Butterfly Pop Up

A couple of years ago Sizzix came out with this really nice looking scalloped pop-up die.  However, I didn't want to spend the money on this particular die so I took the Cricut challenge to see if I could recreate it.  Surprisingly enough I was successful and this is the first card I made using this pop-up.

 

To create the pop-up design I used:

•  Accent Essentials for the scalloped circle cut at 6"
• George for the placement of cuts to create the pop outs/ups

For the other cuts on my card I used:

Home Decor for my flourishes (coming off the top and bottom of the scallop)

April Showers for the other butterflies, trees, worm and spring banner

I even decided to break out my Cuttlebug for this one and used the Cuttlebug for the blue and green butterflies - I have the cut and emboss butterfly set

Butterflies & Thank You's

I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been so busy (like many of you I'm sure) trying to get gifts finished for Christmas and last minute things done around the house in preparation for the children to come home from college.

That said, the card that I'm sharing today is a very quick make using one cut from TBBM for the tag and the cuttlebug for the butterfly.  I love the background paper that I used and the colors made me think of the beautiful colors on butterflies so I decided to combine the two.

All Occasion Card

Here's another quick and simple card.  This one was created for the Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Week All Occasion Challenge in the Moxie Fab World . 

So how much easier can you get than making a couple cuts, tearing a few edges and embossing a piece of paper?  Then to finish it off, add a few embellishments. Ink an edge or two and viola - you're done.

Noel Tunnel Card - Cricut Cardz Challenge #3

This week's Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a card using only the colors pink, green and white. WOW! This one was difficult for me because it ook me out of my "comfort zone".

Creating the base for the card was easy enough but when it came time to figure out what to use for the centerpiece that's when I ran into trouble. Why? Because I relly didn't want to use a snowflake...and what did I do?...I used a snowflake.

For this card I used A Child's Year for the snowflake inside. I cut the snowflake twice (once flipped) so that I could apply white and a touch of green glitter to both and then adhere together. The outside cover of the card was embossed using my snowflake cuttlebug folder.

Ghostly Halloween & Screech Owl

Here are a couple more of the smaller cards I made using only my Sizzix dies this past weekend. I absolutely love this little tree and moon.

The ghost in the first card is actually a sticker from Jolee's boutique.

This second card was also embossed using my swirls folder from Cuttlebug.

The inside sentiment on this one says:

"The wailing owl screams solitary to the mournful moon. ~ David Mallet"

Christmas Magic - Card Challenge #14

rstuck2003's homework assignment for me was:

Cart: Christmas Noel

Cut/s: Any you want to use!

Theme: Christmas Card

Perfect timing on this one because I had a couple ideas for creating my own embossing folders and after a couple of attempts I finally created one that worked. So here's my first card made with the folder.

The "magic" tag was cut from the new Winter Woodland cart.

I'm not sure that I like the way it all turned out but I still love the concept.

Grunge Halloween Card

I have never made a Halloween card before because I am not much of a Halloween person. My husband on the other hand loves Halloween and would decorate as much for it as we do Christmas if I was into it too.

Last year I won a RAK for the Cuttlebug Skulls embossing folder and this is the second time I have ever used it. Since the embossing folder was skulls of course I had to use a skull from Indie Art. Unable to decide which one to use I asked my daughter to make the decision and this was the end result.

Ice Skating Snowman

So here you have it - my first Christmas card of the season. Granted it's not very detailed or time consuming compared to others that I have created. But it's been a long day and I am very tired. I still like the way it turned out though, and have ideas for how to improve it next go round.

For this card I used Speaking of Winter, Graphically Speaking, and Joys of the Season.

My snowflakes are actually glittered but didn't show up as such in the picture.

Beautiful

Inspired by a picture I saw in Just Cards magazine this layout was a while in the making. I was drawn into the whole flower in the center as a focal point kind of thing. I had one flower that I knew I wanted to use because of its size and color. From there I tried several different "characters" and finally decided on this cute pup from the Paper Pups cartridge.

The scallop in the center of the flower is a chipboard piece.

The following cuts were used for this card:

Paper Pups: Pup - 3 " and the butterflies at 1"

Tags, Bags, Boxes & More: Tag at 1 1/4"

Home Decor - Beautiful at 1"

My background was embossed using the swirls folder. Because of the size I had to emboss from each end of the paper.

The inside sentiment says, "Beauty...is the shadow of God on the universe." - Gabriela Mistral, Desolacion

Luigi Any Occasion Card

Every so often I have this habit of searching through the IMDB website in hopes of finding a good movie quote to use in a project. The other night I came across a quote from the movie Cars that goes like this.....

"I must scream it to the world, my excitement from the top of someplace very high."

That quote was from Luigi and from that quote this card was born. Very simple card - with the exception of making sure the font curved and printed just right around the circular piece.

Happy Birthday Cupcake

I have been trying to decide how I wanted to use the cupcake cut from the Home Decor cart and finally decided that the best first cut would be for a birthday card.

