Monday, January 31, 2011

Have a Heart: E.C.G. Valentines (+ Cricut ideas)

okay, so not "ECG" as in electrocardiogram...
(though being Valentine's Day cards there are
a couple of hearts around here)

(heeheehee) ...but rather E.C.G.
as in
Eat Cake Graphics

some teensy weensy stamped
eat cake graphics images on a couple
of Valentine's cards:


One is a standard A2 card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")...

(with a tiny wind-up mousie)
I've been trying to make more standard-sized cards for
mailability. Which kinds of cards do you prefer: standard,
or square, or round, or strange folds, or fill-in-the-blank?

The other card I made is a littler guy (3"x 3")...
(one of my favourite sizes)
(with a wee bee!)

both cards have scallops and hearts
(which I shall soon ramble incessantly about
in hopes that it might be interesting to somebody) heehee




1...the stamp images & card details
2...digital paper (kitty text) freebie
3...tool talk: Cricut chatter
4...free templates for hand cutting options

-1-


Some big pics of the wee stamped
Eat Cake Graphics images:


The Wind up Mouse stamp can be found here.
(This little fellow measures in at: 1 inch by 0.5 inches)

The heart was cut on the cricut (details below); it's layered with vellum over it, pierced and stitched with black thread.

The sentiment is printed from a word document onto Paris Bleedproof cardstock (which lets you heat emboss out of the inkjet printer, if you are fairly quick. Instructions on digital heat embossing on Paris Bleedproof in my post here.)

The cloud patterned paper is some older stuff from the Prima Marketing Animal Bash Collection called "Eager"
-2-


The black & white kitty text paper is a digital one I made by scanning an old book about cats (I love the look of using real book pages, but printed ones are acid free AND I can share the files with You!) :o)



The Buzzle Bee stamp can be found here
(it looks enormous here, but it's only
a wee 0.8 inch x 0.7 inch)

The sentiment is printed on Vellum
(which also lets you heat emboss out of an ink jet printer)

The patterned papers are: GCD Party it Up collection (dotted paper)
BasicGrey Urban Prairie 6x6 paper-Wild Flowers (honeycomb flower paper)

-3-

Trendy things to make using the
Cricut (and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge
that comes with it).

Have no cricut? No worries. I've linked up scallop and heart templates as well (for those who enjoy cutting by hand and free stuff.)

Confession time!!! I am ashamed to say that my Cricut Expression cutting machine has been sitting in a drawer unused for a VERY long time (almost 2 years, GASP!) It felt like such a waste to let something like that sit idle when so many people long to own one of their own, but I'd not been feeling well enough for all of the experimenting. I had even received SCAL as a gift but have still never cut a thing with it (I can't figure it out, WEEP!) That's one of my more materialistic New Year's resolutions.

I do have 2 cartridges (the plantin schoolbook that came with it and a farm animals one which was a gift from a lovely reader who is far too generous.) So..... yesterday I vowed to get it out & make it work.

Turns out that there are a couple of "trendy" things that the "old school" Plantin Schoolbook cartridge has on it--that (if you're a little like me) you might not have realized:

1) Scallops (for layers of beautiful lovely fat or wee scallop edges!)

2) Hearts (I've always wanted a heart punch. Who knew?) The hearts above were cut on the cricut, but I wasn't pleased with the way the different Cricut-cut sizes nested, for some reason, so I cut the mat layers underneath them free-hand with scissors.

These little scallops were cut from light-weight white paper:


They were made this way...

1) Cut ten scallops at 3/4" size (if memory serves) I believe that is the measurement of the scallop, but I could be wrong. ;o)
2) Make 3x3 note card (cut some white cardstock to measure 3" x 6" & score in the center
3) Adhere the ten scallops to the note card
4) Trim off the edges with scissors
5) Distress the edges of all the scallops (I used my fingernail) though I did get one wee paper-cut. And I'm guessing distressing with blood instead of ink is not likely to be the new trend. CREEPY! ;o)

Scallop and Heart


If you rather cut things by hand:

my free BIG scallop template is a PDF on SplitCoastStampers here
&
heart template Google image search here

Thanks so much for popping by!


