Gap Cards - The Wedding Version

Hi!   It's Christine from iamcocoasmom.blogspot.com stopping by to share my easy peasy gap card technique using Cricut Design Space. Warning - looooong post!

We've called this little corner of the Pacific Northwest 'Home' for longer than DH and I have ever lived anywhere including England, where we were born.  We've also had homes in Bahrain, Singapore, New Brunswick and Alberta, (Canada) Tennessee, Maryland, Utah, and of course, Washington State.  This means, of course, that many of the cards I make have to be flat enough to pop in a regular mailing envelope.  This presents a problem for the resident cardmaker - moi - who is a big fan of bling, dimension, embellies, ribbon and layers!   Enter the Gap Card which allows me to add dimension, visual interest and that personal touch, without costing $15 to mail.

Here's my latest gap card designed for the wedding anniversary of a couple of friends, but it could just as easily be for a wedding or for a bridal shower with different die cut embellishments.

Deep breath!   Here we go!  In Design Space, use the 'Insert Shapes' button to add two squares and a score line to the canvas.  Resize one of the squares to the size of the finished card - in my case 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall.  Change the color of the square.  Rotate the score line 90˚ and change the height to a little longer than the width of the card.  Select the card and the score line and click on 'center' under the 'align' button.

Next, take the second square and resize it to a little longer than the width of the card (5.75) by 1.5 inches.  Position the rectangle over the card below the score line and with the edges beyond the sides of the card.  This will be the gap.  Try the 'gap' near the score line, near the bottom of the card, or anywhere in-between until you get the look you want. 

 The next step is to insert the text.  Type in the word(s) you want to fill the gap and experiment with the font until you find one that suits the mood of the card AND has a shadow layer.   Activate the shadow layer by clicking on the eye in the Layers panel.   Position the text over the gap and resize it so that the shadow layer is slightly larger than the gap.

You can see that I added two more text boxes to my design outside the gap and resized them to complement the gap word.   Move the gap word to the side and 'ungroup.'  Select the shadow layer only, and duplicate.   Save, save. save!

Slicing time!  Select the card and the gap rectangle and 'slice.'  Now the gap rectangle will become the same color as your card.   Move away the 'gap' and the extra ends and delete both of them.

Welding time!  Select one of the gap word shadow layers and position it over the gap in the card.  You can use 'align' to center it if you need to.  Select the card and the shadow layer of the gap word and 'weld.' Once again, everything will be the same color.  Perfect!

Select the card and the score line and 'attach.'  Choose any other die cut images that you would like to add.  I chose wedding bells and intertwined rings, added them to the canvas and resized.  Lastly I used 'sync' to consolidate my color scheme and SAVED!

Here's another look at my finished card.  The color palate is subdued for this card.  But I really, really want to try this card in teal and cream, or fuschia and pale pink.  Mmmmm.

And the innies:-

Bonus card for reading to the end of this post!   Here's a gap card I created for my DH's fishing buddy, Dan.  I used the Mickey font for this one but we won't mention that!  Love how we personalized this card including a genu-wine fly tying knot tied by DH to embellish the front.  Cool!

Thank you Sheila for allowing me to share today.  Do try an easy peasy gap card.  You'll be addicted too!   : ) Christine

Create A Critter Butterfly Treats

Our last camping trip took us back to Offut Lake Resort with our good friends S and C.  While the 'boys' fished and Cocoa napped, C and I put together the June treats for the OHM kids.

 

I cut the butterflies from Create A Critter and we added googly eyes to the front and a mini chocolate bar as the 'body' on the back.  OK!  I admit there was some snacking going on as we worked.  We added Stickles for a little extra bling and it amused me to see that  C could not make any of the butterflies look exactly the same but kept trying different designs and patterns!  (I know how that goes - I can't do it either!)

We visited some of the parks in the area including Tumwater Falls Park where we enjoyed a lovely stroll besides the falls and fish ladders with Cocoa, as always, out in front of the group. 

Thanks S for the great pic and thank you for visiting with me today. Be sure to visit She's a Sassy Lady tomorrow for my Gap Card tutorial blog post.  : )  Christine

Hello Kitty Gets Foiled

Last Saturday was the 8th birthday of my Hello Kitty lovin' youngest DGD.  Like her older sister, Miss G asked for gift cards and I was happy to agree since who knows what is tucked away in their closets and toy boxes?

I cut a couple of little purse gift card holders from SVG Cuts 'Luxury Handbags' in pearlized paper and trimmed them to fit inside the clutch purse.  Looking through the Hello Kitty carts for something to embellish the card holders, the idea of a foiled Kitty popped in my head.

