My Grandson Andrew is Graduating... Congrats Andrew!!!

Greetings Everyone … This is ♥Carol♥ and I am so pleased that you are visiting me here today at my Little Creation Corner … I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful week.

As many of you already know.  I have a daughter and a son, between the two of them, they have blessed me with 5 wonderful grandsons!  And I love all those rascals to pieces ... all FIVE of them!

This year, my oldest Grandson, Andrew, is graduating from High School ... Hurray for the Class of 2010!  Andrew has asked that I make his graduation announcements for him.  I've been pondering how to do this for a couple of months now ... but I can not wait much longer ... this announcements need to be mailed ASAP!

Here is my first draft ... I'd love to get some input ... all comments are welcome.  But please send your comments as quickly as possible ... I am on a deadline, so time is of the essence.

This is a very rough draft.  On the face of the announcement, I plan to make the cap a little larger and do a better tassel, and diploma a little smaller, maybe ink it a bit so it shows up more too.  (his school colors are black and orange) 

Click on images to see full size

On the inside of the card is his graduation picture with an overlay in vellum with the actual announcement information.  On the top of the vellum is a black strip ... in part for color contrast and to give it a finished look, and in part to hide the adhesive underneath.  At the bottom of the announcement verbage is Andrew's calling card with a picture of his school's mascot (a tiger) as a watermark behind it.

BTW ... the vellum lifts up to reveal the graduation picture.

(again, click on image to see full size)

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and liked my Graduation Announcement card ... Don't forget, this is just a rough draft of the card ... so please leave a comment to share your thoughts with me, I'd really love to know your thoughts on this!  As always … thank you for stopping by to visit me here at my Little Creation Corner.

Have a great day, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

Sweet Treats Thursdays - Mardi Gras

Greetings Everyone … This is ♥Carol♥ and I am so pleased that you are visiting me here today at my Little Creation Corner … I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful week that extends throughout the week-end.


Over at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, the Sweet Treats Thursdays design team are celebrating Mardi Gras. By now, you've likely noticed a trend with me and know that I have to make a card … but with a theme like Mardi Gras … I just had to include a mask … in fact, I had to make two of them! These masks are to represent the King and Queen of Mardi Gras. I created them in Design Studio by combining shapes from the new Cricut Paisley Cartridge. I did miniature versions of the masks for the cards.

(Please click on images to see details full size.)

Follow along as I share how I created them …

First is the King’s Mask (Whoops, did you notice a little green feature was stuck to the fleur-de-lis?) …

This was created in by combining two shapes in Design studio, the crown and glasses from the Paisley Cricut Cartridge, and welding them together. I made the eyes by adding little paisleys and tilting and/or flipping them to get them into position at the right angles … it gives it a bit of an Oriental flair, don’t you think? There were several tick marks in these shapes, which I removed using the “hide contour” feature.

The paper I selected is actually a textured gold with bright glittery golden Swirls (Golden Swirl by ANW Crestwood), which was a little thin and would not hold it’s shape when attached to the stick, so I cut 3 additional heavy cardstock masks and glued them all together, one on top of the other, to give it stability. This worked great and gave a thickness similar to thick chipboard.

For the decorations, I cut the fleur-de-lis (found on the Cricut Stamping Cartridge), ran them upside down through my Xyron Sticker Maker, then covered them with purple and green glitter. I added feathers, a large purple one and smaller green ones. Whoa, what a mess … I’ve decided that I do NOT like working with feathers … I had feathers flying EVERYWHERE! I then covered a 12” wooden dowel with gold ribbon and attached it to the right side of the mask along with purple, green and gold ribbons and Mardi Gras beads.


Next is the Queen’s Mask …

This was created much the same way as the King’s mask, except that I used the princess crown and the glasses from the Cricut Paisley Cartridge. There was a slight gap between the bridge of the nose piece on the glasses and the bottom edge, so I welded an apple (from the same cartridge) into the center to cover the gap and give the nose bridge a slightly more curved finish.

With the Queen’s mask, I selected a butterfly and hearts to decorate the face … other than that, the supplies, embellishments and techniques used were identical to those used to make the King’s mask.


Lastly, the Card …

(Don't forget to click on any image to see details full size)

This was actually a very simple card to make … using the same basic steps to create the King and Queen’s masks, I made smaller versions from textured gold foil cardstock. The card is matted with green foil paper card stock and a textured feather paper. The edges are inked with a metallic gold (although it really doesn’t show much in the image). I popped the masks and sentiment, added gold ribbon, and the card was done. It’s not particularly fancy, but it does match the masks pretty well.

