Clearly Inspired Challenge #65 (CIC65)

Happy December, crafty friends!  Do you have all of your crafty holiday plans underway, or do are you feeling overwhelmed by all of the stuff you've put on your plate?  I hope you're enjoying the season and reflecting on the love that God so graciously poured over us by sending His Son!

We have some winners to share from the month of November!  There were 128 participants over the course of the month, which gives us a total of 3 gift code winners and 6 featured digi winners!  Here they are:

$10 gift code winners:

Dee
Bettina
Audrey E.

November featured digi winners:

Lis-m
Kristan(Crazy4Christ)

Berni C
Chana
Qie
Ardilla

 Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to EVERYONE who participated!  I may not have commented on all of you, but I certainly saw all of your lovely creations and am always so blown away by your creativity.  Winners please contact Cassie (cassandratrask@yahoo.com) within the month to claim your prize.

Onto our challenge for the month of December.  We are only having one challenge this month, to give our DT a bit of downtime to enjoy this wonderful season with friends and family, so let's get sketchy!  We haven't done one of these in a while, so we want to see what you can do with it!  You can flip it if you'd like, but please do your best to keep the integrity of the sketch.  Before you submit, please check out our CHALLENGE GUIDELINES.

Lisa has designed an amazing new digital set as our December Featured Digi!  Check it out:

SAY THANK YOU

Now for a little sketchy goodness from our talented DT:

Lori Ulrich -- CHRISTMAS CARD SENTIMENTS digital set

 Deonna Bemish -- December featured digi SAY THANK YOU 

Dana Coulborne -- POINSETTIA digital set

Kathy Dunnegan -- October Featured Digi WORD DOODLES

Lisa Lara -- (flipped the sketch to the left) Using December Feature Digi SAY THANK YOU

Vickie ODell -- December Feature Digi SAY THANK YOU

Linda Anderson -- October Feature Digi WORD DOODLES



Please link directly to your project using Mister Linky down below.  We also ask that you link back here to Clearly Inspired Challenge sponsored by Clearly Digi Stamps.  You have until Thursday, January 3rd at midnight to enter this challenge to be eligible for the prizes at the end of the month. . .that's a whole month! Be as creative as you can while sticking to the theme.  Remember, only one entry per person, please :)

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Hello Everyone!

Today I am going to show you some new Cuttin' Up SVG files that I have created
(I've also included as AI, PDF, EPS, JPG, AND PNG)!

You can use them with your cutting machine or use them like a regular digi image and hand trim!
What could be better?

I haven't introduced any in a very long time, but I got inspired by some little mini Christmas Albums I am creating and thought I would share! 

 

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What is an SVG file?

An SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphic) file has become the standard for web-delivered images.  Why?  Because these images are printable, cuttable, and scalable without any loss of resolution.  SVG files are very popular among scrapbookers and paper crafters for use with their electronic die-cutting machines such as Black Cat, Craft Robo, Klic-N-Kut, Pazzles and Wishblade (just to name some!)

SVG files do require third party software to to use them.  I have used Make the Cut and Sure Cuts a Lot with these files.  

These new files come in four formats to accomodate as many cutting machines as possible: SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI.  We have also included these files as jpg and png files so that you can use them as a digital image!
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Let me show you what files I have for you today!

 

Mini Album Christmas Digital Cut File

By Lori McCroskey

All of these sets are perfect for cards, scrapbook pages, borders for gift bags, and so much more!  Just download in to your favorite cutting program and go!

Go to listing here!

Mini Album Scallop Flower Digital Cut File

by Lori McCroskey

Go to listing here!

 

Mini Album - Scallop Digital Cut File

by Lori McCroskey

Go to listing here!

 Perfect to make scalloped accents on your scrap pages!

 Mini Album - Scallop Lace Digital Cut File

by Lori McCroskey

Go to listing here! 

Below I have a sample page using this cut file:

 

Here is my Mini Scrapbook Album I have been creating with some of my Cuttin' Up files!

This is my little book I made with the PatchPal Reindeer set by Laurie Wilson.

This set comes colored AND with papers to print to match!  I printed everything from our digis for this little book!

