Twelve Hexagon Shaped Christmas Ornaments

Christmas tree with twelve hexagon shaped ornaments

 Christmas Ornaments

Every year I like to add more paper ornaments to my Christmas tree.  This year I made twelve hexagon shaped ornaments in remembrance of the twelve days of Advent.  Of the twelve ornaments, I made six religious ones. The twelve days of Advent begins with the birth of Christ on December 25 and ends on the Feast of Ephiphany, January 6.  This is the day that the three wise men of the East (Magi) follow the Star of Bethlehem to worship him and give him gifts.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. white paper and foil cardstock from Michaels.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zht498CKQa5rlo_dieIcrzzeSn09Kl-l/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file for the ornament.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YjqiNa6k7CvTjYJM0sHgZEffBdGDRXb/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.  The file extends beyond the viewable area.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjcr_0-cv9RVLDPvnTD1kE-9yJ6zlzRl/view?usp=sharing

Glue and adhere the scalloped edge strip at the tab.

Glue the frame around the design. Apply glue to the tabs of the two hexagons, front and back panel, shown on the right.

Splay the hanger tabs.  Insert the front panel with the design.  Move the panel around so that there is an overhang with the scallops. Repeat for the back panel.  I inserted a pencil from the from of the panel to help align the back panel's scallops.

Insert the hanger tabs into the decorative strip.

Apply glue to the tab and the bottom of the scalloped hexagon and adhere.

Insert a 7 inch piece of thread through the two holes and make a knot for the hanger.

Santa's Helpers Making Toys - A ZigZag Card

 

Santa's Helpers Making Toys - A ZigZag Card

This zigzag card is like a diorama.  

There are five sections, which when folded together, create a three dimensional scene. Notice the zigzag that is formed when the sections are glued together.  This card fits into an A7 envelope.

Here is the PDF file. I used Neenah brand 65 lb White Gold metallic cardstock from Office Depot.  I used Echo Park "Santa Claus Lane" paper.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E9xDNTuMFWICJTmzzXnQpLbhnOymrWGT/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rQCX-lieiao-JdzrUdvAynzxtbyWVQoR/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG. The file goes beyond the viewable area.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GMtviaTAEFOUd-cJf2hsaeReuPvcHaFf/view?usp=sharing

Making the Zigzag Card

When cutting out the design, I recommend using overcut as the intricate pieces might not cut out correctly and also cutting the design with two passes. 

The five sections are glued together by a tab.  Each section is numbered in the file to help with the placement. Look at the photos for placement of the embellishments.

The back panel is a sandwich.

Make the one side of the panel and then glue the backing to the other side(this backing is the center of the pretty paper as the pad of paper only has two pieces of paper of the same type.)

Glue tabs to the back of the pretty paper (the pretty paper was two sided, you can skip this step if your paper is the same on both sides).

Front of card

Back of card

An Appliquéd Gingerbread Man Gift Bag Using a TurtleStitch Embroidered Design

An Appliquéd Gingerbread Man Gift Bag

Today I want to showcase my latest TurtleStitch project.  It is an appliquéd Gingerbread man gift bag. Turtlestitch does not have a fill pattern.  A good replacement is to use fabric as a fill pattern. When programming in TurtleStitch, the outline of the design is coded twice - once as a running stitch and the second time as a satin stitch. (Directions on how to embroider the design follow.)

I designed the gingerbread man using the Silhouette software. I tried to use only straight lines, circles and arcs so that the coding in TurtleStitch would be easy. My inspiration cam from a previous posting https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2021/12/25-days-of-christmas-decorations-day-4.html

I saved the Silhouette design as a JPEG and imported the image as a background to trace in TurtleStitch. I moved the turtle with a lot of turns and move spaces and arcleft/arcright to create the gingerbread man.

Here is the code to the project in TurtleStitch. I coded the gingerbread man to be resized so that it could be made in different sizes.

https://www.turtlestitch.org/users/Elaine/projects/A%20Resizable%20Gingerbread%20Man%20To%20Be%20Appliqued

I embroidered the design first and then made the bag using this YouTube video. https://youtu.be/OQoTA9pe-bA?si=wk2o7CoyydFbHB2b

I glued on some beads as eyes and buttons because the circles that I embroidered were not distinct enough and their addition made the eyes and buttons pop with interest.

