Oval Aperture Cards

It all started with a simple request for help on the Cricut message board. Michelle wanted to make invitations for a celebration of her husband's 20th anniversary working for Peterbilt and was having many frustrations in trying to create the card in Design Studio. I love a challenge and so I told her I would give it a try. I had been working on trying to weld in circles and ovals on and off since I got the software (I finally did get the circle - see post from March 16th).

I went to the company website to see what the logo looked like and, fortunately, the typeface looked pretty similar to the upright version of the script font on the Opposites Attract cartridge. I first tried to just get the company name and "20" inside an oval frame - but I just couldn't get a satisfactory oval. Here is a screen shot of that attempt



I posted that and Michelle liked it but it bothered me - the outside was too uneven, so I decided to sleep on it. The next morning I had a thought - the inside of the oval looked pretty good so why not try to build a card around it which would eliminate the problem of the uneven outer oval shape.

So - back to the drawing board (or rather the laptop!) and I started working on this - adding shapes to build out the sides of the card and trying to get all the welds to work correctly. I finally succeeded and this photo shows the card I created



Michelle thought that was a fine card and I was pretty pleased with it but did not like the way the 20 looked - I thought it was hard to read. So I thought I'd "quickly" change the "20" in the Opposites Attract font to the "20" in the Plantin Schoolbook font. Well...that did not turn out to be a quick substitution - I could not get the welds to work correctly to produce a final card.

I had saved the file from the first version and was about ready to give up when I got it - and found the secret to making this sort of card. I was so frustrated by deleting and adding back elements to "burp" the design that I thought of a new strategy - I started a new page and added elements one by one - checking the the welds each time.

Here is the final version of Michelle's card - the "20" is much clearer - I did not weld it side to side - just to the word above and the oval below.



So I started to experiment and try new versions of cards using this concept. Many message board members were interested in this design and directions of how to make the cards. I realized that my first file required both George and Plantin Schoolbook and some people would not own both of these so I set to work to find a way to make this work for as many people as possible.

The end result is one file that requires only Plantin Schoolbook and one the requires both George and Printing 101 (unfortunately the parentheses on George are not suitable for forming an oval).

Here is a sample card made with the Plantin Schoolbook file - the first photo shows the cut out as the card is open and the second with a white liner so you can see the design better.





Here is a sample card made with the George and Printing 101 file





Once again it is easier to remove these delicate cuts using a large scraper and leaving the offcuts on the mat.



Once you have your card cut you can embellish it as you please -



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 - "Spring" or "Birthday Blessings" - 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!

4 x 5 Oval Aperture Card - Plantin Schoolbook

4 x 5 Oval Aperture Card - George and Printing 101

Fleur-de-lis frames

I actually did this frame before the Eagle Scout one from my last post - I decided to add the "Eagle Scout" to customize it for a special purpose. For the first version, I used mostly silhouetted fleur-de-lis shapes and then I did a second version reversing the sequence and using more of the solid shapes - I prefer the second version since it results in an alternating pattern but you will find both files linked at the end of this post.

One issue I finally solved for these full page frames (remember the first "nearly full page"one I posted with the leaf garlands - on March 4th) is to slightly offset the paper as you put it on the mat to compensate for the tendency of the machine to start a bit too far in on the mat when you place it in what should be the "proper" position. For me, on my machine, it seems to be about a sixteenth of an inch or so - just get out some "ugly" paper and check your machine as I suspect there may be subtle variations from person to person and machine to machine!

Below are photos of the placement of the paper on my mat - first the top left



top right



bottom right



and bottom left



When I cut the first design, I also had an issue again with bad cuts on a few of the silhouettes - reminding me of all the problems I encountered on the large doily design (one of my posts from my first day of blogging - February 1st). I decided not to stress over it, changed the blade and checked on the condition of my mat - the blade had been in use for quite a while and I had just finished doing over thirty large cuts for my Cricut Message Board recipe exchange layouts (thanks again to Kendra for organizing this!)

