Cactus Trio

Hello there, me again!

I'm back with another cactus card. This one is the last of three that I created with the Silhouette Cameo. It is an unusual card in that it has a top and bottom flap that opens rather than the standard side or top fold card. I chose bright colours and added a touch of sparkle to the flower and added a few gems.

What you need...

Digital image: 

Cactus Card by Daniela Moscone (#197812) - Silhouette

Card stock:

Pool

Dark Pool

Mid Green

Dark Green

Pink

White

Vinyl:

Midnight - Cricut

Embellishments:

Dewdrops - Little Things from Lucy's Cards

Extras:

Adhesives

Sparkle Crystal Clear Shimmer Pen

Tools:

Silhouette Cameo

What you do...

1 Load the image onto the Design Studio and re-size so the width of the main card is 14.5cm wide. Lock the aspect ratio so that everything keeps in proportion.

2 Type out the wording, change to your desired font. Re-size so it fits across the top section of the card.

3 Send the images to the Cameo, adjust the blade if necessary and cut out in the relevant colours.

4 Cut the font in Midnight vinyl.

5 Assemble the card using the image photo as a guide. Add the wording to the top section. Use the shimmer pen to add some shimmer to the flower. Finish with some Dewdrops to the left of the cactus pot.

I have a confession, I can't remember what font I used for the wording. I found the wording already cut out in my stash from some previous projects. I did go through all the fonts within the Silhouette. I think it was a font I used with my Cricut. The nearest font I could find is one called Paprika which is available through the Silhouette Design Store.

This is a lovely, bold and colourful card and I had fun assembling it. I might have to make it again in a different colour scheme. I think it's a good card to make if you are in a rush or want to make a batch as everything is already thought out for you.

Right then, that's me for now. Thank you as always for stopping by, take care and I'll be back soon.

Love Ya!

Hello there!

I'm back with another cute cactus card. I had a lovely time looking through the Silhouette store and came across some images of adorable cacti. I picked some that had lovely bold outlines, perfect for painting in. Rather than cut the outline from black card, I cut it from black vinyl and attached it to a piece of mixed media card. I used Catherine Pooler dye inks to paint the design.

What you need...

Digital image: 

Cactus with Hearts by Angele Kamp (#270153) - Silhouette

Font:

Funtasia by RVST (#313670)

Card stock:

Mixed Media Pad (A4) - Faber-Castell

White

Ink pads:

Aquatini - Catherine Pooler

Lime Rickey

Party Dress

Vinyl:

Midnight - Cricut

Patterned paper:

Sn@p Teal Chevron/Mini Dot - Simple Stories

Extras:

Adhesives

Tools:

Silhouette Cameo

What you do...

1 Load the image onto the Design Studio and re-size to approximately 2⅛"x 4" (6.5cm x 10cm).

2 Type out the wording, change the font to Funtasia and re-size to 66.42pt. 

3 Place the vinyl onto the cutting mat, send the image to the Silhouette, set the material to Vinyl,Matte and adjust the blade if necessary and cut.

4 Remove the image and stick onto a piece of multi media card and fussy cut out. Smoosh some inks onto a multi media mat and with a wet brush paint the cactus, hearts and pot. Allow to dry.

5 Create a mini slimline blank 3⅛"x 6¼" (8cm x 15.5cm). Mat a 1⅝" (4cm) deep piece of chevron paper across the bottom and add a narrow strip of vinyl along the top edge. 

6 Stick the lettering to the chevron paper and the cactus above.

These inks were a joy to paint with. I was debating whether to do the cactus in watercolours, but I thought I would try inks for a change. I'm glad I did play around with the inks.

There are a few cacti in this set and they are all adorable, so I think I will have to make a few more cards like this and play with some more inks/mediums.

I love the crisp, clean look that vinyl gives to images and as it is plastic it's great for painting within the lines. Wording also works well with vinyl, again for the crisp lines and you don't have to worry about applying glue and making a mess. I would think that you can cut vinyl with a manual die cutting machine, I might have to experiment.

Well, I am going to sign off now. I do have another couple of cactus themed cards to share,so I'll be back soon. Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Born Today - Cricut

Good afternoon!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. A few things have been happening in my life and unfortunately the blog took a back burner, but I'm back now.

A very dear friend asked me to make a birthday card for his husband. I went through the Cricut design store and found a perfect image. I kept to the colours used by Cricut as I found them to be quite clean, fresh and masculine.

