Goofy Blog!

Please pardon my goofy blog layout.  I purchased my first ever blogware and have NEVER messed with HTML before now and see what I get!  I have emailed the designer of the blogware to see if she can help straighten me out.  Hopefull I will hear from her soon.  If you know how to fix it, feel free to chime in, obviously I need help! : )  BTW, thanks for stopping by!
blessings,
jana

Hang in There - card

I have really enjoyed this holiday weekend.  It has given me time to relax and be creative.  I also received my latest edition of Cricut Magazine and the Cricut Birthdays book which was very inspiring.  This card was completely created on my wonderful Cricut Imagine.  I hope you like it, it was really fun to make.

The card is 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  I really like this size because it gives you a lot of room to design.  I used the Cindy Loo cartridge for the owl and for the life of me can't remember which cartridge the other shapes came from, I am so sorry.  I printed all of the papers and filled all of the shapes on the Imagine using my new Berries & Cream patterns cartridge.  It is so cute!

Something I did on this card that I don't usually do is use black ink as an accent.  I really like inking the edges of my cuts because it gives each piece definition. It also helps hide the little white frayed paper that sometimes shows when you paper is colored on one side and white on the back.  I used black this time because of the black polka dot paper I used for the base of the owl.  I embossed the yellow background with the large flower folder using my Cuttlebug. 

It was hard popping up the "hang in there" because the letters are so narrow, so I rolled up glue dots and put them on the back to pop them up. 

I hope you have enjoyed my card.  I will be posting a few more in the next few days and also a fun idea I discovered the other day.
Later!
Jana

You will be missed Card

A very sweet lady that I work with is retiring after working at our museum for 13 years! She has been the backbone of our organization and volunteer core for a long time so I made her this card to give her on her last day of work this Thursday. It is a tri-fold shutter card and I learned how to make it by watching a YouTube video by Split Coast Crafters.

This is what the card looks like when laid out flat. I found it easier to lay mine out by looking at the example this way. Below is what it looks like folded up and ready for the envelope.

All of the colors and prints you see came from the Blossom Imagine cartridge and the shapes came from the Florals Embellished cartridge. I love both of them. I started with a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of cardstock. I scored it vertically on the 2", 4", 8" and 10" marks and then cut it horizontally 1 1/2" from the top edge from the 2" to the 10" score marks then I cut it again 1 1/2" from the bottom edge the same way.
After scoring and cutting you will then fold on each score mark back and forth like an accordian. Then open the card up and invert the center strip. The one that says "You will be missed" in the picture above. For each of the decorated pieces, I cut mats at 1/4" inch smaller than the section. For example, the tall narrow strip above with the bird on it, that section measures 2' wide by 5 1/2" tall so I cut the brown colored paper 1 3/4" wide by 5 1/4" tall. Then I cut the patterned paper and the cream colored cardstock 3/16" smaller than the mats. It was a lot of little cuts but so rewarding!

This is a detail of the butterfly. I cut it from Florals Embellished using only the silouhette and the blackout. I let all the pieces come out, inked it and then mounted it on the blackout and popped it up with dots and gave it a little bling!

This is a side view. You can choose to layout your papers any way you would like. I chose 3 colors/patterns to work with. That gives it good balance. There are a lot of videos out there showing a good variety.

I put one of my favorite verses on it by printing it on the cardstock strip. I don't have many stamps, so printing sentiments work better for me than buying stamps. I thought this verse was appropriate since my friend is a little nervous about what retirement will bring. I think I cut this bird at about 2 1/2" so it would fit across nicely. I probably could have cut it a little bit bigger. I inked each piece using the brown cats eye pigment ink from Color Box.

Happy Spring Card

Here is my latest card I made using only my Cricut Imagine machine and white cardstock. I was inspired by another blogger who I can't remember. I am sorry!

I originally made the card by folding an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock in half but I couldn't quite get the 5:7 rectangle on the Imagine to cut that exact size so I had to trim the card base down to match the size of the rectangle after it was printed and cut out. It was only about half an inch I had to cut off though.


