Penciling a Quick Thanks

Clean and simple cards are really my favorite because they look less cluttered and possibly like cards you can find at specialty stationery shops! Haha, well, maybe that's just what I tell myself. You'd think that they're easier to design, but they're actually not. When I first started crafting, I had to learn to be okay with leaving a lot of white on the card. I remember Howard used to tell me that it was okay, but it was so difficult for me to accept it as a finished card. But nowadays, I love the white on the card as evidenced by this card that has absolutely no pattern paper or fancy layers at all.

The pencil was cut from the "Locker Talk" cartridge at 1.75 inches. Since I was using the longer pencil as opposed to the stubby pencil, I chose to put everything on a 4x9 card, which means it fits perfectly in a business-sized envelope. It also made it easier to cut out the "thanks" too since I knew ahead of time that I wanted to use this specific script from  the "Wild Card" cartridge. For some odd reason, my notes say "Thanks from Wild Card at in," so apparently I forgot to jot down the size! Whoops!

Just to add a bit more to the card, I used a Martha Stewart punch for the stars on the bottom of the white layer before adhering the pencil to the card with foam adhesives for some dimension. I really hope that my customer liked this custom order and that the recipients of these cards (I believe I made 4) liked them as well!

Wedding Bears on Repeat

Despite the "Teddy Bear Parade" cartridge having a ton of options, I think the ones I've cut out the most are the bride and groom bears.  They're just so cute on a wedding card! And they look a little different when the background paper is changed. 

There are no sentiments on the outside of the cards since the customer requested that something be inside instead. I anticipate using these two on many more cards in the future!

Stay tuned for Lancaster updates! I started working on the travel portion of day 1. I'll post when hubs has the chance to edit his photos. Trust me; you'll want to wait. If it's just my photos, you might lose interest, haha.

Birthday Cupcake

When I want to craft just for fun, I come cross a lot of cuts that I think would be fun to do for birthday cards. Then when I need to make a birthday card for a custom order, I just immediately jump to cupcakes! I think cupcakes are for all days of the year, but pop a candle in it, and it just fits!

I did want to make this one a little different so I made a card base that would fit in a business size envelope. I actually really like 4x9 in cards mainly because I feel that when they are mailed, people don't immediately think of it as a card because it looks like it could just be a bill or some other important piece of paperwork.

I didn't have any specific guidelines for this card, so that made the cupcake even more appropriate. It was cut from the "Simply Charmed" cartridge at 6 in. The face cut out without any issues since it was a larger size. Then since there was plenty of room underneath, I decided to stick with a Cricut cut for the sentiment instead of using a stamp so the "Happy Birthday" is from "Wild Card" also cut at 6 in (that seems weird, but you have to understand the cartridge to know why it's 6 in; it's all relative to the size of the card base cut on the page).

I was planning on adding the silver ribbon between the cupcake and sentiment, but I glued the sentiment on too high. Whoops! I then figured I'd use it to line the edge of the white mat on the top and bottom, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out since the ribbon itself is really pretty. It frays at the ends, but since I taped it on the back, it's not seen. I think I'll be doing that more often!

Owl Remember You

Despite my newfound appreciation for my Silhouette Cameo, I do look back on the cards I had to make for custom orders and love the fact that my Cricut is much easier for things like that. In comparing the years of using my Cricut vs. the two days I used my Silhouette, the layers on the Cricut are easier to assemble especially in the newer cartridges like "Create a Critter," which I used for the card below.

The customer asked for cards to give to the teachers who worked at the camp with her this past summer, so I tried to find something that would be appropriate for that. I chose to use the owl, which is an image I had never used before. I cut it at 2.75 inches in more "neutral" colors that could be somewhat appropriate for guys and girls. The branch was also cut from the same cartridge at 2 inches.

I used kraft cardstock for the card base since I was running out of white cardstock. Thankfully, Michaels had a paper sale last week continuing into this week so I was able to stock up finally. Is it just me or are they decreasing the number of times I can get paper for $2 or less? Plus, I don't seem to see the 50% off coupons lately, and I'm in need of some Zig chisel-tip glue pens! Lack of supplies helped in this regard though because I much prefer the white layer on the kraft base.

The sentiment is from K. Andrew Design's set called "Scripture Sayings" since the customer said that it was a Christian camp. I probably mentioned it before, but when these stamps were going to be retired, I had to snag them. I love how well they stamp, and of course, the verses themselves.

The 16 cards did take a bit of time to assemble, but I have to say I love when large orders are done and Howard can take a picture of all of them at once! 