To Applique on your embroidery machine.

Attach a backing fabric with a stabilizer to your hoop. Float another piece of fabric on top of the backing fabric on your hoop. This top layer will be the fabric for the Gingerbread man. It will be sewn down with a running stitch. Once the running stitch is complete, the embroidery machine will stop because of the "set color" command. Remove the hoop from the machine (do not remove the fabric from the hoop) and cut away the outer edge of the gingerbread man fabric with scissors. Try to get as close to the edge of the gingerbread man without cutting the running stitch. Reattach the hoop. Satin stitch the remaining stitches.

P.S.  The snowflake ornaments and the Koch snowflake ballerina in the photo were also done in TurtleStitch. 😊 https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2023/07/a-stem-project-beauty-of-coding.html

and https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-stem-project-beauty-of-coding-koch.html

A North Pole Diorama With Elves

 

A North Pole Diorama With Elves

The diorama looks wonderful amongst my other Christmas decorations for the tea party for my granddaughters. The tea party was a complete success. The girls were thrilled with the festivities.  They hugged the American Girl dolls while they were conversing together and enjoying their food.

I made the tablecloth, napkins and the scones basket for the party.  The potholder design was coded with TurtleStitch and embroidered on my embroidery machine. Here is the code if you would like to make one too. https://www.turtlestitch.org/users/Elaine/projects/Christmas%20Tree%20Arcs

Here is the PDF file for the elf diorama.  I used 65 lb. cardstock. I  used Neenah brand 65 lb White Gold metallic cardstock from Office Depot.  I recommend using overcut to cut out this design as the intricate pieces might not cut out correctly.  I also used 65 lb. foil cardstock from Michaels.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k36Yx7qukGY7OkscrAcch7xeNtNuYenu/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KNidikaAFGOAiIF2tSgS-5v4AUkRof_U/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG. Zoom out to see the entire file as it goes beyond the visible area.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VeMb8C5fiY8TTK2S2n3wlrjfoga8I-M8/view?usp=sharing

Eight double thickness tabs keep the diorama scenes together.

The tabs slide into the sides of the scenes.

An Elf Rubber Band Pop-Up Card

 

An Elf Rubber Band Pop-Up Card makes a fun surprise for the recipient as the figure pops up out of the envelope when it is removed. The stored energy in the rubber band, when the rubber band was stretched and placed in the envelope, causes the figure to pop-up.

Here is a video of the elf rubber band pop-up in action.

The base of this design is a triamond triangular bicupola from from my blog post https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-stem-project-rubber-band-polyhedron.html

Using this as the base, I embellished it to create this pop-up. 

Refer to this blog post for instructions on how to make the rubber band pop-up.

https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/04/easter-bunny-rubber-band-pop-up-with.html

Here is the PDF. I used 65 lb. foil cardstock from Michaels and copy paper for the envelope. This elf pop-up can fit in an A4 envelope.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19LO9t6vCji9s7P3wbSuLgXZKuRFW3uxH/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wYrSecp12NgHjGy9WYm3H3Gb4VAtDnrO/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VlwoFopwDSRKGcYF5u9paYRBvlol3kCB/view?usp=sharing

 

A Boy and Girl Elf Christmas Tree Ornament

  

A Boy and Girl Elf ChristmasTree Ornaments

These cute ornaments are easy to make to adorn your Christmas tree.

Here is the PDF file.  I used 65lb. foil cardstock from Michaels.  I used a 6 inch piece of thread that was knotted and I taped  it to the back of the ornament to hang them up on the tree.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12pZSxtZvCTGppfUmc1YjIhKTix18RWB1/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MfDzCKtlbCqDeH3Nm2PYnw5zdxkMgKpO/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LIbezP3d7jB7xHgxyCo0dg01_PQs8PYn/view?usp=sharing

These designs are simple to make as they are layered pieces of paper. 

Look at the photos for embellishment placement.

