Cricut Cardz Challenge 95

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 "We're So Thankful"!   is challenge #95 at Cricut Cardz Challenge.  Make a Thanksgiving card using a card cut from any Cricut Cartridge.
Here's my entry:

 The card cut is from Picturesque.  The cartridge shows it as a tri-fold card, but I changed it to a bi-fold.  It is cut at 4.25" high (making it 11.18" wide).  This is my favorite cartridge for card cuts because they are all unique.

The greeting is cut from Lyrical Letters at 1.65" high making it 4" wide. I cut the pinecone twice splitting the second cut into the cone and the needles.  I inked the needles green and the cone brown on that cut.  Then layered both pieces onto the first cut before adding it to the phrase cut.

I wanted my little surprise to really stand out so I backed the windows with green glitter paper and recut only one window (by hand).

Here is the inside:

I just love this little pilgrim mouse.  He is so sweet.  The beautiful saying "Sending you miles of smiles" is from CardzTV Stamps.  It is part of the Encouraging Thoughts set Mary created.  I must say these are some of the best quality stamps I've ever used.  They are really deep cut so they ink beautifully.

Supplies
Stamps: CardzTV Stamps "Encouragimg Thoughts"
Ink: Momento Rich Cocoa, Olive Green
Paper: Recollections white and craft, DCWV green glitter, Dana's Closet green (inside lining on top)
Bling: Recollections flower and gem
Cuts: Cricut Picturesque and Lyrical Letters
Image: MS Office

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out all the other entries at Cricut Cardz Challenge.
Sue

Z Fold Mini Prototype page

First and foremost, thank you Laura at Following the Paper Trail for this idea.  Laura used a coin envelope and a medium sized office envelope with a clasp to make her album.  I tried this and succeeded, but I didn't like how the envelopes showed. (Enter trash bin).  SO, I played around with a 12" square of paper and worked out several folding templates.
I finally settled on this one.

1.  On one side score the paper at 2 1/2", 8 1/2", and 11 3/4".
2.  Turn the paper 1/4 turn.
3.  Score the paper at  5 7/8" and 11 3/4".

You end up with a 2 1/2" flap, a 6" center, and a 3 1/2" flap (this replaces the coin envelope).
I have a Z-fold album 95% finished, but I wanted to share my first prototype.  The folds and cuts don't show in this pictures, but when I post the "It's Elementary..." mini I will include how I folded and cut the page to create pockets in a how-to photo group.

This was my first experimental page.  Since this page I've changed how I taped the page together so the seams don't show.  The beige strip is the binding tab and that is cut from a separate paper and added after the folding and taping to the album page is complete.

The first flap is open from top to bottom on the right side.  Laura used brads to divide this into two pockets.  I also did this.  You could leave it at one pocket, but the depth is only 2" and you may be limited as to what wouldn't fall out when you turn the page.

The back side of this has a small mat for journaling or pictures.

The center section on the front is a pocket.  The section measures 5 7/8" by 5 7/8" and holds a 5.5" by 5.5" tag (you can see the red tag barley sticking out).  Plus there is a 5 1/2" by 5 1/2" mat on the outside of the pocket.

 Here's the tag.  I have made this tag as a small booklet of 2-4 pages and it fits just fine.

The second flap is a 3 1/2" pocket that opens at the top.  I have a 3" mat on this flap.  Since this is one page of a Christmas Mini I thought this cardinal worked out really nicely.

 The pocket holds 2 1/2" x 5 1/2"  tag.

The back side of the flap also has a 2 1/2" by 5 1/2" mat.  The pocket has two tags inside it.  One faces each side of the flap.

The last part of the page is a 5 7/8" by 5 7/8" section with no pockets.  I placed a large size mat (In this case another Christmas paper that has a tree and presents.   The binding strip is a 5" by 5 1/2" strip that is folded in half and edge punched (EK Success Punch) and has binding holes for rings punched into the folded edge.  You could use any binding punch style. The strip is added to the page with Scor Tape.

Again, thank you Laura.  I tried to find a direct link on her blog to the Z fold mini, but I couldn't.  I think she has a U stream video on it though.  I'll keep looking and try to connect directly.

The second prototype is a "Frame Yourself" Mini.  I have all the pages cut and glued and the frames cut, but that's as far as I've gotten on that one.  Here is a few pictures of the pages.  This paper is from DCWV Mia Casa glossy paper stack.  There are some really wild papers in the stack.  It wasn't easy to tone them down much.  The picture frames are from tag cuts on the Picturesque cartridge.  I used grommets instead of brads on the front flaps of all the pages as well as on the tags.

Both of these minis should be up some time in the next two weeks.  The "It's Elementary..." mini (a school mini album for my grandson's elementary school should be up next week.

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know what you think.
Sue

Butterfly Kisses Layout

The papers used on this layout are from DCWV Summer Dreams Pack, and a transparency overlay from  Dena's Closet (used for the butterflies.)  I used the Cricut to cut the butterflies from the Pictureque cartridge and to cut the wording from the Holiday Cakes cartridge. Except for those cuts everything was cut with my paper trimmer from four sheets of paper in the Summer Dreams pack. 

The base of the page is a sheet of green dotted paper with butterfly and floral images on two corners.  The blue dotted paper divides the page in half. I cut a strip from a page of matching borders and layered it on the blue strip to tone down the blue.  I used a red print sheet for the photo mats.  Small strips from the border print page were used on the corners of the photo mats.

The butterflies are cut from a sheet of soft green printed transparency.  (Because of the patterns on the papers the printed paisley image on the butterfly doesn't show in the photos.)  It was easy to cut these  on my Original Cricut with the blade depth at 6 and the pressure at 5.  I used short strips of Scor Tape to adhere the three butterflies on the page, then slightly bent up the wings to make them three dimensional. 

The solid red flowers on the green paper are hearts grouped in circles.  I used two sets of three heart buttons to replicate parts of those flowers and create more dimension.   I used white card stock for the lettering.  It is bold enough to be noticed and blends with the white images on the green sheet.

I made this layout to display pictures of both my granddaughters who dressed as fairies for Halloween one year. They both looked like beautiful butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if you have any questions.
Sue

Three Elements Page Sketch - Variation 3

Here is the basic sketch:

Here is my third version.  A twist on the sketch this time.

I used Walk In My Garden for the flower pot, and Picturesque for the butterfly and flower on the pot.  I used my Nestabilities to cut the three sunflowers.  I thought I would either use the centers of these flowers are journal space or small pictures.  The three picture frames are made with George.  The base of the frames is MS card stock trimmed with sections of Bazzill "Just the Edge" cardstock strips.  Both the 1" strip of yellow dotted card stock behind the frames, and the scallop part of the daisies are also MS card stock. I used DMC memory thread for the stems and vines in the flowers and the antenna on the butterfly. The butterfly is made from papers in my stash of scraps.  I haven't added the title yet, but it will be letters going down the space between the frames and flower pots.  It will be based on which pictures I finally decide to put in the frames.  The holographic bow on the pot is from my Christmas stash.  I thought is balanced out the gems on the frames and butterfly.
Here are some closeups of the details.

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if you have any questions.
Sue