Two More Cards

I thought I would share two other cards I have made this February.

First is a Valentine's Days card I made for my Dad and Stepmom. They have a really beautiful koi pond so when I saw the koi fish on the Cricut Art Nouveau cartridge I thought it would be perfect.  I made two kissing koi on the cover.  I think it came out pretty cute and I like how the patterned paper made the fish look. I used the Cricut Craft Room to weld the shadow layer and lay out the card. (Full product list at end)

The card base id from 3 Birds Life's a Party cartridge and the fish and background shape are from Art Nouveau. I added some ruffled hart shapes from Victorian Romance.  I used different patterned papers and made the fish colors reverse to compliment each other.  I added some glitter on the fins to give it that shiny wet look. I also added some liquid pearls and iridescent glitter to the hearts.

I repeated the background shape from Art Nouveau inside and added hearts from Plantian Schoolbook.  I hand wrote my message and added a couple more glitter hearts.  I put liquid pearls in bisque around as a border.

The second card is a birthday card for my Dad.  I always find it hard to design a card for a guy.  So much of the art and decorations I find lean toward the girly or are a steam punk theme (which doesnt suit my dad.)  So I searched through all the Cricut options I have and decided I really liked the idea of the argyle pattern on the Wild Card cartridge.  I decided to add an owl from Create a Critter on top of the pattern. I thought it was cute and worked for a dad card.

The background is cut on the Cricut from the Wild Card cartridge.  It is two layers with diamonds cut out over the base card, but creates a cool effect. I used some pattern papers for the owl to make it a bit quirky and less plain. "DAD" is in a font off Opposites Attract. For some reason the Cricut wouldn't cut through the hole in the "A" properly (the glitter paper from Michael's was super thick) so I put a heart "scrap" on top of it.  I didn't really add much extra decorations, just black marker on some of the edges.

I used the diamonds that were cut out of the argyle pattern on front to make a pattern inside.  I added liquid pearls in bronze where the diamonds met and on the top/bottom tips. The happy birthday is from the Life's a Party Cartridge.

So I am pretty happy with the cards.  They aren't overly bling-y, but I think they look nice and my Dad and Stepmom will enjoy them. I hope you do too.

Products:
Koi Valentine:

• Cricut Cartridges: Art Nouveau, Life's a Party, Plantain Schoolbook and Opposites Attract.
• Paper: Michael's Cardstock, Teresa Collins-Fabrications,DCWV-Tradewinds, Recollections-Animal Kingdom
• Paint/Inks: Liquid Pearl-Bisque, Studio Glitter (from the dollar bin at Mike's)

Birthday Card:

• Cricut Cartridges: 3 Birds, Life's a Party, Create a Critter
• Paper Mike's Cardstock, Kaiser Craft-Chanteuse, DCWV-Tradewinds, Recollections-Animal Kingdom, Glitter Cardstock from Mike's and the star paper is from Joanne's I don't know the brand.
• Paint/Inks: Liquid Pearla- Bisque & Bronze.

The card that started it all

So I figured I would start by talking about the project that inspired this blog.  I have a friend I had been making some simple Cricut cards for. First was stuff directly off the cartridges. Next I started using the Cricut Craftroom and welding. And during this time I started looking at some fantastic steam punk projects. (Particularly Carrie's designs mini album and Xannero1's custom mini) So I was inspired and decided to make a stream punk valentine's day card for my friend.  I showed it to my wonderful friend Rosie, who scraps with me, and she said I should take photos and blog it.  I kind of blew the idea off and just mailed it.  But then after I sent it I changed my mind.  My friend kindly took some photos of it for me. So here they are. (Full list of products used at end)

On the front I used the balloon from Cricut's Victorian Romance and behind it is an acetate heart from Teresa Collin's Timeless collection that was fussy cut and painted on both sides with Tim Holtz's crackle paint in rock candy.  I thought the see through aspect looked pretty cool.

On the front I used Tim Holtz paper from the Kraft Resist 12x12 pad.  I added one of his keyholes and some of his gears.  I also used brads with screw tops by Recollections and gears cut from the Cricut on both paper and shrinky dinks. The W charm is also by T.H. and the turtle was from the jewelry section of Michaell's. And I used Ranger's Liquid Pearl in Bisque on the joints of the balloon framework. The frame work is also popped up slightly with foam tape.

For the first pages I used a time/clock theme. I fussy cut some clocks and again used paper and shrinky dinks from Cricut. The paper on the right is from Graphic 45's Proper Gentleman collection and is one of my faves. The clock in the center was fussy cut from Creative Imaginations Rock Star paper. And I used a few more of the Timeless clock faces.

The center pages I themed around keys and locks.  The background paper is another beautiful Graphic 45 paper from the Le Romantique collection.  I cut some keys from the Cricut, Sophisticated and Victorian Romance cartridges. The gold key and butterfly is fussy cut from the Tradewinds pad by DCWV. The top has a border created from gears off the Indie Art cartridge I welded together in Craftroom with more of the screw-brads. I used another keyhole by T.H.  The gear paper on the heart is from the Tattered Times pad by DCWV.  On all the pages I hand wrote quotes pertaining to friendship on distressed paper.

On the last of the inside pages I used a small greenish brown checked paper by Kaiser Craft. and Cricut cut some more gears. Rosie helped me distress a lot of them and I think the big gear in silver she did is really awesome.  I used it to make a tag pocket.  The big fussy cut gear on the left is also from Tattered Times as is the background of gears.

This shows the last page with the tag pulled out. I stuck a short note and gift inside the envelope tag which was made with paper from the T.H. Kraft Resist pad and the top of the Creative Imaginations Rock Star paper I fussy cut the watch on the first inside page. The ticket I wrote "pull" on is also from Tattered Times.  I bound the card with necklace twine and tied gears from T.H. and the jewelry section of Mike's to it to create the tassel.

And finally the back of the card.  It has a clock and gears fussy cut from Tattered Times with a top hat from G45's Romantique collection.  I also added a T.H. gear to the hat.

 So that is the card that inspired my scrapbooking/craft blog. I really had fun making it and think the result came out pretty nice. Please let me know if you have any questions about what I did or whee I bought any items.

Product List:

•  Cricut Cartridges: Victorian Romance, Indie Art, Rock Princes, Paisley, Wrap it Up, Wild Cards and Craftroom Basics
• Paper: Graphic 45-Proper Gentleman, G45-Le Romantique, Teressa Collins-Timeless, DCWV-Tradewinds, DCWV-Tattered Times, Tim Holtz-Kraft Resist, My Mind's Eye-Everyday Fun, Kaiser Craft-Chanteuse and Creative Imaginations/Marah Johnson-Rock Star Ready 2 Rock.(All 12x12)
• Accessories: Tim Holtz- Gears, Keyholes & Alphabet Tokens, Shrinky Dinks, Reflections-Screw Brads, and some pieces from the jewelry section of Michael's
• Inks/Paints: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist-Cinder, TA Glimmer Glaze-Cowboy, T.H. Distress Inks-Walnut Stain, Black Soot & Fired Brick, T.H.-Crackle Paint in Rock Candy, Ranger Perfect Pearl Mists-Heirloom Gold & Perfect Pearl and Ranger Liquid Pearls in Bisque.