Monday, December 21, 2015

Almost Christmas Again!

Festive Greetings to all my blogging friends!

Today's PCW contribution is a gorgeous Bear in a Stocking image that I used with the Print to Cut feature on my Cricut Explore. I have had my Explore for almost a year and I have used it almost every day since I have had it - except for the times when I have been away from home!

 I sized the image so the main image in the set was 3 1/2" and then I printed the entire set of images.

When the print was completed, I cut the image using the explore and you can see from the close-up photo below, that the cut is extremely good.

I added glitzy pen to some of the features on the images, such as the outside of the bows and ribbons, the candy cane and the stocking. I added liquid glass to the eyes and nose to make them stand out.


When I had completed the process of layering the bear using foam tape, I decided to put him on the outside of a gift box I had made recently from a Cricut Cartridge - CTMH Artiste. The box is approximately 2 3/4" square and will hold loads of Hershey's Kisses! I added some gold tape to the top and bottom of the box.

I hope this inspires you to explore the Print to Cut files on PCW here.

I wish you all a happy holiday season and look forward to being with you again in January, 2016!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Pink Angel

Hello everyone
This week, for the Papaer Crafting World blog, I decided to do a print to cut using a gorgeous angel digital image from here at PCW.

There was an option to use the coloured version or a black line version and I decided to do the black line version as I needed to get out my Copic markers again!

I used a  5" x 5" square card for this one and cut some music paper for the background. I then used the Cuttlebug and a scalloped square die to cut the top layer. I embossed it using the Cuttlebug then applied Spun Sugar Distress Ink to the card while it was still in the die so the white edge would show.

When I had printed the image, I put it back into my Cricut Explore to cut it out - and a beautiful job it did too! Saved a lot of fussy cutting by hand!

I coloured the image with copic markers then applied glitter glue to the top wings so they sparkle. I used foam tape to attach the angel to the scalloped layer and attached the greeting with foam tape.

My granddaughter loves anything pink so she will love this card.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Lovely Layout

Hello again everyone! Todays contribution to the PCW monthly challenge is a beautiful side pennant layout designed by Melin which is available for you to purchase here!



I have used the layout design to create a layout using red as a theme.

I used papers from Close to My Heart to create this layout. The colours were cranberry, whisper, slate, pear, black, white daisy and colonial white. I also used a red paper from the Fundamentals Adventure collection as the main backing paper. It is a cute design with white circles. To finish off the flowers, I used some pearl dots in the centres.

The stamps used are from the stamp set - Your own kind of Wonderful (D1627) available from Melin's CTMH shop or - if you are in New Zealand, my CTMH shop.

We would love to see you joining in our challenge for this month - Anything goes with a touch of red!


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Red Challenge!

This month, Paper Crafting World is having an Anything Goes challenge with Red as a theme. So all you need to do to enter is to make up one of the many gorgeous files available at PCW and use red as one of the featured colours!

My DT entry for this month is a red poinsettia. The file is available here and is very easy to cut with any machine that uses svg files.


I made this poinsettia into a brooch as our singing group needed something a little different for our Christmas entertainments over the next two months and I volunteered to make these brooches for everyone.

I cut the file at 4" wide and it is just under 4" in height. I used a variety of cardstock to get the colours I wanted. When I had cut the layers, I embossed the red layers using the swiss dots folder in my Cuttlebug to give some added texture. I then shaped the petals using a pair of scissors to curve them gently so they give a more 3D look.

I added Kindiglitz to the yellow inner piece to provide some added sparkle and glued the pieces together in the centre and added them to the leaf layer.

To finish the brooch off, I added a brooch clip to the back using hot glue. I think it works well as a decorative brooch for us all to wear!

Pop over to PCW to check out the challange and the wonderful files that are available there.
Thanks for looking at my blog again!


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Fall Wreath

Here is my version of the lovely Fall Wreath available from Paper Crafting World here.

I cut the svg files using my Cricut Explore and the Design Space software. The width of the wreath is approximately 8 inches and you need to size the leaves along with the rings for the wreath to ensure the proportions are consistent.

I cut the base rings out of kraft cardstock then stamped with a woodgrain stamp. The leaves and acorns were cut from various autumnal shades of cardstock from Close to my Heart, burnished to give them some 3D shape, then attached to the wreath .




I then sprayed the wreath with a gold mist spray I made with Perfect Pearls powder and water.

I stamped the tops and bottoms of the acorns to give them a different texture using background stamps consisting of dots and lines.




 The words were designed using SCAL4 then exported as an svg to Design Space. You need to be able to do this so you can get a shadow layer using a font that does not have one.

I layered the top and base layers then applied sparkly glue to the letters to make them stand out.



I hope you are enjoying the challenge this month. There is certainly a big choice of files available from  Paper Crafting World to make Thanksgiving cards and decor pieces. Pop on over to Paper Crafting World to check out what is available and enter the challenge for this month!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Autumn for some!

Hi there! Today I am bringing you a cute little 6 fold card I made using the lovely digital image Bear with Pumpkin available here.

 To cut the digital image, I imported the jpg file into my Cricut Design Space then sized the image to the right size for the card. I then sent it to my printer and it printed the image with registration marks so I could cut it out using my Cricut Explore. The Print to Cut feature on this new machine is wonderful and I have had a lot of success using it to print some wonderful images.



I then made my 6 fold card following the instructions from here and layered it with different patterned paper from the Pathfinding collection, unfortunately now deleted from the Close to my Heart range of patterned papers.

To finish the card, I die cut a scalloped edge circle and a plain circle from contrasting card, attached the die cut picture then added die cut leaves along the bottom of the cart. The stamped images are from the Pathfinding Cardmaking Workshop kit from Close to my Heart.

I hope that you are enjoying Autumn or Fall or Spring - depending on where in the world you are. I am enjoying our Southern Hemisphere Spring right now and the flowers are just stunning.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Another beautiful Card from PCW

This week, my contribution to the DT and Anything Goes Challenge is another lovely card cutting file from Paper Crafting World.

This cutting file - Card Flourished Edge 4215 CF - is available from PCW here. The detail in the card is quite amazing and it cut very well on my Cricut Explore. The tent fold card base (in white) is shaped as well as the top layers. The coloured layers and flowers on the card were cut in Hollyhock card from Close to my Heart. There is a total of five layers on the front of the card, including the stamped layer. 

The cutting file for the flowers is included with the card file and they are the perfect size for this card which measures 4.5" by 5.75". I added the leaves from a Cricut cartridge - Outdoor Man - to add some additional colour to the card.

The stamp is from a CTMH set - Wavy Blooms (D1651) and was stamped with Slate Exclusive Ink, also from CTMH.

We do hope you will join us for the Anything Goes (with the optional twist to use a stamp) challenge this month. You can add up to 3 entries, which must use files from Paper Crafting World. 

Materials Used:
Close to My Heart Cardstock in White Daisy and Hollyhock
Scrap of green for leaves
CTMH stamp set D1651 - Wavy Blooms
CTMH Exclusive Ink - Slate


Close to My Heart items can be purchased from Melin's CTMH shop if you are in the USA or, if you are in New Zealand,  from Janet's CTMH on-line shop.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Beautiful Card from PCW

Following on from my recent post about re-joining the Design Team for Paper Crafting World, here is my first post for this current design team. It is great to be back with the team after a break of a couple of years and exciting to be able to use some of the lovely new cutting files from Paper Crafting World.

My contribution this week is a card made using the cutting file Card Side Lattice Panel CF





This is a tent fold card which I cut using my Cricut Explore - which cuts svg files beautifully without having to change the size. 

I cut all the elements of the card in the cutting file at the size they were uploaded, making a card approximately 5.25" by 5.25". I also cut a square just a little smaller in the Pixie (pink) to attach underneath the front of the card to show off the lattice work. 

The flowers were burnished to give them some additional shape and to stand out from the card. I layered the smaller flower on top of the bigger one and attached some black bling to the centre of the flowers. 

The label was stamped using Slate Exclusive Ink and a stamp from the Big Hug CTMH stamp set. The layers were glued to each other then attached to the card with foam squares.  

