Autumn Cricut Card

This Cricut Explore Print Then Cut file is in the Make It Now section of Cricut Design Space.  It consists of a printed background of various color leaves and then a black precision cut overlay.   I love it and it was really easy to put together.  Good news, since I had to make 24 of them!  Yep, 24!  They were for the college kids at church this month.  I added a gift card holder to the inside and a stamped greeting.  I hope the kids like their goodies!  If you have a Cricut Explore machine, check out the file:   https://us.cricut.com/design/#/landing/Fall/project-detail/6905

New Cricut Cards!

This week I purchased the Cricut November Mystery Digital Box.  The offer includes five digital cartridges:  

1. J Goode Holiday Designs
2. Natalie Malan Christmas Florals
3. Anna's Christmas Greetings
4. Kim Byer's Oh What Fun
5. Kim Byer's Pie Oh My

I have been playing around with what I can do with these images in terms of productive practical application.  Here are a couple of cards I made and some observations on these new "cartridges".  I use the term "cartridge" loosely because they are simply digital sets.  No physical product is involved.

The first card I made, pictured above, is an example of a one-layer image attached to a separate folded card.  I wanted to make some quick Christmas cards that do not take a ton of cutting and assembling.  The digital sets I purchased are ideal for this application.

The one layer consists of a series of images that I attached in turn to my basic white rectangle used for the card front (5 1/4" x  4").  The first image is a rectangle tag that I changed to a "print" option from the default "cut" option in the Christmas Florals cartridge.  I changed the color of the tag to a blush pink to match the blush pink banner offered in the cartridge.  By the way, I had to call Cricut to learn how to use the banner images.  The way the cartridge is designed, you print a whole sheet of various pink banners.  In order to use just one of the banners, you have to change the default "print" option to a "cut".  Then the "contour" button lights up and you can delete all but the banner you want and add it to your card.  You can then add text.  I was only able to get a "write" option for my text but that was no problem.  I used a Precise V5 black Extra Fine pen to allow the Cricut to write the text when it cut the project.  BTW a big shout out Thank You to Julie at Cricut for helping me figure this out!

I also added one of the Christmas Florals scalloped squares images to the center of the pink square, and attached.  I then added the darling Christmas Santa-hatted bear from the Kim Byer's Oh What Fun cartridge to the center of the floral square and attached.  I thought the reds of the Santa hat and banner closely matched the Christmas Florals red flowers.

After cutting out my project with the Cricut I added a white eyelet and a bit of ribbon to the hole in the pink tag image and placed my project onto a pre-made A2 size folded blush card.

If I do this project again, I may add some text to the banner on the center bear first.  It seems a little empty there.

Here is the second card I made:

This time I made a 5 1/4" x 4" rectangle and filled it with one of the 6 pretty patterns that come with the Christmas Florals cartridge.  I also inserted the plain tag image from Christmas Florals, sized it to fit the card front, and filled it with another pattern (hard to see in the photo above--it's a very light pink text pattern).  Remember, I have to attach each step of the project to make it one layer overall.  I added one of the Christmas Floral banners this time, and instead of using one of the default cartridge colors (grey, pink, dark pink, light green, or white) I changed the color of the banner to a maroon.

 Remember I had to change the banner option to cut anyway to manipulate it, so now all the color options of Design Space are available. (The Christmas Florals cartridge has a tag already designed with this saying, but I wanted to be able to manipulate the image so I could vary my text if I wanted to.  Practicing designing my own tag using the cartridge elements allowed me to learn how to do this.)

Since my banner was so dark I wanted to use a white text.  I chose a Watercolor Brush Font I purchased separately from the Mystery Box.  After attaching all and making sure I had a print option chosen I added the cute penguin from the Kim Byer's Oh What Fun cartridge.

Hard to see, but after the Cricut printed and cut the rectangle, I added a ribbon and a jingle bell to the tag and pasted it to a pre-folded A2 white card.  Next time, I am going to add some fuzzy felt or other material to the penguin's muffler.

Thanks for looking!  If there is interest, I will post my Design Space files for these cards so maybe you could make them too!

Bunco Party!

Aren't these little guys adorable?  My sister hosted a bunco party in January and we thought these cute frosty little penguins would look great on the bunco punch cards.  The penguin is imported from Cricut Design Space and is a Make It Now project.  There is a penguin for every season!  I have designs on the little Valentine penguin next!
     We also imported the pattern for the background and made the background, the featured penguin, and the lettering (from A Child's Year Cricut cartridge) into a Print Then Cut.  Due to technical difficulties, we had to cut the large die separately and paste it onto the front of the card, along with the little sequin snowflake.  The die is altered from an existing Cricut image.
     Here is a picture of the cards on the lanyards used for the party:

It was a fun bunco party, but it was also a party to make the cards!  Thank you Cricut and Design Space!

Trifold card

This card pictured below is a new design for me, although the design is very popular.  The unique thing about this card is that the structure can be cut with a Cricut.  I downloaded a file shared by one of the owners of the Cricut Design Space Lover's Facebook page.  The file cuts the card and the mats perfectly to fit an A2 size, and it is all done electronically.  One 12" x 12" page will give you two card bases.  The card folds flat for mailing, but opens up for display.

     The little flamingos decorating the card probably look a little familiar to you!  I cut them from the card design used in a previous post and turned them into single images to use on other cards.  The card is designed so a lot of writing can be put on the last panel, but I narrowed it to a single strip so that I could add an extra flamingo.  

     Here is the link to the website from which I got this file:

The Non Crafty Crafter 

    

Cricut Explore Birthday Card

I am always in need of birthday cards, so I jumped at the chance to make this cute candle card from the Cricut Design Space ideas.  I have a subscription, so I didn't need to pay any extra for the design.  I cut out two of these and will make many more.  I also added some Stickles to the candle flames (not shown in the picture above.)  I liked the idea of a design already planned out and ready to go, including the envelope.  The Explore cut everything out fabulously and all the images line up perfectly.  No sweat, no brain power, just simple crafting fun.