Gable Box House - Weekly SVG Project

After making the Gable Boxes with the oval windows as Easter gifts I got the idea to make one that would look like a house and off I went into Make The Cut to design just that! I think this would be great at Christmas to decorate as a Gingerbread House, or Halloween as a haunted House...well you get the picture!

Supplies Used:

Cricut Maker

Gable Box House SVG file

Cardstock in Red, Grey and White

Acetate Sheet

Double Sided Tape

Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Sizzix Brick Embossing Folder

Memento Ink 

Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool

Comic Book Board

I cut this one at 11.25" tall and it's approximately 6" wide and 3" deep.


**Cricut Maker Review Comment**
I cut the window frame out of white cardstock and also the Comic Book Board, which is a bit more sturdy than most chipboard in my possession. I used the "Mat Board" setting in Design Space and OMG! The precision was excellent! 

I did decorate the back of the box I made but I think it really wouldn't be necessary if you didn't feel like it or if you wanted to save paper. I think I did it more just to see how it looked. I had to cut the roof shingles twice so I would have the shingles for the back.

For those in the papercrafting group I am including the instructions so you will know how to put the box together if you download the file. This is the Weekly SVG for the week of April 2, 2018.

1. You will need to score as pictured. I can't give you exact measurements because I don't know what size you will be cutting your gable box. You can click on the picture and make it bigger if you need a closer look.

2. Next you will put your Acetate Sheet down on the area where the window is. Now if you aren't doing a decorative layer you will need to make sure you place the acetate on the inside of the box.

3. Adhere your decorative front to the box. I used the Sizzix Bricked embossing folder and lightly inked over it with the Mini Blending Tool and black Memento Ink to give the brick a bit more depth.

 4. Score across the largest strip of the roof shingles at the straight edges, not sure that makes sense but just look at the picture and it will make more sense. I also inked the shingles a little, but of course that is a personal preference.

 5. I found it easier to use the edge of my craft table to help me line up the shingles.

 6. I added little score marks on the shingle layers so it would be easier to line up the shingles. Just line up on the sides and use the score marks as guides of where to line up layer, making sure to cover the score mark just slightly.

7. Finish applying the shingles.

8. Adhere the window frame to the front of the box.

9. Add glue or tape to the tab on the side of the box and line up and adhere. I find glue works better unless I'm using the super sticky Thermoweb Super Tape. Repeat the other side.

10. On the bottom flaps add glue or tape to the outside of one flap and the inside of the other flap, this gives the bottom a good strong bond.

11. For the small flaps fold inward and add glue and then push to the bottom flap. I stood the box up and held the flap down for a few seconds so I could make sure it was stuck together good.

And there ya have it! This Gable Box could be decorated so cute and using pretty much any theme! If you don't want to use the window you will just need to cut two of the solid layers. The Gable Box Oval Window is put together basically the same way so just refer back to this post if you need instructions.

Waterlily 3D - FREE SVG FILE

One of the members in my Cricut Design Space Paper Crafting Facebook group asked if anyone had a 3D waterlily and since she wasn't able to find one I thought I would try and make one.


I had to tweak the file a few times to get it to assembly easily. The flower has 6 layers, 2 of 3 different sizes, a center and there is a lily pad that has two layers. I did the two layers on the lilypad to show veins in the lilypad. I always think details make all the difference.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:
White cardstock
Green Cardstock, 2 different shades
Yellow Cardstock
Hot Glue Gun
Quilling Tool
Water or Glimmer Mist




Assembly Intructions:

1. I used a quilling took to wind up the center of the the flower but if you don't have a quilling tool you can use whatever is available to you, such as the end of a small paint brush. Run a line of glue along the bottom before winding the paper.

2. This one is simple, just glue the top layer of the lily pad to the bottom.

3. I used a hot glue gun to put the flower together. I find hot glue seems to work better when making 3D flowers. Spritz water on the flower layer so you can bend it easier. Bend the small tabs up toward the center of the flower, add a drop of hot glue to the large tab on the petal and then adhere to the petal making the flower round. Your flower layer will have a bit of a cone shape to it at this point. Repeat step with all layers.

4. Glue one of the large flower layers to the circle that is cut.

5. Glue the other large flower layer to the bottom layer, staggering the petals and then add the 2 medium layers and finish with the 2 small layers.

6. Add the yellow center with some hot glue and fluff out the fringes. If you don't like how your petals are shaped then just spritz them with a little water and shape as desired and allow to dry.