I selected an outline of Kitty holding a heart and placed it on my canvas.  I changed the color to black and then flattened.  I printed Kitty out on my laser printer and cut the outline with my Explore.  Carefully, I moved the outline into the carrier and added the dots for the nose and eyes.  Using a pretty pink foil, I ran it through the Minc and adhered it to the card holder.   How cute is that?

  And the inside:-

For my second image, I chose Kitty holding a flower.  I added the flower centers as the image looked unfinished without them.

Here's Miss G's little purse made from Recollections glitter card stock, which although sturdy, is very difficult to adhere together even with scor tape!  (I ended up using a ton of glue dots.)

Hope you had a lovely birthday, Gabby!  : )  Grandma Christine

Thank You, Charlotte C!

A quick post today, as I'm feeling SO much better and eager to show you some of the things I've done, but not shared. 

One of the things I loved about the Gypsy was that it stored files so that I wasn't always starting a project from scratch.  The same is true for Design Space, but even better, is the fact that (Cricut) files can be shared with other people.

My Sassy Sister, Charlotte C, shared a tutorial here, that was SO easy to follow and just perfect for a couple of little gifts that I needed to make.  (Unfortunately, my own Mr. Mojo has taken a hike over the last few weeks!)

Following Charlotte's directions I made this split butterfly and vinyl-ed it on a cold drinks jug.  Perfect!

A few days later, I went back into the file and changed the name and vinyl-ed the butterfly on this milk bottle from Michael's.
 

As you can see, my butterfly is much simpler than Charlotte's and was consequently easier to weed!  Here is my file, if you would like to use it.   Simply 'detach' after selecting the image and click on the name to edit.  (More detail here.)

https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/28033126


Thanks for visiting today, and thanks again, Charlotte!

Minc - ing!

She's here!   The Anna Griffin Minc machine.  Yahoo!     This is my first attempt at laser 'cut then print' images with Design Space and the Explore.  

Note to self: -  Handle cuts carefully as you take them off the mat
                       
                         Don't crowd cuts into the fold of the carrier

                         Throw out all white core cardstock!

                        Make sure letters are immediately glued straight because trying to move
                        them leaves GLUE smears on the foil!

DH objected to the Blackletter font.  But I like it!   What do you think?    Thanks for visiting today.   : )  Christine

Grad Gap Card

I am having such fun creating 'gap' cards in Design Space!  Welding the font shadow into the gap makes it so easy to glue the letters down and makes the card much more stable than the usual way.   Lovin' it!

Here's my grad card for a friend's son.  (Go Papermakers!) 

In this one I used the font from Winter Woodland and moved the gap further up the card so I could add the caps and the year.

Here's the inside showing the welded font.

This is my son's birthday card - the one that started the current obsession!  The font is '
Art Deco.'

Here's a Mother's Day card that I made with 'Folk Art.'  I didn't use this one 'cos I couldn't make it match the vision in my head. KWIM?

I have one more birthday card to make using this technique and then, I'm going to try a vertical split! 

I'm linking my grad card with the Craftin' Desert Diva's Graduation Linky Party.  Pop over and look at all the fun cards!   Thanks for visiting with me today and here's the link to DS for the grad card.  : )  Christine.

https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/27793210

Easy Peasy Scrapbooking with Design Space

Hi!  It's Christine from I am Cocoa's Mom sharing a layout with you today.  I have been inspired by Sheila (AKA Sassy Lady) to work on my scrapbooking again.  It is, as Sheila demonstrates, all about preserving those memories and that's what counts rather than fabulous pictures showcased by fabulous pages.  (Not that she doesn't do those too - check this page out!)

So, I started working on last year's Spring Break trip to the Oregon coast and 3 pages later, I discovered the joy and ease of scrapbooking with the ready made pages in Design Space.  Bingo!

As you can see, I started with a double page LO as my canvas and added the Happy Trails image from "Family Album" resized to fit the canvas.  Then I duplicated and mirrored the image and added it to the second page of the canvas.

The fun part was the adding and deleting images and making the basic LO work for the pictures that I wanted to add.

After syncing the colors, cutting and removing the pieces from the mats, it was soooo easy peasy to follow the Design Space screen and assemble my LO.  And yes, I did change things around a bit more before gluing!

Here's the first page

and the second.

 

When DH saw my pages he said,  "That was a great cache, wasn't it?  Took forever to find!"   And THAT'S the reaction I want for my pages.    I will be using "Family Album" for more LOs for inspiration and as the starting point for this scrapbooking novice.

If you've never tried geocaching, google it!   It's a great family activity, free, and fun!  Watch out for Muggles!

Thank you Sheila for inviting me to share on your blog today and for all the inspiring you do.   : ) Christine