Holidays with the Cricut - Fancy Card Friday!!

Happy Fancy Card Friday Everyone!!! I think this has to be my favourite day!!! I had so much fun designing this card and really went all out - I included so many fun ideas on this card :) The inspiration for this card came from a song that was on the radio while I was in my craft room. Any time I look at this card now, that song immediately comes to mind :) I have had this song in my head far too long LOL!!! I went with Fancy paper, fancy welding and fancy embellishments, what a fun card to make. Let me explain how to do it......

This card is fancy and has many details.....for those of you who are interested in making something similar I have included detailed instructions. Those of you who would just rather look at the eye candy.....I took lots of pictures ;)

Start with a fancy piece of cardstock cut so it will be a 6x6 square when folded over. Next get out your paper trimmer and cut out a smaller piece of silver paper to use as your card liner for the inside.

On my Gypsy I started with a triangle from Gypsy Wanderings and sized it to 3.94W x 1.98H. Next I selected a heart from GW and sized that to 0.51W x 0.49H, I copied this heart for a total of 10 little hearts and placed them around the right side of the triangle. This will leave room for me to fold the left corner to the top point of the triangle.Once I had the hearts placed around the triangle I grouped everything together and welded it. I then copied the triangle 7 more times. I placed my images on the mat, placed my paper to match and cut.You could definitely use double sided paper for this, but the other side of my red glitter paper was pink and it didn't go with my black and white colour scheme. So I cut out plain white triangles so I could stamp hearts on them. This way when the corner is folded over you will see the cute little stamping instead of plain white.Glue the white cutouts to the back of the red glitter paper. Once you have them glued together take your left corner (the one without the hearts welded to it) and fold it to touch the top point of your triangle. Once you have your tips lined up, use a cropadile or hole punch to punch thru all the cardstock. Repeat for the other three triangles.
Once you have folded these over take a brad and feed it through all of the holes. This will hold the pinwheels together and keep your folds from coming undone :)

Next I needed some buttons to cover up my very small brad. It just wasn't proportionate to the size of the pinwheel. I didn't want to cut out a circle to cover it either. The problem was: I didn't have any red, black or silver buttons! Actually all I have are a big bag of white ones I bought from Walmart. No problem......I made my own custom colours :) Can you keep a secret? I'll show you how (if you don't know this trick already).
Grab your versamark pad that you keep for 'grubby' stamping (or just one that is dirty). Take the front of your button and squish is down really well.Take a pair of wire wrappers for jewellery (can be found at the dollar store) or a pair of tweezers and using the holes of the button pick it up and dip it in the embossing powder.
Turn your embossing tool on and while holding the button with your pliers melt the powder. Once it has melted you can immediately put it back into the powder for another coat. Be very careful when you remove the button it will be HOT and pliable. And here it is all nice and shiny....and a pic of the back so you know I didn't sub it with a 'store bought model' lol!
I also needed a silver button...what's a girl to do? Make one :). Then I just grabbed some embroidery floss and fed it through the button holes and tied a bow. Set this aside as we will need to make our pinwheel stick.

I took a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 plain white paper and starting at a corner I rolled it up REALLY tight. I glued it shut and cut a corner off to make a point.
I felt like the stick was VERY plain and I didn't want to stamp it. I got out my wacky tack tape which will hold just about anything down. I got out a small tray and dumped a huge amount of black seed beads into it. I wrapped my tape around my stick in a spiral, and rolled the stick in the beads. I used my fingers to fill in some holes and then got out my glossy accents and coated the beads in it. (Similar to the ZIP dry glue method for the pearls from yesterday).I let this stick dry over night and laid another strip of wacky tape onto the card, removed the backing and placed my stick on the strip.
Next I was ready to place my pinwheel over top of the stick. So I got out my large pop dots and attached one to the back of my pinwheel, and one to the back of my buttons and placed it on my card.
Once I had my pinwheel in place all I needed to do was cut out my letters. I used the font from Wild Card, which I had welded together slightly to make it easier to remove and glue down. To make them stand out more on the front of the card I added pop dots to the back and accented each word with a little heart. Adhere your message on the inside and feel free to use as many little hearts as you like :)

Oh you guys are just so awesome to have made it through all that :) Now just sit back, relax and enjoy the pics :) Feel free to zoom in for a closer look ~ just click on the image :)








Well folks....only one more day left :(

I hope you come back tomorrow for CRAFTY GIFT SATURDAY!!! This is another project that can be made by both CRICUT and GYPSY users :) :)

My very first PAPER Scrapbook page ever!!

