Monkey Puzzle Card with Valentine Monkey from Sanqunetti design

There are several new SVG cutting file release this week from Sanqunetti Design.  I picked this cheeky Valentine Monkey SVG file.

Card Base

Initially I made the 6" x 6" card base adding the Square Puzzle by Lori Whitlock from the Silhouette Design Store. This file splits into all the individual puzzle pieces and I cut two sets of puzzles, one in red and one in duck egg cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo. I then subtracted one piece from the top right of the card base before mounting the coloured pieces using the colours alternately.  


The Monkey

I made the monkey up into a card topper omitting the heart. All the remaining pieces were cut from coloured cardstock except the whites in the monkey's eyes which were drawn in with a white gel pen.  I took a copy of the cut away puzzle piece and shrank it, subtracting the shape of the monkey's paw.  This was cut from red cardstock and added to the monkey with a dimensional foam pad.


I love changing up files like this.  The monkey could hold any small item and be used for all kinds of occasions - not just for Valentine's.





This card has been entered in the following Challenges:

Papercraft Business Challenge #2

No-Mess Ways to add Glitter - using the Polar Bear Girl by Sanqunetti Design

Do you love using glitter, but hate the mess it leaves behind? Adding regular glitter with wet adhesive can really add wow factor to cards but tends leave a glittery trail behind.  I made this sparkling card with a new SVG release from Sanqunetti Design - the Polar Bear Girl SVG using two no-mess glitter techniques.


 Supplies Used

I used all the above which including patterned papers are from Kaisercraft's Bubblegum Hills, 6 1/2" Paper Pad (recently retired).  For the glittery parts I used regular superfine glitter and also Silhouette's  Glitter Heat Transfer material.


Card Technique

I made a shaped card base in the Silhouette Studio software using an offset of the bear sitting on a present.  The present is simply a rectangle draw in the software, and the ribbons are just thinner rectangles.  I used a 2 mm offset of the two pieces, then made a mirrored copy to the left, overlapped the two, and then welded them together. The small extra shapes generated were then deleted to give just the outline.  I added a few simple tag shapes, trying out a couple of different colours of sketch pens. This is what I cut out from the white frost glimmer card.

It was then simply a matter of cutting the other pieces out of card and paper. I didn't cut the bear feet separately but made a combined grey base welding all the shapes together, and borrowing the right leg cut line from the feet, adding it to the white bear body.  More about the bear body later.

Now, here is my first non-mess glitter method.


METHOD 1. Apply Glitter with Double-Sided Adhesive


Cut the parcel from regular patterned paper (no fancy finish) and apply a matching piece of double-sides adhesive sheet over the top.  Expose the sticky surface of the sheet and sprinkle it with clear super-fine crystal glitter.

Knock off the excess glitter and burnish the newly glittered surface with a paper folder. Use one of the scrap protective layers from the adhesive sheet to cover the glittered surface while rubbing to protect the paper folder and rub firmly to ensure the glitter is firmly adhered to the paper.

After burnishing in this way you'll have a hard time shifting any of the glitter!

METHOD 2: Using Glitter Heat Transfer Material on Card


To make the he glittery bear, I cut the main bear body from white glitter heat transfer material. The material is cut with the shiny side to the mat, and the design should be flipped horizontally before cutting so that the bear is oriented correctly.

This is the design piece that I cut. Do see where the I placed the right leg piece borrowed from the foot?

I used a heat press to activate the adhesive on the heat transfer material, but an iron would work too. Use a lower temperature than you would normally use to attach heat transfer to fabric to avoid distorting the supporting card.  Apply for just a few seconds and then check if it has adhered. Peel off the backing sheet and press for another second or so and the glitter is permanently stuck.

I hope you'll try these methods out; they both give a really neat professional look - so much easier and cleaner than using liquid glue.

The cute Girl Polar Bear SVG file is available now from the Sangunetti Design website and also from the Etsy store.

