After spending almost a decade in the event decorating industry I have repetatively heard "I can do that". Instead of being dismissed by creative minded people, I want to show you how I do "that" so you can be sucessful in recreating that inspiration image. I just might have a few tricks that you haven't seen yet!
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Sometimes I love being a mom. And there’s days where I can be found saying, “You want what?!”
Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an over exaggeration. But only a little bit. Because when I asked my son what he wanted for his birthday theme, he told me he wanted a ghost eating, pellet chomping birthday. To my credit I didn’t flinch or bat an eye. But there was an onslaught on thoughts that ran through my head. Are you kidding me? No one has those decorations! How am I going to pull this one off???
The short story is that I put on my big girl crafty panties and I got to work.
The problems with trademarked images are endless. Anyone who is reputable will not make the trademarked characters for you. And those who can have gone through the trouble of getting the licensing rights to do so, which means you’re paying an arm and a leg for another person to make it for you.
In the area of cakes, the easy go around is to decorate the cake with toys and action figures that you can buy on any store toy aisle. But how do you decorate for a theme where nothing is for sale???
Yes, I actually questioned my rational as a mother for introducing my boys to retro arcade games. But I did conquer the boss round on this problem!
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Buy what you can
Pac Man may not be the decorating be on the shelves, but plenty of ideas were.
Thanks to 8-bit style games like Mine Craft still kind of popular, there are the plates and napkins. Yes, the Game On is the wrong font and style. And the game controller is definitely the wrong millennium. Fortunately for me, this was a five year old’s birthday party. I wasn’t going to be given the fifth degree on accuracy of my decor.
Thank God!
The one score that I was most excited for, and got me in the proper mind set for actually pulling this party off, was the stack of round yellow sticky notes that I found at the dollar store. The moment I saw them in the office supply aisle I had to severely restrain myself from doing my happy dance and squealing like an excited 5 year old!
For as much work as I was going to do in creating my own designs, I wasn’t going to have enough time to make a birthday banner. So you better believe I had zero issues with giving the round yellow sticky notes to my kids and telling them to put them all over the walls, windows, and on top of the black plastic table cloths. For under $10 I had the skeleton that made a Pac Man birthday happen!
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Make What You Need
Fortunately for me, Pac Man was made in an era where things were basic in design and easy to create in my design program. And with this font, I was able to make things that my son was excited for and proud to talk about!
I was very excited when I found the round stick it notes, because this idea came right to me. The yellow M&M’s are perfect power pellets and the other colors are along just for the ride. But with the primary colors being predominant, it fits with the whole theme.
These are super easy to make to! All you have to do is put a scoop of M&M’s in a cellophane bag, fold it over to keep everything in, and staple a label over the top of the bag.
Tip: if you use a permanent pen to color the staples you can make the staples “disappear” and make a clean presentation.
The gift bags I also got from the dollar store, all I needed was a solid colored paper bag. I wanted blue or yellow, but green was all that was in stock. Not a problem, it’s a primary color that was present in the 80’s video games.
I used vinyl here just because it was quicker to make up all the bags this way, not worry about gluing a million pieces, and I could pack the bags right away!
And for my boys, no birthday is complete without a birthday shirt.
I think my favorite part is “Toss me a Quarter” because my husband and I recently took my boys to a retro arcade and I lost count of how many times we were asked for more quarters. This design just brings back so many memories. And the best part is that you can remove this central figure (which is not included in the design for copy right reasons) and put any other character in. This is definitely a blank slate for your 8-bit digital art. Fortunately this character is simple enough to do on your own. In your cutting program take a circle and cut a slice of pie out of the circle with a triangle. If you’re cutting program is able to modify a circle, you can use that feature.
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Solve A Problem
Sometimes the ideas that you need to decorate on otherwise obscure theme, is to solve a problem.