The theme for all of my projects this week is Valentines Day (with the exception of Wild Card Wednesday). This layout was inspired by those large heart boxes of chocolate with the ribbon and all those ruffles around the edges with a big red bow on top.

I can't believe that I haven't completed a paper scrapbook page in the six+ years I have been playing with paper!! It's almost shameful if you knew how many pictures I have to scrap!! I'll never tell....... :) I learned how to Digital Scrapbook this summer using Photoshop and it's helped me a great deal to get some layouts done. I decided for this layout I would include a tiny bit of digi-ness on it (just a little!).

What could be a better picture to scrap for Valentines day than that of of my daughter blowing smoochies to me?? I opened up her photo in Photoshop and using a heart brush I stamped the vine hearts all around her photo. I printed this onto 8 1/2 x 11 white cardstock and set to work on my layout.
I chose a rich chocolate glitter embossed 12x12 paper from My Minds Eye for the base of my LO. I grabbed some satin pink ribbon and 'wrapped' my page. I don't have a sewing machine so I used adhesive instead. I made sure to anchor the base of the ribbon and then I would glue in between the folds to make it look like a ruffle. Who needs a sewing machine?? :)
Next using my gypsy I selected the Scalloped Heart Frame from Gypsy Wanderings and sized it to: 10.25W x 10.81H, and cut it on pink glitter paper (of course!!).

Non Gypsy users could select a similar heart from any of these cartridges: Accent Essentials, Ashlyns Alphabet, Graphically Speaking, Hanna Montanna, Lyrical Letters, Paper Pups, Simply Sweet, Tie the Knot, Wild Card and Zooballoo. Just make sure when you select your image on your cricut you choose the FIT TO PAGE OPTION for it to fill as much of the page as you can.

After the heart was cut out I placed it over the photo of my daughter and traced around it with pencil, and cut it out with a pair of scissors. Set this aside as you are going to make your journaling tags next.

I used the tag from GW as well as the tag frame for this project. (You can see them in the image above). The tag and matching frame is sized at 1.37"W x 2.28"H. I selected the tag and tag frame 10 times. I cut the tags on pink bazzill cardstock, the frames were cut using grey cardstock from SEI. Once cut out you can glue the frame to the base and set your 10 tags aside for now.

Next you can use use any tag pocket from any cart I know there are some on Tags bags boxes and more, also Fabulous finds...and for some reason I'm having trouble thinking of more. Or, you could simply make your own by cutting a rectangle to fit the width of your tag, fold it in half and glue the sides (that's what I did). In todays Gypsy file I have included the tag from TTBM sized to fit, so you don't have to go hunting for it :) Once you have your tag pockets assembled slide your tags inside.

Take your scalloped heart and place it face down so the back of it is facing you. Take your tags and arrange them how you like around your heart. Be sure to mark with pencil so you know where you should glue your pockets down. Get out your pop dots and place as many as needed around the edge of your heart (be sure not to put one where your tags are going to be placed). Be sure to add pop dots to the center of the heart as well.
Next I got out co-ordinating ribbons and tied them around each tag. I also used some fishing line and threaded a single pearl onto the tag for as well.
Speaking of pearls....how about the inside of that heart?? I just love it. I got out my trusty Wacky Tacky Tape and taped along the outline of the heart, close to the inside edge but not over lapping it. I took my strand of pearls and -LEAVING THEM ON THE STRING I arranged them around the inside of the heart. The Wacky Tape will hold your pearls in place while you go around the base of them with your zip dry glue and fill in all the gaps. Snip the string off the end of the pearls and pull it out (after glue is dry). These pearls do not budge, no wiggling....this method really stuck them down :)




I made sure to include lots of tags for journaling on my layout as I tend to write a lot. I also like the interactive aspect to this page by doing the tags this way :)



Well folks- my first layout....out there for you to see......To be honest this project got away from me and now I'm going to have to find a 12 x 12 shadow box for this little piece of art...it's way too thick for a page protector LOL!!!
I hope I haven't scared you all off with this one ~ tomorrow is Fancy Card Friday and boy did I get Fancy!! I have several new techniques I can't wait to share with you!!

Wild Card Wednesday- Let's Shake things up!!

Hello everyone!! Welcome to Wild Card Wednesday - this is the day that I get to make any style of card I choose. I decided to go with a GET WELL SOON theme and I also included a fun little shaker embellishment on the front of the card :) I LOVE cards that do things, make noise or feel great in your hands....I tried to do all three with this one.

As I am using Gypsy Wanderings and Wild Card cartridges all week this project again will involve my gypsy- tomorrow's project could be done without using a gypsy or DS. I also used ProvoCraft's 12x24 paper in todays project simply due to the way I designed it.