Here you can see the bad cuts and the roughness of some of the other areas - if this happens to you try changing your blade before getting too upset!



the cut after removing it from the mat - fleur-de-lis failure!!



I tried to salvage this cut by removing the offending cuts but it looked odd to me



so...in order not to be wasteful, I removed the solid ones too which leaves a spot for a word or title - you can see my small sharp scherenschnitte scissors in the photo - they are most helpful for delicate jobs!



When I test cut these I was first removing them from the mat by sliding my scraper under the entire cut edge and then "poking" out the waste bits - this was tricky and I came close to tearing a few of the delicate spots. So after various test cuts I finally figured I should try the opposite and lift only the design - leaving the waste bits on the mat.

Here are a few photos of my trusty scraper with the little pointed corner that works so well for these jobs (I wish I knew where I got this - I would try to get more for my fellow Cricutters!)



Just be patient and slow - particularly on the silhouetted items



Here are the remainders (negative space) on the mat - it could be fun to apply these to a sheet of paper using the actual frame as a template. I think it would make another pretty border.



This design could be used for all sorts of photos and different color combinations can be very pleasing - here is a pastel lilac and yellow version



Fleur-de-lis frame variation #1 (8 solid shapes)

Fleur-de-lis frame variation # 2 (12 solid shapes)


(By the way, if you are interested in knowing more about fleurs-de-lis, I found an entry in Wikipedia when I checked on the plural - you can click HERE to see this information)

Eagle Scout Frame

Both of our sons have become Eagle Scouts. The Eagle Scout ceremony is followed by a reception where it is customary to have displays of each boy's scouting "career." Our younger son was the only boy in his year to stay in scouting and reach Eagle rank in our Troop so, even though he is a freshman in college, his ceremony will be next month along with two boys a year younger who will graduate from high school in June.

I started to work on getting the display items together and thought of designing a frame for his photo the day he passed his Board of Review - I will see if the families of the other two boys would like to have one to display their portraits. I am sure there are some readers of my blog who have or know of a boy becoming an Eagle Scout so I am sharing the frame .cut file here.

I first used DCWV (Die Cuts with a View) paper which has a white core. While I do like the texture of this paper I do not care for the white core. It cracked when I folded my bags (see post on Easter bags, March 29th) and I found that with an intricate cut like this, some of the white inevitably shows.

Here is a close up photo of the cut on the DCWV paper still on the mat - please notice that the paper is not placed exactly in the corner but offset a bit lower and to the right to compensate for the "uncuttable" area on the mat (more about this in my next blog entry)



and on red background paper



a closer view is below - even when the cuts are cleaned you get some white showing...



Here is the DCWV frame on white paper - the white core is less distracting when it can blend with the background.



I prefer the frame cut from solid core paper - I didn't have quite the shade of blue I wanted on hand but here is a photo of the cut.



I also did a background filler for this size of frame, it is on page two of the file. Here is the frame cut in a medium blue solid core card stock with the filler behind the design



Here is the opposite effect, using the leftover center square to fill that area and white card stock for the page behind the frame.



If you have an Eagle Scout many congratulations to you and your son - as we all know "it takes a village" (and in particular some very supportive parents) for a boy to accomplish everything required to reach this milestone!

Eagle Scout Frame

Scalloped Circles

Just a quick post - working on taxes (ugh!) but wanted to get this up for those who were asking for it. After I put up the scalloped border which is similar to a border punch, someone on the Cricut Message Board asked if anyone had done a scalloped circle similar to another punch. Since I had recently been "scalloping" I gave it a quick try.

My first attempt is on the left - this one had sixteen scallops around the circle. My tester said it worked fine but the punch she was thinking of had smaller/more scallops. So, back to the computer, a bit of math, and I designed another one with 24 scallops.

These are both done with George - when I get a chance I will do a Plantin Schoolbook version. If you don't have George and are in a hurry you can easily figure it out by looking at my George .cut file.

