Epic Card with Imagine and JT

I know this is not my usual paper craft style, but I am putting this out here anyway.  This Epic card was created with the Cricut Imagine and the Cricut Imagine JT cartridge.  I also used an Imagine pre-loaded shape as the background mat.  And in keeping with my theme of Imagine elements, I also printed the background paper from the JT cartridge.

There are so many things I could share about how wonderful the Cricut Imagine is to work with, but today I am going to focus on just one particularly appealing aspect of the Imagine.  My friend Susan from Seneca said that she loves the Imagine because all of the papers and colors on a single cartridge are already coordinated for her!  She likes knowing that the selections she makes will all look wonderful together in her completed projects.

 

In this specific project I chose the flourish accented skull and the wing accented word Epic as my main elements.  Using the layers feature on the Imagine, I split the skull cut into layers and recolored the top layer, the face, with the skull print paper on the JT cartridge.  I thought it would be more striking if the skull had skull print.  I will say that you loose a few details when you cut the skull alone, but it is worth it for the layered effect.

 

I cut the word Epic using only two layers.  You can actually choose to cut this piece in four layers, but I liked the overall print better.  I cut this in two layers so that I could layer to two pieces.  The headphones were cut as a single layer.  I did not want the headphones to over power the skull. 

The photo above shows the inside of the card.  I used just a top layer of the skull with a larger set of headphones.  This leaves plenty of room for personalizing the card.  I see this card as a potential birthday card for one of my sons (both have birthdays in the next 60 days).  While one son is very into music the other often uses the word Epic!  Alas, there will be choices to make....

After layering the elements together I added think black and white gingham ribbon over the tag matting, but under the skull flourish.  I tied the to strips of ribbon together with rough twine.  I added a touch of the twine around the i in epic.  I actually tried using wire as an embellishment for this card, but it blended together too well and there was no POP effect.

I will be back tomorrow to share an on-going project with you.  See you tomorrow.

Imagine Out of the Box Party

What a fun evening!  MFK (my friend Kathy), Suzanne, Beth and I got together to open the Imagine box.  It was so difficult to ignore that big box in my entry way all afternoon!  But I knew they would be disappointed if I started without them so I waited. 

Most of the scrapping girlfriends had busy evenings, but three of them managed to make time to see the Imagine.  Peggy was busy with the Greek Festival and Pat was off to the Tenn vs GA football game and Toby had a date with her hubby.  Poor Beth came over after teaching all day and then working the homecoming carnival.  What a woman!

We started by unpacking the Imagine, and then the software needs an update.  We followed the instructions for set up and inserted the printer cartridges during the wait time.

 Finally we got down to business.  I loaded the Imagine's JT cartridge and selected the guitar cut.  I made several other selections and then we tried our first print and cuts.

 I glanced up to find MFK fixated on the Imagine and just had to get a quick photo of her intrigue.

 

 Of course she got even in spades!  There were a lot of less than flattering photos of me playing with the Imagine.  In the photo above Suzanne is reading the manual and I am reading the LCD screen.

Loading the second sheet of cardstock to start the word cuts.

Showing off our first cuts, two guitars and a tag (I chose the tag paper from the JT patterns).   And what did we do with those elements? 

 My first Imagine card!!  I layered the cuts using pop dots.  I scored the printed tag and after trimming, wrapped it around my base card.  I added gold trim, a touch of ribbon and gems using the I-Rock tool.

 Above and below are close ups of the cut elements.  The photo above shows how I used a micro tipped pen and added a black outline to the guitar.  I also used my white pen to add doodles to the card.

I am so looking forward to playing with the Imagine today... I may even read the manual myself first!!  :-)