Paper Cut Light Box Art - Jesus on the Cross

Krafting Kelly from the Silhouette Plus forum shared a website with all of us and made my wheels start to turn.Of course; their pieces are beyond words. They are gorgeous! Here's the link if you want to take a look at their paper masterpieces. Paper Cut Shadow Box Website

Every Easter I decorate all over the place with things I've made and love to have one very special piece. Kelly's website share made me want to try to make my very own paper shadowbox. I spent most of one night to the wee hours in the morning and rose early in the morning to get back to work on the cutting file. The first one I made I wasn't happy with and went back to the design board to make some adjustments. Once I made these adjustment; I started cutting and assembling one more time. Below are the results.

The pictures don't really show how pretty it really is in person. I just used a flashlight to light up the background and know a better light would give this piece even nicer effect. Even with the flashligh as a stand alone light it is so pretty.

I just love this piece and know the sacrifice our good Lord made for me this is nothing but this piece will show the true meaning of Easter and I'm s happy to be able to have it in our home for our Easter guests to enjoy and reflect.

P.S. I tried to take several pictures with various lighting but still couldn't capture what it really looks like.

Gorgeous Egg Vase Freebie

Good day everyone. I'm so excited to share this project/cutting file! I know you'll have lots of fun making these. They are easy to make and look great.

Sandra Alicante from the Silhouette Plus forum and I worked together creating this wonderfully fun and easy to put together "Easter Egg Vase". Sandra had the creative idea of making this lovely vase. I worked with Sandra to tweak the cutting file to make it easy to put together. Together, we also came up with various cuttable embellishments added to one grouped area on the cutting file. I always try to keep all files together within a file. You can always ungroup the emebellishments and just use the ones you would like or create your own special details.

 It is all set up in a letter size (8.5 x 11 inch ) cardstock so all Silhoutte and other cutting machine users can cut this lovely box. The lid comes off and can be filled with Easter treats to share with your Easter guests. It makes a beautiful Easter decoration for the home and can be a special gift to your Easter gift recipient.

Sandra and I had a blast working together to perfect this cutting file. Sandra is new to designing but she jumped right in and has been creating some wonderful shares. She flattered me when she said it was my videos which made her have the interest in designing and sharing. She is one sweet lady. I can't say enough good things about her.

As most of you already know, I never share anything unless it's been test cut. Sandra and I made many of these test cuts in order to perfect this cutting file. I'm adding some pictures of Sandra's Egg Vase( which ended up loading to be set at the bottom of the pictures and when I tried to move them around I made a mess so I'm leaving them they way they came into the blog) and a couple of the  Egg Vases I made. Sandra has some of the most beautiful paper and wanted to create a more masculine kind of egg. I think it is so elegant looking. She cut out the teardrops in a silver paper and really made it unique and even more beautiful. The one I made in white was the last one cut. I intended to only cut it on white cardstock because I didn't have the intentions to keep it. The next thing I knew; I was grabbing bits and piecies and gluing them on so I now have both Easter Egg Vases sitting around. My family has been here the past couple of days and they love them so it looks like I'll be making more.

You can download the cutting file here ----> Sandra and Debbies Easter Egg Vase
The file is in Studio, .svg, and .dxf formats for all cutting machine users to enjoy.

Thank you Sandra for being so much fun. I'm looking forward to doing more projects with you.

Sandra's Easter Egg Vase
I love the paper she used!

Easter Treat Containers

Good day everyone, I'm still keeping busy with Easter crafting. I have a lot of cards made already...woohoo! I'm actually ahead of things for a change. The next thing I began thinking about was some cute containers to put some Easter goodies in. I first made a "Circle Purse" to fill with some Easter treats for my granddaughters and girlfriends then I thought; hmmm...... as usual I can't think of anything for the fellows. Well, this morning I thought to go unisex and simple so I created a " Easter Egg Treat Box". This box was a doozer. I made a few prototypes until I finally settled on this one.Both the purse and the Easter Egg set up nicely. The Easter Egg Treat box would also make a lovely Easter decoration.

The one thing I don't like about this is; the seams from wher I glued the tabbed gussets show. After I already had it all together I thought; I should have lined the outside of the gussets with some 1.5 inch ribbon to hide the seams.

The reason why I had to make two tabbed gusset pieces was to make sure it wrapped entirely around the egg shape and to make sure people who have the original Silhouette or Portraits can cut on a letter size format. All in all, even without the ribbon to cover the seams it turned out pretty nice. Please let me give you a few tip on the "Easter Egg Treat Box".

1. There are two hinges. These will be glued on the left hand side of the box. To make sure it opens nicely glue the perforated tab ends first then glue the "circle" shaped tab to the side of the egg/ tabbed gussets.

2. Make sure to add both closures. One on the bottom and one on the side. This will assure the egg stays closed.

3. You can add many pieces of candies inside the egg. For my prototype I added things like butterscotch and other hard candies. The one thing to remember is don't add too many heavy candies or the box will open.

4. I hand cut a piece of clear acetate to glue behind the design ( You can use the liner which is in a light pink as a tempalte for cutting the acetate). This will ensure your treats are visible but will stay in the box.

