AccuCut Craft Blog

DIY party decorations

Posted by Jen Cramer

Do you go all out when entertaining? Do you try to pull everything together with the decorations from floor to ceiling? Or do you wish you had time to do that but, instead, need something quick and easy but still want to make it yourself? I fall into that last category with most people juggling career and family.

If you're looking for a fun decoration to spruce up an indoor or even outdoor party, check out the Chinese Lantern die we have. There are two shapes: the body and the handle.

You can make fun decorations like this to string up around a party room, outside deck, anywhere you can find to hang them.

Besides cutting them out of colors to match the event, you could use themed scrapbook paper to really tie it all together. Maybe Hello Kitty or princess paper for a little girl's party or dinosaurs or trucks for a little boy. Graduation paper for a graduation party. You get the idea.

I also like using more traditional pennants. We have a variety of styles to choose from...

Pennant #4 is a nice triangle shape at 7 1/2" wide x 9" high. (Pennant #5 is the same shape except it has holes in the top corners.)

Use coordinating paper or even fabric to make a classic string of pennants or add letters and other embellishments to kick it up a notch.

See the Party Banner...

And the It's a Girl sign...

Then there is Pennant #6, which is the same size too, but it has pretty scallops along the edges:

Besides parties, use pennants in a store to show off new papers or use them as signs to draw attention. Have fun!

A gift for my sister

Posted by Jen Cramer

I've been meaning the share a photo of a Christmas gift I made for my sister Erin. The photo quality is not the greatest since I was in a rush to get it to the post office, but you can at least see how it was put together.

My sister and her husband don't have any kids yet so let's just say that their cat is a little spoiled. So I knew she would love it if I made her something she could display that had her cat's picture in it. I found this great shadowbox frame for a 12" x 12" page and then it was easy to put together.

She had sent me a photo of Bailey hiding in a blanket and I wanted that to take up much of the page. For the background paper I used Around the Block's Feline Phrases. Then I used AccuCut's Mat-Scallop die to cut the shape out of a brown piece of cardstock. I glued the mat scallop shape to the photo and then glued both pieces to the base sheet of cardstock.

Then I wanted to add Bailey's name to the page so I adhered some of the same dark brown cardstock to some chipboard and cut the letters out of our 1 1/2" Black Tie alphabet. I glued the letters down above the photo.

I thought it needed one more accent shape so I added a small Flourish #1, also out of cardstock adhered to chipboard to give it some dimension.

And it was done! My sister said she loved the frame and that it was worth the wait. I've found that people really enjoy gifts when you can make them yourself or put something very personal in them, so I try to make as many gifts as possible. And AccuCut dies make it so much easier to put them together.