A Cricut Challenge

I bought this Nordic ornament stamp last week and I’ve been trying to think of the best way to present it.  It’s about 5¼” across and I don’t have any dies that big.  Also, I wanted it to have the hanger part on the top too so a straight circle die wouldn’t work.  This seemed like a perfect job for the Cricut.

To begin, I stamped the hanger and bow and scanned it in to my computer.  I imported it into Inkscape using a great tutorial from TroyTube on YouTube and then added an offset (the red part) to give me my basic cut-out shape.  I played around with the shape a bit to remove the holes to make the cut-out section sturdier.

Next, I uploaded the finished shape into Cricut Design Space and scaled it to fit the stamped image.  I made the basic card shape by making a circle 5½” diameter and welding the ornament hanger onto the top.  I also sliced a smidge off the bottom so that the card would stand up.  The shape was duplicated and flipped horizontally so that it would be a mirror image and then overlapped the first circle a small amount to give a place for the fold.  A test cut revealed not quite a perfect fit but close enough.

My first card was for a swap in a Facebook group.  I stamped the image in Versamark and heat embossed in white before blending pink, purple and blue inks over.  The embossing resists the ink but gives texture with a lovely blended background.  Lastly, I added some rhinestones on the centre of the snowflakes and a small sentiment.  And a decorated envelope, of course!

I tried the stamp out on other coloured cards to see if it was as effective.  It gave good results whether it was heat embossed or just stamped, although a stamp positioner does help as it’s tricky to get all sections of big stamps to stamp well first time.

 

White embossing powder on Sahara Sand and silver ink on Blackberry Bliss

 

White embossing powder on Real Red and gold embossing powder on Shaded Spruce

 

 

I hate waste so try to salvage anything that hasn’t gone to plan.  Tags to the rescue!