CD envelopes

Someone asked about a CD sleeve on the Cricut message board. I was sure that others had designed and posted some of these but I couldn't find one right away to answer the posted question and so I decided to give it a try.

To make something like this it is easiest to find a ready made example, disassemble it and then figure out the measurements and shapes needed to create something close to the sample. The creativity and fun come in making adjustments to the "standard issue" item and choosing papers that will put a smile on your face!

I did these using the standard circle but you can take whatever shape you want, from any cartridge you own and personalize the window - just be sure that you DO NOT check "weld" when you add that design and be careful about centering the design in the front square of the sleeve.

I first did a design for the baby bug mat - here is a screen shot of the preview.



This design uses the full width of the paper and will require a bit of trimming at the edges where the paper extends beyond the "cuttable" area (see the photos below).





I cut mine on the Expression 12 inch mat and there is a slight difference in the two side flaps based on the paper placement.



Once this is removed from the mat the fold lines should be scored - a ScorPal makes this very easy but you can do it with the edge of a bone folder and a ruler as well.



The opening will require some clear, thin plastic for the window - I found a stack of florist cellophane for wrapping flowers that was left from a volunteer event and this worked perfectly - here is a photo (you may be able to get this at a floral supply store or just ask a local florist if you can buy a small amount).



This material cut easily in my Creative Memories straight trimmer - just start the blade in the middle of a cut and go in both directions to avoid snagging.



Once you have the small square of plastic you can adhere it to form the window - I used tape runner in the four corners and a line of CM Precision Point adhesive around the circle - let it sit until it turns clear and then carefully lay in your cellophane square.



Then add adhesive to the two side flaps and fold your sleeve together - the top flap can tuck inside or just fold over the top - you can use a sticker to close it if you like.

Next, I tried adapting the design for the larger mat by shifting all the elements down a bit to make sure that all the cutting would be done by the Cricut (no hand trimming at the edge). Here is a screen shot of the shifted design on the 12 x 12 mat.



When I first cut this I used a 6 x 12 piece of paper and placed it on the mat at the 1/2 inch mark from the top line - you can see the placement below



A six inch piece is a bit too narrow and the second flap was not as wide as designed since the paper did not cover that area.



Here is the offcut and you can see that the lower flap went beyond the paper I allowed.



So I tried a third time using a slightly wider piece of paper and this time the entire design was cut



Here is the third finished CD sleeve or envelope.



These are done using George - I have also designed a version using Plantin Schoolbook and will post that here. Another message board member did a cute design for a CD sleeve using Plantin Schoolbook as well. She did it in two sizes and with a flower cut out in the front. Since she does not have a blog she asked me to post her design and I will put that up here when she sends it to me.

There are so many possibilities to embellish and expand on this basic design - use your imagination!

CD sleeve on 6 x 12 mat - George

CD sleeve on 12 x 12 mat - George

CD sleeve on 12 x 12 mat - Plantin Schoolbook

Scalloped 4 x 6 Photo mats - a few options

I love photography and wanted to make some card using my flower photographs. I wanted these to be simple but to have something to set off the photos. Since I just figured out a quick and easy way to make scallops using hearts, I decided to design a scalloped mat that would perfectly fit a 4 x 6 photo and could then be mounted on a premade 5 x 7 card.



When the mat is cut you will also have a perfectly even border leftover - if you are a frugal person you can make two cards by using this border for another photo - it will give the effect of a mat. Here is the border cut offset so you can see the design



and here is the card with the border placed at the edge - you can see that it gives the same sort of effect and nothing goes to waste!



The scallops are pretty on their own but then I decided to "fancy them up" a bit by adding small holes (particularly since the "threading water" punch is so popular these days - see my post from March 29th on the scalloped punched border).

Here are a few photos of cards with the scalloped mat with punched holes









I decided that the mat added quite a bit of weight to the card front once you add a photo so I decided to try a version that has a cut out in the center to reduce the weight - it also gives more design options.

Here is a photo of this cut on the mat - notice that the cut starts one half inch in from the top and side of the mat - you can try to place a 5 x 7 piece of paper in precisely the right position or use a slightly larger piece of paper to be sure that the mat is exactly the right size after cutting.



Here you can see the cut on a card



Finally, this is a card front using the "mat" and "Thank You" cut with the Cricut.



There are endless variations with various color combinations - I'd love to see what you do with these! There are three files to choose from (or try them all).