This is what my gypsy screen looked like with all of my images placed on my mat ready for cutting page 1, page 2 has the base of the card and the sentiment for the inside of the card. You can only cut 1 page at a time, when page 1 is done, simply touch on the number 1 and it will change to page 2:

This is how I laid out my paper to cut for page 1:

Page 2 paper layout:


For the base of the card I chose a tag from Gypsy Wanderings and added it to my mat. Then sized it to 4.75W x 6.25H. Next you will select the Marquis shape on Gypsy Wanderings and size it to .55W x 3.99H. These images can be found here on the gypsy: .

Now move your Marquis shape and place it over the hole on your tag as I've done in this picture:

After you have placed your images, you will group the marquis shape and tag. Once they are grouped press copy 2 times for a total of 3 tags. Select 1 tag and using the FLIP button flip this tag Horizontally. Next align the 2 tags and overlap slightly so they look like this:

Group your items and select weld. Everything that will cut is in RED, anything that will NOT cut is in GRAY:

When you cut out your images you will score down the spine and fold it in half:



At this point I chose to run it through my cuttlebug-used the swiss dots folder. Then will apply adhesive to the middle of the spine and press together so your left edge is glued shut (you will be tying a TON of ribbon around this and need it to be sturdy).

I then searched through the all the phrases on Gypsy Wanderings and Wild Card and chose 'Thinking of You' for the front of my card.

Size this to 3.99W x 2.98H. You will also select the shadow for this phrase by touching the shift button and then size the shadow to 4.13W x 3.16H. Once the phrases were cut I decided I needed to ink these too, and a little doodling all over :)

Next a rounded square was selected from Gypsy Wanderings, added to the mat and sized to 4.57W x 3.67H. This square is going to be used as the mat on the inside of the card. Once cut out you can ink the edges to give it a more finished look and apply it to the inside of the card leaving a little more white space on the bottom than the top. Ink all edges with your favourite ink colour.

I found the most adorable little border of flowers on the GW cart and decided I would use these on the inside of the card.
Size the flower border to 4.90W x 1.36H. Once you have added this to your mat you will need to copy it 4 more times for a total of 5 flower borders on your mat. I wanted to be able to have each flower a different colour, so you will be cutting a flower out of each strip to use on the inside of the card:
Once you have 5 each in a different colour you can run them through your cuttlebug for a little more texture and interest. You can also add a rhinestone or two for a little something shiny :)

I had a hard time choosing the sentiment for the inside of the card- Wild card has so many great choices!!! In the end I chose 'Get Better' from Gypsy Wanderings simply because I like the font. I ended up inking the edges on this too. When inking smaller cuts I really like to use a Q-tip. I try to get the Q-tips from the dollar store as they have less fuzz on them, which means less fuzz on your project LOL!!

For the shaker embelly I was looking for an image that had a cutout, AND could take the place of my letter O on the front of the card. I found one on GW sized it to 1.53W x 1.53H.
Once it was on my mat I copied it for a total of 9 cutout flowers on the mat. I went back to the cut out flower in my cart and pushed the shift button to get the solid circle that is used as the backing for this cutout. I copied this circle twice, 1 circle will be for cardstock, the second circle for a transparency sheet.

To assemble your shaker you will line up your cutouts, then glue them on top of each other sandwich style leaving 1 cutout aside and unglued.
Take your solid circle that was cut out of transparency and glue it to the underneath of the flower cutout you left aside. This will be the top for your shaker flower. Find your solid circle cut out of cardstock and glue it to the bottom of your stack of cutout flowers. Now go find some mini beads...glitter, coloured sand....what ever little bits that will fit. Glue your lid on top and shaker flower is all ready shake it's stuff!!

Take your phrase Thinking of you and carefully cut out the O off of the letter f. This will allow you to place your shaker where the letter O was without any patterned paper peeking out beneath

Now go and get that huge stash of ribbon that is in a box somewhere and all tied up in knots and pick out co-ordinating colours, and feel free to mix up the textures- the more the merrier!! Don't be afraid to tie and squish as many pieces of ribbon onto the 'handle' as you can!!!
Grab some more sparkly bits and find fun places to put them....gotta love a little bling ;)






I hope you enjoyed my project for Wild Card Wednesday, be sure to go back to the top of my blog and download the gypsy file :)

Tomorrow is Scrapbook Layout Thursday!!!! Hmmmm, I hope you are all with me on this one.....this should be VERY interesting- this is my very FIRST paper layout I have ever made. And you are all going to get to see it........gulp! :)

Looking forward to tomorrow everyone ~ HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY!!!!