We do hope you join us this month for the Anything Goes Challenge with the optional twist to use a stamp in celebration of National Stamping Month.

Materials used: 
Close to My Heart cardstock in White Daisy, Pixie and Black 
Scrap of green card 
Black bling for the flower centres and embellishments
Stamp from CTMH Stamp set D1584 Big Hug
CTMH Exclusive Ink Slate

Close to My Heart items can be purchased from Melin's CTMH shop if you are in the USA or, if you are in New Zealand,  from Janet's CTMH on-line shop.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Back again with Paper Crafting World!

Exciting news to announce today! Melin over at Paper Crafting World has announced a new Design Team and I am on it! Yippee! I was part of the Design Team for PCW a couple of years ago and had a great time using the wonderful files Melin has designed. She has even more in her shop now.



So to help celebrate the new design team, papercraftingworld.com is  having a special! Just use the code PCW55 at the checkout and you will get 55% off your entire purchase with no minimum! This special offer will close on September 18, 2015.

I am really looking forward to the monthly challenges Melin has set up and it will be fun working with the other members of the team.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Paper Garden

Really excited about the CTMH stamp set for September! It is called Paper Garden and it has some beautiful silhouette style flower and leaf stamps that have words and designs as part of the stamped image. Very distressed looking and a bit different from the usual stamps from CTMH.

I made some cards using stamps from this set. 


 Love the effect with the black ink on the green background. 

For the card below, I used the same stamp with Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder. The effect is different, but still lovely.


The last card is one I made for a swap. This is a trifold card. I used the blossom paper pack for this one and stamped the flowers with Pixie Exclusive Ink and the leaves with New Leaf ink. I cut them out using my scissors, but these flowers and leaves are now on the newest Cricut cartridge from CTMH, Cricut Artistry. I am looking forward to purchasing this one very soon. It will be available from August 1.

The greeting on the front is from the Happy Hexagons set, one of the hostess gift sets from CTMH and stamped with Pomegranate, one of the new colours from CTMH.





Saturday, August 1, 2015

Design Team Call for Paper Crafting World

You may remember I was a member of the Design Team for Paper Crafting World and Cooking With Cricut some time ago before life became a bit busy to continue with it.

Melinda, the owner of Paper Crafting World has put out a call for new design team members so I thought I would give it a go again!

I wanted to showcase some of my work from the past couple of years and have gone back through my photos to see what I could find. The biggest problem was what not to include!


This card was made using a lighthouse stamp I bought because I liked the idea of using it in a scene, which I have done here.

I used distress inks to colour the background, giving a nice gradient to reflect the sun setting over the sea. I coloured the lighthouse using copic markers.

The sand dunes are a background stamp designed by my friend in the UK, Sue Law who also designed the mini set from which the seagulls in the sky are included.

The image was layered onto a toning background then bound with jute twine and layered onto the base card.



To make this card, I inked with distress ink and misted a layering stencil then placed it onto the card base to produce a "negative" effect.

The flower stamp is a favourite from Montarga (here in Christchurch) which I coloured with Copic markers, then fussy cut and layered onto a background card stamped with a text background stamp.








I made this Mother's Day card using my Cricut Explore and Design Space. The sentiment and flowers are included in the subscription to Design Space under the Mother's Day Phrases set.

I cut a background piece from cream card then embossed it using the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

The card base was also cut using one of the card bases found in Design Studio.

This piece is a wall hanging I made for my son and daughter-in-law for their recent wedding anniversary.

I designed the piece in Design Studio using Regal font B which I split, added lines to both sides then inserted the name. I added their names to the bottom of the hanging along with the date of their wedding.

I cut the piece in vinyl and attached it to an 8" x 10" canvas.







My final piece for this DT call, is one of the mini-albums I have made recently. I posted this one yesterday but I really liked it so here it is again!

The mini album is one of Kathryn Krieger's designs from the Foto Folios 2 set that she designed earlier this year. I used Kaiser"s Mix and Match paper to cover the pages. As this was a gift, I did not put any photos in it as it was designed for the receiver to put photos of their trip to New Zealand into.