Don’t forget to stop by the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see the wonderful creations made by the other Sweet Treats Thursday Design Team members … they have truly made some amazing projects!

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and liked my Mardi Gras projects … They were really fun to make, except for those messy feathers, of course! (*wink*) I hope you will take a moment to leave a comment to share your thoughts, I adore reading what you have to say … I’d also really love it if you would sign up to be a follower too, your visits make my blog so much more meaningful.

As always … thank you for stopping by to visit me here at my Little Creation Corner.  Have a great day, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

SHAPED CARDS - TUTORIAL

Greetings Everyone … This is ♥Carol♥… Thanx for visiting me here at my Little Creation Corner. Today I’d like talk about the various ways to make shaped cards. I’ve always enjoyed making shaped cards … there is something a little whimsical and unique about shaped cards and a nice departure from the standard square or rectangle shaped cards, that just makes them fun to do. I’ve been asked to give a class on making shaped cards and the techniques I use … and I thought you might be interested in learning about these techniques too.

So let’s get started … These are the cards I am going to be talking about … and we’ll go into the details as we go along. Oh, and by the way … click on any image to see the full size and a better view of the details.  (I used a different technique to make each card.)

Let’s start with the Dress which uses a partial adhering technique…

BTW … this card is featured this week at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog where they are making creations utilizing fabric … take a moment to stop by there to check out the fabulous creations made by the other talented members of the Cuttlebug Challenge Design Team.

This dress was cut from the Forever Young Cricut Cartridge … for those with this cartridge, the dress is located on page 28 in the hand book. I cut the basic dress shape 3 times on patterned paper, and flipped one of those shapes. I then cut just the bodice of the dress in the gold metallic paper. To do this, I used my Gypsy (you could use DS too) and placed the lower portion of the dress off the mat so that only the top portion cut. But, you could also cut out the entire dress and simply snip off the lower portion.

I then gathered some material and attached it under the bodice … by the way, this is repurposed fabric that was actually wrapped around a bouquet of boxed roses that I received as a Christmas gift. I then attached the bodice over the top of the bodice on the base dress, wrapped a ribbon around the top and tied a bow … I left the tails of the ribbon long to give the dress more of an elegant “ball gown” look. I then attached the base shape to the flipped image and adhered it down (this was to give a clean finish to the under side).

Because it was difficult to keep the fabric in place, I attached some metallic gold braid to the base of the fabric and attached it to the base of the card. With the shaping flexibility of the metallic braid, I was able to give a rippled shape to the base of the dress (in real life it really looks amazing).

I then attached the top portion of the card to the bottom of the card by adhering the two pieces together at the bodice section only, and scored the card right at the ribbon line. Here is how the card looks opened up …

Next is the egg shaped card, which uses a hinge attachment technique …

This was very easy to make and this technique can be utilized on almost ALL shaped cards. I cut 4 eggs from the Easter Limited Edition Mini Cricut Cartridge. Two of the eggs were cut using the flipped feature. I placed two mirrored eggs side by side, lined them up evenly with just a small space between them (approx. 1/16 of an inch). I then placed a small strip (1/2 inch by 3 inches) of the same colored card stock between the two (almost like a little bridge) and adhered it down. Next, I adhered the two remaining eggs over the top of the first two, which covered all but a small portion of the hinge (or bridge piece). Next I scored between the two eggs and folded the card in half. Lastly I added the decorative top piece. Here is the egg open … see where the two pieces are joined together? …

Next is the Heart card, which utilizes a welding technique …

This card was perhaps the easiest card to make, but does require the use of either a Gypsy or Design Studio. For this card, I used the heart from the Calendar Cricut Cartridge, but any heart shape would work just as well. I placed two images of the heart shape, with the shadow feature, on my mat and moved them together so that they were just touching a smidgen, then welded them together so they would cut as one piece … super easy. I then cut two more shapes without the shadow, one in solid white, which I adhered to the inside of the card as a place to add the sentiment, the inside of the card, and one in patterned paper. I then added lace around the boarder of the patterned and adhered it to the top of the card. Here’s what the inside of the card looks like …

Lastly is the Owl card, which uses a swing technique …

This card was actually very easy to make too. I used the owl from the Sentimentals Cricut Cartridge for this card. I cut it out using the shadow feature 2 times, one in black and one in white. I then cut out the owl using a patterned paper without the shadow feature and placed it over the top of the black piece. Next, I cut out the owl’s features in different colored card stock … the outer eye part and the branch are in glittery gold, the inner eye piece and envelope were cut from a cream colored card stock, and the eye center, beak and feet were cut in a glossy black. Each layer of the eye, as well as the beak and feet all were popped with dimensionals. To adhere the top and bottom of the cards together, I used a brad. Since I did not have the proper colored brad, I colored it with gold embossing powder and heat embossed it so that it would match the rest of the owl … I really love the way this turned out … Isn’t he cute? *wink* Here’s a look at the card as it swings open …