A STEM Project: Converting a Silhouette Studio File Into a 3D Print File In Tinkercad and Making a Slide Together Race Car

Converting a Silhouette Studio File Into a 3D Print File In Tinkercad and Making a Slide Together Race Car

Using my Silhouette software, I created a race car body and then added tabs to the sides so that the pieces could slide into one another to be 3D printed.  Each tab was 2 mm and then the slot that it slides into needs to be 2.5 mm for tolerance. I did this by using the Offset window. The Offset should be .25 mm with a corner offset and then apply the offset.  The result is the tolerance needed to slide into one another.  (In Preferences, I changed the unit of measurement  to millimeters. I found it easier to manipulate in millimeters to be consistent with the 3D printer unit of measurement.

I am only offering the SVG file of this model because Tinkercad requires an SVG file.

Here is the SVG. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11MtGur9Dv97mJhZBB4vRWEUQ3QyPyu-Q/view?usp=sharing

 Here are the three links in Tinkercad for the race car model. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/iQIfN7ftP6W-race-car-model-part-1-of-3

 https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7m2pJrhWw6p-race-car-model-part-2-of-3

 https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lGl9vPTDRZd-race-car-model-part-3-of-3

Race Car Part 1 of 3 and Race Car Part 2 of 3 are parts that were copied from my Silhouette file and then converted to a 3D print file. I found that it is easier to print a file with a lot of space between the parts so I broke up the file into two files. 

Race Car Part 3 of 3 are wheels for the race car which were designed by a Tinkercad user.  I also modified the hood of the race car to have a slant at the front edge of the hood. 

The model can be glued together if so desired.  I think it is more interesting to using Glue Dots so that the model can be taken apart later.

Slide the side pieces together onto the base platform. 

And the wheel/axles.

Pull the sides apart slightly and slide the trunk pieces together one at a time. 

Add the spoiler.

Slide the front fender on and then slide the locking U piece into place.  Slide on the hood to complete the race car.

One Tough Puzzle Reimagined

One Tough Puzzle Reimagined 

The above placement of the pieces is the solution to the puzzle

My latest obsession is jigsaw puzzles.  I learned that there are people who can put a 500 piece puzzle together in about 30 minutes. I wondered how long it would take for me to do this task. I purchased a Ravensberger puzzle called Circle of Colors: Donuts.  It took me three hours to complete this puzzle. Here is a link to the puzzle https://www.ravensburger.us/products/jigsaw-puzzles/adult-puzzles/circle-of-colors-donuts-17346/index.html

While it was a lot of fun to put the puzzle together, I don't think I am close to becoming a puzzle champion. However, I can make a puzzle easily using my Silhouette software.  In this blog posting, I have reimagined a puzzle called "One Tough Puzzle".  The puzzle is no longer produced but you can find a copy on Ebay. The puzzle is just nine pieces that can be assembled together but there is only one way that the puzzle will fit together correctly. There are over 300,000 wrong ways to put this puzzle together but just one right way! My puzzle has the same results.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. cardstock which has a different color on its opposite side.  This is necessary to solve the puzzle.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eu_MJzjNBRM3A3oFd8OPb3XiMrtjiFxJ/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeB15uZmF-royglfq3_Eoreea2JM2tk5/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15wukKv7-w4LEaE3aZdDaWbfq0ZiuZ2ph/view?usp=sharing

I have also printed this puzzle with my 3D printer.  Here is its link. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lHqL7chFYNp-tough-puzzle-2

A STEM Project: Converting a Silhouette Studio File Into a 3D Print File In Tinkercad and Making a Puzzle to Learn About 3D Printing Tolerances of the Ender 3 V3 SE

I was amazed at how easy it was to convert any Silhouette Studio file into a file to be printed with my Ender 3 V3 SE, 3D printer in Tinkercad. TinkerCad is a free 3D modeling program, http://tinkercad.com.

 Using the Silhouette Studio Business Edition (you need to have this upgrade), save your file as an SVG.  The project designed in the Silhouette software should not be bigger than your 3D printer space. For my Ender 3 printer, the size is 8.6 x 8.6 x 9.8 inches. While you can resize it later, it is easier to stay within your limitations of the size of your 3D printer. As an aside, if it is a large project, don't cram the entire project onto one Silhouette workspace with little space between pieces.  Break up the project into different Silhouette Studio files. Also, do not save any work outside of the viewable area in Silhouette as everything is copied to the SVG file. 

