How to make the Bee Happy Card

Using both my Creative Memories digital program (StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0) and my Cricut Design Studio for a project is combining the best of both worlds.  I have high hopes that eventually I will be able to create a digital design and then have my Cricut cut it out automatically.  Until then, I have figured out a way that works for me to get the printing and the cuts that I want for my projects.

Several people had questions about the "digital coloring" I talked about in yesterday's post (here is a LINK).  I will try to do a video so you can see it in action soon but here is a quick explanation with some pictures.  (Remember you can click on any image to make it larger).

In the Creative Memories StoryBook software there is a ribbon called "cut and fill."  In the cutter section there is a tool called the "magic wand" which can be used to make the process of taking apart the image quick and easy.  I always make the image as large as possible to make it easier to work with it.  The "digital coloring" is done by clicking the "magic wand" tool in each area of the design that you want to color the same color and isolating sections of the design.  After a section is selected (you will see a moving dotted line around the edges) choose "cut around the selected area" and repeat this process for each area of the design.

You may need to adjust the sensitivity values to get a clean selection of each area.  When all of the areas are separated you can fill them with digital paper or a color and add any effects that you would like to use.

Once you have filled in all of the sections, you highlight them all in the elements bar and group the image back together again.  Then you can resize it as you like.  If you want to change a color after resizing, simply ungroup, change the fill for that section and then group again.

This is what the bee looked like before I grouped the pieces back into one image.

The same process can be used to alter some of the word art in the program or that you find from other sources.

By using the magic wand to select each piece of the phrase, you can divide it into sections that can be separately filled with color and apply shadows and other effects.  Every piece of digital content you have can be endlessly altered for unlimited creative possibilities.

Once I was happy with my image, I set up a full 8 1/2 x 11 page to print.  I wanted to use this image on an A2 card and put it inside a scalloped circle so I knew that three inches would be a good size to use.  I could fit six 3 inch images and two 2 inch images comfortably on the page (the two inch images can be used for another project - I just don't like to waste space!).

I chose this scalloped circle from the Graphically Speaking cartridge.  If you don't have Graphically Speaking you should really take a look at it - it is full of all sorts of interesting titles and images and is good for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.

I used a three inch circle in Design Studio to determine that a 3 3/4 inch scalloped circle would be a good fit.  I set up a mat to cut nine scalloped circles at once.

On a second page in the file, I placed a three inch circle centered in the lower right quadrant of the mat.

It was a tight fit to get nine scalloped circles on the mat due to the "no cut zone" around the edges of the mat.  I used textured Core'dinations cardstock for the scalloped circles and to insure that the cuts were clean I set the machine for multi cut 2 in Design Studio.

I placed a 6 inch square piece of cardstock in the lower section of the mat and cut the circle from page 2 of the file.  I taped one edge of the paper directly to the mat with masking tape.  I then pushed "load paper" to move the mat out so I would have room to work.  DO NOT push "unload paper" or you will have to start all over again!

After I removed the pink template circle cut, I placed one of the bee designs under the piece of pink cardstock and aligned it with the cut opening.

Then I carefully flipped the template piece of cardstock back and let it rest on the other side of the mat. 

I pressed cut in Design Studio and the machine cut a perfect circle around my image.

When I removed the excess cardstock I had a cute bee medallion ready to adhere to the yellow scalloped circle.

Before unloading the mat I cut the other five bee designs using the same method of centering the image below the template and then flipping it out of the way for the cut.  I can make five more of this simple card very easily now and I have three extra scalloped circles and two smaller bee designs for more projects.

I cut a piece of ribbon about 22 inches long and tied a bow around the front of the card.

Strategically placed foam squares raise the medallion above the ribbon without actually sticking to the ribbon.

Here is one more view of the card - I added just a dot of Stickles on the end of each antenna.

The sales on Creative Memories digital software and other items and the Lettering Delights digital items both end Sunday the 27th.  Links to the sale are in THIS POST.  If you have any questions about any of these products, please do not hesitate to email me.

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