Happy Halloween - Witchy Footwear Card for SCAL 2 OR NOW File for DS too!

Hello. We have 2 month until Halloween. "Witch" means its time to be making those Halloween cards!! I had purchased the Sept/Oct 2009 copy of PaperCrafting Magazine. It has several cute card ideas in it. One is a "Witchy Footwear Card" designed by Kim Hughes.

I liked the card but of course wanted to be able to cut out multiple of the cards with my Cricut. So, with the help of my scanner, computer, Inkscape and SCAL 2, I downloaded the pattern for the Witches Boot, created an .svg file with Inkscape and imported it into SCAL 2. Since the "card" requires a "front and back" to it and the pattern only had 1 side of 1 boot, I had to copy it and then flip it and then attempt to weld it. Well for some reason, I couldn't get SCAL or SCAL 2 to weld the two boots together!! Grrrrrr!!! I do know how to weld - it wasn't working!! Still haven't figured out why!!


Well - not to be thrawted by a computer and software, I simple cut 2 of the shapes out, taped them together in the correct position and rescanned it into my computer as 1 object! Then again, coverted it into an .svg file and IMPORTED it into SCAL 2! Success!!! There is more then one way to skin a cat you know!! LOL I used a $1 stamp from Studio G that says "Best Witches" inside the card.


I used SCAL 2 because I wanted 2 pages. The first page has the card base and the second page a "liner" for inside the card since I was cutting the base in black cardstock! I did try to open this .scut file in the first version of SCAL just to see what would happen - nothing happens - you just get a blank page. So, you will need to have SCAL 2 to open and cut this file. It also appears that there is nothing to distinguish the file names of files created in SCAL 1 and/or SCAL 2. Both types of files end in .scut alone. If I am wrong on this can someone let me know? Thanks! This may cause problems for some since SCAL 1 wouldn't open my SCAL 2 file. As a result, I will always try to remember to tell you which version of SCAL I have used. I may come back and add a SCAL 1 version but you really don't need me to, simply take the .svg file and IMPORT (not open) it into SCAL 1. Remember to IMPORT the Shoe CARD if you want the card base!


I thought about adding the "hole punches" for the ribbon "shoe lace" but didn't because I was also using a liner inside the card. That would be a nightmare to try and line up before you cut and put the card base and liner together. So, I didn't add those to the file. However, you could add them to the front base IF you were not going to use the liner inside the card.



You can download the single Witches Shoe .svg file here. You can download the Witches Shoe CARD .svg file here. Or you can download the Witches Shoe CARD .scut file for SCAL 2 here.

UPDATE: 9/11/09 - GJ from the Cricut MB contacted me and asked if I would mind if she attempted to create this card in DS for those Cricut users with DS but not SCAL.  I told her I'd be happy for her to do that.  I also told her she was a better woman then me to do so because I had taken the "easy way out" by doing this with SCAL to start with.  I love DS but I don't have the patience to do complicated things with it, especially without a "group all" feature and some other basic graphic features that it is missing.  Anyway . . .

GJ has created a DS .cut file of a similiar witch's shoe card for all our DS friends!  Thank you GJ for doing so and sharing it.  Since GJ does not yet have a blog she said she was willing for me to post it here on mine to share with all of you.  Here is a picture of her card she made: 

You can Download GJ's Witch's Shoe Card .cut file here.

Thanks GJ.  To see more of GJ's work you can go to the Cricut MB and check out her gallery there. 

Sports Decals for Car with Wallpops and Sports Mania

Here are two "Sports Decals" I did for my car. My DD plays volleyball and my DS plays football for their middle school. The football team orders decals and magnets for the parents' cars but we don't for volleyball. So, I wanted something for each of my children. I created these using the Sports Mania Cartridge for the volleyball, the volleyball player and the football. I used Basecamp for the font for the name of the school and their names and his number. I used white wallpops. These were cut at around 3 inches I believe. I originally did 5 inches and they were way too big!!!

I am not including a .cut file as they should be fairly simple to recreate. However, do not hesitate to ask for one or for help should you have problems with it. Simply layout the design on your DS screen and "cut". Then "weed out" the excess pieces of your vinyl that you don't need. For example, remove the pieces "inside" the volleyball, the "lines," the player, and the actual letters (be sure to leave the "insides" of any letters like the "B" and the "a"). Then remove the extra pieces around the outside of the cut.

