Showing posts with label Quirky Crafts Challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quirky Crafts Challenges. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Operation Write Home VCMP - Represent your state

I live on a farm in Missouri. My husband isn't a farmer like his dad was, so my mother-in-law rents our pasture land to a friend. His cattle do the grazing and he keeps fences mended, mows the hay, etc. Another friend is raising soybeans on some of our acreage. I personally think cows represent a large part of our state.  Except around the big cities, you can hardly drive without seeing pasture land or cattle. And, yes, I have looked at the cows in my back yard and I agree they don't have that shade of pink anywhere, but I used artistic license when I colored this cow.

I designed this card with several challenges in mind. The Virtual Card Making Party for Labor Day Weekend had this last challenge: Represent Your State, which I'm doing with this cute cow from Clear Dollar Digi Stamps, "Farm Critters Digital Image."

Paper Playtime suggested the gingham and Quirky Crafts asked for Farm + one recycled item. I took the plastic packaging from my new Tombo adhesive refill, Used a Sharpie to trace a star that I cut on the Cricut, and cut it out to glue over part of the title. I wanted a star to go with the title and it is so easy to see through the plastic star, I will definitely try this again. Sweet Stamps challenge this week has more ideas for using acetate on cards and layouts.

I also altered the title in Photoshop. I copied Udderly Terrific and hit "New" document/image. I doubled the size of the width suggested in the "New" drop down menu. Then I pasted Udderly Terrific and moved it to the right with the pointer. I copied "You're" from another sentiment in that set, pasted it and moved it to the left with the pointer. I went to Layers and Flattened the layers so I could save it as a jpg to print.

I used the bonus sketch for this week at Operation Write Home. Then I added two die cut scalloped circles - 3/25" and 3.5" to highlight the main image.

 
I'm sharing this card at the following challenges:
No Matter Which Challenge #2 - Die Cuts and Punches
Paper Playtime Challenge #83 - Gingham and Punches
Quirky Crafts challenge #18 - Recycling on the Farm
 
 
5.5" x 4.25" Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart retired gingham, Black and White Daisy cardstock; The Paper Studio "Simple Elegance"
Digital Images - Clear Dollar Stamps  "Farm Critters Digital Image."
Markers - CTMH Cotton Candy Light Alcohol Marker; Copics N00, N02, N04 (grays)
Accents - unknown daisy chain ribbon from my stash; clear star made from "trash"
Tools - printer, Cricut Art Philosophy (scalloped circles, star), 3" circle punch; Adobe Photoshop, Sharpie permanent black marker, acetate cover packaging from Tombow adhesive refill
 

 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Christmas in July with Cricut Artiste

I'm not sure how I could think about Christmas today when it's well over 100 degrees outside - again. Maybe it's wishful thinking for cooler weather combined with all the wonderful challenges to make cards for Christmas in July.  I'm in favor of celebrating the gift of Christ every day of the year!

It seemed like Christmas when the Fed Ex man delivered boxes of new Close To My Heart products a few days ago. I had to go out of town to babysit grandchildren for a few days, so I was excited to open packages and plan projects when I got home.  My favorite is the Cricut Artiste that will go on sale on my business website beginning August 1st.  Until then, I'll be making some projects to show different things you can do with the 700 images on the cartridge.  Here's a Christmas card that uses the decorative hexagon cut in black as the base for the large circle in Mojo Monday's sketch for this week.



The decorative hexagon is Accent 3 on page 80, the "Merry Christmas" key.

I used CTMH Pear and Partridge paper pack and a wreath, branch, and sentiment from a new CTMH stamp set called "Merry & Bright," which will also be released August 1st. I stamped the wreath on Colonial White cardstock with Olive ink, then colored it with the Copic green marker and cranberry CTMH dye ink marker. Thanks to the encouragement from Creative Belli blog to use old, forgotten supplies, I used a scrap of thin satin ribbon and one of red organdy that I'd hoarded for quite a few years. The organdy was just big enough to make a bow.


Challenges for this card:
Creative Belli Challenge #148 - Christmas in July
Lexi's Creations #70 - Christmas in July
Quirky Crafts Challenge #15 - Christmas in July