Scalloped 4 x 6 photo mat

Scalloped 4 x 6 photo mat with holes

Scalloped 4 x 6 photo mat with holes and center opening

Small Frame of Hearts

The large frame of hearts I posted on April 14 was a very simple design but a useful one and so I decided to do a smaller version which could be cut on the baby bug. I hope that some of my regular readers may have already done this on their own but I know that there are many new bug owners and beginners with Design Studio who might appreciate having it done for them, ready to cut.



The offcuts once again are quite attractive and could be used on their own.



This smaller design can be used on a large page - it looks attractive turned on point as you can see below



You can even use the small heart cut outs in the corners of the page to pull it all together



One interesting thing I noticed is that the edges of these frames form a nice scalloped square - scallops seem to be very popular these days and if you don't have one of the cartridges with a scalloped square you can make your own by welding a square within the frame of hearts.



The scalloped square is on the second page of the file below. Once again, you can take this concept and adjust to make frames in the sizes you require for your projects. Have fun with this!

Small Frame of Hearts and Scalloped Square

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

From Quilt to Card - Diamonds into Stars

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I am also a quilter (well...at least a fabric collector and quilt planner!) and I have been thinking about trying out a particular type of quilt pattern with the Cricut. A few years ago I became interested in a type of kaleidoscope quilt developed by Bethany Reynolds - I attended a workshop and completed a quilt top which you can see here



The book with this pattern and many others is called "Magic Stack and Whack Quilts" by Bethany S. Reynolds (ISBN 1-57432-704-6) and I highly recommend it if you are interested in these sorts of designs. In a nutshell, her technique involves aligning identical repeats of fabric and then cutting through the entire stack to create diamond or other shapes which can be combined to form new patterns. The best sort of fabric for this technique is a bold busy print with lots of colors. The designs are always a surprise when you separate the stacks and assemble the stars.

Here is another quilt top using 45 degree diamonds for eight pointed stars.



So, I thought, why not try this with paper - I can't stack layers of paper on the Cricut but I could use the Design Studio software to cut in exactly the same place on identical sheets of paper over and over.

Here is the paper I started with (many thanks to my friend Nancy who picked this up for me while she was shopping via cell phone instructions about the type of paper I needed).



My scrapbook style is very simple and I can't imagine ever choosing this for my background 12 x 12 paper but it was perfect for this experiment!

I started out using the diamond on the George cartridge at a 1 inch size - it looked to be the right type of diamond so I cut an entire row of these, taking care to put the paper on the mat in the exact same position each time. Unfortunately, after all this cutting, I discovered that the diamond on the George cartridge is not quite right!

Here are the results - the diamonds need to have a 60 degree angle and these are slightly too big which means that they can't be assembled into a six pointed star (and the angle is not big enough to form a five pointed star). Here are a couple of examples - they just won't fit together...






So, back to the laptop to try to manipulate the diamonds. This took quite a while (I am sure there is a clever mathematical way to figure it out but I "tweaked" the diamond and tried assembling the diamonds on the screen until I got a size that worked!).'
'
This time I was more cautious and test cut first on plain paper - it worked!



The only slight problem is that the diamond does not have sharp points - they are slightly rounded so the joins are not entirely perfect but close enough!

So - on the second round, I had better luck on the cuts but there is an operator error element that can affect the precision of the cuts - Even though I was careful to put the paper on the mat in exactly the same position and tried to load the mat evenly each time - there were slight variations (there may even be variations in the printing of the paper). So I would recommend cutting a few extra sheets in each position to assure that you will get six nearly identical diamonds - even the slightest shift will make the star look "wrong" as you can see below



There are many small pieces to keep track of so try using an old, not-so-sticky mat to hold them all in place (a tip I got from the Cricut message board - sorry, I can't remember who said it) - this helps to insure that you will be able to put the stars together easily



While this design requires only six diamonds - I cut eight sheets of paper to give me a few extras to compensate for any errors in loading the mats. This was a good decision, as you can see below, there is at least one diamond in each set that is slightly "off.



Once you get all your sets of diamonds cut you can have fun seeing what designs result when you combine them - depending which tip of the diamond points to the center you will get a totally different "look"



Here are some more photos showing the fascinating combinations that can result - in each set of three below the top row shows a set of six diamonds with one end of the diamond pointing to the center and the bottom row shows the opposite way around - see how different they can look!





I used a few of these to make some cards - one is at the top of this post and here is another



Here is a close up of the star - done up with gold outlines and "Stickles" glitter glue!



So - if you have the patience, give this a try. I plan to do a few larger sizes and to try the eight pointed star too. These are great for cards or decorative accents on scrapbook pages - use your imagination and see what you can do. Remember, the wilder and more colorful the paper, the more exciting the results will be. Have fun with this!

Diamonds for making six pointed stars