Making a sympathy card for someone near and dear is hard…

Hello my bloggy friends.  Do you ever have the occasion to make a specific card for a specific person or family that NEEDS to be done yet you find because of the emotion attached to the project it is difficult to complete?  Am I making any sense at all???

Here is the situation.  My brother and his wife recently lost a baby at 10 weeks gestation.  It was very difficult for all of us.  I could have sent them flowers as she LOVES gerber daisies… but I know as the card maker I should make her something special… I say her but it is something for the family!

So I started out with my desk looking something like this…

I really liked the patterned paper with the pops of orange yellow and light blue!  I thought it would be a cheery card… then I saw a vid on how to make a 3d butterfly and thought a butterfly would be the perfect thing for a card for this specific occasion… so off I went to cut out my gypsy created inspiration card pieces and the paper messed up … it was all good I had another piece… it messed up on a different mat!  UUUUGGGHHHH!!!!!  Okay… at this point I stopped and prayed and ….

It all got better… I picked out new paper that still had pizzazz but was more toned down and I think more appropriate for the occasion…

and turned it into 2 “s-fold” cards!  I used the cricut and the Art Philosophy and Gypsy Wanderings carts!  It was super fun and easy after I took a minute to pray and everything cut out perfectly!

So when you get downhearted… do what this Bible verse says…. and Trust in the Lord!

Isn’t it nice when a deed you do for someone else winds up being a blessing for yourself!

Hope you find something good to share in your day!  I would love to hear a praise report 🙂

I am sharing this card on ABC Challenge blog 😉  They want CAS cards and this is as CAS as I get so I hope they accept it!  lol

Blessings!

Kathi

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How to make a basic scrapbook layout with video!

My first crafty video is now on youtube… please watch it there and like it if you will.  I was so camera shy you will probably laugh but I had a blast and learned a lot! 

This is also an exciting post for me because it is my 100th post blogger tells me 🙂  Yipee!  I started blogging in earnest in June of 2012.   I first posted some things in 2011 but didn’t find my niche and some great friends too until I came back with focus in June!

So what I learned making this video starts with the video being 23 minutes long!!!  I thought I had only gone about 15 minutes… so I had to divide it into 2 videos to upload to youtube or blogger… neither site liked it long… I hope you will watch both vids as they have a wealth of knowledge in them and I would love to share with you as so many have shared with me!

Get a cup of coffee or a soda and enjoy it!

Hope you enjoyed the vids… would love your feedback here or on youtube!

Have a blessed day!

A special shout out to Sheila with She’s a Sassy Lady for helping me with this!

Kathi aka the Gypsy Chik

Background Challenge Card!

Welcome from the Paper Cabana… if you didn’t start there go check out our great challenge blog with prizes for each weeks winner… you have a week to make your themed project and this week is backgrounds!… I use a gypsy and a cricut and “carved” the pumpkin from Gypsy Wanderings with the coordinating shadow and put a cute ribbon on top and stamped a sentiment inside….  I love the chevron background paper and cut it smaller to show off the purple polkadot card base! Check it out!

This card would be perfect for Moxie Fab Worlds challenge for gallon quarter and pint card creating with orange as my gallon, black and white are quarters, and purple as my pint!  Too bad that is over but the concept still remains in designing 😀

Inside I put two stamps together to make one sentiment that I wanted!  And yet here that background is again inside the card!  Love double sided cardstock!!!!

I inked the edges making it a little messy as it was slower drying pigment ink in black by Megan Elizabeth.  The paper was all Doodlebug Design and the ribbon on the pumpkin was from my stash and went with it excellently I think.

You can see the dimension better from this angle I think…

So think up a fun background and link it on our blog at the Paper Cabana!

Have a blessed week!  Kathi

Wobble card re-do and lots about me!

Hello all… so glad you could come and visit with me today.

Welcome to my blogging desk!

I sit here to blog and surf the internet… the coke is my honeys… I just drink tea, water, and lots and lots of coffee! lol… don’t think it always looks this way… I just cleaned it!!!

Now here is a recent pic of me and my honey at my sweet nieces 5th birthday party!  We are the reno team on our home and a great team as a couple 🙂

Today I wanted to share with you about NOT reinventing the wheel.  I got this idea from Kathy Martin.. a blogger and designer I aspire to be like one day… you can view her post here….  Her idea is to use a pattern you already have to make a fresh new look!

So here is my original card…

 And here is my redone card!

both made with the same CTMH paper pack which I love because the designer paper now comes with sentiments on the tab at the top of the page… here is one that I cut out for the sister card to this…

Try redoing one of your fave cards in different paper or altering it differently too like I did… go back up and check out Kathy’s blog.. she took a birthday layout and made a Christmas card!

