Spring Card

Here's an easy card for a lovely spring thought! It was made from a pre-folded card & envelope set, so I didn't have to fuss with envelope sizing.



First, I stamped Lily from Pink Cats Studios - Billy & Lily Sweethearts on my Prism paper with Memento Ink Tuxedo Black, and colored her with Copics. I cut her out really close with Cutterbee scissors...I love how sharp those little scissors are! Next, I used two embossed borders from the Cuttlebug Emboss A2 Border Frills set. The lace-look border was set at the bottom of the card, and I cut around the embossing to show the curved edges on the bottom. I placed the pink floral border slightly above the bottom, and used a fun, decorative ribbon between the two borders. The ribbon is held in place with Scor-Tape. I tucked Lily in to the top of the pink flower border. To show off the lace border, I used a piece of the same pink cardstock on the INSIDE bottom of the card. I highlighted a few of the flowers in the middle pink border using Flower Soft Summer blend and Flower Soft Glue. The pink hydrangea flowers are set in place with Glossy Accents and a Twinkle Jewel. I have discovered that many 'dimensional' items can be 'glued' in place with Glossy Accents - it sets up hard, so that your embellishment won't fall off! Finally, I cut my title phrase with my Cricut and the Lyrical Letters cartridge. The shadow of this font is clean, and easy to cut very small - this one was cut at 3/4".

Cutters Creek Items Used:
Pink Cats Studios - Billy & Lily Sweethearts
Prism Paper
Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black
Copic Markers
Cutterbee Scissors
Cuttlebug Emboss A2 Border Frills
Scor-Tape
Flower Soft Summer Blend
Flower Soft Glue
Glossy Accents
Twinkle Jewels
Lyrical Letters Cartridge

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Friends Word Book

This is a book I cut out for my daughter to give to a few good friends of hers. Word books are a challenge for a lot of people, but once you've get one put together, you will realize that they really aren't that tough - especially if you use a file that has been shared by another designer! There are LOTS of videos available on YouTube - so take a few moments and look at some of those as well.



The file I used for this book was created by Fiona Sewell, who graciously shared her design with me. It was created in Design Studio, using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I have gotten her permission to share this file with all of you, and it is available on my 4Shared account HERE.

I use a thinner chipboard, which cuts nicely with my Cricut Expression, and a really sticky mat, so the chipboard doesn't move during the cuts. I use multi-cut 2 or 3, depending on the intricacy of the cut.

The first cuts I do are the chipboard - so go thru ALL the letter pages once in chipboard. Then, I do the paper topping/backing for each letter. I like to use double sided paper for my letters - because I know that the front and back will coordinate nicely. This way, I can cut the letter once on the page, then take out my mat, rotate it 180 degrees, and put it in for the second letter. By doing this, I don't have to worry about 'flipping' my paper upside down to get the backing letter to cut right on the patterned paper. So - if you don't use double sided paper - remember to flip your paper upside down to cut the backing part of the letter. Finally, I use a solid paper to cut the individual letters, so that the letters stand out on top of the patterned paper.

Some people like to 'ink' the edges of the book so that the chipboard doesn't look 'unfinished'. This is a personal decision...not just if you want to ink, but also when to ink. For some books, I ink before I adhere my paper - so that the patterns of the paper are not distressed. For this book, I inked AFTER I adhered the paper - which distresses the paper a bit, and gives it a pretty, finished look.

Once everything is cut, it's time to start adhering the book together. My favorite adhesive for this job is Zip Dry! It doesn't dry too fast, so you have time to adjust the paper on the chipboard perfectly. It does not bubble, and dries clear, so even if you get some oozing out, it doesn't show up! The solid letters can be adhered with Zip Dry, or any other adhesive, like the Glue Glider Pro. For this book, I distressed the solid letters ever so slightly, to match with the other distressing done on the edges, and the pattered papers.