I am offering this file for free and all I ask is that if you download the file please leave a comment of thank you, much appreciated or some sort of acknowledgement.

SVG DOWNLOAD - WATERLILY 3D

Cricut Explore Air2 Review - Haunted Mansion Project

I was sent the Explore Air2 to review and I did a pretty complicated project for my first project with the machine and instead of writing a bunch of stuff and taking a ton of pictures I did a video instead. Actually my friend Carmen suggested a video as it would be easier for people to see the detail. I hate video's because I hate my voice and I am not very good at making the dang things but here it is!!

Here is a picture of the house in case you don't want to watch the video. The house is the Haunted Mansion from the Happy Hauntings cartridge and I did have to do some editing *okie thinks saying "some" is the understatement of the year* to the images to get the patterned paper to cut like I wanted so I could apply it to the house it's self.

I am really pleased with how well the Explore Air2 cut all the images and I had some pretty tough ones in there after I got done with my edits of the house. I really liked the ability to speed up the cuts on the regular cardstock. The machine settings won't let you speed up cuts for things that would likely tear up if it did, such as the chipboard setting. One thing I did find annoying was that the Air2 is quite a bit louder than the other Explore machines I reviewed but it is still more quiet than the other Cricuts, Pazzles or the Cameo's I have heard cutting. I think the quietness of the original Explore just has me spoiled 

The house is open at the bottom so you can add lighting if you wish. In the video I used battery operated tea lights and they work okay but for maximized lighting I think I would find something with a few more lumens so the windows really light up. 

I am super glad I chose this as my first project as Graphic45 was having contests all last week on their Facebook page and my little Haunted Mansion won the really nice prize package in the picture to the left!

This was just a win win situation for me!

Button Disney Princess Project - Cinderella

And the last princess, and Carmen's favorite, is of course Cinderella! I always think of her as being the most classic of the Disney princesses and I'm not sure why. She was Carmen's favorite because of the blue dress, Carmen's favorite color is blue.

Now remember how I said I was worried I was going to run out of yellow button's because of doing Belle and then Snow White's skirt? Well guess what color I ran out of...yep blue! I had a lot of the darker blue and teal blue but the color blue for the dress I just didn't have enough of and Carmen sent me her stash of blue buttons so I could finish out the dress. As you can see in the picture some of these buttons were just too dark to use.

Cinderella's slip was the most difficult to do because it was so thin in spots. I was able to find enough of the lighter color blue to do her straps and hip area of her dress. I wasn't quite sure how to do the shoe because I knew it didn't need to be buttons and how in the heck do you make a "glass" slipper out of paper? Well my solution was to add Stardust Stickles on the shoe to make it sparkle. You might have to click on the picture and make it bigger in order to tell that the shoe does sparkle. 

The picture of Cinderella in the frame is the more accurate color of Cinderella's dress and there is no way I could have pulled it off without using Carmen's buttons as well because I didn't have enough of the right color. 

Oh I guess I should tell you that the silhouettes were obviously cut out of black cardstock and I did cut all the clothing pieces in their accurate color or as accurate as I could get because I didn't want to leave it just black in case there were small areas where a button didn't fit or it wasn't covered and black wouldn't be shining through and it also helped tremendously as a guide for placing the buttons. 

You might be wondering what I used to attach the buttons. I wanted to make sure they were going to stay down and even though they finished projects won't be handled I did want to make sure none of the buttons would come lose and mess up the project so I opted to use the SOBO glue that I have talked about before. As far as I know not one button came of in the shipping process. I'm tellin ya, this glue is like magic for keeping stuff together!

Carmen and Lori met for lunch a day or two after Lori's birthday and Carmen sent me a video of Lori opening the button princesses and I was so happy to see a big cheesy grin on Lori's face as she pulled each one out and looked at it!

Button Disney Princess Project - Snow White

For the love of all that is holy I have no idea why we chose to do Snow White and her 1,200 colors in her dress! Okay maybe I exaggerate a little on how many colors but she definitely had more colors than the others. 

After doing Belle and all the yellow I was certainly hoping I had enough yellow to complete the skirt in Snow White's dress and I am glad to say that yes I had enough and still have some left. I don't think I ever noticed the differences in the color of my buttons until I did the princess project. 

The hardest part of Snow White was her sleeve. The red area was way too small for me to even cut buttons up so I decided to just leave that area paper and then try and do the light blue around it. It took a LOT of snipping of buttons to get those sleeves done to where they looked right. 

