More Eiffel Tower Cards

These are going in the Eiffel Tower RAK. Variations on what I could do with the same embossed image.

A better picture of the card I posted earlier.

This one is the embossed image flipped over so it's a depressed image, then the

Depressed image, light sanding.

All the Eiffel Towers are embossed on the same Core'dinations cardstock.

Birthday Card

I'm just tickled pink with this card, even though the only pink things are the little flowers on the cake. DD's friend is studying French and liked my Eiffel Tower cards so I used one of the stamps I made out of the Cricut Stamp Sheets with a pale lilac (also used to ink the edge of the mat). The stamps are from Stampin Up's Bon Moments that I just got yesterday in the mail and I used colored pencils to color in the cake. Oh yes, the cake is raised up from the card with my brand new Dimension Dots (?) from SU.

It took about 10 minutes from blank yellow card to finished. Faster than a trip to the store : ).

I was starting to wonder if it was possible to cut stamps with the Gypsy (no speed control), and then it happened. Brand new mat, deep blade housing (4.5), pressure 4, speed set to 1 (it seems to slow it down a little bit).

Destination: Eiffel Tower

Ok, I love the Eiffel Tower. I made an embossing folder with the Destinations cart and the embossing folder kit from Provo Craft. Just make sure to set the blade to 6 if you are using the regular blade housing and set the multi-cut to 2.

It was a little tricky getting the correct side to peel off to expose the necessary sticky side. There is a great video on making these folders at Holidays with the Cricut. It worked really well with my Sizzix Big Kick.

A card I made with ready-made card and matching envelope on clearance from Walmart. I used the embossing folder with a piece of Core'dinations cardstock and just sanded the top color off the embossed image, around the edges and to distress the background a little.

Border Patrol

I love making scrapbook borders. These are gifts for a friend, so I leave the paper selection up to her. I just make the borders!

This is made with Designer's Calendar (using the Events feature). The brown paper I used for "Groundhog Day" and the Groundhogs wasn't brown enough, so I used a sepia Copic marker. (I feel my resistance to Copic Markers slipping, if only they weren't so expensive lol).

I just put the blue paper behind the borders on for the Meat Lovers so it would show up better for the photograph. The meat and meat cuts are from From My Kitchen, lovers is from Lyrical Letters.

Scrap-N-Dance Blog Giveaway

Michelle at Scrap-N-Dance is giving away a European Decor Cart. http://scrap-n-dance.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-give-away.html

I've been pining for this cart even longer than Serenade (rumor has it there is a very fancy Eiffel Tower on this cart). So if you have a Cricut, toddle over to Michelle's blog, become a follower and enter the contest. You could also enter if you have sisters that have Cricuts, but then you need the wisdom of Salomon to decide which sister you'd give it to if you win lol.

2010

I decided to do something different this year in my scrapping life. I am making an annotated calendar (doesn't that fall trippingly off the tongue). Basically, I scrap a little bit about each day. Some days have a matted space outside the actual calendar for extended journalling about the day or pictures. Other days are commemorated only by the bare bones jotted down in the calendar.

My biggest challenge in this project is to do a little every day. This is not my strong suit, as I'm usually a feast or famine sort of person. Then at the end of the year, I should have one completed scrapbook (then you'll hear me woot, woot... and there's a cut for that "woot" in the Paisley cart lol). I was doing pretty well until the day before yesterday when I lost the notebook I was jotting everything down in. Good thing I have lots of scrap paper around the house.

The title page of my 2010 Annotated Calendar is finished (huzzah!). Sure, you're saying, such a simple cut, simple layering, easy peasy. Well yes, the cutting was simple. But sorting out which papers to use from the 4 feet of paper in my stash, that took a week lol. Now I *know* that I could cut and change it, but somehow this turned into a quest for the perfect paper (cue choral note of revelation and streaming sunlight from behind a cloud).

What doesn't show up very well in the photo is the word journey in gold letters in the right hand corner. It's from Creative Memories in 2006 lol. It really is archival ; ).

This is my design for January.  Almost all the components come from Designer's Calendar, except for the decorative scroll that is working as mitten string which comes from Calligraphy Collection.

To download the January.gypsy file go here. This needs to be separated into single layers before cutting. I make temporary files for each paper. The file is made with Designer's Calendar and Calligraphy Collection (the mitten string).

A side note about designing with the Gypsy. I put all my layers into one file whenever I'm making something other than a few simple cuts. It makes it easier to adjust the changes I know will come. I love the group/ungroup features of the Gypsy. If it's a simple file, I just separate the layers to different areas of the mat and cut. If it's a bit more involved I save each layer in it's own temporary file and delete them after everything is glued in place. I find it easier to cut rectangles with a cutter when size really matters, like mats for photographs, edge to edge borders, etc.

Christmas Present for a Teenager

It is difficult for me to find presents for teenagers that don't involve technology or require a bit more money than I want to spend. So I was tickled pink when I thought of a present for one teen that I could make with things I could buy at the dollar store. One of my best friend's son developed an expression (which I appropriated for my own use as an exclamation to the heavens when things fall). When I saw the skull in the splatter in the Indie Arts cartridge, I actually knew what I was going to make for my friend's son before I knew what I was going to make for her.

The picture above is a detail from the bottom of the plate (the skull is from Indie Art, the font is Doodletype and the Circles are from George and Basic Shapes). The glass below was an extra gift I made as an "easter egg" at the bottom of a glass. I used vinyl for the stencil and flipped the words since the glass is etched on the bottom of the plate.

To download the gravity set.gypsy file go here.

You'll need a Cricut and a Gypsy to use this file. To cut the file as is, you'll need Indie Art, Doodletype and George and Basic Shapes. If you don't have these cartridges, you can use it as a template to make your own files though.

Tattooed and Winged Hearts

I am loving the new mini-cart Love Struck. I cut these pieces out last week, but put them aside because I didn't want to use my zig pen. Then today I found a "permanent" glue stick recommended for paper, fabric and wood, archival that I bought at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 made by Pioneer. It was sooo easy to put the glue on where it needed to go, and look ma, no glue boogers!

April 15, 2011 update: I had stored these embellishments for later use and the two layers had come apart. So this may not be the best glue for long term use.

Endcap problems for the Gypsy

I never used the endcap feature of any of the carts that have them until I got my Gypsy. I could *not* figure out how to put a space between words because on the Gypsy, at least on my Gypsy, the endcap space doesn't cut. The paper above and below spaces the 2 top cuts are completely uncut.

These cuts are not pretty, nor is the scan, but it was fast lol. The two top endcap cuts with with a space were cut with the Gypsy. Thanks to TheBugBytes posting a link to the end cap video from Tammy of the Calendar Girls about endcap font. I started wondering if this could be a Gypsy problem. So I dug out my Mickey Font cart and tried cutting with a space right from the cart, and it worked perfectly.

I don't know if anyone else is having this problem or if it exists in other endcap fonts. I've only tried Plantin Schoolbook and Mickey Font.