One problem that I’m forever facing at birthday parties and other get togethers where lots of people are around is the abandoned beverage can or bottle. I was able to incorporate my character in one more place by laminating my yellow buddy and attaching elastic to make a Can Label.
There are a few benefits of making these for a character party.
One, all you need is a wet erase pen and names stay legible. And after the party you erase names and you’re ready to go to reuse these beverage labels again in the future.
All you have to do is hot glue your hair elastic on (preferably where the seam is, to prevent elastic breakage). With a silicone finger cot, you can flatten your hot glue without burning your fingers.
Two, and possibly the best benefit of all, is if you ever find yourself in a situation where you forgot a hair elastic or yours breaks, this guy is easy to spot in a purse or car floor and your hair needs are over!
This idea will work with any kind of party or event. Bridal shower, cut out a diamond. Baby shower, cut out a bottle.
I know all this information was quick to get through and exciting. I have two more ideas to share with you next week, in addition on tips on how to order a trade mark cake from a bakery who doesn’t make trade mark cakes. So be sure to come back next week for those and a funny story about how this was a birthday party that my boys will NEVER forget!
Can these designs save you time for your next party that you can’t buy decorations for? Get Gift Bag, Level Up, and Arcade Labels here.
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Maybe it’s because of my inner child. Maybe it’s because I have a house full of small children. But the one thing I can say with all certainty is that I absolutely love things that glitter and things that move.
So of course, I’m going to love shaker cards.
Have you seen them before? The few that I’ve seen in the market place have chunky glitter or confetti. Well, I’m going to show you how you can make these for yourself.
But first I want to show you how I make my own confetti. After all, why would I buy confetti when I have some absolutely beautiful scraps that I really can’t bring myself to throw out? There’s textured prints that I love and color schemes too. They make me smile. But there’s the glitter card stock. In the paper world, glitter card stock is my crack. When I have sheets in my craft room, I save it for my favorite people and special projects. So of course I want to use every splinter of that beautiful goodness.
Confetti is super simple! You just your paper scraps and cut them down to this:
Really I do NOT have that much spare time that I buckets and buckets of homemade confetti. If I have a lot of a color or paper, I do recycle those. But there’s something about mixing all your favorite textures and prints and mixing a mosaic in a bag. And this is a confetti blend that you will never find in the store.
For the shaker card I’m going to use my yellow blend. For the shaker gift tag I’m going to use glitter. Feel free to customize any of your shakers with plastic pellets, wax pellets, beads, baking sprinkles, or anything else that your imagination brings to mind.
Assembling Shakers
The possibilities for this style are endless. All you need is to build up a frame, a solid back layer, a transparent front layer, and a decorative face to sandwich in that transparent layer.
For my transparent layer, I usually lean toward laminator sheets. This is what I used for the gift tag. But this time I’m using a plastic packaging for the card. It doesn’t give the crisp window pane effect. However, I know most people don’t have laminator sheets readily on hand, and I don’t want anyone to think that you absolutely have to use that one product. If you’re a green person, this makes one less bit of unrecyclable plastic going in the garbage. So there’s that. Also, another idea is taking the thick plastic “glass” that’s found in a very cheap picture frame. You’ll need to use a blade to cut that down to shape. And you might need to score and take several passes to get a clean line. But definitely use whatever you have on hand!
Cut everything with your cutting machine.
Once everything is cut (and weeded if you’re using vinyl) go ahead and seperate everything out; card, frames, and bees (or other accessories).
The cutting files for this card and gift tag can be found here.
Assemble each group separately and set aside.
This is one time where an organized work station is going to be in your best interest. If you use my Bee Card and Gift Tag, you can understand how things can get a little intimidating. (For projects like this I always include assembly directions. I’ve chosen to work through this project here, because visuals are amazing, especially for people who need to see something instead of being talked through it.) But once you have everything broken down into the three groupings for this project, it has a very easy feel to it.
