Fourth of July - full page design (by request)

In September, I was asked by a Cricut Message Board friend if I could create a Fourth of July design similar to my Halloween design for an event at her church where the theme was holidays through the year - her month was July. She had located some glass vases like the one I used for the Halloween lantern and was planning to make these as table decorations and favors for the other guests to take home. Unfortunately, she did not take a picture (she is hoping to "borrow" one back for a photo) so I don't have a lantern version photo to share but I did test cut the design after I got home (I was in New Jersey when I got her email). I think it also works well as a framed piece. Here is a LINK to the post about the Halloween design as a framed piece.

Once again this is cut on a 12 x 24 mat with the paper placed at the one inch mark. Here is a screen shot of the design.



and here is a photo of the design on the mat after cutting so you can see the paper placement a bit better.



The look varies, as always, depending on the paper you choose to place behind the cut - here are a few examples...




Fourth of July - full page mesh

Happy Halloween (for baby bugs)

I received some comments from owners of baby bugs that they would like to be able to cut the Halloween design. I edited my original file so it can be cut in two pieces and either put together in a full sheet or used as two pieces. You could use it as a title or border on a scrapbook page or make shorter candle lanterns.



Because the Cricut will not cut to the edge of the mat, you will need to do a bit of hand trimming. I did move things to make this minimal but there will be some small cuts required to finish the border rows and, depending on the exact position of your mat in the Cricut, you may need to "finish" the edge of some shapes.



Above is the first page of the file - the top half...

Below is the second page of the file - the bottom half...



Put them together and the result is very close to my original design.



By placing the two pieces with an overlap of the border bar at the bottom of page one and the top of page two, you can create the full sheet design.



Here are a few of the interesting offcuts - these are bits from between the cats. I think they look like a pipe and the hook for Captain Hook! The hook could come in handy on Friday, September 19th - National Talk Like a Pirate Day! (click on the link to go to the website - who knew!)

I had quite a struggle to get this to work when I tried to replace the bar on the original file with a square or rectangle from George - every time I tried to duplicate the shape I got the dreaded red "X" due to the quirky nature of these shapes on George (they don't take kindly to drastic values to change their shape - stretch too far and you will see the "X").

After several variations of the "X" screen, I got smart and searched for a shape on one of the other carts that I could use for the bar - I found the shadow or blackout of the "money" shape on Cuttin Up (lower right corner of keypad on shift) gave me a rectangle that would agree to be stretched!

So I was finally able to make a file baby bug owners can use!

While I was at it I edited the original file to make a version that requires only two cartridges (Paper Doll Dress Up and Cuttin Up) because I know there are some Expression owners who don't have Plantin Schoolbook for one reason or another. If you substitute another font for Cuttin Up, you will also need to change out the bars with a rectangle from a cart you own (or use the original file I posted with Plantin Schoolbook).

I test cut the baby bug pieces on the Expression so there is a chance that the baby bug mat will be slightly different. If you try it and have any problems, please contact me at capadiadesigns@gmail.com so I can repair the file. I also did not test cut the revised Expression version - to be perfectly honest I was just getting tired of cutting and removing this design from the mat. I feel confident that it will work perfectly but please let me know if you encounter any difficulties.

One more note - I ignored my own advice and used the softer paper to do the test cuts and once again I had an issue with the small details - it was very difficult to remove the eyes and other tiny holes. Be sure to use paper with that "hard"finish to help you get clean cuts!

Have fun with this - I'd love to see some of your projects!

Happy Halloween (in two pieces)

Happy Halloween Full sheet (no Plantin Schoolbook)

Halloween Lantern

Another way to use the Halloween full page design is to create a lantern for decorating. These could be used for party decorations or just to brighten a corner for a bit of fun.

After cutting the design, turn it over and apply the adhesive - I used Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive pen. I dotted it all over the design and let the adhesive dry to clear.



To line the lantern I used orange glassine. I actually had this in my house from a long ago purchase when I lived in Germany where it is used to make intricate folded stars for the windows (among other things). Below is a photo of the label from the glassine I used. (It is at least 13 years old so the price will probably be higher!).



I applied a piece of orange glassine cut a bit larger than 12 x 12 to the back of the design - being careful to lay it down evenly and smooth out any bubbles.



Colored glassine should be available at a large craft store or online. You could also use cellophane or vellum - a translucent material is best for light diffusion but cellophane would be a bit more "sparkly" (even though you could be able to see through it to the light source).

After applying the glassine you could hang the design in front of a light source or in a window



I trimmed the glassine even with the cut design on one side and the bottom and left a small amount of a border above the top row of cats. For the final side I left an edge that was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch wider than the cut design. Here is a photo which shows this border for the overlap more clearly.


I applied sticky tape to this border so it could be used to join the design in a cylinder for the lantern.



I rolled this glassine lined design in a cylinder shape to "train" it to curve nicely



Once I had the shape started I used some soup cans to help hold the seam steady as I adhered the frame to the narrow border where the sticky tape was applied. The Progresso cans were about the right diameter!



