We sure love our CEO and founder, Jeanette Lynton! As a pioneer in the stamping and papercrafting industry, she has put so much time and heart into helping others discover their creativity and preserve their memories. She truly is one-of-a-kind.
As many of you know, Jeanette’s birthday is in March. This year, we’d like your help in giving her a birthday surprise to remember! Handmade cards are a thoughtful way to show someone just how much they mean to you, so let’s show Jeanette some love with beautiful uniquely crafted cards! Here’s what to do:
1. Create a birthday card for Jeanette and snap a photo of it
2. Post it to Facebook and Instagram using the hashtags #closetomyheart and #happybirthdayjeanette
3. Tag us on Facebook (@closetomyheart) and on Instagram (@ctmhoffical). Please feel free to leave a message for Jeanette with the picture, if you’d like!
We will randomly select five people who have posted a card and give them a Let’s Eat Cake Stamp + Thin Cuts (shown below), as a prize for helping us out and celebrating with us! (Winners will be notified directly in the first week of April.)
At the end of the month, we’ll show Jeanette all the cards you’ve made by searching these tags and hashtags on social media. Beautiful artwork made by people she cares about so dearly will be sure to touch her heart!
We’ve gathered a few cards made with some of our current favorite stamps and dies for inspiration!
Then there’s these two sweet characters with their birthday celebration from the Let’s Eat Cake Stamp + Thin Cuts. (How cute are the bear and llama!) What’s especially fun about this stamp set is that the cake comes in separate pieces, so you can decide just how tall to make it! The full height of the cake is just the right size for a slimline card, while shorter cakes fit perfectly on a standard card.
Make sure to post your handmade cards by March 31, as outlined above! Thank you in advance for helping us celebrate the extraordinary life of one of the best people we know!
Hello, friends! This week, we’re going to take a closer look at the Attach tool in Cricut Design Space™ and how it relates to other tools on the app. This feature is a fairly basic one, but once you get comfortable with it, you’ll be able to increase your creative possibilities ten-fold! We’ve covered certain aspects of Attach in a previous post, which showed many of the awesome features the Attach tool has to offer. In this post, we will focus more on Attach versus Slice. These tools have a lot of similarities and, while they’re both great, there are some differences between them; having this knowledge will help you decide which tool is right for you and your project.
In our example card above, we kept it simple by attaching a single elongated hexagon shape, pulled from the Cricut® Artistry collection. This collection has a wide variety of options to lend a bit of polish to each project. Be sure to check it out to boost your creativity!
As you follow along with this post, please keep in mind that the steps below show you how to use Design Space on a laptop or a desktop computer. If you are using the Design Space app on a mobile device, the tools and buttons will be in slightly different places on your screen. Most of these basic features are available on any device.
Attach v. Slice
As we mentioned in our earlier post, the Attach tool not only allows you to cut text or shapes, but it allows you to position them yourself. To save space in each cut, Design Space may automatically shuffle your cuts to use as little paper as possible. This is commonly seen when using the Slice tool.
While this is a handy feature in some instances, there are going to be times where you’ll want to keep your cut aligned the same way you laid it out on your Design Space canvas. By using Attach, your cut won’t be altered or shuffled around on the paper.
Another great feature of the Attach tool is the single cut. When you use the Slice tool, it will often cut your shape multiple times. This not only uses up more paper, but it may also mess up your project with unnecessary cuts. There are some projects where you may want multiple cuts of the same shape, but for instances where only one cut is necessary, Attach is a much simpler way to get the single cut you want.
In these examples, you can see the single cut of the Attach tool in the photo on the top, and the multiple cuts made by using the Slice tool in the photo on the bottom.
Using Attach
Once you’re familiar with how Attach works and how it relates to other features in Design Space, you’re ready to start using it yourself. The Attach tool is located at the bottom of the Layers panel, next to the Slice and Weld tools.
To use this tool, you’ll need to make sure that you’ve got all the shapes and other components of your project displayed on your Design Space canvas. It’s a lot easier to use Attach if you’ve already inserted all the shapes and text you want to use.
Once you have all your project pieces in place, you’ll need to group the pieces that you want to attach. You can do this by clicking, holding, and dragging your mouse over the pieces you want to group. You’ll see a grey box appear behind your cursor when you do so. The pieces you intend to group should be inside this box.
When you let the mouse go, right-click your mouse in the same spot and select the “Group” option from your right-click menu. To make sure that you’ve grouped your images, click on one of the images and try moving it around on your Design Space canvas. If the images you wanted to group move together, you’ve got your group!
Once your images are grouped, use the Attach tool to cut your shapes or text. You won’t be able to move the attached shape as long as it’s still attached and grouped, but it will still cut when you click “Make It.”
If you want to change the placement of your text or shape, or if you even want to scrap that part of your project and use a different shape instead, you can Detach your shape to be able to move or alter various parts of your project. To Detach your shapes, go back to the same place where you found the Attach button. It should say Detach if you have any shapes that are grouped and attached. By clicking this button, you will basically undo the Attach action.
Put It Together
Follow the steps below to recreate the adorable llama card we showed you today!
1) Search for image #M369896 and insert it on your Design Space canvas. Unlock and resize it to 4″ x 5.25″ (W x H).
Tip: All measurements in this post are W x H.
2) Search for image #M41340E from the [insert collection name here] and insert it on your canvas. Leaving the image locked, resize the height to 2.75″.
3) Ungroup shape #M41340E and hide the overlay cut, leaving the solid background.
4) Position shape #M4130E over your 4″ x 5.25″ rectangle and group the images together.
5) Select Attach from the tools at the bottom of the Layers panel and click “Make It” to cut your new card overlay.
6) Cut this card overlay out of Carolina stripe patterned paper from the Craft On Paper Packet.
7) Cut a 4″ x 1″ rectangle out of Bluebird cardstock and draw a border around the edges with a journaling pen.
8) Using the My Acrylix® Wild & Punny Stamp + Thin Cuts set, stamp and cut a llama on White Daisy cardstock with Intense Black ink.
Tip: Whenever you are using watercolor pencils or a waterbrush over a stamped image or sentiment, make sure you allow the ink to dry fully.
9) Color your llama as shown with watercolor pencils and a small round waterbrush and set it to the side.
10) Carefully position the Carolina stripe card overlay over a plain White Daisy card base and attach it using an adhesive runner. Do the same with your prepared Bluebird cardstock rectangle, as shown.
11) Using the My Acrylix® Wild & Punny stamp set, stamp “Llama just say you ROCK!” with Intense Black Ink in the center of the card overlay cutout. Paint a color swash over the sentiment and color in “ROCK” with watercolor pencils and a small round waterbrush.
12) Attach your llama to the card using thin 3-D foam tape, as shown.
13) Embellish with sequins and white ribbon.
Whether you’re making an awesome card or a gorgeous scrapbook layout, the Attach feature is a great way to tailor your project to your creative vision. What have you created using Attach? Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Leave a comment below to spread the word!
