My Pink Stamper Challenge #2

Hi Everyone,

Over at My Pink Stamper Robyn has given everyone another challenge. She has asked everyone to try and create something "warm and springy" to help warm everyone up and beat the winter blahs. She suggested pulling out your Life's a Beach cartridge or something with flowers on it. Well I have to admit I purchased the Life's a Beach cricut cartridge a while ago and I have never used it. It was one of those cartridges I just had to have and I hadn't done anything with it yet.

Well, tonight I actually used it and am quite pleased with the results. I tried out the square card feature and it worked pretty well. I did have a few issues with it. Not sure if it is a glitch in the cartridge or something I am doing wrong (Probably the glitch is in the person working the machine! LOL!).

I cut my square card at 5 1/4" using the mermaid cut. Then I measured the mermaid (she was 3.5") and cut out a base and her layers at 3.5". I had to cut her layers 3 times, in yellow, green, and pink to get all the pieces I wanted in the correct colours. I put my mermaid together then went to put her on the card base and she didn't want to fit quite right. The size seemed to be the same but her arms seemed to be slightly off compared to the square card base (you will be able to see pink outlines where she didn't line up if you look closely). I fiddled with the cut and card base for a few minutes and then decided it didn't really matter in the end.

To jazz up the outside of the card I cut out some seaweed in a variety of sizes and colours to put on the card. I also stamped my sentiment, and added some polka dot ribbon from my stash.

Then I decided I wanted to make this card a shaker card. To do this I attached transparency on the inside of the card (3.5" square). I placed foam tape around the entire opening and added glitter and micro beads (make sure you don't leave any holes or your beads and glitter will fall out). Then I place a 4" piece of water patterned paper over the foam tape. The final step was to add stickles to make it sparkle that much more.

I am really pleased with how well it turned out. I love the shaker cards and the square card feature on this cartridge is perfect for this technique.

Here is the Recipe:
Paper- SU Melon Mambo Cardstock, Water patterned paper (retired) from Creative Memories, Creative Memories cardstock scraps for layers, transparency from Staples
Ink- Archival Black Ink
Stamp- Studio G dollar stamp from Micheal's
Accessories- SU Crushed Curry Polka Dot ribbon, Close To My Heart Foam Tape, silver microbeads, pink and blue fine glitter, Stickles in crystal, green, and yellow

Have fun and stay warm this weekend,
Cat