Make a lovely little spring gift by making a spring cover for a pack of tic tac's
On a recent walk, my son finished off some tic tac's from a snowman decorated box I made previously (Click here to see that blog). Anyway, he suggested I made one for Easter. I am up for a challenge so here is this weeks blog.
It was a little tricky to come up with a design where I could cut out part of the picture so the tic tacs could be seen through. I am pleased with the result and so was my son :)
My image of a bunny rabbit sitting in a pot came from Lili of the Valley. In the 'You will need' section below it shows you where you can purchase this from. However you may already have a stamp with a similar image you could use instead. The main reason for my blog this week is to show you how you can adjust the size of a computer image to print it for a project. I normally use publisher to do my picture adjustments but I know not everyone has access to this program, so I show you how to do the adjustments in Inkscape, a free package that you can download.
Follow the below link to find out how the gift was made
You will need
- Light green card
- White card
- Computer and printer
- Bunny in pot digital image (you can purchase it here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LotvDigiShop - and search for two little bunnies)
- Inkscape (free downloadable graphics package)
- Colouring medium of your choice (I used promarkers - sandstone, mustard, pear green and pale pink)
- Rounding corner punch
- Thin green ribbon
- Guillotine with scoring and cutting blades
- Kraft knife and self healing cutting board
- Stamping aid (I use Stamparatus by Stamping Up)
- Glue and Double sided tape
- Black ink pad
- Small Easter/Spring greeting stamp (I used 'Hello Spring' from 'Circle of Spring' stamp set by Stampin Up)
- 16g tic tac box (I got Lime and Orange ones from a local discount store in my town)
- Open Inkscape on your computer - it will automatically open a blank new page.
- Select the create rectangle icon and draw a rectangle on the blank page by clicking with the left mouse button on the new page, keep the left mouse button held down whilst you drag the mouse down and to the right. Let go of the left button and a rectangle will show.
- Change the width and height of the rectangle by typing in the adjust size boxes (see above photo)- change the measurement to CM then change the width to 3.7 and the height to 6.7
- If your rectangle then shows on the screen but it is coloured (mine was blue), you need to change the fill colour to white. If you have the colour chooser showing on your screen as indicated in the below photo, just click on the white colour and your rectangle will change colour. If you can't see the colour chooser options, click the fill button (looks like a pot of paint pouring) and it should then show.
- Click on the page but off the rectangle. (You may have to select the pointer icon on the left side). Then click on 'File' from the top tool bar followed by 'import'. Locate where you downloaded the bunny image and click on open (just click ok if a message pops up without changing any settings). You will now have the rectangle on the page and a rabbit image
- Whilst the bunny image is still selected, ensure the size measurement says CM then click on the open padlock to change it to a locked padlock and change the width to 3 cm (The height will adjust automatically as you locked the ratio by clicking on the padlock symbol)
- Move the rabbit image to the lower part of the rectangle by clicking on it and dragging it to the right position (If you need to enlarge the screen to see the rectangle and image better, just click the + button on your keyboard) - see the above photo for positioning of the rabbit image.
- If you are just making one of the tic tac boxes, print the Inkscape document onto white card. If you would like to make several, then group the rabbit and rectangle together by clicking on 'Edit' from the top tool bar and then selecting 'Select all'. Next click on 'Object' from the top tool bar then select 'group'. Your rabbit and rectangle are now one image and you can drag it to move them around the screen. I moved it up to the top left corner, right clicked in it and select 'copy' then clicked on a blank space and right clicked and selected paste. Move the image so it's not ontop of the previous one. Keep doing this until you have filled the page, then print it
- Colour in the rabbit image - leave the pot blank as you will be cutting it out
- Using a craft knife cut out the pot
- Next cut the rectangle out
- Use the corner rounding punch and round the two right hand corners
- Put the rectangle into your stamping aid and line up the greeting on the top. Ink the stamp and stamp it
- Cut a piece of green card 9 . 5 cm wide by 7 cm high
- Using the rounding corner punch, round each corner of the green rectangle
- Score 4 cm in from each short edge
- Put a piece of double sided tape on the right hand front on the green rectangle as per the below photo. Ensure it is just above centre.
- Cut a piece of ribbon 30 cm long and stick it to the green rectangle so it sits centrally across it
- Use glue to stick the rabbit image rectangle to the front of the green rectangle
- Using the kraft knife cut out the green card where the pot would have been. (I tried not cutting out the pot in point 10 and waiting until now to cut through both layers but this often led to the image ripping)
- Put some double sided tape on the inside spine of the green rectangle and stick the tic tac box spine to it
- Tie the ribbon enclosing the tic tac box inside the green rectangle
Isn't that a really cute little gift. I did quite a few at one time and have gifted to my work colleagues and sent a few through the post to friends. It doesn't have to be an Easter gift, just by changing the greeting you can make them for any occasion.