For the Card, you fold it with the cut out window on the front cover. Apply the honey accent around the window. I used vinyl here, but I probably would have had more fun with card stock. After all I have some fun geometric paper. I stuck with solid colors to keep a cleaner and more streamlined piece.
TIP: If your work surface is white and your cardstock is white, try putting a contrasting color inside the card. I used a mini mat inside the card. This made it so easy to find the white edge of my cardstock and line up the vinyl.
TIP 2: With longer cuts of vinyl, application becomes easier when you use the hinge method and prevent the tails from sticking to other parts of the card. Sometimes it takes a little patience to line up all corner and lines to get a straight application.
The best advice I have for the bees is to leave the black silhouette on its backing and build up the layers one at a time. And if you have a straight tip needle, it is your best friend for when your layers shift on you and you need to adjust them. Just put the needle tip underneath, lift the vinyl and reposition it. If you leave the image of the bees up on your computer screen, it’s a great reference point for making sure everything goes in the right place.
There’s a trick when it comes to building up your frame. The glue that you choose really does matter. Usually I like using a spray adhesive (drawing lines with the straw inside the bottle), but I’ve had more glitter failure with that glue on frames than others. Hot glue gun is great for quick setting. But it tends to be thick and make your overall card weight heavier. So the best glue for this project is wood glue. It give you the light weight benefit while maintaining some flexibility in adjusting your frame so all the layers are square. The disadvantage to this glue is that you have to allow for dry time.
Make sure that when you add your glue, that there is a steady line. If there are any gaps, there will be a way for your confetti or glitter to escape. And when all your layers are in place, adding a weight will make sure that you have the best press and prevent your paper from curling while it dries.
Final Assembly
I waited overnight for the glue to dry (but that’s also because I’m a late night crafter. It’s the one time of day where I can get things done without interruption.)
With the shaker card, I used painter’s tape to hold the frame in place. The back of the card is also the back of the shaker portion. By placing the frame through the cut out of the card, when I open the card to fill the frame with confetti, it will stay in position.
I placed the front decal bumble bees on at this point just because it was convenient. With the shaker gift tag, I wanted to put the bumble bee on the bee outline without having to think of messing up a glue job. As you can see with the first picture, I didn’t quite make it square, so I needed to readjust.
If you find that you need to adjust vinyl decals, the best tool you have is a straight tip weeding tool or a sewing straight pin. The sharp point is convenient for wiggling in under the vinyl and lifting a corner. From there you can lift the vinyl. And if you keep it on the needle tip, you can back you fingers out of the way and have a cleaner sight for lining things up.
Turn your shaker tag upside down and open the card. With the frames open you can place your confetti or glitter with ease.
Shaker Gift Tag: I was originally going to use just fine glitter. But when I saw how much yellow I had going on, I needed to have another color in to break up the monotone. The paper choice I made was my black glitter cardstock. I love the color choice. What I would have done differently is add two more layers of frame in there, for a total of five layers. This cardstock is extremely thick and doesn’t move freely around in the shaker. But over all I was pleased with the fill and would not suggest using more fill than what you see here. I would call this tag filled at 50% capacity.
Shaker Card: As you noticed in my bag of confetti, my yellow was not varied at all. And I also wanted to avoid the monotone in this item also. So I grabbed some of my left over card stock from the honeycomb (not yet cut into confetti), added a pinch of my red, and finished it with some texture of the black and silver glitter card stocks. I would have tossed glitter in this one too, but I wanted to show you what it looks like with just confetti. The fill capacity of the card is about 25%. I could have added more, but again I wanted to have a visual reference for you to see what level of fullness you might prefer.
Watching people’s reaction is the true test of how successful something is made. I showed this card to my sister and after initially looking at all the detail, she instantly started shaking the card and smiled as she heard the confetti rattle around!
Want to dress up the card more?
