How to Make Paper Fortune Cookies

Hiya, Today I have a mini tutorial on how to make paper fortune cookies. I came across these 'cookies' at New Year, and I made a bunch for the family with fun predictions for the year ahead. This week I have used them to fill a basket for a gathering to celebrate the Chinese New Year (pictured here made from gold paper). The cookies could also be used for a Valentine theme, with a more romantic selection of fortune slips.

I used a metal die and a Sizzix manual die cutter. If you don't have a cutter, you could draw around a circular object of similar size and cut out with scissors. Of course, the fortune cookies could be cut with a Silhouette, Circuit, Scan and Cut or similar, and there are designs available in SVG and Studio format from the Silhouette Design Store (#55256, #53238)

You'll need to find some suitable fortune slips. Print them out, and trim them in narrow strips of around 4" in length. A Pinterest or Google search will yield a wealth of free printables or ideas to type your own. I've included a list of my favourites at the end of this post.


Materials Required
Circles cut from light-weight scrapbook paper, or coloured copy weight paper
Selection of fortunes or messages
Liquid glue


STEP 1: Cut a number of 3.5" (9cm circles).

STEP 2: Fold a circle in half and pinch it in the centre. Open it up, rotate it a quarter turn, and fold it in half again, adding a small dot of glue as shown.

STEP 3: Lightly hold the edges together until they have adhered.

STEP 4: Place an index finger in each end, pressing your thumbnails into the centre crease. Fold at the crease and pull the edges down to meet each other. Release the edges.

STEP 5: Slip a fortune slip in past the centre, leaving the last inch peeking out. Add a small dot of glue as shown.

STEP 6: Bring the ends together again holding the sides together where the glue is located. I find this easiest using the thumb and index finger of one hand until the glue has gripped. Trim the end of message if you wish.

On one side the surface is smooth, and on the other it is creased like this.

Make as many as you need and add them to a nice container. I made this one using an SVG cut file from Simply Craft SVGs. Instructions will be published tomorrow and can be found here.

Here are the links to some of my favourite downloadable printed messages/fortunes.

Party Inspiration by Margaret Alba - Valentine Fortune Cookies - messages for friends
SheKnows - Edible fortune Cookies with Positive Chinese New Year messages

Of course, the messages can be adapted for different occasions from birthdays to baby showers. I hope you'll find fun ways to use them.

8 ways and more to customise your Christmas Gnomes - the Gnome SVG from Simply Crafty SVGs

Once in a while an SVG project comes along that you fall in love with. This month I've fallen for the Gnome Box SVG file from Simply Crafty SVGs. The gnomes are so easy to customise and I've shared my hints  and ideas hoping that they will give you ideas and inspiration for your own customisations. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the file pieces, but any digital cutter which reads SVG files should work.


Let me introduce you to the gnomes I made ...

Sign Post Gnome

Cool Dude Gnome

& Rudolph Gnome

Now for the customisations (I had such fun with these)!

1. Curl that Beard!
Use a pencil, marker, or any item with a round barrel, and curl each piece of the beard individually - this gives great texture to the beard. Consider adding a second beard on top of the first for additional volume.

2. Add Embellishments
Add items from your stash. Here I've used a ready-made white pompom and a mini pipe cleaner to make a fun embellishment for the hat on the cool gnome.

3. Add Printable Patterns
Use printable patterns to make panels for the hat and body. The Silhouette Studio software allows you to tile, rescale and rotate the pattern to suit your pattern pieces.

4. Add a Sign Post
To make a quick post for your sign use a paper straw. Trim the straw to length and squash the lower end to give a bigger surface area to adhere to the gnome's foot. Add a bead or mini pompom to the top end.

5. Make a Sign
Make a sign to add to the sign post. I used the board from the Wooden Sign file from the Silhouette Design Store. The words were cut from white, or red sign vinyl using a stencil font. Attach the sign board to the post using an adhesive foam pad (file details are linked below).

Using other elements from the sign file help to ground the sign.

6. Colour that Nose
Change out the nose for the Rudolph gnome to red card. I had cut extra pale pink noses, and recoloured one using stamping ink and a blending tool.

7. Add Accessories
Accessorise your gnomes with items from a set of photo props reduced in size to match the scale of the gnomes.  I copied and flipped one of the antlers from a set and welded them to a triangular shape. Once cut from brown card they were then adhered to the rear of the Rudolph gnome's hat. This opens up all manner of variations. For example, an Easter set could be used to make the gnomes into an Easter bunny - just add ears to the hat.

From the same set I cut a set of eye glasses from white cardstock and added black cardstock behind and flooded the well with liquid glaze to make dark lenses for the cool gnome's shades.

8. Add Stripes
If you don't have striped paper in the desired colour, adapt plain panels by subtracting rectangles from the panels lined up side-by-side. Once cut, use the waste sheet as a guide to align the individual stripes plain panel pieces in a contrasting colour.

Here are the details of the materials and files I used.

Materials Used:
Medium Weight American Crafts Textured Cardstock in
White, Black, Red, Dark Grey, Pale Gray, Grass Green, & Pale Pink
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive
Plaid Paper or Digital Paper Pattern & Printer
Silhouette Cameo or other digital cutter

Extras for Sign Post Gnome:
Stripy Paper Straw
White Sign Vinyl
Adhesive Foam Pad
Small Red PomPom, or a Wooden Bead
Textured Cardstock in Grass Green plus assorted scraps

Extras for Cool Dude Gnome:
Nuvo Drops Clear Glaze
Small Pompom
Thin Pipe Cleaner

Extras for Rudolph Gnome:
Textured Cardstock in Brown
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Red & Blending Tool or
Textured Cardstock in Red


Files Used:
Simply Crafty SVGs Gnome

Other Digital Files:
Wooden Sign by Lisa Norris (Studio or SVG)
Christmas Photo Props by Silhouette (Studio or SVG)
PN Moneymaking Stencil Font by ScrapNfonts
Christmas Red Buffalo Check Pattern by Miss Kate Cuttables (Studio or JPG)


These gnomes are such fun to make - do try them. I'd love to see the results, so do tag me in your social media posts.


Janet, DT Member Simply Crafty SVGs

Blog: Crafting Quine
Instagram: @CraftingQuine
Facebook: Janet Packer Crafting Quine

FREE Papercraft Hanger SVG File to use with the Leaf Wall Art Shadow Boxes

Hello, this week I've been playing with corrugated paper to make these Leaf Wall Art Shadow Boxes.  I have a post over on the Silhouette UK Blog describing how to cut the corrugated paper, with instructions on how to put together this set of shadow boxes.

I like to share a little extra something over here on my own blog when I can. This week I have a FREE cutting file for a hanger to mount these shadow boxes, or any light papercraft project, to the wall. The file is in SVG format, so can be used with most digital paper cutting machines; Silhouette (with Designer edition), Cricut, Scan n' Cut, etc. The file is free to use for all non-commercial uses, all I ask in return is that you become a follower of my blog or Instagram feed.

Download the FREE file here

For crafters who do not have a cutting machine, the file is also available as a FREE printable template in PDF format here.  

Once the hangers are cut out, fold them on the centre score line and adhere the two halves together. Fold on the remaining score line and adhere the square part to the back of your paper craft project.

I constructed the shadow boxes so that there is a void in the back to accommodate a hanger and a hook and still allow the boxes to hang flush to the wall. The boxes can be hung on the wall once the adhesive is dry. Traditional picture hooks will work, and small 'command' hooks will work too. The one pictured is possibly a little too small, but I've run out of my favourite size.

This is the design I used to make the Leaf Shadow Boxes (an SVG file from the Silhouette Design Store).


These are the Silhouette products that I used.


Here are the other products used/recommended.




I'd love to hear how you use this hanger. Do post a comment here, or on my other social media if you find it handy.

Make your own adhesive card and paper

Hiya, Over on the Silhouette UK blog today I'm sharing a trick to make your own adhesive-backed card and paper sheets.  They can be used right away or kept for future projects; with the peel-off paper backing they store perfectly.

Using adhesive backed cardstock saves time, adhesive, and often a good bit of mess. They are great for unusual shapes and batch projects.

I used the Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive sheets to make them. I've tried other brands, but they tend to have thinner backing paper and I've had them stick badly to my mat when cutting and have torn and taken an age to peel off.  The Silhouette brand peels off the mat easily and having a thicker backing has the bonus of giving the paper/card additional strength and rigidity.

The post over on the Silhouette UK Blog includes instructions on how to make the self-adhesive sheets and how to cut them on the Silhouette desktop cutting machines.

I used this lovely Wild Flower patterned paper from Trimcraft to decorate these 5-Sided Pillow Boxes by Carina Gardner from the Silhouette Design Store.

It was quick and easy to stick all 33 pieces on, and even the patterns matched correctly!

I hope you find this useful.