Pretty Zebra

For a friend's birthday, I thought it would be a good idea to make cards for her to send out to others. I gave her the Action Wobble Crab card and next few posts are going to be the cards I created as a birthday gift.  

Front:

Standard A2 cream card
Cardstocks: animal print purple, light purple, black, white, grey
Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter pg47 Zebra
pink flower gem
Thinking of You stamp - impulse bin from Michaels
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Black Soot
pop dots

Instead of cutting out the flower layer for the zebra as designed by the cartridge, I just replaced it with a shiny flower shaped gemstone I had on hand.

Inside:
blank

Action Wobble Crab

Yay! My Action Wobbles arrived!  So several months, maybe even a year ago, I watched several blogs introduce a new product called Action Wobbles.  I finally ordered a set from Amazon and when they arrived, I could not wait to make a card.  A good friend of mine has a birthday in March, so it was perfect timing for a cute wobble birthday card.

Front:                                                                                                                 Inside:

Standard A2 blue card                                                                                blank

Cardstocks: cream, orange, yellow, black, red

Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter pg40 Crab

Paprika Stickles

ek Tools: Scallop Diamond Edger Punch

My Pink Stamper: More Punny-licious - Snappy Birthday
Versa Ink: Black
Action Wobble

The beach and sky didn't seem enough so I used scissors to just freehand cut a sun for the corner, then added orange stickles for bling.

This is an Action Wobble Spring.  They are so easy to use and add movement to your cards.  They make cute, even cuter.

http://www.actionwobble.com/

Since that picture doesn't really tell you how big the wobbles are here is a picture with the wobble and the card.  They are currently only sold in one size, but there is a little room to trim around the edge to tighten the fit if needed.   

Cheers Birthday Card

Happy Birthday to my older brother!  woohoo!  I just HAD to make him this popup beer mug card for this special occasion.

Front:
Precut cream colored 5x7 card
Cardstock: amber yellow, light yellow, cream (3 different shades of yellow), navy blue, black

Cartridge: Wild Card - Argyle
Argyle page 33 cut at 6.75" from the navy blue and black cardstocks
Cartridge: Everyday popup card - Mug
cheers phrase and layers from page 42 cut at 1 inch from the 3 yellows



While the front is a relatively simple design, I don't know if the picture can really portray the richness that the thick paper layers bring to the table.

Inside:
Cardstock: amber ale, light brew and cream foam (same 3 shades of yellow with the fun beer names)
Versa Black ink
Happy Birthday stamp

Cartridge: Everyday popup card - Mug page 42

I researched so many web sites to figure out how to put this beer popup card together and there were none.   The Cricut message boards have an illustrated "image" to the popup assembly, but it was weak.  That is ok, I have an engineering degree, I can figure it out myself.

I wanted to make the beer mug as large as possible, so using a full 12x12 sheet of paper I used the Fit To Page feature.  Cricut calculated the Mug Pop-Up feature to be 6.25", which I cut using the 2 darker shades of yellow.

 Oddly enough I have an extra piece I could never figure out.  Oh well, the popup works without it, so it will just have to remain a mystery, so much for that engineering degree.

Hoppy Birthday to You

I wanted to create a cute card for a coworker on her birthday and thought the Create a Critter bunny would be just right.


Front:
Standard A2 cream card
Cardstocks: lavender, purple animal print, pink, white, green, black
Fiskars Grass border punch
Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter


I love the rich grass field created by layering 2 levels of grass.


Inside:
Happy Birthday stamp
Vera Ink Black


It was a quick and easy card, just right for a weekday project.

Showering Mom with Love

Wishing my mom the happiest birthday, I made her a 3D card.  Venturing away from the Inky Antics HoneyPop stamp sets, I am trying to figure out what other shapes I can make with the honeycomb paper on my own.

Front: 

Precut 5x7 cream card

Cardstocks: pink, blue, cream

Embelishments: cream grosgrain ribbon, blue ribbon

Versa Black ink

Happy Birthday stamp

Silver embossing powder

Inside:

Cardsocks: black, blue, light blue, pale yellow, pink

Cartridge: 3 Birds on Parade - Rain pg30

Pink HoneyComb paper

Heart paper punch

Cut and assemble the Rain bird on page 30 except for the umbrella.  Cut the umbrella off the black base at the very top of the handle and set aside.  While you will not need all layers of the umbrella, you will still cut Layer 2 in order to get the rain boots.

Cut the top piece off the black umbrella cutout that was set aside.  Take the umbrella and fold it in half.  Trace that half shape onto the honeycomb paper and cut it out using very sharp, sturdy scissors.  I bought the Tim Holtz Micro-serrated scissors for this purpose, my other much cheaper scissors were sliding around making sloppy cuts.