This card has been entered in the following challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge - 'W' for White
Craft Rocket Challenges - Christmas Is Coming
Simon Says Stamp - Christmas Gift Tag
Crafty Cats Challenge - ATG Beartastic challenge #391

If you like polar bears - here are a Polar Bear shaker card  and  Polar Bear personalised gift boxes that I made from the Sangunetti Design Christmas Polar Bear SVG.

Layered Vinyl Rudolph with Sanqunetti Design NEW Cutting File

I've seen a lot of lovely examples of decorated acrylic shapes, but I hadn't got around to decorating my own until now.  The release of Sanqunetti Design's new Reindeer SVG file was the perfect opportunity to use them for the first time.

I also wanted to use the beautiful rose gold permanent vinyl from Crafty Cutter for the body. I have both the plain and the glitter, but opted to use the glitter for this project.

For the first design I used a 74 mm round acrylic blank from Acrylic Crafts to make a tree decoration for a new baby.  

I opened the outline of the acrylic blank (downloadable from the Acrylic Craft website) into the Silhouette Studio software as well as the reindeer design and then re-sized the image to fit on to the blank.

I enlarged the whites of the eyes just slightly as they were just a smidgen too small to manage at this reduced size. I used Ed's Market Regular font to type the letters and numbers separately then dragged the text-to-path button on the name to a circle, centred but smaller than the outside of the blank.

I used three small pentagon shapes as guides to help align the layers and use the hole and the circular outline the size of the acrylic blank as placement guides.  I duplicated the whole thing for each colour and deleted the unwanted parts. I coloured them so that it was easier to keep track of the pieces. 

Once I'd cut out the vinyl in all four colours I trimmed them to squares close to the circles with scissors. Then I weeded the unwanted parts on each circle leaving the circle outline. 

I first transferred the body piece on transfer tape to a blank that I'd cleaned with alcohol. Then I layered up the remaining pieces onto the used piece of transfer tape starting with the white bits. On this design is doesn't matter which colour is next, red or dark brown, as neither overlap each other. It is then easy to remove the stacked pentagons once the layers are all on the transfer sheet. I just flicked them away with my fingernail. 

I recommend applying the glitter rose gold first using the wet method. Just press out the moisture from the centre using a scraper or squeegee. Then add the remaining three colours at once (I sprayed the smallest amount of liquid onto the blank and lifted most of it off with a paper towel.

You'll find lots of instructions and videos on how to use the wet method for layered vinyl. Most seem to recommend using paper transfer tape, but I found it unnecessary on a project as small as this one and I used regular clear tape. For the spray liquid I used a mixture of baby shampoo (just a drop) and a small amount of tap water in a tiny spray bottle (craft spray size) and allowed the rose gold layer to dry before applying the other colours.

For the star ornament I used a duplicate decal of the same size but without the name and date. The star blank is the 100 mm star, also from Acrylic Craft.  I didn't bother with the downloadable template this time and just 'eye-balled' the placement of the image.

To finish them I just added hanging ribbons to both, and a bow to the star ornament.

I'm pleased with how they turned out and think the Rudolph image is adorable - great for all manner of seasonal items.  It is available from Sanqunetti Design with Commercial Use in formats to suit most cutting software (Silhouette Studio DE and above). Use code 'janet15' for a 15% discount.

Fall Hedgehog Swing Card

Hiya, today I have a card combining files from two of my favourite designers.  The cute Fall Hedgehog clipart is from Sanqunetti Design and the neat Swing Card SVG file is from Simply Crafty SVGs.

 The clipart was resized and placed within the oval centre of the swing card. The panel pieces were filled with a digital paper by Cosmo Cricket. All these pieces were placed on to a single piece of card on the Silhouette Cameo's virtual mat and the Print & Cut marks were turned on.

This was then printed out onto plain white card. The cut lines can be seen on the paper on the virtual mat, but don't show when the pieces are printed as the line thickness is set to zero.

The printed card is then placed onto the cutting mat, loaded into the Silhouette Cameo, and the pieces are then cut out.

The centre panels are coloured around the edge with Antique Linen Distress Oxide Ink. Some of the colour is overlapped onto the base of the panel to indicate the ground beneath the hedgehogs feet.

The Card base is then cut from Kraft card. Here two copies are cut, one is still flat, and the other has been folded to form the card.

The panels are then adhered to the card blank, a sentiment is added and the card is complete.

 

The files are available now from Sanqunetti Design

... and Simply Crafty SVGs. The Swing Card is free, and there are also some more decorative shapes of swing card available too.

Fast and Easy Halloween Notecards using Halloween Ghost Planner Clipart by Sanqunetti Design

Hello,
I love, love, LOVE this Halloween Ghost Planner clipart from Sanqunetti Design. You'd be amazed how quickly you can use it to print off some cute note cards in the Silhouette Studio software. These cards are just 10cm square - perfect for quick notes and to enclose gift cards.

With the Silhouette Studio software open, just open up each design you want to use. The download includes both jpg and png. Either will work for this purpose.

Make your paper size the same as your pre-cut cards. My cards were 10cm square when folded and 10cm x 20cm when open. In the Page Setup window I made the width 100 mm and the height 200 mm. I chose this orientation because the cards pass though the printer more easily that way.

For guidance, draw a square of the size of your card front and resize and align your image as you would like it to appear on the front of the card.

Add text and colour match it to the design by using the colour dropper. Change the line colour to black and adjust the thickness to match that of the image. I used the Kraash Black font (free for Personal use only) from Imagex Fonts, colour matched to the image.

Group and rotate the whole group and position it onto the virtual mat.

Set the size of your card blanks in Print Page Setup. I had to make a custom size for these blanks. Then just send them to print ... easy! Note these instructions refer to using a Mac. It is a similar process using Windows.

The set of Halloween Ghost clipart images is available from Sanqunetti Design and the price includes both personal and commercial use. Use code 'janet15' to receive a 15% discount. Look out for regular sales too!

These clipart designs can be used for so many things - Halloween stickers for my planner will be my next project!

BREAKING NEWS!

All clipart and SVG files in the Sanqunetti Design shop are 50% off for a limited time. That's in addition to the 15% off by using my follower code 'janet15'.

Acorn Girl Gift Tag

The new SVG cutting file release this week from Sanqunetti Design is this cute Acorn Girl file.

I made her into a simple shaped gift tag by welding a washer shape to the base piece. This was then tied to the little parcel with baker's twine with some Echo Park skeleton leaves from the Silhouette Design Store.

The tag was paper-pieced, and for speed and economy the tag and leaves were made using the Silhouette's Print & Cut feature on printable white card. The shapes shown in the picture below look quite thick, that's because they have an extra margin of colour (a gutter) around them, to ensure there are no white lines.

I also made my own wrapping paper for this gift using a seamless pattern and the colour changing options in the Silhouette's Image Effects panel. I was able to change the pattern from black to beige by playing with the Tint sliders.

I was pleased with how pretty the finished gift wrapping looked - great for fall birthdays or little thanksgiving or hostess gifts.

The file is available from Sanqunetti Design store.  Use my discount code 'JANET15' to received a 15% discount on this and other files in Judy's stores (can only be used when items are at full price).

I love finding ways to make gifts even prettier, don't you?

Scarecrow Basket made with the Scarecrow Topper SVG from Sanqunetti Design

Hiya, today I've created a fun scarecrow basket made with the Scarecrow Topper SVG from Sanqunetti Design.

I made my own basket by welding the hat and face together for the front and back of the basket. Then I added some rectangles for the sides and base, then tabs and slits (for a handle), and a handle piece too, of course.

To add some decoration, I made some panels for the basket sides and the handle.

Once I'd made up my scarecrow topper from textured card stock I adhered him to the basket prior to assembly. It was easy to add the decorative panels at this stage too.

Then it was simply a matter of adhering the side panels to the back of the scarecrow's head and slipping the handle into the slits on the side of the basket. I'd also add a little glue to the handles to ensure they don't move once my cute basket is filled with fall treats.

The Scarecrow Topper SVG can be purchased from Sanqunetti Design from the website or the Etsy store. This guy makes a fun basket but he'd look great on fall cards and invitations too.

School Owl Mini Album

The school year is almost over so I made this mini album with 'Back to School in mind.  It is made using a new SVG release from Sanqunetti Design - School Owl SVG and Silhouette chipboard.

Supplies Used

Silhouette Cameo®
Silhouette Chipboard 12"x 12" sheets
Silhouette Adhesive Cork
AC Textured Cardstock in various colours
Patterned Papers
1"/25mm Binder/Book Rings
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive
Dimensional adhesive pads


Aside from resizing the owl to about 5" wide, the owl pieces were cut without adjustment from textured and patterned papers. Some were duplicated to give more dimension. The feathers were subtracted from the owl body prior to cutting it from adhesive cork. 

To make the album pages, I made an offset of the owl base and released the compound path , removing the 'gap' around the glasses. A rounded rectangle with holes was welded on to give space and strength for the binding rings.

The pieces were sized so that four pages could be cut from a 12" x 12" sheet of chipboard. I cut eight in total, doubling up the front and back covers. This gave four pages for photos, journaling and notes, but there is room for at least four more using the 1" rings, and even more if a larger size is used. The same page pieces were cut in various plain and patterned pages adhered to cover the chipboard.

Then it is simply a matter of assembling the owl on the front cover and threading the pages onto the rings. 


The School Owl cutting file is available from the Sanqunetti Design website and at Judy's Etsy store.

I love how easy it is to make uniquely shaped albums based on almost any SVG design in the Silhouette Studio software.  I'm wondering, what album I should make next?

Using SVGs to Create in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition

Hiya, this week I had the opportunity to try out the new Fancy Cat Cutting File from Sanqunetti Design. I used the designer edition of the Silhouette Studio software, but the variety of file types included allow the design to be used with most cutting machines (SVG, DXF, PDF & JPG). Note, the DXF format can be used with the basic edition of the Silhouette Studio software too.

I wasn't sure if the design would be better suited to card, vinyl or something else. It turned out it that the image suited EVERYTHING and so I made it up in all the media I had readily available (heat transfer vinyl, caper/card and sticker paper).


HEAT TRANSFER VINYL (Pyjama Bag)

I made up a little pyjama bag using a variation of the phrase "the cat's pyjamas" - perfect to use with this image. I used soft, velvety, flocked vinyl for the black parts, sparkly gold glitter vinyl for the heart and glasses, and regular smooth vinyl for the remainder.

CARDSTOCK (Greeting card)

For the card I designed a semi-shaped card using an offset of the cat's head and a patterned rectangle. The background piece was made using the Silhouette's Print & Cut function, with most of the pieces being cut from textured cardstock.  The glasses and heart are made with card with a glitter heat transfer veneer (yes, you can iron heat transfer on to card). The heart is finished with the recipient's  initial cut from regular sign vinyl. Of course, a monogram or small name could be added as an alternative.

STICKER PAPER (Custom Stickers)

Using the Print & Cut function again, I made a sheet of personalised stickers using the included JPEG image.

What a lovely extra surprise to include a sheet of stickers with a child's greeting card?

REGULAR SIGN VINYL (Vinyl Decal)

I had intended to made a decal for a cat treat jar with some custom text. However, I'd used all my pink sign vinyl, so that is a project for another day.


VERSATILITY (Using SVG & DXF)

The files allow for all manner of variations and customisations. The diagram shows some possible options for the bow.

For vinyl, I chose to make the black flock more prominent than the grey, and used the lower of the two vinyl variations with the loose 'shadow' pieces, omitting the 'knot' piece.

For the card, I decided I'd prefer to have fewer loose pieces and so made the bow and shadow pieces a compound path, and again omitted the 'knot'.

A even simpler solution would be to just use the bow outline - the choice is your's!

I hope you find this demonstration of the versatility of these cutting files useful.  Let me know  (in the comments section below) if you have any further suggestions. I love hearing from you.