VALENTINE CARD BOXES by Jamie G

Files Used: Eyelet Scalloped Heart by Phyllis Parkins 0960
Materials: Card stock, embroidery thread, special treats

Here's a simple project that can be done in quantity and quality! A simple design to make as many as you need, or just a few in a short time.

The template for this card and gift box can be found in the Score, Fold, Create! The Ultimate Guide to Crafting With Scor-Pal on page 76.

The front of my box card is decorated with the eyelet scalloped heart. I first used a white gel pen to write out the names of the recipients. I LOVE the fact that you can place just about any pen into the Gazelle and have her "cut" out the names. Makes it really easy to center the names! I replaced the pen with the blade and cut the heart out around the names.

The eyelet scalloped heart was sized to 2.5 x 2.5, making those eyelets pretty small. Those small holes made it perfect for threading embroidery thread.

I threaded some of the hearts different, mainly just because I wanted to see how they would all look.

I attached the hearts to the front of the box using pop dots for a little added dimension.

For the inside of the card, I choose to keep it simple by adding a hand written note..

I added some of our favorite treats and now these very simple Valentine's are ready for that very special someone!

Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
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Do Your Own Valentines By Phyllis Parkins

I have always loved Valentines Day. I think a lot of it was because when I was growing up my mother and sister and I always made our own valentines. We would hand cut hearts of all different sizes out of construction paper (no cardstock in those days) and use white doilies and wrote our own sentiments with colored pens.

I decided my grandkids might enjoy making their own valentines this year. Since they live in another state, I cut a whole box of hearts in lots of styles, sizes and colors. I also cut print and cuts and sentiments for them. They are loving putting together their own valentines for their friends. Even my grandsons enjoy what they call art.

Below is a picture of a few samples I made to give them a couple of ideas. Also I have attached the scroll heart I designed in Funtime. The free file will only be available on this post until Feb. 14th. It is also in our design store www.bosskutdesigns.com The print and cuts came from Dollar Doodles. They cut perfectly with our print and cut. I didn't have to do any hand trimming at all. Print and Cut Tip: I put my cutline just barely inside the design and then turn off the cut line and group the .jpeg and cut line and I get great results this way.

Phyllis a/k/a Mrs. Boss Kut

Little Cupid by Lori m.

What would Valentine’s Day be without a “Little Cupid”?  Well, I woke up to 22 Little Cupid’s today.

Print and Cuts to be exact, these were made using the new Funtime Gazelle IV software and cut out on my pretty in pink Gazelle. I do think she’s looking for a little relaxing time after this week. 

First, I downloaded a photo of our grandson Noah from our daughter’s Facebook page with her permission.  The picture is a little fuzzy because, she took it on her cell phone. The pose and his expression were too cute not to use, so into Adobe Photoshop Elements for a little tweaking.

I’m calling these, “Naughty Little Cupid”, he sure looked like he was going to do something, and he’s not supposed to be doing it.

The crown and wings were from a digital scrapbook program that I thought complimented this photo. Next into my Funtime program, I where the added the box he’s leaning on along with the heart and text.

I decided to make this file all one cut out, rather than paper piecing it.

Using the Color selection box in Funtime, I enlarged the black outline around the exterior of the file, instead of inking my edges.  I was looking for cute, but easy, as there were many to make.

The crown and heart have glossy accents on them and the wings a little glitter glue.

There you have it, fun, easy and a cute project for Valentine’s Day, enjoy.

Lori m.  Bosskut Design Team

Jar Card by Lori m.

Do you make homemade goodies and share with folks as gifts or just because?

 It’s always nice to attach a pretty tag or note card along with your goodies. Here’s a file from www.bosskutdiecuts.com, I’ve found to be very useful.

The file name is Jars and Cinnamon Sticks by Judy Stark, but I’ve just used the Jar part of the file for my cards.  As you can see there’s a cute little “bee bug” also.  Another adorable file I found over at www.bosskutdiecuts.com.

Here’s my little twist, that I added to the XOXO jar, it’s a print and cut tag, made using bosskutdiecuts “Journaling Block”file. 

I know everyone will enjoy these cute cards along with, the goodies.

Happy Crafting!

 

Lori m. - Bosskut Design Team Member

Heart Explosion Card Funtime Tutorial by Jamie G

Files Used: Heart file in Funtime, Scroll by Phyllis Parkins 0986
Materials: Card stock, ribbon

I was inspired to create a cut file from this video. It's funny how you see a project that someone else has done and are then able to create a cut file in Funtime! As always, there's a learning curve but once you start getting the basic concepts down nothing is off limits!

Once you've created your heart explosion, you can adhere it to the inside of card or simply a larger heart and use a ribbon to tie it shut.

This project utilizes basic shapes and the very basic alignment tools in Funtime. With a few instructions you'll be well on your way to creating beautiful Valentine's cards for your family and friends! Let's get started.

With a new 12 x 12 page open in Funtime start by clicking on your shapes button on the right of your screen. Scroll to the heart and click on it.

This next step is more of a personal preference, I change the weight of the outside line to 0.003 and turn off the fill color.

With the heart selected, hit the "C" on your keyboard. This will bring up your transformation box. Select the width and enter in 4.8. Why 4.8, because after playing with this multiple times and remaking it, that's what I found to work best. :o) For different looks don't be afraid to play around with sizes, you'll be amazed at what you'll create!

Note: By selecting the width you maintain the ratio of the heart. If you were to select the Condense and then change either the height or width, it will only change that dimension and you'll lose the original shape of the heart.

Now we'll need a total of 4 hearts to create our heart explosion card. There are several different ways to create more of the same heart. What I did was select the heart, and hit Ctrl C on my keyboard and then Ctrl V. This will place a duplicate heart in the lower left hand corner of your mat. I moved my heart off the mat on the bottom. Do this 2 more times for a total of 4 hearts.
So that you can see everything I'm working with, select the button at the bottom with the magnify glass and ALL. This will zoom into the whole page with all your cut files.

 

To make this easier in getting the hearts lined up where we want them, create a perfect square but selecting the draw rectangle button on the right of your screen and hold down Ctrl button on your keyboard at the same time. At this point it doesn't matter how big it is because we are going to use the transformation box to resize it.

Select your square, and in the transformation box make sure that the square measures 8.5 x 8.5.
Let's start putting all this together now!! Select one of the hearts, in the transformation box scroll down to rotation, and select it. Change the angle to 45 degrees.

Select both the rectangle and the heart. On the left of your screen is the justification, 4th button down. Click on the align left AND the align top buttons at the top of your screen.

In order to maintain this justification as we work on the other hearts, group the square and the heart together. Select shape at the top of screen, and then select group.

1 down and 3 more to go! :o) Select another heart and in the transformation box rotate it 135 degrees. With the heart still selected, hold the shift key down and select the square. With the justification selected again, align left, and align bottom. With everything still selected, group them all together.

Select another heart, in the transformation box, rotate it 225 degrees. Hey we're cooking now!! With that heart selected, select the square and justify it by aligning it right and bottom. Don't for get to group them together!

One more to go!! Select the heart, in the transformation box, rotate it 315 degrees. Justify the heart by aligning it right and top.

Now you should have all the hearts in the square and overlapping in places. We only used the square for placement of the hearts and we now need to delete it. With ALL items selected, select Shape at the top of the screen and click on Break all.

Select ONLY the square and delete it.

It's time to weld all the hearts together so that we can get the shape we need for the card. Select all the hearts, and on the left of your screen select the weld button. At this point you'll have several cut outs in the image. It's up to you if you want to delete them or keep them there. I kept mine because I personally like the way it looks when you open up the card. If you do decide to keep them, I suggest selecting everything and grouping them together

One last suggestion, create another heart the same size and keep this on the page when you save it. That way in the future when you go to make something with this file, you'll have a starting point to making layers on your card.

Please be sure to stop by the Boss Kut Forum and share your creations! We'd LOVE to see what you've done with this cut file! Or if you have any questions, I would love to be able to help you maximize your use of Funtime and the Gazelle.

Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog

Coffee Mug and Pen Tool Tutorial by Lori m.

Using one of the bosskutdiecuts files by Judy Stark, I put this cute coffee mug card together.. 

The Coffee Mug file was made into a Print and Cut Mug shaped card, with Judy’s permission, for me to use as an example.

Of course, every Gazelle needs a little bling even if it’s one on a card. 

If you haven’t purchased the new Gazelle Funtime IV upgrade, you can’t even imagine all the fun you’re missing.

Here are a few things I’ve been playing around with, like the coffee mug squiggly.

If you click on your right side “Free Hand” tool it will bring up a selection box. From here you’ll have multiple choices to choose from, two being Calligraphy. I just keep playing around with the different size brushes and practice squiggly lines and curves until I find one that works with my project.

                                  

Here are a few more examples to show the differences between Calligraphy 1 and 2. Pretty cool huh?  It just keeps getting better.

Now if you click on your Color selection box, look to the bottom and click on the Brush and Tools buttons, the fun keeps getting better

                 

Once you select the brush feature it brings up another box named “Pen”.  From here I scrolled down, and then selected a dashed line and you can see my squiggles turned to dashes.  Have fun trying out the different affects you can get doing this.

Ready for a little more fun?

Now using the features selected up till now, let’s take this one step further and add in our “Scissor” tools.  Here, I opted to go back and use the straight line instead of dashed line.

Your lines will now be in the pattern of Scissors you chose, play around with the sizing and patterns. Fun is what it’s all about.

Moving along!

Now I’ve used my slider on the Color Box at the bottom to add even a little more dimension to the designs, pretty cool right? I bet, I’ve drawn over a thousand squiggly lines in a few days just having fun with these tools alone.  I guess I should try out the rest of the new features. 

My list of ingredients:

1. Coffee Mug with Candy Sticks by Judy Stark.

2. Pink and White Rhinestones from www.bosskut.com.

3. Pretty Siam Pink Seam Binding from www.bosskut.com

4. Scotch Glue Stick

5. Ranger distress markers, “Spun Sugar” and “Frayed Burlap”.

6. Studio G Glitter Glue

7. Stampin Spot “Ruby Red” mini ink pad

8. Ranger glossy accents.

Enjoy, and have fun, that’s what crafting is all about

Lori m.  - Bosskut Design Team

WINE GLASS LAMP SHADE by Jamie G

Files Used: Heart Doily by Phyllis Parkins BKD 092, Heart Doily by Judy Stark BKD 081,
Materials: Vellum, computer printer

I've seen lamp shades on wine glasses circulating on Pinterest and other craft blogs. I immediately loved the look of them and knew that I had to create my own. Seemed simple enough, until I decided to create my own cut file instead of importing an already existing template available. I started with trial and error and ended with a lot more error.

I really wanted to be able to make my own cut file for the simple fact I wanted to be able to share that within the Boss Kut Forum and I wanted a custom fit for the specific wine glasses I was using. With little success on my own, I commissioned my dearest husband for the math part that I was missing. He figured out the size of the large circle, small circle, and how much I needed to cut away from it to create the size cone I wanted to end with. He did explain it to me and I honestly tried to understand but I'm thinking that if I need help again I know just where to go. :o)

These beautiful wine glass lamp shades would be perfect sitting out on the table for that romantic dinner. With a battery operated tea light, these little shades are perfect to create a personalized dinner.

For the these 2 lamp shades, I used the embossing tool and embossing mat to emboss the vellum with the Heart Doily by Phyllis Parkins BKD 092 and the Heart Doily by Judy Stark BKD 081. For both of these, I chose a lower force setting of 2 and did multiple passes (4) to get the look I wanted.

For the Heart Doily by Phyllis Parkins BKD 092 (pictured above on the right) I increased the size to match the size of the shade and cut it in quarters. I only used 1/4 of the heart doily because I wanted to large swirls for this shade.

With the Heart Doily by Judy Stark BKD 081 (pictured above on the left) I used multiple copies of it at different sizes and just placed them over the lamp shade cut file in different places. Another idea for this would be to emboss just the outside of the heart doily and then cut out the smaller pieces inside. I think that it would make the lamp shade look like it was made from actual doilies. Sometimes it's amazing what you see and can come up with after a project is complete!!

The lamp shade above was easily done using the scissors available in Funtime. I had to start over with the cut file by creating the 2 circles. With the largest circle, I chose the type of scissors I wanted and used the largest setting for the cut. Then I multiplied that circle by 2 and changed the sizes. I cut the circles in quarters and kept only 1/4 for my cut file. I embossed the middle 2 and cut the shade. This could be easily embellished with adhesive pearls, rhinestones, or whatever else you can think of.

I love the way text looks on vellum, just one of those things I guess. For the shade above, I started in Funtime on my lamp shade file. Then depending on how many lines of text I wanted on my shade I created that many circles, all various sizes. I typed out the text and then fit the text to path. After I had all the text typed out, I grouped it all together and mirrored the image. I did this because I think that having the text printed on the "back" of the vellum gives it a softer appearance. After doing that it completely displaces the text on the shade, so I had rotate the text back to the original placement.

My children will be with their grandparents this year for Valentine's Day, so I wanted to make something that they would enjoy from us. For my 2 1/2 year-old son, I made the shade with the alphabet with the "I" "O (replaced with a heart)" and "U" for him to enjoy at dinner. My 4 year- old daughter will enjoy the one with the song "You Are My Sunshine" on it. She absolutely loves to sing that song. My parents have assured me that they will put those out on the dinner table for my babies.

