Birthday Kimono

Another Asian inspired card, this one for my sweet friend Gene who celebrated her birthday earlier this month. Had been wanting to try a kimono card cut on my Cricut for a long time but just wasn't happy with the kimono cuts on the Pagoda cartridge. After doing an exhaustive image search on the web, I finally found one that I thought looked more like a real kimono, imported it to MTC and rendered it into a cutfile for my card.

Cut my kimono out of washi paper and added cardstock run through an embossing folder from Cuttlebug's Asian bundle as a mat.  Decided to keep it simple so the kimono would be the main focus. Then added a strip of the same washi paper on the inside to pull it all together. Sentiment was computer generated, using Quill, Pristina and Stewardson fonts.

Birthday Stilettos

This was a quick card I recently put together for a co-worker's birthday. The idea for this was totally cased from  talented and creative Cricut Messageboard member, Amanda. My card is no way as stunning as hers, but I was thankful for the much needed inspiration she provided at a time when my mojo was nil. You can check out more of Amanda's fresh ideas and creative Cricut genius on her blog, Amanda's Crafts and More.  Layered stilettos are a cut from the Cricut American Alphabet cart and the sentiment and shadows were created using MTC and true type fonts Ariel and Charming.

Circle shaped base card was created by welding circles from  the George cart in Design Studio. Chalked the edges and added a few flat back pearls for a final touch and it was done.

Sliding Tiered Wedding Cake

Here's the third of the four wedding cards I made this summer. Been wanting to try the sliding tiered card again, and thought it might make a neat wedding cake card. The first time I tried this type of card, I struggled with the measurements and promised myself  I would make a cutfile for it in Design Studio. The original design and assembly instructions for this card by Heather Summers are over at Splitcoast Stampers.

For my wedding cake, I altered the size of the card and layers from the original so it would look more like a cake. The cutfile I created in Design Studio uses different sized rectangles with slits for the sliders from the George cartridge. The best part for me is, no more measuring and cutting errors!

Here's what the card looks like when you pull up on the hearts at the top of the cake:

Before assembling, I embossed the layers using Cuttlebug's Floral Fantasy and Swirls folders.
For the embellishments on the cake, I used ovals and rectangles from the George cartridge welded in Design Studio for the frosting, and welded hearts from the Sweethearts cartridge for the cake topper. Monogram was designed in Printshop using Cotillian font, then rendered to a cutfile with shadow in Make the Cut.

Fancy swirls are from the Straight from the Nest cartridge, and tiny scattered blossoms were cut using a Kikyo flower punch from Carl.
Finally, I needed a place to add my sentiment, so I decided to add a cake plate which opens up to a card:

Again, ovals and rectangles from the George cartridge were used to create this, which I attached to the back of the bottom tier of the cake. Really had fun putting this together...it doesn't always happen, but I just love when something turns out just as I had imagined!

Enabler Alert! WikiCAPS Second Die Release

Although sometimes I think I'd like to, I don't usually create cards for challenges or blog candy, mostly because I can barely keep up with all the cards I want to make for my own personal giving. I guess I'm a very s-l-o-w crafter, I'd say on an average, it takes me 5 to 7 days to finish just one card! That's why you speedy crafters who share  cards and projects daily on your blogs just blow me away and amaze me! 

 

Okay, so this card is my one exception. When Wiki CAPS released their second die in August, Brian at Photocraft offered a 20% discount off his new sakura die to everyone who brought in a card created using the first release sakura outlines die. Did you say DISCOUNT?  LOL! Suddenly I had time to make an extra card! Kept it real simple and easy...got this one done in two days!

This gave me a chance to try out an image of an origami folded crane (orizuru) found a while back on the internet which I had been saving to do a cutfile of. Had MTC trace the image and create the shadow for this. Used gold mylar sticker paper for the cut, then transfered it to it's shadow using vinyl transfer paper.

Layered the shadow of the crane a couple times for dimension and placed it onto a circle embossed with an embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Asian bundle. Round window and gold foil frame were created using MTC's basic shapes menu.

Used my Wiki CAPS die to do the various sized sakura outlines to embellish the front of my card and added pretty yuzen paper (thank you, Patti!) for the inside. Stamped sentiment is from Stampin' Up's "Heard from the Heart" set.

Here's a photo of the Wiki CAPS new sakura die, which coordinates with the sakura outlines die which was released earlier. If you look closely, you'll see the flowers on the new die are just a tiny bit larger than the outline die, which gives the sakura an unique layered look when used together. To receive 20% off the price of this new die, all you need to do is take in a card you've created using the sakura outlines die to Photocraft before the end of this month.