At the end of this tutorial about Tinkercad, I will explain how I created the print tolerance puzzle using the Silhouette software because I wanted to know how close puzzle pieces had to be in order to slide into one another easily after being 3D printed. As a conclusion, I determined that I like .014 inch tolerance for my Ender 3 printer.

In TinkerCad, create an account and then Create a 3D Design

In the upper left portion of the screen, is the file name "Daring Krunk".  A unique file name is automatically created each time a new project is created. Type over the file name and change it to your file name.  In the upper right portion of the screen, there is an import command. Click the import command.

Choose your Silhouette SVG file.

Choose the Import command.

The SVG file is then placed on the workplane in Tinkercad.  Click on the image of the design.  The result is shown above.  There is a blue outline around the image.  To the right of this image is the height the SVG when imported, 10 mm.  The height can be changed by either using the slider or hovering over the  height of 10 and changing its value.

I chose 2.5 mm.  You will notice that the height of the design was recalculated in Tinkercad when the height was changed. The design can now be exported to your 3D printer by selecting Export in the upper right hand corner.

Click on .STL to save the file. The file is now ready to be used in your 3D printing software. 

 (In my Creality Print software for my Ender 3 printer, I had to Open the file and Slice it.  Once sliced, I exported the file and printed my design.)

Creating the print tolerance puzzle using the Silhouette software

Using the puzzle feature, I created a 2 row x 2 column puzzle.

I broke the path of each piece in point editing mode.

In the Offset window, I offset each internal wavy line with a different value, .01, .014, .016 and .02 inches. Delete the original curvy line as it is no longer needed.

Send the frame of the puzzle to the back ( highlighted in blue).

In the Modify window, subtract both images.

Please note, I changed the border to a curved corner box before I modified it (not shown).

The Silhouette created the above print tolerance puzzle. 

Here is this puzzle in Tinkercad. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/9sXbOUUvH16-print-tolerance-test-for-puzzles-in-inches

A STEM Project: Proving the Pythagorean Theorem Using an Empirical Model

The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).

The Pythagorean Theorem explains the relationship between the three sides of a right angle triangle. It states, "the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides." The Pythagorean theorem can be written mathematically as an equation, a² + b² = c² , where a and b are the legs and c is the length of the hypotenuse. 

Here is a video of the model.

In this blog posting, I prove the Pythagorean Theorem by filling the largest square with yellow split peas, (you can use rice or beans).  Moving the model to empty the large square into the two smaller squares proves that the quantity of the large square is equal to the quantity of the two smaller squares.  There are small gaps around the center triangle which allows the yellow peas to flow between the squares.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. cardstock and an acrylic sheet.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15l5iiZMXBbMRtUFM1hU1dsqe6Bo8rKDx/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rMCg8Se74hUP3ZAtsjwO5M-oLsQsxB8F/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.  The file extends beyond the scope of the viewing field.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13E2VzizPMpJFTUwU8LBIaPl7bkHX6FYs/view?usp=sharing

Here are directions from a previous blog posting that show how to make the frame sides.

Crease and apply glue to the tab as shown above for the side piece with the wing tabs. Flatten the piece to adhere the glue. Form the piece into a block.  

Crease the sides of the piece without the wing tabs. Apply glue to the tab as before. Adhere the glue by pressing down on the side piece to flatten it.  Once the glue is adhered, form the piece into a block. 

Apply glue to the wing tabs.   Insert the tabs into the side without the winged tabs.

Make the Pythagorean Theorem Model

The frame sides are glued together in the following sequence from 1-9 as shown above.

Glue the squares and triangle onto the backing.  Make a 3 dimensional triangle and glue the sides down to the center of the base triangle.

Glue the sides of the model to its base

Glue the second triangle to the center of the 3D triangle. Attach the acetate to top and tape the sides. Remove the acetate.

Fill the large square with yellow split peas and reattach the acetate.

The yellow split peas can move from square to square with the gaps surrounding the triangle.