(Remember ... Click on any image to see details in full size)

I hope you enjoy these cards as much as I did making them and sharing them with you. As you can see, making shaped cards is really easy to do and can be made different ways. Give it a try, I think you’ll have fun making a shaped card too. Please take a moment to leave a comment, I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this brief tutorial ... and if you are not yet a follower, I'd sure love you to join me. As always, thanx for visiting me here at my Little Creation Corner!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

DINNER INVITATIONS for CHA

Greetings everyone … This is ♥Carol♥, I hope you are all having a great week, and for those that are feeling the effects of the winter weather, I hope you are staying safe and warm. Thanx for visiting me here in My Little Creation Corner.

I was honored to be invited to make samples for the 2010 Winter CHA Craft Super Show in Anaheim, California.  Today I’d like to share those dinner invitation cards with you. These cards were on display at the Provo Craft/Cuttlebug area at the 2010 Winter CHA Craft Super Show in Anaheim, California.  Both cards were made to feature the Cuttlebug, the Cricut Expressions and Cosmo Cricket, Farmers Market Patterned Papers (which BTW is an excellent quality double-sided printed paper). My assignment was to make Dinner invitation samples.

The first card is a dinner invitation with a formal or informal theme:

The Card Front:

(Note:  Please click on any image to see details full size)

The Card Center:

The verse is my own and reads:

Things are ready

We’ve set your plate

We’re going to have

A time that’s great

So set your clock

And mark the date

You’re expected

Don’t be late

Supplies Used are as follows:

Cricut Cartridges From My Kitchen and Sentimentals
Cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots
Cosmo Cricket, Farmers Market patterned paper
Misc. Solid colored card stock and Foil Card stock
Misc. Gold Ribbon and pre-made bow
Brown Ink
Adhesives: Glue Glider Pro, glue dots, Zig 2-way fine tip glue pen and dimensionals


The Second card is for an informal Barbeque Dinner

The front of the card

Another front view

(This shows the red foil in the Grill to represent hot coals)

The inside of the card

(Remember:  Click on any image to view details in full size)

The inside verse is my own and reads:

We’re going to have a Barbeque

A feast for everyone

With lots of food and fun to share

Sure hope that you will come

The supplies used on this card are as follows:

Cricut Cartridges From My Kitchen
Cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots
Cosmo Cricket, Farmers Market patterned paper
Misc. Solid colored card stock and Foil Card stock
Yellow Satin Ribbon
Black and White Signo UniBall gel pens
Martha Stewart Boarder Punch
Adhesives: Glue Glider Pro, glue dots, Zig 2-way fine tip glue pen and dimensionals


Just a side note: although I did receive 3 sheets of patterned papers from the Cosmo Cricket Farmers Market line, which were used to make these cards, I did not receive any additional papers for my own personal use, nor was I paid to make these samples. All other products used, including solid colored papers and foils, ribbons, bows, boarder punches, markers, Cricut Cartridges, Cuttlebug embossing folders, etc., were my own and purchased by me.

I invite you to stop by the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see additional fabulous projects made by other incredibly talented designers on display at the 2010 Winter CHA Craft Super Show.
I hope you enjoy these invitational cards as much as I did making them and sharing them with you … feel free to leave comments, I would love to hear what you think. As always, thank you for visiting me here at my Little Creation Corner. HAPPY CRAFTING EVERYONE!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

Sweet Treats Thursday - Review, Cricut Cartridge PAGODA

Greetings Everyone … this is ♥Carol♥ … Welcome to My Little Creation Corner.

As a Design Team Member on the the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, Sweet Treats Thursday Team, I was asked to do a review of the new Cricut Cartridges, PAGODA.  (Please visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to see the initial review).  I'd like to share a more detailed review of that cartridge for you here as well.

(NOTE:  Please click on this, and all images, to see in their FULL size)

This cart is filled with a wonderful selection of images, with the key features on the cartridge being as follows...

