Silhouette Tutorial Creating a Circle Interactive Card

This tutorial is a follow up on the interactive card tutorial I offered last week. This one is a tiny bit more complicated, but still pretty simple. I will likely have other circle interactive cards to share with you, and this tutorial will work for all cards of that style. The graphic that goes around may be different, but the assembly is virtually the same. 

For this project you will need this Equipment:
A Silhouette Electronic Cutting machine. This file works great with both the Silhouette Cameo and the Silhouette Portrait cutting machines.

For those of you who are new to my blog, and may not have heard about the Silhouette electronic cutting machine(the machine I used to cut this file out,) I put together a product review at this link. You can read other's reviews of the machine here. This machine will change the way you craft! 

You will also need this Silhouette File:
a2 interactive hot air balloon card

Related files:
a2 interactive bike race card

a2 interactive car race card

a2 card set interactive moving bicycle

a2 interactive carousel card
tutorial for these files can be found here.

Okay...now for the project instructions...

First, cut all the parts with your silhouette machine. You will need to ungroup the file and arrange different cutting passes in your selected card stock, or do one cutting pass by arranging several colors of card stock on your cutting mat according to how it is laid out on the screen. See how to do that in this tutorial here.

Fold the card in half.

Take the liner piece (the one that is 4.25X5.5 and not folded) and insert it into the card. Do not glue it at this point.

Take your circle piece, then put glue only in the center, making sure to leave all the edges free of glue.

Center the circle in the larger circle of the folded card, and glue onto the liner piece.

Assemble your balloon as shown.

Insert a brad through the balloon where the tiny hole has been cut. Then find the little circle disk with the hole in it. Insert your brad through the disk and butterfly the clasp. Some people are bending this too tight making it harder to move your interactive card. You can avoid trouble if you fold this a little looser leaving a card stock thin gap before folding the clasps out.

Take your balloon and brad assembly, and slide it onto the circle of the card front, then slide the other side of the disk under the circle of the insert piece.

After the balloon has been set in place, then glue the insert to the front of the card. You need not glue all 4 sides of the insert piece to the front of the card, just 3. The top, the bottom, and the leading edge of the card.  Trying to glue the 4th side (where the fold line is) may be difficult anyway, once your balloon is placed.

Now add your cloud pieces. You will notice that each cloud has been split so that one part of the cloud will go on the inside of the circle and the other part will go on the outside. Try to line them up the best that you can.

I'd love to see your versions of this card! So please feel free to share on my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/samanthawalkerdesigns

Silhouette Tutorial: Creating interactive cards

It's easy to create interactive cards with your Silhouette cameo or Portrait machine. This week, I will be introducing several kits with interactive properties. You can add your own personality to your cards with your paper choices. The card featured here has a bicycle that can slide across the card.

Here are some of the other similar cards you will find in the Silhouette store:

For this project you will need this Equipment:
A Silhouette Electronic Cutting machine. This file works great with both the Silhouette Cameo and the Silhouette Portrait cutting machines.

For those of you who are new to my blog, and may not have heard about the Silhouette electronic cutting machine (the machine I used to cut this file out,) I put together a product review at this link. You can read other's reviews of the machine here. This machine will change the way you craft! 

You will also need this Silhouette File:
Bike Interactive Card set

Related files:
a2 interactive bike race card

a2 interactive car race card

a2 interactive hot air balloon card detailed tutorial for that project can be found here.

a2 interactive carousel card

Papers used:

Cool Summer Garden Green by Samantha Walker for Carta Bella 

Cool Summer Cool Off (yellow side) by Samantha Walker for Carta Bella 

Cool Summer Midsummer sky by Samantha Walker for Carta Bella 

Okay...now for the project instructions...

First cut out the card background, and the 5.5x4.25 backing piece. Next cut out your clouds, grass, bike and other elements in the papers of your choice.

Then glue the grass to the front of the card, along with the clouds and the sun. I put my sun partially behind one of the clouds. I also inked the edges of my clouds with a darker blue ink to add contrast. 

Then add the flowers and stems. To attach the bicycle, put two brads through the holes in the wheels, then through the cut-out "slide strip" in the card. 

 On the reverse side of the card, attach the two white circles with those brads so that it is secured through the "slide strip" as shown in the photo above. If you wish to add a backing paper to cover it up, a 4.5x5.5 rectangle has been included in the file. If you use that, make sure that you do not attach it where the circles will slide on the strip.

The envelope goes together easily. Just fold all sides in. Then glue the front bottom flap up over the sides. Attach the sun seal, then close it with your method of choice (glue, ribbon, tape, etc.)

I'll add pictures of my other interactive card cutting files, that go together similarly, to this blog as they are loaded into the Silhouette store.

Silhouette File Tutorial: Coin Purse Gift Card Holders

Have you ever needed a cute easy card to dress up a gift-card? I've got something for you then!

Today I'm sharing how to make my Silhouette Gift Card holder Coin Purses.

