Fancy (but simple) Storybook Lace Mesh

Many people have asked me for more information about mesh or paper lace designs.  There are many types of designs that can be used to make these intricate cuts.  Some of the more recent Cricut cartridges have elaborate lace designs that are beautiful at full page size (Mother's Day, Straight from the Nest, Cindy Loo).  You can also create these pages using smaller images and welding them in a pattern.

This delicate lace was made using just four images from the Storybook cartridge.  I altered the width of the image a bit to get a good fit on the page.  The adapted shape is 5.8 x 5.8 inches.

 The four images are arranged to overlap evenly along some of the outer swirls.  This screen shot shows the final image after welding.

To cut a design like this one - with lots of intricate curves and thin sections  - I usually find it better to use a heavy patterned paper instead of cardstock.  For my test cut I used a sheet of K & Company paper with a fairly subtle pattern.

You could use the offcut to create a frame for a page.

Different backgrounds with varying degrees of contrast give very different looks to this lace.

I had intended to give more explanation on how to make this type of mesh and also to share some techniques for making it an "adjustable" design in Design Studio but I ran into another glitch in the new version of Design Studio.  The problem with the nudge arrows getting "stuck" and the selected element moving along the mat with no way to stop it is has come back again.  I opened and closed the program several times but I still had a section of the design that "lost control" and could not be stopped!

This design is easy to make on the Gypsy and I found that the Gypsy is much faster than it used to be with preparing and displaying the design previews.  I did a Gypsy file but I haven't test cut it yet - I'll try to do that tomorrow so I can post the file.  Our oldest son arrived tonight from California for a weekend visit so I did not have any more time to troubleshoot the Design Studio issue.  If you have a Gypsy, you can try making this design on your own - it should be very simple to do.


The message boards are buzzing with news that there are a large number of new Cricut Lite cartridges which seem to be exclusive to Walmart.  If you go to the Cricut Message board you may find some more information from members who have seen these in their local Walmart stores.


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