Please do! You paper, vinyl, and other choices are going to make your card and shaker look completely different. You could use crafting foam sheets for the frame. You can use all paper. In fact, I know ladies who have such an amazing stash of paper, that makes my selection look like a kindergarten class project. But I try to be kind to my husband and not keep insane amount of supplies, like I would truly love to hold.
Now for dressing up on this particular card, I’m a bit limited. I went crazy with the confetti and that’s where the focal point went. Since I don’t want to compete with the confetti, I had to keep the honey accent pretty simple. I chose two different shades of fine glitter and used a glitter Elmer’s glue of a contrasting color (which adds a touch of depth to an otherwise flat glitter). To make fine accent lines, I used a tooth pick dipped in the glue to draw my lines. And as you already know, once you add glitter, your lines instantly grow thicker. So don’t be afraid of having a toothpick thin line. The glitter helps you out.
This particular design would also look amazing adding flowers, grass, or any other embellishment. So please don’t be shy to add what your project needs.
I hope you have as much fun making this card and gift tag as much as I do. Please leave a comment below and email me pictures of how yours turn out!
Here are the files for the Bumble Bee Shaker Card and Tag.
Please sign up for my newsletter for when my christmas and wedding editions of this style are released.
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There are times in life where you always ask yourself, “What can I get them?” We’ve all been there, especially if you’re the primary gift giver in your family. There are always a few different ideas that come to mind. But then the question becomes, “Will they like it? Or do I just like it?”
When I graduated High School, the one gift that I didn’t appreciate at the time was from my maternal grandfather. Granted it was probably the first time that he gifted a gift alone without my grandma’s thoughts. And I can actually smile at the memory now, because I understand his thinking. But it wasn’t the best graduation gift. I was gifted a set of pink towels.
Yes, you read that right.
I can smile now because from the perspective of a well over retirement age widowed man, I’m sure that towels were a practical gift that he thought he nailed. Everyone needs towels. It’s a necessity. And with college coming up, a graduate is going to need towels. And now that I think about it, maybe my grandma would have approved of the gift.This set of grandparents was very practical at gift giving. There had been a childhood Christmas where I was gifted underclothes. That was definitely NOT what a child expects or wants to open up on Christmas, but it was definitely practical and a necessity at that Christmas.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not mentioning these gifts to say that they were horrible. Neither am I saying, if anyone is thinking of gifting a graduate towels, that you should reconsider. I am mentioning this because what may seem logical, well thought out, and well meaning in your intentions and thoughts, it might just be seen in a different light by the recipient.
It’s this kind of disappointment, written all over the face of the recipient, that prompted and bolstered sales of gift cards for somewhere around two decades now. Also, there’s the fact that some people are just difficult to buy for. Thus the thought of, it’s just better to give a gift card or cash (or some generations prefer gifting checks). You express your desire to love on someone and they get to pick out exactly what is going to make them happy.
Or let’s be honest. There are also times that life happens and you didn’t make it out to the store or missed buying with enough shipping times (or as we’re seeing unusual delays in shipments). What do you do now?
How do you gift cards or cash???
That is the number one reason why I drag my feet so much in gifting by cash or gift card. I love giving meaningful gifts. I love finding a gift that represents a small part of me, but screams that other person’s name. What am I going to do with cash or gift card, slap it in a card and call it day? That’s just not me.
So, here are two ideas that I’ve used.
Explosion Box
This one is actually my favorite right now. Growing up I was always taking pictures. I still have those pictures. I have inherited pictures. And I bless the day that digital cameras were created, because I could take pictures to my heart’s content, see the shots without having to wait for film to be developed and printed, and capture moments that I can relive forever.
If you are like me, love pictures, or you are a memorabilia collector this option is absolutely perfect for you!
There are many options to choose from. You can have many box arms that unfurl for you. You can have a single layer or many layers of box within boxes. There are many “accessories” you can find that comes with different boxes.
