Sending the Advent Calendar on the Road - Day 17 & Just Buggin' Challenge #17 -Inky Fingers

This tri-fold card is brought to you by Cricut...LOL, naaahhh, by me, but Cricut was a big help. I just LOVE the center cut feature. Ever since I discovered that and how to use it, it's been soooooo amazing. Hey, I even pulled out some of my old wooden stamps for this...you can't get them anymore, but I love my stamps and can't part with them, LOL. (you can find the link to Just Buggin' Blog over to the left)

(Scanner does a nice job of capturing the overall card, but it does not do justice to the sparkles)

Well, can't believe I'm up to day 17 only one more card to go, whew....feels like a whirl wind of a couple weeks, hahahaa... So, now off to the actual card. I did need a few extra photos to actually show this card with all the different folds...the pictures from the scanner leave the sparkles flat and the actual camera photos make sparkles SPARKLE, but somewhat seem to change the colors! I'm still working on the lighting issues, someday I'll figure it out, LOL. :)

Soooo, are you ready for the long list of supplies and directions?

Supplies
Cricut Cartridges:
♦ Georges and Basic Shapes for opening in card face (pg 101) and creating oval (pg 114) template
♦ Snow Friends for snowman
♦ When it's Cold Outside 2009-2010 for snowflake
Close to My Heart Card Stock: Indian Corn Blue, White Daisy, Holiday Red
Cereal box, hahaha, yes -- I'm a recycler and this makes great chipboard....heeheehee
Stem from a large leaf -- gotta love nature!
Large red jewel
Red satin ribbon
Cotton Ball
Close to My Heart Winter stamp set (D1040) - believe and snowmen
Close to My Heart Frosty Friends stamp set (D1073) -- Snow family and snowflakes
Peachy Keen Stamps PK-520 Winter Face Assortment Pkg - for the face (of course, LOL)
Judi♥Kins 2203J Swirls (wood mount) Large background stamp
Close to My Heart Exclusive Inks Ink pads: White Daisy, Outdoor Denim, & black
Close to My Heart Exclusive Inks Markers: Orange and Outdoor Denim
Liquid Glue
White Acrylic Paint and wide brush or sponge applicator
Dauber Duo sponge
Stipple Brush
Martha Stewart Blue Topaz fine glitter
Martha Stewart Snowflakes
Adhesive
Pop-dots
Glue dots

Directions
• Card base from Indian Corn blue cut 4" off one side of a 12"x12" to make an 8"x12" piece, then cut an 1/8" off the 12" side. The First fold will be at 3-3/4" and the second one at 4" -- you will have 3 sections. The shortest section (the 3-3/4") will be the inside flap, the larger section the 4-1/8" is the outer part of the card and the part you will be CUTTING next.
• On the Cricut with the Georges cartridge in, find the desired shape -- figure out where the center of the space is on your card, and where you want your opening located --- then make sure you press the CENTER button on the cricut... set aside for now.
• Time for cereal -- Not! LOL... Get that cereal box and put it to some good use, cut it about 5"x5" lots bigger than you need and place inside surface UP on the Cricut cutting mat.
• Now use the Cricut "When it's Cold Outside" cartridge to cut the chosen snowflake.
• Paint entire surface with the White acrylic, while it's drying you have plenty more to do....
• Back to the Cricut - Cut out desired snow man and various accessories
• I wanted my hat and vest to have some decoration, which is where I used my old wooden background stamp -- you can leave yours plain if you like.
• Stamp the snowman's face (black) using the Cricut lines as a guide -- the straight line is where I put the mouth. Color in nose (orange).
• Put your snowman together using a good strong adhesive (I used my ATG) - don't put his arms on just yet, but do glue his hands to the leaf stem so they can be drying
• Use the Blue Denim ink to lightly sponge the edge and bottom of the snowman -- I just did the right side to give him a little shadow and some depth dimension
• Free hand cut a pile of snow, sponge the edge, giving a little more ink to some ares to create depth. Use your finger to spread some liquid glue around on the surface and then apply the snow flakes, let dry while you add pop-dots to the back of the snowman and apply his arms with plain ole scotch tape (no one will see). Turn him over and add cotton to top of hat and brim if desired. Let dry
• While snow man is drying check to see if snowflake is dry - if so, sponge the edges (inside and out) with the Denim Blue (you may not see this after you add the glitter, but glitter does tend to fall off during shipping or use, so it's better to have the snowflake still finished once this starts happening -- actually it looks pretty good without the glitter and if you're not a glitter nut like me you can just leave it plain, LOL) -- apply glue with a sponge applicator or just smear around with your finger both are good. :) Add glitter and let dry -- it won't take too long. Add a pop dot to the back, and then add your Jewel to the center (or not if you decided not to go with glitter) using the white glue. Let it dry while you move on to the next part of the card.

• Use the Cricut to create an oval stencil for making the shadowy white space to stamp "believe". I cut my oval at 2" -- see what works for you. Make sure you cut it with lots of border around the edges so when you stencil you stay within the area and don't have shadows outside where you want them.
• figure out your placement of the "believe" then use your stencil and Daisy White with the Stipple brush to stipple the area. Heavier towards the outer edges of the oval and fading to less and then none in the center.
• Stamp "Believe" first in Daisy white (to create a snowcap), clean your stamp then stamp again using the Denim -- great thing about the CTMH My Acrylics - You can SEE right where to place your image (move the second one just slightly down or up and over a bit so you create a shadow to make it look like snow sitting on the word) add ellipses with the Denim Marker. Now on to the inside first flap...
• With the card folded, find the first flap you will see when the card is opened. At the bottom, stamp: snowmen in Denim. Then, using the Denim marker create 3 more ellipses and add the word "in" just above Snowmen.
• Stamp the Snowflakes first in Denim, then in White to create a muted soft look - in upper corner.
• Add Ribbon around Snowman's neck for a scarf.



• Put snowman in position -- matching hat to open area, so you can't tell if it's Santa or ehem...the snowman, LOL.
• Put the Snowflake on front, just by window.

Write a nice message in side and send it off with lots of hugs!