Hiya, This week I've had such fun playing with the Santa Pants Box SVG File by Simply Crafty SVGs. I enjoyed it so much that I made two versions: a regular Santa one, and an Elvis version.
At first glance there seem to be a lot of pieces, but most of them fit together in the same way, and the designer, Sandy, has made a fabulous video that guides you through every step. I made both using my Silhouette Cameo and the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software, but any changes I made could be replicated in other cutting software and with other machines.
For the Santa version I made very few changes, but I've shown the ones that I did make below, in case you'd like to do the same.
Materials Used:
Red and Black Medium-weight Bazzill Cardstock
Red Glitter Paper from UK supplier, Syntego)
Black Sign Vinyl
Gold Mirror Card
White Glitter Fabric
Beacon 3 in 1 Craft Adhesive
Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Glaze
String of White LED Lights
Bradawl/Pokey Tool/Hole Punch
Silhouette Cameo
Files Used:
Simply Crafty SVGs Santa Pants Box SVG File
Scaling Up the SVG File
I made the whole box a little larger. To do this I opened one of the files in the software, and then used Merge to bring in each of the other files. I then placed the biggest on the mat, selected all the files, and increased the size proportionally until the chosen one filled the 12"x12" cutting mat entirely (holding down the shift key when dragging one of the corner handles). This increased the size of the finished box (with braces/suspenders) from 8.25" to 9", and it made it somewhat easier to install the LEDs (needing more candies to fill it though)!
Sketching rather than Cutting the Numbers
To aid assembly Sandy has numbered all the leg pieces in the order in which they should be attached. I'm an impatient crafter so I changed the line colour of the numbers and, using Cut by Line Colour, I drew the numbers on with a sketch pen. I used a speed of 10 to do this, so it was sketched almost as fast as I could have drawn them.
Base Alignment
Once all the leg pieces were attached I found it helpful, when adhering the base piece, to use a second, slightly smaller piece under the flaps to hold a more regular shape (made using the Internal Offset function). My glue has a good amount of wiggle time, so I added glue to both base pieces (to stick to the top and the bottom of the tags), and wiggled it around until I had a good alignment.
Here are the pants before any panels are attached, and with the base pieces in place.
Glitter Panels
I cut the pants panels from red glitter paper. I chose paper over a thicker card, as it moulds more easily to the shaped base and consequently is easier to adhere. The glitter is encapsulated into the paper surface, which means there is minimal shedding (and mess), and the panels adhere more easily. Additionally, it is better for your blade and cutting mat then regular glitter cardstock.
Buttons
Real buttons would be great to use on the box, but I didn't have any black ones in the correct size. I cut extra button pieces so that each button was made from four pieces stacked and adhered together. I finished off with a coating of glaze to make them shiny. In this pic the glaze is still wet and looks a bit cloudy, they did dry to be beautifully shiny though.
Making the Belt Shiny
Once I had my buttons ready, I thought that the belt should really be shiny too. In this picture the bottom belt piece is cut from card, and in the upper one I've covered the card with a layer of adhesive sign vinyl. I think I like it much better.
Golden Buckle
The belt buckle was cut from gold mirror card. I found a scrap from some packaging that was perfect excepting it was a little thin. To counter this I cut a second buckle from spare card and adhered the two together.
Adding Glittery Cuffs
I first cut the cuff pieces from card, and then used them as pattern pieces to cut the white glitter fabric. It is really thick, too thick and irregular to cut on my Silhouette, but cut easily with scissors. Other materials that would be great for the cuffs are faux fur, or simple glittered cardstock. However, I had this fabric in my stash, so thought I'd make use of it.
Adding Lights
I made holes for the bulbs for a short string of battery-operated LED lights around the fabric pieces for the base of the trouser legs. After adhering them with Fabric adhesive, I made matching holes in the assembled pants using a pokey tool, and then a knitting needle.
The lights were pushed through from the inside of the pants legs, so they partially protruded through the holes (this works fine, as long as the holes are tight, fractionally smaller than the lights).
Oh, and here's Elvis version. I hummed 'Suspicious Minds' the entire time I was assembling this one!
Here is a link to the Elvis buckle (a freebie cutting file in SVG format).
I hope you find these as much fun as I did. Do subscribe if you'd like to regularly read my hints and tips for Simply Crafty SVGS and others files. I also have tutorials and inspiration posts, and occasionally have a FREEBIE file too.
