Be Mine-craft Valentines

The Minecraft craze has hit my daughters elementary school and my girls all play the "creative mode" using the iPad, so this idea was the perfect fit. Which is good since the treat my daughter picked to hand out, didn't fit into the goodie bag we originally planned!

If you have a "minecraft" fan you know this will be a hit since it is sort of addicting. As a result, there are lots of sites already out there with ideas for papercrafting minecraft items. Lucky for me, I have a machine that can take the PDF's and other images and create a cutting file to make these fast and easy. In fact I have a mini paper set of a "creepers" and other things thanks to these sites. :) I am sorry to say I can't give credit for this since image since I had never intended to post this and don't have the info. I will try to figure it out and update. Lesson learned. *the images were downloaded from this site. Now for the funny part...it is associated with seller of the digi paper I bought and they referred me there in the download email. LOL.*

OK back to the Valentine...I downloaded and used a template for the coloring but since the trace was so jagged on the edge I just eyeballed it and created another shape on top of the image. This was pretty easy since I already had a cube design made in anticipation that I would be getting a set of papers to use instead of this download. I had ordered(too late) a set of digital papers for minecraft from an Etsy store but didn't get it in time(no fault of the store I have to add). I am actually excited to get it and hope to create mire cutting files once I do....but this Valentine came out pretty good too.

I used print and then didn't get the registration marks to fit on the mat but because the ZIng uses a laser light and lets the user set the starting point of the paper, I was able to get the cut nearly perfect to the image by setting it very carefully....love my Zing!

Not the best picture but my G finished putting stickers on this AM and it was off to school early so she could also go t the school store.

 The stickers on the sides are "puny." Best things about Valentines day is that your actually supposed to use puns. Love that! For these I used a minecraft font found at the FontMeme.  Then created a shadow and used the print and cut feature of MTC software using my Zing. Easy! I have to say I had a bit of trouble cutting the sticker paper without going through so I suggest very little blade (near 0) and minimum force of about 30 maybe?

Hope you can make one for your Minecraft fan!Oh, I forgot the most important part of this post...
When my G got out of the car, she actually skipped up to the door this AM! That's why I do this. The skip, and the smile. :)

Have a great Valentines Day!

Our Valentines Day

 I love to surprise my girls with some treats for Valentines Day. Mostly a few candies but this year I found some Target dollar section goodies they would love. One thing I loved is all the cute SVG files I found at Lettering Delights. To be honest I had lots of options with some stuff from SVGcuts.com as well but settled on these "conversation heart boxes" and some graphics files for a super quick card for two of my girls. My littlest has found a cute movie from Netflix called Disco worm so when I saw the worm card form on the Lettering Delights store I knew I had to make it. My oldest has a thing, against pirates so I had to get the Valentines set and then my G loves her ipod touch and music so it was lucky that I had the  file too. I used the print and cut feature and made super quick Valentines. After spending a lot of time on the projects below....

 I made about 40 of these Conversation Heart lollipop covers. I used the basic set to create my own file but somehow I am not sure it was enough bang for the buck. I print and cut a sentiment on the back so that the girls could just sign them and hand them out...they usually do more to help but since this was a late night project.

My littlest one had her first ever Valentines Day party at preschool so we went all out with these treat boxes. Yes they are mini bug boxes! How cute is that? The file and kit are at..wait for it...Lettering Delights. B saw these cute bugs and decided against the kitty cat Valentines we originally planned, the ones I liked from the SVGcuts.com site....but this wasn't a very difficult project and I didn't mind the switch. The front sentiment was a print and cut, and I printed a sentiment on the back for B to sign. We found some really cute conversation heart candies to put in the back. It makes the girls feel so good to give out something a bit more fun.

Not exactly new...

I was recently chatting with a friend who wanted to make some cool accessories for parties like she sees in Etsy, which reminded me of our Valentines this year. G wanted to make her own, so we worked together to find just what she wanted. We came up with some cute tag pocket "cards" with a gift certificate for an ice cream cone, and an easy topper for her to glue on. It was so seriously easy, my three year old joined in to make some for her friends too. Amazingly I didn't blog them, but since it's a handy idea for all occasions I wanted to share anyway.

Instead of learning Photoshop which is an amazing tool that I don't have and have no idea how to use, I found some awesome clipart from Lettering Delights . G  picked out the images she was interested in then I set up a cut file in DS. The packet tag is from Tags Bags Boxes and More and the topper is Just Because Cards.

*edited to make this more understandable...hopefully

After I cut one set of the shape from Just Because Cards on a plain sheet of cardstock, I measured where the cuts ended up on the page.

Then I set up a MSWord document with a table, using the ruler on the side to help line up the borders of the table by adjusting the size of the rows and colums as well as the margins settings.

Then I place the clip art within the box of the table and play around with placement until I get the images right. You can play around with justification and use the space bar to move the clipart around. Be sure to set the tables rows and columns to exact size or it will adjust the size as you add elements.

A table allows you to copy and paste the whole clip art set and keep the spacing of the clipart consistent as you copy it to the next "box." This helps each set of images remain within the fixed border, and it will stay within the cut shape. You can use the leftover piece of cardstock to compare with a printed sheet before cutting to be sure you've aligned everything properly. Place the two pieces of cardstock together and be sure you can see your images wholly within the space left by the cut shape. Then you can place your printed paper on the mat to cut the shape around your printed images.

There is a bit of trial and error, and be sure to select "no borders" before you print!  After you have achieved the placement you'd like, you can print and cut a boatload! I made some of these in green and some pink for my two daughters as well as the Girl Scout troop and also a few neighbors(about 40). Happy Crafting!