Art Philosophy - Cardinal Card

Well, hello! This post has been a long time in the making. Mostly because it took me a long time... to make it. :D  I'd like to thank so many people for the huge success that my little spring chickadee card became! It kind of went from a blog hop, to Pinterest, to some forums, back around again... and I've had loads of requests for "how-to's" and tutorials!

The original chickadee card can be seen here.. and I will be adding a quick link to my side bar as well. I thought that this time around, it might be fun to do a different kind of bird, and make the card for another season. Thus, the cardinal card has been created... and here are all the details.

Both of these cards have been made with parts and pieces from the Close To My Heart - Art Philosophy cartridge. Yes, this is my new favorite, and most used cartridge. More so than "George" even, because it has all and more of the same basic shapes.. plus so many other great things.

Here is my tutorial video, which explains how to put the card together, and also how you can create a system for building your own cards from this great cartridge.



Here is the "recipe" for making the card exactly as it is shown. I'll separate by color, so that you can cut your pieces more easily. One 12x12 sheet of each color is plenty to cut all of the pieces that you need to make this card.

Red Cardstock:
The base is "Square 5" on page 63. Cut two of these at 5"
Also, cut the Square 5 "Layer" for the frame, also at 5"
Cut one bird, pg. 51. Cut the bird at 2", cut two "wings" at 2 1/4 inches and one "wing" at 2"
The 2" wing is the piece that makes his little crest.
(please note, if you have the 6" Cricut machine, you can still make this card. Just cut the wings at 2 1/2" instead.)
Cut one decorative Layer from "Oval 4" on page 52. This makes the frame for your large oval. 2 1/2"
(Or if you prefer, you can cut this one from green. 2 1/2")
Cut some holly berries from page 46, at 1"
Cut one "Deco Layer" from page 56 for the sentiment frame. 1"

White Cardstock:
Cut the "Shape 5" using shift and "Font Layer" from page 64 at 5" - this should be the snow mat. When assembling the card, you'll need to trim the corner bits off of this, so that they don't hang over the edge.
Cut two of the "Square 5" on page 63 to use to line the inside of your card.. 4 3/4" (or 4 1/2"  for the smaller machine.)
Cut one "Oval 4" from pg. 52 - this is the background oval, behind the bird - 2 1/2"
Cut one "Shape 4" from pg.56, this is for your sentiment. 1"

Green Cardstock:
Cut one branch from pg. 43 - cut the "layer" one, it is the one without leaves. 1"
Cut holly leaves from pg. 46 - cut about 5 leaves at 1" and 5 leaves at 3/4"
If you decided you like the green frame better than the red, this is where you should cut one more decorative Layer from "Oval 4" on page 52.

Other CTMH products that I used in the making of this video include:
The sentiment stamp - the set I used is retired :(
Stardust Glitz - The CTMH version of "Stickles" - they are wonderful.
The Rub & Remove Eraser - this is a must-have for getting those gluebers. :)
"Bitty Sparkles" which are the self-adhesive gems. I used a black one and several plain ones.
The little red square pigment pad is a wonderful new product, they distress things so nicely and can also be used for stamping. They are sold in sets of 10, so that you would get one of each of the color families. Look up the "Exclusive Inks" mini pigment pad sets. The one I used is called "Ruby."
The CTMH Bonding Memories glue pen would be a wonderful kind to use for this project. It is very similar to the "Zig" glue that I used in my demonstration.
I'm sure that there are more, I think that you can see my small blue scissors that I use for fussy cutting and a bit of our baker's twine.

I do love all of the CTMH papers that are available, especially because it takes the guess-work out of matching your colors. However, when I am making this kind of intricate, Cricut pieced card, I prefer to use thicker, solid core cardstock with a little bit of texture. CTMH cardstock is currently white core, and it leaves so many white "unfinished" edges that it would be impossible to fix all of the tiny edges in a project of this size. I miss my CTMH solid core cardstock a lot. Just sayin'. :)

If you're interested in learning more about Close To My Heart and this really great cartridge, the best way to go about that is to go to the Close To My Heart website and do a simple little search to find a consultant in your area who can help you find the best way for you to get your hands on one! Many consultants have a website like mine, but they may also be able to help you get your cartridge for 50% off. Well worth it.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my video and instructions. Please subscribe, share, comment or do a little dance if you liked this tutorial today. Leave me some love, or request anything else you would like to know more about, I'll be happy to try to oblige. Hugs!

