Cardmaking: Heart-Petal Flowers Cut with Cricut

Heart shapes make some of the prettiest petals for flowers. That is exactly what we use to make today's card, but instead of using solid hearts, we us the outlines/borders of the hearts that we've cut using the Cricut Expression 2. A bit of stamping and some bling is all that is needed to put the finishing touches on the card.

This is the layout I cut with the Cricut Expression 2.

I fed a sheet of paper into the machine.

This is what the shapes look like with the excess removed.

A second sheet of paper went into the machine.

A third sheet of paper was fed into the machine.

When I was done, I had a large selection of shapes to work with.

I start the project on a purple sheet of cardboard, along with a different shade of purple paper. Both are A4 in size.

I fold the cardboard in half to serve as the card.

I crop the paper to fit on the cover of the card.

Use your Tombow glue to stick down the heart outlines that will serve as the petals of your flowers.

Ink the edges of the matting on an ink pad.

Stick the matting down on the card.

Prepare a small stamp to be used on the card. I opted for a tiny flower.

Stamp the centres of the flowers.

Stick a rhinestone to each of the centres of the flowers.

The card is done.

You can watch a short compilation video of the above steps on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/KnTypQCJOew

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Cardmaking: Mannequin Dress Cut with Cricut

In today's blog, we do something somewhat unusual. We use the petals, that we've cut with the Cricut, to create a skirt to put on a mannequin. This petal dress has a bodice that was also cut on the Cricut. We then use our stamps to put a couple of finishing touches on the project, but not before we have drawn the mannequin by hand.

I have a 6" x 12" cardboard paper left over from another project.

I fold this in half to serve as a 6" x 6" card.

I stick some double-sided tape to the back of a paper bodice.

Then I arrange 5 paper petals to serve as a skirt. I stick these down with double-sided tape.

I then remove the last piece of backing paper from the bodice's tape and stick it down overlapping the petals.

I use a black Posca marker to draw the mannequin.

I then get some distressing ink and a corner punch.

I stamp the four corners of my mannequin card.

In next to no time, the card is done.

You can watch a short compilation video on these steps on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/7lmrWggUHeo

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Cardmaking: Butterflies Cut with Cricut

It should not surprise any regular followers of this blog, to learn that I am fascinated by butterflies. As a result, they keep making an appearance in my arts and crafts. Today is not an exception to this rule. I have cut butterflies on my Cricut machine, and used these to make a lovely card. All I needed to finish the card, was an ink pad and stamps. I show you how easy this card was to create in today's blog.

I found myself a pink A4 sheet of cardboard and a purple A5 sheet of paper.

I trimmed the paper slightly smaller to use as matting on the pink.

I folded the cardboard in half to serve as a card.

I then selected four butterflies that I have cut with my Cricut machine. I bent these slightly along their bodies.

I then found some distress inks and a corner stamp.

I stamped two opposite corners on the matting.

I found a smaller corner stamp.

I stamped the two remaining corners.

I then put a thin line of glue on the bodies of the butterflies and stuck them to the matting.

I used double-sided tape to stick the matting to the card.

And then the project was done!

You can watch a short compilation video of these steps on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/P6bmhN9yO7I

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Re-Decorating A Store-Bought Cake

My mom turned 70 and I had every intention in the world to spoil her on her big day. One of the ideas I had, was to get my nieces to help me bake her a special cake for the day. To my great disappointment, I arrived home to find that the oven was no longer functional! I had to come up with a very quick alternative. I opted to buy two rather plain-looking store-bought cakes and splashed out on things to decorate these with. I show how I transformed two ordinary cakes into a 70th birthday cake, in today's blog.

I bought two bunt cakes (cakes with a hole in the middle. One was a choc-mint cake. This one I sliced into chunky slices.

I then rearranged the slices into a number 7 and placed it next to the other cake, which then automatically looked like a 0. The second cake was a carrot cake.

I then removed some of the icing from the choc-mint cake and lathered some chocolate mousse on, instead.

I also cut the carrot cake into slices, but left it intact.

Then I whipped up some cream, which I had sweetened with castor sugar after adding a teaspoonful (5 ml) of vanilla essence. I covered both cakes in the cream.

My niece and I then carefully arranged some berry-flavoured jelly tots on both the cakes.

We dropped some Hershey's Kisses in the circle of the carrot cake.

We lathered the tray with the remaining cream.

Then we arranged fresh strawberries all around the cakes. These cakes proved to be a big hit with the family.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Cardmaking: Heart-Air Balloon with Cricut

I made today's card while I was waiting for the members of my home cell to arrive. It was done with the cutouts I had made with the Cricut Expressions 2, earlier, which I have been blogging about for a while now. Little did I know, that the message I wrote on the card would become central to the evenings proceedings. In the end, I sent the card home with one of the home cell members, with the instructions to write her own story inside - a new definition of herself. I share the steps for making this card with you.

This was the layout that I selected to cut on the Cricut Expressions 2 cutting machine.

 I cut the first sheet of 12" x 12" paper.

Carefully lift the extra paper away and/or remove the cutouts from the cutting mat.

I then cut the second sheet of paper.

This is what the designs look like when the extra paper is removed.

The third sheet of paper was fed into the Cricut.

The last sheet of paper was also cut.

When I was done, this was what my collection of cutouts looked like.

I used four hearts, each cut from a different patterned paper, for today's project.

I fold two of the hearts in half.

I apply a thin line of glue to the fold on the two hearts.

Then I stick the two folded hearts onto the two remaining hearts.

I then find a sheet of blue A4 sized cardboard.

I fold the cardboard in half to serve as a card.

I then use double-sided tape to glue the two hearts to the card, on different heights.

I use a white paint marker to draw the outline of two clouds where the hearts are.

I then use a white Posca marker with a thicker point to 'colour' the two clouds.

I use a black marker to draw in two hot-air balloons with a rope connecting them to each other.

I then use the white and black markers to write the words "You raise me UP to reach new heights." on the card.

The completed card.

You can also watch a compilation video of these steps on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HdH39ZoIKFQ

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.