Enjoy fall and have a blessed day!

Kathi

Grateful window card with HOMEMADE action wobble!

Welcome from The Paper Cabana challenge… if you haven’t been there yet go check out this weeks challenge blog and then come back to see how I made this beautiful GRATEFUL card!

Every week I will build on what I covered the week before… but if you get lost please email me and ask… I am happy to answer questions!  I don’t want anyone lost but I don’t wanna leave you unchallenged either 😉  Email me at Kathi Clower.

Now onto this weeks challenge for you.. making a homemade wobbler and a window card too!  Did you know in the US fall starts September 22?  Wow that seems early this year as the weather in southeast USA is still warm.  But time to get ready for all the fall festivities like Halloween and Thanksgiving… at least here in the US.  So today I have 2 cards I made that are just alike… 

 but embellished a little bit different to give them their own personality.

To start I pulled out my gypsy and made a window card using the square window on Gypsy Wanderings…. it is on the bottom line under Decor Tags if you want to use the same one I did.  I made the square into a rectangle and sized it to an A2 size front then copied it and placed it above the other and barely touching and removed the inner square for the back so it would cut the whole rectangle without the window.

Next I found the phrase I wanted to use also on Gypsy Wanderings and it was “grateful” with a leaf.  I sized up the grateful and it fit perfectly without any fussing into my rectangle.  Just make sure that it is touching all 4 sides to have a stable window card!

Once I had done that I grouped my card and welded it and checked the cut with the eyeball… PERFECT!  Then I duplicated it and my screen looked like this….

Next I copied the “grateful” and opened a second layer for it.  I found a leaf with a shadow on Gypsy Wanderings and sized it to be just larger than the leaf on grateful.  I wanted the leaf to be the fun part… thus the added action wobble we will get to in a bit.  I made 1 leaf and 1 shadow for each card and layer 2 looked like this…

Next I chose my papers… on this project that was the hardest part!  I didn’t want just traditional fall colors I wanted something different… Thanks to my CTMH rep having a great sale I had some fall paper from her with some deep teal blue and coordinating patterned paper that is great cardstock for the cards and the sentiment… Window cards can be flimsy so using good cardstock is a must if you want professional results!

Another note on choosing the base cardstock is to make sure it is double sided or you cut a color coordinating with the outside of the card to put in the inside sentiment area of your card… because it shows!

I scored my cards and used the xyron to glue my sentiment to the window card base… if you have excess glue using the xyron just rub it and it will ball up and you can throw it away 🙂  Love that!

Next I glued my leaf top to my leaf shadow… I used pretty but thin and inexpensive paper for the leaf tops and one didn’t cut well so you will see the leaves look a little different… it is all good if this happens.. that is what scissors are for and the recipient will never know UNLESS YOU TELL THEM… lol!

Now for the action wobble.  I found several how to vids on you tube and went to my craft room to see what I could come up with… you need:
2 small solid shapes… like a circle or square 1″ size (smaller is okay too just hard to tape to)
wire
tape
small diameter pen or a pencil
That is it!

Your solid shapes need to be smaller that what you are applying your action wobble to… you can make it bigger but I find I need small ones when I need them and don’t wanna have to run out to get them… so I used this wire…

that was 26 gauge.  It is what I had on hand and worked like a charm… the vids I watched showed various sizes.  You should be able to find some wire in the craft/jewelry making section of your local big box craft store.  It cut easy with my scissors too!  No craft wire cutters needed.

Wrap the wire around your pencil or similarly sized diameter pen and wrap the wire around it 3 or 4 times.  I did 6 times for 2 action wobbles…

Now punch out your 1″ (or whatever size you have… ) solid shapes… I used a CM fancy square punch because I couldn’t find the circle size I wanted to use.  No one will see it so it doesn’t matter the shape as long as it is solid to tape to.  Apply tape to the bottom half and top half circles of wire after you have taken it off the pencil.  Now tape the top and bottom to your solid shapes… it will look like this….

and the excess tape can just be wrapped around the solid shape like this…

Then add glue dots to the top and bottom of your solid shape and place it where you want it then add the leaf or whatever you want to add action to … to your project… like this…

It works!  Yahooo!!!!

I then embellished my cards with ribbon… and added a knot of some burlap I had left over to my odd leaf to make it feel better (hehe)…

This now has a home in my living room as fall decor… the other one… is probably for my mom’s card stack I am making for her 🙂

I hope this has inspired you to find some wire… maybe a wiretie from your loaf of bread in the pantry???  And make your own action wobble for your project.  Whatever you choose… take some time to craft the season.  Fall is a fun time to start or get back to it!

Happy crafting!  Kathi

Designing a basic card with your Gypsy and Cricut

I wanted to start out this post with a big Welcome to all of you that are challenged to use your Gypsy and Cricut to make a card with from The Paper Cabana… I used mine for scrapbooking way before I ever designed a card on it so today I am starting with a simple card for you using the challenge ingredients of the primary colors red, blue and yellow.

I was tempted to throw in some white to chill it out a little but the sparkly for the center of the flower seemed to do the trick!  So get your Gypsy or Design Studio and lets design a card together!  If you have another e-cutter please continue reading because there is some great info here that includes basic card making too!

First get your Gypsy fired up and go to Gypsy Wanderings… I decided to use just this cart for this challenge so everyone could follow along 😉  Do you have a cart you would like to see featured in a future challenge?  Email me and let me know Kathi Clower!

We are going to make a card from an image… and for the first one I picked a rounded edged square.  I turned it into a card.  Here is how you do it.

 Find the rounded square that is 4 down and 3 across on the Gypsy Wanderings “Tag/Shadow” button

 When you put it on your board change 2 things under basic.  Make is the real dial size as this shape wants to be a shadow and will be bigger than you tell it to be.  Also unlink the gold link button between height and width… then click the x value and make it 4.25 and make the y or height value 5.50… the top x and y are not what we are concerned with… only the bottom ones.  Once you do that make a copy.  Scoot the copy out so the edges are JUST touching then group those 2 pieces and weld them on the advanced key.  To make sure the top edges are lined up look at the top right “y” value… they should both be the same on each rectangle.  You just made a card base!!!!

Now you can stop there but think about the card you are making… I can always use an extra or put one in my stash so I will make 2 when I make one… one for stash and one for you and for giving!!  So I have added an extra card on my page.   I did that by copying the whole card and putting it into place.   Cricut tip!  Keep your cutting area .25″ away from all edges of your mat if you want good trusted cuts.

Now with your bases made for 2 identical cards click the “+” sign in the top left corner of your gypsy and add a layer… you will be able to see Layer 1 in gray but if you click on the eye of layer 1 it will close and you will only see Layer 2 which should be blank.  I left my eye open as I designed my card then clicked it off to set everything in place for cutting!

 As you can see I cut out 2 bases that I just made smaller with real dial size on (because they are actually supposed to be shadows) to anchor my sentiment…I did that by selecting just 1 rectangle from layer 1 then clicking on layer 2 and clicking the copy button.  Then used the ball to make it smaller.

I will cut out the sentiment in a different color and I picked a flower from the same cart that is similar to the flower on “thinking of you” to be my pop of yellow!  How festive these challenge colors have been to work with!

Also notice how I have “thinking of you” sideways… I did that when I was designing my card to make sure of the size of the lettering would look good on the base and not be too big or too small… I turned it sideways using the second button down under advanced where the circley arrow is… is turns right or left using the buttons down below once you activate it… in case you wondered how I did that!  lol

 Just a note… when scoring your card base score so the “mountain” side is for the inside of the fold…. not the outside… I just learned this and am loving my folds so much better since I did!

 Now to cut out our layers… see how I have my board set up?  I used my gypsy mat to get the right measurements and just cut the paper accordingly.  Make sure patterned paper is going the right way if you set everything up like I did….

 Now I have everything cut out and I am ready to put my card together… I use a 5″ xyron to glue little letters like these that are welded together.

 Once they come out they looked like this!

 For the flower I found the right way for it to fit and added a Zot to the back… gives a little dimension (about 1/16″) and holds well… then a diamond jewel on top and whalaah!  The card is done… oops… The cardS are done… send them both out or save one for later… I am making a card stash for my mom so mine is going there.

The blue cs is from Colorbok and the patterned red and yellow papers are CTMH dotty for you.  The jewel was adhesive backed and from the $1.00 bin at JoAnn’s for a pack of them in different shapes and sizes!

 What would you like to learn to do in future challenges with your Gypsy?  I know lots of stuff and can share most anything via lots of pics (trying to learn how to do vids… so that is my future goal ;)) so send me your ideas via the link above or comment on this blog! Thanks for joining us and have a blessed day… here is a cute photo of primary colors for you this week!  Kathi

P. S.  Don’t forget to link your primary colors project of any sort at The Paper Cabana!  Can’t wait to see what you create.  And leave me feedback here on what you would like to see done with the gypsy in the future!