I did enjoy being part of Melin's Paper Crafting World Design Team and hopefully, she will consider me again for this current call!

Enjoy!

Friday, July 31, 2015

Travel Mini Album

I made this travel album a while ago as a gift.

The design was from Kathryn Kreiger at Kathryn Scraps and was part of the Foto Folios 2 set that she developed.

I have put together a video showing the different parts of the album.

The paper was Mix and Match from Kaiser and unfortunately, seems to be no longer available.

I had a lot of fun making this mini album!






Thursday, July 30, 2015

Borders and More


The Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month for August is a lovely borders and greetings set called Framed.


 For this card, I used one of the frames, stamped on white then cut out and layered on black. The greeting is part of the same set and I stamped it in Pixie to tone with the lovely papers from the Taste of Summer collection. The strawberries were stamps from the Taste of Summer stamp set. Finished it off with washi tape at the top.







 This Father's Day card is a simple but effective one using another of the frame stamps and the Father's Day greeting.

The papers are from the Jackson paper pack, a retired collection from CTMH.






The final card is again using paper from the Jackson collection and the greeting was stamped inside the frame. I cut the frame out after stamping it then layered on black to make it stand out.

This stamp set (Framed) is available throughout August from my web shop.

Travel Journal

Kathy Orta at Paper Phenomenon designed this wonderful Travel Journal. You can purchase the tutorial by clicking on the link.

I made the journal using the Close to my Heart Wanderful collection. Sadly, this collection is being phased out and will no longer be available in the catalogue. However, I do still have a few papers in my stash to use for other travel projects!


The base of the folder is made from Kraft Tex, an amazing paper/fabric that seems to be indestructible and is so easy to work with. Instead of glueing the paper to the Kraft Tex, Kathy suggested using fabric bonding material like you would use for doing appliqué work. It worked fabulously and I am so pleased with the end product. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to use!

The front of the journal showing the elastic closure with a stamped image from the Reel Life stamp set (CTMH) which is still available in the 2015-16 catalogue. 



Inside of the front cover showing the pocket on the left and the cover of the first notebook.
Inside the back cover.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Happy Anniversary

Last week my son and daughter-in-law celebrated their wedding anniversary.
I thought I would have a go at using the Regal font to make a canvas for them 

I used Design Space to split the capital B and added the name in the centre. Their names and the date of their wedding were added below the split letter.

I cut it out in white vinyl and applied it to a canvas (8"x10") that I had painted black.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Cricut Pop-up Cards

Recently, I have been making some Pop-Up cards using the Cricut Explore.

Pop-up cards are easy with the Cricut as the pop-up mechanism is built into the actual card and all you have to do is select the card, cut out the elements of the card and stick it all together.

With the simple pop-up cards in the Cricut Subscription on Design Space, you only get the inside of the card, so you also need to think about the front of the card. I used some label cutouts, embossing folder, flowers, vines and words to decorate the fronts of the cards. 


Enjoy!



Friday, May 15, 2015

Taste of Summer

This month at Close to My Heart, the Constant Campaign is for a pack of beautiful summery papers, all double sided and 2 of each design, Taste of Summer.






There is also a cute set of stamps that coordinate with the paper pack, making it a great resource for keeping summer memories in a scrapbook page or making a special summery card.







I decided to make a mini album using the paper pack - and I still had 4 sheets left after making the album so I will be doing some cards with those ones!


I have made a short video showing my latest creation using these colourful papers.



Enjoy and do let me know if you want some of these lovely papers or the stamp set before the end of May. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Remembering

Over the last few weeks, we have, in New Zealand, been remembering the landing of New Zealand and Australian troops on the beach at Gallipoli in Turkey on 25th April, 1915. This was a disastrous military undertaking and thousands of soldiers were killed over a period of months.

I made this set of poppies and the frame to remind us of the sacrifice made by so many.


The poppies were cut using the Cricut Explore and the Giant 3D flowers cartridge. I cut the words from black vinyl and attached them to the glass front of a photo frame that I repurposed by sanding down, painting with black acrylic then rubbed with antiqueing wax.

Making Cards Again!