By accessories, I mean what is included in the base design of the box. This year, my graduation boxes feature Polaroid picture frames. Last year my graduation boxes were on the life stages of butterflies. (The first layer was designed with caterpillar shapes. The second layer was all about the chrysalises. The third layer was designed after the butterfly.) Also, this year I’ve focused on the school monogram, school colors, and mascot. You can have just picture frames in the boxes. Or you can have holders that you can store ticket stubs, gift cards, and folded notes. Think memory box and different organizational devices to keep these memories organized.
That is an explosion Box. It is completely customizable. And even when boxes are cut from the same file, the variety of materials available makes them all unique. Even if a few people bought the same explosion box for a person, it’s not like you bought them the same card. The uniqueness of the box is what you put in it. Your shared memories with the recipient are going to be different than the shared memories of the recipient with a different gifter of the same gift. And then the fun begins, because you can compare all the different things that you’ve shared with the same person!
Money Card
This item is the newest fad in giving of cash. I’ve only recently become introduced with them, but I’m sure that they’ve been made for a year or two.
At least, this is the newest rendition of this form of giving money. I’ve seen enough chatter in the crafting groups that money cards are not readily available in certain global regions. And in those areas, which do not have designs reflecting their cultures, they will use a beautified envelope.
There are two different versions of the Money Card that I see right now. One is using a plastic shell inside a card stock holder. Imagine the plastic shell used on your favorite tube of of Chap Stick that’s sealed in between two thin pieces of card board. That is one version of the Money Card. This one is great, because if you want to secure the cash, so it doesn’t slip out in your purse when you pull the cash card out, this is what you’re looking for.
Another version of the Money Card is where there are two tabs with circles. You roll up the cash that you are given and you slide it through the holes in the tabs of the Cash Card. This version is great, and my preferred one, because once the cash is given, the card can then be used again. For example, the Money card can have the tabs flattened and then be used as a book mark.
I love books, so yes I went for second use as a book mark.
This second version is not destroyed to remove the plastic shell holding the money. So it also makes it have the added bonus of being saved as a memory. It’s not that often that people receive notes or letters from loved ones. So here’s one option where a grandparent, aunt or uncle can leave a hand written note for their graduate. And having lost several noteworthy people in my life I can finally tell you from experience that having a hand written letter telling you that your loved one is proud of you and that they love you is something that will NEVER go out of style. It’s something that you pull out and relive the love of that person.
So please don’t underestimate the power of a cash gift that carries your handwriting and love with congratulations. You may think that you will be around forever. But there really is a day that someone will miss you. And with the increase of stories of students dying to suicide or from accidents caused by other, maybe your note of love is something they can tangibly hold. Maybe a note from you keeps your loved one from escaping to drugs or running away and living on the street. Never ever ever underestimate the moments in life where you can lift someone up and tell them just how proud you are of them.
I wish you could see me right now, while I’m typing. If you are crying you’re in good company. I can’t keep the tears out of my eyes. I know my graduates are in secure families, but my heart is breaking in this moment for those graduates that are going through a rough moment that no one knows about. Yes, I have a mama’s heart and I wish I could give those graduates a great big hug, look them in the eyes, and tell them that they matter. They have purpose. The world needs them. And they can make it past this moment.
Please forgive that rabbit trail. I try not to pass up moments that matter. And I never know who reads this blog. But if you needed that last paragraph, know that it was meant just for you.
Money Leis
This was a thing that started back when I graduated High School, at least in my area. I first noticed it was with the year that graduated with me. And I’ll be honest, I so wanted one of those. So thank you Pacific Islander families who introduced this graduation gift to me all those years ago.
This is not my image. Nor do I own the rights to it. This is an image from Pinterest.ca that was found in a google search that was free to share and use. If you own this picture, please reach out to me and I will give you proper credit here.
I’m sorry that I’m not able to instruct you how to make this item. But there are plenty of videos on YouTube that can walk you through those steps. And know that one of these days, I will learn how to make them myself. In fact, I’ll go ahead and put it on my to-learn list for this year. That way I can come back for 2023 Graduation season and have some input on tips and what steps to avoid.
