ZooBalloo for Christmas (!)

I have been on the road since last Sunday - returning my son to college and visiting family. I have not had much time to get to the computer and limited internet access but I thought I'd try to get a quick post up today. Many people tell me that they check my blog daily and I think you must be getting bored seeing the pine branch card over and over!

Everyone seems to be trying to economize these days and, since acquiring more and more cartridges can be very expensive, I'd like to encourage you to take a careful look at the cartridges you do have - you may find some surprising uses for them! There are three Christmas cartridges available (and they are all wonderful) but I found a way to make a Christmas card using only the Zooballoo cartridge.

This file cuts a 5 x 7 card and I have also included an additional cut to do an overlay of the trees on page three of the file. Cut the card from page one. Page two is just for previewing the file. For most of these cards I used a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock centered at the top of the 12 x 12 mat - you can buy a ream (500 sheets) of this cardstock quite reasonably at an office supply store.

There are many possible variations to this card - here are just a few...



Here the card was cut from green cardstock and I cut a piece of vellum to back the opening behind the trees and added stickles on one side to suggest snow on the trees and the ground below.



In this version I added a piece of blue cardstock embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder behind the trees.



For this one I backed the opening with plain blue cardstock and then also cut the overlay in green - offsetting it slightly when I adhered it to the card to get the snow effect. (Looking at this photo now I think it may be a good idea to trim the right side of the overlay a bit).



Here is the card done in "white on white" - very simple but effective. You can add score lines, stickles and other details around the design to give it more dimension.



Here is a closer view of the image - I only adhered the backing at the edges to be sure that the actual trees would be slightly raised creating a nice shadow line. I also was careful to have the snowflakes "start" at the top of the opening but you could place the embossed piece to have them partially cut off - it might look more like it was actually snowing.

Obviously, none of these cards have had sentiments added yet and there are many more ways to vary the basic design or embellish the cards.



I hope you can use this design and that you will check your other cartridges to see if you can find some Christmas images hiding in unlikely places!

Tree Front Card

Castle Card

The Design Studio software opens up so many possibilities for creating unique cards. There are many shapes that can be used to make interesting "shaped cards" for all occasions.

I created this card with my neighbor to help her get started on using the software - I will explain how we did this step by step to help others learn this simple technique.
Here is the inside of the card



To create a card, find a shape you would like to use and place it on the right side of the mat - we used a castle from the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge.



Click "weld" in the shape properties box while the first castle is selected. Then copy and paste the castle image using the quick buttons at the left of the screen (second and third from the top)
Then click "flip" in the Shape Properties box at the top right of the screen (both "weld" and "flip" should be checked on the second castle).



the result will look like this



Select the top "flipped" image and use the blue "handle" in the center of the left side to pull the image to the left along the horizontal axis



Move the second castle into position so that a symmetrical image is created and preview to check the cut. You will notice that the interior detail lines appear "grayed out" - this means that they will not be cut - leaving a solid area for your message



By using the 200 view you can check the center weld - here you can see that due to the shape of the castle there will be a cut going up about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the fold.


To minimize this, find another shape to weld on top of the area that you do not want to cut - try to use something on the same cartridge - for a bit of fun I chose the canoe to demonstrate! Be sure to click weld after selecting this filler shape.



The canoe is entirely "grayed out" and will not cut but will weld the two sides together in the area we wanted to cover - I left it up a bit from the base to make the scoring of the fold of the card easier (the line will be more obvious because of the little notch).

Preview the new cut by clicking on the "eyeball" (second from the bottom of the left buttons)



For a clearer view, click on the top button for a new page and preview on that page - it will look like this



We decided that the font from ZooBalloo would be a good choice for this card (there was also a pre-made "Happy Birthday" phrase on that cartridge), but you can make your words in whatever font pleases you. You can use pre-made words, weld your own words or do your own lettering by hand.

I left the second page of the file intact so you could see the approximate size for the words that will fit on this card




This card looks cute standing up



and fits perfectly in an A2 envelope



The offcut will be centered and could be used for a scrapbook page - possibly for journaling or as a creative cut out around a photo



Obviously you will need to change the name on the second page of this file which I left for sizing purposes.

Simple Castle Card

Larger (5 x 7) oval aperture card

When I posted the oval aperture note cards I said I would put together a template for a larger size - here it is. This is done in Plantin Schoolbook since you need the Expression to cut a card this size (sorry baby bug owners).

Here is another photo of the card taken with a flash to show the details a bit more clearly.




In my sample, I glued in a piece of embossed card stock with birds to go along with the birds in the "Welcome" from the ZooBalloo cartridge. I taped it lightly to the side when I applied the glue to be sure it ended up in the position I wanted (then I gently removed the tape after flipping it over into position). I also cut just the birds from the Welcome by positioning most of the word off the mat and cutting yellow paper (and then hand trimming). I added a touch of Stickles for the eyes.



You should follow the directions I gave for the smaller cards to build your own like this. I will repeat them here...