Since this is a gift, we didn't have the pictures that will be added to the book, so we just added some journaling boxes and embellishments randomly thru the book. That way, the recipient can add pictures wherever they would like, and there are already decorative touches added, to dress the book up.

I used my Crop-a-Dile II to punch the holes in each page, and used O-rings to bind the book. I could have used my Bind-It-All, but this was a gift for a teenage girl, and I wasn't sure how thick the book would end up, so O-rings were safer! My daughter decorated the O-rings with pretty ribbons, just to give the rings a little flair.

So - don't be afraid - go ahead and try it. If you're nervous about the 'flipping' of letters, try it out first on paper that you don't like - everyone has some of that in their stash! Practice a few times, to make sure you get the concepts...then you can go ahead and do the real thing with prettier paper!

Good luck & happy scrapping!

The following items can be purchased from Cutters Creek:
Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge
Design Studio
Zip Dry Adhesive
Ranger Walnut Distress Ink

Easter Bling - Scrapbook Layout

I was one of the guilty one's...I was waiting on the edge of my seat for Cutters Creek to get the American Crafts glitter paper in stock. As soon as Kim posted the Spring pack, I was online placing that order! When it came, I was AMAZED! This paper is so pretty, so glittery, and so sturdy! It just screamed 'little girls' and I have twin godchildren in Kindergarten that I'm pretty sure will get some very pretty dresses to take pictures in! So, I created a simple, pre-made layout that my niece will be able to quickly add two photos to, and add to her scrapbook!

If you are a member of the Cutter's Creek Yahoo! group, you have probably seen the messages coming through discussing the best settings to use to cut this paper with your Cricut. Start with the following:
Pressure: High
Blade Depth: 6
Multi-Cut: 2
...and be prepared to ADJUST these settings for your Cricut. I had to do multi-cut 3, and still had a few areas that needed cleaned up, however, I probably need to change my blade as it is rather well-used. Intricate cuts, such as the grass on the bottom of my layout, will also require some help from a razor blade, to finish some of the cuts and clean up the edges. Simple shapes, like the egg SVG's, cut cleanly and quickly! I did have one boo-boo, where I put my paper on the mat in the wrong direction (I hate when that happens) - but rather than throw away the bad cut, I placed an egg on the 'edge' and made it look like it belonged there!

Adhering this paper to your layouts does not require any special adhesive. I tried several, to see what had the best success, but there was no single adhesive method that worked better than another. I love Glossy Accents, and turn to that as a regular adhesive when I've failed with other adhesives. I used that for the words "Happy Easter" - and did get some paper buckling under one of the corners...but other than that, all my favorite adhesives worked just fine!

I can't wait to see their pictures pasted in these sheets!


Visit Cutters Creek for all of your crafting needs!

Cartridges Used:
Storybook (Happy Easter)
Locker Talk (Flowers)
Zooballoo (Grass)

SCAL - Egg SVG - bottom (Thanks to Diane from Capadia Designs, see her blog here: http://capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/2010/03/scalloped-easter-egg-card-more-details.html)

Adhesives - Glossy Accents, Glue Glider Pro
Twinkle Jewels (flower centers)

Rockin' Birthday Card

I didn't have a specific subject in mind for this card. I received a new cartridge from my best gal pal (Thanks Karen!) for my birthday, and I just HAD to try it out! I am now the proud owner of the Cricut Disney Hannah Montana cartridge!

For all of you who think that this cartridge is only for "tweens" - think again! There are only one or two keys that are specific to Hannah Montana. This cartridge has four awesome fonts - two with shadow features, some great musical shapes, a music staff end-cap feature, and pretty butterflies and hearts!

I used the "Daddy's Girl" feature for my main font, font shadow, music notes and guitar, and the "Rock Star" feature for the word "ROCKIN". I ran all of my letters through my Xyron, as I believe that is the easiest way to adhere small fonts. I used a Sakura Glue Pen to adhere the dot to my 'i' and the handle of the guitar. The Sakura pen lets you put adhesive exactly where you need it, which is important for small, intricate parts!