I pulled back a bit of the paper liner on the tape at a time and carefully aligned the edges and smoothed the seam with the support of the can surface below.



Some options for lighting the lantern include candles, electric candles and LED lights.



If you use an electric candle you should also use a shade holder to help keep the paper lantern away from the bulb which will get hot.



If you use a tea light or votive candle, a tall glass cylinder vase will help to protect the paper lantern from the flame. They are readily available at craft stores for a few dollars - just be sure that the circumference is about 11 inches so you will not have trouble sliding the lantern over the vase.



An LED light will provide a bright blue white light and will not get hot at all, so this is probably the safest choice and the choice that could be used if the lantern would not be attended constantly. I got this light for use in a closet - it is battery operated and turns on by pushing the dome top. The first photo is the light turned off and the second is the light is turned on.

So - how do these look when they are lit with these varying sources of light?

Here are photos of the lantern lit by different light sources - first, the electric candle.



Next, with the tea light candle (photo on the left) and the votive candle (photo on the right).




















The LED light is a bluer light and, with this particular light, the lowest holes for the eyes in the pumpkins do not get lit due to the thickness of the base - the light starts to show the design about one or two inches from the bottom of the cylinder.

For this photo I place the lantern on top of a plastic dome (from a store salad bowl) to raise the lantern above the light and show the details at the base. If I used this light source for more designs I would be sure to plan for the thickness of the side of the base and not place any intricate cuts in the first inch or so of the design.

The LED light is definitely the safest since it does not get hot and there is no open flame but the candle gives more of a "glowing" effect and could be used as long as you were in the room to monitor the burning.



I have many more of these designs for various holidays and occasions - I'll be posting them as I get them test cut. In the meanwhile you can try your own versions tailored to your family celebrations - I'd love to see what you create! The .cut file for this design can be downloaded from the post immediately before this one.

Happy Halloween - full 12 x 12 page

I decided to try again to do a true "full page" design. I did a lot of frames a while ago and had to make design decisions based on the inability to cut all of the way to the edges of the mat. So I thought about it a bit more and realized that I could at least get the "side to side" dimension to be a true 12 x 12 by using the 12 x 24 mat and placing my design (and my paper) at the one inch mark. So that is what I did!

Halloween decorations are everywhere already so I had Halloween on my mind and decided to use some of the shapes on the Paper Doll Dress Up cart for this project. This is a great cartridge - at first I could not imagine why I would need it with two sons (who are now 23 and 19!) but even if you never cut a doll there are so many "extras" on this cartridge that is well worth the investment!

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I am also a quilter (well...at least a buyer of fabric and planner of quilts - once I get the top designed and pieced I am not very good about following through to finish up!). I often find inspiration from quilting designs and methods. For this full page cut I thought of a round robin group I was in a few years ago where each of the six members added a row to the quilt design - and also added some borders between the rows. Here is a photo of the quilt top that I received after the other five members of my group added their rows (it started with the row of stars second from the top where one has a red square in the center).

So, with this "add a row" quilt in my mind I set out to create my design....

Using the concept of rows of design elements separated by borders I created this design (screen shot of preview shown below)



I chose a size that seemed appropriate for each shape and added a number of these elements in the same selection box. Then I used kerning, nudging and welding to make the rows approximately the correct length. I used the shape properties box to obtain the exact values to fit the space - the width was always set at 12 inches and the height rounded to the nearest even value. In some cases I compressed the design when I changed the height to fit my pattern by using longer rows (for example, the bats are "squished" from their original proportions so their wings are not spread out as far). I chose the Cuttin Up font for the words - I thought it had a light hearted feel and I was not trying to make this look "scary."

I originally planned to have a border at both the top and the bottom, however, I decided I liked the look of the cats silhouetted along the top row - when the bar was added the tufts of fur at the top were hidden - so I deleted that bar. I purposely made the bar at the bottom extend beyond the bottom margin on the mat so that the paper would not be cut. The bars were done with Plantin Schoolbook and were set to be a bit more than 1/4 inch high and 12 inches wide. To do this height sizing you need to use the handle at the center bottom of the selection box and slide it until the value you desire shows in the height box of the Shape Properties box. If you just type the value in the box, the program will default to a height of 1 inch (I hope that this issue is fixed in a future update of the software - it can get very fiddly pulling and sliding the handle to get to just the value you desire).

Below is a photo of the design on the mat after cutting - fair warning... this design takes a long time to cut - over 15 minutes - so get it started and then go have a cup of tea or call a friend while you wait for it to finish!



Here is a closer view of the cut design showing the tiny details



and here is what the mat looked like after lifting the design- it takes quite a bit of patience to lift and clean the tiny details - I didn't even try to remove the tiny eyes of the bats! The eyes and vine details on the bottom row of pumpkins are also tricky to remove, but you can get them out. Just take your time and be careful!



