Make Print & Cut Buttons from Silhouette Shapes {Tutorial}

On Pinterest the other day I saw that someone had pinned these labels from my Cookies in a Jar with the question below: "Does anyone know what design this is in the Sihouette store?"

So today I'm going to show you how to make your own Print & Cut Buttons using Silhouette Shapes from their store. This will show you how to make what is pictured above, but once you've learned the techniques the possibilities with this are endless!

How to make Print & Cut Buttons
(Warning: Picture Loaded Tutorial)

 1. Open all shapes up on one page. Shapes I used from the Silhouette Store:

• Flower Border
• 2 Journaling Blocks

2. Up-group both of the shapes and remove pieces shown in picture (those still red). (Ctrl +A, Ctrl+U)

3. Select the remaining Flower border and in the Modify toolbar under Compound Paths choose Make. (or Object->Make Compound Path) *Note that this has to be a compound path instead of grouped shapes for Step 6 to work correctly.

4. Select the Circle shape and in the Replicate toolbar choose Duplicate. (Select Circle, Ctrl+D)

5. Align the duplicated Circle over the Flowers as you would like it to look.

6. Select the duplicated Circle and the Flowers and in the Modify toolbar choose Crop.  (or Object->Modify->Crop)

7. Change the fill colors of the shapes as desired and set line color to none.

8. Select all the shapes and in the Align toolbar choose Centralize. (or Object->Align->Align-Center-Middle)

9. Change the order of appearance of the shapes if needed.

*Basically one shape is on top of the other. If you  can't see one of the two circles, you will have to move the other items back until it's all in order. You can do this by selecting one of the shapes, then right-clicking and choosing Send to Back or Send Backward. (or Object->Arrange->Send Backward)  You can also move shapes forward using the same method.

10. Add text and fill the color as desired with no line color. Center it on the image as needed.

11. Select all the shapes except the button shape. In the Cut Style toolbar choose No Cut. (This changes makes your only cut line the outermost edge of the image for "Print and Cut".)

12. Select all shapes and Group them (Ctrl+G).

13. In the Registration Marks toolbar choose Show Registration Marks.

*At this point you may wish to test print and cut before duplicating the shapes and printing and cutting a whole bunch.

14. If you want more than one of these shapes you can duplicate the shape (as shown in step 4) or in the Replicate toolbar you can choose Fill Page and easily duplicate and space the shape nicely over the entire page!

*Note: Replicate AFTER showing the Registration Marks in order to not over-fill the page.

For the cookie jar labels I used White Shipping Labels by Avery (8165). Basically, it's a full sticker sheet you can print on, but it's thick and good quality. The only thing is it is not water-proof, but that didn't matter to me for this project.

Now you've created this image, you can use it for all sorts of projects. Labels, Birthday Parties, Gifts, and so much more.

LDS Temple Necklace Winner!

We have a winner! Random.org gave me #40. Unfortunately my comments are no longer numbered (something I am trying to fix, again) but I counted the comments (and checked it twice) to make sure I got the right one.

And the winner is: JENA!

I'll be contacting you by email today, Jena. Jena requested the Manti Temple Necklace in Bronze. It's going to be so beautiful. You can purchase your own Temple Necklace at LDS Decor's Etsy Shop.

Jena's favorite temple photo was a beautiful photo of the Manti temple in Sepia. This 16x19 framed temple is only $99.00 and is shipped free anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Head on over to LDSDecor.com to see all their other Framed Temples.

Hot Chocolate Jars Tutorial {Mini Size}

Only a few hours left for the LDS Temple Necklace Giveaway from LDSDecor.com! Go HERE to enter. We made Hot Chocolate Jars for our R.S. Activity a few months ago, and I have to say they turned out so cute. I used small marshmallows in those ones, and topped them with a peppermint.

The little jars I picked up at Joanns for $1 each (with a 20% off total purchase coupon it was an even better deal!). There are possibly other sites out there that sell these, but I haven't looked at all.

I decided to make some more of them for gifts. But this time I bought the mini dehydrated marshmallows. (I've seen these in spice sections, but you can buy it in bulk at Cash&Carry (a business supply store) here in WA. Then I tried to find Andes mints pieces in red. No luck. So instead I used my left over Bob's Sweet Stripes mints and hammered them to pieces (while still in plastic). First I tested them to make sure they melted nicely in hot water (they do).

Hot Chocolate Jars Recipe

4 Tbsp Hot Chocolate Mix

2 Crushed Bob's Sweet Stripes Mints

1.5 Tbsp Mini (Dehydrated) Marshmallows

Using a funnel, put 4Tbsp Hot Chocolate mix in the jar. Tap the bottom of the jar to pack down the mix a little. Top with Bob's Sweet Stripes mints spread around evenly if needed. Lastly add approximately 1.5 Tbsp Mini Marshmallows until almost to the top (leaving just enough room to close the jar). Close the jar, tie with a string or ribbon, and add a label, if desired.

These are really quick and easy gifts that you can dress up with a ribbon, a label, a vinyl decal, or a tag, and give by itself or with a pack of cookies or all sorts of other things. They don't cost that much either, especially with bulk purchases. Of course left-over supplies are not a bad thing when it comes to this gift!

LDSDecor.com {*Giveaway Closed*}

Several months ago Kristy from LDSDecor.com contacted me. She had recently opened up shop selling Framed LDS Temples and there were several people asking for Canadian temples. In her search for images, she found some that I took of the Vancouver, BC temple just after it opened. She asked me if she could use some of them. Of course I said yes!

