An Udderly Adorable Greeting

My creation for today features Ms. Minnie Cow with an udderly adorable greeting. This card is a combination of Cricut Wild Card cuts for the card and envelope, and a Pazzles Inspiration rendition of a clip art piece.
Did you know that before I vectorize an image in the Pazzles software I separate it into layers to produce the different components of that image? I use Adobe Photoshop to manipulate the layers. It’s quite an interesting process, and a lot of fun to me. This card measures 5-1/2 inches, and when I adjusted the size of the envie, I had to cut it on paper larger than 12 x 12, and use my 24 inch mat. Well, I did it, and here it is!

Thanks for visiting!

Working with my Pazzles Inspiration Cutter

I’ve been at it again with my Pazzles! I really enjoy manipulating clip art pieces into layers so I can vectorize them in my Inspiration software. It’s really satisfying and gratifying to see a finished piece of work on one of my creations. All four of the cards in this post are 5-1/2 inch squares. I’ve come to appreciate the real estate this size card provides -- and I’m finding the Fiskars and Sizzix texture plates are really suitable for larger cards, and I’m glad I have some of them in my stash of supplies.

You know how I just love to make critter cards, so three of my latest creations feature my little friends. First, there’s Mattie the Caterpillar, who reminds us that dreams really do come true. I started to label this one as Shades of Dream, but shortened my blurb to just one word so as to have more space for my images. This mat is embossed with the Fiskars Grass texture plate.

My next card sports Corky the Lion as he declares his stance of friendship. He’s so cute, don’t you think? The blue background is cuttled with the dotted swiss folder, and the grass is a Martha Stewart punch that I embossed with the Fiskars Grass texture plate. Check out those googlie eyes!

Such a funny little duck to portray joy and laughter! Quacky is ready to put a smile in someone’s heart as he gives it everything he’s got. This mat is embossed with my Fiskars Vines texture plate, and the grass is an original Sizzix die.

Finally, here’s Bob the QueMan, extending an invite to a summer gathering of food and fun. I found Bob as a piece of clipart, but his grill comes from my new Cricut Lite Block Party cartridge. The mat for this card is embossed with the Fiskars Party texture plate.

Well, that’s all for today. Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you enjoy what you see.

I'm Nuts About You!

I made this 5-1/2 inch square card with a combination of cuts made with my Pazzles and my Cricut Expression. I found Willie the Squirrel as a piece of clip art in my collection, and just had to vectorize him to use for this card. I also cut the sentiment with my Pazzles using the AR Christy true type font. With my Cricut Expression, I cut the large acorn from my “Create a Critter” cartridge, and the small acorns from the “Just Because Cards” cartridge. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Green Stack. I just love making whimsical, critter type cards. Makes me smile. How about you?

RAQ's Cricut Card Challenge for May 4 thru May 11

NannaDonna hosted this week’s challenge for RAQ, and she chose some great sketches. I loved everyone’s creations, and was able to do three of the sketches.

For my first card, I used “A Child’s Year” for the sentiment, and of course, my Cuttlebug along with one of my MS punches to finish.

On the second card I used “Create a Critter”, substituting the beehive for the tag feature on the sketch. I hand-punched the flowers with an old treasured All Night Media punch and a little punch by Creative Memories that I really like. I used “My Community” for the grass.

For an “extra challenge”, we were to make a card all white with a splash of color. I used one of the cuts from my newly acquired “Heritage” cartridge, and cuttled the background with my Script folder. There, you have it! Thanks for visiting.

RAQ's Weekly Card Challenge -- April 28 - May 4

Thanx Berry Much!
KatieWoo4U is hosting RAQ’s Card Challenge on the Cricut Board this week. This is the first time I’ve participated in one of RAQ’s challenges, and I hope it won’t be the last. For this entry, I choose to use the sketch below for my card. I grabbed my new Preserves cartridge, and chose the raspberry on page 56 for my focal point. The background paper is from DCWV’s Farmer’s Market Stack, and for the scalloped edges I used my Fiskar’s treading water border punch. Other papers are Bazill dotted swiss and textured CS. I used the POOH Font set for the sentiment.

Tilt-A-Wonky Whirl Gypsy Challenge

This week’s challenge was to TILT-TIP-OR TURN letters and then weld them together forming a word. Here’s my take on this. The tilt and tip technique is seen on the word “FRIENDS.”
Isn’t it wonderful when unlikely allies can peacefully exist without fear of one threatening the other’s well being? This is what my card intends to project: Lumpy Frog and Ms. Maybelline Ladybug are comfortably together in their marsh, passing the time of day. I made all the cuts for this project with my gypsy – except the ladybug. My friend Tammy, who was visiting today, designed and cut Ms. Maybelline on my Pazzles Inspiration cutter.
Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!

At the Movies - Cuttlebug Spot Challenge

Today I decided to check out the Cuttlebug Spot, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Nilda had chosen AT THE MOVIES as the challenge theme this week. Fun! Fun! My two of my favorite movies of all times instantly popped in my mind – Driving Miss Daisy, and Titanic! Well, I’m also partial to a few others, but when I gave it some thought, I knew just what cartridges I could use to portray the roles of Kate and Leonardo in my project. So my choice was made, and out came Life is A Beach and Sweethearts. Base Camp seemed just right for the title. I cuttled the doomed ship with the Tiny Mosaic folder, and the waves -- of course -- with Divine Swirls. It was a fairly easy and quick project one to put together, and I like the way it turned out.

