Fancy (but simple) cards for Friday

Today is Friday - my last day as Guest Designer for the Everyday Cricut  blog.  It has been a busy week with so many projects going on (and a few more "secret" ones that you'll find out about soon!).  Be sure to visit Everyday Cricut and leave comments on each post this week in order to have a chance to win some of the great giveaways Joy and Melanie are offering this week.  There are Cricut Cartridges (Serenade, Destinations & the Spring mini cartridge bundle - Love Struck, Easter & Mother's Day) and also Claire SEI paper pack and embellishments.  There is also a great prize package from The Original Scrapbox in a special multi-blog giveaway.

Fridays are for fancy cards on the Everyday Cricut blog.  I created these cards with Design Studio and all of the details are in my post on Everyday Cricut - here is a LINK to the post.  Despite my best efforts to convince every Cricut owner that they need Design Studio, I know that some of you do not use the software.  So I made some alternative "Simple Fancy Cards" to share.

These are ultra simple cards to make - the "fancy" comes from the choice of cardstock and the jewels.  All three card toppers are on the Lyrical Letters cartridge - one of the hidden treasures on that cartridge which also has seven different fonts (add it to your list if you don't have it yet!).

The images on this key are proportioned to fit an A2 card perfectly.  If you cut them at 5 1/4 inches you will get a nice layer for a card with a thin border around the edges.

For the first card I used the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock for both the card base and the layer.  Here is the plain card - very pretty, just like this.

To ramp up the "fancy" factor, I simply added some gems.  It is difficult to see in the photo but there are five light purple and three dark purple gems.

Here is the location of the second card topper.  This is my favorite and it is one that I discovered shortly after I got the cartridge about a year ago.  Here is a LINK to my first post about the cartridge when I was "forced" to use it with the machine alone since it had not yet been added to Design Studio.

Here is the "plain" version of the card - not so "plain" since I cut the top in white glitter cardstock.

Adding blue gems (the complementary color to orange) makes the card really sparkle!

The third topper is located as shown in the screen shot.  It does have a bit more room for adding a stamped sentiment right on the card front.

I made this a horizontal card - here is the plain version.  This time I cut the layer in  DCWV "shimmer" cardstock.  This cardstock is pretty but it does have a white core and there are a couple of tiny cuts in the design which have a tendency to show the white.  I solved this by flipping the image.

This is the slightly embellished card.  I used gems and a vintage brad from Creative Charms for the accents.  Here is  a LINK to the page with the vintage brads. I removed the legs of the brad and adhered it with a foam square to fill in the empty backing.

These cards are so quick and simple to make but they still have the "wow" factor - thanks to the lovely cardstock.  These three cards were made with the large center sections of the 12 x 12 sheets of cardstock that were left over from the Easter Egg cards I posted on Monday.  I have to say that the Core'dinations gemstone cardstock is now a favorite and I hope it will be on sale again soon since I have used a fair bit of mine up this week - with very happy results.

If you were new to my blog this week - thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will stick around even when I am no longer the Guest Designer for Everyday Cricut.  I do not have sponsors for regular giveaways on this blog  but I occasionally do a blog celebration to mark a milestone.  I do love to get comments and I try my best to answer any questions readers send me.  I hope you find it worthwhile to visit and that I can help you be a bit more adventurous when you are crafting with the Cricut!   Have a great weekend!

(the link to download the "fancy" card I shared on the Everyday Cricut blog is here)

Filigree Oval Fancy Shaped Card