Faux Letterboard Card

Hello, Janet here from the Crafting Quine blog. Today I have a faux letterboard card for you. I've been inspired by all the letterboard dies around at present, and it struck me that the Silhouette Adhesive Corrugated Paper would be perfect to give a similar effect with minimum effort. The letters have been cut on the Silhouette too, with single and double height letters and some extra script and icon embellishments. There is so much versatility for all kinds of cards with this design, so I do hope you'll try it out.

Selecting the Design
The base of the card is one of the 3D Frame Cards by Lori Whitlock. I used design ID #101975 which has a Christmas theme, but any of the similar designs will work. To find them all search for '3D Frame Card' in the Silhouette Design Store and filter by Artist, selecting 'Lori Whitlock'. Most of them appear at the top of the page. Select one that has a panel on the front of the frame if you want to add a wood patterned panel as I have done.

Preparing the Frame Card Base
Ungroup all the file parts, and discard all but the base card, the frame, the frame panel, and the interior panel. I increased the size of these remaining pieces so that the 3D frame piece would just fit onto a piece of 12" x 12" textured cardstock. This gave a finished card of 17cm x 13.25cm, which made it easier to cut and place the letters. However, it did make the accompanying box piece bigger than 12" x 12" so be aware that if you make it this big you'll need A3 cardstock and the larger sized cutting mat to make a box to fit. The interior panel was cut from the Silhouette Corrugated Paper, which gives the letter board effect. It is self-adhesive and easiest to apply to the card frame while it is flat, before folding it up.

Preparing the Lettering
Choosing the correct font is critical for the letterboard effect. I cut the basic black letters in a sans serif font that was pre-installed on my computer from black cardstock (this one is similar to Ariel). Just avoid a font with a circular 'O', as a font with an oval shaped 'O' (and other rounded letters) generally fits in the limited space better. I cut two of each letter and layered them together. The larger letters are LW Trendy font with the background shape cut from white cardstock and the cutout layer cut from Silhouette Textured Translucent Vinyl, giving a glitter plastic-y finish to those letters. The word 'Birthday' was made from LD Charming Bold font. I recommend choosing a favourite script font that maintains a similar width through the letters (that doesn't get too narrow). However, if your chosen font is too narrow, use a small offset to thicken it up.

For the little precent icon, I chose the letter 'a' from the LW Birthday Dingbats font. I removed some of the detail, by releasing the compound path and deleting all but the outside line and the bow loops, grouping it all together again (if you want it to display correctly on the screen make it into a compound path again, it will cut correctly either way). Cut the present from the same materials as the 'GREAT DAY' words, layering the vinyl on top of two copies cut from white cardstock.


Finishing the Lettering
If you have a problem getting your letters to align (as I always do), use this little alignment trick I have for you. Arrange the letters on your mat on a rectangle of the same size as the frame interior, add the cut line shown in blue (below), and cut the whole thing from a piece of scrap card.

Use the scrap piece to align the first row of larger letters.

Then use strips cut horizontally across the centres of the other words to align each row in turn.

Once all the letters are adhered I add liquid glaze to the black letters to give them a more plastic-y appearance. The translucent vinyl would be great for this too.

Making the Box
The cut file for the box is included with the design. If you increase the size of the card as much as I did you'll find that the box is too big to fit onto 12" square cardstock. In which case use A3 card and the larger sized cutting mat. This box was cut from a background pattern (design id #171187) printed onto A3 cardstock. By aligning the pattern and the design to the centre of the card I was able to print THEN cut, so a Print & Cut was not necessary.

The box is the perfect finishing touch. I can't wait to give this card to its recipient!

Bye for now,

  Crafting Quine Blog | @CraftingQuine

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You are my Cup of Tea - make Card Toppers from Dingbats

Hello, Janet here again from the Crafting Quine Blog. This week I was very exited to see that one of my favourite designers has released a new style of card in the Silhouette Design Store. Lori Whitlock has a new range of fun Valentine's wiper cards which have a central swipe up part which appears once the card is opened. There are quite a few of these interactive cards to choose from, but I wanted to make one with a tea theme, and so used a couple of other files by Lori including the Tea Time Dingbats font to make teacup and teapot toppers. Cutting and sticking these tiny pieces was speeded up by using Silhouette Adhesive-Backed Cardstock and gave such a neat finish.

DESIGNS USED:
Wiper Card Valentine Balloon Card by Lori Whitlock (#285948)
You Are My Cup of Tea phrase by Lori Whitlock (#267429)
Tea Time Dingbats Font by Lori Whitlock (#279453)

MATERIALS USED:
Textured Cardstock - 12" x 12" in white, mint and navy
Patterned Scrapbooking Papers - 6" x  6"
Scrap of Clear Acetate
Silhouette Adhesive-Backed Cardstock in mint, sea mist, grey and strawberry
Silhouette Sketch Pens in red and pink
Silhouette Cameo 3

The designer has a full video tutorial on how to put these cards together, so I am just showing you the small changes that I made. I used the Valentine Balloon Card as it has a pop up sentiment in a rounded rectangle shape (some of the pop ups are animals or other more specific shapes).

Changing the Message
I used Lori's You Are My Cup of Tea phrase to replace the existing one. The phrase needed to be re-sized a little and I added the word "really". I drew the "really" using the sketch pens, first in pink and then over the top in red to get a good match with the strawberry-coloured cardstock. I cut the other letters and the outside in white cardstock and removed the letter interiors (retaining the interiors of the larger letters, O, P and A). I cut the 'TEA' letters from red cardstock and added them into the holes marquetry-style. Small rectangles of navy and mint cardstock were added behind the other words and the interior of the larger letters were carefully adhered.

Tea Pot Topper
The teapot was selected from the Tea Time Dingbat font. I separated the pieces by releasing the compound path (right mouse click, and select Release Compound Path) and removed the pieces shown on the right. I then selected the whole exterior and the handle interior and made them into a new Compound path (right mouse click, and select Make Compound Path).

The round body of the teapot was enlarged slightly (select, hold down Shift on the keyboard, click and drag one of the white corner boxes) to match the exterior of the teapot. I doesn't matter if extends beyond the teapot outline slightly. The teapot outline was then moved away and the remaining circle and dots made into a compound path.

Both the resulting pieces were then turned to face the other way (select, Right mouse click, select Flip Horizontally).  A heart was taken from the 'j' and enlarged to suit the size of the teapot. Once sizes were ascertained the teapot outline was cut from navy cardstock, the round body from mint adhesive cardstock and the heart from strawberry adhesive cardstock. See below for a hint on determining the sizes.

Teapot 'Steam'
The teapot steam was taken from the letter 'b', flipped, and resized to suit the teapot (to separate these pieces the path was released and then ungrouped). To make the acetate piece to support the steam, an offset was made of the group of steam pieces at 0.15 (Offset panel, change amount to 0.15, click Apply). Draw a rounded rectangle and weld it to the offset shape (select, Right mouse click, select Weld). The steam would be cut from grey adhesive cardstock, and the support from thin acetate. It was adhered behind the teapot spout and any protruding pieces trimmed away.

Teacup Topper
The teacup was made in a similar way to the teapot using the remainder of the pieces from the letter 'b'. I made the exterior shape and the handle interior into a compound path, then also made the saucer pieces a compound path with the cup exterior.

My cup exterior was cut from navy, the exterior minus the saucer pieces cut from mint, then the hearts from red, and the cup interior from grey. It is worth cutting out a few duplicates, some with pieces cut out and some entire, in different colour combinations and trying both the positive and the negative pieces.

Size and Placement of the Decorative Elements
Prior to cutting out the elements I found it really useful to cut them out in some scrap card first. It really helps to check where the elements will be going, and if the sizes are right relative to the card and to each other. Initially I had the cup over to the left of the pop up and the pot on the right, but realised that the pot looked so much better tipping into the cup.

To finish the card I adhered the teapot directly to the card, and the teacup was raised up on adhesive foam pads. I experimented with some extra hearts, but settled on just the ones on pot and cups.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out and urge you to experiment with your dingbat fonts. They open up so many possibilities.

Bye for now,

  Crafting Quine Blog | @CraftingQuine

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Dingbat Quote Fridge Magnets

Hi everyone. It's Verity here from Pretty Little Button bringing you another project. Today I am showing you how easy it is to create some fun quotes for your fridge. This project uses a Dingbat quote font and has taken all the hard work out of designing and layout the quote for out. Just type a letter, colour it, print it and then cut it!

Dingbat Quote Fridge Magnets detail:

Download the Dingbat quote font from the design store, I used font 4, see below for more details. This set of dingbats has some great inspiring and uplifting quotes, perfect for going on your fridge. 

Once you have downloaded the font, you need to find it in your font list. With the text style window up, select the glyphs tab at the top.

This will give you a small preview of what the glyps look like when you have chosen on make sure you have textbox started and click on the glyph to insert into your design space. 

You can alter the size in 2 ways, either by adjusting the font size in the text style window or alternatively just grab the size points on the text box and enlarge by dragging your mouse. 

Once you have your dingbats selected and adjust to size, make sure you change the page setting to turn on your print and cut registration marks. To do this select the 'Page setup Panel' and change the page size to 'letter (11 X 8.5 inch)' - the magnet sheets are in American sizing. Next, in the page setup panel, select registration marks tab along the top in the style drop down box, select type 1. 

Move you quotes onto the design page, making sure they stay inside the print area (pale grey line) and the cut area (red line). In order to cut these out once printed, you need to add an offset. Select the offset button on the toolbar (Star) and add an offset around the quote to your desired width.

Next, colour in your quotes for a more appealing magnet.

When you are happy with the design, sent this to print and then load the printed sheet onto your cutting mat. When in the send window, make sure you have selected the printable magnet paper in your material box. Next, select all your designs, and set the cut option to cut edge - you only want the machine to cut your offset, not the actual design you have printed. 

Before cutting, make sure you do a test cut. My settings were originally at a blade of 4, speed 1, force 30 and single pass. For my final but below after testing worked well for my machine!

Dingbat Quote Fridge Magnets Photos:

If this has inspired you to try this out, please post below. I would love to see it!

Until next time,

Verity




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DESIGNS USED:

Quotes 4 dingbat font by Rhonna Farrer, Design ID #270196

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