2011-04-28…from trash to treasure

A few weeks ago I made my first full card using the Cricut and cartridge (Wild Card). You can see that effort HERE. In the background behind the card you can see the envelope that I had made to go with the card. Here is a shot of the envelope all by it’s lonesome.
Unfortunately, I used heavy weight cardstock to make it. It is to heavy and a tight fit for the card that I created it for. I ended up tossing it into my scrap box. I have been glancing at the envelope and thinking that I would re-purpose it. I settled upon the idea of a pocket card.

When Cindy at
asked me to become a design team member at a new community for Cricut lovers at Diecut Designer I knew I had my first project.

I chose a daisy in a flower pot to work with. You can see that original die cut SVG HERE Each element of the design can be separated and cut out in any color and sized in any size you need to fit your project. I have always wanted a daisy with multiple nested layers.

I only used a few elements from the design; the flower-pot and the flower. I can see that I will need to work with this design some more. Lots of possibilities! Here is what I came up with

Now I’ll walk you through a couple of the steps I took to get to the final project. Of course I cut the flower-pot out of craft cardstock and the flower out of pale pink. I cut out multiples of the flower in various sizes so they could be layered. Here you can see I’ve inked the edges, applied versa mark ink and dropped them into clear embossing powder.

Years ago I bought the cute little frying pan to emboss tiny items. I know, it’s so stinkin’ cute, you want one of your own, right? I knew it lol! Any kitchen or department store has frying pans, just look for a bitty one that is cute. I have the flowers sitting on a non-stick cooking mat so the embossing powder stays on that and not in the pan. Although if you wipe the pan out with a tissue while hot, it wipes clean.

And a close up of the finished flowers for you. You can see the clear embossing powder on the petals of the flower. It is really just a stiffening agent. I can fluff up the petals and they will “stay” a little better. The flower-pot is in two pieces. I inked the edges of that and also added score lines on the bottom of the pot for texture using my Scor-Buddy. I added some 3-d mounting tape to give the pot depth.

One of the things that I did on both the inside tag and outside background was to use the negative portion of a cut out as a stencil. This particular piece was cut from the Cricut cartridge Serenade.

Here you can see the back of the card. I took the flap of the envelope and folded “backwards” and permanently affixed it. I added a single flower with an old-fashioned office brad as a flower center. You can also see the tag that I made as the inside portion of the card. For the tag-pull I used a ribbon that has been fan-folded. I made sure to tuck the ends of the ribbon between the two layers of cardstock so it would have a finished look. It also helps that its bulky parts are tucked in and doesn’t hang up the sliding process as it goes in and out of the pocket card.

The flower-pot on the lower edge of the tag has been cut from the cartridge Serenade. I used the flower stencil to create the flowers for the pot. To keep things flat, I added some highlights from a Gelly Roll Stardust glitter pen.

So that you can see the tag and card front together, I’ve taken this one last shot.

I did use scraps of things I had previously cut out. I’ll list, as best I can.
Flower & Flower pot: SVG by Cindy at Creative Pointe (can be purchased HERE, and a total bargain for only $1)
Ric-Rac border: Elegant Cake Cartridge
All Floral filler items: Serenade Cartridge
Base envelope for pocket: Wild Card Cartridge

The DSP (Decorative Scrapbook Papers) are all double-sided and from one package…by Heidi Grace Designs. There are a number of color themed pads and the only actual name or description I can find is by the bar code and says this: 60987 HG SW Crdstck Pad Sparkle 24sh2s

The one rubber stamp is the verse (both inside and outside) and is cleverly called an Innie & Outie stamp by My Sentiments Exactly! (M275-10)

And a final side note…I showed this finished card to my husband. And, Oh, My, Gosh. His mouth hung open. I couldn’t believe his reaction. He actually told me this was one of my most impressive cards, ever. He said everything appealed to him; from the flowers, dimension and color. Everything. Wow. I thanked him for his high praise and then before the mood evaporated I handed him my used Cricut cutting blade and asked if he thought it could be sharpened. His mouth hung open again as he pulled of the protective cover and looked at the microscopic blade. He immediately marched off and sharpened it for me using a magnifying glass ROTFL!~ I’ll let you know if this worked or not; I will practice on a scrap cut to experiment with it.