Moms Club Invitations

Here is my latest project, some invitations to a New Member Tea for the Moms Club I belong to. The card is sized to fit into a business envelope. The yellow flowers are dry embossed from an old brass stencil

CRI-Kits Gel Pen - Winners -

Ok I went to random.org website and used their random number generator to find the winning entries. If you are one of the lucky winners, please email me your address and I will send you your CRI-Kits Gel Pen set!

DogCarbon said...
Very Cool! Thanks for sharing

The Tropical Scrapper said...
how adorable! I already know how I'm going to use the rosette in a future project.

Lori Gartner said...
Love the Card. It's amazing what you come up with using these as well as other things. Thank you.

Jeannie B said...
What a perfect way to use the gel pens.
Beautiful card!
Jeannie B

Stupid Pet Tricks

I just have to share this story ... My 5 year old has a big black google eyed goldfish 'Blackie'. This morning Blackie is nowhere to be seen in his tank. My sons eventually get their Daddy to help find him. Well Hubby reluctantly puts his newspaper down and goes and looks - doesn't see the fish any where. Hubby even starts to pull some of the plants and the fake log out of the water to see better. He doesn't see the fish so he comes into the living room and announces 'The Cat ate the fish!' I am not proud of this - but I start laughing because he looks honest to goodness sad (sorry)! Meanwhile my 5 and 7 year old boys start crying and yelling 'BAD KITY, BAD KITY!' Cat is just sitting here all innocent like. Meanwhile hubby is going to clean up the tank and mess he previously made. He looks down at the fake log that he had taken out of the tank a couple minutes before -- the fish is stuck in one of the holes!! 'Blackie' the google eyed fish is OK!! After being push thru the hole, He looks to be missing a few scales, but is fine. He is back in his tank safe and sound. I wonder if he is thinking he needs to go on a diet??

CRI-Kits Gel Pen - Giveaway -

I am giving away 4 Cri-kits gel pen kits!

Just put a comment on one of the 4 blog entries that were made using gel pens (Carrot box, Carrot Box File , Wedding Invitation, and Aperture Card). I will choose one winner from each blog post - you can add a comment to each one to improve your chances. I will announce the winners next monday - March 29.

Carrot Box File - Score Lines

If you would like to have the template for the Carrot Box in the next post click HERE. The template will be in a SCAL2 format. The reason I am giving the template in a SCAL2 format instead of the usual SVG format -- is that I have found a great way to put score lines on boxes using the SCAL2 'Layers' function!

I don't know about you, but I really HATE cutting scoring lines on my boxes - it just leaves a messy edge on the corner! I have found a great way to 'draw' the score lines onto my boxes. I was so excited when SCAL2 came out with the 'Layers' function, because now I can put the score lines and cut lines on separate layers. I just turn on the 'score lines' layer and insert a pen into the Cricut machine and it draws the score lines onto the paper. Then I turn off the 'score line' layer on turn on the 'cut' layer - then replace the regular cricut blade and cut the box out. I then manually score the lines on the box using the drawn lines as a guide.

TIP: slip a piece of scratch paper under the gel pen when loading and unloading the pens, this is to prevent the ink from accidentally marking your project.

score line draw with CRI-Kits gel pens (left) and the Cricut Markers (right)

I found that I really like to use gel pens to draw these score lines onto my boxes. You can use the Provo Craft Cricut Markers for this job, but I found that the gel pens give you a finer more precise line than the cricut markers. Also -you have to be careful using markers on thin cardstock because the markers will sometimes bled through to the other side of the paper!

Carrot Box

Here is a photo of a Carrot Box that I am making for my son's teachers. I plan on filling the boxes up with some easter candy. I only have 6 carrots to make so it shouldn't take long. Last year I made these boxes for Easter Dinner, I put names on each carrot and set them on each plate. I wish I would have taken a photo of my dinner table it so pretty! I am thinking this year I should make a bunch of carrots to fill a basket to use as the centerpiece of the table.


Here is a close-up of the tag and rosette. There is a really good tutorial on how to make these paper rosettes on the Paper-source.com. Here is the link.

To make the tag I used the LDJ Shop 'til you drop font -and a purple gel pen to draw the 'Happy Easter'.

Wedding Invitations - using gel pens?

I was sent some gel pens by CRI-Kits to try out. I have to say that at first I was kind of hesitant, because the last time I used gel pens was in Jr. High. I guess I was thinking gel pens were for little girls ... gel pens aren't for little girls anymore! After playing around with the pens, I decided that I needed to show that the pens don't have to be childish - but sophisticated. So I challenged myself to make some sophisticated wedding invitations using these gel pens.


I tried out some variations of colors - Black Glitter pen on brown kraft paper, and Silver Glitter pen on black cardstock.


Here is a close-up of the invitation - there is quite a bit of detail in this 'Forget-Me-Not' flower. I was pleased in how well the sketch translated to this project.


