Baby Blessings Card

I just received the "Preserves" Cricut Cartridge in the mail.  It was a prize for being "Spotlighted" in the Cricut "Chirp" newsletter.  If you have never tried submitting something for the newsletter, I encourage you to try.  The form to submit a project can be found at this LINK.  If you are chosen, you can select a free cartridge (excluding exclusive cartridges or cartridges bundled with certain machines).

On first hearing about this cartridge I thought "who needs a cartridge full of fruit?" but then I started looking at the images on Design Studio and I realized that there were all sorts of interesting tags and labels on this cartridge.  I'll do an actual review of the cartridge soon but for today I just tried out one of the shapes for a card that has nothing to do with fruit!

This is the shape that caught my eye.  It has a reverse scallop on the top and bottom.  When layered with another color it gives the effect of a scallop cut from the lower layer.

I chose this element and adjusted the size in Design Studio to fit an A2 card by entering the height and width in the Shape Properties box.

I made a second layer an inch shorter than the first layer.  To preview possible color combinations, you need to set up separate mats for each layer since all items on the same mat will preview in the same color.  The preview reads from the first layer down so you need to place the elements on the mats in the correct order.

The "baby blessings" sentiment is from the Wild Card cartridge.  The sentiments on Wild Card are sized to fit particular cards so it can be confusing to set the size.  You can check the "Real Size" box and guess at the size you need but I usually just use the "handles" to adjust the shape to suit my project.

The actual pieces that need to be cut for the card are on a page labeled "CUT" so when I go back to the file at a later date I don't have to rethink the process.  Since I wanted the sentiment to be in the same color as the first layer, I cut it from the center which will be covered by the second layer.

Here are all of the pieces for my card.  The base is white cardstock cut at A2 size (half of an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of cardstock cut in half on the 11 inch side and folded).  The green layer is cut at exactly 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches to cover the entire card top.

The dotted green layer is from the DCWV "Nana's Nursery-Baby Girl" mat stack.  Mat stacks are sized at 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (to mat a 4 x 6 inch photo perfectly) so when I trimmed it for the front of the card there was a 1/4 inch remnant strip.  I decided to add it to the inside of the card for a nice surprise.  I adhered it to the card and them trimmed it even with the edge.

I realized that an accent on the inside strip would be nice so I used a Martha Stewart monarch butterfly double punch to punch a butterfly from the area of the lower mat that would be hidden by the top layer.

Here  you can see a peek inside the card.  The pink layer and words are cut from Core'dinations gemstone cardstock which adds a nice subtle sheen to the card.

The top scalloped layered with cute little baby clothes is from the Nana's Nursery - Baby Girl 8 x 8 stack so the scale is slightly larger.  The card just didn't look complete without a finishing touch...

...so I added this cute pink gingham bow.

I have been working on my bow tying - it can be tricky to get just the right degree of perkiness!

This card is very simple and I think you could duplicate it from my description but if you'd like to see how I set up my file you can download it from the link below.  Of course, you can change the papers and sentiment to make a similar card for any occasion.

Baby Blessings Scalloped Front Card