Heaven Sent

My cousin's daughter and her hubby welcomed a new addition to their family earlier this year and this is the card I created for little baby Blair. Had to do something quick and easy since I was already so late!

Found this cute Darcy Hunter Teddy Bear Angel image and used Make The Cut to render it into a cut file. I just can't get over how much easier this is to do with this new cutting program. What I love most is that I no longer have to struggle with nodes and vectors in Inkscape before importing my image into SCAL to cut. With Make The Cut, I simply import my image into the program and voila! Make The Cut renders it into a cut file. Fast and easy...just my speed!

I still feel most comfortable with Design Studio, so I used it together with the George cartridge to cut the window and create the scalloped frame. Used Cuttlebug embossing folders on the cloud and front of the card for some fun texture. Added Robin's Nest dewdrops to accent the frame, Martha Stewart Valentine doily punch for the edging. Then tied on a satin ribbon and a personalized tag cut with a Sizzlit die and it was done!

Sweet Girls Day Wishes

Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) or Momo No Sekku (Peach Festival) is celebrated on March 3rd. Also known as Girls Day, it is the day we send wishes of good luck and happiness to the girls in our families.

And this is the card I made to send our Girls Day wishes to dd this year...

It's called a Double Display card, and I when I first saw Teri's cute card, I knew I had to give it a try too. Teri posted links to Brenda's blog, sweet as a gumdrop, where I found even more wonderful samples of this card as well as a template and tutorial! Isn't the blogging network just so awesome?!!! (BTW, you must go take a peek at the amazing creativity going on over at Brenda's blog! She is one talented lady...wait till you see all the cute punch art she creates!)

This card is very similar to the Tri Shutter Card, but with a few additional folds. I really like how the focal point on this card is center stage when you pull open the sides...

Here's what the card looks like when open. The folds and panels on inside of this card reminded me a lot of the screens placed behind Japanese Girls Day doll displays, so I thought it would be a perfect place to put my kimono dressed Hello Kitty!

The image of Hello Kitty in her kimono originally came from a coloring book, which was scanned, then rendered into a cut file using Make The Cut. Fans were cut from glittered, printed cardstock from Best Creation Inc. using the Pagoda cartridge.

I used embossing folders from the new Cuttlebug Asian Bundle to do the embossing on the front (red) and inside (gold) panels. Large and medium sakura punches were then adhered to the gold inside panels for my sentiments. Red and pink sakura borders were cut from Japanese washi paper.

Here's a top view of the showing the folds and cuts which create the panels on this card.

For treats to share with friends, I created these Japanese Doll treat holders in Design Studio.

These were created to share at the last Cricut Club meeting over at Photocraft a couple weeks ago.
The Design Studio cutfile for this box uses George, Paper Dolls Dress Up, and Stone Script cartridges.

The kimonos were cut from Bazzill in pretty pastels, then run thru the sakura embossing folder from Cuttlebug's Asian Bundle.

For the obi in the back, I used a large plastic molding tool from the Punch Bunch embossing tool kit. It has a large rounded tip which I used to puff the obi bow out and give it a bit of dimension.

This is a new (for me) technique I recently learned from my friend Norice at Creations Unlimited. I still need more practice, but I kinda liked the way it turned out.

Here's a side view showing the boxes of Japanese Pretz crackers I put inside. Found that small boxes of Strawberry or Coffee Milk Pokky crackers fit nicely too.

After cutting out the fans for dd's card, I had enough left over printed glittered cardstock to make the kimono for this one...really love that paper!

Tags for my treat bags were cut using the sakura image and tag feature on the Pagoda cartridge. I used the molding tool again, this time on the sakura petals to give them a little shape and dimension.Stamped the tags with a cute sentiment from Dandelion Designs.

I put the dolls into cellophane bags and finished them off with a bow and tag.

Hope everyone had a fun filled Girls Day!