I also waned to let you know; in the "Cirlce Purse" cutting file there are two shapes with the line color purple, these pieces are for lining the inside of the purse. I also decided to double up on the card stock for the purse handle. This will make it a bit more sturdy for the little ones to carry.

Here you can download the ----> Circle Purse Cutting File

Here you can download the ----> Easter Egg Treat Box Cutting File

3 Easter Egg Card Cutting File

I'm still working on Easter cards to send out. I like making a variety of them. Today, I designed this card as one of the many I've made. Each egg has a different pattern. It's glued benind the card which has 3 egg shapes cut out. I wanted to add dimesnion so I stacked two white and one purple egg frames that go around the front of the egg cut outs in the card. Added to the desing is two pretty borders which I also cut out in the white card stock. Both of the borders are added to the front with just a slender purple strip on top of them. Behind the patterned eggs is a blue glitter card stock. It's hard to see the sparkle in the photo. On the inside I added a card sentiment. The card sentiment for me; reflects the real reason for Easter.

I hope the little bit of instructions I gave helps to explain the pieces in the cutting file.It's a real easy and fast card to put together. Many of you are also working on your Easter cards so I'm trying to share these as fast as I can. Of course, I always want to do test cuts before I share a file. This one will be one of my favorite ones to make because it was so fast and easy to put together.

Here is the link to the cutting files which include 3 formats and pictures ---> 3 Easter Egg Card Cutting File

Easter Card Cutting File Goodies

Time for some more shares and crafty fun.While working my way back into getting some crafting, designing, and other creative things I decided ot work on a couple of new card files. The first one is the "Secret Panel Card" as it you open the front of the card, push the center backwards or foward it reveals a whole new side and sort of a new card. I've seen these quite oten and was always fascinated with how they work. Children and adults will love this entertainng little card. I would like to share this card file with all of you and always hope it is as much fun for you to make as it was for me. The graphics are not included because they were purchased graphics from years ago but I did create the Easter egg I used and am sharing this file too.It will be in the "Pop Up Box Card" file. I know you all have some pretty things sto stamp or place in the little squares that will make your card your own.

Here is the link to download the "Secret Pand Card" Secret Panel Card File Download

The other card I made seems to be a popular card this Spring season. I've already designed and shared many other types of pop-up cards and one similar to this card. When I saw the tutorial on this "Pop Up Box Card" at Splitcoaster Stampers I knew I had to make a new one. This card was so much fun to make. The great thing about it; it was easy to make and assemble. You can use all sort of ideas and images to make this one your own I had a blast making this one and can hardly wait to get it in the mail.

You can download these files here ---> Pop Up Box Card and Easter Egg File

If you would like to check out the tutorial Dina made on how to create this you can check out her video
here ----> Pop Up Box Card Tutorial by Dina Her card is fabulous!

Bunny Background Freebie

After making the video to show Silhouette users how to make "patterned letters" I thought I would make a background with bunnies. Easter is just around the corner. After I made the background I made a patterned letter with it and set up an Easter design I can use to decorate with. Today, I would like to share this backgound and hope it will come in handy for some of your Easter creations.

Here is the link to download this file: Bunny Background it includes a .jpeg image, .studio, .svg, and .dxf files.

This is a sample of what I did with this background. I know all of you wonderfully creative people will make it your own with your design. Have lots of crafty fun with it.

Catching You Up and a New Silhouette Video Tutorial

Hello everyone, it's been a long time since I've blogged, crafted, or made a video tutorial. As many of you know, our family has had several crisis situations going on over the past many months.I'll share some of this so you all may better understand why I've been away for so very long.

My Mom had been staying with me, she had several bad falls then a major surgery. She was here with me for the past eight months. I'm so pleased to let everyone know she is now doing well and is back home in Texas. I miss her but hope she will be moving here real soon. We're keeping our fingers crossed that her home in Texas will sell quickly.

Also, as many of you know; the father of my two daughters was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was a long, hard battle he so bravely fought. Through all he had to endure he never gave up. His bravery still has me in awe. Sadly, he lost the battle and passed away February 28, 2014. We will forever miss him but with all of his good and even his not so good he will forever be in our hearts.My daughters and their dad chose many photos they wanted shown for his memorial service. I was honored and priviledged to make this loving tribute of David; a father, friend, son, brother, and grandpa. If you would like to take a look at his tribute and see just a small glimpse of the man who so bravely fought for life and for his loves you are welcomed and I am honored to share this with all.

As I witnessed the struggle of my dauther's father I tried to be all of the help I could be. It was sad and frustrating to know the only help I could be was to be a source of prayer and support for all. Cancer, too often gives no mercy through the treatments it demands to battle its victims. I decided to go back to college during this time to make sure I could be in a place to perhaps help others going through the struggles and heart breaks of medical tragedies such as the diagnosis of cancer.

These days I still wake up and think I was in some sort of bad dream. Even though we rejoice in his new life; we still mourn his loss as I see all of the heartache it as left behind. To take my mind to other places I thought it  may be a good time to start crafting, blogging, and helping others enjoy their cutting machines more. Today, I made a new video and hope it will be an inspiration to all of you with Silhouette cutting machines. This video will walk you through the steps of creating "patterned letters". I'm a bit rusty at making video tutorials so I sure hope this one will be helpful. Wishing all of you many blessings, Debbie