Thursday, January 21, 2010

Picturesque



After an internal battle with my will and common sense ended in gory defeat, I finally succumbed to this itch that has been plaguing me for nearly two months and begrudgingly (with a slice of giddiness) gave in an purchased the illusive Cricut cartridge 'Picturesque' on the secondary market. It goes without saying that this has become my most expensive cartridge yet (replacing 'Potpourri Basket').

Finally, it came down to a simple matter of supply. It does appear (via information from a well-placed source) that ProvoCraft will NOT be making 'Picturesque' available for individual sale any time in the near future. Originally, paired with a champagne-colored Expression, 'Picturesque' was to be an exclusively bundled cartridge to Home Depot. However, a contractual problem occurred and the deal fell threw. It is my understanding that the rumored 300-500 bundles were sold to a warehouse club--and were quickly broken up to sell on the secondary market by some savvy consumers. My source says that the cartridge will reappear in a new set of exclusive machine bundles that will be exclusive to a major retailer in approximately the same quantity. The retailer has been chosen, but has not been officially announced. Meanwhile, there are no plans through 2010 to offer 'Picturesque' as a solo cartridge.

In my opinion, that really is a great shame as this is a bursting-at-the-seams chock-full content cartridge. The artwork by Noralee Peterson is intricately detailed and filled with decorative flourishes and embellished elements. The cartridge features the following creative features: tags, corners, frameworks, cards and seals, shadow and blackout on over 99 individual pieces of artwork. Among the images included are: florals, dragonflies, butterflies, birds, nests, swans, vines, scallops, celtic knot elements, greek key elements, and iron work elements.

Here are a few photographs of some of the elements from the enclosed handbook:







My first project using 'Picturesque' was a quick greeting card. The three lighter blue cardstock pieces (card base, mat, and die cut) are all Bazzill cardstock from a Fourz pack with a grasscloth texture. The mat cardstock was punched with an EK Success border punch called "Swiss Cheese". The backing paper on the diecut tag is an SEI glitter cardstock. The "love" sentiment was cut on the Making Memories Slice (from the 'Think Pink' card) out of silver foiled SEI cardstock. The actual diecut tag I chose to cut on my Cricut Expression is called "cotton blossom" and was cut at 4" (Shift + Tag). The polka-dot ribbon is from Papertrey Ink's "Enchanted Evening" collection and the mabe pearl accent is from the Stampin' Up! Pretties kit. I used my ATG 714 adhesive to assemble the card. The inner sentiment is from a Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration stamp set entitled 'Whimsical Words' (#119119). Finally, I used a Martha Stewart corner rounder punch to shape the final card.









With the addition of 'Picturesque' to my cartridge library (and Gypsy), I am now only down three cartridges of all that have been released thus far: 'Keystone International', 'Don Juan International', and 'Pink Journey'. As always, the search continues...

Well, I was rather wordy today. I hope you enjoyed the peek at 'Picturesque'. If you have a way to add it to your collection, I highly recommend it. It really is a beautiful set of images.

As always, have a terrific Friday ahead...and keep crafting!

6 comments:

okieladybug or okie_ladybug said...

Okay okay by lookin at the few pages you showed I can see why you gave into temptation, not that you are good at avoiding temptation in the first place HA HA HA! I can't wait to see what all you do with this cart!

AndreaA said...

Yes....I agree with Okie, I also see why you gave!!
Looks like a very nice cart.
I will get it someday!!
Love your card by the way!!

Anonymous said...

The card is beautiful. Unfortunately I only have 4 cartridges, so I'm hoping to win the free giveaway.Thank You very much for sharing your work.

Born2instruct said...

Oh my goodness! I just got to have this cart! I am so tempted to run right out tonight and find it!!!!!
Tiffanie
born2instruct@yahoo.com

So much temptation.....

Amy C said...

I would love to pick up this cart, too, but I don't have the $$ to dish out for it. I love the card you made and the tag cut from this cart. Thanks for sharing!!

Deena said...

Thanks for showing us some of the pages from this cart! Yep....I want it!!