New Ballroom Dancer Cards

I really liked playing with these. I pulled out my colored pencils and personalized them a little. I thought the ballerinas should have slippers on. I left room on the backs for a personalized message to be written in.

And I really enjoyed coloring their hair and making their gowns. It usually takes me a day or two to make four cards. For some reason I like to make them in sets of four. It takes a while to pick out the right paper, flowers and colors I use for each one. Not to mention the time to cut them out. 

I wish I was one of those people who could just assembly line cut and glue them together but I have to give it a lot of thought so I really like the way everything looks on each one. I can't just throw them together and see where they land.

I did use a lot of flowers on them so I'll have to print out more. I'm going through my die collection and finding a couple of sets that I haven't used yet. I think that means I've got too many. But new ones come out before I've had a chance to use the previous ones or I find a bargain that I can't pass up - and you know how that goes. 

                                           

Ballroom Dancer cards

Not just ballroom dancers, but also ballerinas! I have to admit that I did not really like these card dies when I first saw them. I think they've been out for a while. I would not have ordered the dies or decorated them as shown on the examples of them that I saw. Just didn't care for them until recently.

I really had to study them for a while to get inspired to make them. That, and I got a used set of dies for cheaper than half price. I did re-cut and used my colored pencils on these to make them look the way I wanted. I left a little room on the backs for a personal note and signature. They really are like playing with paper dolls. 

I know they are suppose to be in shadow and the card is suppose to give an ambience to evoke a feeling you get when you dance, but I thought the people should be a little more detailed. Not much but a little. Colored pencil was perfect for adding a personalized touch to them. 

I think I'll make more of them. Anniversaries and birthdays... or you can decorate that ballerina for the Nutcracker at Christmas. I think you could turn either one of these into a holiday card if you wanted to. I would not call them typical "cards". They are more of the automata paper sculpture to me.

Oh these are so pretty. They also remind me of the music box dancers and what little girl didn't have (or want) a musical jewelry box when you opened the lid the ballerina danced around and round?

I don't remember if I had one or not but if not, I know I always wanted one. I'm really liking making these cards a lot and it's fun to dress them up.

More Birdhouse Cards

These are so addictive. I've done a few more. I'm not really crazy about cutting into my magnetic mat for dies just to emboss them when they are cut out. I like to cut face up into the plexi. I can get a fresh plexi or (dollar tree cutting board for $1) to replace it a lot easier and cheaper than a ten dollar magnetic mat!

So sometimes I sacrifice the embossing details and I'm fine with that. If I want deep embossing I have a rubber mat that will work too. But I didn't care for it on these little bird houses since I wanted to embellish them my own way.

I've just about decided to move on with the next project but I do love making these. I haven't been in Cricut for a while so maybe it's time to see what's new there.

Birdhouse Cards

 It's a beautiful day for gardening... and making birdhouse cards inspired by Anna Griffin dies and paper tricks. I did use some paper tricks for the roofs and I also hand painted and embellished some of the details with acrylics and colored pencils. I got creative with the leaves on this one. I painted the edges gold and dabbed two colors of paints on them instead of embossing them.

I'm getting in a spring mood now. I love the way the colors pop. The next one is so delicate and pastel. Such a change from the first one. I cut paper strips and notched out grooves on them. Them I just overlapped them and glued them down so they would look like fake shingles. And I used more leaves from Anna's foliage dies. They are perfect for decorating birdhouses.

I used a mix of flowers and birds from all my kits. This has been keeping me pretty busy. I've got more to make. I'm pretty much hooked on bird houses now. Probably will be for a while.