I did discover that the type of paper you use makes a difference. The first time I cut this design I was using good quality black cardstock by Making Memories but the "finish" to this paper is a bit softer than some and getting the tiny bits out was very slow and frustrating. I have cut the design two more times (you will see a second project using this design in a different post) and for those cuts I used the cardstock I got in a huge bargain pack from Costco - the black paper from this pack has a smooth and hard feel and the cuts were much easier to remove. That paper was made by Pacon Corporation and I have not seen it anywhere else (and it hasn't been at Costco for quite some time). So you should experiment to find a brand of paper that works well for you for this type of complex cut.



The cut on the orange background above was my first test cut and the one on the beige background below is the second test cut - I tweaked the spacing of the letters a bit and made a few other minor changes in the final file.



You could use this design on a page and add photos on top or frame it to display during the holiday season.

Here is my first test cut framed and hanging on the wall in my scrap space (it is in the prototype version of the Creative Memories page frame and the mat opening is 12 inches high but only 11.5 inches wide - the current version have a true 12 x 12 opening and I plan to get new mats cut to retrofit these older frames).



You can also display it framed and placed on a free standing easel, as seen below. This frame is a very inexpensive plastic frame (the type where you bend back the corners and load the contents from the front).



I hope you enjoy this design - I have others in this format planned but have not had a chance to test them so I will post them sometime soon (I never post designs until I have tested them - I don't want to waste your time if there is a problem!).

You can make these for holidays, birthdays, weddings and other special events. I have another project using this design that is posted separately which would also work for various occasions.

Happy Halloween - full 12 x 12

At the Drive In

I enjoy looking through the cartridges in Design Studio and finding something to inspire me to make a design. On the new Graphically Speaking cartridge the bottom two feature keys show a car image. I looked at this and the idea of drive-in movies popped into my head. I am not sure if drive-ins are very common now, but I have fond memories of going to the drive-in as a child. Even though I don't have any photos of my family at a drive-in, I thought I could do an album page that features some childhood memories.



I built this design in the same way I did the "School Days" from a few days ago. This design is for a border and does not have a frame surrounding the words and images (check the tutorial pinned to the top right of my blog home page for step by step directions).

Once you have a design built this way you can alter it by using the handles around the design.



or by entering values in the Shape Properties Box



I thought I would show some examples since I have received some questions about the use of the handles and the shape properties box.

By paying attention to the grid lines on the mat you can easily stretch the design using the lower right handle to preserve the aspect ratio (the design will stretch proportionately by height and width). The two designs below were sized for a 12 x 12 and an 8 x 8 page layout.



If you use the center bottom handle, you can stretch the design vertically - it would look like this



If you use the handle on the center right you can stretch the design horizontally and it would look like this (mat view switched to 12 x 24)



By using the handle in the upper right corner you can skew or tilt the image to the right



or to the left



The lower left handle will rotate the design



If you "lose" the placement handles which move the design in "any direction" (top left handle), "vertically only "(top center) or" horizontally only" (left center), remember that you can use the arrow keys on your computer keyboard to get the design back on the mat and into a position where you can work with it.

You can also move the design by entering values in the Shape Properties Box



This is particularly helpful if you know that you have a certain space on a scrapbook layout or a card front where you want to use the design. Just select your design, type the desired measurements in the width and height boxes and click anywhere on the mat for the values to be applied.

One IMPORTANT note - do not use the "Apply" button after you select the sizes you want - this is used only for kerning. If you look carefully, you will see a fine gray line separating the kerning area (which includes the nudging arrows) from the top part of the box.

If you hit the kerning "Apply" button when you simply want to alter your shape your design will "jump apart" and you will have to move the elements back into position (which can be tedious).

This is another reason to save frequently and to use the "save as" option to save into a different file every so often as you work with the design. You will then be able to go back to a partially completed version of the design if you forget and hit "apply kerning" at the wrong time or run into the "sticky nudge button" problem which I mentioned in a few previous posts. (Once that nudge button goes into overdrive there seems to be nothing you can do to save the file - any element you click on will "drift" in the lasted used nudge direction and the file seems to be permanently corrupted by this).

So back to this design....

Here you can see the full cut - this could be used in one color but I thought it would be fun to make the cars all different colors.



In order to do this, I had to "back them out" of the design by selecting the grouped image and hitting "Backspace" (NOT "delete") four times since the cars were the last four items I added to the design. This gives me a layer for the words only (which I did not use in the photographed example - I simply chose a base color that I wanted to use for the final design).



To cut the four cars I need to add them to the mat as individual images. If you have adapted your design to a certain size to fit your layout, you will not simply use the same object in the size you originally chose since it may no longer be a perfect fit.

You should select the same object and place it directly over the part of the welded design where that object appears - then, by using the handles on this separate element you can adapt it to be a perfect layer for your new design.

Here is a screen shot of the car which has been sized to be a perfect match and then moved off the design to be placed separately for cutting.



Make four of these by copying and pasting and then you can set up your mat for cutting everything at once.




The cuts on the mat after "weeding" the outer paper.



and the final base and layers



I wonder if any of my blog readers remember the drive-in movies - let me know if you do! (or if they still have them in your area...)

At The Drive In (A)