Sticking tricky sentiments and weird Scan & Cut issue?

I created the Merry Christmas sentiment and when I tried to send it to my Scan&Cut, it refused to recognize the fonts! It was very strange. All the other elements seemed to be fine but not fonts used and saved as an SVG in my program. Now, I do need to try a different program to see if it is the program that is the issue or if it is the fonts but it was a bit annoying.

The workaround for me is to use the online SVG converter found here. I’ve mentioned it before. I waved the image as a .jpg then converted it to an SVG using the online tool, and that transferred

and cut just fine, even the fairly thin font at 5 1/2 inches

More experimentation is needed.

I just thought I would mention how I like to stick tricky, thin sentiments like this. I used to dot glue or matte medium on the back from a bottle, but it’s time-consuming and annoying to do. Instead I like to use my gel plate – I roll out a thin coat of the matte medium, lay on the sentiments. then pluck them off and stick them to the card front. Adding a weight over them will usually ensure a good stick.

You can do what you see here and take up the extra matte medium with deli paper but usually I cover the plate with sentiments and pluck them off one at a time. If the cards are all ready to go, I can usually get them on quick enough for it not to dry on me, even this sort of fiddly one.

The matte medium works great as a glue so they are well and truly stuck when they dry.

I realize I have not added any tags! Only because this weekend I know I will be wrapping a LOT of gifts so will need some new ones myself, I need to do some for me. And when I do, I always share. So look for them tomorrow, all being well. I have a few ideas for a design, but we’ll see if I can find the resources to make that vision real.

Watch this space!

Cards – the woven one too, although…

…not a massive success.

The original one I did, from the white-on-white paper turned out really sweet, I think.

I had a lot more to work with, frankly, because I had the foresight to scan the paper and work with that from the beginning. Note to self: even if you don’t LOVE it, SCAN IT! With the Green+Red I only had the bits trimmed off from the 12 x 12 sheet to create the weave. Now I think of it, if I could have cut a smaller card front, I bet I could have covered it – I just didn’t think of it!

I stuck the sentiment down too far to the left on the actual card so the white touches the white background, which is annoying, but this is one that goes in the emergency stash – when I need a card quick and am out of the top tier ones. It happens. Someone shows up with a card and you have to dash upstairs to “get the one you made” just for them but, well, you didn’t. A stack of pre-signed and with-envelope cards that one need a name scrawled on the front can be a lifesaver. So while this one may look a bit like the ugly step-sister of the group, it will do in a pinch!

They look quite arty, really, so happy enough.

Resticking my S&C mat and cutting sentiments

I used one of the tips online for re-sticking the mat (spray adhesive) and it worked OK. Honestly, the more I read about how crap the Brother mats are and the more I use them, the more I agree. I am tempted by the tutorials that suggest using a Cricut mat cut and stuck to the brother one. I suspect you would need to do a test cut to get the pressure right but it sounds like it might work. I designed and cut a sheet of sentiments for cards using the Red & Green paper from last week. I think these will end my card-making or the holidays. I should have enough. These used the actual paper, not a scan. I really wanted the texture and painterly feel to be there, showing them as actual physical art, not an image of art.

In one area of the mat I had some bubbles from the spray adhesive, and that sentiment cut perfectly but would not let go of the mat. Not bad to have only one sacrificed to the cutting Gods. The big sentiment looked good on the background and there was enough to cover four cards

Simple enough. I designed the MERRY to be straight across, and used that to keep it aligned nicely.

It can be really hard to get them straight sometimes. Anyway I added a trio of gold sequins as well, just for that little bit of extra bling

If this had been a die, I might have cut a fun foam duplicate to pop it up a bit, but these might well be mailed (yeah, takinga chance there, given the state of the global post services lately) so lat is where it’s at!

There are some strips trimmed off to get to the 5 1/2″ square chunks I wanted to fit the card fronts, so I will play around with them to create a 5th card, I think. Might be OK, I’ll have to see. I did make a woven background from strips of the white-on-white scan and I really liked that a lot, so if I can, I may try that. I’ll share both if it turns out well. If not….crickets!

Dithering over what I will do over the holiday week between Xmas and New Year. I might go dark, I might bring back some old posts, I might have a massive spurt of creativity. I honestly don’t know. This year more than recent years, with Dear Son in residence, I feel like it will be precious family time to enjoy together. Between that and surely a ton of family Zooms or Facetimes, arty time might be in short supply. Not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to chilling out with a ton of sappy holiday movies (and Die Hard, much to Darling Daughter’s chagrin LOL!) and getting some cat cuddles in front of the tree. One more skating event before the big day, a Teams meeting for DD about a new project she might work on, a Holiday lunch with friends and a Dr. phone call. so not the most restful week.

