Putting Words into a Shape Tutorial

Machine Used: BossKut Gazelle
Software: Funtime Scrapbooking IV
Files Used: Bluebook Hearts
Fonts Used: Impact

With the help of the WONDERFUL ladies at the BossKut Forum I was finally able to learn how to use the intersect tool in Funtime to put words into a shape!

Now I've always wanted to be able to do this but wasn't even sure where to start.  When I found this video on YouTube (Text to Heart Shape) I just knew that this could also be easily accomplished in Funtime.

After playing with it on my own for a bit and having some success I began to wonder if there was an easier way.  With that, I went to BossKut Forum to seek help from the awesome and talented Terri and Jules.  Now with the knowledge that they've armed me with, I'm here to share with you a tutorial on how to create these fun images!  First, here's my first ever attempt at a video.

Now for the written explanation.  In Funtime, I start with a 12x12 work surface.  On the right, select SHAPES and scroll down to the full heart that is available.  Remove the fill color and change the line thickness to 0.003.  Size the heart as large as you'd like and what makes it easiest for you to work with.

Then select FONT, click on True Type, and choose a font you'd like to work with.  In this case, I used the IMPACT font.  Type "FAMILY" (all in capital letters) and click OK.

Size "FAMILY" so that it extends just over the heart on the left and the right.  With just "FAMILY" selected, in the upper left, select TEXT, then CONVERT TEXT TO PATH.  This will allow you adjust each letter individually.  A good thing to keep in mind at this point, when you converted the text to path, that also made each cut in the middle of the letters, like the "A" a separate cut as well.

Before going any further it is a good idea to select the inner and outer cut of the "A."  Once both are selected, group them together so that when you go to adjust the "A" in the heart, you maintain the integrity of the "A." 

At this point I usually start working the letter that I would like centered in the heart.  For this example I'm going to start working with the "M."  Selecting just the "M", I move it to the center of the heart and readjust the size by clicking and dragging on the points just outside the letter.  It's important to make sure that the top and the bottom of the "M" is just outside the heart in some places.

I'm not worried about the overlapping letters or the spacing.  I'm simply working on the "M" and it's placement.  Once I'm happy with the "M" I will work on the other letters to get them where I want them.

Now that I'm good with the "M", I work on the letters, making sure that they are also extended past the heart at the tops and bottoms.

For the next part it'll be easier to see the construction points of each of the letters so that we can continue to extend them past the heart.  To do this, first select the C at the bottom of Funtime with the dots on it.  Then on the left of the screen select the move point tool.

Then select a construction point on the "F" and extent past the heart.  When I do this part, I choose the points of the letters and keep the line as straight as possible to maintain the integrity and identity of each letter.

I continue this with each letter until they have all been completed and it will look something like this when you are done:

Once you're happy with how each letter looks extended past the heart, click on the C at the bottom of Funtime to hide the construction points again.

Make sure to select everything, the heart and all the letters.  At the top of the screen select, TOOLS and then INTERSECTION.

Once again, select everything and group them together.  This will help in maintaining the image when/if you decide to resize it.

Make sure to save all your hard work!

I hope that was easy to follow and the that video helped.  As always, if you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me!

Thanks for looking!!
*´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Jamie*´¨)

Heart Explosion Card Funtime Tutorial

Machine Used: BossKut Gazelle
Software: Funtime Scrapbooking IV
Files Used: Heart file in Funtime, Scroll by Phyllis Parkins 0986
Materials: Card stock, ribbon

I was inspired to create a cut file from this video.  It's funny how you see a project that someone else has done and are then able to create a cut file in Funtime!  As always, there's a learning curve but once you start getting the basic concepts down nothing is off limits!

Once you've created your heart explosion, you can adhere it to the inside of card or simply a larger heart and use a ribbon to tie it shut.

This project utilizes basic shapes and the very basic alignment tools in Funtime.  With a few instructions you'll be well on your way to creating beautiful Valentine's cards for your family and friends!  Let's get started.

With a new 12 x 12 page open in Funtime start by clicking on your shapes button on the right of your screen.  Scroll to the heart and click on it.

This next step is more of a personal preference, I change the weight of the outside line to 0.003 and turn off the fill color.

With the heart selected, hit the "C" on your keyboard.  This will bring up your transformation box.  Select the width and enter in 4.8.  Why 4.8, because after playing with this multiple times and remaking it, that's what I found to work best.  :o)  For different looks don't be afraid to play around with sizes, you'll be amazed at what you'll create!

Note: By selecting the width you maintain the ratio of the heart.  If you were to select the Condense and then change either the height or width, it will only change that dimension and you'll lose the original shape of the heart.

Now we'll need a total of 4 hearts to create our heart explosion card.  There are several different ways to create more of the same heart.  What I did was select the heart, and hit Ctrl C on my keyboard and then Ctrl V.  This will place a duplicate heart in the lower left hand corner of your mat.  I moved my heart off the mat on the bottom.  Do this 2 more times for a total of 4 hearts.

So that you can see everything I'm working with, select the button at the bottom with the magnify glass and ALL.  This will zoom into the whole page with all your cut files.

To  make this easier in getting the hearts lined up where we want them, create a perfect square but selecting the draw rectangle button on the right of your screen and hold down Ctrl button on your keyboard at the same time.  At this point it doesn't matter how big it is because we are going to use the transformation box to resize it.

Select your square, and in the transformation box make sure that the square measures 8.5 x 8.5.

Let's start putting all this together now!!  Select one of the hearts, in the transformation box scroll down to rotation, and select it.  Change the angle to 45 degrees.

Select both the rectangle and the heart.  On the left of your screen is the justification, 4th button down.  Click on the align left AND the align top buttons at the top of your screen.

In order to maintain this justification as we work on the other hearts, group the square and the heart together.  Select shape at the top of screen, and then select group.

1 down and 3 more to go!  :o)  Select another heart and in the transformation box rotate it 135 degrees.  With the heart still selected, hold the shift key down and select the square.  With the justification selected again, align left, and align bottom.  With everything still selected, group them all together.

Select another heart, in the transformation box, rotate it 225 degrees.  Hey we're cooking now!!  With that heart selected, select the square and justify it by aligning it right and bottom.  Don't for get to group them together!

One more to go!!  Select the heart, in the transformation box, rotate it 315 degrees.  Justify the heart by aligning it right and top.

Now you should have all the hearts in the square and overlapping in places.  We only used the square for placement of the hearts and we now need to delete it.  With ALL items selected, select Shape at the top of the screen and click on Break all.

Select ONLY the square and delete it.

It's time to weld all the hearts together so that we can get the shape we need for the card.  Select all the hearts, and on the left of your screen select the weld button.  At this point you'll have several cut outs in the image.  It's up to you if you want to delete them or keep them there.  I kept mine because I personally like the way it looks when you open up the card.  If you do decide to keep them, I suggest selecting everything and grouping them together.

One last suggestion, create another heart the same size and keep this on the page when you save it.  That way in the future when you go to make something with this file, you'll have a starting point to making layers on your card.

Please be sure to stop by the Boss Kut Forum and share your creations!  We'd LOVE to see what you've done with this cut file!  Or if you have any questions, I would love to be able to help you maximize your use of Funtime and the Gazelle.

Thanks for looking!!
*´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Jamie*´¨)
BossKut Design Team Member

For more projects and information, please click links below:
BossKut Gazelle Blog
BossKut Company Blog

Welding Letters to a Shape in Funtime

Machine Used: BossKut Gazelle
Software: Funtime Scrapbooking IV

I've had a question how I welded the tops of the letters to my card.

Start by opening up a new page in Funtime.  It helps before you get started to determine the size card you want to end with.  For this tutorial we'll end with a 4.5 x 6.25" card.  With that in mind, start by creating a rectangle.  With the image selected, hit "C" on your keyboard.  This will bring up the transformation box.  Scroll down to Condense and change the size of your rectangle.

We'll used this as a guidance as we're creating our letters to weld to the bottom.

Since it's so close to Valentine's Day, I'm going to use the word "LOVE" to weld to my card base.  In Funtime, click on the Text button.  I selected the font Windsor Bold, available in the Funtime font selections.  Make sure to use all capital letters.  I set the height of my font to 1" but it doesn't really matter at this point because we'll need to see how it lines up with our rectangle.  We can always go back and adjust where we need to.  Hit OK.

Looking at the letters and our rectangle it looks like 1" is a good size.  I based this on it's just about the same width.  There are 2 things to consider here: Is it OK of the letters are touching a bit after you create an outline?  Or would you prefer each letter to stand independently?  Since the original card I created has the letters independent of one another we'll go with that.

 

Double click on "LOVE" and this will bring up text creation box again with the word "LOVE" in it.  Check the box Edit spacing after creation.  Click OK.

 

Click the up arrow to change the spacing, left to right, once.  That changed my spacing to 4.792.  At this point it's not too long for our card but we'll work with that after we've created the outline.

Now create another copy of your word by selecting it, copy it, and paste it.  Funtime will automatically place the second in the lower left corner of your mat.  Put it off to the side for now.

 

NOTE : Please don't get to hung up on the numbers if they aren't exactly as mine.  The procedure is the same.  Keep playing with it if it's not giving you what you want.  Or PLEASE ask questions, either send me a message or you can visit the Boss Kut Forum!!  There's always LOTS of help.  :o)

 

With "LOVE" selected, click on the Special Effects button on the right of your screen at the top.  Click on Outline, then Advanced.

 

In the transformation box that pops up, change the Thickness to 0.05, select outline, and then click on the check mark button.  Go ahead and close that box.

 

With the letters done, let's resize them so that they'll fit on the width of our card.  Select both the outline and the original letters.  In the transformation box, select Width, enter in 6.25, and click Apply.  Make sure you've selected Width and NOT Condense.  Selecting the width will maintain the ratio aspect of the word.

Make sure to change the width of your other word as well!!

Time for a little math.  After you've changed the width of your letters, make a note of the height.  You are going to need to subtract this number from 9.  Why?!  Because that's the height of our rectangle and to maintain the end card size we need to make the rectangle smaller to accomodate the letters.

 

My "LOVE" turned out to be 1.52.  9 minus 1.52 equals 7.48.  Now I'm going to select the rectangle and change the height.  Select the rectangle and in the transformation box click on Condense, change the height to 7.48 (or whatever number you worked out).

 

Select your word again and move it till it's just barely touching the bottom of your rectangle.

 

Select both the rectangle and your word.  Click on the Justification button on the left side of your screen.  At the top a row of justification options will appear, click on the Center one.  This lines up your rectangle and the letters.

 

Before we weld them together turn on the WireFrame by click on the button at the bottom of your screen with the big "W".  This will make it easier to see how much is overlapping between the rectangle and the letters.

 

Now zoom into the word by selecting the word and the magnifine glass at the bottom.  Once you've zoomed in you will have a close up and will be able to see how much is overlapping clearly.  You don't need much overlapping but you'll want enough that the letters won't be too flimsy on the card.  I use the up and down arrows on my keyboard to move the letters.  This will keep the justification of the words centered with the rectangle.

 Once you're happy with the placement of everything click on the Zoom All button at the bottom.

 

Let's get to welding!!  Select your rectangle and the letters and then click on the Weld shape together button on the left of your screen.

 

Almost done!  Because we moved the letters up a bit our card is no longer 9 in height.  There won't be much of a difference and if you wanted to leave it like that you can.  I'm going to go ahead and change it really quick.

 

Select the image, and once again in the transformation box I'm going to select Condense.  Change the height to 9.

One last step, select your image and at the top of your screen select Shape, then Break all.  This will release your original letters from the rest of it.  Select each of the individual letters (careful to select the center of "O" for example) and delete.

You have the second copy of the letters that you made in the beginning for layering.  :o)

If there are ANY questions, please feel free to ask!  I will update as I need and add anything that would be helpful for you to learn your way around Funtime.  :o)  Happy crafting!!

Thanks for looking!!
*´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Jamie*´¨)

Single Sheet Bag and Paper Bow

Machine Used: BossKut Gazelle
Software: Funtime Scrapbooking IV
Files Used: Paper Bow (available in the Boss Kut Forum)
Materials: Cardstock, ribbon, pearl heart brad
Challenges: The Outlawz Twisted Thursday - 2 of the following: Designer Paper, Brads, and Embossing

I was inspired to create this project based on a tutorial I found here.  Here are the measurements for the score lines in her tutorial:

 

I found that you won't necessarily need the 3/4" and the 10 1/4" score lines.  It depends on how you want you are going to embellish your bag.

 

The bow is a cut file that I created in my Funtime software and made available in the Boss Kut Forum.  I am currently working on setting up my blog to be able to offer templates and cut files for those interested.  Hopefully I'll have that up and running soon!

Here's a close up of the bow.  Although I did use a little adhesive to the bow to attach to the bag, I also used the heart shape brad.

Here's a view of the bag open.  I ended up using 2 velcro but I think that one would have worked just fine as well!

