Wow! I Made an Ampersand Card

Back in August I stumbled upon a very elegant card made by Diana Mancuso http://dianasdesignsblog.blogspot.com , who commented that she had been inspired by Tracy Gough’s May 2008 creation of an Ampersand Card http://camsmum-tg.blogspot.com/2008/05/bbtb-ampersand-contest.html . Needless to say, I am in awe of both these ladies’ work. When I recently received an invitation to a wedding shower for a friend’s son, I thought of the lovely cards I had seen and decided to try my hand at making one. Well, after working on this card for about 26 hours over 5 days, here it is. I have said, “This is it, nothing more.”

I used both Design Studio and my Gypsy to make this card. For the things that I wanted to tweak, of course, Gypsy was the only way to go. And for things that I didn’t want to be particular about sizing, I used DS. Cartridges used are Wedding, Alphalicious, George and Basic Shapes, and Sweethearts. The words on the inside of the card are computer generated. Some of these words are from a list by SusieB http://www.heartprints.net/gallery/, and other are just some I chose to use.

Many thanks to those who inspired me to take on this challenge. I learned a lot while making this card, and see where I can make some changes in my adaptation to make it better and easier in the future. Now that I think I’ve got this one under my belt, I think it will be fun to make another Ampersand card with a different theme sometime soon.

Get Well Wishes

This card was made by request to be sent to a young college student who was gravely ill, and to keep the mood light, I thought Minnie might bring a smile. This was only my second time using the Disney Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge, and I used my Gypsy on this project. I chose to use fall colors on the card, and was quite pleased about how it turned out.

Shades of Brown

I used Mr. Owl on a project about a year ago; but this time I really had to put a little effort in the way I dressed him to meet the requirements of this week’s Cuttlebug Spot challenge #52 with a monochromatic theme. I chose to use shades of brown rather than the color of gray that first came to mind, and when I went through my paper stash I was surprised to find I have 15 or 16 different shades of the earth toned color. I used six shades.

I love my Cuttlebug! I used the Diamonds in the Rough folder to cuttle the mat for this card, and the Forest Branches folder on the tree branch. Today Mr. Owl sports a suit especially tailored for him with the Herringbone folder. By the way, Mr. Owl is a piece of clip art I found some time ago that I vectorized to use with my Pazzles Inspiration cutter. He is layered to stand quite proudly as he mans his post on a dark October night. So here he is, in all his glory and I hope you find him pleasing to look at as he hoots into the nighttime realm, “Owl be seeing ya!”

Sending Love

This card is for the Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #51. It's pink! I really like the mailbox on Cricut cartridge Doodlecharms, and I used it as a focus on this card. The background mat is cuttled with the Floral Screen embossing folder. I used the Diamond Plate folder on the mailbox, and the "Sending Love" sentiment was my first try at welding with my Gypsy. I used American Crafts Specialty silver foil paper for both the sentiment and the mailbox.The small butterfly on the mailbox flag is a Creative Memories punch.

The inside of the card is embellished with one of the Cuttlebug butterflies, and leaves room for a handwritten note.

Although this card did not photograph well, it looks very nice in person, and I am pleased with it. I liked it so much that I created a fall version, which I will post later.

Autumn Greetings

My first Gypsy creation! Nothing fancy, just a simple card. After playing with my Gypsy for several days, I took the plunge and made a card. I used Don Juan for the words, Plantin Schoolbook for the apples, and DoodleCharms for the basket. The raccoon is from Animal Kingdom and the grass is from ZooBalloo. I cut the tree (barely seen in the left corner) freehand, and the leaves are MS leftovers from a previous project.

Valentine's Day in the Fall

I used my MS Leaf punch around the page set on muted orange patterned paper for the frame on this 5 inch square card, and for the falling leaves as well. The cream colored background mat is cuttled with the Forest Branches Cuttlebug folder. I used my Cuttlebug Typewriter alphabet set for the letters, and the pumpkin is from Happily Ever After cricut cartridge. The inside of the card is below.

Card for Week of July 20 2009 - Hello

This is a 4 inch square card. I used Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder on the background, and notched the corners with a punch. I used a Fiskars border punch on the patterned paper. The flowers were a great find from a clearance rack at Michael's. I put brads in the centers. I used a Cuttlebug die for the "hello." I made the envelope from a template I found on the internet, and lined it with the pattern paper used on the card front. Check out the notches on the envelope and its lining.

Cricut Rookie Challenges

Paper Pups is one of my favorite cartridges. I like to make cards with animal images, and I especially love puppies. The puppy on this card resembles my neighbor’s little brown Chessie, and I cut her at 3 ¼ inches instead of 3 inches. I used orange flower patterned paper (not dark orange) for my background. I did not use the ribbon and brad, but substituted the done bone cut at ½ inch from the cartridge. I also used google eyes. My card base is ivory.