Enough moaning. Cards!

Using scans of my White on White challenge piece

Crikey. This worked so much better than I expected it to!! I scanned the piece and printed it on my laser (left, a bit pale) and inkjet (right) printers and they looked pretty good to me.

Now, the laser only prints A4 and because I wanted to capture a different piece of the whole, so I could play with the different areas, I flipped it. Clearly I forgot there are letters on there. But to be honest I’m not sure it really matters, as the letters are more a design element than actual text IYKWIM. I did then tart up each piece with gold paint, as the shimmer of the original gets totally lost in the scanned and printed version.

Love them so much. I cut them into chunks to top the card bases I really want to use up, then stitched around the edges. Where the first card had a lot of elements, these came together in a flash. The only slightly tie consuming part was the stars. I used a combination of gold mic powder and some old UTEE in gold, to give a really distressed look to it.

The final card is still really pretty but a lot less work and a lot less textured, because the scan is flat. Obviously LOL!

And just a quick side-by-side

I do think I really prefer the simpler one. Quick to make but still really nice and less…cluttered maybe. And using scanned papers, I can make a ton of them because I am not limited to how many I can get from my single 12×12.

Result!

Tree goes up this weekend. Worried about the cat – will she want to scale it? Not sure. Son tells me they never put up a tree in the States so it could be interesting…

First Card. Forst of a few or first of many?

I have never been one to send out stacks of cards. I just never really go into the habit of it and carried on the same. Recently, I feel the draw of holiday cardmaking more than before. I have a small (and I mean very small, probably less than 10 people) list that is 90% family (and not even all of them) and a couple very very close friends. So the cards from my one masterboard will probably make 80% of the cards I need. The design is pretty simple, but with a lot of parts.

The card bases I have that I want to use up are actually embossed with a large rectangle in the middle. I am covering that with a bit of the W-on-W sheet

The sentiment is a die cut from a sheet of cardstock covered in sparkly gold tissue.

The tag has some gold stenciling then is topped with a couple of stars. The smaller stars are hand cut using the same stencil as the stars on the masterboard and the bigger ones are a punch.

That goes on top of the card front and… Ta Da!

I really like it, and while it is perhaps more time-consuming than is ideal for someone making 50+ cards, for someone making 10, it isn’t so bad.

I am still hoping to experiment with my scan, to see if I can print something that looks decent enough and embellish it. I don’t have enough of the sparkly paper the stars are cut from to make a lot more, so I need to consider altering the design. I might hold that for the weekend, and work on that long sheet of packaging paper. Still not sure what to make of it but something will reveal itself at some point – or someone will suggest something and I will slap my forehead and say Of course!

Collaborative projects are so much fun ….

Just a quick one while the house is in chaos

I was working on Easter cards for the family and as I made them, I figured I might as well share them, as the painting and minor repair etc. will mean the house is chaotic and getting to do actual crafting is tricky.

eastercardDownload

I am also experimenting with a new way to add the PDFs. Not sure how much I like it but we will see when it publishes how it looks! Sometimes, “improvements” are not!

Anyway, easy peasy. Print and cut the quadrants then pop them on a cardfront. These fit an A5 card but should be easily trimmed to fit a 1/4 US letter size or perhaps even a few others.

Darling daughter is mad keen on anime, and she has been missing her annual trip to HyperJapan for the last few pandemic years. They did hold it online in 2021, but it’s just not the same. Anyway, kawaii cute cards are perfect for here, and these bunnies made me smile. Hope you find them useful if you need a quick card!

I’m curious – is it better to do a card with the front arranged so all you have to do is print and fold on plain printer paper? I always cut the high-quality printed PDF images then stick them to the front of an actual card base, either a commercial one of one made from quality cardstock leftovers. But I always wonder if more people would prefer the easiest and most basic option. LMK!

My card stash came in handy….

As I am still not really going out, obviously I would hand-make cards rather than buying them. I suppose I would do that anyway, but sometimes you might see a fab store-bought card that is so perfect you just have to buy it – or pilfer the design + words for your next handmade attempt! For Valentine’s Day I had a few cards pre-made, from my a-card-a-day efforts last year, so I had lots to choose from.