If you want to see other purse tutorials on my blog, here are a few others:

Bucket Purse

Circle Handle Purses

Multiple Purse Tutorial

Purse Gift Card holder

Circle Purse

Two Strap Purse

Barrel Purse

To make either of these coin purse gift card holders you will need this Equipment:
Silhouette Cameo or Portrait electronic cutting machine. These cutting files are designed for use with either machine.

To make the flower coin purse gift card holder, you will need this Silhouette file: 
gift card holder coin purse Design ID# 56357

Size:
Default size of the card is approximately 5.25X 4.5, and can be resized to your liking in the silhouette studio software. Just be sure if you do resize, that you ungroup the half circle tabs that hold the gift card and don't resize that part as it needs to stay proportionate to fit a standard gift card. 

Paper: 
I used the dots paper from my Paris Girl collection for Carta Bella. I also used glitter purple card stock from DCWV.

Other Supplies:
Brads
Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

Studio Software set up:
If you are using a Silhouette Cameo, when you open the file, it will all fit on the live cutting area. You can choose to cut the coin purse out of one color of card stock, or choose to use two colors. An easy way to achieve two colors is to use double sided card stock. You will only then need to cut the flower parts, and closure pieces separately if you want those to be contrasting accents. 

This file goes together really quick. 

1-3. Glue the purse clasp fixtures to the inside and outside of the card. 

4-6. Use a decorative brad to attach the three flower pieces. There are tiny holes pre-cut for you that you can use as a guide for centering your brad. Find the corresponding hole on the coin purse piece and fix the flower to the coin purse with the brad.

7. Insert the corners of a gift card into the half circle slots.

8. Bring the two clasps together, and "criss cross" them to close them so it looks like the finished sample. 

This is the second gift card coin purse, and it goes together just as easy. I have a few pointers to save you from making any mistakes your first round.

To make the coin purse gift card holder, you will need this Silhouette file: 

gift card holder flower coin purse Design ID #56356 

Size:

Default size approximately 5.25X 4, and can be resized to your liking in the silhouette studio software. Just be sure if you do resize, that you ungroup the half circle tabs that hold the gift card and don't resize that part as it needs to stay proportionate to fit a standard gift card. 

Paper: 

I used the Cozy Cardinals paper from my Keepin' Cozy line for Echo Park. I also used red textured card stock from Carta Bella, silver line textured card stock from American Craft. 

Other Supplies:

Brads (4 regular size, and one mini brad for the clasp.)

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

1. Cut the pieces out in your desired colors. You will need to ungroup the file in the silhouette studio software to arrange the parts to do this. 

2-6. Find the straps for each side by looking at the angle of the ends. When you have determined which straps go where, use a brad and thread it through the hinge, the strap and the coin purse. Use a dot of glue at the top of the strap to make sure it is fastened at that end. Go ahead and do all the straps. 

Hint: Make sure that you don't glue behind the half circle shapes where you will be inserting the gift card. 

7. Glue the oval key hole clasp to the front flap of the card. 

8. Attach the turn part of the clasp to the front of the card with a mini brad. 

9. Align the clasp and key hole, then turn the clasp. You may need to fold the wings of the clasp up to get it to move over the keyhole. 

Silhouette: How to Use Subtract All and Release Compound Path Feature by Maya

Hello, Samantha Walker fans! It's Maya here with a new card and few tips and tricks.

When I am in a need for a card I always go back to few basic designs that I love. One of them is what you see above - three paper strips, a doily with sentiment and few embellishments. It is a great way to use up those little pieces of patterned paper that are too small for layouts but too pretty for the recycling bin. That's why I was excited to see all new doilies that Samantha released few weeks ago. How pretty! 

For my card I picked the design called "Spring Doily". I adore the intricate design in the center but I wanted the center to be solid because I will use it to stamp the sentiment. Here is what I did to delete it in few clicks.

1. Open the cut file in the Silhouette Studio Software.

2. Zoom in to make your work easier.
3. Create a new circle.  Align the circle center with the center of the doily and resize the circle till it covers the center part of the doily like in the picture above. If you don't resize the doily the circle should be 4.5".

4. Select both the doily and the circle.
5. Click Subtract All. You just cut a circle in the doily. The original circle is still there. (Do you see how the circle is darker than other lines?) Select it and delete. Now we have a doughnut shaped doily.

6. Select the doily and click Release Compound Path. Now all little pieces are separated. 
7. Select just the circle and delete it. In the picture I moved the circle aside.
8. Select everything and click Group.

9. Resize the doily to the size you want to use. For my 5"x6.5" card I resized the doily to 4".
10. To create the mat, select the doily and click Offset. Change the Offset Distance to 0.1.

Cut the doily from white cardstock and the mat from patterned paper or colored cardstock. I used gorgeous papers from Samantha Walker Traditions Collection from Carta Bella. The sentiment is from  Samantha Walker "Buntings and Banners" stamp set. 

That's it for today. I hope I inspired you to make a card for someone you love. Thank you for stopping by!

Here are some supplies that you can use to make today's project, and other fun stuff:

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