Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Lori Whitlock: Crayons Box Card

Well, I don't think we can deny it any more, Back to School time is definitely here.  The public schools here in the Northeast are still enjoying vacation, but many of my friend's kiddos across the country are already back in the classroom!  Summer just flew by!  Luckily, Lori has some really cute back to school designs to make it all a little better.  I fell in love with this Box Card Crayons (SVG, Silhouette)  as soon as I saw it!  It reminds me of new school supplies and a fresh box of crayons!  I used some of the new Doodlebug Design Petite Prints to piece it together...take a peek...


The only thing that's missing is the sharpener in the back of the box!  I know a lot of teachers who would love to receive this cute card!  Lori has an assembly video for this type of card here:  A2 Box Cards New Method.   That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!

Monday, August 20, 2018

Doodlebug Design: So Much Pun Cards

I can not pass on  a good pun... so when So Much Pun arrived, I dug right in!  My family thought I was crazy... they could hear me laughing from the other side of the house as I sorted through all of the funny puns!  I picked a few of my favorites and set to making some easel cards... take a peek...


As soon as I saw the adorable aliens in the So Much Pun Odds & Ends I thought of a saucer flying through the air.  I decided an easel card with an opening would be the best way to make this happen...


The stars on the Far Out Cardstock made the perfect backdrop. I attached the flying saucer with some monofilament thread so he looks like he's flying.  


I finished the card off with a cute little saying from the Chit Chat Pieces and those adorable sprinkle stars from the Out of This World Shaped Sprinkles.

My next card featured what I think might be my favorite icon from the whole collection... THE SLOTH!!!  He is just too stinking cute!


I stuck with the easel card design, but for this one, I opened both sides of the easel and added some grass and trees using the new Dot Stripe Rainbow Petite Prints 6x6 Pad to the back side of the easel to add dimension.  I think the Best I Ever Plaid paper is my favorite of the collection!  I finished the card with a few of the flowers from the Otterly Adorable Shaped Sprinkles.  Here is a close up...


My last card features another one of my favorite icons... the Otter!!!  I just love his sweet whiskers!  I also used the Dotty side of the Sweet Stuff Cardstock.


I created some waves using the bubble blue paper from the Dot Stripe Rainbow Petite Prints 6x6 Pad and had him float on them holding a Rainbow Heart Shaped Sprinkle.  To the back side of the Easel I added the Sun from the Odds & Ends and made a cloud with some Lily White Sprinkles Vellum.  Here is a close up...


All of these cards fold flat for mailing...


That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!

Monday, August 6, 2018

Doodlebug Design: Hello Polaroid Camera Slider Card Tutorial

There's something about the cute little cameras in the Hello Cut File Collection (SVG, Silhouette) that just makes me smile!  I decided to create a fun slider card using the Hello Polaroid Camera (SVG, Silhouette)  You could create this card using almost any collection for any occasion!  I used the Hello Collection for mine.  Take a peek...



The slider pulls right through from the camera slot on the bottom of the card for a nice surprise greeting!


I also added a sentiment from the Hello This and That Sheet on the inside of the card.  Here are some close-ups of the front...



I put together a tutorial showing how to make this card using Silhouette.  These instructions would need to be slightly altered for other cutting machines such as Cricut, since not all of the same functions are available (specifically release compound path).  First I show how to edit the file to make it a slider in Silhouette, then how I assembled the pieces.

I started by resizing the file so that the finished card would fit in a standard sized envelope.  In this case, I resized it so that it was 6" wide (be sure to click the lock next to the sizing so that it will resize uniformly)  The end result is a card that will fit in a 6x6 envelope.


Next, I created the card base.  To do this, I made a copy of the navy layer in the cut file (which is the shape of the whole card)


I made a second copy of the navy piece, right mouse clicked on the piece and selected flip vertically.


Next,  I maneuvered the 2 pieces so they were aligned and overlapped slightly, then after selecting both pieces, right mouse clicked and selected weld to make them one large piece.


Lastly, for the card base, I added a dashed line to the center and selected group.  This will give you a score line to fold the card base.


The next few slides show how I added a slot to be cut into the camera "face" so that the picture slider could slide out.  I started by un-grouping the pieces of the camera face.  Next I selected the slot on the bottom portion of the camera(the navy piece) and resized it to be 0.15"h x 4.5"w. 


Since the slider part of the card needs to go through all layers of the front of the camera, I needed to copy the "slot" to the layers underneath the top layer.    First I selected both the slot and the small navy bottom piece and copied them.  I then clicked on the copied pieces and right clicked and selected Make Compound Path.  This gave me the completed the navy piece.  I deleted the original small navy piece, leaving just the slot over the light blue piece of the camera. 

I repeated the above process with the light blue piece... Copy both the slot and the light blue piece.  Select both parts of the copy (light blue and slot) and right mouse click, and select make compound path. (this completes the light blue piece)  Delete the original light blue piece, leaving just the slot over the bottom-most navy piece.  


Lastly Select both the larger Navy piece and the slot, right mouse click and select make compound path.  This adds the slot to the bottom most piece. 


 I added the slot in this fashion to make sure that the slots on all 3 pieces were perfectly aligned. 


Next I created my slider piece.  I started by creating two rectangles, both 3.875"H x 4.275"W.  To the top of the one on the left, I added a slim rectangle, (0.25" H x 4.65"W), overlapping them slightly, the selecting both, right mouse click and select weld. 


 For the right hand piece I added a rectangle (2.7"H x 3.825"W) centering it horizontally and towards the top of the existing rectangle.  I selected both pieces, right mouse clicked and selected make compound path.


The result of the above steps gave me the two pieces that make the slider portion of the card.


Once I cut all the pieces, I started assembling the card.  On the camera face, I added some foam tape under the top to circles of the lens to add dimension.  For the camera slider piece, I created a little scene inside the photo frame using stickers and patterned paper, then glued the whole thing onto the other rectangle.


To create the slider mechanism, first layer the camera face over the card base and trace the slot onto the base.  This will not be seen once the card is complete.


Next, Using the widest part of the slider piece, mark lines on the bottom by the slot, and then on the top about .675" down from the top (5/8 of an inch)


Draw lines connecting all of the marks.  This gives you your guides for adding foam tape.


Add a double layer of foam tape just slightly outside the lines drawn.  Do not overlap the lines, this will prevent your slider from moving up and down.


Before removing the top cover from my tape, I used a powder tool to go over the edges of the tape.  This will help the slider to move more smoothly.


Before adding the Camera Face to the base, slip the slider piece through the slot in the camera face from front to back.


Once this is done, add the camera face to the card base, making sure everything is aligned... be patient, it'll all be worth it!  I hope you're inspired to try one of your own, be sure to post if you do we'd love to see your creations!  That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Lori Whitlock: Instax Photo Banner Tutorial

Hi Everyone!  Today I have a tutorial showing you how to create a fun banner using Lori Whitlock's Build a Banner Dingbats Font (Lori Whitlock SVG Shop, Silhouette)  My daughter is headed off to study in Scotland for her Junior year and I wanted to make her a little something to decorate her room, that wouldn't take up too much suitcase space!  I thought a banner with some of her favorite photos would be fun.  She loves her Instax camera so I made the banner to hold some of these cute instant photos!


If you're not familiar with Dingbat Fonts, they are fonts that have pictures and shapes in place of the letters.  Lori has a lot of them in her shop, and they really can be used for almost anything including vinyl, HTV and cutting projects like mine.  If you look at the picture below, I've typed out A through Z using the Build a Banner Dingbats Font and the Text tool.


To create my banner I started by choosing 3 of the banner pieces (A, X and U)  I resized each piece to be 5"H x 3.25"W so that each piece would be large enough to hold a picture.


I wanted to make the banner so that my daughter could swap out the pictures if she wanted, so I set out to add small cut lines on the banner pieces to hold just the corners of the picture.  To do this I needed first to know the size of the pictures being used.  Instax pictures are approximately 3.39"H x 2.13"W so I created a rectangle that size using the shape tool.


I placed the rectangle on one of the banner pieces and centered it using the Transform tool.


I drew a line 0.5" long and then moved it to one corner of the picture.  Using the green dot, I slanted the line so that it covered one of the corners.


Next, I copied the small line, clicked on the copy, right mouse clicked and selected flip horizontally.  This gave me a line to add to the opposite corner.   I made sure the two lines were properly aligned by using the transform tool.  Once I was happy with the placement, I selected both lines and grouped them.


To create the bottom lines, I made a copy of the grouped top lines, right mouse clicked on the copy and selected flip vertically.  I positioned those lines along the bottom of the rectangle.


Again I made sure that all the lines were aligned correctly within the banner piece using the transform tool.


Once they were all in place, I removed the rectangle, and grouped the slot lines along with the banner piece to make them one.


I copied the lines before grouping and added them to the other banner pieces, centering them using the transform tool.


Once they were all ready, I sent them to cut!  ( All papers are from Doodlebug including the new Petite Prints! )  I added the pictures to the cut pieces, and decorated them using some Rosettes from the Build a Rosette Set 1.5" (SVG, Silhouette) and Build a Rosette Set 2"(SVG, Silhouette).  I strung all of the banner pieces together on a piece of twine, holding them in place with small clothespins.  Some quick hints: 1)  Hot Glue is your friend when making rosettes, and 2) before threading the pieces on the twine, add a little glue to the ends of the twine and let them dry.  This will prevent fraying.

That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!