Wine Plaque Mixed Media

     Hello fellow crafters!!!! I am so excited to be a Cricut Diva! That's right, I am now a member of the CricutDiva DT. For my first post I thought I would share with you a project I submitted as an example of my work for the application process in order to be  considered for the team. I love mixed media and have taken many online course so this is a favorite of mine. Our goal is to show you what you can do with your Cricut and the versatility of projects you can make with them.

     This project used 3 cartridges. I used: Word Collage, Celebrate With Flourish, French Manor and, as an extra bonus, Mini Monograms. Let's get started since I have a wealth of detail to share with you, lol.

     Let's start with this picture. I used an 8" x 10" canvas board and painted with Martha Stewarts Satin cream paint. It is hard to see in the pic but I also inked the edges of the frame with Antique Linen distress ink. I then cut the wine words from Word Collage using the wine section. This was all cut @ 6" with vinyl. I have a confession to make. This is not the original I started with! At first I tried a stretched canvas that I painted a wine color and was going to paint over the vinyl with the cream. Hint: not a good idea to start with a dark base if you plan to go over with a lighter color!

     I was satisfied with how this was proceeding but wanted to add some corners to the canvas. This is where French Manor comes in. I am not sure if the image on page 63 were glasses or not, but for this plaque, let's just pretend they are! I cut the Border+shift key and cut them @ 1.25" times 4 for all the corners.

     I have this wonderful stamp that I love and thought the Steam Punk look just fit in so well here. This is an Inkadinkado stamp that I used Archival Brilliance Coffee Bean to stamp with. I also had this wonderful braided cording that went fabulous with this project. Now what to do for the hands of the clock?

     Did you know that French Manor has a clock face with hands image? Well it does. It is on page 31 under Layer. I used my gypsy and moved the clock image off the mat so all I would cut is the clock hands @ 1". How cool is that, lol. Now on to my main image: the wine bottle and glasses.

     I bet you were wondering why I placed the word collage off to the side, well, here is why. I wanted to use this wine bottle and glasses as my focal point. The die cut is from Celebrate With Flourish and I cut it at 8.65" x 9.35". I used the main image as well as the shadow feature. All the edges were inked with Aged Mahogany and also sprayed with Glimmer Mist Brick and Fern. I also used some Gold Stickles to add a touch of class!

     I wanted a more realistic look to the glasses so I cut them separately out of Graffix clear plastic. I know it can be difficult to use the plastic or acetate without having the glue show so, I'll share my secret with you. I used a glue dot in the center of the glass which I knew I would cover with a Monogram. The stems were adhered with Glossy accents. If you have a spot that you are not happy with, no problem. I truly believe Stickles were made to hide mistakes!!!

     The little monogram circles were cut @ .75" from Mini Monograms. I also found a small cork in my stash so I just inked it up with some Aged Mahogany.

     If you remember in the first pic, I had glued a piece of fabric to the bottom part of the canvas. When I had laid everything out, it looked odd to me that the bottle was "just There". By adding the fabric, it gives the impression that it is resting on the table. The grapes are left over from small wine favors we used for one of my daughters weddings. Yes, I do have quite the collection of supplies! Before I show you the completed project I just wanted to show you the back. Why you ask? I like to show how everything should be finished off for a professional look.

     I had used Zutter rivets to secure my ribbon but didn't like the look of the rivets or ribbon ends showing. All you have to do is cut a piece of brown paper or card stock, a little smaller than the completed projects. Add a bead of glue around the edges (I use Arlene's Quick Tack) and then lightly mist with water. As it dries it lays taut and gives a nice finished look.

     I hope you have been inspired to use your cartridges for out of the box embellishments. If you have learn a little (or a lot, lol) I would love if you became a follower as well as leave a comment. I read each and every one of them and it always makes me smile!

  

     

Dress Form Card

     My best friend and I always exchange birthday gifts and her special day was yesterday. Ok so she is not the foo foo or glitzy girl (I am, lol!) but she loves anything I make. I just love my Imagine and the circle exclusive cart French Manor. I made a card using the dress form for my daughters birthday in October, but I haven't really used the card feature on any of my carts yet. After doing this card I think that is going to change!

     First let me start by saying I had been a little disappointed in the cuts I got with the I. Don't get me wrong it cuts more intricate details better than the expression. That being said, the cuts were a little off even with the calibrations.So I finally did the advanced calibrations and now they are right on.
     I cut the card base with a height of 5.50" which gave me a perfect A2 card. (4.25" x 5.50"). I used the relative size button and then cut the separate dress form. I also cut a 3" dress form to use on a tag. The Elise cart has a really pretty palette so I chose a printed pattern for the card itself and kept the card insert from white card stock. I chose the gray for the dress forms and sprayed these pieces with Tattered Angels granite mist. The background has a gorgeous Donna Salazar stamp of lace that I stamped with Ranger milled lavender. The embellishments are: a strand of pearls, prima flowers and a scrap of ruffled elastic.

     I have a lot of velum sentiments so I grabbed a scrap of white card stock and a nestabilities label and voila a classy inside. I forgot to hide the score marks on the card and figured what the heck, the slits are already there so a grabbed some "Foo Foo" fine yarn and tied it with a bow.
     It's about time I put some of my on line classes knowledge to work. I grabbed some alcohol inks and a shipping tag to make my background. Remember that 3" dress form I cut along with the card? Well I added that to the tag along with a fabric flower I made.

     My friend absolutely loved it!!

Joan's Gardens week #1 Challenge

   Well with all the snow we got today (18" +) it was a great day to do some challenges. After the laundry was done, cookies baked and supper over with it was time to set about a challenge. Joan's gardens has some beautiful projects over there and I finally have the confidence to enter their first challenge of the year. First it had to include an animal or bird (check) had to use a floral back ground (check) a die of some sort ( check) and something out of your comfort zone (UGH!).

   One of my personal goals this year is to use up some of my stash of scrap paper. This background paper seemed to be perfect for the background paper. I also had this negative image leftover from  another scrap project. At first I was going to use a Spellbinder die but I really loved how this sort of looked like a sign so I went with a simple stamp "There's a song in the air".
   The easy part was to use an image from my cricut library French Manor for the bird and birdcage. Now came the hard part: something out of my comfort zone. Okay so I have a confession: I'm a hoarder. Yup it's true and one of the things I've been hoarding is anything by Tim Holtz.  So it was finally time to pull out the grunge paper and gold dabber paint. I love how this came out! What a great dimension this paper gives! Everything was inked with Ranger distress ink antique linen.

   I also decided to use a Martha Stewart punch for this beautiful butterfly. Of course the front would not be complete without bling so I added some pale blue rhinestones.
   I also love to complete the inside of my cards so I used the Spellbinders Labels Ten (3 1/2") size stamped the sentiment and then shaded embossed area with blue chalk.
   Not bad for a card made out of scraps! Great start to the New Year!!