Cardboard is an easy to come by craft supply, easy to work with and so very versatile.
Today I’m sharing these cute snowman ornaments that I made with a craft tutorial found at Crafts by Amanda. Her full tutorial can be found right HERE.
I absolutely love snowmen and when I saw that she made these from cardboard, I knew that I had to give it a try.
Yep, you read that right. Six weeks without buying new craft supplies. Can I make it? Why do I want to? (more…)
Farmhouse ticking strip tea towels make a quick and easy gift any time of the year. Join me today for this quick photo tutorial as I sew one of these for the holidays.
Hey crafty friends. I’m back for a Monday Minute with some adorable and easy Halloween Treat bags.
I just love it when I can find a tutorial to do something fun with the crafting supplies that I already have in my stash.
Not only did I use supplies from my stash, but this was a project that was quick and easy to put together.
This weekend my grand kids are going to be visiting. We’ll be having dinner and carving pumpkins. It will be a house full of fun, but that’s the best kind. Right?
I’ve been looking for some ideas for a special Grammy treat that I could give them. When I saw this tutorial on one of my Facebook Groups. It’s by Crystal over at the Cut Card Stock Blog.
Be sure and check out her tutorial. I knew that it was one that was perfect for what I wanted to do. If you make some of these, be sure and let Crystal know how much you enjoyed this project!
I had some little 3″x 9 1/2″ treat bags that were left over from last Christmas. They worked out perfectly for this project. I had to cut them a little shorter, but at least I didn’t have to get anything new.
They don’t hold lots of candy, but then again I won’t have the mommies mad at Grandma for sending their kids home with too much sugar. (That doesn’t happen though…does it?)
I experimented a little and made the bottom on one a little larger. Either way works well. My smallest circle die went missing, so I used a once inch circle punch for the little hole that the top of the bag goes through.
For the little frame around the hole in the front was simply from some scraps of orange card stock cut with the Sizzix dies and glued on.
My Cricut came in handy for cutting some small leaves. To save time, I cut these out of white card stock and then colored them quickly with my Spectrum Noir Markers and put three leaves in a cluster on each bag.
My cello bags were pretty long, so I clipped the top with a scissors and tied them up with pieces of twine from my stash.
I think these turned out super cute and it won’t take long for me to make the rest that I need for this weekend. This is one I’ll have to remember for other seasons of the year.
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you’ll spend some time this week creating something special for your home and family!
This DIY Trick or Treat Bag is a quick and easy project made from felt. It’s small and light for a child to carry. It is also reusable and makes a great alternative to plastic or paper shopping bags.
You could also have your kids help with this project and double your Halloween fun!
It’s that time of the year when we all start to think about fall and pumpkins. Today on the blog, I wanted to share a Pumpkin SVG that I created, and a little project that I did with it using one of my handmade muslin bags.
In a previous post, I may have mentioned that I received a Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet for a birthday gift. To put it into practice, I used it to create my own digital file for card making.
I’m going to admit that I’m not as tech savvy as I’d like to be. However, the learning process is a fun challenge.
I use Corel Painter Essentials 5, and it was a promotional software that I was able to get as a new tablet owner.
As a crafter and craft blogger, I try to do some sort of crafting on a daily basis. It’s really a sort of exercise that I engage in to experiment and learn new things. The whole learning process, however, helps me to generate new ideas and things I’d like to share.
I also like to make things that I can share with my family, as well as some things to sell online and at events where I exhibit.
So as I brought out my Wacom Tablet, and thought about fall crafting, I decided that I wanted to try a pumpkin.
Now a pumpkin is a pretty simple thing. I could have grabbed an image from the Silhouette Store, but remember that my goal was creating to learn something new.
It didn’t take me long to come up with a little drawing that would work for me. I saved it and decided to make it into an SVG that I could cut in Silhouette Studio.
I’m going to assume that most of my readers that are using this SVG are going to be familiar with the import process.
My Silhouette Studio is the Business Edition, so if you don’t have the Designer or Business Edition, you may have to trace your file.
It’s a pretty simple looking drawing that will look more awesome as we go through the process. I hope you’ll follow along. I will share a link to the SVG file at the end of this post.
In this photo, I’ve brought the pumpkin file into my Silhouette Studio. Yes, I know it looks pretty bland. If you have to trace it though, it will be much easier this way.