Money Arrangements
Very similar to the Money Lei is the Money Arrangements. I’ve seen many crafters fold money, like the Money Lei, to make flowers and topiaries. I’ve also seen people roll up bills. These rolled bills are then arranged into different shapes. You could use the rolls to make a graduation cap, graduation cake, or just about anything you have the imagination for.
If you’re interested in making making money topiaries, I did find a pictorial tutorial that looks very user friendly for those who might describe themselves as craft challenged. Here is a link to Sugar Bee Crafts. As of the writing of this post, I have not had contact with this craft blogger. Nor do I receive any compensation for this mention. I bring this to you, to be of service and help you come up with new ideas for your gift giving.
Now that I’ve given you some ideas on meaningful ways of gifting cash to your graduate, here is a little tutorial on how to make a quick tassel to dress up any graduation craft.
How To Make A Tassel
My collection of Embroidery Floss was not locatable when I was making my nephew’s graduation box. So I did the next best thing. I used my sewing thread that was in his school colors. And this was absolutely perfect, because I needed a small tassel and sewing thread gave a more sleek appearance that was proportional to the final product.
What I used:
Two different colored spools of thread
(1) 2 inch wooden ring
(4) crafting clamps
Scissors
Hot glue gun and glue for application
Place the clamps on your ring so that you can keep your thread centrally located.
Take the ends of your two threads, leave a tail at the top of the ring, and start wrapping your thread around the ring.
Once you’ve reached your desired thickness, cut your finishing tail on the same side of the ring.
(Left Top) Remove the clamps, slide the thread off the ring, and hold one side of the loop. Make sure to keep the other side open.
(Left Middle) Wrap your tails around the open end of the loop and carefully tie your tails in a knot. If you pull too tight, you will distort the lengths of the thread. When this happens, keep calm and finish the knot. We can fix this when we trim the bottom of the tassel.
(Left Lower) Place your scissors in the center of the loop and pull them to the opposite side, away from the knotted end.
(Right) Take both tails and wrap them around the tassel head, to desired band thickness.
(Bottom Left) Tie the tails with a couple of the tassel strands. This will become the back of your tassel that you will glue to your project.
The tassel strands that you tied to the tails (and the tails) will all be pulled up to the top of the tassel to form the cord. You can choose to braid these. I opted to coil the threads by twisting them. (I knotted the end to just maintain order, especially for gluing.)
Trim the bottom of the tassel to make all ends even.
(Bottom Right) Glue your tassel to your project.
Further description of how I applied the tassel on my project:
On my nephew’s explosion box, I marked with a pen where I wanted to add my thread tassel. I started by hot gluing the tassel body in position. With the body in position I twisted the tails/cord, applied a thin row of glue on the pen line and laid the cord. Once the glue cooled, I trimmed off the knot and too long bits of thread. These ends I then hid under a colored foam ball that I stole from a silk flower arrangement.
Tip: The thinner you can keep your glue, the more it will hide. So try to be stingy on the glue. There will be more than enough glue to hold the tassel in place.
Tip 2: If you have a small crochet or tatting hook, you can make a seamless tassel by pulling the tails down into the center of the tassel and trimming off any length longer than the rest of the tassel.
I hope that you enjoyed these ideas and you find that you have a couple more options for gift giving this graduation season!
Files that were used for this post
My 2022 Graduation Collection has options for a general Explosion Box and Money Card. These include the monograms where you can custom make your graduation items with the same letters that I use.
I also have options for premade school boxes and cards for my local schools.
If you would like a specialized design for your school and mascot, feel free to email me to receive a time estimate of when that file goes live. You can reach me at info@pacificnorthwesteventdesign.com
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Some of my favorite moments are helping make clients’ DIY moments turn into successes. And here is one of those moments.
The inspiration picture that Tina sent me was this burlap birthday banner.
I am such a fan of Pinterest and other creative social media. They provide the perfect jumping off point for communicating a clear vision.
For Tina, she already had the burlap banner that she wanted to use. Because hers was triangular instead of rectangular (as in the inspiration picture) the information that was imperative was the dimensions of the triangles.
From there, I was able to put together a mock up for her with two of the closest fonts I had, to the inspiration picture, and one slightly different just for fun.
The important thing to remember when changing up a shape is understanding how to maximize the space. For triangles you are going to be limited by bottom heavy letters and numbers. So in this case H, A, and 8 are the limiting characters to the font size. When doing a mock up usually the P is the problem child because centering the letter on the triangle usually ends up with the P running off of the pennant. However this is easily overcome with an optical illusion. Keep the P in perfect line with the other characters, but you bump it off center toward the right.
So if you ever find that your characters are running off of your pennant, and they are top heavy on a triangle, you can shift your character over and keep it on your pennant.
I was so happy that Tina and her family were excited who this banner turned out for their mother’s birthday. Tina was able to use a banner that she already owned and she made something for her mom.
If you are looking to DIY a Burlap Banner and wondering wondering what is the best way to attach characters, there are two methods that I recommend. My favorite is glue dots. The dots have the right about of stick power to last through your event. Plus it has the added bonus of being easily removed from the burlap without added work.
The second method is hot glue. if your event is outside on a nice hot day or with some strong winds, the glue dots will not be strong enough. The hot glue is prefect. The drawback to this method is that sometimes the glue does not want to release from the burlap. There are a few different ways of removing hot glue from burlap. My favorite, is to place the fabric between two sheets of parchment paper and reheat the glue with a hot iron. The parchment protects your iron and table from getting glue on them. With the hot glue fluid again, you can peel the glue off the fabric. A tooth pick, or other narrow tool, is useful in reaching any glue caught in the weave.
No matter if you are a beginner at crafting or trying a new crafting skill, if there is an inspiration picture or question about how to do something, do not hesitate to reach out.
I’m here for you!
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With Easter tomorrow there is a common crafting problem that pops up with those cute egg and sucker holders…resizing.
Not all eggs are sized the same. Not all suckers are sized the same. There are even some holders for chocolate balls. Not all chocolate balls are the same size.
I’ve seen more frustrated crafters than I care to mention. Either the designer miss-sized the holes, so things don’t fit or the crafter bought a candy that was not standard size for the file they bought.
The good news is that you don’t have to throw out the files that didn’t work for you. All you need to do is resize your file in your cutting program. And I’m going to show you how.
Resizing Your Critters
Step 1: Measure the diameter of your egg, sucker, or chocolate.
Step 2: (After checking to make sure your entire critter is grouped, to make sure you resize everything in proportion) Make a circle that fits the hole. You will use this circle to verify you have reduced or enlarged your critter to the size you need it. (See Photo 1 above)
Step 3: Check your program’s measurement type and decide if you’re going to do your measurement based off of your objects height or width. (See Photo 2 above)
You will notice in the photos that I have my measurements set to centimeters. The reason for this is because the plastic ornaments I’m using were sized in the metric system. I love designing in Inkscape because I can switch back and forth between the metric and imperial system with just a drop down menu.
The ornament I’m sizing down for is 4 cm.
Step 4: Select All: your entire critter and your sizing circle. Then increase or decrease your critter as you need.
This step will take a little time, because your entire critter is not going to be directly proportional to the hold diameter. I’m sure there’s a math equation that you could come up with to get you the answer every time. I am not a mathematician. So I use the computer program to do the work for me.
Step 5: Stop sizing in accordance to what you’re sizing for. (See Photo 4 above)
As I mentioned, I’m sizing down for a 4 cm plastic ornament. The ornament has no lip, other than the tab to string the ornament. And the caterpillar holder that I’m using does not have a base to deposit and hold the ornament.
