Fidget Spinner Card

With fidget spinners being all the rage, I just *had* to make a fidget penny spinner!

This is the card I created for my son's birthday last week. I used the long retired Confetti Wishes blue paper and the new Willow Cardstock to give a Seahawks vibe!  

Creating in birthday - stealth mode, I didn't create a video, but a slideshow from still shots I took so he wouldn't hear me talking.  If I say "fidget," his ears perk up.

I used Sway, a Microsoft Office product, for this slideshow.  It was pretty simple to create but it appears that you'll need to manually click through it.  It will take a few seconds to load.  I'd love to know how it plays.  I actually thought it would export to an MP4 so I could upload it to a video.  

This is the link to the Design Space file that contains the slot.  The Fidget Spinner piece is an SVG file.  I cannot share this file if it contains the spinner because it's an uploaded SVG.  Use Detach prior to resizing.  Then click Attach again.  I didn't use Slice because I wanted the ability to adjust the size of the spinner hole.

This is the link to the Fidget Spinner SVG.  I sized it at 2.4" tall.  I also duplicated it and used the Hide Contour feature to hide all the inner circles on the black layer.

In reality, you can also use your paper trimmer to cut a rectangular slot with your paper trimmer.  Just make it about 1/16" taller than your foam dot.

Other penny spinners I've created:  This was a Stamp of the Month from May 2013!

And a round spinner with last year's Penelope paper

This is the link to the round slot.

All of these cards were designed using 3/8" 3D foam dots.  I used these dots.  They're 3/8" and 1/8" thick.  Some dots are super thick and make for a very bulky card.

You'll need plenty of 3D foam for making the layers.  DO NOT use the thin foam or you penny won't spin freely.  It's wonderful for cards, just not these cards.

I will be hosting a class making 3 of these cards, 2 slots & 1 circle style at my house on Tuesday, June 27th at 6:30.  I will also have kits and a video tutorial.  See my full list of classes here.  When you register, you can let me know if you have a preference on your spinner.  (Do they all need to be fidget spinners?)

With joy in my heart and coffee in my cup, have a wonderful day!

Last chance for an Advent Calendar!

Here's your last chance to create the Advent Calendar workshop!

The My Creations Cubby is on the While Supplies Last list so I don't know how much longer it will be available.  With that, I'm holding one more workshop on Friday, July 31st at 6:30 pm at my home in Everett, WA.  

Contact me to RSVP by email or by Facebook to attend.  

RSVP with payment no later than 7/1.  I cannot guarantee the availability of these cubbies so please RSVP with a $15 deposit as soon as you can.  I'll go ahead and purchase it now.

Cost is $40 for the workshop, including adhesives and basic embellishments. If you have a cubby already, your fee can be reduced.

I can also ship your kit for $5. 

Are you a CTMH Consultant?

I have great news!  I have a full color workshop guide and cutting files for you.  

They've just been updated to include a Cricut Design Space for the Cricut Explore as well as Cricut Craft Room Files for earlier Cricut machines.  You'll be able to create this workshop for yourself and your customers with ease.  A workshop release is included.  All files are electronic and can be purchased by consultants and customers world-wide.  The cost is $8.00 USD.
CTMH Artiste & Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridges are required for this project.

**Purchase link has been disabled**

To see more info about the Advent Calendar see my earlier posts.

Full Advent Calendar

Freebie Advent Calendar Cutting files (boxes only)

Paper Popsicles!

I’m shivering this morning!  But I know you’ll appreciate this cute and cool treat! 

Close to My Heart’s Rediscover CTMH promotion this month is this cute little popsicle card printable.  Hop on over here to download it. 

 

However, I **hate** cutting out what my Cricut can do for me.  Isn’t that why I bought a Cricut, right?   And why I am head over heels with Close to My Heart’s Cricut Compatible Stamp sets! 

I had to create something on the Cricut.  I used Cricut Craft Room and the “Cricut Craft Room Basics” cartridge which is available to EVERYONE who used Cricut Craft Room to create this card.

You will want to trim the top of the stick off so it doesn’t look goofy. 

Click here to get the free Popsicle CCR File.

If you’re going to make this a yellow popsicle, you better check your supplies!  Buttercup and Crème Brulee yellow are retiring!  Order an extra ink pad, reinker, cardstock or markers before they’re gone!  Here’s a link to all retiring CTMH products.