Chinese Thank You

I knew my thank you card for my friend Patti had to be two things...red and Asian themed. Those of you who frequent her blog (Creations by Patti) know these are her favorites, and also that she comes up with the most awesome papercrafting projects. Patti's currently on blog vacation for the summer, but look out, paper crafters! Come September, she is ready to blow you away with all the amazing projects she has in store.

I used the Chinese character for "thank you" as my focal point for this card. I found this, as well as the border on the internet by doing image searches on Google. The hexagonal medallion is from "Traditional Chinese Motifs", a Dover Book Series which includes a CD-rom of all the images. Imported all these to MTC for tracing to cutfiles. That part was easy...the hard part was getting my Cricut to do the cutting!

I thought mylar sticker paper would be a good choice for the intricate cuts in the medallion but ran into trouble as the tiny cut mylar pieces lifted off its backing and began sticking to the blade, creating quite a mess! Second time around I decreased the pressure to low and used the multi-cut feature, which seemed to improve the cut. Maybe a new blade would have helped too...
Added Mei Li from Sisters Stamps first release to the front of this window card...still struggling with my copics, as you can see! This time I tried LysaQR's coloring technique on YouTube for the hair...learning more everyday!

And on the inside...colorful washi paper for the background and the medallion flips open with a place for my sentiment. Had fun with this, and learned quite a lot too...in fact,I think this might be the first card I've done entirely in Make The Cut, cartridge-free and without Design Studio.

Monogram Wedding Card

Here's the second of the four wedding cards I needed to make this summer.  Not entirely pleased with how this one turned out, but it did give me a chance to learn more about creating and cutting monograms using MTC for my projects. Make the Cut has a wonderful feature which allows me to create cutfiles from any true type font I have in my computer font file by simply typing in the word or words I want to cut. Only problem is, my Cricut isn't always cooperative about cutting out skinny intricate fonts, especially when it comes to cardstock...
I figured the solution would be to thicken up the very thin lines of those elegant script type fonts without compromising the appearance of the font. I used my Broderbund PrintShop program to do this by designing the monogram using the headline feature, which allows me to add an outline of desired thickness to the font. ( I believe Microsoft Word has a similar feature using the Word Art Tool). For this particular monogram I used Cotillion truetype font, then saved and imported it to MTC as a .jpg file.

All other cuts on the card are from Cricut cartridges: Wedding Solutions for the doves, Straight From the Nest for the swirls, George for the hearts. Scalloped heart was created in Design Studio by welding circle outlines from Plantin Schoolbook with the outline heart from George.

The invitation we received for this wedding was quite unique, with mirrored images  of  treble clefs with a cross, which (I'm guessing) symbolizes the couple's strong religious faith and love for music. So to keep somewhat with the theme, I embossed the heart inset with Cuttlebug's Allegro folder. Front panel of the card was embossed with Stampin Up's Elegant Lines folder and attached to the front of the card with foam tape.

Meeting My Inspiration

On my recent trip to Cali, I had the amazing opportunity to personally meet up with a very special lady whose creative talents have inspired me tremendously for the past 2-1/2 years. My dear blogging friend, Patti Lee of Creations of Patti is as wonderful a person as I had ever imagined she would be and even more! Patti is definitely the sweetest, warmest, thoughtful and most FUN-nest person ever!!! During the few precious hours we had, we shopped at Bay Area's largest scrapbook store, Scrapbook Territory, then spent time chatting over coffee, getting to know each other. I think we could easily have spent the entire afternoon just sitting and chatting! But sadly, I was on a tight schedule and our time together had to be kept short.

And as if the honor of meeting this amazing lady weren't enough, when it came time to say goodbye, Patti suprised me with a huge box full of beautiful papers, cardmaking embellies and these wonderful card creations...

Isn't this pop-up card just adorable? I especially love the way the sign on the left of the little boy pops at an angle...very COOL! Patti created the pop-up mechanism for this as well as the stylized "long life" kanji on the front of the card using her Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) program, which she is fast becoming quite an expert at. 

Now check out this trio of irresistibly cute cards she created using different noodle bowl stamps from Two Scoops Rice! Really like the straw mat background...and did you notice the "bamboo" chopsticks? I think I recognize them as once being those paint strip samples snagged from a hardware store...NEAT-O!

I can't thank Patti enough for taking time out of her busy shedule to spend time with me! Meeting up with her was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, and these cards will be treasured keepsakes of our time spent together.