I love Kristy's story. She wanted a beautiful framed temple in her home, but as she searched the stores it all seemed way to expensive. We've all been there, right? My current favorite framed LDS temple has a $300 price tag. At LDSDecor.com you can get a framed temple for $99 - and they SHIP FREE to the U.S. and Canada!  I'd tell you the rest of her story, but why? She tells it so much better than I do:

(Isn't she cute?!) A few months after Kristy first contacted me, we got some of my photos up on LDSDecor.com. I was so excited when she sent me the email that they were up and I went and checked it out immediately. Look what I saw:

You can imagine my excitement over seeing my own photos for sale on someone's website, right? It's so cool.

GIVEAWAY ALERT

Guess what though? LDSDecor.com also has an Etsy shop! What do you think they sell there? These adorable Temple Necklaces:

LDSDecor.com is giving one of these beautiful necklaces away to you (my awesome readers)! Check out the rules and how to enter below:

HOW TO ENTER:

Go to LDSDecor's Etsy Shop and check out their necklaces. Come back and leave a comment on this post telling me which temple you would want and what color. {1 comment, required}

OPTIONAL EXTRA ENTRIES:

• Visit LDSDecor.com and tell me what your favorite temple photo is. {1 additional comment}
• Like LDS Decor on Facebook. Let them know I sent you! {1 additional comment}
• Blog, Tweet, or Facebook about this giveaway and include a link to this post {1 additional comment}
• Follow Maggie Muggins Designs blog {1 additional comment}

RULES:


Giveaway closes in one week - December 12th at 10:00 PM. Winners will be chosen at random. Comments must be made on this blog post. Open to U.S. & Canada Residents only.

Silhouette Illustrator Plug-in Updates

UPDATE: As of November, 2013 Silhouette Connect was released for Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw users on Windows and Mac to be able to cut directly from their programs to their Cameo or Portrait.

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Silhouette & Illustrator for Mac Users

Heads up Mac users. You might be aware of this already, but the Illustrator plug-in for the Original Silhouette and Silhouette SD models is now available. For some of you Silhouette users this may mean absolutely nothing. But for those of you running using Mac OS X Lion (10.7) this is excellent news! You can finally cut directly from Illustrator!

LINK IS HERE.

As I don't have Mac to test on, I would love to hear feed-back in the comments. Is it working? Any problems with installation or use of the program? Please fill us all in!

Silhouette Cameo & Illustrator

There are those of you, I'm sure, that are thrilled you can cut directly to the Silhouette from Illustrator. Before running out to buy a machine please note that the new Silhouette Cameo does not have a plug-in for Illustrator and there are no plans to do this. Silhouette Design Studio is the new way to go, and the recommendation from Graphtec. You can still export from Illustrator as a .dxf to get it to work in Silhouette Studio, or in other formats accepted in Silhouette Design Studio, but there will be no future updates to this program to get it working with the Cameo.

More to come on Using Illustrator and Silhouette. Soon.

Folded Christmas Trees {Free Silhouette Download}

Happy December Everyone! Last night was our Relief Society Christmas Dinner. Early I know, but December is always a VERY busy month for everyone! It was put together quickly, but I still think it turned out well. The menu was as follows:

Ham

Scalloped Potatoes
Fruit

Spinach Salad

Rolls

Pomegranate &Orange Water

Beautiful and Delicious Desserts brought by the Sisters!

The food turned out delicious and we had a short program afterwards with a story from our R.S. President, a few of our talented youth playing Christmas songs on the Violin, a group of sisters singing, and then a few carols.

Usually with large dinners and activities I am at the church late cleaning. Last night I was determined to go quickly. So many assisted with the clean up of the gymnasium, and many others helped out in the kitchen. I was so grateful to all of them! Amazingly as we were winding down the cleaning, I was actually starting to get ready to load things in my car, our Relief Society came into the kitchen and in a shocked tone asked if any of us knew what time it was. I replied it might be 10 (I was pretty tired at that point). She replied that it was 8:10. I was floored. The dinner had started at 6 and we were almost done cleaning already?! At 8:32 I pulled away from the building. Our Bishop, the last person out the door, walking to the car with his wife. I never even left Mutual (Young Women) that early, let alone a Relief Society Activity!

For the tables I brought my Red Pottery Barn Chargers that I got for $1 each and put my new little tree decorations in the middle. I learned how to make these from Landee See, Landee Do - who has a Festival of Trees going on. I went a little crazy and made 24 of these trees. I decided to use them for gifts for people I know though, so I didn't feel so bad about putting more time into them.

Instead of Skewers I used 1/8" sticks from Joann's and on the smaller trees I used mini candle stick cups upside down. The sticks stuck into them perfectly! The larger trees had regular candle stick holders.

Small Tree Bottom

Large Tree Bottom

The tops had little finials from Joanns.

If you want to make these trees, you can follow the tutorial HERE. But, as a special gift to my readers and fellow Silhouette Lovers I whipped up the Silhouette files for you. There are two files (Large and Small). The larger file makes 1 tree, the smaller makes 3. Both are 12x12 size, but you can always adjust that to cut on 8.5x11" pages as well. I used 6" long sticks for the Large trees and 3.5" sticks for the Small ones. I trimmed the 6" ones afterwards though, so the bottom actually went up inside the tree and didn't look as tall.

Download the Silhouette cut files HERE and HERE. 

As with all my free shared files, these are for Personal Use Only. No sharing, no emailing the file, no selling it, etc. Please direct your friends here to download the file. Please share photos of your projects made from these files in my Flickr Pool: Maggie Muggins Designs In Action.

There are all sorts of fun trees out there to make for Christmas Decorations. Before you buy Cones for trees from a craft or department store check your Dollar store. Mine had large ones for $1 each. They were something like $4 each at Joann's! Check out these Cupcake Wrapper Trees you can make with forms HERE. So cute! Some in all white or green with sparkly mini garlands would be too cute!