A Different Style of Card

Hello again.

Back from a lovely holiday in Asia where it was hot and humid, to a week of quite cold days until today - it is so warm outside and a pleasure to sit in the sun for a change! Except when there is a 3.9 magnitude earthquake!

Anyway, back to crafting!. I received this gorgeous Butterfly Slider card machine cut file from Adele at the Printable Craft Shop recently to try out on my Cricut Explore. It is a multi medium style as it has printable elements as well as the cutting file. It took a little trial and error to get it right, but I am very pleased with the outcome.

The floral elements and butterfly on the card were printed from the files that came with the download. I set them to print to cut on the explore with a lot of editing the picture files. For the oval, I took the oval cutting file and placed the floral pictures onto it, then attached them so it would print then cut the oval.

I did the same with the larger piece on the back of the card, layering the picture onto a rectangle which then cut after printing. The butterfly was printed then cut and I cut an additional layer of black card to place the butterfly on as my printer will only print on a maximum weight of 160gsm, which is not heavy enough for cards.

I dry embossed the top layer for the card and attached it to the front. I added some gold paint around the oval to make it stand out a little better and added gold strips around the outside of the floral piece on the back of the card.

This is what the card looks like when it is opened. You can add a message to the inside of the card.










I decided to try making another card using my own materials instead of the printed files.


 I used CTMH cardstock to cut these files. The Cricut cartridges used were the new Flower Market cartridge from CTMH for the flowers and a butterfly image from the Serenade cartridge. The flowers on the front are the same as the bigger ones on the back, except that I made them smaller and reversed the design.

The flowers were layered up then added glossy accentsto make them shiny. Hard to see in these pictures, but it is there! To finish this one off I added some gold foil corner stickers to the 4 corners.

Do head over to the Printable Craft Shop to check out their wonderful selection of printable materials and cutting files. All very reasonably priced as well!

Wedding Season

With summer in full swing in the northern hemisphere, it is wedding season and the card I am showcasing for the Printable Craft Shop is a wedding card. It is available as a cutting file from here and comes in a number of different formats for different cutting machines.

The first time I cut this file, I used the Colonial White cardstock from Close to My Heart. It is a cream colour and I wanted to try the file out in a monochromatic scheme.

It does not stand out in the photo as well as it does in real life, but maybe judicious use of an embossing folder would add to the impact of this card. 

The second cut was done using one of my favourite paper packs from CTMH - La Vie En Rose - still available until the end of July!

I used white for the base card, black for the shadow layer for the words and a chevron striped paper for the words.

The leaves and flowers were cut from plain colours and the background was cut from the signature paper from the pack. I just love the flowers in the paper.


Do check out the fabulous cutting files available from the Printable Craft Shop - there are some specials on at the moment too so it is even better value at the moment.

Father's Day

Somewhere  in the world, Father's Day is looming! In New Zealand, Father's Day is celebrated in September, so this is an early Father's Day reminder.

The Printable Craft Shop has some wonderful cutting files for those of you who own an electronic cutting machine. There are also cutting options for those who do not have a cutting machine, so everyone is covered here. Today, I have chosen to showcase the Fathers Day insert cutting file, available here. This cutting file is the inside of the card, which is great because it will allow you to make your own design for the outside of the card.

For the front of my card, I chose papers from a CTMH collection called Pathfinding. I designed and cut the lettering in Cricut Design Space and with my Cricut Explore.

The cutting file is the inner part of the card and I sized it to approximately 5.5 inches wide.

I then brought in a rectangle for the base card and sized that so the inner fitted with about 1/4 inch around all sides. I included a fold line on the base card and centred it.

In the cutting file that you download, the fold lines are made with small cuts. Because the card I was using is not too heavy, I decided to change the fold lines to scored instead of cut, which actually resulted in a better card as there were no perforations on the end result.

To finish off the card, I added some bronze Stickles to the Dad in the centre of the card and stamped an image on the bottom part of the card.

The cutting files available from the Printable Craft Shop are really good and I do recommend them. To get the best results though, I would definitely change the perforated fold lines to scored lines instead of cut lines as it does give a much better finish to the card.

Do check out the other posts from the talented Design Team.

