Stick a fork in me....

I'm done!!! Hi Blogland.... Phew! At last I have done all my Christmas shopping, wrapping and now I have finished all of my cards!! Always left until last are those extra special ones for my parents and my Sister. But leaving them until last means I can spend that extra bit of time on them to make them what I want them to be.. NOT!!!! It actually means the opposite!! Does that look alright there, YES IT DOES!! Stick it down!! Even rushing a little bit I was happy with how my parents card came out..Whilst shopping at Bluewater I found some pre made cards in Clinton's, I know sacrilege to go into a card shop when I have an award winning shop of my own! But I do like to pop in occasionally to see what is trending at the moment.
I managed to pick up some Art Deco card packs, and as they were buy one get one half price I bought a few packs so that I could make up my own Decoupage. There were 2 of each of 5 design in a pack, so I reckon I could make a fare few cards out of all the images and not much more expensive than using normal Decoupage... I'll be heading back down to Clinton's for the sales to see what else I can pick up, unless you get there first!!!
As this card was for the folks I chose to use the couple which was in the set.So, I cut out the imagesand layered them all together...To keep the Art Deco theme going, I went for my favourite image from my favourite Cricut Cartridge, Billionaire. Well, my current favourite Cricut Cartridge, until something else comes along!! And cut out the Art Deco Car in Black & Silver Mirror Card..And added it to my prepared card.Adding the couple image with some big blobs of Silicone Gel to give extra dimension as if the couple were walking away from the car.
The card needed something as, although it looks very classic, it still looked a bit bare!So, I cut some Spellbinders Poinsettia shapes from some Red Mirror card,made a slit in eachand stuck the two petals either side of the slit together using Glossy Accents. On one of the Poinsettias, I curved the petals over the edge of my craft desk to flatten them out and give dimension at the same time!
The inner layer I left as it was. I then layered the two together.Next, I cut out some leaves from the Tattered Leaves Die and added them to the card.Popping the Poinsettia into the middle of the leavesand finishing off with some Gold Flower Soft..Merry Christmas Mum & Dad...On a roll I then had to do Joanne & Paul's card.Again I used an image from the card pack I purchasedand Decoupaged them.
The cards that the images came from were a sort of Purple colour, which I didn't like so I cut that bit off, which also meant I lost the tree! So I made my own!I cut out lots of leaves using the Martha Stewart Branch punchand made the boughs of the tree,and then filled in the remaining ares.Finishing off by adding the Decoupaged image....
So, now I'm all done I can truly start to enjoy the festive season...
It has been such a busy year, I think I managed to take a day off somewhere! The 17th of September and the 3rd of October ring a bell for some reason... Note to self, take more time for me next year!! We'll see...
I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a fantastic Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Crafty 2011 and I look forward to sharing some more ideas next year... Have fun...
Andy.

It's beginning to feel...

...a lot like Christmas.. Hi Blogland. I hope you are well? I just wanted to share with you today a christmassy project I made for my Cricut Demo last week.I Really can't believe a week has passed already since Cricut owners old and new descended upon us in their droves... I sat demoing the Cricut, Gypsy andDesign Studio for 6 hours solid, and I haven't got a clue where the time went!!Still, lot's of new customers were bitten by the bug (Cricut, bug! get it!! ehhh!!) and walked out with their new toys!This is one of the cards I made for the demo.I started off by cutting a 5 1/4" circle frame from the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge using the Roly Poly function on my Cricut Machine. This was cut on some thickish non shedding Glitter card, so I needed to use the multicut function to cut the card.I then punched out 80 leaves using the Martha Stewart Branch Punch.And then added them to the circle frame in 8 groups of 10.Using my Gypsy Machine I prepared my sentiment. Now, although the Cricut machine as a standalone machine is fantastic, it's the Gypsy that can do the welding of letters! But I hope you can see that it is not only the Purple letters which are welded, I even managed to weld a Silver shadow around them which really makes the sentiment pop.I prepared my easel card,and placed my wreath and car embellishment onto the front.
The Car is from the Cricut Lite Cartridge called Billionaire. I just knew when I saw this image what I was going to do with it! It has so many possibilities for male themed projects, weddings, and of course Christmas, who knew!!?I then added my sentiment,and there you go....
Have a great day, whatever you're up to.
Thanks for checking us out.
See you soon
Andy.