The entire card, images and papers came from the Better Together Imagine cartridge. It is so cute! The rectangles were cut using the 5:7 rectangle built into the Imagine library, the large yellow vut at 5.5" and the red rectangle at 5.0". The little sentiment tag came from the Better Together cartridge. It had many layers, so I chose the layer option and then deleted all parts but this one so I could stamp or write on any sentiment I want when I get ready to send the card to someone.



I cut the flower and butterfly together at 6.0" and used pop dots to pop them up from the background. The scalloped ovals also came from the Imagine library the large cut at 6.7" and the small oval cut at 6.5". I hope you are inspired! I have really grown to love making cards and the instant gratification it give you!

Blessings! jana

Cricut is starting an official blog!

I am so excited about the new blog by Provocraft, just for Cricut lovers. It begins tomorrow and will have great information, ideas, tutorials, etc. All straight from the Cricuts mouth. Just click here to check it out. They are also giving away $150 to a lucky winner, if you become a follower you will have a chance to win. I am not working for PC, wish I were, I just love everything PC!

I will be adding their blinkie as soon as I figure out how :)

Here is the link to the official Cricut blog!

Scraplifting Part II

Ok, so today I finally got around to making the other card I just loved from Everyday Cricut blog. Those girls are so talented and since my brain is not really working for itself lately, so I have scraplifted again! I made this for my friend Cindy who just had surgery. I hope she likes it, and you too!

I have decided to make my cards BIG! More room to put things on it. So I am making them by folding 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock in half. You can get the envelopes for them at Walmart so I don't have to worry about making the envelopes to fit. I made this card 100% with my Cricut Imagine using the Florals Embellished card for the bird and filling it and the papers with the beautiful Lori's Garden Imagine cartridge. I just love both of the cartridges.

This ribbon flower was made with ribbon that is prestitched and I just grabbed the string on one side and pulled. I cut about 5 or 6 inches of ribbon. I pulled the string on the same side but the other end and when I had it completely gathered I tied the ends of the strings together to secure the flower. I used a glue dot to stick the edges together then sewed it on with the button and floss.

This is yet another stamp that I have no idea where I got it. I used an olive stamp pad from stampendous that I have had for years and I also used the olive and inked heavily around the edges of the white cardstock base.

Here is the recipe for the card created with my Imagine:

• bird and all its layers cut at 4.2"
• Striped rectangel is the 5:7 cut at 5.0"
• Floral square from imagine library cut at 4.5" and it's mat at 4.7"
• Green swirly print is the 5:7 rectangle cut at 4.0" and it's mat at 4.2"
• The bird is from Florals Embellished
• The papers are cut and flood filled with Lori's Garden
• Self sticking bling came from Michael's
• Three tiny flower brads came from Oriental Trading Co.

I hope you are inspired to go out and make your friend a card!

Scraplifting Part I

Don't you just love scraplifting? I don't do it too often but I got a picture of this card in my email box because I subscribed to the Everyday Cricut blog (Thanks Joy for the inspiration!)and I just fell in love with it so I saved it to my iPhone until I had time to make it. It was meant to be a Mother's Day card but my sweet mom was out of town so since her birthday is this month I decided to make it for her birthday.

I cut the flower at 3 3/4" from Florals Embellished and filled each piece with the patterns and colors from the Imagine cartridge Blast Off! This is a 5 x 7 card and I used the 5:7 rectangle that is programmed in the Imagine. I cut the yellow check at 4.7, the green at 4.2 and the pink flower rectangle at 3.9.

I pretty much copied it exactly as Joy had made hers with the exception of the patterned paper and the tag on hers was for Mother's Day. I used a stamp I have had in my stash forever so I have no idea who designed it and the scalloped square was a rectangle cut from the Imagine built in library then cut in half and overlapped to make a square.

The real nice thing about scraplifting is that the design work is done for you and it only took me about 30 minutes form start to finish to make it.

The real nice thing about the Imagine is that this project took me 3 pieces of white cardstock to make, 2 for the printed pieces and part of one for the card cut at 7 x 10 inches and folded in half.

Now, go out and scraplift!

Jana