Intricate 3-D Christmas Tree

Another old post from my old blog. I wanted to share the tree again because I wanted to show you first how beautiful it was.  Second, I wanted to show you that you can find designs and patterns to use with your electronic cutters from many places. Just keep your eyes open!

I just had to share a picture of this beautiful christmas tree!  I originally got the pattern from the 2010 Holiday, Issue 41 of Scrollsaw Woodworking & Crafts magazine. It has several more patterns of things I plan to use with my Make The Cut Software (Hmm, I think I need to go and find that magazine and see what those were!  I don't think I ever got around to doing more from that magazine!)  I have previously noted that Scrollsaw patterns are a great source for things to cut with an electronic die cut machine.  This pattern was created by Gloria Cosgrove. (She was also the creator of the "Treasures of the Sea" seashell patterns that I previously made into cutting files and shared on my blog. You can find that post here: Treasures of the Sea.)

You can find more of her work at http://www.papercuttingsbyalison.com/.)

Unfortunately, I can't share the pattern with you do to the magazine's copyright permissions.  : (  

I must also say that I cut this using "tagboard" that I found at Hobby Lobby.  It is a little thicker then cardstock.  I tried cutting with regular cardstock.  It is a little too flimsy.   If anyone knows where I can get a little thicker paper like tagboard in colors please let me know.  Or if you have suggestions of something even a little thicker then the tagboard, I would like to try it. The tagboard works, but I would like something a little more sturdy I think.

I tried cutting it on my Cricut Expression - didn't cut so well - either tore up the paper or left all the little pieces still inside and I was having to try and finish punching them out.  I have a Black Cat Cougar 18" die cutter.  It cut it out beautifully and I didn't have to finish punching out lots of little pieces!! I bought my Black Cat Cougar a couple of years ago from Sherri at thatscrapinc.com. I had a great experience and excellent customer service both before and after the sale. So, if you are interested in finding a good quality cutter, be sure to check with Sherri and check out their new line, The Silver Bullet Professional series. I haven't upgraded to it but I hear it's even better!

If you aren't familiar with Make the Cut software, I would highly recommend that you go to their website to learn more about it.   You can find it at http://www.make-the-cut.com/.  It allows you to do so much more with your die cutter. You will be amazed. You are limited only by your imagination!! You can check out their forums for more great ideas.  You can also use SCAL (Sure Cuts a Lot), the Silhouette Software, and other software packages to cut to a variety of different and excellent die cutting machines in a variety of price ranges so be sure to check out all your options and find a cutter and the software package that works best for you and your needs! I am always happy to answer questions on what I have and why.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  Hope everyone has a blessed holiday season!

Rudolph Treat Box

This is another older post from my old blog from one of the 2010 Christmas Challenges on the MTC forum.  A MTC file was shared in the Challenge thread at that time for a piece of cake or pie box.  The challenge was then to make it into an ornament or something else.

I made them to be filled with treats that could also be hung on the Christmas tree.  My favorite one I made was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  This is not my original idea.  I have seen it done several times before.  I just think he is cute!!

I used google eyes and a red pom pom nose. The antlers are pipe cleaners and can be used to hang it on the tree.  Filled with small treats, it would make any child or adult very happy!! I don't have a cut file to share because I used one shared on the MTC forum but I am sure you would have no problems finding a similar file to use for your cutter and software.  I just wanted to "share" my photos to inspire you!

As always, thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season no matter what holidays you may celebrate.

Gift Card Holders (With MTC files shared)

This is another old post from my old blog that was seasonal that I wanted to share here.

One of the challenges on the MTC forum Christmas Challenges (back in 2010) was to create some gift card holders.  Well, I had quite a few different gift card holders already on my old blog at that time.  However, when I started looking, it didn't look like I had any or very few using MTC so I decided to take on that Challenge.

The Challenge was to make 3 different gift card holders.  I did the traditonal standby Christmas Stocking, a "gift bag" that I turned into a "santa bag" and a simple tri-fold gift card holder.  The "bag" or "Santa belly bag" can be used as a simple shopping bag.  It is also big enough to hold the bigger Itunes gift cards - especially if you use something like the fur that I used at the top of the bag. I shared the files I created on the MTC forums before Christmas 2010 so, if you are a member there, you may have already downloaded my files.  If you aren't a member or were not back then you may not have gotten these files so I am putting them here for your use.

They are .mtc files only as I haven't converted them into any other format.  So little time and so much to do!!  LOL  Hopefully, someone can find a use for some of them.  As always, I would love to see what you do with them should you choose to use them for a gift!  Thanks for stopping by!!

If you have a 4shared account than you can access the original files I shared here:

You can download the Stocking Gift card holder here.

You can download the Santa Belly Bag gift card holder here.

You can download the tri-fold gift card holder here.

If you don't have a 4shared account, I have now uploaded them to my dropbox account and you can download them from there right here:

You can download the Stocking Gift card holder from dropbox here.

You can download the Santa Belly Bag gift card holder from dropbox here.

You can download the tri-fold-gift card holder from dropbox here.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  I would love to see anything that you create with my files.

Have a "Sweet" Birthday "Print and Cut" Image

A couple of weeks ago, someone on the MTC forum had asked how to take a "digital" image of a cupcake with some text and stars encircling it and "change" the color of the text in a word processing program or some other program. The problem was the file was a png file and it was not "editable" in that format. I had suggested that the user could use "pixel trace" in MTC to pull the image in, break it apart and make it "editable" so she could change colors, etc.  I then proceed to do that in MTC to show her.  Well, it took a little time and effort to do it (more than I originally thought it would).  So, then I decided to see if I could create my own similar file directly in MTC and see if it would take less time then trying to pixel trace and edit the other one.  To do the circles of stars and the text in a circle, you use the "wrap object to path" tool in Make the Cut.  (I wrapped to a circle sized as needed.  Once that is done, you can delete the circle as it is not needed). Time wise, this one may have taken a little less time on the whole but probably not a lot.

However, since this one is a file I created on my own, I figured I would share it here for anyone who might like to make use of it. My vision was that it would be used as a "print and cut" or like a digital stamp image that you printed out as opposed to a "paper piecing." Each part of the image is on its own layer and can thus have its "color" changed easily.  Don't want yellow stars, make them purple. Want one row of stars one color and the second row another, you can do that as the two rows of stars are on separate layers.  Want the text to be orange, easy to do.  Prefer yellow icing on your cupcake, go ahead after all, its your card and your image - give it your own personal touch! The bottom image shows how easily I changed colors in the file.

I'm sharing both a MTC file as well as an SVG file for you to download.  These are shared via my public folder in my dropbox account. As always, I would love to see anything that you might create with this file.  It would make a great image to use in the middle of the "swinging Z" cards that I created and shared previously here on my blog.

You can download the Sweet Birthday Cucpake MTC file here.

You can download the Sweet Birthday Cucpake SVG file here.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Happy Halloween - Witchy Footwear Card

Another Halloween post from my old blog first shared back in 2009.  (Wow, can't believe it has been three years!)

I had purchased the Sept/Oct 2009 copy of PaperCrafting Magazine. It has several cute card ideas in it. One is a "Witchy Footwear Card" designed by Kim Hughes.

I liked the card but of course wanted to be able to cut out multiple of the cards with my die cutting machine. So, with the help of my scanner and computer, I downloaded the pattern for the Witches Boot, and created an .svg file with Inkscape (MTC was not yet out then. Today I would scan directly into MTC.) Since the "card" requires a "front and back" and the pattern only had 1boot, I had to copy it and then flip it and then weld it to get my "card".

If you have a 4shared account, you can download the single Witches Shoe .svg file here. You can download the Witches Shoe CARD .svg file here.

I have also reloaded the files to my Public Dropbox account for those of you without a 4shared account.  They can be downloaded here: single Witches Shoe .svg file or the Witches Shoe Card .svg file.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Please let me see what you create with any of my files!