While I tell my family I love them frequently, I love celebrating Valentine's Day. I love making sure they know just how very much I do love them and how very special they are to me.

Please be sure to check out the Boss Kut Forum for the wine glass lamp shade and if you have any questions please feel to post a question or private message me and I'll be happy to help you personalize your lamp shade!

Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog

Valentine's Cake by Lori m.

Need a fun Valentine’s Day centerpiece?  Here’s an idea, take a Styrofoam ring; mine was 8” in diameter and 2” high.

Using my Gazelle, I cut my card stock to cover the inside and outside of my mold. I cut a circle 9”, and used my Gazelle Funtime software, scissors feature to create the scalloped edge; this will become my cake base.

The next, part was easy using a few cute die cuts from www.bosskutdiecuts.com. The hardest part here was trying to decide which files I was going to use.

Honestly, what Valentine cake wouldn’t be complete without a few love bugs, and pretty hearts?

Bling, and ruffles, add a little lace, some glossy accents, pearls, flowers, rhinestones and you’re finished.

I decided to add a candle to the center of mine. It looks much nicer glowing with the lights off.  

Here are the Files I used:

1. Popkut Lovebug by Judy Stark

2. Scalloped Heart by Judy Stark

3. Hearts and Flowers by Phyllis Parkins

4. Flowers

Have fun, there so many possibilities using one small Styrofoam ring, imagine a double decker cake using two rings.

Enjoy!

Lori m. - Bosskut Design Team Member

 

Etched Candle Holders by Jamie G

Files Used: Great Outdoor Tree by Olivia Myers 0974, Snowflake available in Funtime
Materials: Armour Etch (glass etching cream), repositionable vinyl,

I love the way that a candle can add that warm feeling to a house and I love having them on in my house. Unfortunately, with a 4 and 2 year-old in the house that's not the wisest of ideas. So thanks to those cute little electronic tea lights I can have some of that glow around the house without the fear of my babies getting hurt.

One evening I was watching my son with one of my candle holders and I noticed how plain it was . . . PROJECT IDEA!! Opening the tree in Funtime, I copied it so that I had 3 of them and then sized them each differently. I cut out several of each size in repositionable vinyl and placed them around the holder. I just thought that these adorable trees looked perfect with the rocks in the holder and a bit of the tea light flickering in the background as a camp fire would.

I applied a thick layer of the etching cream to the trees and then used a q-tip to apply dots to the top edge. Personally, I've found that if I leave the cream on for about 7-8 minutes and then move the cream around, sometimes applying more and then leaving it on again for another 7-8 minutes I get the best even etch. Don't be afraid to play around with it, you may find something that works better for you!

Also, don't forget to check out the images that you have available in the blue book in Funtime! There's so many and that's where I found this beautiful snowflake.

I haven't looked at plain glass the same way since I first tried etching. Once you start crafting and find a technique you like, it's really hard NOT to enhance them to your liking! :o)

Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog

PAINTED AND RECYCLED by Lori m.

Have you seen all those beautiful painted Mason jars all around? Well, for me, it’s a painted pickle jar and I love it! My first idea was to make, mine in pink tones and zebra stripes, which would have been pretty too. Instead, I decided to just make more of a swirly pink and white painted jar. Mixing Mod Podge, food coloring and a little water this is what I came up with. I let the first coat dry, and then took a brush inside to make some scrapes so that the next white coat would be a more of a textured look.

I had some dollar store white carnations and wanted them to match my vase a little bit so I used my pink Stamping up ink pad and ran it over the top edges. Of course it needed a little more bling and what better than using a cute ballerina bug from www.bosskut.com. It still needed a little more, to achieve the look, I was aiming for. So by adding the pretty pink Rhinestones and ribbon, it finally was complete. There you have it, my newly painted and recycled pickle jar. Lori m. - Bosskut Gazelle Design Team Member

Let it Snow Wreath by Jamie G

Files Used: Snowflakes 0598, Snowflake by Phyllis Parkins 0875, Snowflake II by Phyllis Parkins 0876

Materials: Wreath, Glitter Paper, push pins, rhinestones, fishing line

Oh the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

So, maybe this is considered a Christmas song but I personally feel that it's more of a seasonal song and should be played at least until February. :o) Can't help, LOVE this song and I LOVE the snow! Weird, maybe, but I've come to terms with that and I'm definitely OK with it.

There's just something about the fresh fallen snow when it's really cold outside and the sun is shining. I just love the when the snow sparkles, I imagine you can almost see each individual snowflake. The glitter paper that Boss Kut sells is perfect to achieve this look and pictures really don't do it justice. The glitter doesn't flake off, the Gazelle cuts it easily, and beautifully!!

