Born to be Wild

As predicted, the rain has come and is not leaving. It’s not cold though – for Canada – 12C which is about 54F. We ran a few errands this morning when it was just a drizzle off and on but it’s coming down pretty steady now.

More on the Cricut. I checked out the prices of the cartridges and they are not bad considering how many images you get with them. Most seem to run about $25- $35 (on sale) and some say they have over 700 images on them. I guess the best thing would be to just buy the cartridges with images that you would use a lot. If I had a Cricut, would I use it? – YES! I think they are especially great for printing out titles for scrapbook pages. I had no problem figuring out how to use it but then again, I happen to like playing with new programs. When I was still working I was the one they sent to London to learn new programs and then teach it to the others. I’m not a computer technician though. If the inner bits of our computer are not working properly I have to call in our neighbour, the computer guru. Programs are what I like! So, I don’t want to discourage people from buying a Cricut but I still think if you are not used to computers or computer programs, you would have to have some one-on-one training….so be sure this is offered where you buy it. As for it not cutting out the alphabets, I think I should have programmed it to cut around each one twice. I didn’t think the paper was thick enough to warrant that so I should have tried a small piece first instead the whole 12x12. I would play with the Cricut more but I’m always leery about borrowing things that could break down so after I used it a few times I packed it back up. It’s a fun unit and I’m glad my friend let me use it but unfortunately I cannot afford fun tools so I’m sticking to what I have.

Jinxxxygirl asked about the Cuttlebug. This is a very simple, manual die cutting machine. There are several others like the Big Shot and Grand Caliber and probably many more. The Cuttlebug cuts images or shapes from dies rather than computer cartridges. The dies are not cheap either and all brands work on all of them. Just go to YouTube and type in Cuttlebug and you will see hundreds of hits for it and how to use it. Like the Cricut, and all tools, there are good points and bad points and one tool that one crafter wouldn’t be without, is one that another never uses! And of course, the budget and storage have to be considered as well.

Okay, enough about that…on with the post.  This card was made using another one of the $1.29 stamps from Paper Wishes….they used to be .99 but the price has gone up….but still a good buy.

 

This motorcycle stamp will be great for cards for a couple of my sons-in-law who both have birthdays in January. I stamped the motorcycle first on white cardstock and set it aside. Then on another piece of cardstock I was using on the card without re-inking. This is referred to as second generation stamping. Then I inked it up again, stamped on scrap paper and once again on the cardstock for the card allowing the back of the motorcycle to go off the edge. Then I sponged green ink on angle for the hill, blue for the sky and stamped some trees using a Tim Holtz stamp. I coloured part of the motorcycle from the first stamping with a red Tombow marker and cut it out leaving about a 1/8” edge and attached it on an angle with dimensional glue dots. The sentiment came with the stamp set as well as a couple other bits I didn’t use. I die cut a white label from a Spellbinder die and glued it to a piece of red cardstock and cut around it to form an edge and then glued them to the card base. I coloured in the word WILD with the same Tombow marker. Because this is for a man, I decided to distress the edges and then added dark brown and then black ink along the edges. Then it was glued to a black card base. I ran a black strip thru a Cuttlebug skinny die to create the line of dots and then ran a sponge with white ink over the top and added it to the bottom.

That’s all for a rainy Wednesday. If you have time I suggest you go over to the Frugal Crafter’s website or on YouTube for her “ask the crafter” video. She answers questions from other crafters and even though I’ve been crafting for years, I sure learn a lot from her videos.

Cheers

Violet