Once you have your "design" as it should appear on your window, transfer it to the transfer tape per the tape's instructions. This should put the "outside" of your design down on the transfer tape with the sticky part of the vinyl up. No go place it on your car window and "rub" the design down. Note - this method is done on the OUTSIDE of the car window. Mine has been on the car for almost a month now with LOTS of rain and is still sticking no problems. No fading since I used the white wall pops to start with.

Be creative and do this for most any sport or activity your child participates in! Have fun.

gymnast on a beam - .svg file

Here is an image of a gymnast on a beam. I have always loved watching gymnastics. Then, for more then 6 years my DD and/or DS did competitive gymnastics. Sadly, they have both given it up for various reasons. I miss watching them compete but we have moved on to other sports! So, I know how hard gymnastics images are to come by and I hope to add some more gymnastics related die cuts soon.

This one is a simple shadow shape - no layering. I got the image from a scroll saw magazine! I have thought for a while that patterns used for scroll sawing could easily be converted and made into die cut images to cut with my Cricut. I was right! This image came from the Fall, 2009, Issue 36 of the "Scroll Saw Woodworkng & Crafts magazine". I simply scanned it into my computer using my all-in-one printer/scanner, saved it as a .gif, .jpeg, or .tiff image file and then imported it into Inkscape and with just a few keystrokes turned it into an .svg file for use with the SCAL software to cut with my Cricut!

There were also some Halloween patterns in this edition of the magazine. I have been working on one of those and have some more scanned in to work on. I hope to get one or more of those posted in the next few days. So, when looking for images to convert to .svg and import into SCAL don't forget those scroll saw patterns! (I also have lots of painting patterns that I think could easily be done! LOL Oh so many images and so little time!!)

Download the Gymnast on Beam .svg file here. Remember, you will have to IMPORT this file into SCAL. It will not work with Design Studio (DS).

Card Making with DazyCutr

Hello. I hope to start posting regularly within the week! I'm sorry I have been neglectful of my blog. However, with the lack of comments it doesn't seem as if anyone has been missing it! LOL Today I went over to DazyCutr's (Rheba) from the Cricut Messageboard's house. We worked on a Winter card design while it was almost 90 degrees outside! Did seem to help cool things off! LOL Rheba always has wonderful ideas for cards. I think we make a great team - she's the creative genius and I'm her technical help! LOL She and I had both just gotten the A Child's Year cartridge this past week. We had held off for a while convincing ourselves we didn't need it! But at AC Moore's sale prices, we decided that maybe we did. LOL I got mine because our ACM did not have any of the new cartridges that I went seeking other then From My Kitchen. Still waiting on the other 3. So, we used the little girl with the snowman cut from A Child's Year, used core black paper backed with blue, the Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, and then sanded the dots for the blue to show through. We then used the Martha Stewart Tree border punch and a snowman border stamp Rheba had to create the bottom image. I used green ink on the tree line and prisma pencils on the lineup of snowmen and the red heart and cardinal to help them "pop" off the card. The saying, "there's no business like "snow business"" was also a stamp that Rheba had. The whole "card" design was Rheba's layout, I just "implemented" my version of it! LOL Thank you Rheba! You may make a true card designer of me yet!

Nothing to share other then the card that Rheba designed and I put together! Remember, if you click on the picture it will open it in a bigger window so you can see the picture better.

Copic Markers and House Mouse Stamps

Hello. Not sure anyone has missed me BUT I haven't forgotten about my blog. I have 1 1/2 weeks left of summer. My kids return to school on Aug. 17th. Then I will have more time to try and be creative. However, I have been amassing Copic Markers and House Mouse stamps over the past several months and playing with them when I get a chance. I have also gotten an airbrush system to use with the Copics. I have been doing lots of "reading" about all of this but not much doing yet. I hope to improve on that as well once the kids and I are back into the school routine. I did finally get a chance yesterday to play with some of my stamps and markers. Here are two cards that I made. I like the Copic Markers because I like being able to "blend" them quickly. Remember, I'm just beginning to figure this all out so be kind!! LOL

I will share more about the Copics and the Air Brush system once I get it all figured out.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Hope to be back to Cricuiting with my Cricuts, cartridges, DS and SCAL soon! (P.S. my cervical issues are still doing better - yeah! Still minor "twinges" but nothing major right now! Thanks for asking!!)