P.S. I'm not affiliated with Eat Cake Graphics. I bought these wee stamps 4 years ago & just had to use 'em on Valentines this year. :o)

P.P.S. Thinking of buying a Cricut? Before you do, might I play devil's advocate and suggest reading this article? I've never used a Silhouette, but long-time meticulous crafter Kristina Werner has me wishing I'd tried one out! (I have no affiliation with Silhouette at all, sadly LOL) ;O)

P.P.P.S. If you wanted, you could use the hearts to make this...

...gorgeous 3D heart banner
Photo & tutorial from How about Orange
(You could use either machine-cut hearts or hand-cut ones, of course)

P.P.P.P.S. Oops, I think I have the chatties, sorry!

10 comments:

Holly Mabutas said...

Oh Mel! I am an avid fan of yours and was tickled pink to see you using two of my little stamps.
You are so creative! Everything you do is so different and just makes me want to stop everything I'm doing and create something.
Thanks so very much for sharing what you do.
Toodles.

Aparna said...

I absolutely agree with Kristina about the Silhouette being awesome! I ended up buying mine because I saw her review and couldn't be happier! Midwestscrapbook.com has an awesome Silhouette bundle, and Overstock.com is also another place to get a great price :) Aparna

Tiffany said...

Mel! Another thing we have in common, I also have a cricut expression that has been collecting dust for about 2 years!! I also have scal that i've never even installed!! What's wrong with us?? hehehe You inspire me to break mine out!!

Jennifer Bauer said...

I love the Bee Mine card... it has a clean and elegant look!

Priyanka said...

u r totally amaizing dear, I am ur grt fan, I really dont have punches and stamps and ur blog always help me a looooot, thanks again and again.

Erum Tasneem said...

You should have the chatties more often! We LOVE you even more that way!
I love this scallopy thingy... kinda looks like those fancy curtain falls. Pretty interesting! And I recently got me a Silhouette (I am broke now, no money to even mail cards) but I am enjoying every moment of it, and card making is so much easier now! If you are planning to get it, I will suggest to get Cricut mats as an extra, to use on Silhouette. Or just get a repositionable spray adhesive (the mat loses stickiness after about 4-5 cuts). Dont get a cricut. Total waste of money, cuz you have to buy the cartridges to cut specific designs.

Weezy said...

Oh Mel I love to see a post from you it's always so upbeat and like you're chatting to me from across the table!

Don't feel bad about not using your Cricut in so long, I didn't used mine for about a year and a half afterwards, it literally just sat there!

But I was going to recommend SCAL but since you have it you're super lucky! A lot of people are raving about the silouette but why bother with it when you already have SCAL? Trust me, install it on your computer and look up some of the tutorials on youtube, they are SUCH a help! There are also lots of ladies out there who blog about SCAL and they even have a forum on the SCAL home page for you to use too! You honestly will not regret, I adore the stuff I can cut out not and not have to buy a cartridge for :D Most recently my brother wanted batman, a lady in a wheelchair and Jedward. All cut out for the same card. And I was able to help (he's 23 but is still a crazy 10 year old inside :P)

Oh and before I forget, def pick yourself up some spray repositionable adhesive! In the beginning I was so put off by my mats losing their stickiness, I thought I was going to have to be buy mats all the time and that would add up. Nope, just re-spray them with that stuff and they're better than new!

Sorry for the essay, I just wanted to show you that you have amazing technology and possibilities right at your fingertips right now! No need to buy a complete new system :P

leslie (crookedstamper) said...

I loooooove Eat Cake Graphics. I have some of their snarkier stamps. :)

I also loooooove the scallop layers and the kitty page. YOU ROCK, BABY!

Teri Terrific said...

Mel, I'm so happy to see you posting fairly regularly again!
These cards are super adorable. Love the little bitty stamps :D
I can see this scalloped layer idea taking off in several directions...thanks for the jump start and the template.
I researched a long time before purchasing my silhouette SD, and am I glad I did! Saves a lot of $$$.
Also, read that SCAL voids any warranty on the Cricut. Send me an email if you want the info links I found most informative.
Again, LOVE your posts...keep 'em coming:D

Lorraine said...

Hi Mel long time not talking to you.Love the cards and the scallop effect just going to dust my Cricut off and have a go. Hugs to you XX a big fan from Jersey.U.K.