Quick Christmas Countdown Flip Top Advent Calendar

Are you ready for Christmas?  Are your kids anxiously awaiting the arrival of Santa?  Well, if you're a little late creating an advent calendar this year, here's a quick one to whip up so your kids can count the days until the jolly fat man arrives.  My inspiration to make this flip version of an advent calendar came from the flip top calendar Jin at Under A Cherry Tree made back in January 2013.  I made it a little smaller than she does in her tutorial, so I did not use her template to make it.  Using Silhouette Studio DE, I resized the graphics from the Bo Ho Ho Advent set to 2.995"Hx2.245"W and then added a 3.6"Hx2.25"W rectangle  to make room for the binding (no need to trace the graphic).  I decided to let my Cameo cut the binding circles instead of using my Cinch since the width of the cards was making it difficult to get them accurately centered.  This is one page of the graphics in Silhouette Studio:

After setting up each page, I print and cut out the cards.  To create the "days until Christmas" portion I put a paper from the BoHoHo paper pack and the words on a  2.25"Wx1"H rectangle.  Using some chipboard from JoAnn's, I created the calendar base much the same way Jin did, only slightly narrower (11"Lx2.5"W).  I scored at 5", 5.5" and 6".  I used the Cinch to punch the holes at the top for the base since I wasn't cutting it in my Cameo.  After putting all the cards in order I put everything on the O wires and used my Cinch to bind them together.  Now my daughter has a little calendar to put on her nightstand to remind her Santa is coming soon!

This has to be the quickest advent calendar I've ever made!

I used:
Cameo 
Silhouette Studio DE (Can use the free edition)
Lettering Delights:
BoHoHo Advent set
BoHoHo paper pack
BoHoHo alphabet
LD Charming Bold

Keep counting down and Have a Crafty Day!

Inspiration Found: Two Print and Cut Cards with Silhouette Studio

I was looking for inspiration the other day, when I came across a post by Jin at UnderACherryTree about making cards using shapes, offsets and rectangles in Silhouette Studio DE.  She has a tutorial here and here, both are easy to follow if you'd like to make one too.  

Originally I was going to make just one card, but then another idea landed in my head so I ended up making two. The first one is for my son who loves music and plays both guitar and piano, as well as the viola.  His birthday is coming up this week.

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You!

This card came together so easily.  I print and cut everything, including the solid color for the guitar because I wanted an exact match with the color on the patterned paper.  It made it so much easier than hunting down a piece of cardstock that more than likely wouldn't match.

The next card is for no special occasion, but I think I'll give it to my daughter since she's always been my beautiful butterfly!

And with this one I decided to print on the inside as well.

 

I love using the center to page feature in Silhouette Studio DE!  As long as I remember which way to put the paper in to print the second side (something I forgot to do on this card), it's easy to print on both sides of a card.  

I had so much fun making these, I'll definitely be making some more.  Thanks goes to Jin for the inspiration!

Here's what I used:

Guitar Card:

Musical Instruments Cut It Set

Doggy Paper Pack

LD Hanson (font)

LD Hang Ten (font)

Butterfly Card:

Butterflies Cut It Set

Birds Of A Feather Paper Pack

LD Dear Diary (font)

LD Platform Soul (font)

Have A Crafty Day!

Teacher Appreciation Gift

So this past week was teacher appreciation week.  I may get some flack for this, but I usually don't participate in this event.  I find it more appropriate to thank my childrens' teachers at the end of the year and according to my desire to do so.  I guess you could say I don't like being told what to do.  That being said,  when I learned my daughter's teacher was a Washington Nationals fan, I decided I had to make this baseball cap and card for her, and I didn't want to wait until the end of the year.  I had the crafting itch, and I was desperate to make something with the purpose of giving it away.  Check it out, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

Hit it right out of the park!

