Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Thinking outside the box

I have a fairly extensive collection of Magnolia stamps because I’m intrigued by their sweetness and innocence. I don’t, however, have a lot of perches for the sitting stamps. So, I think outside the box. I got out all the handbooks from my Cricut cartridges and tagged the shapes I thought would work. Any of the windows from the fairytale cartridges, packages, trains, autos (think sitting on Speed McQueen), mushrooms, Christmas ornaments, bridges. You can experiment with size (I actually make notations in pencil on my handbook when I get one right) and if you have Cricut Design Studio, you can even alter your die-cuts. Papertrey has a lovely stamp of a spool of sewing thread. I stamped several, colored them and wrapped them with thread. Pile them up and put a sitting magnolia on it; use a “sew thankful” phrase. Wallpaper borders from discontinued books make wonderful backgrounds. Use a kitchen shelf, an outdoor scene, or flower pots. Cut them out, pop-dot them or just use them as your background paper and build up. Some clip-art works very well. If you’re into sports, find a pic of your favorite team’s helmet, logo, baseball bat, basketball, cut it out, color your image to match and place your image on it. Can you see this little girl in Packer colors? How about Winnie the Pooh’s honey pot?

This card has a window from Happily Ever After, page 70, cut at 4 inches, cuttlebugged and inked with a distressing ink. The leaves and branches are a Sizzix die, the flowers are an old punch. This same window would look good with a window box (just cut a shape with scissors, pop-dot it, add flowers behind it and put the image on it. Any tree branch would work for sitting on or for a swing. Cut a rectangle, add thin string from the branch to the back of the rectangle and sit your image on the swing. Go through your stamps, handbooks, and papers with new eyes.

13 comments:

  1. Love what you did here. Beautiful window and Tilda looks adorable sitting there. Thanks for the great tips. hugs, Angela

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  2. Cindy what a great idea just tagging thru your carts.I like the idea you did with the sitting maggie on the window so cute! very pretty and colored so nice.

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  3. Awesome!! Cute Tilda love the colors!!

    Hugs,
    Patricia

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  4. Love this and love that you gave me another way to get more use out of my carts! Thanks for sharing!!

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  5. Awesome! Love this card and thanks so much for all the tips. Now out comes my Cricut again! Hugs, Cami

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  6. Wonderful idea, and super tips! Thanks for sharing. Your Tilda perched in the arched window is adorable. Well done...

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  7. What clever ideas. I love the arch!!!
    Diana

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  8. Hi Cindy!
    Your card and ideas are terrific. I love the colours you have used on Tilda and the frame is gorgeous. Looking forward to seeing more of those perched Tilda's.
    Hugs Marion

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  9. What a cute card and a great idea ! I just got DDIL some new carts for her cricut for Christmas will have to see just what they have.

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  10. This is beautiful!!! Good thinking. Are you a Packer fan? Girl from WI here!

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  11. Your card is adorable and I love your cricut cut. I do the same thing.

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  12. This is exactly why I join groups--to meet creative people like you! Thanks for sharing. I have a small Cricuit which I have yet to find the time to use but this really inspires me. Kay

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  13. Wow, this is a great idea. She is so cute.
    Karen

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