Another Shelf Card

Yesterday, I told you about the wonderful All About Shelf Cards Mega Bundle available from the Printable Craft Shop and showed the Just Bee Cause card that I made.

Today, I want to share with you how I used my Cricut Explore Print to Cut feature to cut out the elements of the Cowboy Card Kit.

Fussy cutting is not something I do a lot of as I don't think I am very good at it - probably because I don't do enough of it! So I thought that there must be a way of cutting out all the elements of the kit using my wonderful electronic cutting machine - my Cricut Explore. This will be useful to those of you who would really love to make lots of these cards but do not have the time to do the necessary fussy cutting.

Because the Cricut will only cut images of a limited size (approximately 8 1/2" by 5"), it is necessary to do some editing of the image pages for this to work properly. Below, I will outline the steps you need to take in preparing the images to make the card.

1. Print the base card onto A4 card and cut it out manually. You will need to do this because it is too big for the Print to Cut feature and you also need it so you can make sure the other parts of the card are the right size before you cut them out.

2. Open your Design Space software and upload the first image. I brought in the page with the shelf piece on it first so I could make sure I sized it to fit the spaces on the base card.

3. Using the select & erase function, clean the image so the outlines of the image are clear with no background. Make sure to erase the background from the slots as well! The picture on the right shows how the image looks when you have erased the background and any other pictures on the page that you do not need.  Save the image then repeat for the other pages you need to complete your card.

4. Insert the image to your mat. The image will show on the mat at a reduced size. Measure the slot on the base card. This is the size you will need to make  the width of the straight sides of the shelf to fit through the slot. Enlarge the imported image to 6.5" wide. The widest part of the shelf should then be the same width as the base card.

5. Now you need to slice your image by placing a rectangle over one of the images on the page. Select both the rectangle and the images and slice. This will break the two images and you can delete the pieces you do not need. Wait until the images show in colour before you do this!

6. Bring in the next page and work through the same steps - resizing and slicing. Make sure you save your project as you go.

7. When you have completed the process, you will have each part of the card as a separate piece on the screen, sized exactly to fit the base card, as in the picture below. SAVE THE PROJECT AGAIN!

8. To complete the Print to Cut, you will need to print and cut images individually as most will not fit two to a page. Hide the images you do not want to print and click the Go button. The image you want to print will then show on the print screen. Follow the instructions to print, then cut the image on your machine. Do this for each of the images. The smaller ones will fit  two or three to a page, so select these and go to the print page. It will tell you if these will not fit on the print area and you can go back and change your selections.

9. Once you have completed the cutting process, put your card together. I used foam dots to layer up the hat, boots and greetings to give a more 3D look to the card.

This process seems like a lot to do and may take some time the first time you work through it, but as you become more familiar with your machine, you will be able to complete it quite quickly.

Please leave a comment below if you do try it out and it works for you. Also, if you have a problem, ask a question below and I will endeavour to answer it for you!

New Design Team!

Today I am proud to post my first post for a new Design Team. The Printable Craft Shop has established a design team to showcase its wonderful crafting products, including some fabulous printable card sets and superb cutting files.

The first task for the design team was to take one or two cards from the  All About Shelf Cards Mega Bundle available here and to make them up to show how easy it is to put them together.

The first card I made was the Just Bee Cause card. Shelf cards are new to me and I found it interesting to put together - and very quick, once the cutting out is done.

The end result is a gorgeous multi-layered, 3D card.

The first task is to print the 5 relevant pages that have the parts required to make the card up.

It is recommended that you use a fairly heavy cardstock 250 - 300gsm for your cards so they will stand up well. My own printer will not take card this heavy and I used a lighter weight for printing onto. If you need to do this, I suggest that you glue your printed sheet onto another one the same weight to give you additional strength.

Cut out all of the layers, including the individual images for layering onto your card. This will take about 60 minutes or so, depending on how good you are at fussy cutting!

Instructions are included with the bundle explaining how the card fits together. I found these instructions particularly good. 

You can also print out the envelope included with the set and when this is put together, makes a nice box-type envelope for your card to fit into, ready to be given to the lucky recipient!



The All About Shelf Cards Mega Bundle is a new one to the Princtable Craft Shop and is sure to be a hit with those of you who enjoy making these printable cards. There are 15 different cards in the bundle, which makes it a very good value purchase.