This project is an example of using something I thought I never would.  I'm not a baseball fan, in fact, sports just aren't my thing, and thankfully my husband and kids aren't sports lovers either.  So I never thought I'd use this file from the Fun and Games SVG Kit at SVGCuts.com, but it's really hard not to buy their files (let's just say I'm a little addicted, ok?).  How happy I was when I got to put it to good use!  I have to remember crafting isn't only about making things I like, it's about making things for others to bring them some joy, whether or not I like them!  (Well, duh!)  Plus, I had a lot of fun making this and as it turns out, I love it! 

Using Make The Cut!, I altered the baseball in the file to add the 'Thank You' and I used a thin font from Lettering Delights and a Silhouette sketch pen for the teacher's name.  The card base is from the Cards For Moms SVG Kit also at SVGCuts.com. I cut a little of the bottom off of the card since I didn't need the extra space.

Here's the inside and back of the cap.

A few small details

I had cut out the 'W' to put on the front of the card, but when I decided not to use it I thought putting it inside the cap was a nice added touch.  While looking at the Washington Nationals caps I also noticed most of them had the major league baseball logo on the back so I decided to include it on mine.  I found all of the logos by doing a Google search.  I then traced them in Make The Cut! and did a print and cut with my Cameo.  

So that's it, a fun gift for a teacher who happens to love baseball, and chocolate, which is what I filled it with.  My daughter said her teacher loved it, and that's the joy in crafting.

Here's what I used:
Make The Cut!
Silhouette Cameo
Silhouette Red Sketch Pen
American Crafts Cardstock
Fun and Games SVG Kit
Cards For Moms SVG Kit
LD Cursive Thin Font

Go create some joy and Have A Crafty Day!

(I am an affiliate for Make The Cut! because I love it!)

Free SVG Site and A Paris Themed Shadowbox Frame

Hello there.  I know it's been a while.  That's what happens when I get my car back after over a year of having to share it with my husband.  That means he drove it and I stayed home.  Hey, whoever makes the money gets the freedom and the car, right?  Well, last week that finally came to an end.  You could say I went a little nuts and made sure I was out every day since it was such a novel thing for me to do.  Of course I made visits to my local craft stores.  Hobby Lobby was my first stop, then Michael's and A.C. Moore.  Ahhh, sweet freedom.  Amidst all that, I did create a few things.  Some were Valentine related, and the frame I made could fall into that category, but it's really a gift for my daughter who I happen to love very much.  The cool part is where I got the frame from, but more on that later.  Take a look:

Name and face concealed to protect the innocent.

It's a shadowbox frame using the Be Mine digital papers and elements by Echo Park. The rose is from the Crush On You Boxes SVG kit from SVGCuts.  A side note about that rose: I had to cut it three times before I put it together to form a satisfactory rose.  I don't know what it was, but I had such difficulty getting it to look right!  Originally the paper was darker, more like the darker circles on the patterned paper, but after cutting it two times out of that I had no more.  I had to settle for the lighter color.  The black trim is from Michael's and it has its own adhesive which made it a snap to put on.  I had a little trouble making those corners look right, but I think they turned out ok, just don't check under that rose!  Here's a close up of that difficult rose:

Your eyes are fine, it's the camera that's out of focus!

Not the best picture, but the best I could do.   Now about the frame itself.  I learned about this site called Ideogram from this post at Cleversomeday.  It's pretty neat.  You put in your measurements for one of the twelve available templates and out comes an SVG file you can cut with Make The Cut!, SCAL, Silhouette Studio DE(SSDE) or any software that cuts SVGs.  I used SSDE to print and cut this frame by dragging and dropping the digital paper on to the frame template.  In fact, I laid out the whole thing in SSDE which made it so easy to envision the final result.  One thing I noticed is if I used inches, the frame would not import at the proper size, but if I used centimeters it did.  It's not a big deal if it comes in small, all you have to do is resize it while maintaining the proportions.  

By the way, my daughter loved the frame since she loves all things Paris.  I can't wait to make more of these frames for my other children, they'll make sweet birthday gifts (well, they would if my other children were girls, but since they're boys they'll probably not appreciate them much!).  You really should check out this site, and thanks to Kay at Cleversomeday!  I noticed they added a heart box too, it looks really cool!  I love getting things for free, don't you?  Let me know what you make!

To make the frame I used:
Silhouette Cameo
Silhouette Studio DE
Be Mine Digital Paper by Echo Park
Be Mine Digital Element Pack 2 by Echo Park
Crush On You Boxes SVG Kit (rose)
Celeste's Cutesy Corner Elements SVG Collection (corner on photo)
American Crafts Cardstock (white for printing)
Core'dinations Cardstock (rose)

Now go to Ideogram and Have a Crafty Day!

A "Fishy" Card: Is It Two Lost Soles Or Sole?

Hi there.  Maybe you could help me out with a little grammar dilemma since I'm no master of the English language.  When I saw this cutting file with two fish in a fish bowl from Lettering Delights, a song started playing in my head.  You know the one, it goes like this:  "We're just two lost souls swimmin' in a fish bowl, year after year.... it's by Pink Floyd, and it's called "Wish You Were Here". I wondered, how could I make this into a punny card?  (And is "punny" even a word?).  I'd heard of sole fish, but I wanted to make sure they really existed.  I consulted google, and yes, there is a type of fish called sole (yeah, I think everybody already knew that, except me!).  I was all set.  Wait a minute, I thought, is it sole or soles when you're talking about two of these type of fish?  I didn't want any one to think I was talking about two feet, but I figured people would get it anyway, so with reckless abandon, I made this card using Silhouette Studio DE (SSDE):

Does that sound right to you?  Are we feet or fish?

I was so pleased with how it turned out, but the issue of whether or not I was making a fool of myself almost prevented me from posting it here.  So I took a risk.  Isn't that what life's about?  If anyone reading would care to offer an answer, I'd love to know, but I can't say it'd change my mind about making this card!
 
To create the front of the card I had to give dimension to the frame to make room for the beads.  To do this, I made an inset shape of the frame and cut it out six times.  I glued each shape together and then glued them to the card base:

Hey, what are those green things down there?

It didn't matter if the stacked shapes were perfectly lined up since the frame I placed over them covered them up:

Hey, this fishbowl is kinda nice, maybe we're not lost!

I used the sketch feature, set on continuous, to sketch on the frame (this was inspired by Jin's card), and then I cut a piece of acetate and glued it to the back of the frame before adhering it to the front of the card.  If you'd like you can check out the other card I made using the sketch feature in this post.

In SSDE I used print and cut to create the card base.  To align the front and inner sentiment I used center to page. I printed the front of the card, turned the paper over, put it back in my printer and printed the inside.  CAUTION: Take note of which end of the paper went into the printer first.  You MUST put the same end that went in on the first printing, in for the second time, or this will happen:  

Don't let this tragedy happen to you!!

I took the paper out of the printer and couldn't remember which way I'd put it in, so I guessed.  Oops.  I'd like to blame it on son number 3, who happened to walk in and talk to me at that very moment, but I take full responsibility, seriously, son, it's not your fault.  To prevent this in the future, I'll draw a little arrow on the paper to indicate which end I put in first (hopefully I'll remember to do that!).  Has this happened to you?  I hope not.  Now I've got to figure a nifty way to cover this up so I can give it to my husband who loves Pink Floyd as well.  Any ideas?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Supplies I used:
Silhouette Studio Designer Edition
Silhouette Cameo
Silhouette Black Sketch Pen
American Crafts White Cardstock
Green Seed Beads
Hooked on You Cut It Set
LDJ Zoodle Font

Thanks for checking out my "Two Lost Soles" card, and Have A Crafty Day!
 

Home Decor Idea: Use A Card Design for Inspiration!

Have you ever thought of using a card design as the basis for some home decor?  When I saw this Snow Houses Card in the Merry and Bright SVG kit from SVGCuts.com, I loved the snow scene and thought it would look great on a charger.  Of course a charger is round, while this card scene is rectangular. To alter the scene shapes to make them fit nicely in a circle, I used the boolean join tool in Make The Cut (MTC).  How did I do that?  It's very simple.  After importing the shapes for the snow scene, I measured the diameter of the circle on the charger and created the same size circle in MTC.  I fit the pieces of the scene into the circle, (being sure to size them all at once to keep them in proportion to each other) eliminating any gaps on the sides.  By selecting both shapes, clicking on the boolean join tool, and choosing intersect, I made the shape from the scene conform to the shape of the circle.  I did this for each of the shapes that overlapped the circle.  Here's the end result:

Brrr!  That looks chilly!

I also did a print and cut for the background and front piece, as well as the for the shadow of the winter caption.  The snowflakes are cut with white vinyl and it's difficult to see but there's a little bling in the center of every other one.  I added a little glitter to each roof and the hills, and placed a tiny bit of tulle above the doors.  And I just realized I forgot to add the doorknobs!  (Woops, I'll have to add them later!).  After applying each layer I sealed it with mod podge.  Each of the hills were popped up with foam tape to give dimension.  You can get a closer look here:

I'm very happy with how it turned out.  This charger hangs on the wall in the front entryway of my home and I plan to put it up every winter as long as it lasts.  Have you ever taken a card design and made it into home decor?  I'd love to hear about it!  It's a great way to get the most use out of your purchased cut files!  Here's what I used to make this:

Make The Cut Software
Merry and Bright SVG Kit (Snow Houses Card)
Winter Bliss SVG Collection (Winter Caption, Snowflake)
Clara's Christmas Eve SVG Kit (Snowflake)
Chill Out Paper Pack
LD Charming Bold Font

Thanks for checking out my winter charger, and Have a Crafty Day!

Santa Stamp Card Print and Cut

I have to say I love the Little Ho-Ho-Ho-ligans Accents cutset Lettering Delights came out with last year.  I haven't used it too much until now.  I made the stamp from the cut file and turned it into a card using Silhouette Studio (SS).  At the time I made this card I did not have the designer edition so I had to create a PNG file in Photoshop using the pdf included with the set before importing it into the program and tracing.  Check it out:

While I had the image in Photoshop I decided to play around with the background and changed it to one of the papers in the Little Ho-Ho-Ho-ligans paper pack.  It is very simple to do using the magic wand tool and cut via copy to create separate elements from the image.  Then you can recolor them however you want!!  Fun, fun, fun!  I also added the Merry Christmas sentiment there.  After importing into SS I added the 5 and the cent symbol using a tutorial from Under A Cherry Tree.  I then print and cut the stamp image.  For the base of the card I print and cut as well and as you'll see in the next pictures I added some images and a sentiment to the inside of the card.  This was also easy to do using the center to page feature in SS.  Because there are no layers in the software, you must have two separate files open for the front and inside of the card. The center to page feature allows you to line everything up on both sides when you print.

Of course using center to page is not the most efficient use of paper (unless you can fit more than one card), but when you want to put something on the inside it is the best way to do it in this program.  To put the card together I adhered a piece of white craft foam under the stamp image to pop it up a bit and it was done!  The card measures approximately 5"x6.25". Well, that wraps it up!  A simple and quick card using a cute santa stamp!  Let me know what you think and thanks for stopping by!  Just keep crafting until next time!  Here's what I used to make the card:
Silhouette Studio Software
Silhouette Cameo Cutting Machine
White American Crafts Cardstock (very good for printing on if you like texture on your prints)
Little Ho-Ho-Ho-ligans Accents Cut It Set
Holiday Hugs Garland Cut It Set (lights)
Little Ho-Ho-Ho-ligans paper pack
LD Charming Bold (font-sentiments)
LD Funky Chunky (font-5 and cent symbol)