Using a tape runner, I glued the umbrella into my double scored card (you have to double score the center of the card to allow for the extra thickness).  Since I am using paper instead of a stamp, I had to place the little bird slightly askew so that the umbrella stem was not directly in the fold.   Glue the little piece at the top of the honeycomb umbrella at the same slight angle.  I placed the little rain drops on the card and added extra pink heart "rain".

I did not have a great stamp so I wrote the sentiment with an ink pen.  While that changes the "feel" of the design, the card is going to my mom, so I think she will like that handwritten touch.

HoneyPop Birthday Bird

A friend's birthday gave me the opportunity to try a new 3D card concept.  When I saw the HoneyPop product line on my very first trip to a store called Archiver's, I found it completely jaw dropping irrisistable.

Since this card was a new concept for me, I decided to take strong inspiration from the card design on the Inky Antics website that demonstrated the Cupcake Birdy stamp set from the HoneyPop Collection.

Front:
Precut cream colored 5x7 card
Cardstock: light pink, dark pink, light purple, yellow, light blue, white, black, DCWV Animal Crackers-blue polka dot paper strip
Inky Antics - Cupcake Birdy stamp set - Happy Birthday
Distress Ink - Faded Jeans

Cartridges:
Create a Critter - bird pg65
George and Basic Shapes - ovals cut at approximately 4.75" and 5"
Wall Decor and More - duck flourish leftovers from another card

Embellishments: white ribbon, blue ribbon, pop dots

I started off giving my card a double score in the spine to make sure the 3D effect of the honeycomb paper works properly, just like the instructions state.  Plus this would change the width of the card and I wanted to be aware of the minor adjustment when sizing the white and pink base frame cardstock.

Cut and assemble the little bird and all of her layers from the Create a Critter cartridge at 3" and placed the pop dots to the back for the added demension.  Plundering my scraps, I found a leftover flourish from another card where I cut the Wall Decor and More Duck.  By luck it was the same color as the larger oval so I added it to the card.  Covering the edges of the blue polka dot paper strip with the ribbons, I finished assembly, but did not attach to the card yet.  The Happy Birthday stamp barely fit, however it was a must.

Inside:
Distress Ink - Faded Jeans
Inky Antics - Cupcake Birdy stamp set - with a cherry on top, cherry, bird
Inky Antics Honey pop collection - Brown honeycomb paper
Inky Antics Honey pop collection - Pink honeycomb paper

I stamped and cut the cupcake parts from Brown and Pink honeycomb paper.  Note to self, but sure to use strong, sharp scissors, this paper requires a clean cut and dinky scissors will not do the job properly.

Stamped and colored the cherry on top, while this seems out of order, you need to do this part first on the inside so that you have room for your hands, the acrylic block, etc., going for clean contact with no slips.  Then using normal glue runner adhesive, I attached the cupcake parts to the center of the card.  Wow.  It was as spectacular as I remember from the store!

Added the rest of the inside stamps, and affixed the card front to the card face.

I am absolutely thrilled with the result.

Oops Baby Card

A new friend from church had her 6th baby!  I didn't know her for the other 5, so I wanted to make a card to congratulate the family on their new addition.

Front:
Precut A2 white card

Cardstock: white, pale lavender, pale pink, pale blue
Cricut Cartridge: Wall Decor and More - pg75 Duck cut at 3.5"
Cuttlebug: Swiss Dots
Embellishments: white ribbon, deep purple ribbon
pop dots

I cut the duck at 3.5 and must have  accidentally bumped the dial and cut the duck layer at 3.75.  oops.

Finding more cardstock, I cut the pink duck layer again at 3.5.

I cut some pale lavender and white pieces to make a frame and used my Cuttlebug to swiss dot the pale lavender paper.

After I had glued down the frames and the ribbons to the card and went to place the duck, I then noticed my pale blue duck layer mistake.  The lighting in my dining room is pretty awful in the late night hours and I didn't realize the pale lavender layer was really a pale blue.  oops.

I debated cutting the whole duck again, but decided to just move forward.

Inside:
Congratulations stamp
Colorbox pigment: Eggplant

It was a simple (aka tired/lazy) Congratulations stamped in Eggplant ink directly on the inside of the white card, but I messed up and smeared it before it dried.  oops.

To cover that mistake, I stamped again on the same pale lavender cardstock (double checking this time) and glued it on top. Viola, my error is magically a color coordinated enhancement.

This card seemed to be filled with little human errors but I think it is pretty cute and those "mistakes" can be thought as contributions to the personalization and effort in the card making experience.