Silhouette UK: Card storage and organiser

Monday, 7 January 2019

Card storage and organiser

Hi everyone. It's Verity here from Pretty Little Button bringing you another project. For this week's project I wanted to make something 3D but at the same time something useful for my craft room. I stumbled across this card storage and organiser from Sweet Afton and thought this would be great. It will help me keep my cards organised so I can easily find a card to suit the occasion. Whatsmore the chipboard from Silhouette was perfect for this. This cut file was originally for A2 (American) style cards, but I often design cards larger than this, so I increased the size to fit cards 6" wide.

Card storage and organiser details:

To start off, I needed to adjust the size of the cut file to my size of choice, 6 inches wide. To make sure all the pieces were proportionate to one another, adjust the size of the cut file with all the items grouped together.

Using the vertical gridlines (pull these from the right-hand rule bar into your design space), I marked out 6 inches. As I was increasing the size of the group file, I made sure the width of the back panel span the two ruler markers. This will give me a 6" wide storage container.

As I had adjusted the size of the cut file, you can see below that I can no longer cut out the larger piece out on a 12" sheet of chipboard as it is wider than 12". However, just a little deconstruction of the file to separate pieces will allow you to cut out bits individually and fit on a cutting mat.

To do this, I right clicked the large piece and pressed ungroup. Then to detach the front panel, you can select the front panel shape and this will be separate from the remainder of the shape.

Some shapes when ungrouped and detached from the main shape may be missing a side or a tab. You can easily draw these in with the line tool. To convert a line to a score line, select the line menu next to the line thickness window, and select the dotted line of choice.

To make sure all the lines in the shape and connected and now small openings present from draw tabs etc, select all the lines in the shape and right click to make a compound path. Next, right click and select edit points. If notice any red circle points, this means there are openings within the path. To close the openings, move one circle over the next circle present to close it (these are usually a few mm apart - if they are cms apart, check the shape first).

To speed up the process, as often two tabs are needed but as mirror images of themselves, copy the shape and right click. Select flip horizontally and you have a mirrored shape.

When you separate the pieces to your liking you are ready to cut out. I wanted to show that you can even cut this pattern on an A4 sheet of paper if you are using alternative media to the chipboard from Silhouette.

When ready, cut all the pieces out of heavyweight card or using the chipboard from Silhouette.

Here were my cut settings for Chipboard when I selected the material.

However, after three test cuts, I had to change the blade depth to 7 for my machine and blade to cut through the chipboard. Remember to always test cut as your machine and blade can vary the cut settings!

When all items are cut out, as well as the side/front panel decoration from patterned paper, use a strong adhesive to tabs to build your card storage and organiser.

I have organised my cards in occasions, but you may also want to organise your cards with months of the year for birthdays. Therefore each month you can go an see what cards need to be sent to who!