Cute Little Mermaid

Today I have chosen this cute mermaid design to showcase for my post over at Paper Crafting World. The file is located here at Paper Crafting World and comes as a jpg file and as a cutting file. I chose to use the jpg file to do a print to cut with my Cricut Explore. (Hint: when doing a print to cut, make sure to choose the matte photo paper option rather than plain paper as you get a clearer, deeper coloured image)

I sized the image at 3.62" wide which was big enough to get all the little cuts done cleanly and it would fit onto a 5" square card. I cut 2 images so I could layer them onto the card, giving a bit more dimension with the colours.

I also cut a shell cutting file from Cricut Design Space. It had 2 layers so I cut them from 2 different colours, providing a nice layered look. I also cut a scalloped square in a darker blue to layer underneath the shell layers.

To give the mermaid a little dimension, I added glossy accents to the eyes and starfish on the headband; clear rock candy distress stickles to the clam shells forming the bikini top, pearl drops to the bracelet and glittery pearl drops to the tail.

The stamped greeting is from a Close to My Heart set (D1530 Kudos Cricut Collection) which came with the Cricut Artiste cartridge, only available through CTMH.

Do check out the challenge for this month over at PCW and take a look at all the wonderful creations from our very talented Design Team!

Special Birthday Card

This weekend we attended a special birthday party for a good friend .

To help her celebrate, I made this box card using an svg file from SVG Cuts. 

I used various colours of card from my Close to my Heart collection - perfect cardstock for cards with multiple layers. To create a bit of texture, I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder in my Cuttlebug on several pieces. The greeting was stamped on the banner and attached to the front of the card with foam tape. 

Check out the files available from SVG Cuts by clicking on the SVG cuts link on the right side bar here. 

Birthday Turtle Card

Happy St Patrick's Day people!

Today, I have a cute birthday card for you. This was made using the birthday turtle cutting file available from here at Paper Crafting World.

 I cut all the pieces of the file using Design Space and my Cricut Explore. I stamped a tiny dots stamp from Kaisercraft on the pink balloon and the hat and embossed the other balloons using the Cuttlebug.  I edged the green parts of the turtle using peeled paint distress ink to add some depth to the shapes.

The stamp is from a CTMH set called Birthday Wish (C1624) which I stamped in black then cut out and attached it with foam dots.

Do check out the current challenge for this month and join in for a chance to win some fabulous files from PCW. The optional twist this month is to use green and/or gold.

Happy Crafting!

Irish Flourish from PCW

Hello all! Here is another lovely design from Paper Crafting World.

Today's contribution to the team blog is my card made using the Irish Flourish cutting file available from here. This is a great file as you can use the border as a page decoration or the flourish on its own. I have chosen to use the flourish on its own as the centrepiece for this card.

First, I imported the svg of the flourish into SCAL4 (Sure Cuts a Lot v4) and created two shadow layers, one slightly bigger than the other, giving me a total of three layers for the flourish. I then imported the three layers into Design Space so I could cut it with my Cricut Explore. I had planned to use a single colour for the card, but I decided to try it with white daisy and colonial white cardstock from Close to My Heart.

I cut an oval shaped card from Colonial White cardstock, then another oval the same size to attach to the front of the card so you cannot see the fold line at the top. I embossed the oval for the front of the card using my trusty Swiss Dots embossing folder and my Cuttlebug. I then layered the three flourish cuts, adding a small knot tied ribbon before adding the top layer of the flourish with foam pads to add some more dimension. As a finishing touch, I added some pearls and a sentiment to the top layer.

I hope this gives you all some ideas for using this particular cutting file!

Please pop over and join in our challenge for this month. The optional twist is to use green and/or gold!

Stamping fun!

Today is a bit on the hot side - around 30 degrees C so I spent a bit of time in front of the fan doing some stamping. I had bought a stamp set from Close to my Heart called Brushstrokes (C1608) and I wanted to do some experimenting with it. The three cards below are the result of my experiments!

For this card, I chose five different inks to stamp the brushstroke - Chocolate, Desert Sand, Autumn Terracotta, Goldrush and Honey. The sentiment is from D1653 Happy Everything (CTMH) and was stamped using Chocolate.

The top layer of the card is attached to a dark brown layer to provide some contrast. 

For this card, I used Indian Carn Blue and Sapphire ink to stamp the background - the contrast does not show up so well in the photo, unfortunately.

The sentiments are from D1653, Happy Everything (CTMH).

The background layer on the front of this card was stamped using Whisper, Pixie and Glacier in a random pattern all over the card.

The flowers were stamped using Pixie and Pear.

Stamp sets used were: C1608 - Brushstrokes; C1612 - Shower Flowers; M1123 - Feel Better, and A1170 - Doodled Designs.


The following supplies I used are still available at my Close to my Heart Shop (click on the CTMH link on the sidebar!):
Exclusive Ink Pads: Sapphire, Whisper, Pixie, Glacier, Pear, Chocolate, Desert Sand, Goldrush, Honey.
Stamp sets: C1608 Brushstrokes; C1612 Shower Flowers; M1123 Feel Better; A1170 Doodled Designs.

Love you a Latte

It is time for another post over at Paper Crafting World.

This time, I have taken one of the beautiful digital images from the collection over at Paper Crafting World. This image - the bear - was printed and cut using the print to cut feature on Design Space and my Cricut Explore. I printed the image as an outline then coloured it using Copic markers. The next step was to take it back to the Cricut and cut it out - which of course, it did perfectly. The letters were also cut out.

I used a take-out coffee cup outline from the Design Space library to create a card, then attached the letters and the bear. I used foam dots to lift the bear and add dimension to the card.

To finish it off, I added some glossy accents to the heart and the eyes of the bear. It makes them just pop off the card!

The bear file is available here.
 
There is still a sale happening over at Paper Crafting World, so do go over there and have a good browse around. There are some gorgeous cutting files and digital files available.

Don't forget the monthly challenge - Anything Goes with an optional twist - use a heart!

Hearts

It is my turn again to post over at Paper Crafting World.

Today I have two cards for you - the first is the Cascading hearts card which is available here. I decided to cut it all in the same cardstock to show how effective the tone-on-tone technique can be.

I embossed alternate layers using the Swiss Dots folder from Provocraft and layered up each layer using foam dots of varying thicknesses to create dimension.

To finish the card, I added some red bling to the right hand side of the card and stamped a sentiment, which I attached using glue and foam dots.

The second card  is the same cutting file Larelyn used in yesterday's post.

Instead of colours, I used black, white and red. The effect is totally different from that produced in Larelyn's design.

I stamped a word stamp on the heart and heat embossed it with detail silver to add another dimension to the card.

The cutting files for both of these cards are still available at a discounted price over at Paper Crafting World.


Please join in our challenge for this month! Look forward to seeing lots of entries.