Simplified flowerpot cards

Here are my samples for the card class I'm teaching at the library next week. I simplified the design so that the kids can do it, and I'll teach it in small groups while the rest of them play with my scraps and basic supplies. Decorating the pots should take them a little while. I punched the outsides of the flowers with a large punch, the rest is all done with the Cricut and Make the Cut software.

Cricut Valentines

Lauren asked if I could make some Valentines for the Gilda's Club Arts Day... so I got out my Cricut and started designing. They've upgraded the Make the Cut software and added some extra features that make it even more versatile, and it cuts super-fast now, so I'm going to be using it a LOT more.The last one isn't actually 'cricut' - border punches are still quicker and easier than designing whole cards, at least for me! I got some lovely border stickers at the LSS and made them the centerpiece of some cards. I've still got a ton left too.

 

Berry Special

Our internet kept going down today... so I played with Make the Cut instead of messing around online. I spent all afternoon working on a card with strawberries. The first card uses the cut file and the second uses the negative image - I just printed out another 'berry' and drew in the centers of the letters. I'd share the file with you, but I don't know how... Make the Cut is pretty easy to use, but it has a steep learning curve for making your own images from scratch. I keep trying to use it like photoshop but it's not a drawing program. You have to import stuff to it or use 'basic shapes' to make your stuff. The clipart berry I used only had one stem - the other was hollow. I filled it in, and then I copied the green stem, flipped it, and stretched it to shape. I spent AGES trying to get the 'fit' right on the background layer.Then I decided I didn't need the background after all and deleted it. I'd love to share the file with you since the whole card took four hours to design... but I'm afraid I don't know how to get it out of the program or into my blog.

Playing with Make The Cut

John bought me the Make The Cut software for my Cricut and I've been figuring out how to use it... I downloaded a bunch of dingbat fonts so I'd have some graphics to play with, and away I went.

Here's my first MTC card, with a butterfly from a dingbat font. The pink paper is shimmery metallic and I chalked the butterfly. This purple is actually magenta but it scans in a funny shade.

And here's something I'm very proud of - my very first made-from-scratch project. I drew up the tag shape myself and figured out how to cut out the decoration... then I made a 'shadow' layer to go underneath it. It might not be very big or elaborate, but there's a steep learning curve represented here!

You can do a LOT with this little program and a USB cable... if you have a cricut I'd highly recommend it, because it lets you use ANY TrueType Font to cut. And you can also make your own graphics, as you see, and you can import drawings from Illustrator and turn colouring pages into graphics when you know what you're doing.  You can find out more about Make the Cut here.