Heartfelt Sympathies

Sympathy cards are rather difficult to make because it's not really the time to use cutesy images, which is basically what I prefer using on my projects. I stuck with a really simple flower image. I found it on the Stamping Solutions cartridge and cut it at 4 inches though I did make it a little bit more narrow.

The colored rectangle was cut at 2.25 x 4.5 inches. I used the "Wild Card" cartridge to cut out the two pieces of the oval at 3.5 inches. Lastly, the sentiment is from Pink by Design's "Sympathy" set.

 I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder called "Juli's Garden" to add some dimension to the card base itself.

This was a custom order, and the person wanted an entire set. I chose to use different colors just for a bit of variety. These are the kinds of cards that you hope you don't have to make, but unfortunately, they're sometimes needed. 

Smile for the Camera!

As the end of the summer approaches, the ability to fill custom orders is also coming to a close. It just takes up too much of my time to make cards with specific needs when I just want to craft for fun in my free time instead. In most cases, I actually really like the cards that are made for individuals because they're usually more complex than mass produced cards. This is definitely one of those cards.

The customer mentioned that the recipient of this birthday card really enjoyed photography, so I decided to make a shape card using the camera image from "Create a Critter." I cut it at 4 in so that it would fit inside a standard A2 envelope. I also cut out the white shadow layer twice to use for the actual card base. As always, I scored the back piece of the card and adhered it there as opposed to welding the pieces together before cutting it out on my Cricut. I much prefer doing it this way so that it doesn't mess with the original image being used.

To make it birthday specific, I cut out the cupcake from the "Doodlecharms" cartridge at 1.5 inches as if a cupcake were being photographed. Of course, I might have done that incorrectly in that it should have been glued upside down? Is that how it works with the mirror? Or maybe it's just a mirrorless camera. Haha, I'm sure it's okay upright.

Lastly, I cut out the letters using the font from "Boys Will be Boys." I discovered that font recently since I kind of forget that some image cartridges have fonts as well. I like that it's narrow and basic without the loops and curves that I like for more feminine cards.

Every time I make a shape card, I ask myself why I'm not making more of them considering they're a bit more unique than what can be found in the stores!

A Biking Raccoon

This is one of the custom orders I made recently that I was really happy with once I was finished! The customer asked for a 60th birthday card for her boyfriend's dad. She told me that he was into exercising and sports like biking and rollerblading. The image that came to mind was this raccoon from the Campin' Critters cartridge. I think I only used this cartridge once, and it was the one I wanted for a super long time. It's just difficult to find the occasions to use the images, but this was a chance for me to pull it out.

The raccoon was cut at 4 inches. Since the image was already fairly large, I decided I needed to put this on a card larger than my typical A2 size (5.5 in x 4.25 in). With my We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board, it makes it a lot easier to make varying card sizes, so this was a 5.5 in x 6.5 in card.

I then decided to cut out a really large "60" to put in the background. It actually took a little bit of time to find the right font for this. In the end, I used the Cricut Basic Font that's available for free via Craft Room and just stretched it to the size I needed, so I don't actually have an exact measurement for it. It worked out better that way because the original font is kind of chubby, and the numbers got lost behind the raccoon.

To make sure it was an obvious birthday card, I cut out a cupcake from Doodlecharms at 1.75 in, which is one of my original cartridges. It's so different from the more recent ones, but sometimes the basics are needed. The final touch was stamping the "Happy Birthday" sentiment, which was from Pink by Design's stamp set called "Birthday, Birthday." I curved the clear stamp a bit when placing it on my block so that it'd line up with the edge of the number. I know my customer was pleased with it, but I also hope the recipient liked it as well!

Mickey Says HBD!

It's a given that a huge Disney fan like me would have all the licensed Disney Cricut cartridges. The only bad thing about them is that the characters are so detailed with such small cuts that they're sometimes difficult to assemble. Thankfully, the Mickey and Friends cartridge isn't too bad! The only reason why I hadn't really used it before for the characters is because I knew I would need a skin color cardstock for Mickey's face. 

Well, that problem was solved with my Copic markers! I just had the face cut out in white, and then I used the E00 Skin White Copic marker to color it in. I didn't make the picture below too large because I know it might be a little frightening, haha.

This was actually the birthday card I made for our friends' son. His 2nd birthday party was this Saturday, and I helped with the decorations. I knew I had to use an actual cut of Mickey on the card itself! Knowing that it might be a little difficult dealing with the separate pieces, my base was actually a 6 x 7 inch card. It's easy being able to make different-sized cards nowadays (well, at least for myself when I need it) because I can just make the envelope myself. The image was cut from "Mickey and Friends" at 6 inches, and the sentiment was cut from "Lyrical Letters" at 2 inches. A simple blue mat was the only thing I felt was needed to tie this card together since the focal point was obviously Mickey himself!

