A card and a Flock of Flamingos!

There have been a few non-crafting things going on this week that have kept me from having enough time to test cut and photograph some of my new designs to share. I also have some "secret projects" in the works that I can't show you just yet. I did finally find a chance to try a cut from my new "Don Juan" cartridge that I was able to order using my Cricut rewards points. I have wanted this cartridge for a very long time but I couldn't justify buying yet another machine just to get the cartridge (the Don Juan cartridge is "exclusive" to the Create machine). The Rewards program shipping cost is high (about $16 for my location), but I figured that was a low price to pay for a cartridge!



First, I want to show you how a card that I posted last month was put to good use! One of my friends has the same birthday as me and I had been planning her birthday gift for months. We both like odd "finds" from rummage and yard sales and these flamingos definitely qualify as a "find!"



I had to wait until a time when I was sure she was out of town - then I drove to her house and "planted" the flamingos. From a distance, they are fairly unobtrusive gathered by the pool fence.



When you get a little closer you can see that there are quite a few flamingos in the cluster and you can also see the card tied to the neck of one bird.



I used this card, which I created before Life is a Beach was added to Design Studio, for her birthday card. I cut the standard square card and added the light pink frame piece (here is a LINK to the original post with the .cut file for the frame which was made using the Storybook cartridge).

The flamingos were a hit (but I have a sneaking suspicion that they may start migrating from lawn to lawn under cover of darkness!).



Back to the card I made using Don Juan. The "just because" design is one of the pre-welded items on the cartridge.



Here you can see the location of the key on the virtual keypad. There is an option for a layer on the flower using the "shift" key, but I chose to cut the design only once. I thought the letters looked a bit bland so I added some white pen stitching.



I also added white pen dots on the tips of the flower petals and made a center for the flower from a punched circle and an epoxy sticker. I popped the center up on a foam square and adhered it - sometimes just adding one element with a bit of depth can make the card have a more finished look.

I think the unicase font on Don Juan is a great look and I know it will work very nicely for wordbooks. I just have to decide on a word to use!