  

Thanks for looking!!
*´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Jamie*´¨)

Hexagon Box Tutorial

Materials: 5.25 x 11 piece of cardstock

I'm creating this tutorial using my Funtime to show where the cutlines and scorelines are going to go.  Please keep in mind that I do not have a Scor-pal or other similiar tool (shameful, I know!  I need one and I just need to go out an get one).  Based on other tutorials that I've read, I'm going to attempt to give you the information you need to make a hexagon box.  If there's anything that I miss or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.  I would love to help where I can.

If the images are too small to see, just click on them to make them bigger.

Below is the basics of the cutting and score lines for the the box.  Solid lines are cut lines and the dotted lines are score lines.

Start by aligning your cardstock so that the long side is at the top.  Next, score down the paper at these marks:

• 1 3/4
• 3 1/2
• 5 1/4
• 7
• 8 3/4
• 10 1/2

This will give you 6 evenally spaced sections and 1 section that is 1/4 inch long.  This will be the tab that you will secure the box together.

Rotate the cardstock by 90 degrees so that you have the short side at the top.  Now you will score down at these marks:

• 1 3/4
• 3 1/2

 

Rotate the cardstock back the way that you originally had it with the smaller section on the right.  For this next part you are going to need to find the middle point between each of the sections.  Whether you're using a Scor-pal, other similar tool, or simply a ruler, you are going to need to make a mark at these points:

• 7/8
• 2 5/8
• 4 3/8
• 6 1/8
• 7 7/8
• 9 5/8

 

From these points, you need to score at an angle as the image below shows (clear as mud?).  Scoring like this will make the top of the box and allow you to fold it close.

Now, turn the cardstock at a 180 angle, putting the top you were just working on at the bottom and lining up the bottom to the ruler (explaining things really is kinda confusing, I hope all this makes sense . . .)

For this part, we need to make a mark 1/4 of an inch on both sides of the score line.  This will create the bottom of the box where we fold it all into each other.  Mark at these points:

• 2
• 2 1/2
• 3 3/4
• 4 1/4
• 5 1/2
• 6
• 7 1/4
• 7 3/4
• 9
• 9 1/2

 

Whether you use scissors or a razor blade, make a cut line from the mark you made to the intersection of the closest score lines.  See above for the visual.  :o)

 

Next you need to rotate the cardstock again at a 90 degree angle, putting the short section (the tab) at the top.  Place a mark at these points:

• 5/8
• 2 1/8 

 

Once again, using scissors or a razor blade, make a cut line from the marks to the score line as you see above.  This will put a notch in the tab and will make it easier to fold your box closed.

 

Also, cut out the rectangle on the tab at the right (in the image above).

When your done, your card should look like the image below.  The red dotted lines are score lines and the solid purple sections is what has been cut away from your cardstock.

 

Here's an actual picture of the cardstock that I've cut.  Please keep in mind that I did use my Gazelle to cut this out.  I didn't spend that money to do this by hand!  ;o)  In all seriousness, I do look forward to getting a Scor-pal to do the scoring.  Somethings just look better when done that way.

Next is to fold along all your score lines.  I start by folding the sides, the bottom tabs, and the top in towards each other.

For the diagonal folds, I start by folding along one of the sides and then fold the diagonal fold lines back and forth to get a nice fold.  This is really hard to explain but again, I'm available if you have any questions.

 For this box, I wanted the ribbon to secure the box all along the top.  So I would fold along one of the sides and used a punch to get a hole through 2 sides of the top.

I thought I needed to add in another picture here to help clarify.  Here are the sides folded in together and this is where I used the punch to put the holes in the top.

At this point you'll want to decorate the sides and top as desired.  I was so focused on creating the tutorial that I forgot this step and will have to go back to decorate it.  :o/  It'll be a tad more difficult but I'll get it done!!

With this particular template/tutorial, each of the squares on the sides are 1 3/4 inches.  So, when I cut the squares to decorate the sidea, I'll cut 1 1/2 inch squares.

For the larger triangles at the top, I'll size them so that they base is 1 1/2 and it is 1 1/2 inches high.  For the smaller triangles, all you'd have to do is take one of the triangles that you created and cut it in half right down the middle.

To secure the sides and bottom I used double sided tape.  For the bottom put the tape on all but 1 of the tabs.  Then using the tabs across from each other, secure them to each other until you've closed up the bottom.  Make sure to use the tab with no tape LAST.

 

Here's what you box should look like once you've completed (use your imagination and pretend that mine is decorated at this time :o)).

 

 
For additional ideas on how you can secure the top or decorate these cute little boxes, be sure to check out my blog post Halloween Boxes!
 

Thanks for looking!!

*´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Jamie*´¨)