Monday, October 3, 2011

Macabre Monday Inner Workings and a Mini Cricut Tut



Morning, my pretties! I'm running a little late today, so If you were expecting my BBTB2 project, be sure to come back. I DO have a Cricut creation, however, so I hope that will do until I get my act together. LOL This week our Macabre Monday challenge is Inner Workings. Create a dark,Gothic, or Halloween based project that is either quite literal (clockwork or guts) or just simply decorate the inside of your project as well as the outside. My first inclination was to find something really EEEEWWWW!!!! on the net, but then I remembered my heart stamp from the Quoth the Raven set from Smeared Ink.


I decided to create a gate fold rib cage card to hold my heart, using my Cricut. There's a bit of a lesson here, so if you're not interested, skip this part. (I'm feeling a bit chatty today, though so here goes.) I sized the skelton torso from the Oct 31st cartridge quite large in DS. In order to make a gate fold, the maximum my torso could be is 6 inches at the widest point because my card stock for the base is only 12 inches wide. The base, which measured 12"x7" (yeah, it's a BIG card!) was scored at 3" and 9" and folded towards the center. The skeleton torso was partially off the mat in DS, but since I only wanted the rib cage, it didn't really matter. Remember when doing this, however, that although the cutting will look complete on your screen, your Cricut will think there's still more to cut (because actually, there is, but you've run out of mat). You will have to delete that little cutting progress screen and unload your mat, but when you go to re cut, the program will be confused. It won't cut. You'll have to not only exit your file, but actually close out and restart DS in order for you to be able to continue. A GIANT PITA, but it was worth it to get the size I needed.


Next problem, there are no shadows on the Oct. 31st cart, so after cutting and trimming my rib cage, I sliced it down the center and used removable tape to secure it to my gate fold and traced around it. Make sure you leave plenty of area at the the folds so your base is stable and cut carefully through both thicknesses. Et voila! a shaped gate fold.


For the inside mat, I hid the contours of the rib cage and cut and trimmed it as previously mentioned. I used Copics and Distress ink for a bit of shading. My heart is also colored with Copics, but looked a bit lonesome without any other organs so I cut the zombie hand (also from October 31st) and positioned it to look like it was ripping it out (or at least squeezing the life out of it :D ) Who says Cricut has to be cutesy? (However, if this doesn't float your boat, come back later today to see a REALLY cute Halloween project for BBTB2. Please ignore that, Minions!) Anyway, the sentiment is computer generated and the front closure thingy was cut with the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Labels folder. Now, after all that for a mediocre project, I hope you still have the strength and inclination to visit HDH to see what the rest of the Minions have been up to, and don't forget Wretched Wednesday when Creepy Glo posts. We love it when you participate too, and it is October, after all. Time to get your creep on. I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Anything Goes challenge.

20 comments:

  1. Your stories are publish-worthy and I adore them. I also adore the card. Wow.... I will be back to see the BBTB2 creation in a few. Hugs.
    Carole

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  2. I can't get over how creative your cards are. Love this!!

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  3. oooooooooooooooooh Donna you are just toooooooooooooooooooo clever!!!
    Awesome card.
    Ann xxx

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  4. WOW!! Donna, what a masterpiece! Love the inside, it is so original. I can see why you were working so hard, a lot of details in this one. Thanks for sharing.

    Hugz x,

    ~L~

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  5. I wonder if that brain of yours ever stops thinking... I am always so amazed with your creations... WOW ... you are one talented lady... hugs

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  6. Very interesting. Great colors and good job on the challenge.

    DIANA L.
    http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com

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  7. Absolutely, positively fantastic torso card!!! I'm sure alot of blood,sweat, and tears went into this one! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!

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  8. This is really creative hun, just popping by to say a huge thank you for the warm welcome hugs pops x

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  9. I must say it is GENIOUS! I love it.

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  10. Your so CRAZY Girlfrind, lol! But I LOVE it! The thinks you come up with are just mind boggling, lol! I will definetly be back later for your BBTB2 challenge with the little froggie, you know I love the froggies, lol!
    ((Hugs)) Theresa

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  11. Donna -- incredibly awesome and very very clever! Love it!

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  12. Love all the work that went into this! Phew. DS needs a master layerer like you to work with their software design team. So worth it though. That is a creepy heart stamp! Love it. x

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  13. This is amazing - such a lot of work !!! I really love that cut-out zombie arm -it's Brilliant :-)
    Hugz
    Ike xxx

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  14. AMAZING!!! You are brillianr but nuts haha x

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  15. This is super cute. Thank you so much for joining us this week for our "anything goes " challenge over at Forever Night Challenges. I hope you have a great week and Good luck.

    Hugs
    Shannin

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  16. What a great idea for a card although I do wonder how your mind works to come up with such an idea lol.
    Thanks for that great tutorial, I had this problem just last week whilst placing something off the edge of the mat so as not to have to cut all of an image that I couldn't hide part of. I kept having to restart design studio and couldn't work out why, now I know.
    Kim xXx

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  17. Your creativity just continuously amazes me!! Fantastic card, Donna!!!
    hugs, Sharon

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  18. Donna, I absolutely love this gatefold ribcage card for halloween!!! Girlfriend, God gave you a gift of your talent and you definitely know how to use it!!!!

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  19. In a word: AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to make this card for my son, he'll just go nuts over it. TFS
    Sue

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  20. Awesome Card !
    Thanks for joining us at Forever Night Challenges "Anything Goes Week"

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Thanks for making my day!