 Here are a few of the pages I made with the SVG cut files for my little book.

Here are all of the pages fanned out to browse through!

 This page has a digi that I cut out from the Patchpal Reindeer set.  I adhered it to clear acetate for my page....this way you can see some of the other pages from the back for added interest!

 

 Here I used the Christmas Tree Border cut file to create a border along the top of my clear acetate page and another along the short side of the page.  I added a strip of brown behind it to form my Christmas tree trunk!

This page is the Christmas Ornament Page.  I used my small circle punch to create little colored balls to make them pop!

Below is the page cut as a whole.

Here is a close up of the front of my book.  I added dimensional tape to the back of the images to make them pop off the page!

Below are more pages for my book without the cut files on them, however I did use my Zing print and cut machine to cut out my images:

 

 

I hope this little project inspires you to get your cutting machine back out and start cutting!  Have fun!

Hope your day is filled with Blessings and Crafting galore!

BABY JESUS NUGGET AND MANGER TUTORIAL

Welcome to today's TUESDAY TUTORIAL.  Lisa here with you today.  Its been awhile. Hope you all that celebrated Thanksgiving had a blessed time with family making memories. Personally I cooked my first Turkey in 24 years and destroyed it. Hee. I am now determined to learn how to cook a good turkey.

Getting back to today's Tutorial, I am going to walk you through, step by step, making the adorable manger and nuggets using the new digi Lori McCroskey designed

BABY JESUS NUGGETS

Here is Lori's example.  She printed out the brown colored manger pieces onto white cardstock and assembled.  In my tutorial I will be showing you another way to make it...printing onto colored cardstock (Kraft) and printed out the pieces that are uncolored for the manger.

Here you can see I filled up my 8 1/2 x 11 piece of Kraft cardstock with enough pieces to make 5 mangers. I put them side by side.  I will cut them apart where they touch using my paper trimmer to get a straight cut. I used the png images and arranged them in Microsoft Publisher. You just need to make sure you leave at least 1/4" from the edges because the computer will cut that much off when it prints.

Now score along the four outter tabs and in the center from the side edges.

Now fold along the score lines. I folded so the score lines of the manger will be on the bottom of this piece and the little tabs are folded so the tape will go against the printed lines....they'll get hidden when assembled.

This is optional.....I embossed the manger pieces using my Cuttlebug and Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Distressed Stripes.

After I embossed the pieces I sponged all the edges (front and back)....again this is optional. I am just giving you options. I want this to be special.

I printed out a colored manger side to use as a guide for assembling my side pieces.

I placed two strips of Score Tape to adhere the top piece.

I adhered the sides and punched holes in the one on the left to show you that I inserted gold mini brads.

Here's the backs of them to show you how I bent my brads inward so they won't show outside of the manger.

I cut my score tape in half length wise to fit my tabs.

You will find the edges of the manger match up with the side edges just right.

Here is our manger. Ready to add a filler (if you like).

I printed out my colored baby Jesus nugget wrappers onto a light weight white cardstock. You can even use copy paper.  Again I arranged them in Microsoft Publisher using the png images. I made them touch each other so I can cut them apart at one swipe with my paper trimmer on each row.

I sponged the edges of the nugget wrapper to match the sponged edges of the manger.  I also cut out another baby Jesus and sponged him.

Just place  a piece of score tape at each end on the back of the nugget wrapper.

Wrap the wrapper around your Hershey Nugget and adhere. I placed a small piece of dimensional tape on the back of my cut out Baby Jesus.

I placed some filler in my manger and topped with my Baby Jesus Nugget. This is the cutest project made so easy with Lori's digital image.  I hope you found this tutorial helpful and have fun making your own gifts for friends, family, teachers, party favors etc.

Enjoy each and every day of this blessed holiday season. 

QUESTIONS FROM COMMENTS:

One more question ... Is there a way to print out the Jesus nugget wrappers on the Avery mailing labels usually used for these types of projects instead of printing on cardstock and manually cutting out?

Yes!  In Word, you simply go to the Mailing tab, labels, choose label Avery 8160, create page, Insert/Picture, choose the nugget label and then fill your page by repeating the insert function or copy and paste!  So simple!