Authentique and Deconstruction 110, 109 & 108

Yes, I know, it isn't Halloween Yet. :) Halloween is my favorite! I spent the better part of this morning sorting through my Halloween stuff. I've made it a goal to organize this year, and I've actually purged quite a bit of stuff!

I store all of my supplies by occasion. While this may be different than most people do, I find it to be an easy system for me. I have one or two 12x12 boxes for each major holiday or occasion. Christmas and Halloween are the only two holidays for me, that warrant more than one box! So... I sorted through my prized Halloween stash and decided to work with some of my favorite paper from last year, by Authentique.

Today I worked with Deconstructed Sketches 110, 109, and 108 again. It was a DS day! I also tried my hand at Paula's latest Boot Camp lesson, from Stars & Stamps. Let me show you how... here are the cards. :)

It was a little bit difficult to measure exactly, the color rule, but I tried to stay as close as possible to Paula's lesson. I attempted to use a variation of this theme... going 60-10-30 with oranges, blacks and whites. In the above, I think that I accomplished 60% black, 30" white and 10% orange. Or somewhat close to it anyway.

Before we go any further, let me add a reminder that the above card is probably the only one here that would be ok to send to OWH. It may be on the edge a little even... It's better to stick to the cutsey Halloween decor with regards to cards for OWH. No death imagery ... if you have any questions about that, the latest episode of OWHtv might be good for you to check out. :) Next!

I love these sketches. Did I tell you that I love these sketches? I love them.

Argh...glare on the strip of  neat black doily stuff... and can you see, that even though this little "Thriller" (CTMH) stamp is so darned cute, the skull image rules him OUT for our heroes. That's ok. They can't all go in the box. :)

A few deets! Here is that strip of black doily on some clear acrylic kind of stuff... I don't know what you would call it. But it is by Martha Stewart. My sweet "Mom" Cindy sent it to me last year!

I stamped the skull onto a piece of swiss dot Bazzill. I cut it out with a Spellbinder's frame and left the frame in place while I distressed around the inside edge with some black ink and a sponge dauber. The same sized frame was used to cut the black one, behind it.

Some thoughts about this card... first of all, I did not have any black lace on hand. I had plenty of white lace though! So I simply cut a strip of white lace and put it in a baggie with a few drops of black re-inker. After smooshing it around for a while I removed it carefully and let it dry on a paper towel. Voila..black lace!

I also wanted to note that I would normally never stamp a sentiment directly onto a patterned paper like this. But I messed around with this look and really ended up liking it, so I went with it. I daubed some white ink around the sentiment area to make it kind of misty, ghosty and cool looking! Then, I stamped and heat embossed with black to make the contrast even more different. The "web" like stamps in the corner, in comparison, were stamped with black ink. Only the sentiment is embossed. What do you think? It shows up much better in this photo, than in the one above, and in real life it looks even better... and it was fun.

This paper reminds me of Beetlejuice. Did you ever watch that movie?

For the "Trick or Treat" above, I stamped with black onto a scrap of orange paper, then used a white gel pen to accent the letters. Looks like that labeling tape stuff. Cute! I also really enjoyed adding bits of toulle, ribbon and a few other baubles today.

Here's another closeup of the corner stamp with the webs. I love this set. "Thriller" is now retired. Sad!

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I was scared and lonely and a little bit creeped out... I watched two paranormal-ish horror movies on Netflix while I was making cards today... one of them was Paranomal State 3, and the other one was about some kind of haunted looney bin... I forget what it was called, but it was scary good. Hubby doesn't like to watch horror flicks so I have to sneak them in during card time. Hee hee!