Here is the card...

What you need...

Cricut image: 

Someone I Love Was Born Today (#M8B6A72E) - Let's Eat Some Cake set

Card stock: 

navy, teal, coral, white

Embellishments: 

Droplets Crystal Clear Hearts - Little Things From Lucy's Cards

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the images to your canvas.

2 Re-size to fit your chosen card blank. I used a 15cm square blank.

3 Send to cut in the colours of your choice.

4 Assemble onto the card blank and secure with adhesive.

5 Add some heart shaped droplets to finish.

I think this was such a lovely card to send to a male as men are so difficult to make for sometimes. You could also change up the colour scheme to make a card for a female recipient.

Handy tip: I cut the whole design out first in a scrap of card. I used the negative to help place all the final coloured pieces onto the blank. This helped keep the lovely heart shape and spacing of the little hearts.

If you haven't got access to a Cricut, then you could get a similar look by using die cut words/hearts or stamps from your stash.

So there we have it, a simple card that uses a beautiful image and colours.

I am going to sign off for now, thank you for popping by and I'll hopefully be back soon.

Peas Love Happiness

Hello there!

Well I'm back with another make. I am still going through some of my old stamp sets and of course some of my faves are Paper Smooches. The 'Vegtastic' stamp set is just so cute, I used it in my last post with the carrot card. At least with this stamp set you are getting one of your five a day!

Without further ado do here we are...

What you need...

Stamps:

Vegtastic - Paper Smooches

Embossing folder:
Swiss Dots - Cricut

Ink pads:

Extreme Black - My Favorite Things
Sea Breeze - VersaMagic

Alcohol markers:

Nile Green G07, Apple Green G14, Green Bice YG01, New Leaf YG23, Sugared Almond Pink RV02, Tender Pink RV13 - Copic

Gel Pen:
Signo White Broad (UM-153) - Uni-ball

Dimensional medium:
Glossy Accents - Ranger

Card stock: 

White, Pale Aqua

Masking paper:
Stamping Mask Paper - Inkadinkado

What you do...

1 Stamp the peas onto white card stock with the little heart above. Stamp the images again onto masking paper and cut out. Lay the masks over the original stamped image.

2 Use a blending tool to blend the Sea Breeze ink around the images and remove the masks.

3 Colour in the images and add the sentiment underneath. Trim the image to 7.5cm square.

4 Emboss a 10cm square piece of white card with the Swiss Dots.

5 Cover a 12cm square blank with pale aqua card. Then layer the embossed panel followed by the stamped panel.

6 Add some highlights to the heart, pod and peas with gel pen, apply Glossy Accents and allow to dry.

I did notice that the Glossy Accents can affect the gel pen a little, so you need to be careful when applying it that you don't move it around too much, but you can't really notice on the card.

I still have quite a few rainbow themed cards to post up, but I'm trying to spread them out a little so you are not overloaded!

I'm going to sign off for now and have a coffee and maybe a shortbread or two (yum) whilst enjoying the sun in the conservatory. Plus I can see what the chickens are up to!

Thank you for popping by and I'll be back soon. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hello Birdie (Silhouette)

Good afternoon!

I hope you are all still keeping well and safe. I've just finished another project for Papercrafter (one for my step by step pages) and before I type everything up and get it ready for posting I thought I would share another make with you.

This is a card I made for all the staff and residents at the care home where my mum lives. It was just to say hello and that I really appreciate what they do and how they look after mum so well. 

Mum and I have been face timing each other at lot lately. She does have a land line in her room but she's never in it! As she takes her lap top up to the communal area it means she can speak to me whenever she wants. The staff have been really good setting her up so she can log on to Facebook and get in touch. She says it is like I am just sitting in front of her!

Anyhoo, onto the card. This is another one created using the Silhouette.

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Bird on Branch #174334 - Miss Kate Cuttables

Font: Script MT Bold

Card stock: brown, pale blue, pale pink, red, yellow white

Self adhesive vinyl: black - Cricut

Gems: clear

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image. Open the design page and add the image.

2 Re-size the bird image to suit. I sized it to fit a 6" square blank.

3 Send to cut in your chosen colours.

4 Use the text function to create the sentiment in the Script MT Bold font and cut in black vinyl.

5 Assemble the bird, branch and bird box and fix to the blank so the branch comes in from the right hand side edge.

6 Apply the vinyl wording with the help of transfer tape.

7 Add some gems to decorate.

The image used is £0.75 which isn't bad for how detailed it is. The font is free that you can use through Microsoft Word. I think if you have this on your PC then it will automatically shows on the Silhouette. 

