April 15th - Celebrating the Day When ... by Pam from The Bug Bytes

Hello
This is Pam at The Bug Bytes

It is a honor to be a guest designer at Cricutolics. Thank you Liz for having me on here. I hope I have got the time difference right and posted at the scheduled time frame.
It so happens next week is our wedding anniversary - our 19th anniversary. And I thought I would make an anniversary card as the project. I wanted to incorporate knitting into the card. I used to do lots of knitting and still love it. A great way of relaxing for me but my hubby used to think knitting was for pregnant ladies and old woman. I know - poor man needed lots of education in the way of craft! So I chose knitting as the main theme in my card. Hope when he sees it brings a smile on his face. Lol and hope I do not scare him into thinking I am pregnant but just getting OLD.
So here is my simple , simple card. I have not done much in the way of embellishments nor gone for bright colors as muted colors are what he likes.



I used a double sided paper from K&Company - Que Serra Serra stack.
Now before you try this technique here are a few things I found I had to pay particular attention to

1) The weight of the paper - It definitely needs a slightly heavy cardstock paper as the wool piece gets a bit heavy.
2) lol since it is heavy it's not that fun mailing!
3) Try using a real lightweight wool .

So I first cut the card at 10 x 6.5 inches so that when it folds it is 5 x 6 1/2 inches. I love this size as we have the same size card and envelopes available in Hobby Lobby - a local Scrapbook store here in Texas . I usually get the ivory colored ones for making quick cards. And I store the same dimension in my Gypsy in a file. So when I want to make a card I open the file and add a new layer and first thing I do before I forget is to save as and give it a new project name - in this case Pam_KnitCard. (While saving in Gypsy spaces are best avoides and so are many wild card characters.) This way I keep the original file and have another one for the project and I can add in new layer using the previous page as a template (provided you keep the preview eye open).
I then knitted a rectangle (simple - knit, pearl pattern) approx 5.5 inches x 4 inches. I wanted kind of scallop finish so even though I do not crochet much - decided to some random crochet. Well I do not know to talk in crochet terms either so it is a bit difficult explaining what I did but I'll try. I first went around making 3 chains all around the perimeter picking up a loop - in alternate stitches though I think it would have looked better if I had skipped 2 instead of one. Then in the next round just a - single crochet, double crochet and single crochet and slip right in the pillar . I hope I am not mashing the crochet terms and making some sense of the terms.
Even though I have the dimension of the card in Gypsy I do not cut the cards in cricut but in my trimmer as I have not been able to get a proper rectangle and when I fold the card I find I have to trim to even it out - so I just use a trimmer. Always know the nature of the beast is one of my favorite mottos. But the dimensions are a big help in sizing the rest of the images which go on the card. Here since I wanted the image to sit inside the wool piece I knit I added a rectangle 5x 3.5 (dimensions are all in inches) in the previous layer/page in G.
I just searched for keyword - Knit and chose this image. Now I was upstairs in my studio while my computer is usually downstairs and I was too lazy to pick up a booklet. So what I do is just choose the basic image add it and resize it (usually the shadow is a bit bigger so give room for that extra ). Then note the size and tap on an empty area of mat and change the cursor size to the size I noted. That way if I do not click on the real dial size button (the one that has the lettera). I can add the layers individually - very helpful when we do not want the images running out of the mat area and still keeping it all layered. When I can't get to the booklet - this way I add all possible layer combinations and ungroup and see which fit and which are the layers in an image and delete the rest.
I chose to cut the image at 2 1/2 inches on a white cardstock and inked it. Then I cut some more rectangles and mounted the image . I used a fabric adhesive glue to hold the image label on to the wool and the wool on to the card. I had a couple of acrylic stickers which look like a frame so inserted one end of the knitted wool into it and held it down with a brad.




Here's a close up of the image




And here's the inside of the card



Here below I just wanted a funky shape tag so I used nestability and partly ran it through the cuttlebug - the area which does not need cutting had a rubber mat on top so that it does not cut through. I reinforced the hole with round tabs and pop darted the tag on to the card. The other piece is the 2nd piece of acrylic frame that I had.




And the sentiment part of the card - pg 3. Using a font on my computer I just typed whatever my mind came up with in wordart and imported it into photoshop. I really liked the reflection else I could have done it all in photoshop. I also searched for some free knit fonts and added a couple of images. Used nestability to cut



So that's my simple card which I hope hubby likes. He did see me knitting and made faces. SO I hope when he gets the card he feels a tiny bit guilty. Thank you Liz once more for having me on today here as a guest designer

Pam this is a BEAUTIFUL card. It is so unique love the knitting on it. I am sure he will love it, and I hope you two will have a WONDERFUL anniversary. TFS

Thanks Pam for a truely novel card idea incorporating two of your loves. Thanks for the detailed instructions and the photos it will be a great help to others. I'm not a knitter myself, I can do, but it grows too slow for my liking! I used to crochet a lot when I was younger and I am sure a crocheter would be able to adapt the idea to incorporate crocheting rather than knitting. Brilliant project well done.

Thank you for sharing.

What a beautiful and unique card you've created and such a wonderful sentiment which is perfect for your anniversary. Thank you so much for sharing with us and all the great insructions too!
Juliex

Pam, thanks for sharing your fantastic creations. I'm not a knitter, but you have provided great inspiration for those that do knit. I would never have thought to put knitting on my cards.

Hi Pam,

I loved your project. I'm not knitter, but I do try and look for crocheted/ knitted items to put on cards etc as embellishments.

Kelly