Birthday Card with a Faux Stacked Diamond Die

You know, it does take an awful lot of self control not to spend over my crafting budget every month!  For instance, the Simon Says Stamp Blog recently featured THE coolest diamond stacked die.  I could really see myself using that die as a background accent for cards, page titles, wall decor pieces etc, etc.  But when you add in taxes and shipping - I just could not justify ordering it. So, I fired up the Cricut, found an image of a lattice of diamonds on the CTMH Artiste cart and duplicated, welded, attached and played with it until I got something kinda sorta like the SSS die.  And here's the first card I made with it for my friend M's birthday.

I love the clean look of this card and I think the spray of flowers from Heartfelt Creations added just the right focal point.  Lovin' it! 

The inside sentiment comes from the Anna Griffin Garden Cards and Embellishments cart. Here's a closer look at the Cricut stacked diamonds.   I glued three pieces together to add dimension.

I am linking my card to the Birthday card challenge at BBTB2 here and the Something New challenge at the FCC blog here.

It's so nice to be able to just 'play' after the Christmas scurry to get things finished and before Valentine's Day cranks into high gear.  : )   Thanks for visiting with me today.  Christine

Edited to add DS file number:  https://design.cricut.com/#/design/79991108 
Have fun!
 

Galaxies of Fun

There was a time when I knew almost every image on the Cricut carts I owned.  Nowadays -  not so much!  I am, therefore, eternally grateful for the Search function in Design Space which sometimes pops up something unexpectedly and fun.

I needed a card for one of Master J's friends and the theme of the party was 'Space.'  I had my constellations paper and the 'print then cut' planets in DS ready to add the number 4.  I searched for a '4' rather than use a text box and this image "just 4 you" appeared.  Perfect!

Are you like me, can't adhere letters down in a straight line to save your life?  So here's the solution... duplicate the letters and weld them to a frame. Cut and add to your card or scrapbook page then cut the second layer and glue on top of the frame letters.  Voila!

 

Here's the innies:-

Thanks for visiting with me today.   : )   Christine

Mr. Incredible Window Card

I called my daughter and asked, "Does DSIL like The Incredibles movie?"  "Well," she replied, "J (my grandson) does!"   Close enough, right?  Here's the birthday card for my DSIL featuring Mr. Incredible because... he is Mr. Incredible!

The base of the card is a window card pioneered many years ago by Sheila, of the She's A Sassy Lady blog using the Gypsy and the Cricut Expression.  Of course, it's much easier to create this type of card using DS and the Explore.  For one thing, the larger screen of my laptop is much easier to the eyes, and secondly, designing on the virtual canvas gives a good feel for the look and size of the finished project. 

Mr. Incredible's shadow layer and the speech bubble layer are welded to the frame of the window card.  This adds stability to the card and it looks 'finished' on the inside.  The window card style requires that the outside design continues on the inside and this makes the card such fun to make and fun to receive.  Here's the innies:-

Happy Birthday D!  Thank you all for visiting with me today  : )  Christine

Stardust Tea Light Birthday Card

It's my day on the She's a Sassy Lady blog and I'm sharing a card that I made for my youngest DGD's recent birthday.

Rarely, rarely, does this happen, but when I received my new stamps from DesignwithSassy, a card  just popped in my head AND it worked out just the way I hoped!  Ta da!

 I needed a simple tent card, so I placed a square on the DS canvas and sized it at 5" by 10" to form the card base.  It would have been easy peasy to add a variety of differently sized stars on the lower half of the card and attach to make the star shaped cut outs.  Unfortunately,  I wanted to use the "Star in Square" image from the Artbooking cart because I like the way the stars fit at the edges!

I discovered that I was unable to use the contour button to hide the outer square and therefore could not 'attach' the image to the front of the card to cut out the stars.  Soooo, the only way I could make it work was to slice a square in the front of the card base and then weld in the "Star in Square" image.  Yes!!!  Then I attached the score line and voila!

To finish the card I glued on the Accented Star from the Home Decor cart and added a square of platinum vellum behind the stars.  I placed a frame around the outside and inside of the stars panel to finish it off neatly.  Inside I attached the Shooting Stars frame from Artbooking and used my MISTI to stamp the inspirational stardust sentiment from the Happy Birthday collection.