Enjoy!

Emboss It Blog Hop

Today’s post is part of a blog hop!  I love being part of blog hops because they feature some of the newest product Close to My Heart has to offer.  For this hop, we’ll be featuring the brand new 5x7 embossing folders that debuted in February! 
To follow this hop, you can start here and click the link to the next blog at the bottom of my post.  If you’re already on the hop, welcome!  You should have arrived here from { Michelle Jones’ blog. } If you’re ever lost along the way, you’ll find a list of all the blog posts here.  (this will pop open in a new window and then you can come back here and keep hopping too!)

My card features the Ariana paper collection.  I started by pleated the beautiful floral paper by scoring it at 1” and 1/2” intervals and folding it.  I followed this tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers nearly exactly.
Here’s a couple of my tips: 

• If you’re going to make several of these cards, score the whole paper from top to bottom before cutting the strips.  You might even want to fold them a bit too.  Folding a large sheet is ultimately easier than folding 6 individual 2” strips! 
• Ink the bottom edge of my paper before folding (& attaching it to the card)!  I used Garden Green, a retired color since Olive was a bit too dark.

Next is the embossed band that holds the pleats in place and gives them a finished look. I cut my 1 x 4.25” strip and embossed it with our damask embossing folder.  I distressed it using our sanding block from the distressing kit to take the color off the raised edges.  Here’s the fun part:  I then inked the white exposed areas with Blush and Sorbet ink.  The coral color is exclusive to the Ariana paper pack so we don’t have an ink that matches.  This worked!  Use a light hand when inking.  Don’t saturate the paper or it will be very intense and bright. 
For the label, I cut the shape from Art Philosophy in White Daisy at 2.25” as indicated on the Frame Flair stamp set.  The sentiment is from Greatest Love. 
For the Ariana Coral label that shadows the white, I used my Gypsy (It can also be done with Cricut Craft Room or Cricut Design Studio) to make it .25” wider AND taller.  It was also handy to layout the shape on my Gypsy since I only have 1 sheet of this beautiful Ariana Coral to work with. 
If you just bump up your Cricut dial to 2.5” your label be a little disproportionate because it won’t be just .25” longer.  On this label, it’s not that much trouble.  (Just call me Obsessive Compulsive Cricut Perfectionist)The less square the shape is, the more noticeable it is.  You might thank me later when you do a skinny object. 
Here’s where you’d see the distortion, on a long, skinny shape.  The less square shape. 

So much for a simple looking card that had a pleated paper tutorial, embossing & distressing in one and a Cricut Craft Room tricks.  But guess what, we’re done! 
Feel free to hop on over to { Katy Taylor’s blog } to see the next project!
Have a great day!

Advent Calendar 2014

Tonight I’m cutting out two Advent Calendar kits. It’s bittersweet. 

I don’t know how many more of these delightful kit I’m going to be able to make.  The cubby, the base of the calendar, is sold by Close to My Heart and is being discontinued.  They’ll be available thru the end of January, if supplies don’t run out in the mean-time.  So if you want one, please don’t delay.  I know that CTMH has something fabulous up their sleeve that’s going to keep me busy.  I don’t expect to have time to reconfigure this kit to work with another brand of drawers. 

Okay, no more moping.

Check out the new and improved version!

This is my friend Libby’s Advent Calendar.  I hosted a Christmas in July workshop this summer.  On July 5th, of all days, just 24 hours after celebrating America, summer and apple pie we were looking at stockings and mittens.  It was a wonderful unhurried, no deadline time of creating for the holidays. 

We brightened things up a bit and added images from the Glory to God stamp set. 

 

Either way you make it, it’s going to be lovely. 

Want the kit?  Hop on over to last year’s blog post for more details. 

If you’ve joined my team in the last year (or anytime in the future) and want the make kit, please let me know.  I’ll send you the electronic portion of the DIY workshop kit at no charge. 

 

P.S.  Christmas is in 25 days.  We get to start using our beautify calendar tomorrow!

Mini-Album Mix Up?—Yes, you can!

Earlier this morning, someone asked “Can we mix & match any Artbooking album page?

The short answer is Yes, you can cut the album page at any size.  Your Cricut isn’t going to beep at you if you set the dial size to 7” when the handbook says this is an 8” mini-album.  It’s going to cut.  You could cut EVERYTHING in this handbook at 7.”  The Cricut would not care.  But you might. 

