My First Design Team Project

Last week I stumbled upon Therese Travis's blog while looking for a SCAL file for a 3D rose. She generously shared hers with me, and I started following her blog. When she put out a call for a Design Team, I thought, Why not try? My goal is to design a new card every week, and having assignments seemed like a great way to keep my creative juices pulpy.

Therese invited me to join, and boy! am I in good company. Check out the links to their blogs in my right-hand navigation. Therese sent us some of her wonderful designs to play around with. I chose her set of four turtles: sun, moon, star, and heart.

Not sure where I was going with the turtles, I imported the images into Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) and cut out a whole bunch. I used layers to separate the portions I wanted the actually cut out and those I wanted to keep as lines. I used Cricut markers to "cut" the marker lines and then put the blade back in and cut out the turtles and their central shape.

I literally ended up with a pile of turtles. I looked at them, and they stared blankly and sweetly back at me, and I realized I wanted to make a "wheel" card. I simultaneously decided that I wanted to make an easel card, which I had never done before. A couple days later, another member of the design team posted a beautiful Father's Day easel card — must have been in the air! They are really fun, and a great way to present a card.

I was in the mood to color, so I added detail with a gold marker. For my first card, I made a "beach" with river rocks I made from polymer clay, inspired by a friend's new fireplace design. For the second version (right) I used glitter glue to color the wheel; it's very shiny and impressive, but geez it took 12 hours to dry! I actually happen to know Baltimore's Glitter Goddess, so I'm thinking of sending this to her.

Thank you, Therese, Natacha and Jeannie for inspiring me! Go team!