A length of silver ribbon and I was done!

It looks so pretty with the tea light placed inside the card, don't you think?  Then, of course, I had to craft a box since an envelope could not contain both the card and tea light!

Thank you for visiting with me today : )  Christine

Mother's Day Card

Last week, Sheila provided us with a delightful Mother's Day project on the Design With Sassy Facebook group.  I basically followed the template she provided and made a card for my DDIL.

You can see that I added an extra little girl to the silhouette from A Child's Year to represent both my DGDs with their Mom.  The image was SO easy to alter in DS using the 'weld' feature.  Charlotte C. also used the Mother's Day image but substituted a little boy instead of the girl.  Oh the possibilities!
Here's the inside of my card:-

The basic design was so cute that I wanted to try adapting it for another card and chose to make a birthday card for my son.  I used the 'weld' feature again to personalize the card.  The little calendar on the front is free in DS.  So cool!

And the the innies:-

Thanks to Sheila for providing the template and thank YOU  for visiting with me today.   : ) Christine    

Happy Birthday Rob!

Art Deco Birthday Card

I don't buy many carts since the introduction of DS, but Art Deco, in my opinion, has so many beautiful images that it is well worth the investment. 

This lady is one of my favorite images and I used her on the birthday card I created recently for my DD.   I incorporated the comedy and tragedy masks into my design since she is a devotee of the stage and a very talented actor.

I was so impressed with my restraint when adding embellishments.  Sequins and glitter - apart from a stray piece or two transferred from my desk! - were just not necessary with the lovely colors and texture of the American Crafts card stock that I used.  The innies:- 

O.K!  Time to get inky and glittery!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Coloring - Not Just for the Grandchildren!

DH called up the stairs to the Craft Room "What's happening up there?"   "I'm coloring."  I told him and of course, he had to come and see what I was really doing!  I recently acquired the Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers and I just love their vibrant colors and the way they blend so easily.  I also love that they are limited in number and I am not paralyzed with the overwhelming choice of exactly which shade of alcohol marker to use!

I was coloring a cute little turtle guy from Craftin' Desert Diva's stamp store.  They come with an svg which I downloaded to Design Space, resized and cut (multiple times!) with the Explore.  Using my MISTI, of course, I stamped on the cut and then colored.  How much fun is that?

The turtle is popped up on an action wobble, and the background paper is part of the Harbor collection from Papercrafts that I brought back from England.   My DSIL should be very honored that I used this paper on his birthday card!

No bling! No twine! I was so pleased with this simple card.   Happy Birthday, Darius!   Thanks for visiting with me today and don't forget to pop back tomorrow for my DT spot on She's A Sassy Lady.  : ) Christine

Spotlight Stamping with MISTI

Time to share one of my MISTI cards!   I have a ton of 'guy' birthdays coming up and as you know, I have such a hard time restraining the urge to bling!  So, when I saw Jennifer McQuire's card using the latest Simon Says Stamp kit I rejoiced out loud and ran to get my MISTI out.

 Have you ever tried spotlight stamping before?  I cannot imagine doing this without clear stamps and a MISTI.  First, I folded a 5 x 5 card base and added the kraft and gold mat from the SSS kit.  I used my favorite candles from the Charmed cart on the Explore and while it was chirping away, I cut a white mat using a Little B stitched die and placed it inside the MISTI. 

I placed the candles on the mat in the MISTI and added the 'Make a Wish' stamp. I closed the lid and the stamp was perfectly positioned.   I inked it up, removed the die cut candles and stamped the mat.  Then, I replaced the candles, inked the stamp and closed the lid again.  Perfect! 

I lifted the candles again and replaced them using pop dots for dimension.  It was actually easy peasy to line them up with the stamped image on the mat because of the grid on the lid of the MISTI.  

Lastly, I used MISTI to position and stamp the birthday wish on the inside.  Done!  

I have to tell you that when I showed the card to DH, he said, "How did you DO that?"  Thank you Jennifer McQuire and MISTI!     I'm going try try this technique again, I think!   Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine