Dec 11, 2011

Paint a White Christmas


Need snow? Paint yourself a winter wonderland. Daiso sells pearlescent white paint for $2 in a small tube. Use a fine brush, load it up, and let the paint scrape against the edges of your craft project (in this case a party favor box).


Try to make it look like natural snow drift by painting from one direction (so don't coat every edge).



This triangular party favor box is sold on Etsy, along with other dinner party paper decor. Half-moon shaped flaps are on both ends to allow easy access to your stocking stuffer. Perfectly size for biscotti treats.

Xmas Dinner Setting

I've admired wine charms but can't remember what color I am halfway thru the night. So I've made my own and left space for names. Matching gift tags? But of course!

 Enlarge by 150% and they're suitable for mugs too.


For placecards, I've made pop up scenes of favorite winter wonderland moments. I've just listed on Etsy now - a little late for the season but better than waiting till next year!

Dec 9, 2011

3D Paper Star for Xmas Tree Topper (FREE SVG, DXF, PDF)


I didn't have a tree topper and was inspired after seeing how easy it was to make a 3D paper star on Kim's blog, Craftaphile. I added a stem and it seemed like I planned how well it fit on that topmost tree tip. The actual size is about 7.5" wide x 9.5" high.

I'm offering my die cut files free. I'd love to hear your comments like how it cut for you on your machine. The file formats are in SVG, DXF, and PDF (cutting by hand is also easy). They are all compressed into a ZIP file for you to download.

You'll notice there's a "front" and "back", but really it's just one has tabs and the other doesn't. I pre-fold along all the lines (Craftaphile shows great photos) then use white glue and work with 2 tabs at a time, holding until the glue sets. After it's assembled, the creases remember where they need to move and it just poofs out into 3D! Try it!

Dec 1, 2011

No Peeking Gift Boxes


Paper Gift Box Die Cutting with SVG files and PDF instructions for Silhouette and Cricut Explore machines


I am so thankful for the time everyone offered me on the Make The Cut Forum. Below are some responses I got from my testers and the above photo taken by Brigit. I love the way she inset those panels and inked the edges of the tags - something I've only recently learned about.

Brigit (Zing): I love the design of your bow it's so pretty when put together, I used glue though. The pillow box I just did after the zing plugin and it cut perfectly, I love it, it went together so nicely, here they are.

Laurie (Cricut): have cut out three of the gift card boxes. The perferations work differently on different types of paper. It worked great on a doublesided 12x12 sheet. I used some solid regular card stock and it was much more difficult to fold the end flaps. But all in all they cut out great and are really neat little boxes. Such a great idea.

Pam (Pazzles Inspiration and the Pro software): Your bow worked out fine for me except that sometimes I'm a little fumbled fingered..lol  I mainly  create and design greeting cards and rarely do scrapbooking and when I cut your files, I actually used scrap papers that I had on hand.  I cut the cube box using some GA Pacific White Card from Walmart and for the Pillow Box and Bow I just used some lightweight paper because I think those two items would be better cut from it than from cardstock.  You are more than welcome to use my comments as they are quite nice cutting files!