A few Home Decor samples (and a chance to use Design Studio!)

After several days of using my Cricut the "old fashioned way" in order to preview the new cartridges, I needed to get back to the computer and do some designing. Fortunately, one of the four cartridges, Home Decor, is already available in the Design Studio program. This is a Solutions cartridge so there is not a booklet for me to photograph for you. However, you can preview the entire cartridge contents in Design Studio. You only need to have the trial version (which you can download from Cricut.com) in order to view the cartridges. Once you see how helpful it is to precisely place and size your cuts, weld your words together and make new designs from existing cuts you will "need" Design Studio too!



I cut the ladybug on the right as it is designed on the cartridge - it has a nice round shape. Then I wanted to make a standard A2 sized card using the ladybug so I did a bit of design studio magic to create a ladybug aperture card - I just needed to "stretch" the ladybug a bit.



Next, I played around with one of the decorative frames. On the cartridge the center of this design is a scalloped circle.



I stretched it a bit so I could size the frame to work on a 5 x 7 card. Then I added an initial in the vertical frame and a monogram in the frame that I turned sideways. I used the Storybook font for the letters and welded them in the frame.



To add some spark and contrast to highlight the letters I cut ovals in the correct size using the Storybook cartridge again for the basic shape.



Above you can see the vertical card with the horizontal monogram. This is just to show sizing - I haven't finished this as a card yet.



Here is the horizontal version of the card with the vertical initial. These will make lovely formal cards with a little detailing and embellishing.



Finally, I took the fancy arrow shape and welded four together into a frame. I did a solid shadow layer and then the ornate top cut.



Here is the "leftover" bit from the center of the shadow frame - I put this aside to use on another layout.



Above you can see the top layer of the cut on a plain pink background page. I looked at this photo as I was writing this post and I realized that a small section that completes the design was missing.



When I went back to look at the file, I discovered that this section will not cut in the blackout version and apparently I used the blackout version for my design.



I'll have to experiment with this a bit more. It may just be one of those "happy accidents" where I got a result that was not what I expected but I end up liking the "mistake" version better than the original design!



I think the remainder of the 12 x 12 paper I used to cut the fancy arrow frame also makes a lovely frame design, as you can see above.

I am planning to do a few more samples using the Jubilee cartridge tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying these sneak peeks - let me know if there are certain things you'd like me to test out and display for you to see.

(After having some sort of medical procedure 4 out of 5 days this week, I am really ready for the weekend! I hope you have lovely weather wherever you are. I am planning to go on a garden tour tomorrow and may have some photos to share).