Modifying a Card

Like recipes that turn out different every time, I can never seem to make the same card twice.  I'm always modifying the design, or the paper or embellishments.  Here's a few examples.

Here's the original design.  I like it but the flowers were very difficult to cut.  So I changed the flowers to the design below.

Again, it's OK, but the design didn't blow me away.  So why bother!

 

 

So I found this design and tweaked it until I really liked it!  Now this is one of my favorite cards.

 

I love the design of this card, but was having a hard time picking out the right paper for it.

 

Again, it's OK, but not great!

 

Now this is getting better, but still not perfect.  Wish I had used the teal secondary paper for the hearts instead of the white.

I think I've finally got it!  Love the pop of red.  And the little ribbon on the sentiment card stands out.

 

 

Here's another paper change.  I love this green card base, but it really muted the whole card.

 

 

Changing the base to white it better, but it still needs something.  I'll keep working on it.

 

Love the sentiment, but the design is barely acceptable.  So I changed it!

 

This card has had a major overhaul.  Much better now!  Sometimes I just have to see it on paper first before I can figure out how to make it better. 

 

This first card is so serene - I just love it! 

But as I was making it this weekend, I decided to use a pop dot to raise the flowers.  That way the curved petals can stand out more.

 

 

And sometimes, not often, I get it right the first time!

 

It seems that I'll always have something new to learn - enough to keep me busy for my lifetime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Seeing Flowers!

 

It may be the end of summer, but I'm still seeing flowers.  This week I spent TV time making paper flowers.  Unfortunately, I only know 2 methods without my cutter, but I sure do love them.

Here are some of the flowers I made. 

 

 

The ruffles flowers are 6 layers of small circles.  Poke a hole in the center of the stack of circles and push a brad through.  Then start crumpling the paper around the brad, layer by layer.  When all the layers are crumpled, loosen the layers with your thumbs and stop when you like the shape.  The others are a strip of paper cut perpendicular to the length, then snipped almost to the edge.  Roll around and glue every once in a while and glue the end.  They make a nice splash on the card.

 

This lotus is cut on the Pazzles Inspiration.  Two flower shapes are layered and the edges inked.  A small circle is clipped to create a fringe in the center.  Then I added a small pearl.

 

These flowers are similar to the lotus flower, just a slightly different shape.  Again, 2 layers of petals and a pearl in the center. 

 

 

To get the flat paper to take a curl, I followed the video on the Pazzles Craftroom.  Using a foam pad or an old, soft mouse pad, and a ballpoint embossing tool, rub the petals in small circles on the pad.  In a short time, the paper will curl right up.

 

If you know of other ways to make paper flowers, leave me a comment.  I always love to learn new things.  Thank you!

A Potpourri Weekend

This week's cards are a bit of a potpourri! 

Love the mourning doves - quite a peaceful card.

Here's a bunch of pen work.  Took forever on the Pazzles Inspiration, but I love to watch it work.

 

The GraphicStock images are still amazing me.  Found this wonderful doodle - thought it would make a great birthday card.

This started out as part of a Cinco de Mayo ad, but now it's just right for some Hot Stuff Birthday wishes!

Had to work hard to figure out how to keep "crabby"-ness out of this card, but I think I got it!

I've been working on this card forever.  Finally found the right background at GraphicStock.

Fonts make all the difference in the world!

Just a little lighthearted fun!

Kind of a blue card - but the inside:

makes it all work!

Just love these print and cut cartoon animals - so fun to work with.

Still working on increasing the stock of Love cards.

This turned out to be my favorite this weekend!  I'm thinking about more cards based on song lyrics.

I hope the "Rock" is understood to mean the rocking chair!  Having a little fun with this Retirement Card.

I've had these round designs for a long time - it took a bit of planning but I like they way they turned out. 

So nice to get back to cardmaking.  If only I could do it 24/7!

Sproing!

I've been having so much fun with the cartoon cards (see previous post) that I've gone over the top!  I've added a spring to the back of the print & cut and attached it to the card base.  So when the card comes out of the envelope, it goes SPROING!

This is the first one that inspired the design.  I used thin wire that I coiled around a bottle neck to create the spring.  Then I just taped it to the back of the Print & Cut and also to the card base.

This big elephant was so huge that I'd thought it would be funny to have it springing off the page!

 

And this cute doggie looks like his tail is wagging his whole body - very cute!

And finally, the cupcake just dares you to take a bite!  BTW, the latin is translated inside and says "Seize the day, seize the night, seize the CAKE!" 

 

Here is a pic of the spring attachment.  I'm still thinking of how to better refine this.  I'm sure the Print & Cut will eventually fall off the card - hopefully long after the card has sent its message!

 

 

 

Of course, all the cutting and pen work was done with my Pazzles Inspiration.  None of this would be possible without that wonderful device!

My Version of Print & Cut

I've been doing a lot of Print & Cut lately and I've refined my process so that it's nearly foolproof!  Here's how I do it:

First, find some clipart you want to use.  I needed a teddy bear for my Baby Card.  So I found a free clipart file and copied it from the web.  Then I pasted it into a Pazzles Inspiration file. 

 

I clicked on the AutoTrace button and selected the tool Detect Intensity and clicked on the image.  When the pop up window showed up, I moved the slider bar until I got nearly a solid black image in the After window.  That gives me a great outline to use for Print & Cut and I change the line color to red.  I usually have to do a little clean-up, the first step being Shape > Advanced Path Option > Change to Bezier curves and segments.  The AutoTrace delivers a choppy line.  You can see how choppy it is around the top of teddy's head above. 

  

 Here comes the foolproof part!

 

Above, I have 2 teddy bears (one for the boy card, the other for the girl card).  I match up the red outline (that I created with AutoTrace described above) with the clipart, then draw a blue box around each.  Then I copy it below itself and change the box line color to green.  In the upper box, I delete the red Print & Cut outline and in the bottom box I delete the image.  One other tip I've learned the hard way - thicken the blue box line around the image.  Then I send it to the printer.  I cut out the image with my craft knife on the blue box line - which since I thickened I can now see!  After putting it on my mat, I open the Cut Control Panel and I cut out the green box and leave the mat in the machine!  Remove the green box paper off the mat and replace it with the blue box image that was cut out by hand.   Then, in the Cut Control Panel, I cut the red outline.  It comes out perfect every time!

 

 

See how cute he turned out?  I've been doing a lot of Print & Cut lately and this method is so easy.  I've tried a couple different ways and had varying success.  I never have to worry about losing a part of my clipart because it doesn't match up exactly.  It seems like a lot of steps once I've written them all out, but after doing it twice, I think anyone could repeat this without notes.  Hope you'll try it and let me know!