Base Feature Images (characters like lanterns, dolls, kites, dragons, birds, trees, dragon flies, fish, flowers bridges, fans, umbrellas, teapot and cup, chopsticks, kimonos, and much more)

Base Shift Feature (layering pieces for the base images)

Kanji Feature (images of each of the Kanji characters)

Kanji Shift Feature (shadows for the Kanji characters)

Kanji Tag Feature (the Kanji character in various tag shapes)
Kanji Tag Shift Feature (which are the backgrounds for the Kanji Tags)

Kanji Word  Feature (which is the English translation of the respective Kanji character on it’s respective key in a rectangular tag style)
Kanji Word Shift Feature (which is the respective Kanji character that will fit nicely in the word tag)

Kanji Tag Feature (which are the various images in a variety of tag shapes)
Kanji Tag Shift (background pieces for the tags)

Card Feature (rectangular shaped cards with the images in them)
Card Shift Feature (circular cards with the images in them)

Shadow Feature (shadows for the images)
Shadow Shift Feature (shadows for the Kanji characters, this shadows the shadow of the Kanji Character Shift shadow – virtually a 2nd shadow for the Kanji characters).

Before I started writing this review, I wanted to identify exactly what a Kanji was, and which Asian culture it represented, so I called Provo Craft directly and asked the question. I was told that this cartridge is Chinese, however, it is also part Japanese. Are you as confused by that explanation as much as I was?  Well, I couldn’t stop with that, so I looked it up on line at Wakipedea, and this is the definition I found …

Kanji (help•info) (漢字?) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (ひらがな, 平仮名), katakana (カタカナ, 片仮名), Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet (also known as Rōmaji). The Japanese term kanji (漢字) literally means "Han characters".

Still confused, I looked it up in the dictionary, and this is the definition I found …

“a Japanese system of writing that utilizes characters borrowed or adapted from Chinese writing, a single character in the kanji system”

Now this I could understand! *grin* But the really important thing to say is the images are absolutely adorable. I love that you can use the images, the Kanji character, and the English translation all together.

One thing I will note is that trying to figure out the meaning of each Kanji character is, was a bit of a challenge. I discovered that they are actually all in the cartridge handbook.  To see the English translation, look on the Kanji Word Feature Key. But, just a warning, the image in your handbook is extremely small … so pull out your glasses, or your bi-focals, you just might need them. If you have a Gypsy or the Design Studio program, you can enlarge this image so that you can read it easier.

I really do like the wonderful options on this cart … it offers a delight blend of whimsical images mixed with delicate intricately detailed images as well. Combined with the Kanji characters and the English translations, you have an opportunity for endless creative possibilities to make a wide variety of crafts.

Here’s a sample I made this morning that mixes the Kanji character for “friend” and the English translation … I teamed it together with one of the Cuttlebug embossing folders from the new Asian line to make this greeting card …

another view

To make this card, I used the following supplies ...

Cricut Cartridge Pagoda
Cricut Cartridge George Basics Shapes
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (from the new Asian set)
Cricut Design Studio Program
Ribbon (Offray, pink flora)
Prima Fabric Fancies Flowers
Core'dinations Chocolate Box card stock
S.E.I. Patterned Paper from the Chocolat Paper Stack
Pink card stock
Small Bronze Brads
Sanding block
Pop Dots
Glue Glider Adhesive
Zig 2-way fine tip Glue Pen

This card is similar to a Joy Fold card and to make it, I followed these steps.

1)  Cut Patterned paper to size 8.5x11 and fold in half for card base.
2)  Emboss the Asian Lady on Coredinations Chocolate Box card stock, then sand lightly to bring out the pink background color.
3)  Trim around the embossed image and mat onto pink card stock and trim around the image again.
4)  Using Design Studio, place the "friend" Kanji word (from Pagoda) on the mat using a 2x3 inch size, add the Kanji character (size 1.5") inside the rectangle then welded a rectangle (from George) to the right side of the tag and stretched it so that it extended another 3 inches.

5)  Scor the tag at 2 inches and adhere the right 3 inches of the tag backwards to the inside right edge of the card.  Fold the remaining 2 inches over the front face of the card.
6)  Adhere ribbon vertically along the left side of card and attach brads to flowers and adhere top of ribbon.
7)  Adhere the Asian Lady, using pop dots, over the ribbon.

Although there is not an image of the inside of the card, the right side of the card is matted with the brown card stock, the pink tag "friends" tag opens up to a pink color to add the sentiment, and I added a pink shadow to the brown Kanji "friend" symbol that was cutout from the front tag and placed it next to the inside sentiment.


I hope you found this review both helpful and informative. Please feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I hope you’ll take a moment and stop by and visit the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see this review in it's condensed form as well as all the other wonderful creations to be found there.

As always, thanks for stopping by and visiting me here at my Little Creation Corner.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Hugz,
Carol

Special Announcement - Sweet Treats Thursday

Greetings everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR, I hope 2010 is starting off on a happy note for all … This is ♥Carol♥ … and today I’d like to share a special announcement. Over at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, a new team of creative designers have come together to form a design team called SWEET TREATS THURSDAY.

