Hey Baby with CTMH Zoe Paper

One of the promotions CTMH is running this month is "Bring Back My Pack" featuring the popular Zoe papers and stamps. I have a baby shower coming up and we don't know the gender yet, so the soft pastels in this pack were perfect.

I used both the Artiste and Artistry Cricut cartridges. Artiste is retired, but if you have it and Artistry, here's the Design Space file. I altered "baby" by slicing off part of the "y" then welding a small circle at the end to make it match the font style. I cut three "baby" images, two from plain cardstock so I didn't waste the patterned paper, and glued them together for depth. I altered the duck by getting rid of the wing shape cut and highlighting the bill and eye with a white gel pen. 

To make sure I didn't have a gap in the stamped sentiment which comes from the Sweet Girl-Cardmaking set, I had to do a little planning. I placed all the cut elements on the card base without gluing them down, used my stamp positioner to place the "HEY" where I wanted it, removed the cut images and stamped once in Heather ink. I then glued the duck in place and stamped again. I glued "baby" so the swirl on the left went off the edge, trimmed it off, then glued it to the inside of the card.

I finished off with Mink Twine and sequins from the Crafty Sequins Pack. The colors don't match Zoe perfectly, but close enough. The dark green sequins was the worst offender, which is why I deliberately chose the smallest one and placed it farthest away from any of the other green in the card.

Here's the supply list with links for your shopping convenience:

• Zoe Paper Pack
• Sweet Girl-Cardmaking
• Heather ink
• Mink Twine
• Artistry Cricut Collection
• Crafty Sequins
• Liquid Glass (for adhering the sequins)
• Micro-tip Scissors
• Bonding Memories Glue

I absolutely LOVE the Zoe papers and coordinating stamp set. How fun that CTMH decided to bring them back as part of their 35th Anniversary Year-Long celebration. Be sure to check out all the other great promotions offered this month.

Until next time,

Becca

More with Decorative Border Thin Cuts and Just Treats

As promised yesterday, here's another card using the Decorative Border Thin Cuts and the September Stamp of the Month (SOM) Just Treats.

I went with a traditional red and white color scheme for this card using the new Candy Apple color and 'Tis the Season Paper Pack. Remember yesterday when I talked about the fun things to do with the striped border included in the Just Treats SOM set? Well, those striped hearts were made by stamping that border twice (because once wasn't quite wide enough for the smallest heart thin cut). The other fun thing I did was to cut the scallop border from White Daisy cardstock, flip the border over and line it up so I ended up with a border of stitched circles...and wonder of wonders, the inside of the peppermint candy fit inside perfectly. It's almost like I planned it, which I didn't (but maybe the genius designers at CTMH did).

The tag was cut using an image from Artiste, which is retired but still wonderful. I dressed it up by adding some of the 'Tis the Season paper along the bottom and trimming off the excess with scissors. I also made my own ring to go around the opening of the tag. I simply used the "Hide Contour" button in Design Space to get rid of the outside edge of the tag (leaving me with only the center hole) then used the "Shapes" button to add a circle, size it to a bit larger than the center hole, used the "Slice" feature to cut the smaller circle out of the larger one, and then cut using the patterned paper. The only non-CTMH thing on this card is the wider red ribbon which is tied with White Twine at the top of the tag. I also used White Twine along the bottom of the tag between the white space and the red bottom border.

For the sake of design principles, I used the same patterned paper for two places on the tag plus on the larger heart, positioning it so it created a triangle. The stripe on the smaller hearts is similar in design to the swirled images along the bottom border, and they also create a triangle. My third triangle is the placement of the three hearts. The very bottom border of Candy Apple grounds the entire card and highlights the scalloped edge, drawing your eye so you see the fancy stitching. I used a gray marker to highlight "Friends" because it's the trend to add that swoosh and because gray is a neutral that adds interest without fighting with the rest of the color scheme.

Here's the supply list (with links for your shopping convenience):

• Decorative Border Thin Cuts (used on yesterdays' card)
• Stitched Heart Thin Cuts (used on yesterdays' card)
• Just Treats SOM (used on yesterdays' card)
• 'Tis the Season Paper Pack
• Candy Apple ink (used on yesterdays' card)
• White Twine
• Microtip Scissors (used on yesterdays' card and pretty much every card!)
• 3-D Foam Tape (used on yesterdays' card and almost every other card)

I love tags on cards. Pretty soon I'll start showing you ideas with the new Fancy Tags, but many of you have already purchased Artiste or other CTMH Cricut Cartridges, all of which have some kind of tag. Let's make sure you're getting your money's worth out of them before we encourage you to spend more...although the stitched and pierced edges of the Fancy Tags is what pushed me over the edge to purchase them. Both the Fancy Tags and Decorative Borders are spendy, but remember you can always get them half-price if you host a party that goes over $250. With all the fun new things just released, I doubt you'll have trouble getting to that level if you know two or three people who enjoy crafting. Who knows, you might even be able to host your own party!

Until next time,
Becca