Christmas Express 3D

Hi all! Well Here we are in the week before Christmas. I have been crafting quite a bit lately making presents for people.

I have discovered the delights of Make the Cut software. I had been resistant to getting it, as I was afraid of how complicated the software might be. My only experiences thus far were using Cricut Design Studio and my Gypsy. However I love so many of the SVG files that are out there, as well as having the ability to cut any font.

I am very happy to say that I LOVE it! True, I am still a complete novice, but I am learning the more I mess around with it.

So here is my first project using Make the Cut and an SVG I purchased from Lettering Delights called Christmas Express Train 3D:

Here are close ups of all the individual cars:

The Engine:
I added embossing, glitter and gems to most of the cars. On the engine, I also added a large antique gem from my grandmothers stash of goodies as the headlight. The holly was cut from Christmas Cheer.

Train car 2:

Train Car 3:
This one I added some heat set star studs that I bought forever ago and never used.

Train car 4:
The Little Christmas tree is a bell. there is one on each side. I also added a little bakes twine bow.

Train car 4:
The Caboose:

Its hard to see from this angle, but I added a little metal candy cane charm to a spiral clip and stuck it on the back end of the caboose.

I made 4 sets of these, one for myself and one for three very good friends of mine. I can't wait to give these to them.

So, as my first SVG cut, I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I look forward to expanding my crafting to new areas with this software.

Hope everyone has a Great and Crafty Holiday!

Jan

Quick and Easy Cards

Hi All! I can't believe I finally have a crafty post! It has been TOO long. I have been feeling a little like my MOJO had abandoned me, so I spent quite a bit of time just perusing the Internet, you-tube and various blogs and Magazines to get some inspiration and help get my creativity flowing again.

I saw this fabulous idea to use the 12x12 pages that have the ATC sized cards printed on them, as the fronts for greeting cards. I always loved buying these types of 12x12 cardstock, to use for accents on my scrapbook pages. I felt they were really "smashbook-ish" (Is that a word?? LOL) Now I have another great use for them as well.

Here is a picture of the papers I chose to use. It is Fancy Pants Paper. The line is The Daily Grind. I used the DG cards page and the DG Strips page. I found these great papers at the Scrapbook Expo this year.

I also used premade cards from JoAnn's that I have had in my stash forever. It felt good to not only be crafting again, but to be using up some stuff that was just sitting there.

So for the few cards that I made, I just did a basic design, with very little extra on it and no sentiment. I figured I would just put these in my stash, and when I needed a card, I would then add the sentiment and any extra more specific embellishments based on whether I needed a birthday, anniversary, get well, or just a hello card.

Here are the cards I made:

This one was made using two pieces from the strips paper. I just added a light green rick-rack bow to it.

This one I just double mounted the card on a blue and then a cream colored cardstock and added some gem flowers to it.
This one I used a new embossing folder on the dark blue cardstock. It is called Scalloped Dots by the Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby. I then added a few brads in coordinating colors to the centers of some of the scalloped dots and offset my DG Card front.


This is my least favorite of the cards. I embossed the card base using CuttleBug's Script Texture and I lightly sanded it. Then I used a piece from the strip paper and a white bow. Its kind of plain still, but eventually it will get more embellishments.
This one is my favorite one. It is the one I spent the most time on. I stamped swirls on the card base using versamark and heat embossed it with some holographic embossing powder. I mounted the DG card on some cement colored cardstock that I had punched using a border punch. I then cut some flower layers from the Flower Shoppe cart. I cut the Mum2 and Mum 4 in both 1.75 and 2.0 inches in vellum. I stamped some layers using brilliance ink, and I embossed some using Cuttlebug's Swiss Dot folder. I added some bling to the card front.

I really like this DG Card so this card is rather simple. The red plaid paper is from Imagine Best Friends Cartridge. It was a leftover from a previous project. :) I added a small blue bow that matches the blue stripe in the heart. It is so simple, but I just love it!

Here is my last card: I really liked this DG Card too. I just tied a sheer white bow to the card, and mounted it on a piece of vellum that I had embossed using Cuttlebug Stylized Flower folder. I attached the vellum layer to the card base using some silver brads.

All of these cards are really simple, but I am happy with how they turned out, and how quickly I put them together. I have more types of these ATC pages, so I am going to look through them and see about making more cards in the future.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan