Autumn Served with a Side of Penance

Well, a little bit of rain has changed everything here in Kentucky!  Gone is the 100 degree heat index, chased away with a little taste of autumn.  We had our coolest Labor Day in 76 years... and most people were thrilled.  ...Me?  Not so much. 

I love summer and I still had warm weather and flowers on my mind as I made a little card for my mother-in-law.  I bought the Art Philosophy cartridge from my message board friend, Jami Larson (CricutFarmer), just to have that spiral-cut pointy flower.  So the first thing I did was make it incorrectly.  But I liked it!  I wanted a tight flower after seeing some wonderful flowers in this book I just found, Paper Bouquet.

For this card, I cut the blue cardstock as a 5" square and used Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page loop punch for the base.  I created two pink flowers by cutting the pointy spiral flower on Art Philosophy at 5" (page 69) on my Expression.  Because I was going to roll it backwards, I trimmed off the inner circle, which normally would be a base.

I used my quilling tool to roll the shape, starting from the inside, the backward way from what is usually done with this flower cut!  I peeled back the petals and inked it.

I made the yellow flowers with a punch. 

I used some McGill tools to help curl in the petals. I used three of these shapes for each flower.

The centers are pulled in tight and glued in place.  All the layers are just glued together.  Then the edges were inked.

The leaves were cut from Flower Shoppe (Exotic5), cut at 5".  I used a Q-tip and ink from my ink pad to add a little color and texture.  The leaves were added with pop dots.  I hot glued the dimensional flowers on and used a little Scotch Scrapbookers glue to add in little extra greenery that I got from a Martha Stewart branch punch.  I hot glued on a little ribbon.  The inside of this card had enough room for a gift card and a little message.

I wanted to make the Art Philosophy flower the correct way too.  I have seen so many beautiful wreaths and projects with those flowers.  I was also inspired by the autumn wreath that was just featured on the Circle Blog and I wanted to make a little version of my own:  a doorknob wreath. 

I started by cutting sheets of oak leaves from A Child's Year at 1-1/2" on my Expression.  Autofill cut 40 of these on 8-1/2 x 11 paper.  All of the cuts for this project were cut from solid papers in this $5 Walmart Colorbok pack called "Earth Tones". 

I cut full sheets of the yellow and reddish brown and 8 each of the green and orange.  I sprayed them with water, scrunched them up, and allowed them to dry.  Then I heavily spritzed them with Glimmer Mist.

I cut the pointy, spiral-cut flowers from Art Philosophy at 2-1/2" (fit to page will cut 12 on 8-1/2 x 11 paper).  This time,  I made them correctly, rolling from the outside in, and gluing in place on the center circle base with hot glue.  Then I sprayed them with a little Glimmer Mist.

I cut the rose spiral-cut flower (same page as the pointy ones!) at 3".  Fit-to-page at this size will cut 6 on 8-1/2 x 11 paper.  I also sprayed it with Glimmer Mist to hide the white core.

I cut a wreath base from Christmas (Solutions) at 6" in blackout feature.  I hot glued the dried leaves onto the base, finishing with the flowers.

Autumn is the time for me for reflection.  I had Samantha, The Scrapmaster, on my mind lately, after giving her my flippant response to her question about 5-minute cards.  Who would want a 5-minute card I asked recently on the cricut.com messageboard, isn't that why we have Hallmark?!  Now, a little preface:  I do go to Hallmark for cards as I am not necessarily a cardmaker per se!  When I do make a card, it is to make something very special... but, come to think of it, I also make quick things!  I don't tout those 'quickie' cards, and never put them here on my blog, but I have made them I had to admit once I thought about it.  So, I sent Samantha a little apology and she sent me back the most kind and gracious reply.  It really made an impression on me that she would be so nice after I poo-pooed her concept.  So, to pay a little penance, I offer my quick cards.  (You may never see them again!) 

The Imagine and the Cuttlebug are the greatest tools ever created for FAST cards.  These are a few I have done recently.  

I also use white cardstock blank cards and envelopes.  I buy the A2 size from Michael's and just discovered the Studio G squares from Walmart, priced at just under a dollar for 8!

This is one I did to put with silk screened shirt I made for my daughter's friend.  (She designed the shirt and I screened it.)  In her design, she wrote "I like dogs" so I thought this was fun to put with it.


Imagine Better Togehter image cut at 4.8".  It is attached to cardstock that has been embossed with the 5x7 Cuttlebug Polka Dots folder with pop dots. 

This is one I did by simply embossing a metallic cardstock.  This is something I have done lots of times when I need to include a little note in with a RAK I send to my Circle friends.  I like embossing with the Circle logo embossing folder too.

This is another quick Imagine card with an embossed base.  I like making little cards for my daughter's lunchbox-- most of those are quickie ones - and just to make her smile!


Kate's Kitchen image cut at 4.8" on the Imagine.  It is attached to cardstock that has been embossed with a 5x7 Cuttlebug folder with pop dots. 

When my daughter was in preschool and kindergarten, I always simply used to scribble a little picture and color it in with her crayons or markers (or whatever was nearby)  on little index cards I would put in her lunchbox.  They took a minute or less to make, were so goofy and simple... and she has kept them all-- I guess there are hundreds of them.  So... to answer my question of who would want a quickie card, I guess the answer is 'someone who loves you and finds something special in your efforts'!

Lastly today, I want to thank everyone for your kindness in response to my project that was on the Cricut Blog.  That was a lot of fun for me!  I have received responses from a few folks who have taken the project in a new direction and made it their own.  I just love that and LOVE to see your projects!  The kindness, crafty support, and sweet comments really made my weekend -- even with those cooler temperatures!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!