I picked two that were in a similar vein:

What I was reminded of was the technique I used of cutting the intricate Cherry Lynne die into different shapes for the focal points:

Yeesh. Sorry about the hot spot reflecting off the silver mirror card heart! The interesting thing is the post that outlined my experiments with this die is old – 2012 to be exact – and these were only a few of the options I played with back then:

I still love this die and loved using it again. Maybe you have one and this will make you want to drag it out and use it!

Ornament cards and a Envelope punch board trick!

So on Friday I added a PDF that has both little folded cards and circle tags to punch. In the past I have made ornament cards for my darling daughter, for her to give to friends at school. Lately she is more interested in picking cards to give out herself, so I have been a bit out of the habit of doing them. But while I was sorting out the top menu of Christmas goodies I was looking back on previous ones and I thought I would make a set to use in case of drop-in guests. Nice to have a stack of signed, in envelope cards that you can just grab if you are caught unawares! Two seconds to scrawl a name (top tip – have a pen stashed with the cards!) and hand it over. All you do is print then cut and fold the cards:

then punch out the circles. I find a medium scalloped square fits the cards perfectly, but you can also use a slightly larger circle or a plain square. Punch the hanger-hole and ink the edges…

then stick the round motif on it with some fun foam or foam squares (or not!) to pop it up, and add a hanger and slip it into the card:

The tricky part is the envelope, right? Well I have one of those envelope punch boards and I thought Perfect! but, then, Nope. The cards are 2.5 inches and is there a square instruction for the board? There is not, or at least not for the one I have. I think there is a different punch board for gift cards, the Mini, but I don’t have that. So I tried to be a bit logical and came up with the solution! I need to experiment a bit more, but I think it works for all squares.

Take your card measurement (in my case 2.5 inches square) and double it then cut you beginning piece to that size.

Align the left edge to the size of your card (in this case, 2.5 inches) and make your punch then score (as per the usual instructions)

Rotate, punch and score as normal and you will have an envelope that perfectly fits your card! It measures just shy of 3 inches square.

To be honest the 3×3 one would have been fine but I like the idea that I can cut the paper and punch without trying to read the stupid writing on the board. I find it very hard to read. What’s wrong with black text on cream so it’s easy? Old eyes struggle, or at least mine do. So for square cards, at least, I can just wing it with a formula.

Result!

Cards from tags

I really liked the tags I shared this year, and wanted a large number of easy cards, using minimal supplies. I thought they could be just the thing and they were!

From a single sheet of 12×12 paper (cut to give me four 4.5×3.75 rectangles, four 4.5×4.5 squares and one 3 x 2.75 rectangle) and a single print of the tags PDF I made nine cards. I added a handful of bits from my Christmas bin but nothing special.

The tags were cute enough to provide a nice focal point, and I thought they looked good even just plunked on top of a square of paper like so:

but just adding some little extras like fun foam to pop bits up from the surface, little bits of ribbon or small punched elements, and a bit of red ink to add some depth, they became a bit more like finished cards and didn’t really take that much time at all:

I didn’t have as many of the square card bases as I thought, but I found these two kraft ones that worked great:

I am not sure how many more I need, but if I do, it’s good to know that I can whip a bundle up in a flash.

Result!

WOYWW 653 – still with the cards

Happy WOYWW all! Nearly the end of another year. Jeez. Where does the time go?

I am still deep into the cards, with only a few left to make to complete the list (plus a few extras) – I wish there was a WOYWW address list that we could request. I know I had some addresses when we lived back in Basingstoke, but once we moved to Dorset, they seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Maybe we can organize that for next year….

My desk was once again in a proper state (as of Tuesday early in the AM)

and the bad light doesn’t really do it any favours. You can see the tags I shared on Monday and I had a plan for them beyond, well, tags. Hours elapsed and a quick tidy (who am I kidding? also HOURS or tidying) and:

A tidy pile of cards (and the rest are already down on the table with a bunch of stuff that needs to be mailed or hand delivered) and another duplicate! Not my fault this time either – these seemed to be in a scrapbooking kit of some kind and the same template was in both of two different ones.

Cute enough but unopened and unused. {sigh} Maybe I’ll open one up and see what I can make, if I find the time. I’ll share the cards tomorrow.

So then just the If You HAD To… cards:

Hummmm. Tricky. I am not fast enough to run from light-sabre wielding mobsters, nor cute enough to talk my way out of the debt, so gotta pick Vin’s head as a … I’m gonna say table cause no way to eat soup or salad from a head, unless we go to a VERY dark place….

Happy Holiday-month WOYWW!