The only problem is the holes for binding.  They won’t line up.  In this picture below, I’ve put 5 albums into Cricut Craft room at 8.” 

The first two are the 8” travel & baby albums in red.  They’re a perfect match and fit.  I mixed them when I made a baby album in August. 

The second one in blue is the 8 x 3.5” sweetheart album.  The holes continue to line up. 

The 3rd one in gold is the 10” Christmas album.  The holes do not line up and are a bit smaller than they should be.  They look pretty good but when cut, they’d tear because they aren’t quite perfect. 

The last is the 11 x 8 1/2” elegance album in green.  The holes are way off.  I’m not sure why the middle hole is off, but it is!  You’ll notice the holes are a bit smaller too.  That’s not a good situation either.

There is a fix!  It’s called Hide Contour. 

 

Click this button and you will be able to click on any of the lines you don’t want cut.  When you are done, click on the exit button at the bottom of your shape. 

Hover over a line and it will become red .  That’s the one that’s going to be hidden when you click.  My screen is jumpy.  Sometimes I can’t just click where I think I should.  LOOK for the RED.

If you’re not paying attention, you may end up hiding the border of the page.  It will look really strange to see you’re only cutting holes and not an album page.  Below I hid the center hole, the outside cut of the album page and one piece of the damask flourish.  THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED. 

The UNDO button will be your friend for this.  You can also go back into the Hide Contour mode but undo might be easier. 

After you click undo, go back & hide the contours the way you wanted. 

 

As for punching new holes, I’d make a template and do a test punch to make sure they are the way I want.  Then I’d line them all up and punch them together with my Crop-a-dile. I’d do this before embellishing.  That way any mistakes don’t ruin a finished page and you don’t put embellishments where a hole was needed. 

I hope this helps.  It’s going to be great fun mixing & matching album pages! 

 

Don’t have the Artbooking cartridge yet?  Now is a perfect time to order!

You’ll get the Stamp of the month for $5 (you actually qualify for two of them with a $104 purchase $99+$5 from the first stamp of the month). 

You’ll get this month’s special triple stamp set for $10 (And also qualify for two of them in the same way!)

I have additional Chocolate Affair stamp sets left over from last month.  If you purchase the Artbooking bundle from me, (or any other bundle) I’ll send you one ABSOLUTELY FREE when you join my “Happy Customer Club & Wonder Customers” Gathering before checking out. 

 

Start shopping now!  Be sure to click JOIN immediately because the website doesn’t remind you. 

 

Have a fantastic Friday!

Celebrate today with Artbooking

Happy Friday!  Here’s one of the cards from last month’s Fun & Fab 4th Friday card workshop.
I used the same stamp and card layout as I did a year ago with this card. 

Wanting a little different background, I grabbed my Artbooking handbook looked for an elegant overlay.  I found this damask one. 

I sized it in Cricut Craft Room, but it wasn’t really going to fit on an A2 card perfectly. And then I noticed I was almost out of Smokey Plum cardstock.  To stretch my paper stash for 12+ of these cards I squashed the design so it was only 3” wide while keeping the height at 5.25 inches tall.  This allowed me to save a bit of paper and get the Smokey Plum label shape to fit on the same 12x12 piece of cardstock.  This is how it looks in CCR.

I was able to fit 6 overlays and 5 label shapes on one sheet of paper!  The 6th label fit nicely on a scrap.  No worries there!
After cutting the overlays on my Cricut, I cut them roughly in half with my scissors.  (Don’t use a paper trimmer!  It could tear the overlay and perfection isn’t needed.)  I lined up each half to the edge of the card and covered the gap with the For Always B&T paper.  Once it’s all adhered together really well, nobody will know that this is what it looks like on the inside!

I embellished the Seam Binding Ribbon bow with a new embellishment from the Mini-Medley Accents from the Rosewood Collection.  I love this collection and it has just a touch of pink that compliments the Smokey Plum so nicely!


Love this card?  Here’s the Cricut Craft Room & Gypsy files for you!  Please show some blog love by leaving a comment before downloading this file. 
I exported the Gypsy file from Cricut Craft Room.  I did not proof it on my Gypsy.  It should work but I’ve heard that they don’t always convert correctly. 


Hope you have a crafty weekend!