St. Patrick's Day Cards -- Stretch Your Imagination, Paper Doll Dress Up

*** To enter my CM Stork's Delivery Cricut Cartridge Giveaway, please CLICK HERE!! ***

Yep.  I'm a little late with this post.  Was it because my camera battery died again?  Or was it because I misplaced my battery after I charged it?  Hmmmmm...  Makes it a little hard to turn the camera on when it doesn't have a battery in it!!  Anyway, it's time for Challenge #4 at Celebrate The Occasion!!  This week's theme is St. Patrick's Day!!  So, create a card, layout or project  and post it over at CTO by Sunday, March 13th, 11:59pm (EST).  The winner will be selected and entered into the CTO monthly drawing.  March's prize will be "ROCK PRINCESS" cricut cartridge!  You don't want to miss out!!

Okay, I'm not gonna lie...  I did not enjoy making St. Patrick's Day cards...  Actually, I don't really remember ever making one before (I maybe made one for Stamp Club with Christi last year, but I'm not even sure about that!)...  I didn't want to use the leprechaun...  I didn't want to use the pot-o-gold...  I didn't even want to make cards!!  Ever had a day like that?  BUT...  I really wanted to make a card for one of my friends who hasn't been feeling well lately, so I decided to be a shammy cloth and suck it up...  Or was it a Nike shoe and just do it?  Eh {shrug}, whatever works. :)  Let's face it -- It's a ridiculously rainy day here in Western Pennsylvania and they're calling for another 8 inches of snow tonight (I mean, really?  I could swim in the puddle that would be my back yard...  Tomorrow I guess I'll be able to skate on it!), so maybe I'm a little off anyway...

When I started on my first card, I thought, 'Hey! I'll use the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge cuz Paula over at More Than Favors is having a Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge for that one!'  Hmmph...  Can you believe there isn't anything St. Patricks-ey on that cart???  But that's okay!!  I decided to use the Card Feature and cut this cool swirly flourishey card...

Then, I used some black vinyl and cut the same design using the Shadow Feature (which gave me the black label-looking cut) at 3.5" (I did this with the black vinyl twice).  Using the same pearlized cardstock that I used for the card (does that show up in the pictures?), I cut the same cut with the Blackout Feature twice (you'll see this on the inside of the card on top of the black vinyl).  Then, I loaded some plain black cardstock, moved my blade down and over 3 inches, turned on the Centerpoint Option, and cut both the Blackout Feature and Shadow Feature to create the frame...  If you have questions about this technique, please let me know -- I'll be happy to try and explain this more thoroughly.  So why the vinyl?  Well, when you use the Card Feature, it cuts this great design out of the card that you can back with any color of cardstock or simply leave plain...  BUT what I like to do is cover that cut (from the inside) with vinyl...  Then I can cover the exposed sticky part of the vinyl on the front with microfine glitter!!  And that's how I get the glitter in the cut-away sections!!  This is incredibly easy to do and is much less messy than a few of my other methods (remember the heart rate blips HERE???)

Over at PaperCutz Challenge, they are also having a St. Patrick's Day Challenge...  So I wanted to make more than one card to enter in these challenges...  For my second card (which definitely looks quite a bit more St. Patricks-ey!!), I used the Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut Cartridge for the shamrock...  That is cut at 4" Real Dial Size on the green glitter cardstock.  Then, since there is not a shadow for this cut, I cut it at 4.5" on the black glitter cardstock and then cut apart the clover leaves to reattach them in more of a shadow...  I cut the green glitter frame with my trimmer cuz I really thought the card needed something else to keep the shamrock from looking like it was gonna fall off the edge... :)

My stamped sentiment is an SU! stamp (the name of the set escapes me right now) and is embossed in green (the green actually matches in real life, but I guess the camera saw something else!)...  My brads were a random find in a clearance bin (lucky me!)...

Needless to say, my craft room has a lovely coating of glitter again (though I've diligently cleaned my Cricut and blade already)...  The-Turtle-Cat has again tried to be helpful in cleaning up the glitter, so please don't tell her that green is not her color -- I'm sure all the glitter will wear off of her tail (and ears and paws) in a week or two...  For now she just appears to be festive and Irish. :)

And now... some really GREAT news...

I won the Blog Candy over at PaperAddict Catherine from the OWH hop!!  Woot-woot!!  Took me two whole days to hop through all 125+ blogs, so I was super-pumped to win something!!  Please, please, please help me thank her by visiting her blog to see her amazing talent...  I would love for you to leave her a comment on any of her work (and let her know how ya found her)...  Thanks!!

Remember, my Cricut Cartridge Giveaway (for Stork's Delivery) is open until March 28th!!  Be sure to click here and enter to WIN!!  :)    There's also a few days left to enter to win my Blog Candy from the OWH Hop!!  That giveaway is open until March 12th, and can be found HERE!!  :)

Until next time...  May your puddles be small and your blessings be tall!!  :)