This team of designers will tantalize your taste buds with a delicious selection of yummie creations using their favorite crafting tools (Cricut and Cricut Cartridges, Cuttlebug, YourStory, YuDu and the Gypsy). I’m very pleased and excited to be included with this wonderful team of talented crafters as a Design Team Member. I hope you’ll pop over and take a look … and be sure to check back every Thursday as the SWEET TREATS THURSDAY Design Team will be presenting fun new crafts, tutorials and/or other helpful hints and tricks to help keep you inspired.

Our first assignment was to use our Cricuts and the Doodle Charms cartridge to create a set of projects. We were instructed to use not less than 2 cuts from the DC cart, but were allowed to use as many as we liked. I selected to use the teddy bear and the heart … but as you will see here … I used several other cuts as well.

The Teddy Gift Set Trio …

Supplies used for this project were:

Cricut Expressions

Doodle Charms Cricut Cartridge

White and Pink Card Stock

Kiwi Embroidery Paper – Pink Gingham Check

Pink Gingham Ribbon – width sizes 1.25 and .50 inches

Darning Threads – Pink and White

Small Pearls

White Doodle Pen

Adhesives
(Glue Glider Pro, Zig 2-way Glue Pen, Dimensionals, Glue Dots)

Wrapping Paper

The Card and Envelope

The card measures 5”x 6.5”

(REMINDER … Click on any image to see full view)

The Photo Frame

The Photo frame measures 17”X10”, but the little frames on each side of the main picture

measure only 1.5”x2”, so each of the Doodle Charms cuts were made at a 1” size or less.

The cuts are embellished with hand doodling, pearls for eyes on the critters

and small bows on the hearts that are ½” or less across.

I also added small gingham bows to accent the main picture opening and then

tied a nice big bow around the frame.

The Gift Package

When I went to wrap the gift, I discovered that I didn’t have any paper that would

match the set, so I used a solid color wrapping paper that I had and

turned it inside out so that I was using the inside (white) as the wrapping.

To accent the package, I cut little 1” teddy bears and hearts,

embossed them and adhered them down with glue dots.

I actually like the way this turned out and plan to use this trick again in the future

whenever I don’t have the exact wrapping that I need.

Whoops … I see that the teddy bear tag did not make on the package

before the picture was taken.

All three items were super easy to make, and the great thing is, they were actually very inexpensive to make too!

I hope you enjoy these projects as much as I did making them and sharing them with you … feel free to leave comments, I would love to hear what you think. As always, thank you for visiting me here at my Little Creation Corner and don’t forget to stop by and check out the other creations at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

The Snowman Scoop! (a card and verse)

Hi Everyone ... This is ♥Carol♥ ... Welcome to my Little Creation Corner.  I hope everyone is off to a great start with your Holiday crafts.  I seem to be running a little slow this year, so I am now working like a little demon trying to get my Christmas cards completed.


Here's one of my first cards for the year ... I struggled trying to find a snowman with the right size tummy, so I made my own by welding two circles from the George cart using Design Studio and added the hat and scarf and carrot nose from the Snow Friends Cartridge. I also added a ribbon, a pompom and wiggly eyes to give the card a little more character and gave him a grin by using my hole punch .. the grin is a little large, next time I will use a smaller hole punch.

BTW, the center of the tummy is a Stampin'Up Treat cup filled with marshmallows.  Not that I am trying to give anyone a plug here ... but I purchased my Stampin'Up supplies from Mandy Ferg from the cricut.com message board.  If you don't have a Stampin'Up rep yet, I highly recommend her ... besides being a super sweet lady, she also is a wonderful Stampin'Up representative and has great customer service too!

The image inside is from PC Crafters, the verse is one I made special for this card, and the lettering is computer generated.

I hope you like it, and, as always ... thanx for looking

The Outside of the card

The Center of the Card

The Back of the Card

(Remember ... Click on any image to see full size.)

The verse is hard to read ... this is what it says ...

This Snowman’s Special

Here’s the scoop,

His tummy’s really

Filled with poop!

But that’s not the part

That’s so incredible,

This Snowman’s poop

Is really edible!

Just take a bite

And you will see,

His poop is

Yummy as can be!

He also brings

This wish from us

For a Happy New Year

& Merry Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this card as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.  Thanx again for visiting my Little Creation Corner.  If you have the time, leave me a comment, I love hearing reading what all of you have to say!  HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! 
 
♥Carol♥