Birthday Card in a Box

Cards in a Box are all the rage right now and I've been wanting to make one for a while but hadn't.  Then last week, Narelle from The Non-Crafty Crafter offered up a free Design Space cut file for her followers and that spurred me on to actually making this card for my godson's 21st birthday:

Supplies Used: 
Cricut Explore & Design Space Online Software
The Non-Crafty Crafter Cut File (card in a box)
Cricut Doodletype Cartridge (squares with rounded corners)
Cricut Life’s a Party Cartridge (birthday cake) 
Cricut Stretch Your Imagination Cartridge (balloons)
Cricut Celebrations Cartridge (presents and streamers)
Cricut Alphabet Cartridge (“21”)
Cricut Paper Lace Cartridge (Happy Birthday)
Recollections Card Stock (solid)
Martha Stewart Card Stock (patterned)
Twine (strings for balloons)
Various pens/markers for inking and highlights
Plastic Packaging (to adhere cuts to box)
Self-adhesive foam mounts
Glue

You can get Narelle's cut file for FREE by going over to her blog and follow her directions to get the file sent to you! CLICK HERE to go to Narelle's blog.

Thanks for visiting.

Narelle's Pinterest Party!

The incredibly talented and beyond helpful Narelle (aka The Non-Crafty Crafter) is having a Pinterest Party on her blog! The "party rules" are simple:  (1) become a follower of Narelle's blog (trust me you won't regret it if you do),  (2) go to Pinterest and pick any craft project, and (3) make it.

Here's my project:

 

It's based on this card to the right from the Karten Kunst Blog (I hope that I've gotten the name right - my German is virtually non-existent).  I had pinned this a little over a month ago because I loved the  elegance of the Karten Kunst card.  I fear that my use of more and bright colors doesn't make my version measure up to the original.

Supplies Used: 

Cricut Explore & Design Space Online Software
Cricut Ribbons & Rosettes Cartridge (flower border/circle boarder)
Cricut Disney - Tinker Bell & Friends Cartridge (butterfly)
Cricut Calligraphy Collection Cartridge (Happy Birthday)
Recollections Card Stock
Self-adhesive foam mounts
Glue

Thanks for checking out my card and please be sure to visit Narelle's Blog.

Birthday Card with a little Mixed Media

Here's my first attempt at incorporating some mixed media into a card:

For the mixed media component, I cut a stencil from some plastic packaging I had saved and used it to stencil some drywall compound mixed with Silks Acrylic Glaze directly onto the card base.  I wasn't happy with the color, so I rubbed Inka Gold Metallic Rub over the stenciled area after it had dried.

I am entering  this card in the Die-Namites Blog April "Egg-Cellent" sketch challenge as my tak on the the sketch:

I turned the  Die-Namites Elegant Flake Die into a lace boarder by cutting each "arm" of the snowflake off, colored it with Inka Gold Metallic rub and arranged them into a straight line across the card.  I also used the leaves from the Winter Branch Die-Namites Die for the  leaves behind the paper roses.

Supplies Used: 
Cricut Explore & Design Space Online Software
Cricut CTMH Artiste Cartridge (roses)
Cricut  Winter Wonderland Cartridge (gift)
Cricut Paper Lace Cartridge (damask boarder - for stencil)
Plastic Packing (for stencil)
Synko Drywall Coumpound
Silkes Acrylic Glaze (
Inka Gold Metallic Rub (Gold)
VersaMagic Chalk Ink (Spanish Olive)
Recollections card base 
Martha Stewart Edge Punch  (Double Loops)
Cuttlebug Machine
Die-Namites Die - Winter Branch
Die-Namites Die - Elegant Flake
Spellbinders Page Maps  Die - Tags & Flags
Recollections Glimmer Cardstock
Dollar Store Metallic Cardstock 
Anna Giffin Georgette Christmas Collection (patterned cardstock)
Craft Smart Embossing Pad
Gold Embossing Powder
Stampin' Up Teen Tiny Wishes Stamp (sentiment)
Stampin'Up Word Window Punch
Dollar Store Tulle Ribbon
Pleather Gold Strip (scrap from my stash)
Self-adhesive foam mounts
Glue

Thanks for checking out my card.

Sretan Uskrs [Happy Easter] Card

So, I recently purchased a Cricut Explore and have been playing a little with cutting SVG files created from photos and graphics.  Crafting images with Croatian symbols are not easy to find. Also not easy to find are sentiment stamps in the Croatian language.  This card combines both:

A red and white checkerboard pattern is a common symbol associated with Croatia.    Another lesser known symbol is the pleter (sometime referred to as a Croatian wattle) which is a geometrical braid design used in the 9th-12th century by Croats to decorate churches and monasteries.  The churches often include crosses with this geometric pattern such as the one found on the Baptismal Fount of Duke Višeslav .   Using Google, I found a black and white graphic image of a pleter cross posted by a graphic artist on a message board.  I contacted the graphic artist through the message board and asked his permission to use the image on a card that I would be posting on my blog.  The artist kindly granted his permission and I am very grateful.

I used Inkscape to turn the JPEG of his image into a SVG file.  I then cut the file with the Explore and I was quite impressed with how well the Explore cut the thin lines of the pleter cross.  I also welded and cut two rectangles using Design Space to create a background for the cross.

The sentiment stamp on the front is a custom rubber stamp I designed and then ordered from http://readystamps.com/ .  They were wonderful to deal with and I highly recommend them if you are interested in designing some of your own custom rubber stamps.

Supplies Used: 
Cricut Explore & Design Space Online Softwaer
Cricut CTMH Artiste Cartridge (roses)
Cricut Craft Room Exclusive: Chess Image Set (checkerboard)
Cricut Cake Basics Cartridge (retangles)
Pleter Kris SVG file
Recollections card base 
Stampin'Up Word Window Punch
Cuttlebug Machine
Die-Namites Die - Winter Branch
Spellbinders Page Maps  Die - Tags & Flags
Recollections Cardstock
Fiskars Red Ink Pad
Croatian "Happy Easter" Custom Rubber Stamp
Dollar Store Ribbon
Self-adhesive foam mounts
Glue

Thank you so much for checking out my card.