment left on the blog during the month of March will be eligible for some sweet BLOG CANDY!!!

Tutorial Tuesday - Flower Soft with Mandie

Hello and welcome to another Tutorial Tuesday!!! For the month of March we are going to play with Flower Soft! If you haven't tried Flower Soft let me tell you a little bit about it.... The Flower Soft website describes it as, "Flower Soft is an amazing pot of coloured sprinkles that allows you to create text, designs and miniature floral embellishments, it’s acid free and is loved by card makers and scrapbookers alike and of course Flower Soft also makes fabulous realistic plants for dolls houses too!". It is amazing how these little "sprinkles" add so much to a project!

While I was at CHA with Kim I stopped at the Flower Soft booth to play. I've never purchased any of the Toppers because I thought they were pretty but they are almost like an already finished card... but, after seeing the difference adding the Flower Soft to the toppers can make... Well, take a look!


The top card is the plain topper that they had at CHA. The bottom one is with Flower Soft added. Isn't the difference startling? I can honestly say I had no idea how much impact it has until I saw this! It's not as easy to see the difference online and I know that every time I've seen a photo of a complete project I think it's really pretty but I really didn't realize just how amazing it looks! And you have a SERIOUSLY stunning card in just a few minutes! I'm sold on the Toppers now!

I know it is so hard to capture just how much this adds so I took a few more pics!


This is the plain topper with nothing added. It is beautiful on its own too!


Here is another pic of the completed topper. I was able to get a bit closer and if you click the photo it will get bigger and you can see more detail.



Here's a couple more so you can really see the detail. See how much dimension just a little Flower Soft can add?

What's even better is that I hardly used any glue (just teeny tiny dots) and hardly any Flower Soft sprinkles... you get a LOT of mileage out of one little jar!

The Flower Soft sprinkles jars are sold in Solid Colors, Mixed Colors, Diamond Range and Ultra Fine.

And Cutters Creek carries more than just the Flower Soft sprinkles and Toppers. There are Stamps and Stickers that coordinate as well! And really great Kits that you can use to make some cards that look like they took hours and you'll be the only one who knows that it really took you minutes!

I know that all of us Design Team members will be playing with our Flower Soft a LOT this month so make sure you check back often and see the different ideas!!! Also, make sure you are commenting on projects that you love... for the month of March we will select one random commenter to win a great prize!

And I'm also excited that we will be holding another fun blog hop at the end of the month that will focus on Spring and I'm sure will include some Blog Candy!!!