If you’re using a cut file that holds your egg, sucker, or chocolate ball, you don’t have to be precise with your hole sizing. You just need the whole holder to be big or small enough to precisely hold your sweets.
However with a plastic ornament (I needed to use up my 3 cm and 4 cm ornaments that just are NOT standard size for any cut file on the market) I need to have a pretty precise hole size. I need to have it snug to keep the project together. So I made the hole slightly less than 4 cm so the tension of the two pieces of cardstock (glued together) was enough to hold the ornament with no other crafting tricks.
Step 6: Cut your file!
Obviously I didn’t resize in my cutting software. My software does not have a measuring system conversion tab. It’s permanently set in the Imperial measurement system.
If you find that you are also resizing outside of your cutting software, always make note of the height and width of your entire critter. This will allow you to quickly resize your entire critter in your cutting software without the guess work.
Let Me Do the Math For You
I want to make conversion easy for you, if you decide to go with my Caterpillar Ornament cut file!
Here are the measurements I used to make these Caterpillars for my boys.
Small Caterpillar
3 cm
Height 2.7″ / 6.85 cm
Medium Caterpillar
4cm
Height 3.6″ / 9.15 cm
Cheat Sheet for converting the Caterpillars for full ornaments.
3 cm Ornament
Circle Back Cover 3.5 cm / 1.38″
4 cm Ornament
Circle Back Cover 4.5 cm / 1.77″
Another option is to use half of an ornament and use decorative paper for the back cover.
Tootsie Pop
3 cm
Height 2.7″
Dum Dum
2 cm
Height 1.85″
Cheat Sheet for converting my Caterpillar Design into sucker holders!
Honestly, with converting you could go as large as you want to. You could size up even more for gifting sox, underwear, baby onsies, and baby burp clothes. Literally you can convert to package any kind of gift in a new way!!!
What do you do when it all goes wrong?
Let’s be honest. Sometimes we forget to resize something. Or we think the designer made it correctly, but our cutting software program uploads the file at non-original dimensions (which has happened!) Or there’s an entirely different reason. Maybe the item you’re crafting with is not uniform in size (which happens with cheaply made items).
That is what I ran into with another designer’s file while I was finishing my Easter crafting for my boys. I had used this other designer’s file for Rabbits with my 5 cm and 6 cm plastic ornaments. I had also gotten her Chick file. I had to make conversions for her files because all my ornaments were smaller than hers, for which she used to design her file. The Rabbits turned out perfect. The Chicks were hit and miss. The 5 cm Chicks turned out near perfect. The 6 cm Rabbits were perfect. But the 6 cm Chicks were too small!
Now if I were making these for clients, of course I would make the adjustments and make them new. However we all know that my boys are just going to rip into the cardstock and go straight for the candy! They’re not going to notice any flaws. So I’m free to make corrections.
The 6 cm Chicks (on the left with ribbons) had front bellies that just would not seal to the back cover. I mean we are talking eye sore, obviously not the right size at all. So to solve this problem I took ribbon bows and curled the ribbon down over the mistakes. Hot glue is amazing for tacking ribbon down in precise locations.
For the 5 cm Chicks (on the right), the half ornaments were having the issue of not staying in place at all. So I pulled out my glitter glue sticks and glued around the entire circular edge. I might have had smoother edges had I used Elmer’s glue and actual glitter. However, with a full weekend ahead and running out of crafting time, I opted for the glitter glue for the glue and done option.
The lesson I learned with embracing the imperfect (for a situation that doesn’t demand perfection) is to think outside the box. Cover up, fill the gaps with extra accessories, glue… it can all add to the beauty of hand crafting.
So if resizing is not exactly your cup of tea, do not fear. Don’t get anxious. Get close to being what you need and use your other skills to make it work. After all, a cut file is just a blank slate for you to make it entirely yours with the touch of your creativity.
How I Can Do That 
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