Check out my 'Free Fonts' page to link you to a few websites that offer free fonts, there are hundreds to choose from. Please be aware that some fonts are only free for domestic use,  however there are still lots of free fonts available if you are planning to sell your makes. It is always best to check.

If you would like the pear/sentiments digi stamps from my last post, then please email through the 'Contact Me' page and I will send them to you. They are only available for a limited time.

Thank you for popping by and I hope you have a lovely Easter (as best as we can at the moment). At least this virus doesn't affect chocolate!

Happy Mother's Day - Silhouette Cameo

Good afternoon blog friends!

My it's cold and windy out there today - brrr! Poor chickens are getting blown around the garden.

This post I would like to show you the card I made for my mum for Mother's Day. Sadly I couldn't visit her as she lives in a care home in the North Yorkshire Dales and with the restrictions in place it meant it was a no go. I did send her a little goodie box to enjoy as well.

I am having a run with the Silhouette at the moment, there are just too many cute designs!

It seems that Zuzu the cat keeps getting in on the picture at the moment. She does like to be in all and everything.

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Heart with Flowers #314131 - Little Luxuries Loft

Silhouette font: PN Popsicle Day Bold #305510 - ScrapNfonts

Self adhesive vinyl: black - Cricut

Card stock: pink, pale pink, red, dark green, red, white

Transfer tape: Cricut

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image. Open the design page and add the image.

2 Re-size the heart image to suit. I sized it to fit a 6" square blank.

3 Send to cut in your chosen colours.

4 Use the text function to create the sentiment in the Popsicle Bold Font and cut in black vinyl.

5 Assemble the heart and flowers and fix to the top of the blank.

6 Apply the vinyl wording with the help of transfer tape.

I chose to keep the colours in the sample by Silhouette as I thought they were adorable, but of course you can use any colours you want.

At the moment the font is reduced to £1.13 instead of the usual £2.25 and the Heart with Flowers is £0.37 instead of £0.75. The sale ends on 31st March, so get in quick! There are hundreds of images with 50% off in their Thank You Event. Even without an event on, I think the prices of images are very reasonable. There are just so many!

Even if you don't have a Silhouette, I think you could easily replicate this make using simple heart and flowers dies in your stash.

My mum loved the card and the goodies even more! Hope you like the card too, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

I'm going to go now, but I have some more cards coming up also using the Silhouette Cameo. Thank you for popping by! 

St. Patrick's Day - Lucky Friend - Silhouette Cameo

Hello blog friends!

I hope that you are all keeping well and safe in these difficult times.

I have two dear friends June & Stephen that I truly love and adore. Stephen is Irish (June is Irish by proxy!) and it's tradition that I send a St. Patrick's Day card every year. 

This year I wanted to do something a little different just to let them know how much they mean to me. I had to wait a couple of days to post this up until I knew they received the card as I know they read my blog.

Great fun was had going through the Silhouette Design Store looking for images, there are literally 100's of St. Patrick's Day images and wording. Most of the images are £0.75 but leading up to St. Patrick's Day they had an offer on and images were reduced by 50%. So £0.37 - bargain! 

Then I came across the design which I thought was perfect.

When I photographed the card, Zuzu was in the background and I had to have her in the photo - supervising!

What you need...

Silhouette image file: Good Friend - Four Leaf Clover #315626 - Jamie Lane Designs 

Self adhesive vinyl: black, green - Cricut

Transfer tape: Cricut

Cardstock: white

What you do...

1 Purchase and download the image. Open the design page and add the image.

2 Re-size to suit.

3 Cut the wording in black vinyl and the clover leaves in the green vinyl. Weed away the excess.

4 Use transfer tape to pick up the image from the backing paper.

5 Create a 15cm square blank and carefully line up the image and rub across the transfer tape to distribute the image. Make sure the image is flat with no air bubbles.

I found it easier to do the lettering first and then add the clover leaves after. Transfer is a God send if you are doing lettering on a project.

I love to use vinyl when doing a card with a lot of wording, it cuts very cleanly and you don't have any fiddly gluing to contend with.

Needless to say June & Stephen loved the card :)

Thank you for popping by, please take care, keep safe and look out for those that need a bit of extra help at the moment.