"Fabulous" card (if the shoe fits...)

I participated in a card swap recently. The only stipulation was that we had to use the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge. This is an incredibly versatile cartridge full of lots of images and word art - it is on my list of favorites.



There are 50 jumbled words on this cartridge - I chose the word "fabulous" as my inspiration.



I used this scalloped frame - I really like the frame within a frame look. I have used this for other designs - you may remember this card from the holiday season.



(Here is a LINK to the post about this card and the file).




I also chose this shoe - there are so many great images on this cartridge!



Finally, I used the overlay for the details on the shoe.



I created a design combining the shoe, frame and the word "fabulous" - I did this as an adjustable design so I can use it for other sizes of cards. The cards I made were A2 size (or 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches).



There are thin "brackets" left over after cutting - of course I saved these! (Soon I will have to post some of the cards I make with these "leftovers").



I used the Design Studio program to help me decide on the colors and layers for the card topper. Here is the screen shot of the preview with my chosen colors. I like black and pink together and this was meant to be a "girly" sort of card.



Above is a photo of the finished card. I cut a rectangle of pale pink to add as a backdrop inside the inner frame. I cut these with a paper cutter, not the Cricut, to use my paper more efficiently.



I cut the overlay for the shoe from dark pink glitter cardstock - I cut twelve even though I needed only 10 cards. I like to have a few spares in case of cutting mishaps. When I cut glitter cardstock I use pressure at 4, blade depth 6 and multi-cut 2 times.



When I assembled the cards, I added a small "gem" for the shoe button.



I printed the insides of the cards with this sentiment - I have heard this saying in various forms many times and it always makes me smile! I used my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus program to set up the cards for printing.




Here is a close up of the sentiment.



Here are my twelve cards (ten to swap and two to spare), ready to package and send for swapping. I expect to receive the swap cards early next week and I am looking forward to seeing what the other swappers made.



We were also expected to do envelopes. I had plenty of this double-sided patterned paper by American Crafts. I used the pale pink on the card fronts and I liked the design for the inside of the envelopes. I made the envelopes using my Scor-Pal keeping the pale pink on the outside (there are excellent and easy-to-follow directions on the Scor-Pal site, here is a LINK to the page).



To make my envelopes a bit fancier, I punched the edge of the flap with the Martha Stewart cornice border punch.

This file is adjustable, but if you change the size you will need to resize the shoe overlay to fit. There are four pages at the beginning of the file which are each layer separated for testing color combinations in preview. These are not for cutting. The fifth and sixth pages are for cutting the shoe overlays and the framed design. They are set up for cutting multiples on a 12 x 12 mat, but you can either delete images or select one and copy and paste it to a new page if you want to make a single card. You can also change the mat size to 6 x 12 if you have the original Cricut or the Create.

(This file will be available until May 1, 2009)