In Designer or Business Edition, you can right click on your imported image and choose, “Release Compound Path.”
Your image should look something like this.
It looks like a black pumpkin blob, but this is really multiple layers. If you move the top layer away, you’ll have this:
You can see the black blob pumpkin on the right, and a little more detailed pumpkin on the left.
Now I’ve moved my black pumpkin outline off the mat to work with the remaining image.
If you want to see what it will look like as a colored image, you can select these pieces and change the color.
For demonstration purposes, I decided that I wanted it to say “Trick or Treat” over the top. Off to the side, I’ve added some text.
Now if you want to make a little knockout before you add your text, you can offset your text and move just the offset on top the pumpkin. Then you can select everything within the pumpkin, and everything inside and use the “Subtract All” function from the “Object>Modify>Subtract All” drop down menu.
Let Silhouette Studio do it’s magic and now you can move that offset outline off your mat and move your text into your space.
That’s really all there is to that. Now you’re ready to cut your vinyl for your project.
Now this isn’t a super smooth outline, but keep in mind that this is a hand drawn image. To be honest, I’ve never seen a perfectly round and smooth pumpkin before, have you?
One thing that I like to do is do a test cut of my file before cutting into any expensive materials. I actually cut this out of card stock at less than 3 inches tall, and even with the fine detail, it cut out perfectly. You shouldn’t have any problem cutting it on a larger scale.
These are just a few quick suggestions. I’m sure you can think of more.
Click on the pumpkin below to get the SVG file.
Note: You will need to be signed into your Google account to get this file. To download the file, click on the down load arrow in the upper right and save the file to your computer.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great time creating something special for your home and family today!
I was so excited when my new Cricut Explore One came but I really haven’t had much time to play with it. Today on this Monday Minute, I wanted to share this sweet baby gift that I made using my new Explore.
I wanted to make a very special card for my sister-in-law because she took care of our dog while we were on vacation. When I finished up these two cards, I wasn’t sure which one I was going to send!
This card was a little on the tricky side. I knew that I wanted to use the mason jar SVG that I created as well as cut the components on my Silhouette Cameo.
I also wanted to create a window using acetate to make it look a little more like a jar.
First I created a card base in the Silhouette Studio program, and was able to center an outline of my mason jar on the front side of the card. I also did a print and cut on the other side of the card. It looked something like this when it was ready to cut.
Next I created two front panels with the jar outline knocked out. One was just slightly smaller than the card base. The other was 5 x 3.75 inches. I cut both of these out of some of the patterned paper from the kit.
I layered my first panel over the card base, then glued a piece of acetate over the top. Next I used some foam tape under the top layer and adhered it to the top of the card. All the knocked out layers are now one front window and the jar is printed on the inside of the card. 
I used the Thank You stamp from the kit and stamped it on the jar, inside the card. Using some of the left over patterned paper, I put a strip on the inside of the card. There were some tiny Doodlebug Designs hearts and I adhered a few for some color.
All in all, I like how this card turned out. I added a little pink banner, on the front of the card using the “for everything” sentiment from the stamp set.
This card was a little less fussy. I sort of started without any real idea, but it came together in the end.
For this card I used:
I’m sure many of you, reading this, are already familiar to card making. You can see how I put the elements together to make the card. The top and bottom patterned paper strips are 1 1/4 x 4 inches.
I created a white panel for the front 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches and used the corner punch. I decided it needed some texture. So I ran it through the Cuttlebug with a Darice embossing folder.
I was trying to keep the depth of this card a little bit minimal. However, if I had to do it over I might have used a little foam tape for that front panel.
When I did the stamping for this card, I knew I wanted to cut out flower pot and flowers image. A die to cut it out would be great. Instead I laid my stamp face down on my card stock and traced lightly around the edge with a pencil. This gave me a cut line to cut with my scissors. Then I stamped my image.
Little by little I’ve been collecting new Spectrum Noir Markers when I have a Joann coupon. I don’t have many, but I was able to pick out some that would work for coloring. In the end I think they really worked with the patterned paper.
At first I wasn’t real happy with the gold on the flower, but I applied the Diamond Stickles to give it some shine and it really turned out nice. I also used the Bubble Gum Blush Nuvo drops on the tiny pink roses on the card. The extra shine and dimension was really what the image needed.
I stamped “from my heart to yours” on the pink banner and also decorated the inside of the card with a white panel using my corner punch. I also stamped “Thank you” and “for your kindness” on the inside.
The little hearts are so adorable and so I used a few on the inside of the card as well.
There you have it. I got the Simon Says Stamp August kit, right after I got back from vacation. The following week, I was doing some work with our local Master Gardener group and didn’t have a chance to work on cards. I was really excited to get these done so I could send out some Thank You’s.
Thanks so much for stopping by today. We’ll see you next time.
A Wacom tablet was used to create the dog digi stamp that I used for this card. I love crafting and experimenting with the Wacom was a fun challenge, so I wanted to share my results and create a card using my own image.
My oldest son surprised me with a very unique birthday gift earlier this year. It was a Wacom tablet. I mean I was TOTALLY surprised!
He knew that I had been experimenting with making some of my own SVG files, so it was a very thoughtful gift.
There is a bit of a learning curve to using a drawing tablet. I’m not going to lie. But as one who loves to experiment, I dove into trying to use it.
One of the things about the particular Wacom that I have is that you draw, on the tablet, However your drawing shows up on your computer screen. In place of the mouse, the drawing pen is used. Getting used to the differences takes some time.
Originally my little dog friend was drawn on paper. I wanted to make him into something that I could save on my computer and use over and over again.
The beginning of the project was to scan my drawn image into Silhouette Studio. Then I used my Wacom tablet and the free hand drawing tool in Silhouette Studio to trace the image and transform it into a digi.
Once finished, I saved it as an SVG file.
Using the offset tool, I gave the image a little bit of a border and did a print and cut. Together with multiple cuts of my outline were stacked to create a little dimension as shown above.
I used Spectrum Noir markers to color the image and set it aside to finish the rest of the card.
The stamps used, came from a set of Happy Birthday stamps that I bought at Joann Fabric and Craft Stores. I used some little balloons and a star from that set to create the purple on purple background.
Birthday wishes was stamped for the layered banner. Scraps from my stash were used to create the polka dot layer.
Together the elements were layered up over a blue panel that was embossed with the Cuttlebug and a Happy Birthday embossing folder.
All in all, I enjoyed experimenting with the Wacom and making my own digi.
This card will be shared on the following challenge blogs:
Thanks so much for joining me today.
Scroll wall decor is has been very popular lately. Using heavy kraft paper to make them adds another element of color and texture to your walls. Today I wanted to share this tutorial about how I made this scroll using only Power Point and my home printer.
Create a page size that is 8.5 inches wide x 23 inches long. The reason to make you length so long is so that you can roll your scroll up at the top.
To do this in Power Point, select a “new blank slide”.
Go to the “Design” tab. To the far right you will see “Slide Size”. Choose “Custom”. Define your slide size. I can only print 8.5 inch pages on my printer.
You’ll also want to choose portrait layout. You’ll only need one slide, so leave this at 1.
The new slide will likely look like it is zoomed all the way out. In the bottom right corner you can grab the zoom bar to enlarge it while you are working on your design.
Now use your computer fonts and text boxes to design your scroll. If you are making your own art, you might want to make each word or group of words in it’s own text box. Doing so will allow you a little flexibility in experimenting with the layout.
You’ll notice that there is lots of white space at the top. That’s okay, because that IS the rolled up part of your scroll.
Once you have your design laid out, you’ll want to have your scroll paper ready for printing. I used a quilting ruler to mark my cut lines, and I actually used a rotary cutter to cut my paper to size.
Don’t use your best fabric rotary cutter for this, but then you probably already know that.
Cut your paper at 8.5 inches wide (or whatever works for your printer) For my project I made my length 24 inches, but you can vary this depending on how much length you want at the end of your scroll.
The trick to printing your project is to select a custom size for printing. This may be different for various printers, but this is how I did it for my printer:
Select: File>Print>Printer Properties>Features(tab)>Size:Custom
Now type in your paper dimensions in the boxes. You’ll also have to give your custom settings a name. Call them “Scroll” or what ever you want. Now you can click “OK” on all your buttons to exit.
If you want a higher print quality, now is the time to change that. I found that “Normal” worked just fine.
Now you are ALMOST ready to print.
You’ll want to make sure that the edge of your paper is cut clean and feeding into the printer as flat as possible, so your aren’t risking a paper jam. **
Insert paper edge into feeder and then hit “Print”
Before you hit the final print button, there is just one more thing you’ll want to do. In the settings drop down menu, choose “Print Current Slide Only” and you also need to select “Full Page Slides”. This will insure that your entire document will be printed.
Now that your scroll is complete, roll up the top. If this doesn’t want to stay rolled, use a little tape runner or glue. Otherwise reach into the ends and staple it at the back. You won’t be able to see the staples once you hang up your scroll.
Insert jute twine for hanging. A dowel rod and twine would also have a nice look.
While this seems like a painful process, it really is quite easy and you’ll be able to make a scroll for any time of year.
If you liked this tutorial, or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you.
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day
Craft foam is an easy product to work with and has many fun uses. Today I’m going to share one that I found.
Craft foam is a material readily available in craft and other stores. Crafting with it is easy because it cuts easily with a scissors and is a great crafting material for kids to use.
I’ve been interesting in using it for some of my handmade cards, so I picked up a sheet of it at a local craft store, just to try it out.
At first I tried cutting it with my Silhouette Cameo, and it worked to a point. I experimented quite a bit with settings, but never got it to cut clean through. I leave my marginal success for another blog post.
Having spent enough time goofing around with cutting it on the Cameo, I decided to cut a piece with a scissors and just try stamping with it.
Once the little trial stamp was all inked up, it stamped a nice clear image. I stamped a few triangles on a plain piece of printer paper and liked what I saw. Then I decided to make a stamp that I would be able to use for a handcrafted card.
If you want to make your stamp a little more permanent, you could use a small piece of wood block. I had some scraps of wood from a recent project and used tacky glue to adhere a little Christmas tree to the wood.
For this tree, I simply cut one larger triangle and then cut it into spaced, smaller triangles. If you have a scrap piece of wood, glue it down with some tacky glue and it’s ready to use.
I was going for a quick experimental project. Next time I’ll sand the edges.
Foam Handmade Stamp Glued to Wood Block
The next tree was made from a triangle with little pieces snipped from the sides with a scissors.
You can mount these temporarily to a acrylic block using some glue dots, tape runner or double sided tape. I decided that my tree needed a star, so I just cut one out with a craft knife.
Handmade Stamps on Acrylic Block
You may wonder about the quality of the stamped images. Not a problem. I used my image to make up a quick card for the Christmas in July Challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids.
Card Made with Handmade Stamps
I love this technique because it’s so versatile. Use your stamps on tags and other projects. You’re only limited by what you can dream up. This would be a great project for kids to make cards for friends or teachers.
Anyone can create homemade stamps for a quick and easy card.
Hope this tutorial was helpful. I hope you’ll enjoy making some stamps of your own. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy creating for your home and family!
A simple matchbox makes a quick and easy DIY and is a great way to give a small gift or gift card. You don’t even have to buy the matches.
In this tutorial I’ll share how you can make the matchbox base and then embellish it for any season of the year.
You’ll need:
The matchbox sleeve is very simple. Start with a piece of cardstock cut at 7 1/2″x4″.
Then, on your score board, score at 1″, 3 5/8″, 4 5/8″, 7 1/4 inches.
As shown in the photo, put a little double sided tape to hold the sides together.
You’ll adhere this edge on top of the narrow edge created by scoring. Now your matchbox sleeve has been created.
Next you’ll work on the insert.
I’ve created a diagram for the score and cut lines. For more details, you’ll find a cutting and scoring diagram at the end of this post.
First you’l fold in the sides, bending the flaps in.
Then you’ll fold in the ends. They’ll cover the flaps from the sides you folded in.
Now simply slide your two pieces together. Your little box is ready to use.
I used a 1″ circle punch to just clip the ends of my box for a little finger hold. It isn’t absolutely necessary, but I think it makes a nice touch.
Use patterned papers, handmade embellishments, sequins and more to decorate your project to use any time of the year.
The sample box has been decorated with a Christmas Tree embellishment made with Cricut. The patterned papers used were from the Authentique Collection, Vintage Christmas. (This is an affiliate link, see our complete disclosure in the footer)
I hope you enjoy making a matchbox for your gift giving and thanks for stopping by Say It With Simplicity. Have a wonderful and creative day!
All photos and text by Say It With Simplicity. You may re-post this tutorial, but please provide credits and links to this website. Thank you!
