A surprising use for Sports Mania(!)

Sports Mania is one of the newer Cricut cartridges. It was one that I didn't think I would need but, as is often the case, once I started looking at the cartridge in the Design Studio software (which is an incredible marketing tool) I decided that there were a number of images that I might want to use, so I watched for a sale and bought it last year.



Here is a screen shot of the keypad showing the element I used to make this card. It could be used as is for a square card but I altered it slightly to make it the size of a card topper for an A2 or a 5 x 7 card. The unframed version of this element is can also be used as a "ready to ribbon weave" element.



Here is the plain test cut - a bit boring but I usually cut first on plain cardstock. I thought it might be handy to have an inset for these cards so I altered a circle to an oval shape that would fit nicely inside the card topper.



I decided to try a cut on some pretty cardstock - this is a piece of glittered cardstock from the DCWV Spring Glitter Stack from last year. The placement of the card topper on the virtual mat allowed the stripes to align nicely for my card topper. By luck, the spacing worked out evenly on this particular paper. You can manipulate your cuts to fit patterned paper by placing the shape on the virtual mat in a position to align with the design on the paper (using the grids to help you find the correct placement).

The cut on glitter cardstock required multiple cuts to make a clean cut - I ended up cutting the same design three times (you can also set up multicuts in the Preferences menu in the Design Studio program).



I cut a piece of picot edge ribbon about 26 inches long for the A2 card topper and wove it through the slits. To save wear and tear on the ribbon, I put the ribbon in one slit and pulled it about half way through and then wove along each side to meet at the opposite end. In the photo above you can see the back of the ribbon weaving and the look that would be created by adhering the ribbon to the back of the topper and skipping the bow.



The card could work either vertically or horizontally with the bow in any position you want to try (or no bow as in the photo of the back of the card).



This file is very simple - I have done the sizing for you for the two card sizes and created centered ovals (from circles on the cartridge) to fit inside the toppers. Each page of the file is labeled and aligned for previewing. You can move the pieces around to cut in the most efficient manner.

I think this element is a great find and will be very useful for many projects!

Ribbon Threading for Card Toppers