In order to make the word "ROCKIN" really stand out, I covered it in Glossy Accents. I liked the effect so much, that I made the entire face of the guitar glossy as well. The music notes are glitzed up with Stickles 'Star Dust'.

This card is geared towards a girl, with the colors of pink and black, but you could easily change it to a boy by changing all the pink accents to blue or green.

So - all of you girly girls out there - take another look at the Disney Hannah Montana cartridge...I think you'll find a tiara in just your size ;-)

Guest Designer - The Character Cafe

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to win the Blog Hop with the Character Cafe. I had so much fun bouncing around their design team - seeing all the cute new images they have for February. I was able to pick out four really cute digi-stamps - and I cannot wait to start creating with them!

What made it even more special to me, was when Kendra and Kelly asked me to be a Guest Designer for their "Feature Friday"! ME? Really? What an honor! I was happy to take part in their challenge this week - to create a monochromatic card. I had lots of fun coloring with my Copics...and forcing myself to use some goodies from my 'stash'!



For this card, I used my Scor Pal to fold a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock in half. I then cut TWO frames - one at 5 1/2 x 11 in a contrasting color, and the second at 5 1/4 x 10 3/4 in the metallic paper. I cut out the centers of the frames using my paper trimmer (requires a steady hand!). To add a little texture, I scored a line in the center of the metallic frame using my Scor-Pal again. The frames are attached with pop-up squares to give it extra dimension.

My image is "The Serenade". I colored him with Copics, and then used some Stickles and Spica Glitter Pen to bling him up a little! Using my Creative Memories Cutting System, I cut him out using the Oval cutter, and then cut another contrasting oval with the next size cutting blade. A piece of coordinating ribbon is attached using Scor-Tape - awesome stuff, by the way...and the image is layered on top of that.

The flower is layered using Heidi Swapp and Creative Memories flowers. The butterflies are also Heidi Swapp. I then added a few Twinkle Jewels from Cutter's Creek to give a little extra "BLING" to the card.

Hope you enjoy my card...and check out the other designer's cards at The Character Cafe Blog.

Dueling Dragons Layout

For this project, I wanted to highlight some of the neat things that can be done with the Cricut Expression and Design Studio. This is a two page layout that I created based on a Page Maps layout. I love to use Page Maps to develop my pages - it gives me a great starting off point and I can adjust as I need to based on the number of pictures I have! This layout is based on the January 2008 Page Maps.

This layout calls for a coordinated set of papers and embellishments...but I didn't have anything in my crafty arsenal that really felt like it fit...and I knew I wanted to use my stash rather than go out and buy more stuff. Because my layout is of my son on a roller coaster, I knew I wanted something 'swirly' so I turned to my Storybook cartridge to find the perfect accents. Once I found the main embellishment (Accent Frame Swirl), I decided to play around with Design Studio, and I created a butterfly using the corner swirl from that same key, plus an oval from George! The title "Deuling Dragons" is also cut from the Storybook cartridge.


These pictures are pretty busy...so I didn't want to use a highly patterned paper, but I wanted it to match like the layout showed. I remembered that I have the markers that go in the Cricut blade housing, and got a great idea to make MY OWN patterned paper. I used the same Accent Frame Swirl that I had already cut, and added it several times to my page, arranging them throughout a 12x12 page, flipping and turning along the way. Instead of the blade, I put a marker in the housing, and DREW the pattern rather than cut it. (NOTE: this design takes a LONG TIME to draw...so be patient!) The end result was a custom patterned paper and coordinating accents to make my layout shine! I included the .cut files so you can see how I did it. A sample full sheet photo in white is shown here, so you can get an idea of what the full page looks like.



All these items can be purchased from Cutters Creek:
Cricut Expression
Cricut Design Studio
Cricut Color Inks - Primary (ON SALE NOW 50% OFF!)
Storybook Cartridge
Glue Glider Pro

Butterfly File

Swirl Background File