If you are curious about the CRI-Kit gel pens, simply go to their website www.CRI-Kits.com. They are having some giveaways for their Grand Opening - Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL2) software, svgcuts.com gift certificates, pen kits, and more. They are also having a contest - the winner is getting a Gypsy and the runner-ups are getting prizes too.

Right now they are offing a FREE penholder to people with any competing product. And a Free penholder to previous Cricut Gelly owners.

One thing that I really liked about these gel pens is the magnet that holds the pens inside the holder. The magnet makes it easy to change colors - you don't need to have a special tool to push the pens outs.

There are 40 colors of pens available. There are 5 differant color packs Regular, Pastel, Metallic, Glitter, and some variegated Swirl pens.

Before I tried out the CRI-Kit gel pens, I looked at some blogs (using another company's gel pens) and many people suggested using the 'Multi-Cut' feature with their gel pens to get a clean line and avoid skipping of the ink - I never have to use this feature, I never noticed any skipping.

Hope that you enjoy the pens as much as I do - and make sure to check out the www.CRI-Kits.com website for all the giveaways!!

Aperture Card

Here is an aperture card that I designed in Inkscape, and cut out in SCAL on my Cricut machine. At first I made a simple aperture with initials (white card). After having the card sit on my desk for a day, I got to thinking that I could 'dress-it-up' a bit and come up with another version (pink card).


I designed some swirls to go around the outside of the aperture. A 'Swirl' CRI-Kit gel pen was used to draw the swirls.


Then I used the 'shadow' function in SCAL2 and cut the swirls out. I also used some foam dots to raise up the design. Some overhead transperency film was used behind the initials to make it less flimsy, and give it a more finished look.


If you would like to learn how to make an aperture card -- check out this tutorial by Dan (Aperture Card). I have to say that I am always impressed by Dan's creations, and I love his tutorials (especially his cool English accent).

Another Bunny

Here is yet another take on the Easter bunny cards. Actually I have about 5-6 more bunny images, but I think that I will end the series of Easter Bunny Cards with this one.

I need to go back outside and get my fingers dirty in my garden!! We are expanding our vegetable garden this year - almost double the size. Last year I ran out of room for all the vegetables I wanted - and ended up planting watermelon next to my shrubs. By the end of summer the Watermelon almost overtook the shrubs (but did it ever taste good). So far I have planted most of my cold crops - cabbage, broccoli, onions, and lettuce. It is so nice outside, 70 degrees and my daffodils and pansy are in full bloom (simply gorgeous)! I hope that everyone takes the time to notice all the spring flowers - have a great weekend.

Bunny Cart

Here is another one of the Easter bunnies I have been working on. Now that I look at this card I am thinking I should fill the cart with some flowers or a Easter chick ...hmm.

Easter bunny

I have been working on a few bunny images for Easter. Here is one of the bunnies with a basket filled with eggs. This bunny was cut out of K&Company paper. Usually I feel the urge to ink, chalk, emboss my die cuts, but I thought with this floral paper it was enough. The card is a 'gate card' with the the scalloped square adhered to just one flap. The Happy Easter is my handwriting - now that I look at the photo it looks like I should have made the 'Easter' word bigger (maybe next card).

If you would like to have this cutfile click here - it is a SCAL2 cutfile. The bunny, basket, and eggs are on separate layers to make it easier to cut them out. Hope that you enjoy the bunny, I would love to see how you use him!!

Chaotic Layout

This is my March calendar page - not sure if I like it, I really debated over posting it!! I think that this is the busiest, most chaotic layout I have ever done. It seems so busy that your eyes can't focus on one thing. I think that I am going to blame it on too much caffine. Hopefully March will go by fast so I don't have to look at it very long in my Kitchen.



About the only thing I liked about the layout is the owl - I ran him through the cuttle bug by the way to put some texture on him. He reminds me of the owl from the old Tootsie Pop commercials!

EDIT:
I had a couple of questions about my layout - so here goes.

1. Papers - The background paper is cream cardstock. The owl is cut from kraft paper. Trees, Leaves, Font and Owl feet are from American Craft paper - I found that this double sided paper cuts VERY well in the Cricut.

2. Spiral - hand drawn, font on spiral is my handwriting.

3. Font - LD Flutter

4. Tree - svg designed by me.

5. Owl - The owl is inspired by Kim Hughes - her website is http://paperhugs.typepad.com/
Kim Hughes has an entire line of stamps that are sold by Cornish Farms - they are all CUTE! An interesting side note - she has started designing for Paper Trey Inc a line of SVG's. So far all she has are cards but hopefully she will start coming out with her characters she has on her stamps.

Birthday

I needed another birthday card this week - and this is what I came up with. I got the sketch from the Card Positioning Systems blog. The 'Cake' is from the Celebrations cartridge. I cut the cake out in a light and dark brown. On the dark brown I used some Diamond Glaze to make it look more like frosting. The cherry is from an old dry embossing Lasting Impressions brass stencil. I am not sure but I think the stamp is from Stampendous.