I recently had the opportunity to work with another brand of glitter paper and was left disappointed. I swear I was covered in as much of the glitter as the project was! 100% convinced me to stick with Boss Kut glitter paper.

Onto this project! I started with a white Styrofoam wreath and added some snow to it with Mod Podge. I could have easily just kept the wreath as was but I wanted some sparkle and added dimension to it.

I then cut out several different shapes of the Snowflakes 0598, Snowflake by Phyllis Parkins 0875, and Snowflake II by Phyllis Parkins 0876 in 3 different colors of glitter paper.

Then I typed out "LET," "IT," and "SNOW" in the Funtime font Cooper Black. For the word "SNOW" I removed the "O" and just added spaces so that I could add the snowflake. With all the words, I outlined them twice so that I could add all the colors to my sentiment

Using fishing line, I hung the sentiment and a couple of the snowflakes to the center of my wreath.

With the snowflakes on the wreath, I simply used push pins to attach them to the Styrofoam. I really like how easy using the push pins are and it make it simple to rearrange it until I got it just as I liked it.
Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog

Snow Days Card by Judy Stark

                         FREE WPC FILE and PRINT-n-CUT in the Bosskut Owners forum

A card I made for the holidays using the free Funtime snowman with tree file. ( in your Bluebook)  I added the snow and title to the file and the extract white from black feature using my Funtime software.  I then added a background mat and ice cycles.  Cut this with my Bosskut Gazelle using 85 wgt cardstock, settings at K/O 15, force and speed at 2. I then added my glitter to the snow and ice cycles and my card is done!  

Happy Holidays!

Judy Stark

LET IT SNOW LAYOUT by Debbie Grommet

This 2-page layout is all about the beauty of snow. It is a special place to display your winter pictures. The snow flakes were created using the layering snowflakes available at www.bosskutdiecuts.com . I cut the snow flakes using Jewel Blue and Opal White glitter papers by Best Creations, these can be purchased at www.bosskut.com 

 Put the snow flakes together using pop dots and add a bit of bling. The papers are Powdered Mountain from Bobunny and the font I used is Hobos in your funtime software.

Winter Scene by Jamie

Files Used: String of Lights by Judy Stark BKD 165, Bunny Silhouette by Karen Taglia 0341,
Materials: Card stock, embroidery thread, Glossy Accents, Mod Podge, fine glitter

For this project, I started out by following Terri's video on how to convert any digital coloring book page to a piecing or print & cut file. I found a great site with some beautiful Christmas coloring pages and printed the page in the recommended PDF format. Or you could right click on the image and save image as a PNG to your computer. Either way, Funtime can import the image to create a cut file. I just LOVE the fact that Funtime can import all sorts of file types including SVG, DXF, EPS, AI, PDF, images (JPG, BMP . . . ), and several others!!

Then I imported the Christmas House Coloring Page and used the auto vecto to create the cut file. I changed the color of the lines so that when it came to cutting out specific colors I was only cutting out the shapes that I needed in each color.

Since this was a larger image, I duplicated the whole image and changed the pen style to the kiss cut. I made sure to leave my outer most rectangle as the regular cut. Doing this allows me to cut out the rectangle (in this case) and then leave the pattern to follow while I'm piecing my page together! Love this tip, BIG thank to Terri for this one!! Make sure to watch the entirety of the video shared above to see how easy this is to do.

Once all my pieces were cut out, I glued them onto my background. I then mixed a small amount of some fine glitter with Mod Podge and "painted" it on to the snow. It's just something to see freshly fallen snow when the sun is shinning that simply amazes me!!

Since you can't complete a winter scene without some adorable woodland creatures, I added in a couple of the Bunny Silhouette by Karen Taglia. Hey, bunnies are just for Easter!! ;o) These little bunnies measure 0.477 by 0.363! Very tiny and my Gazelle did an incredible job at some very clean cuts.

Using green embroidery thread, I outlined the house where I wanted to string the Christmas lights. Then using the individual lights from the String of Lights by Judy Stark I cut some out and applied them to the string. To give the light bulbs more dimension I added some Glossy Accent Tones. How big are the light bulbs you ask? Each one measures 0.139 by 0.217. Once again, my Gazelle doesn't disappoint. She cut each one beautifully!!

I wrapped a jump ring (usually used with making jewelry) with green embroidery thread for the wreath on the door.

I originally made this with the thought of if being a card but as I put more into it I've decided to frame it. I had so much fun with this simple paper piecing that I'm already on the hunt for more coloring book pages that I can create with!!

Jamie Gillahan – BossKut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog