Imagine - just one more week (...and a digital sale starting this week)

When I was at CHA, September 14th seemed so far away - but it is just around the corner!  Next week is the launch of the new Cricut Imagine machine on the Home Shopping Network on Tuesday, September 14th at 12:01 AM.  Here is a LINK to the page about the world premiere on the HSN site.

Some of my blogging friends have already received machines to try out - check out Joy's blog, Melanie's blog, Everyday Cricut (Joy and Melanie together), Robyn's blog, and Tammy's blog to see their reports on their experiences with this new machine.

I thought I'd re-post some of my photos of projects that were on display at CHA so you can see some of the creative possibilities and imagine even more!

The designs on the Imagine cartridges include colors and patterns that you can change to customize the images.  They can be printed as a flat image and cut out in one piece...

...or the design can be broken into layers and assembled like any other Cricut cut with layers.

I am not sure when my machine will arrive but I am excited to try out some ideas that I have for it.


DIGITAL DEALS AT CREATIVE MEMORIES

Another exciting thing is happening beginning this week - from September 8th to the 21st Creative Memories Digital Downloads are 30% off and printed StoryBooks are also on sale - see the chart below:

Product	Retail price	Digital Deals price
Digital Content
Predesigned Pages (12x12 and 11x8.5)	$8.95	$6.27
Predesigned Pages 7x5	$5.95	$4.17
Digital Predesigned Cards and Page Prints	$3.95	$2.77
Click and Fill Pages	$8.95	$6.27
Digital Power Palettes	$10.95	$7.67
Digital Kits	$8.95	$6.27
Digital Additions	$5.95	$4.17
Embellishments (shapes, fonts, overlays, titles)	$6.95	$4.87
StoryBooks
12x12 Hardcover StoryBooks	$79.95	$59.95
11x8.5 Personalized Hardcover StoryBooks	$49.95	$39.95

If you purchased the StoryBook ProgramCreator Plus 3.0 program during the last sale, now would be a great time to build your digital collection at a reduced price.  Here is a LINK to my CM personal website.

You can see exactly what each download includes by visiting the Help Zone and clicking on Digital Content for PDFs of all available digital items - here is a LINK to that page.

If you have any questions about the sale, please don't hesitate to contact me.  I would also like to know if there are more people who would like a chance to attend an online question and answer session about the StoryBook program.  I had planned to hold another class during August but I wasn't home long enough to get one set up!  These sessions work best if you have tried using the program for a while and can ask specific questions - it would take days for me to cover everything that is possible.  Leave a comment or email me if you'd like to attend a session in September.

There was a Tuesday challenge on the Cricut Circle message board to make something for Autumn/Fall.  I had been wanting to try this flower cut from the Reminisce Accents cartridge so I made an Autumn card.  I'll share the details about this card tomorrow.  I am hoping to take some photos in the daylight that will show the beautiful glitter cardstock I used for the flower.

Breakfast at the bus was nice - the weather was lovely and the kids were all very excited to start the new school year. (I think the parents were excited to have a return to routine as well!).

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Pop-Up Birthday Cupcake Cards

I have always been interested in pop-up cards.  I think it is fun to see an unexpected surprise when you open a card.  I made some simple pop-up cards for the triplet birthday cards.  I will be posting more types of pop-ups in the near future and I thought it would be a good idea to start with an easy one first!  (Fair Warning - this is a very photo heavy post since I wanted to show the process in detail).

I wanted to keep the cards simple so I decided to start with some cardstock that is covered with "Happy Birthdays" - this is from a DCWV Spring Stack from a couple of years ago.

When I looked at the 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock I could see that the design was symmetrical around the 6 inch measurement.  By cutting the sheet in half and then cutting the card bases I could create matching cards and have a bold brown "Happy Birthday" near the top.

I cut the cardstock into two 12 x 6 sections, then cut a 4 1/4 x 12 inch strip keeping the block of type I wanted at the top of the card to the left of the strip.  I scored and folded the cardstock at 6 inches and then trimmed 1/2 inch from the bottom to create a vertical A2 card base.

I used two sheets of cardstock to make three identical card bases.  The cardstock I used allowed me to keep the cards very simple but you could do an elaborate front with many layers on the plain base. 

I simply added a seven cut from glitter cardstock to finish the fronts.

One quick tip - I nearly always use Design Studio, even for simple cuts like this, because I can conserve paper.  In the screen shot above you can see how the sevens would cut if they are just entered directly from the cartridge.

By rotating one of the sevens I was able to fit them together closely and use less paper - this is particularly nice if you are using specialty paper or have only a limited amount of a certain paper to work with.

Next, I needed to figure out how to make the pop up portion of the card.  I created a cardstock inner layer for the card and added two slits one inch apart and two inches long, centered in the inner layer.

This is the screen shot of the inner layer.  To make the slits, I simply chose a two inch square and then used the center bottom handle to slide up the bottom of the square until it was a very thin line.

Next, I scored the insert in the center with my Scor-Pal.  The insert is slightly smaller than the 11 x 4 1/4 inch card base so I needed to place it carefully.

At the left side of the Scor-Pal, I placed the insert at the 1/8 inch mark...

...and then scored at the 5 1/2 inch mark as you would for a vertical A2 card base.

After folding the inner layer along the score line (remember to fold towards the "mountain" of the score line), I placed the fold against the right side of the Scor-Pal and scored at the one inch mark from the top slit to the bottom slit.  I lined up the scoring tool with the top mark and brought it down lightly along the line but didn't press down until it was between the two cut lines.

Then I folded along the score line - first in one direction and then in the other.

Next, I pushed the pop up section up through the fold.

Now when the insert is closed it looks like this.

When the liner is opened it looks like this.  The cupcake will be attached to the front of this folded tab.

Yesterday, I asked if you could guess which cartridge I used for the inside - well, it was one of my favorites - A Child's Year.  You need to be sure that the object you will be adhering to the pop up tab will fit comfortably inside the card.  The cupcake at 3 7/8 inches is 3.919 inches wide so it will fit in the 4.25 inch wide card.

I used the same procedure to cut out three cupcakes using as little paper as possible by rotating one and fitting them together along the top of the mat.

There are many, many possible cupcake choices - for a while it seemed like every Cricut cartridge had a cupcake or two!  I like this particular cupcake because it has a small scallop cutout and this will let some light shine through when the cupcake pops up.  I saved the little scallop strips to use on another project.

I cut the frosting layer in white glitter cardstock.  The design has a spot at the top for a cherry and, since there is not a layer cut on the cartridge, I simply punched out 3/4 inch circles and placed them behind the frosting.

Here is a close view of the back.  A slightly larger circle might be better - 3/4 inches just fits!

I used a gold Martha Stewart glitter pen to accent the cut lines in the base of the cupcake.

I chose Scor-Tape as my adhesive to be sure that the cupcake would stay firmly attached to the card.  I put the tape on the front of the folding section...

...and centered the cupcake face down on the liner.  I knew that the cupcake would be properly centered when I folded down the top.

This side view shows you how the cupcake will fold up and down when the card is opened and closed.

Now all that is left to do is to adhere the liner to the card base.  I used my ATG and placed adhesive around the edges of the top side of the liner.  Then I centered it on the card and folded the card base down on top of the liner.

Once the top is connected, just add adhesive to the bottom and fold the card base on to the liner.  By doing it this way you won't end up with a crooked insert and your card will open and close smoothly.

Here  you can see the inside of the three cards for the triplets.  I thought it looked a bit plain so I pulled out a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set (Double Loops) and punched around a 3 1/4 inch square of white cardstock.  When using the Punch Around the Page sets you need to start with the correctly sized piece of cardstock for the punches to line up perfectly.  The sets come with a chart giving the dimensions and I also have posted it several times - here is a LINK to one of the posts.

When the mats are added they look like little doilies and provide a perfect place to write a message and sign the card.

Here is one more view of the card.  This is a very simple pop up to make.  You can use this basic concept and make the card much more elaborate.  There are many other types of pop up cards to try so watch out for the next card in the series!

School starts tomorrow in our part of the world - I'll be at the neighborhood "Breakfast at the Bus" to see all of the little ones off for their first day!

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