Creative Charms and Creative Memories together for A Time to Celebrate Card

When you combine two of my favorite companies you can be even more "creative" - so this card is "creative squared"!  I made a square card to showcase the Reminisce Accents Cricut cartridge from Creative Memories and the Vintage Velvet Poppies and Vintage Jewel Brads from Creative Charms.

The two Creative Memories cartridges have quickly become part of my group of "go to" cartridges.  The artwork is very versatile and they cover a wide variety of occasions and styles.Today's card features Reminisce Accents with two of the layers and the words slightly altered in Design Studio.

When I first got the cartridge (I ordered mine as soon as it was available) I was so excited to find this frame feature.  There are fifty multilayered and beautiful frames that would keep any crafter busy for weeks.  These will work for cards or scrapbook pages and are similar to the Lacy Labels cartridge.  However, Reminisce Accents has so much more than just the labels for a price that is just a little higher.

I wanted to use the beautiful velvet poppies and I saw this frame with flowers at the top and realized it would work perfectly.  I sized it to fit the flowers - the larger one is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter - and 4 1/2 inches turned out to be just right.  Since I knew I was going to add the flowers I hid the lines that cut the flower centers in the original design.

It is so helpful to be able to do color previews in Design Studio.  This feature has often helped me improve a design choice and saved me from wasting a lot of paper.  I set up a rectangle and some squares to represent the size of the final card.  (I cut these with a trimmer but I can figure out the sizes to cut in Design Studio).  The image above is the preview with all of the cuts in their original format.

I knew the sentiment would be in black and when I did the preview I realized that the shadow layer is designed to show through the center of the medallion (since it is a frame) so I needed to hide the interior cutting line on the middle layer to prevent this. There is only one line to hid and there are only two lines in the image so you will have to "re-hide" the line each time you use the Design Studio file.  On the Gypsy the line will stay hidden.

I hid the lines that I needed to hide and previewed again - this is an approximation of how my card will look. I would love to be able to preview with the actual paper choices I will be using.  I suggested this possibility as a goal quite a while ago and I am wondering if eventually the Imagine will have this capability.

There is a nice script font on Reminisce Accents and there are some words and phrases in the "extra" spots on the keypad.  I chose "A Time to Celebrate" thinking that my card could be an invitation to a special party - possibly a golden anniversary.

 

The space available was about 1 1/2 inches high so I set that value on the slider bar.  The words are much too wide to fit the card but with Design Studio the fix is quick and easy.  I used the handle on the right center to adjust the width to a bit less than 2 1/2 inches (the original was about 4 1/4 inches).  Just click the handle and slide it to the left to make the entire image thinner.

 With a sentiment this tiny I have found that it is best to cut it in vinyl.  I have had excellent result with the smallest details in vinyl and the adhesive is already on the cut which eliminates a possible mess with adhesive showing around the cut.

 The cut is delicate and it helps to use a tool to place it on the card to avoid stretching or tearing the letters.

 I was even able to get the tiny dot for the "i" to cut and adhere - I don't think I could do that with paper !  (When cutting vinyl i use blade depth 4 medium pressure and medium speed to "kiss cut" - cutting through the vinyl but leaving the backing paper intact which makes it easier to lift the cut.)

 I used some beautiful papers for this card.  The medallion center is Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock and the frame is from the Making Memories Autumn Splendor collection.

There are two colors of this textured metallic paper and I used the gold on the first mat layer and the leaf paper also from that collection for the top mat.  The black card base is Papertrey Ink cardstock cut at 11 x 5 1/2 inches and scored for a clean fold.

 The Vintage Velvet Poppies come with a pearl brad in the center.  This is lovely but for this card I decided to change it out and use a Vintage Jewel Brad to compliment the paper colors.  I can always use the pearl brad for another project.  These were both part of the October Kit of the Month - Vintage Halloween from Creative Charms.

 Here is a closer view of the poppies on the card.  I used different gem colors for the large and small poppies.

This card has a lot of pieces but it is easy to put together.  The mat layers are cut at 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (gold layer) and 5 x 5 inches (leaf layer).

I used glue dots to adhere the poppies.  It is easiest to put the on the paper and place the poppies on top - adding glue dots to the velvet can get messy!

 I used foam squares to lift the entire medallion for a little bit more dimension.

 Here is the "almost finished" card.  You can see the lovely foil effects on some of the leaves in this photo.  It just needed a little something more to frame the card.

 

I added a large gradient gem sticker  to each corner for the finishing touch.

My friends Joy and Melanie are featuring the Creative Memories cartridges this week on their blogs and invited me to join in a mini blog hop this week.  Be sure to check out their blogs each day this week to see more projects and information about these cartridges.  You can find them here

Joy - Obsessed with Scrapbooking

Melanie - Courtney Lane Designs

Joy and Melanie also run the Everyday Cricut blog where you can always find inspiration and giveaways from Provocraft and other sponsors.  All of these blogs should be on your "must read" list!

If you would like to see some of my projects with these cartridges that I have posted already here are two more links for you  - Reminisce Accents and Cheerful Seasons. 


If you are interested in purchasing these cartridges you need to purchase through a Creative Memories consultant.  I am a consultant  and I would be happy to help you if you don't have a consultant already.  You can order the cartridges through my Creative Memories personal website day or night from anywhere in the country.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Here are the links

Reminisce Accents

Cheerful Seasons

These cartridges have coordinating papers that are also exclusive to Creative Memories.  You can find these in the various categories under Scrapbooking Paper on my site.

There are also digital versions of most of the papers which can be found HERE.
 
I have a goal to sell at least 40 cartridges this month so I can be included in a contest to win a spot on the Cricut Cruise.  I'd love to go along with some of my lucky friends who have already been invited so I appreciate your purchases to help in getting me one step closer.  Thanks!

(For those of you who asked - the MRI was fine.  Fortunately I am not claustrophobic since it was not an open one.  I don't have any results yet and I do appreciate all of your good wishes and prayers.)


Subscribe to Capadia Designs