The colors in the picture do not do the card justice - especially for the cupcake which is sprinkled with a mixture of purple and sandstone glitter.

Friendship Bouquet

This project was inspired by one that I saw on the Splitcoast Stampers message boards. (Sorry I don't remember who posted it over there in order to give full credit) When I saw this I knew that I had to try my hand at it so I came home the other night and sat down with Design Studio and recreated the card.

I had a lot of fun putting this together and really love the way that it turned out.

For this project I used George, Sesame Street Friends, Graphically Speaking, Mickey and Friends, Accent Essentials, Tags, Bags, Boxes and More and my Cuttlebug.

Flowers Are Our Friends

Yet another new technique that I came across in one of my books that I have had forever and am just now actually using. This is a rather simple technique that can yield beautiful results.

Behind my flower cut outs (from Graphically Speaking) is a "woven" page. To create this page I chose three complimentary colors and tore them into strips. I then began weaving them together alternating colors in each direction. Of course after several "weaves" I had to tape down my top edges so that they would stay put while I finished creating the size page I needed.

Once done with the weaving I simply glued my cover page on top of the weave and then adhered to my card front.

The butterfly is from the cut and emboss folder for the cuttlebug. I cut the butterfly out twice so that I could layer and pop dot for dimension. The embossed buterfly was also inked lightly to help bring out the embossing.

The sentiment for this card reads:

In joy or sadness....

...flowers are our constant friends

-Kazuko Okakura

Abby Cadabbra Pop Up Card

This is another pop up that I created today. Again I used the cuttlebug for the outside of the card but added a die cut this time as well.

The inside is Abby Cadabbra from the Sesame Street Friends cartridge.

To create the pop up cut a piece of paper 8 x 5 inches and fold in half so that it measures 4 x 5 inches. Score along the center fold. Open the paper back up and with your ruler measure 1 1/2" from the top of the card down the crease and make a small mark. Then from the center fold measure 1 1/2" inches out on both sides again making a small mark. Using your ruler score from the center mark to each mark on the top. This will create a "V". Now fold along the score lines creating the V fold in and down the crease (also known as a valley fold).

Adhere this to the inside of your card while the V is folded inward. Once secure open in order to position your die cut for the pop up affect. When deciding where to position the die cut be sure that when the card is closed the die cut is completely hidden in the card. Secure your cut and finish embellishing the card.

Pop Up Thank You Cards

Since I'm still not able to do much of anything for a couple more days I decided that today was as good as any to begin making thank you cards for the wonderful ladies at church that have provided us food this week.

I also decided that it was a good time to try my hand at a couple of new techniques: serendipity (using the cuttlebug - looks better in real life) and making pop ups.

For this first card I used the butterfly from the Tinkerbell cartridage. The outside of the card is the serendipty technique and the butterfly is a plastic barrette that I cut the back off of for use.

The card itself is 5 1/2" x 4" closed.

Mother's Day Card - Version Two

On the Cricut message boards was an "Ad inspired" challenge taken from the Target ads this week. The challenge included the ever popular circles but in shades of pink (a dark and a light) along with a sea green.

After seeing this challenge I decided to do a bit of a remake on the Mother's Day card that I posted a couple days ago. Not sure which one I like better...

What do you think?

Birthday Wishes

This card was inspired by a picture I saw in a card magazine that utilized one of the Sizzix butterfly die cuts. Of course I changed the layout and all around too, but I think this turned out pretty good.

For this I used the Butterfly 1 cut at 3" from the Tinkerbell cartridge and the words were created using Design Studio and Platin Schoolbook.

Baby Bathtime Card

This card was made using Design Studio and the New Arrival cart. It measures 5" x 6.5".

The tub layer was embossed using my cuttlebug and the shower head was chalked with a shade of blue.

If you would like a copy of the cut file you can download it for a nominal fee at www.spotofsanity.com/shop

I Love Snow

You know how you have every intention of creating something brilliant and it just doesn't turn out quite like you envisioned? Well this morning I tried to do that. I had this great idea to cut out a scallop that had a design in the middle that I could string beads across like cards you see in the store. Problem was my choice of colors were just too dark, and since I didn't want to waste the cut-outs I created I had to figure out what else I could do with them. And so this card was born.....

The scallop was cut from AE at 4" and then embossed with the snowflakes folder.

I then dry brushed with white paint and when that was set I came back and rubbed it with my gold metallic ink pad.

The snowman is a chipboard sticker and the gold snowflake is an iron-on both from my stash.

Inside Sentiment: Snowflakes are kisses from heaven.

Let it Snow Globe

I used my Cricut and Cuttlebug to design this card. The globe was created using DS and George. The sled is from the Joys of the Season cartridge to which I stickled the runners. The penguins are stickers I picked up from M's and the snowflakes are cut using the cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die.

For the background paper I "painted" my dots cuttlebug folder with gold glitter ink and then ran it through the machine.

The inside of the card says.....

"It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you"