I didn't write down the cartridges or sizes for the cuts I used on the envelope because I kind of did it last minute, but I really enjoy being able to dress up envelopes when it's not being mailed to the recipient! I welded all the letters together so it'd cut in one piece, thus making it easier to adhere to the front of the envelope.

After I finished this card, I was definitely in the mood to make some more character cuts from the cartridge! I haven't yet had a chance to do so, but now I know it'll be manageable. I have so many Disney friends who would appreciate them too!

Bookworm Card

I've said it before, but custom card orders give the chance to use cuts I haven't used before! This particular card was requested for a group of school administrators. It took quite a lot of time, and it's not really one that I would want to mass produce because of all the details. However, I do really love how it turned out. I got my inspiration from this pin on Pinterest but changed it a bit. 

The first task was to cut out the stack of books from the "Locker Talk" cartridge at 2.75 inches. It actually cuts as one color, but I cut it out in blue and then again in yellow. I snipped the 2nd and 4th book and glued it on the blue piece so that the colors of the covers wouldn't be all the same.  

This clearly took a bit more time, but the result was worth it. I have seen others use a pencil to make it look like there are pages on the white portion of the books, but I didn't want to mess with it.

The apple was cut at 1 inch from "Create a Critter" and the worm was cut at 1.75 inches from the same cartridge. I checked the sizes on Craft Room to make sure it would work with the books. I played around with the location of the worm and apple to see where I would end up placing them. I actually took this picture to send to Howard for help with placement. I actually ended up changing the placement entirely because I wanted it to be a little shorter.

I needed a way to add the "thank you" sentiment from Pink by Design's set "Scripted Year." I used the 3rd smallest Spellbinders Nestabilities die from the Big Scalloped Circles Large. I needed a circle to fit into it, so I cut them out at 1 5/16 inches using the Martha Stewart circle cutter.

And after all that work, this is the final result!

The card base was the standard A2 size at 5.5 x 4.25 inches, but I chose to make the layers thinner than normal. The larger black mat was actually cut at 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches, and the polka dotted patterned paper was 5.25 x 4 inches. Lastly, the white layer was 4 x 3 inches for the image itself.

The itty-bitty worm was popped up every so slightly to give it a bit of dimension. Out of all the cards I had done that week, this was by far my favorite.

The funny thing is that as much as I love books, I don't know why we positively associate worms with them or with apples! If I were reading a book, I'd be pretty upset if there were a worm in it or anywhere near me!

House Card

I made this shape card for a customer who wanted to thank her boyfriend for renting a house for a big birthday gathering with all of her friends. I used the house from the "Just Because" Cricut cartridge, and the bears are from "Teddy Bear Parade."

This was either done before I started getting back in the habit of recording the measurements of all the cut pieces or I just can't find where I have them saved on my computer! Nowadays, I just keep the measurements on the desktop Sticky Notes program so I can copy and paste it when I post the card on my blog. Once that's done, I can just delete those few lines. Oh well! This was clearly a unique card for a special circumstance, so the need to know the sizes because I'll need to redo it is rather unlikely!

I used the shadow feature for the house to use as the base. I cut it out twice and scored the back piece before putting adhesive on it to stick them together. I really like how this card came out, and it's always fun using a Cricut cut I've never used before!

Love Card

A friend recently requested a custom engagement card. Since I didn't have any information about the couple, I chose to do a clean and simple look since I wouldn't have to be very specific. I knew I was going to use some silhouettes from the "Sweethearts" cartridge, so I decided to use a 4 in by 9 in card base.

The couple was cut at 5 inches while the balloon was cut at 1.5 inches from the Sweethearts cartridge. The "LOVE" sentiment was cut at 3 inches from the "Simply Sweet" cartridge. To make it a bit more interesting look, I cut the "LOVE" sentiment in black and in red and trimmed the heart portion to glue on top. I posted this picture last week or so.

Even though I knew the card was going to be primarily black and white, I still wanted it to be a little bit more colorful so I added eyelets using my Crop-A-Dile through the top white and black layers of the card. The last touch was using a bottle of red Stickles to outline the balloon.

I thought it was pretty cool that I was able to incorporate eyelets and Stickles since I haven't used either of those things in ages. Though the card as a whole is fairly simple, I really enjoyed putting it together!

