Doctor Who and Cutting Files

Hi there Crafty Geeks!

It's Kat again with another geeky craft post!

My husband and I have been watching a lot of sci-fi and fantasy television lately, and while I have a few new shows that I really like, one old show that we've been catching up on is Doctor Who, and I know I'm not alone in the geeky crafters that are also Whovians, but I thought I would share this file that can be used on multiple cutting machines to make your own wall sign or vinyl laptop cover.

It's the Doctor's name in Gallifreyan and the new Doctor Who logo.  I hope to test out the file tomorrow, for a wall hanging, but I wanted to share it tonight before I got involved in all the possibilities.  Once I get some vinyl, I'll cut a laptop sticker and share all the pictures with you!

Here's the file:  CLICK HERE  I've included the MTC(Make the Cut), SVG, AI/EPS, and the PDF.  Please let me know if any of these files don't work and I'll try to fix them for your use!

That's it for tonight!

Let me know in the comments who your favorite Doctor is!
Mine?  I got addicted to the series with Chris Eccleston as 9, but David Tennant as 10 definitely keeps me laughing!

Allonzy!

Kat

Custom Wall Art Plaques

Hey there, Crafty Geeks!

I hope you liked my last tutorial - I have some more pictures for you this time of the wall plaques I've been working on.  Since I'm not working right now, while I do applications, I can spend more time getting crafty and keeping up my blog.

Yay for you, right?

Lately, I've been working quite a bit with my new Pazzle Inspiration cutter.  I got a great deal on it from the company, which is their normal deal, but it lets me have it now and not pay all $500 dollars! I paid $99 plus tax and shipping, and I pay $20 a month for access for to their craft room, which is super helpful because it gives you access to their cutting files for download.

Honestly, I am not a fan of their software, so I bought a version of Knk's Make the Cut software, which is so user friendly. I use the Pazzle software to export their files to import into my other software so I don't lose the cutting documents.  There are lots of tutorials on how to use the Inspiration software, but it's quite similar to using Adobe Illustrator when you've been used to Adobe Elements.

Okay, enough talking here's the art!

This one hangs in my hallway for my husband and I.  I love the background paper since it's a great use for more colorful papers without being completely overwhelming!

This one is for my parents.  I used the cattails since they were a prominent feature on a clock that used to hang in our living room. The background is a Thomas Kinkade vellum that I got on sale from Michaels forever ago and never had a way to use it.  I used a similar one for my husband's grandmother, but she hasn't seen it yet, so I'm not going to post it until later.

This plaque was done for my in-laws at their request for the beach house.  I really like how the crab and palm trees blend well with the sea shades and items on the background.  I'm really happy with the positioning too, since you can see little crabs in the circle for the P and the crab's claw. 

I've got these up in my Etsy store (weyrdkat) as well -- I really like doing them and custom names could be awesome as gifts.  They're only 8 dollars plus shipping, so they're a really good deal too.  I'll post some more as I finish them, since I have one for my parent's billiard room and one for my sister-in-law finish, and one for my brother-in-law and his wife in the works!

I hope this inspires you to get crafty too!

Ja' ne!

Kat

Covered Jar Tutorial

Hi Crafty Geeks!  It's been a while since I posted any thing on the blog, but you're in luck, because today I have all the pictures for a tutorial!  My wonderful husband got me a pazzle machine for Valentine's Day this  year (sshh! I know it hasn't past yet, but I got it early!) While trying out all the options and munching some chips for lunch yesterday, I thought about what I could do with the now empty salsa jar.  So, here's what I came up with. . .

What you'll need:

1. One Clean Jar

2. 3 colors of 12x12 paper or as many as you want for the design.

    a) 1 color: 12x6 minus a 3x3 square in the bottom right corner

    b) 2 color: 12x3 strip

    c) 3 color: 12x3 strip plus a 3x3 square (this fits into the missing section of  

                    the 1 color)

3. Glue.  I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive for gluing onto the jar and a Zig 2 way glue pen for paper to paper gluing.

Start with a CLEAN empty salsa or queso jar.  I peeled the labels off this one relatively easy.  It was still sticky, but that's okay, since we're covering it up.

Next, decide on your pattern and style.  I wanted something fun that would hold the buttons in my craft room.  I created a MTC file that can be used with a Pazzle, (The SVG and EPS files are also included to use in the Pazzle software) and you can download it here. After that, decide on your paper and line it up on the cutter. Or print it and you can cut it by hand. Use a hole puncher to get those little circles. This is what the layout looks like before.

Cut your files and pull the large circles and large button outline off the page.  Glue them together and on the lid like so:

Next, pull the title background and the title outline off the sheet and glue them together like this:  Here I used the glue pen to put the paper pieces together.

I put the button pieces together after that.  Sometimes the edges don't cut really well, so I covered the one that messed up with the title section.

You can see that I've put all the pieces together and I'm ready to put the label together.

I've glued my label together and stacked some of the buttons to create a fun little design.  Then I glue it onto the jar, switching back to the scotch quick dry glue.  I laid the label down upside down on the mat and lined up one edge of the label with the center of the jar.  Apply glue to the entire label and gently roll the jar to pick up the label, making sure to push it tight to keep the bubbles out.  Be aware that part of the label with overlap with itself, so make sure your design isn't overlapped.

You can see that I took a sharpie marker and colored over the printed label from the manufacturer on the edges of the lid.  You don't have to do this, but I didn't want MILD everywhere.  You could also cut a slim strip of paper to match your label.

Have fun and be sure to leave me links to your ideas and your version of the jar!

Kat