Apparently this punch costs over $20 - so the Cricut again shows how it can be well worth the initial investment! Now if I could only design it once, weld, group and resize! (maybe in the next version of the software). I put the two scallops on two different pages so you can cut only the one you need - once again - if only I could have moved the entire design at once rather than element by element it would have been so much faster!

I hope you can use this in your projects - I'd love to see what you make if you do use it!

Scalloped circles - 2.5 inches

Scalloped Punched Border

One of the members of the Cricut message board asked me if I could design something similar to a border punch made by Fiskars called "threading water." This punch creates a scalloped edge with a small hole in the center of each scallop. It seemed like a simple task, however, I discovered many complications due to some limitations of the software and the machine.

In order to design in an orderly manner I calculated that each scallop should be 1/2 inch in diameter. The holes in the center should be 1/8 inch in diameter. So, I created a square that extended beyond the left, bottom and right edges of the cutting mat and placed it 3/4 inch from the top of the mat. Then I welded 1/2 inch circles to the top edge of the square, taking care to place them precisely at one half inch intervals on the "x" axis and at .5 on the y axis. The boxes in the "Shape Properties" area at the top right of the screen can be helpful but it is very difficult to get the program to accept smaller dimensions when you are adjusting shapes - if you try to type in something smaller than .5 it will revert to .5 so the only way to get it smaller is by using the "handle" in the lower right corner of the image which enlarges or reduces it and to watch the box for the size you want.

I first designed this in George on the baby bug mat. There is a problem if you want a 12 inch border - the machine will not cut the full length of the paper. An area of between 1/4 and 1/2 inch at the start of the cut and a slightly smaller area and the end of the cut will be in the "uncuttable" area of the mat.

top left (start of cut)

top right (end of cut)

In order to get a full strip of bordered paper you need to use the 24 inch mat on the Expression.

I also was not pleased with the small holes - while the program showed 1/8 inch circles they did not cut as perfect circles as you can see in this photo which shows the holes next to an one eighth hole created by a hand punch - the cricut cuts look like ovals and are not as large.



You can hand trim and try to add a few punches (which won't match precisely) or, if you have the Expression as I do, you can move on and try to figure out a way to get that full 12 inch border to cut!

So I redid the file in both George and Plantin Schoolbook since those who own the Expression would have that cartridge but may not have George. In order to avoid the problem of the cut starting in the "uncuttable" area, I added a few more circles to the designs and placed the paper one half inch into the mat. When I test cut this time I found that the cut started incorrectly - there was a "tail" before a full scallop cut and the final scallop was cut off, as you can see below.


top left - start of cut

top right - end of cut

The next photo shows the difference between the 1/2 inch mark on the mat and the start of the cut after I moved the paper for another trial cut (the scraps are positioned on the one half inch and the 12 1/2 inch mark).





Finally - I tried again and started from a bit beyond the one inch mark, using the scrap cut from the original cut to place my paper



As you can see, the paper is a bit beyond the 13 inch mark but the scallops are complete on each end



Here is a completed strip with two scalloped edges




and an example of how these could be used on a layout



I am not entirely happy with the way the machine and the program seem to give you exact dimensions to work with but they don't completely align in reality. The only answer is to do some trials on scrap paper and figure out what works for you on your machine.

Obviously, if you want this edge on a smaller sized piece of paper you will be able to cut it by checking your test cut and placing your paper to align with the exact position of the scallops as cut. I am not sure if the "ovalness" of the small holes is due to their small size - mathematically they should be circles but perhaps they are too small for the Cricut to retain the roundness.

I am posting several variations of the files for you to try - on the smaller mat and the 24 inch mat using both George and Plantin Schoolbook. Test them out for yourself and see if you can make it work for your borders.

Scalloped Punched Border - 12 inch mat - George

Scalloped Punched Border - 12 inch mat - Plantin Schoolbook

Scalloped Punched Border - 24 inch mat - George

Scalloped Punched Border - 24 inch mat - Plantin Schoolbook