Monday, February 20, 2012

Cricut Art Philosophy Non-spiral Paper Roses Tutorial

The new Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge has some great cut images for creating 3-D spiral flowers. However, for these roses I used a different method. I created the three larger roses on this card using the 'Flower3' image on the cartridge. These roses are similar to the roses that I have been making for years that are completely hand cut. You can find a tutorial for them here.

The sketch I used for this card is 'The Deconstructed Sketch #39' found here.




I love how this card turned out. You can find out how I colored the seam binding here. Love the new 'Thanks' stamp set - very elegant. I cut the Grey Wool circle at 3 1/4", the Colonial White circle at 3".

Please see my video tutorial below to see how I put the roses together. I love the little knock-off Prima fairytale roses also and hope to put together another tutorial next week. You can learn how to make these by going to You Tube and searching for Prima Fairytale roses. After watching a couple of these videos I came up with a method that is basically the same with a few minor differences.



Supplies: Card size is 5" x 5" - All products are CTMH except where noted
Paper - Lucy B&T, Colonial White, Olive and Grey Wool cardstock
Stamps - Thanks -A1125
Ink - Jet Black Staz-On, Grey Wool, Creme Brulee, Olive, Tulip, Cotton Candy, Cotton Candy re-inker
Accessories - Color Ready Seam Binding, Pearl Opaques, Bitty Pearl Opaques
Other - Cricut Art Philosophy, craft knife, 1/2" flower punch (EK Success), 3D foam, rubbing alcohol, heat gun

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Cricut Art Philosophy 3D Petal Flowers

Love the new Cricut cartridge - Art Philosophy - from Close To My Heart. There are five awesome cuts on the cartridge for making 3D rose-like flowers, but you can also make some great flowers from some of the petal shapes. Here are a couple of very simple 3" x 3" cards that I quickly made to showcase the flowers.



The six petal flower above was made using six of 'Petal 1' cut at 1 1/4" and one base 'flower 7' cut at 3/4"


The seven petal flower above was made using seven of 'Petal 2' cut at 1 1/4" and one base 'Flower 6' cut at 3/4"

Check out the video below for details on how I put these flowers together.



Supplies - Cards are 3" x 3" - All supplies CTMH
Paper - Pemberly B&T, Colonial White & Indian Corn Blue cardstock
Stamp - Thank You
Ink - Outdoor Denim, Creme Brulee
Accessories - Opaque Pearls
Other - Cricut Art Philoshophy cartridge

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Moose Hunt

Someone sent this to my husband - too funny!

Several guys from Peterborough Ontario dressed up their truck with a guy tied to the roof.

The driver and passengers put on Moose Head costumes.

As they drove down the main street of Peterborough they caused about 6 accidents.

They were charged with Public Mischief and having open beer in a vehicle, Peterborough cops have no sense of humor.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Stella Valentine's Card

I love the simple elegance of this Valentine's card using one of the new paper packs from CTMH and my Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. I like the look of using the negative space and tried my hand at machine stitching on my art for the first time (it was almost my last when my thread snagged six stitches in). The bow was made with our new baker's twine.


I used the current sketch at Card Patterns

The hearts were cut at 3/4" high. I used repositional dotto-dots on the left half of each heart to lay out the pattern and then sewed through each column of hearts. I then folded up the left side of each heart and removed the adhesive with a rub and remove eraser. I wrapped the ribbon around the top of the white layer and then adhered it to the red printed layer using 3D foam tape.

I've had some questions about the word LOVE on the card. I cut them at 1" high. I manually moved the blade on my Cricut to about where I thought I wanted the letters on my card (cut the card front larger than your finished piece - it is easier to cut off the excess afterwards than to position the blade exactly where you want it). I cut out the L and the O first, taking note of the positon of the blade given by the measurements on the screen. After cutting the L and O, I manually moved the blade back to the appropriate measurement so that the V would line up with the L, leaving about an 1/8" between the bottom of the L and the top of the V. Cut out the V and E and then use the negative space.




Supplies - Card size is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" - All supplies CTMH
Paper - Stella B&T, White Daisy & Black cardstock
Stamp - Mad About You (for inside sentiment)
Ink - black
Accessories - black & tulip grosgrain ribbon, black baker's twine, pewter mini-medley
Other - Cricut Art Philosophy, sewing machine, 3D foam

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Florentine Anniversary Card - Coloring CTMH Seam Binding

I created this card for my parents 64th wedding anniversary this year. The paper used is from one of the new paper packs being offered in the Spring/Summer 2012 CTMH Idea Book. I love the soft colours in this paper pack and some of the great new embellishments available to go with it.

I was really excited to see the Color Ready Seam Binding now available. I love wrinkled seam binding bows on cards. I have been playing around a bit with different methods to color the seam binding and have created a short video tutorial (see below). I will probably only use this on cards for the time being until I can verify the permanence of the dye on the seam binding. (I colored another brand of seam binding some months ago with water and reinker and found that over time the color migrated from the ribbon onto the card - not what I would want to have happen to a layout).





Supplies - Sketch from Originals - Message Enclosure - Card size is 6 1/2" x 4 3/4" (so it can fit into one of my clear boxes)
Paper - Florentine B&T, Cocoa, Black and Colonial White CS
Stamps - Family Love - D1506, Love Always - D1337 (for inside sentiment)
Ink - Cocoa, Twilight, Garden Green re-inker
Accessories - Color Ready Seam Binding, Timeless Charms, Bohemian Assortment, Mocha Opaques and Black Waxy Flax
Other - rubbing alcohol, spray pen, heat gun, 3D foam, corner rounder

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Spring/Summer Idea Book

The new Close To My Heart Idea Book goes live today! Check out the link to the right of this page to see all of the new product available to order from today until July 31st, 2012.