Cricuteer Card Swap Part 3

Here's the last set of the twenty cards we each got to take home from our card swap.

Create A Critter panda magical marquee card by Pat

Jolly Holidays snowman joyfold Christmas card by Sharon; Pagoda anthurium and origami card by Robin K

Sweet Treats cupcake easel card by Cindy; Create A Critter ladybug gift card holder by Ev

Hello Kitty easel calendar by Cheryl T.; Simply Charmed chickie pop up by Kris

Create A Critter cupcake waterfall card by Bonnie

And that's it! Aren't these cards totally fabulous? Everyone is so talented, and to think, when we first got together to form our group two years ago, there were several amongst us who admitted they hadn't even taken their Cricut out of it's original box! Lol! Everyone in the group is such a pro now!

Cricuteer Card Swap Part 2

Here are a few more of the amazing cards the Cricuteers came up with for our card swap this year...

Create A Critter pink fox birthday card by Lynette; Create A Critter monkey window card by Aileen

Create A Critter panda center stepfold card by Kelli; Doodlecharms ladybug card by Michele F.

Layered flower card by Cheryl N.; Stretch Your Imagination baby buggy window card & tag by Laura

Aren't all these cards terrific? I'm lovin' every one of them! I'm sure I won't be using any of them... except to keep me inspired! Stay tuned for the last of the twenty cards tomorrow...

Cricuteer Card Swap

For our second year project, our Cricut club (we call ourselves "Cricuteers"...yeah, like "Mouseketeers"...) chose to do a card swap. There's twenty of us who meet monthly to share projects and crafty ideas...very inspiring, and so much fun to see how much everyone has grown! For our card swap, we each had to make twenty of the same card to swap at our September meeting. The only rule was that there had to be at least one element cut using our Cricuts on our cards.

That meant that each of us got to take home twenty different and very special card creations that day. Just for fun, I came up with these fun little "Cricuteer" bags so everyone would have a way to take home their stash of cards. Cricut icon is from the Car Decals cartridge, and "Cricuteers" was created using MTC and Ariel font. I posted the card I made for the swap last week, so as promised, I'll be sharing all the other wonderful cards inside my bag. Since that amounts to a lot of photos, I'll be posting them in 3 separate posts this week. Here's the first set...

Panda and pagoda pleated card by Michele C.; Winnie the Pooh sliding pop-up card by Robyn S.

Don Juan "Just Because" Tri-shutter card by Iris

From My Kitchen pop-up cupcake card by Jean

Storefront and George Origami fold card by Brian

Okay, I don't want to cause a creative overload, so I'll stop here for today and save the second set of cards for tomorrow.

Wedding Card #4

Though I've titled this as "Wedding Card #4", in truth it was the first of the four wedding cards I made this summer. I decided to post this last because this was also the card I chose to use for our Cricut Club card swap (more about this later), and I wanted to wait till that was over before posting this.

Created in Design Studio, I used shapes from the George cartridge for the base of this gatefold card with it's heart cutout window. The one thing I always have trouble with when it comes to making  gatefold cards is trying to figure out a way to keep the card nicely closed...

...so I welded on little "tabs" to the top and bottom of the basecard to tuck in between the base of the card and the front embossed top layer, and that seemed to do the trick!

 Embellishing the card was fun...top front panels of the card were embossed using the Elegant Lines folder from Stampin' Up. The scalloped heart shaped window frame was created in Design Studio by welding circle outlines from Plantin Schoolbook to the heart shape in George. Swans are from the Wedding Solutions cartridge, four layers plus a shadow cut from gold foil cardstock. And leafy branch accents were cut using Stampin Up's bird punch.

 Here's what the inside looks like when the card is fully open. After spending so much time measuring and re-measuring and tweaking the cutfile for this card, I thought it would be a waste to make only one. That's when I decided I would use this as my card for our Cricut Club card swap as well. Coming up with twenty of these was a bit of a challenge...it's a good thing I got started early working on this! We had our card swap last weekend, and each of us went home with twenty different and amazing "Cricut" cards. Still haven't had a chance to photograph them all, but will definitely share them when I do...you are in for a treat!

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!