I know that I’ve shared a couple of K Cup Gift Boxes before (here and here), but I can’t seem to stop making them! They just always make the best little office or neighbor gifts. This time I’ve paired a new K Cup Box design from the Silhouette Design Store with tags cut from patterned paper using my PixScan mat and stamped with adorable cafe-themed images and sentiments from Pink & Main.
I started with a sheet of the patterned paper “Tea Tins” from the Tea for Two line by Cosmo Cricket (retired). You know how there is usually an “extra” sheet in a paper collection that has journaling cards or tags on it and it’s difficult to use unless you fussy-cut them out? Well, that was “Tea Tins” for this collection. It has all these ornate tags, and no easy way to cut them out…unless you have a PixScan mat.
I cut my sheet down to size and stuck it on my PixScan mat. Then I opened the PixScan Menu (arrow 1), placed my mat on my scanner, selected Import from Scanner (arrow 2), and then clicked on Import PixScan Image from Scanner (arrow 3). Since my scanner is not large enough for the entire mat, it scanned part of my image as shown above.
To scan the other part of my patterned paper, I simply flipped my mat around 180 degrees on my scanner, selected my scanner as my source again (arrow 1), and clicked Import PixScan Image from Scanner (arrow 2). And like magic…the software spliced both sides together perfectly (it really is magical…you have to try it at least once to see!). Because I hadn’t pressed the lid of my scanner down really well, I did have variations of brightness in my scan, but it didn’t matter much because I was careful to trace the darker designs separately.
Unfortunately, I lost my screenshot of the Tracing step…but what you would do next is open the Trace Menu, adjust the Trace Settings for whatever designs you intend to cut out of your paper, and click on Trace Edge. Some of the cut lines will likely need to be cleaned up with a bit of point-editing, but if you are cutting out a nice solid image with strong contrast to the background of the paper (like one of the red frames above), you may not need to alter the automatic trace lines at all. Once you are happy with your cut lines, load your PixScan mat, adjust the cut settings for your material, and send the job to your Silhouette. The machine will automatically read the registration marks on your mat and cut your designs out quickly.
I decided I wanted to create coordinating colored mats for each of my tags, both to make them a bit sturdier and to cover up the design from the back of the patterned paper. So, I simply copied the cut lines for my tags from the PixScan window into a new window.
Then, I quickly created a mat for each tag by opening the Offset Window (arrow 1), clicking Offset (arrow 2), selecting a distance of 0.075in (arrow 3), and clicking Apply (arrow 4). Once I deleted the original cut designs from my workspace, I cut these new designs out coordinating solid cardstock.
Here you can see the nearly perfect tags cut from my patterned paper and their coordinating mats. If I had spent a little more time trying to achieve the perfect trace, they would have been even better, but I was pretty satisfied with my results after only a few minutes of playing in the software (and it sure beats fussy-cutting).
Once cut, I stamped each tag with an image and/or sentiment from the Latte Love set by Pink & Main in Memento Luxe Espresso Truffle ink, followed by heat embossing in clear. The I quickly colored each image with Prismacolor Pencils, adding just a little shading for dimension.
After adhering the patterned tags onto their matching bases, I punched a small hole in each using my Crop-a-Dile.
The tags were a perfect additional to these K Cup Gifts Boxes that I cut with my Silhouette. Full instructions for assembly can be found on the designer’s site here, but it is a simple enough 3D project that you may not need them.
The boxes were also cut using patterned paper from the Tea for Two collection by Cosmo Cricket, so my tags matched perfectly.
Inside each box, you have room to place three K Cups. I made gifts for both my tea-drinking and coffee-drinking friends, and added the appropriate tag to the outside with a little ribbon or twine.
If you’re a Silhouette user and haven’t already, I hope this project inspires you to try out the PixScan mat…it’s amazing what this thing can do! If you aren’t a Silhouette user, there are plenty of free templates on the internet for K Cup holders to cut by hand…and add cute tags with these stamps if you’d like too.
Thanks for stopping by and I’d love to hear your comments!