As you can see I did finish out her skirt and collar with white buttons. After I got her done I actually thought she might be my favorite out of the button princesses and I think it might even be due to the number of colors in her dress. My daughter said Snow White was her favorite out of them and it was because of the dress and colors. 

Tomorrow I will post the last of the button princesses!

Button Disney Princess Project - Belle

Carmen and I discussed how many princess we should do and which ones and the next one we agreed on was Belle from Beauty and the Beast *okie really wonders if she even needed to add the last part of that sentence*.

I was glad I had already learned the cuttin of the buttons trick when I got to Bell because dress was more two tone than what Aurora's was and I wanted the swag in the skirt to show up although I'm not sure it really does in this picture but it does in person. I didn't do the gloves on any of the princesses because I thought that might be over kill and it their hand would have gotten lost in the bulkiness of the buttons.  

I think you can see the two tone of the buttons a little better with Belle in the frame and maybe the lighting on this picture. 

When I sent the pieces to Carmen I didn't have the princesses attached to the background sheets because I thought it would be better if she would attach them after the she got the background paper in so the placement would be correct and I think she did a fantastic job!

Button Disney Princess Project - Sleeping Beauty

My friend Lori's 50th birthday was about a week ago but due to the Labor Day holiday she had her party a little early. Carmen and I had made great plans to get a project done for Lori's birthday party and I was going to surprise her and show up at the party but due to my niece having her baby that weekend I choose to cancel the trip to Houston and I spent that weekend making the baby projects I posted a few weeks ago.

The project Carmen and I decided to do was something that came from Pintrest where someone had made silhouettes of the Disney Princesses and then used buttons for the dresses. I had posted it on Facebook and told Carmen I thought we could make those and Lori and commented that she knew someone who would love those and said "ME!" And that is how the idea was born.

Anyway I had to ship the finished pictures to Carmen so she could put them in the frames and get them to Lori. They were a few days late getting to Lori, partly because my Goddaughter decided to bring the box back in the house that I had set out for the mailman to pick up.  

While I was working on the button ladies I would send Carmen pictures of the progress I was making. Aurora was the first one I did and when I sent Carmen this picture I asked about the white of the slip of the dress and of course Carmen said it needed to be in buttons too *okie makes a note not to ask Carmen questions anymore because she causes okie to have to do more work*. 

The problem became that I didn't have enough small buttons to fill in and I had to think of what I could do to get the area all covered without having too many buttons on there so I came up with the solution of cutting the buttons! As luck would have it I keep a small pair of needle nose pliers in my craftroom and they worked out great for getting the buttons cut down to the sizes and shapes I needed. 

When Carmen went to find frames she sent me pictures of several ones and we decided on white frames. For the background I used some pearl paper and then cut out designs on vellum to put on top of the pearl paper so there would be a nice background but not distract from the artwork.Yes I said artwork because after all the time and effort I really feel they are more artwork than a craft project. I was a little blown away when I saw the finished projects because the frames just set them off beyond what I would have imagined!

Now this Sleeping Beauty wasn't the only one I did...there are 3 more and they will be posted the next 3 days. I could have posted them all together but I feel they deserve their own post. 

Patriotic Medallion Banner - File Available

Today another French Country project was scheduled to post but I wanted to share this project so I pushed that post back. A few days ago a really cool looking 4th of July Decor popped up on my newsfeed from Hobby Lobby and I fell in love with it and thought "I can make that with paper!" I immediately, well almost immediately, got into Make The Cut to design a file. The file is available for download in MTC and SVG formats at the bottom of the post.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock - White, Red, Cream, Navy, Silver

Cardboard

Burlap

Red Velvet Ribbon

White and Navy Blue Ribbon

Liquitex Matte Gel

Krylon Maxx Satin Acrylic Sealer

Sobo Craft Glue

Cricut Explore

I used the Liquitex and Krylon Acrylic Sealer on my so I could make it somewhat waterproof in case I wanted to hang it on my front door, which was my intention when I thought about making it in the first place. The burlap ribbons are cut from a sheet of burlap I had left over from my daughter's wedding. I added some Sobo glue along the edges to keep it from fraying. I also used the same glue to put the pieces together, this stuff is awesome! The stripe ribbon is from a roll I found at Zipp Outlet a few weeks ago and the red velvet ribbon is actually some Christmas Ribbon I got after Christmas on clearance. 

