Sunday, February 21, 2010

Let's cut some 3D WORD Cards!

I saw this kind of card for the first time on etsy and thought how cool! However, I never could have imagined how to make one...that is until "Make the Cut". I was on the MTC forum the other day and cleversomeday had posted about this on her blog. Here's her post, anyway she had used SCAL and thought it could be done as well with CDS, but hey, hey what about MTC! So I got to work and wow was this ever so easy peasy to make with the Make the Cut software and my Cricut.

I now have an instructional video showing how to make these here!
Instructions below video:

I've made a "Thank You one and an "I Love You" one to share so you can get busy cutting right away. Links to those files below. I've also made a template that you can save and then insert your own text. These fit perfectly in a A2 envelope that is sized 5 3/4" by 4 3/8". You can get them most anywhere. I get mine from Stampin' Up.

Ok, here's how to make your own! First you will need to download the Solly Pop Tab font and add it to your MTC program once you are ready to make a 3D card. You do that by clicking on the Text and Fonts tab in MTC and then click on the little icon to the left of the pencil icon. Tell it where to find the ttf font file on your pc and click Open. That will add it to MTC so you can use it.

Now open up the Template for the 3D WORDING CARD. You can find that below and I'll also have it in my box.net sharing box in the right column here at my blog. Now also open up another tab, because you are going to copy and paste in place the 2 parts into a new file before you start adding your words. This way your template is never changed and you'll always have it.

Very important! Keep your caret size which is your cursor to 1.10". This can be changed on your Virtual Mat tab. Now double click your cursor into an empty place on the mat and then under your Text and Fonts tab click the pencil icon to the right. This will bring up a box where you can type your text. VERY IMPORTANT! You have to use ALL CAPS! Those are the fonts that have the tabs you need. This is why the file is saved in all caps to help you remember. I also remind you in the notes of the mtc file.

Once you have your text in, drag it up to that empty middle space on the left between the top and bottom rectangles. That is the inside part of your card. Just eyeball it to center it and if you have used the right caret size of 1.10" it should fit perfectly with just a bit of over hang on the top and bottom. You also want empty space on each side! If you have too many letters you may have to narrow the text box a bit. 

Now Magic select both the top and bottom sections as well as the text you just placed in. Then Weld it. That's it, now cut! What I do is make the right card piece invisible while I cut the left and then make the left invisible while I cut the right. The right piece needs to be cut out of a paper that is white or light on the wrong side, so that someone can write a message on the inside of the card. Remember to lay your right side piece on the mat right side up. That will be the outside of your card.

The left worded piece can be cut out of plain or patterned paper, just play with different ones to see which you like best. I've used both in cardstock thicker papers and I've used both with just decorative papers and also one of each. All work just fine. Now once you have taken your left worded piece off of the mat you'll need to score it in 3 places. This is very easy.

You want a valley fold above the words at the bottom of the top rectangle. You want another valley fold at the bottom of the words at the top of the bottom rectangle. Do this scoring first on the right side. Now flip to the wrong side and make a mountain fold by scoring at the top of all of the letters across. This is right at the top of the letter and the bottom of those tab parts. You should easily be able to see where to score by looking at like the letter "A" "N" or "O". There should be some letter in your wording so you can tell where to score that mountain fold.

TIP: If you have only and small Cricut and a smaller 12" by 6" mat. You can still make these! Just design them while on a 12" by 12" mat on the screen and then when you bring them to your tab with a 12" by 6" mat, just rotate each card piece front and inside so it fits!

Now to assemble use double stick tape around the edges on the back of your worded piece first, one section at a time and adhere to the back white or light side of your outside card stock or deco paper piece. For the back piece, score it at 4".
On the "Thank You" card I've left a rectangle open at the bottom so your lighter piece shows through to write on. This way you can use a darker piece for your wording inside piece and not have to cut a separate piece to write on. If you like that idea then just add a square from the Custom Shapes tab by clicking the heart. Place the square where you want it and drag it to the size you want, magic select it and the entire worded piece and click Join. This will cut out a section there at the bottom where the wrong side of the front piece will show through. That is why it needs to be light in color.

I hope I have offered directions easy enough to follow and look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

Please leave me comments if you like these cards and find a use for the files!



" Have a blessed day!"

3 comments:

  1. thank you so much for the patterns for the cards. lOVE them. Can't wait to do more. they look so great.

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing this card idea! It is great. I can't wait to try this.

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  3. Oh, ty so much for the template and terrific instruction! I just whipped out a Hello one very easily!!!
    Karen

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