Lessons Learned

I saw a tutorial on She's a Sassy Lady last Saturday with a cut card.  (Click on the link to see the post).  She challenged people to  make this card and, liking a challenge (and the card) I accepted.  It proved to be more of a challenge than I thought and I learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Just so you don't get bored with my long post, I'll show you the finished card up front.  It is 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 and a little difficult to see in this picture because of the shadows but I couldn't help that.  It's the way the card is made.

When I learn something new, I like to follow directions initially.  I'm big on reading manuals, too.  (insert smirk).  I couldn't follow all the directions in the tutorial and hence the challenge.  First - it was a Gypsy tutorial and I don't have a Gypsy.  But I do have Design Studio and there's always Cricut Craft Room.  I started out in CCR but it drove me crazy and since I'm more familiar with DS, I ended up using it.

Second - I don't have Birthday Bash, which is what Sheila used.  Okay, there's plenty of other card cuts, right?  I needed something with a big window and couldn't find a full card cut like that.  I tried to make my own.  Lesson - you can't weld a square in a square with lettering on top and have it cut out part of the window and the lettering.  It showed the cut all around the square.   I ended up using a frame from  Stretch Your Imagination , page 33, and welding it to a square from George.

Third - I didn't have a "Get Well Soon" sentiment on any of my carts.  I didn't want to spend hours trying to make my own so I went with "With Sympathy" from Wild Card.  Lesson - don't make a cut out with an "I" in it.  There's no place to put the dot. : (    I hope this still qualifies for Sassy Lady's challenge. 

I used double sided paper so the inside would be pretty.  Lesson - be sure your paper is placed in the right way if there is a directional image on the reverse side.  Fortunately for me, the reverse was stripes and I like them going horizontally but if I didn't. . . .

Now that I've either taught you or bored you, here are pictures of the card from other angles.

I printed the sentiment on the computer on a cream color cardstock and cut it 5 1/4  by 10 3/4.  I taped down only the back edge.  I did this so the sentiment would not show through the cut on the front.   I wrapped a piece of ribboon around the middle and tied it in front.

You can see how it is loose.

I didn't have any glitter paper that matched so I heat embossed the sentiment with sparkle embossing powder. 

Now that I have learned all my lessons, I think I will try a similar card again.  I'm also entering this in My Craft Spot's Inside Out challenge #51 (a sentiment on the inside and outside)