Whoos Celebrating?

     Welcome to all my new followers, I'm so glad you are here! In case you are unfamiliar with what Imagination Mondays are let me explain. On Mondays Erica asks her Design Team to use their Imagine to create a project. She also has a swap for cards,die cuts and sometimes themes. I am in the card swap where you must include some form of embossing and also use stickles, liquid pearls and a form of glimmer mist. We make 8 each that are exactly the same that we send to our swap leader Doris. She in turns mails us back 8, one from each of the members who are participating. It is a fabulous way to build up a stash of cards as well as to see how each one uses the technique or theme. Whew, now that I have gotten all the details out of the way, you probably have guessed that my project for today is what I have done for this swap. They are already in the mail!

     I wanted to make a card that could be used for several occasions, congratulations, graduation, birthday and perhaps an anniversary. I also wanted to ensure it was sort of gender neutral so I went with the owl from the Imagine cart Better Together. The owl is on page 13 and I cut it @ 3". I cut one with the layers combined and then cut with the head and hat using separated layers.
     I used Provo Craft embossing folder "Leaves" for the background on a shimmery card stock.This was a great time to use my Distress marker "Peeled Paint" to add color to the stems and veins on the leaves and then brushed on some lime green stickles to the leaves. I love how this looks. It is so sparkly in person!

 Just look at that sparkle. Yay!!!

Isn't this just the cutest owl, lol. I pulled out my glaze black pen to add some texture to the feathers and wings. Before I put some pop dots on the owl head piece, I used some "Gold Pearl" liquid pearls on the beak (now that's one classy owl!).

     I didn't want my owl to just be hanging around so I decided to cut some grass to complete the scene. For the border I used All Occasions Cake Art cart. The grass is on page 85 and I used the cake feature 1"x6" and also >shift key. I used tattered Angels Chalkboard Fern to sparkle the grass up. I adhered everything to some card bases I had from My Mind's Eye card pack "Out and About".

     If you are looking for some great prices on the supplies I have used on my project today be sure to check out Erica's Store: She has a huge supply of great products.

     I hope you all have a safe and healthy July 4th and that you have wonderful memories to scrapbook later. God Bless America!!! Now be sure to check out what my DT sisters have created to share with you back at My Cricut Craft Room. http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

    

Designers' Calendar

     Welcome to my very first Erica's Design Team project. I am delighted that you stopped by. Grab a cup of coffee and let's talk Cricut! On this day you could use the Imagine, Cricut mini or the Expression 2. I used both the Imagine and the E 2.
     You will need magnetic vinyl, printable vinyl and solid vinyl in various colors as well as Designers Calendar cart and a deep cut blade and housing.

       I have found it so much easier to apply the vinyl to the magnet vinyl before I cut out the shapes.This is especially helpful if you do a shadow layer for your project. I used the Cricut alphabet that came with the E2 to cut my numbers. They were all cut @.75 but I think if I did this again I would make them smaller.* Just be careful the font you choose. You want a fairly stable font. You could probably use Base Camp etc.
     The settings to cut this are: Speed 3, Pressure 5, Blade 6 and multiple cuts 4.
     You need to cut: 14-1's,13 2's, 5-3's,4-4's, 3 each of 5,6,7,8,9,0's. ( Don't you love it when someone else figures out the math, lol).

      I realized after cutting all these #'s that it would be a pain to move them all around every month (another one of those monthly curses!) so I decided to put them on a magnetic stamp shape. I used Elegant Edges @ 1.25" (its 2nd row down, 4th from the right and shift key. I cut these the same way as the #'s adhering the vinyl to the magnetic vinyl as before.
     I LOVE to try new products and, as luck would have it, I had just received my order for Glimmer Glaze by Tattered Angels in. This one is Fuzzy Coconut which is a copper color. So I decided I should try it out on this project. Ohh I like it.!!! To make sure the numbers stayed put I used some really small glue dots to the numbers. Those things aren't going anywhere! Are you ready to see the months?

 
     Before I cut these out I did some test cuts on paper because they weren't all proportional. Here is the list I came up with however you may want to tweak it to fit your needs: Jan.,Feb.,May,July, Aug., and Sept., were @1.5". April was cut @ 1.25" and June,Oct., Nov., Dec., @ 1.0".
     I used the printable vinyl in my Imagine and Snapshot Nature for Jan., March, May and September. The months of Feb and April I used Imagine More cart. You do have to print and cut the months separate from the magnet vinyl for this part. I also cut the other months from various solid vinyl before placing on the magnetic vinyl. I really like cutting it all at once on the magnetic vinyl because it is so much easier and you don't have to "play" getting it to line up right.

   Here you have the completed project. Now go grab another cup of  coffee and head over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what the other DT members have to show you.My Cricut Craft Room

Believe Tag With Tim Holtz

     I am so excited how this tag came out! This was tag #10 in Tim Holtz 12 Tags Of Christmas. The main technique for this one centered around making a transparency with packing tape! I'll explain more about this later. First I'll begin with the basics for this tag.
     I made my own tag using the  Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.The tag was cut @ 6.25" but, where did that beautiful sheet music come from you ask. Well the Imagine More cart and my Imagine. I have big plans for this machine in the new year. There is a beautiful gold sheen on this tag which the picture does not do it justice. This is accomplished with a mist of Tattered Angels Heirloom Gold. The corners also have a heat embossed filigree design using distressed ink in peeled paint and a gold embossing powder. To complete the tag I used Tim's paper distresser and then inked the sides with Antique Linen distress ink by Ranger.
     I am fortunate enough to have the Expression 2 by Provo Craft but must admit with the holidays I haven't had much of a chance to use it, that is, until now. The machine comes preloaded with the Cricut Alphabet so I decided this font was perfect for the letters in "Believe". I used a scrap piece of paper from DCWV because the colors were just perfect. I ran the letters through my Xyron "X" which made it so easy to attach the letters.

     Here is the best part of this tag, the acrylic charms! I used the seasonal stack from Tim Holtz for the images. This is by far the easiest transfer I have ever made. First, you cut out the image you are going to use and then place a piece of clear packing tape over the image.Next place the image in a bowl of luke warm water for about 30 sec or until the paper begins to separate from the back.You want to gently rub the back to remove the paper leaving the image affixed to the tape. Once it is dry you want to lay it down on the sticky side of a piece of foil tape. Just a word about this.I used foil tape I had on hand from Home Depot. This is not a good choice. The reason is that by removing the paper from the image, it should allow the metal to show thru for a wonderful vintage look. Be sure you purchase one that when you  remove the paper on the foil   it has a metal colored backing. The foil tape I have was white on the back once the paper was removed. This still looks good but would have been great had I used the right foil. Since I made this tag I have noticed the type Tim used where the Tim Holtz line is located in my Michaels. I think it is by Essentials.
     To adhere the image to the front of the charm you will need to apply a small amount of glossy accents to the charm and then burnish the image to the charm. After this dries you just trim it with either scissors or an Exacto knife. I finished the edges off with a gold foil pen.

     As you can see I attached these to the tag with small brads and some twine. In order to complete the look I used some small gold bells that I attached with some raffia. However it some how did not look complete. I rummaged through my supplies and found this twig of red berries and they just seemed to go perfect. Guess I will be doing a lot more transparencies this year, lol. You should really give this a try.