School Bus Card

This school bus card was made for a custom order. The customer wanted cards to thank her students and parents who gave her gifts at the end of the school year. The only guidance I was given was that they had to be thank you cards, so it was very open for interpretation. I decided to do something school-related, of course, especially since I very rarely use my cartridges that have those images on them! In fact, I actually had to add "Cartridge: Locker Talk" to my list of labels since apparently I never used it before (at least on something that I posted on my blog since I know I used it once before).

I thought the back of the school bus was very fitting for the end of the year. The image was cut from "Locker Talk" (one of my first few cartridges!) at 3.75 inches. I have to say that this was a rather frustrating image to use! A lot of the older cartridges have all the pieces cut as one layer, so that means you'd have to cut out the yellow part, the red part, and the gray part in EVERY color. Thankfully, with the Gypsy or with Cricut Craft Room, you can hide certain cuts to separate them. It also makes it easier to mass produce. Unfortunately, even though I hid certain cuts, not all of them showed as an option to hide, so they cut anyway as you can see in the picture below. 

Although the cut was a little frustrating, I still was happy with the image as a whole because of how detailed it was. This is how the first black layer looked.

The "thanks" sentiment was cut from the "Wild Card" cartridge at 0.667 inches. It seems like an odd measurement, but it's in proportion to the other images on the page since each page is supposed to have all the elements for one card. It's kind of interesting how I cut out a lot more sentiments now instead of automatically stamping them. I think that with some cards, it makes it more complete. For this one, I cut it out in red and then in black and just created a shadow with the black layer since there was no option for a shadow cut on the cartridge.

I thought the back needed a little extra something, so I used Stickles to fill in one of the circles! I'm sure it would've been more interesting to add the glitter glue to more of the circles, but it actually used up a lot of my small bottle so I kept it as is.

Lately, I've also been using an extra black mat in my layering before I put the patterned paper on the card. I think it looks better that way even though it is an extra step.

The picture shows 5 cards, but it was a complete set of 6. I consider 6 a set because I can get all the patterned paper layers from one sheet of 12x12 paper. I'm rather happy with how this card turned out and am happy I got to use what might be an otherwise obscure image!

Here's the Mail, It Never Fails

This bird mailman card was a recent custom order. The card was requested for a friend who was having the grand opening of his own UPS store today. Of course, I don't actually have anything that specific, but I sat and thought about it for a while and came up with the mailman from the "3 Birds on Parade" Cricut cartridge.

The bird was cut at 3 inches, so it was pretty easy putting the pieces together. The other birds that have the thin orange legs can be a bit more difficult if you don't have the patience to deal with it or if you don't have tweezers to hold the tiny cuts of paper. Thankfully, this one wasn't too trying especially since it was a late request that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to accomplish. 

The sentiment was cut from the "Birthday Bash" cartridge at a height of 0.611 inches. Haha, I know that's a weird number, but I guess the size is in relation to the image on the same page in the handbook. I just put the word on my mat and then shrunk it down based on the gridlines and recorded the height so that I could refer to it in the future if necessary. I actually made a mistake because the request was for a "good luck" card, but I didn't realize it. Thankfully, it was okay because I had been crafting all day and was running out of steam! 

It makes me happy when I can figure out an image to use on the many cartridges I own. It's sometimes a challenge, but it's always a relief when I can complete a specific request!

For My RIGHT-HANDED Father

Happy Father's Day! Each year, it's always interesting seeing the kinds of things that are written about fathers on social media. First of all, they're mainly written by daughters, and secondly, I've also noticed that there's definitely a difference between those who are Asian and those who aren't. I've seen some of my Disney friends write about how their dads are their best friends and how they're so grateful that they can tell them anything. In all honesty, that kind of baffles my mind because that's not really how it works when you're a daughter with a Chinese father!

Though my dad has never been the kind of person to verbally shower me with love, he shows how much he cares in so many different ways. Growing up, I didn't understand why he couldn't just say "I love you," but now I know that in his eyes, making sure our family had everything we needed and providing a good life for us was his way of showing his love. It's kind of like having to read between the lines. Even though I am married and living out of the house, he still does those seemingly subtle things.

For example, I still drive to my parents' house on work days so that my mom and I only take one car to school. On snowy days, my dad knows just how difficult it is for me to park sometimes with the mountains of snow blocking the regular spots. He will just have me pull into the driveway and then move my car for me so that I can just get to work without having that to stress me out. Another example is that when he does food shopping on Sundays in Chinatown or when he goes to Top Tomato closer to home, he'll buy an extra avocado or two and give it to me along with bagels since he knows how much I like them and don't really get it myself because they're expensive.

And even today, I know that my dad appreciated the card I made and gave to him today because he kept mentioning it and talking about it during lunch and in the car on the way home from church. Of course, he was teasing me saying that I made a mistake by making the tennis player left-handed. Take a look at it!