Here is a close up of the medallion part. I did make a "4" to put in the center since that is what was on the original and afterwards I had wished I had put a Uncle Sam in the middle instead but it was already done. I did get back in the file and make a hat to use so if I make another one I can put it on there instead. The file below does contain the 4 and the hat but you could always put something else in there as well. I cut the white base piece at 11.5 inches so I could make it as big as possible with one sheet of cardstock. If you use the file you will need to resize for what you want to make. 

After applying the Liquitex I thought the pieces would look better if I added some shape to them and I was able to get a little shape to the pieces. Next time I will shape the paper BEFORE I add the Liquitex or Mod Podge since it will be easier to shape. I am still pleased with the results, or at least half way pleased. 

I used my McGill Flower Shaping tools to do a little of it but mostly I just used my fingers to manipulate the paper how I wanted, and again...next time I will shape before adding sealers.

To get the layers to pop away from each other I used some regular cardboard and cut it to the size I needed for the back of each layer. This step really made it look a lot better. I wasn't worried about it not being acid free since there are no pictures on the project *okie knows someone will probably wonder about that*. 

I forgot to take a picture of how I attached the ribbons but I actually just stapled them to the base layer on the back. If you are going to staple your ribbon on the base I would suggest doing it before putting the layers together, it would make it easier....and we won't discuss how I know.  I didn't have a hanger made for it when I put it together so I had to make a hanger with some ribbon but the file now has a built in hanger that will cut on the base layer.

I think I want to make another one of these with an Uncle Sam hat just to see what it looks like. I think a star would look nice or USA, there are a lot of different things you could put in the center.  

Here is a picture that Hobby Lobby had posted. I thought you might want to see where I got the idea from. I would like to have a tassle hanging down but I didn't have anything handy to make one and that is why I opted to use the red velvet ribbon on the project. 

Mini Muffin Tin - Thanks to The Papercraft Post

My friend Carmen sent me a link to "Mini Muffin Tin Tutorial" on The Papercraft Post blog saying how cute the project was, and when I saw it I agreed it was indeed cute. Now for those of you who have been reader for awhile know good and well I was not about to print out that tutorial and grab my scissors and cut it by hand. NNOOOO that would be ludicrous! Why should I cut something by hand when I have a rather expensive machine sitting right here in front of me that can cut it for me. Of course this only leaves the issue of having to create a file so the machine can cut it, a time consuming task to be sure!

The owner of the blog, Susan Niner Janes, really put some good work into the tutorial and it was easy to understand and had a variety of features. She had the tin with six, four and one as options if you need different sizes. Her files are available in PDF format and are clearly labeled. I didn't try printing them since I hadn't yet put new ink in my printer. I believe if I had the Pazzles Vue I would have tried the cut and print to see how these would turn out.

Another deterrent from me printing out those cute little muffin tins is the fact that I have thousands *okie is quite certain there are thousands but isn't going to go count* of sheets of paper that I can cut and if I ruin a few *okie thinks as long a it is sheets she doesn't really care for* trying out something new then it is no big deal. Now to be honest it likely would not have been so time consuming but I wanted to add score marks since none would be printed and it would make it easier to put together and I am a bit meticulous when it comes to such things on files I make. It literally took me a full day to recreate these in Make The Cut and it should not have taken that long *okie curses her need to have things exact*.

After spending most of Friday working on the files I thought it was time to see if it would cut okay. I decided to cut the quad tin, for no particular reason. The paper I used probably isn't the best and sometimes we can't really tell how things are going to look until they are done and I think the "pan" needed to be a bit more plain as to really set off the liners.

Here is the one that I cut. The tin part measures approximately 5" x 4 3/8" x 1" and those cute little liners measure approximately 1" x 1 1/4", which is not very big at all. Susan did say that the single muffin tin was larger and I am not sure how big it really is since I didn't cut that one. I thought it would be bigger than what it came out to be *okie realizes she still has some issues with seeing something smaller as bigger and will now and forever blame men for this problem of hers* and I may try resizing it and cutting another one sometime.



I do think these are too stinkin cute but not sure what need I would have for them but if my daughter was still a child *okie again wonders when that grown arse daughter of hers is gonna leave the nest* I would probably have used them for a cupcake party. The little liners are large enough to hold small things like sprinkles and other decorative goodies. There are probably plenty of ideas for the use of the little tins and once I did get the file done and cut it went together fairly quickly. 

I'm not making the file available for download since I didn't ask Susan if I could do so but for those who have the print and cut feature with your machines it should be easy enough for you to make.