HOW TO USE THESE FILES

Here are the directions for using these files. Each file has three pages - the template page, the card building page and the blank page for previewing as you go along. Do a "save as" of the file and name it to suit your project - this way you will preserve the template for future cards.

Start by deciding what you want to put in the center of the oval. Using the first page, get those items sized appropriately and be sure that you check weld on each element (eliminate the design that I left in the center - "Welcome" - so you can see more clearly where to put the items). When placing your elements it can be helpful to use the 200 size view to see if the elements are touching the edges of the oval.

Next, copy the design elements from that page and paste them on page two (the card assembly page). Continue this process adding elements step by step from the center - first the parentheses, then the small ovals, then the rectangles and squares that form the edges of the card. Check your welds as you go along but if you do it in this order you should not have a problem.

Good luck and enjoy making these cards!

5 x 7 Oval Aperture Card

Add markers to get the details

Sometimes on a frame you are welding elements that have internal details - these are lost when the frame is cut due to the welding process (a feature of this first version of the software that could possibly be changed in the future?). For most of the frames I have done so far this was not an issue because they were shapes, but the little animals and train on the baby frame seemed "blah" without the details.

So, I got out my markers and decided to try to get some definition on these elements.

To do this I needed to first create a second mat with just the shapes so that I could have the markers draw them but not the frame. This is easy but a bit time consuming. First you need to create a new page by clicking on the page icon with the little "sun" at the top of the column of buttons on the left or selecting "New Page" in the "View" menu on the top bar. Then click on each item and "copy" it, move to the new page by clicking the tab for it and paste the item on the new page. Name your page by right clicking anywhere on the page and highlighting "untitled page" in the box - typing the page title and either clicking on Change Page Name or just "enter."
Repeat this process until the items are all showing on page 2. You also need to uncheck "weld" to get the details to reappear.

Here is a screen shot of the new page after all the copying, pasting and "unwelding"



Here is the preview with all mats showing



Here is the frame on the mat after drawing and cutting.



You can either draw, then cut or cut, then draw - some people recommend cutting first to be sure that the blade won't tear the slightly wet paper but you can also just let the paper sit for a while if you draw first. The important thing is to be very careful when you change the marker for the blade and vice versa.

When you change the blade after the first cut be careful not to bump the housing and be sure to press "load paper" again to put the housing back into starting position - this helps avoid misalignment by getting the machine to start from "neutral" and go to the precise spot where it cut before.

The issues I had with the results have to do with the thickness of the lines. Normally, if you are using the markers to outline a cut there is a thick line drawn and the blade cuts in the center of that line. The end result is a consistent line. Here some marked lines are cut and some are not so there is an inconsistency with the thickness as you can see in this photo.



I think it looks a bit out of balance but I do like the definition the marker adds overall.

This time I left the smoke bubble in the outer rim of the mat (just removed from the mat carefully and did not "punch" it out).



So, this is another option for you. I will link the revised version of the file here if you want to download it (you could also just follow my directions above and try to do it yourself).

Revised Sweet Baby frame with Zoo Balloo

I also separated the elements on the other version of this frame but have NOT tested this with the markers - I'll post it here if you want to try it.

Revised Sweet Baby frame with Animal Kingdom

Little Frames for Baby Bugs

Several people have commented that they love the frames I have been doing but couldn't cut them since they didn't have an Expression. I decided to take on the challenge of designing something similar that could be cut on the baby bug. Thanks to Suzanne for testing this size - she cut the pink frame on her baby bug and told me it came out just fine.



The pink frame is all George - it is a bit fiddly removing all of the pieces from the center and petals of the flowers but I like the final effect.



The pine cone frame uses George and Joys of the Season - this one is very easy to remove from the mat and to "clean up" by removing the offcuts - they are larger in size.



The next frame uses George and ZooBalloo and is a bit more delicate. When I first did a test cut I did not like the thick "bars" that were forming at the corners of the inner frames so I went back to work and readjusted the length . I think the second one is better but you may want to tweak it a bit more if you have the patience!



Here you can see the rejected version (on the left) and the second one - the difference is slight but I feel it improves the overall look of the frame.



The final and most delicate/frustrating of these is also George and Joys of the Season. Due to the limited amount of room to add the decorative elements in these frames, the garland is very small and there was a bit of tearing when I cut it (as you can see on the mat below) and it is also difficult to get the offcuts to come apart cleanly on the swirls.



I will put this file up but you need to be extremely careful to get all of the offcuts removed - you may want to try redesigning it a bit (I might but I have a few other things in the works right now).

For designing purposes it was easier for me to work from the center of the mat but you do not need to waste paper. Simply cut 6 x 6 inch squares and position them at the top but on the three inch line.



When you do this you will have only a very small edge of paper that is wasted (you can even cut these squares at the corners and save the strips to use on another project - if you are extremely frugal!).



I will be doing more of these but they are rather fiddly - it takes a lot of time to get the elements arranged attractively (and then there is always "burping" to be done to get the welds to take). I hope you enjoy using these in your projects

George Square Frame Hearts and Flowers

George Square Frame Pine Cone Garland

George Square Frame Vines

George Square Frame JOTS Garland