Driving Down Memory Lane

For me, the Cricut Traveler cartridge has been more about traveling back in my memories than traveling to vacation destinations.  A couple of posts back, I featured the orange cut that reminded me of my grandma's juice glasses.  (If you missed it, you can click here to see it!)  There is another cut that took me back too:  the car cut. 

This cut really reminds me of the VW Bug Super Beetle that was my mom's car through all of the 70s and most of the 80s!  It was sky blue, although I really don't know if that was the official color name!  It wasn't the easiest car to love with its lack of air conditioning, AM-only radio, and that waffle-patterned vinyl that left an imprint on the back of my legs in the summers when I wore shorts.  (I used to say you could always pick out the kids who arrived anywhere in a VW because we all had that same pattern pressed into the backs of our thighs from the seats.)

My mom was a single parent, but she worked hard and used to take us everywhere in that car!  Washington DC, Daytona Beach, Sanibel Island, Detroit, and countless other summer vacations and weekend trips during the 17 years that she had that car.  I can't even imagine taking two small kids on trips in that car... that was before cell phones too!  (She was tough!)

I thought it would be fun to do a 'Just Because' kind of card with that cut and an Erma Bombeck quote that just kind of fit.  This is the second project I am doing as part of the Obsessed with Scrapbooking Design Team!

I started the project by visiting Google Images to look at what that car really looked like-- beyond my patchy memories of it.  (Here's a preview of my finished paper car too!) 

I cut two images of the car in blue at 3" on my Expression.  I cut one shadow of it too in black.  I cut off the luggage rack on the top.  (We always put our luggage in the trunk, which is on the front!  There was also a little cubbie behind the backseat, which we always had stuffed full!)

I used a punch to cut out my hubcaps from metallic paper.  I cut off the end button on the Cuttlebug folder with buttons from the Just My Type set.  *gasp!*  Yes, it was hard to allow myself to do that but I needed an embossed center on my hubcaps just like the old VWs had! 

I used my flower-making pad and tools to create a rounded (convex) form, taking care not to roll over the embossed area.

I colored the tire with a Sharpie pen and then applied embossing ink and powder and heat set it to get my tires!  I outlined the inner edge with a white gel pen to indicate white walls.

I inked the edges of the car and door and adhered acetate to create windows for the car.  (The driver's window is partially rolled down-- remember 'rolling' down a window with a crank?!)  I added silver paper shapes to enhance the bumpers and door handle.  (Remember chrome bumpers?)

From the second car cut, I hand-cut fenders.  I used the flower-making mat and tools again to round them and applied them with pop dots to raise them off the surface.  I hand-cut orange lights and used a white gel pen to indicate the silver detail along the side of the car.

I adhered the car to the shadow, trimming a bit.  I applied the car body flat.  The hubcaps were adhered with pop dots.  I made a paper hinge (just a folded piece of card stock) so that my door would stay open to accommodate the presence of the figure I will be placing behind it!  The benefit of this detail is that it folds down flat for mailing but pops open when it comes out of the envelope!

I added a bit of hand detail using a Sharpie Micro point pen to create the vent over the engine and just behind the rear window.  I added that handle for the engine-- remember the engine is on the rear!  (Was that a handle?  Maybe it was a light over the license plate-- my old memory has forgotten that detail!)

Next, I worked on the 'mom'.  I cut a 3" figure from Country Life on the Imagine, floodfilling it with RGB 250,229,210.  (I also cut a 5" square floodfilled with the same flesh color).  I cut an identical figure, this time floodfilling with a print from Hey Diddle Diddle so that I could create a dress.  I hand-cut to shorten her dress and remove the pitchfork.  On the Expression, I cut her hairstyle from Paper Doll Dress Up (page 67) at 1-1/4" for the bangs and 1-1/2" for the back part of the hairstyle.  I added a few extra locks of hair.

I hand-cut a separate head so that she would have a chin using the 5" floodfilled square, tucking the forehead under her bangs.  I used a Sharpie Micro Fine pen for the details on the face and body-and a little ink for her cheeks.

I used a pop dot to adhere the figure to the open car door.

I hand-cut a couple of little kid faces and applied them to a piece of vellum.  The vellum served to give atmospheric perspective inside the car.  The vellum was attached to the backside of the car. 

Next, I cut  an 8-1/2" square, floodfilling it with the banner pattern from Hopscotch.  I used that paper to make the top ticket cut on the Expression.  I cut the ticket from Traveler (page 61) with the shadow for the mats for the front of the card. 

I typed out the quote I wanted to use, centering and sizing for the ticket cut.  I used a lightbox to center the cut onto the white paper, taping it lightly, and then running it back through the printer.

I adhered the car/lady onto the mat with 1/8" pop dots.  I cut a piece of card stock 9" x 8-1/8" and folded it down to 4-1/2" x 8-1/8". 

Since this was a 'Just Because' kind of card, I wanted a nice area inside for a hand-written note.  For the inside mat, I cut the shadow of the ticket from Traveler just as for the front of the card.  I adhered it to the inside of the card.  The banner was hand-cut from the leftover paper from the 8-1/2" square cut previously. 

Thank you for looking at my little card!  I loved playing around with this cut!  It was so much fun thinking about that old car and giving the cut a bit of dimension!  You can see all of my projects, including my other cards and altered figures by clicking the My Project Gallery tab at the top of my blog, or by clicking here.

If you are interested in the Traveler cartridge, click here for cartridge details on Joy's Creative Memories site!