I made it last night knowing that the only way I could really let him know I appreciate him is by writing it down and giving it to him in a card. I didn't even make a Mother's Day card for my mom (sorry, Mom!), but I know that when school is out, I can take her out for lunch and we can just talk and talk and talk. I know that because of the relationship we have, I don't have to wait for the cards to express my gratitude. That's why it was important to me to make the card especially since I know he's been stressed lately taking care of my grandma.

For the tennis ball image and the tennis player, I actually used a cartridge I hadn't touched before called "Sports Mania." The ball was cut out at 6 inches (how awesome is it that I happened to have paper that's similar to the Wilson tennis ball color?!), and I cut two of the shadows in white to use for the actual card base. Knowing now that there's no way to make an envelope that big on the envelope punch board, I will make sure I don't make them any larger than 6 x 6! The shadow made it just a little bit over, so I had to figure out another way to make some sort of an envelope.

The tennis player was cut at 3 inches. I actually thought in my mind, "My dad is a rightie," but it didn't occur to me that I could just easily flip the image before I cut it out (yes, or flipped it before I glued it, but the cut edges would show more). Whoops! Dad was saying that he wanted to take a picture of it and show it to all his tennis buddies, but I put the guy on backwards!

Lastly, I used the cartridge "Boys Will Be Boys" because I liked the font on it. A lot of my other fonts on cartridges like "Lyrical Letters" and such are too loopy or cutesy. I used the text box to type out the letters, so on Cricut Craftroom, the text size was 1 and then I decreased the letter spacing to -3 so that most of them were welded together.

Like I said, I couldn't make an envelope with the punch board or with the score board. So I ended up cutting out a 7.5 x 7.5 square, scoring half an inch in, and applying adhesive to stick the two pieces together. The second piece was a little longer just so that I'd have a flap to close the envelope. I cut out the letters using "Boys Will Be Boys" again.

Even though I made a mistake with the right-handed and left-handed thing, I still think it came out pretty well considering it's very specific for my tennis-loving dad. I remember that as a kid, I didn't understand why he was always playing tennis after work. I used to think that he must love tennis more than he loved me, but I really didn't understand the differences between how men and women think and function until I started dating and got married. Now I understand that he needed a breather and to release some stress from his job, and I'm glad that he's still so fit and into the game now because of the exercise and the friends he has made through it! Maybe since he's such a great player, he can learn to play with his left hand so that this card is more appropriate ...

Bun in the Oven

Does anyone know how the phrase "bun in the oven" originated? It's kind of funny to see pregnancy announcements where the couple puts a bun in the oven. The greatest one is when the mom goes on a treasure hunt in the kitchen for her gift!

Well, the request for this custom card was for a bun in the oven to congratulate a couple who recently found out they were pregnant. Because of the wide variety of cartridges I have, that was possible!

The oven was cut from the "From My Kitchen" cartridge at 3.75 inches. I followed the same color scheme as the card I food here. I adhered the two pieces of the oven door together and then scored it so that it could open, but I just didn't fold it down.

I had to enlist the help of Howard because I couldn't figure out what to do with the bun. I Googled it to see what others did, and they put in cupcakes and such. He did me a huge favor by just cutting a little piece of white paper in the shape of a bun that I just colored with a Copic marker.

Lastly, the "congrats" was cut from the "Stamping Solutions" cartridge at 0.75 inches. I used the shadow feature as well so that it would add a little bit of depth. Even though it seems a little simplistic because there's no background patterned paper or anything like that, I still like how it came out since it was a specific request. I'm sure it's not as easy to go to the Hallmark store and get a card with an oven on it!

Pomp and Circumstance All Day, Err Day

I had yet another custom order for a set of graduation cards recently, and I was initially going to make the same basic ones I did last time. However, once I got up to making them, I really wanted to do something different just for variety. Instead of cutting the larger bears, I cut the bear from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge at 2.5 inches because I knew I wanted to use the bear as a replacement for the "0" in 2014.

The numbers were cut from the Lyrical Letters cartridge at 3.75 inches. I thought about stamping the congratulations, but because of the size of the numbers, I had a lot more space on the card than I had anticipated. Instead, I found the "congrats" cut on the Simply Sweet cartridge, which made it a lot easier on me since I didn't have to find a font and weld all the letters together nicely.

Just to add a bit more color and focus in on the design itself, I added a blue mat to the card, which I think made the card look better than putting it directly on the white cardstock only.

Hmm, how many more times do you think I'll be using this graduation bear this year? Haha.