Gypsy Board Mirror Mirror Challenge

I made this card for the Mirror Mirror challenge over on the Gypsy Board. We were to take a copy of an image, flip at least one, and weld together using the mirroring options on the advanced screen of the gypsy.
All my cuts are from my new Create a Critter cartridge. I just love this little turtle! I’m calling him Franklin. I used his shadow feature for my flip and weld technique, and popped Franklin in front of flowers with half inch pop dots. His outer and inner shells are “cuttled” with Tiny Mosaics and Tiny Bubbles, and the grass is “cuttled” with Distressed Stripes. I left the inside of my 5-1/2 inch square card blank for a personal hand written sentiment.

Hop & Skip - Another Gypsy Challenge

Hop & Skip! Can you do it? It’s all about kerning when it comes to our gypsy challenges. I read and re-read all the great explanations we had to help us, and finally in the 11th hour, I posted my project. Although I wasn’t pleased with how my card turned out, I do understand a bit more about kerning. Check out the words: LIVE - kerned at .2 / LOVE - kerned at .3 / LAUGH - kerned at .4 ... that's what it's all about!

Gypsy Jumped Over the Moon Challenge

This past week we were to explore stretching and flattening images using the aspect ratio link feature of the gypsy. When this link is disabled, you can change the height without changing the width (this is a stretch) or change the width without changing the height (this is a flatten), or you can do both to an object. Our creative theme for the week was nursery rhymes – to celebrate the new Nursery Rhymes cartridge that will soon be available.
OK, so here’s what I did! I took the easy way out and borrowed the theme of this week’s challenge to choose a nursery rhyme for my project. Carts I used are A Child’s Year, Paper Doll Dress Up, Paper Pups, Walk in My Garden, From My Kitchen, Don Juan, When my DH saw my project, he said, “Do you think people will get it?” “Well, of course, they will, I replied. And you do, don’t you? You know, the cow thinks we can’t be really serious about him jumping over the moon!

I both stretched and flattened the cow, the cat, and the word “what”. I flattened the word “me”, the dish, and the grass. And, so I could really see the effects of what I was doing, I made this project in size large. It is 12 inches x 12 inches!
Have a nice day, and thanks for visiting!

Gypsy Forum Challenges

There are weekly challenges over on the Cricut Board Gypsy Forum. Nothing competitive, just an incentive to learn more about using the gypsy and all those fantastic cartridges we're eager to buy.
I'll start with the current challenge called 3 + 1 = Success.  That is to say, 3 cuts, 1 weld, and you're home free!  I chose to make an aperture card. I used George to make the base, welding four rectangles together with the already welded “thanks” phrase from Don Juan. Then I cut the individual letters to say “thanks” and “for all you do!” also from Don Juan. The flower is from Forever Young. The envelope is a cut from Sentimentals. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the card base is a lovely purple. The paper for the card front mat and envie liner is from The Stack 6 by DCWV.

Kind of cute, don't you think?

The first challenge was to use circles in some way in a project.  Here's mine -- a timely reminder about daylight savings time.

I used my silouhette sketch pens to write the numbers on the clock on the front of the card, rather than cut them, because I wanted the clockface to be REALLY in the background. The clock is from My Community. I used George to make the base clock circles, and Pooh for everything else. I'm quite pleased with this card, and here we are in Daylight Savings time! A fun project for me!

Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted my creations, so today I though I'd play catch up.  It was in February that I worked on the project I'm showcasing here. Creations on my Pazzles.  I love making purses with card sets to match, and although this project took a couple of weeks -- working almost every day, it was fun. 

These purses hold the standard A2 size cards and envelopes. The body is a one piece construction that folds around the box that holds the goodies, and the outsides are embellished so each to has its own personality.

Considering that there are several purse designs on the new Cricut cartridge "Forever Young", I think I'll be making more purse sets in the future.

Just Having Fun!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog, although I have several creations to share.  I’ll get to them soon, but today I’m sharing a creation made by my friend, Tammy.  This is the first time she’s used a cricut, but you can’t tell by looking at the wonderful purse she made. She hasn’t finished all her cards yet, but she’s  working on them.  We’ve had fun playing today, and I look forward to having her over again soon.

Seasons of a LifeTime

Wow! I finally finished this project -- one that I've been working on for over a week.I put more than 20 hours into the planning, design and production of this piece. And used a LOT of paper. It's the first real wordbook or shapebook that I've done, and I combined the two formats on this project. I'm really satisfied with how it turned out, and enjoyed the time I spent. I'll be looking forward to doing others in the future.  I made this specifically for a swap over on the Circut Gypsy Gallery board. We had about a month to complete our projects, and I had so many other projects that I was working on that I got a late start on this one. The book is my take on a 4 seasons theme, but is designed to be used with the stages or seasons of a person's life rather than seasons in a year's time. I wanted to add more pages to each season, but time would not allow since our projects are due before February 1, and I'm lagging just a bit.

I blocked out each page in the pics to give a clear view of the artwork for each season. Thanks for visiting!