Given that Mother's Day is coming up pretty fast - this weekend, in fact, I had a burst of card making over the last week or so. I am using the Cricut Design Space program that is an on-line program for use with the newish Cricut Explore.

Some of these cards were made using the Artfully Sent Cartridge from Close to my Heart. I am really enjoying having this cartridge and the Cricut Explore makes it very easy to make these stunningly simple cards.























This card was made using the Design Space software. I love the crisp, clean cuts from this machine.









This gatefold type card was made using Design Space and a mixture of files available in the program.

I split the fence cutting file and attached it to a rectangle to make it fold into the centre. 













This card was a download from Monica's Creations. One of the beautiful four-fold cards available to download from the website, it is very elegant. I added a belly-band to keep it closed and cut the word and shadow with the Cricut.













This is a card I made from left-over card using Close to my Heart products. The stamp was the Stamp of the Month for April and is so versatile as there are about 16 different sentiments to stamp onto the typewriter image. The dotty card is Confetti Wishes with Lagoon cardstock layered on top of it.










The last one for today was a box card I made using an svg file from SVG Cuts - Box cards set. I used Confetti Wishes and Lagoon cardstock from CTMH along with flower stamps (Pretty Petals). I used CTMH Exclusive inks to stamp the flowers in Thistle, Lagoon, Pear, Smoothie and Honey. I was able to cut the flower shapes out with the Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH and the Artfully Sent cartridge for the label on the front.





Wow, a long post today. Really enjoyed playing with these cards and the new inks and stamps from CTMH.



Sunday, March 29, 2015

Exciting News

I have been considering a move into the crafting business for some time and yesterday I decided to sign up to become a consultant for Close to my Heart, an international company specialising in scrapbooking and cardmaking products.

I have been impressed with the range of quality products available through CTMH, and since I have purchased my new Cricut Explore, I have been looking more at the Cricut cartridges available from the company. I plan to showcase some of the projects I have made with these cartridges in the near future as well.

I welcome any of my New Zealand readers and followers as customers - just click on the link in the right hand sidebar and it will take you directly to my on-line shop.

Fun times ahead!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Making a textured background using a stencil

I went to a card making class recently to get some inspiration. One of the cards we made was one where we used a stencil and texture paste to make a textured background.

I was telling a friend about it and she asked for a tutorial so decided to make a short video showing how simple the technique is.

In the video, I used a gel medium to do the background but you can also use any sort of texture paste that will set to a firm pattern.



This card background is done with a gel medium on cream and black patterned paper. I also used frayed burlap distress ink to highlight the stencilled background.


The background on this card was done with home-made texture paste which was slightly coloured with a pinkish toned acrylic paint. Because this paste contains water, it does tend to cause the paper to curl when it dries, so it would be better to use a thicker card for the background.

I also did a bit of research on texture paste and found a recipe for making your own. A number of websites have similar recipes, but the one I used is as follows:

1/4 Cup baby powder
1 tbsp PVA glue
small amount of coloured acrylic paint (can use white or other colour)
Small amount of water.

Put the powder, PVA and paint into a small screw top jar and add the water in small amounts, stirring with a wooden stirrer as you add the water. It should be a thickish paste, fluid enough to be able to spread.

I used a commercially produced stencil for my examples but you could make your own stencils using die cuts or a cutting machine.






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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Using Vinyl - first experiments

Since I bought my new Cricut Explore, I have been doing some vinyl cutting. While the Expression cut vinyl quite well, the detail that you can get with the Explore is quite amazing.





I did a couple of birthday gifts for my son and daughter - they share the same birth date. The first - a wine glass, was for my daughter. Quite pleased with the end result, but it is hard to get a straight line to attach to a rounded glass so that it is still straight. Will have to play around with slight curves - maybe Inkscape for designing.








For my son, I picked up a ceramic travel mug and cut out his name and Hot Chocolate, as he drinks that at work. Very pleased with the end results with that one.








I also did a water bottle for my granddaughter's birthday. Used an image from the Frozen cartridge in Design Space. I had to layer the vinyl to get the image and was quite pleased with the end result. I added her name to the other side of the bottle.











Posted using BlogPress from my iPad