You're As Sweet As A Cupcake

Aren't you?

 

 

 

 

Of course you are!

Whenever your birthday may be!

Cupcakes are sweet, and so was the time I spent making this card!  I really love what can be done with Make The Cut (MTC)!  For the card base I used a background paper from the Lettering Delights Love Is Sweet set.  I scaled down the paper to fit the card size (I forget exactly what size it is LOL!)and then printed it directly from MTC.  Then I scanned in a stamp from the dollar bin at Michael's.  A simple, cute, but very small cupcake.  Once I got it into my computer I brought it into Adobe PSE 7, resized it and saved it as a PNG file.  I then opened up MTC and traced the image.  I created a few shadow layers of the cupcake, and even a layer for the "icing".  I printed out the stamp image from MTC at the size I wanted and then cut around it.  I also cut out the other shadow layers and stuck them together using foam tape.  I printed out the sentiment from MTC as well, using the Lettering Delights Buttercream font(my current favorite font!).  Isn't it amazing?  From a little stamp I now have a much larger one, as well as a die cut if I wanted it!!  Thank you MTC!  Talk about adding versatility to the things you already have.  Now the stamp idea is not mine, I believe I got the idea from CleverSomeday's blog where she tells you how to make mats for your stamps using MTC.  I just thought wouldn't it be neat to just print out the stamp so it could be any size, and to my amazement it worked!  Hope you like this idea.  I can't wait to try it out with other images as well.  No cartridge necessary!   Let me know what ya think!  Thanks for stopping by!

Be Mine Valentine Card with Make The Cut!

This card was inspired by Jin's tutorial at Under A Cherry Tree.  She is doing an entire series on how to use Make The Cut!(MTC) software and Lettering Delights images with your Cricut.  If you're new to this, you should check out her blog.  Since I don't have the SVGs and font from Lettering Delights that Jin used, my card looks a little different.  The heart is from the shape library in this amazing program, and the font, Monotype Corsiva, was already on my computer. The Martha Stewart border punch is called Doily Lace.  I also used an i Rock gem for the dot on the i.  One of the wonderful features of this software program is that you can print directly from it.  That's what I did with the "Be Mine".  I typed it into MTC and put it exactly where I wanted it to print.

This is so convenient and it's one of the things I've gleaned from Jin's tutorial.  I've had MTC for a few months now and I'd not tried doing this before.  I like the way it works, it seems much easier than using Word.  Another fabulous thing which can be done with MTC is importing textures or patterned paper!  Then you can print them and cut them- sounds like a more economical version of the Cricut Imagine to me!!  Here's a picture of my preview page in MTC with the papers I used applied to the shapes.

This is so helpful when you want to visualize how something will look before you cut (and possibly waste) anything!  One thing that is absolutely necessary when doing this is to make sure the paper image is under 512KB.  I found out this little tidbit at the MTC Forum.  When I just brought in digital papers as they were, it caused my computer to lag. In order to make them smaller I used Photoshop Elements (PSE) and resized them.  Once I did that everything worked fine.  Since I didn't actually print these papers I don't know what that will do to print quality- it's something I plan to test out.  I used the actual papers on my card and then just scanned them into my computer.  I really enjoyed making this card, it's so much fun to learn something new!  One note I should mention is Provocraft for some odd reason does not approve of third party software and using it with your Cricut will void your warranty.  My Cricut is out of warranty, so this poses no issue for me, but even if it was still under warranty I would use MTC with it.  I've never experienced any problems using MTC.  This is just my personal take on it, you have to decide for yourself.  I think this software was money well spent!  I know I haven't even tapped into all the things MTC can do!  See you next time............

Boo To You Card with Lettering Delights

Here's 2 quick cards I made using some Lettering Delights elements.  This is one of the first digital cards I've ever made, so I know there's room for improvement, but I'm happy with the outcome.  The one on the right is the first one and I decided I didn't like the white around the witch's hat so I deleted it quite simply in Adobe Photoshop Elements.  As much as I like using paper and adding dimension to things, I also like how fast this came together!  I couldn't resist some paper crafting, so I used the Martha Stewart spider web punch on the bottom and double matted the front.  Here's the inside.  I used a stamp from the dollar bin at Joann's.

These were so much fun to make, I know I'll be doing more.  I'm still learning how to use PSE, there's so much you can do in there!  Next I plan to try cutting Lettering Delights images with my Cricut like Jin does on her blog Under A Cherry Tree.  She does some inspiring work over there!  See you next time!