That's A Matter Of A Minion...

Punch art is fun... i've been collecting a board of things on Pinterest to make using my punches. I've also been collecting lots of different punches to use for this.. much to my wallet's dismay! :)

Here is a little guy I have been thinking up for a while. I did use a few punches but some of the pieces are just cut with a trimmer. So this is my take on the little Despicable Me minions! Love them!

Here are the pieces and sizes that I used:

I used a 1" square and 1" circle punch and a 1/2" circle punch and a corner rounder, 1/2" round side.

The body is 1 1/2 x 3"

The pants are 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 square.

You will need a few 1/4" strips of black yellow and blue for his headband, arms, stirrups and some little strips that are about 5/9" for his pants. 

Next, I cut some gloves and boots using the Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. The ones that I liked best were from the "Supergirl" shape, but there are tons to chose from on that cartridge. I cut them at 3/4". When I was browsing the cartridge, I noticed a lot of other "dress up" parts like hats and accessories... they might be fun for making dressed-up minions later!

I punched circles at 1" and 1/2" out of grey paper for his goggles and used some different sized googley eyes that I had on hand.

The first step is to round the corners of the yellow rectangle and then round the bottom corners of the blue square. Cut a few notches so that your pants are shaped like this:

Layer these together and add some blue strips for the stirrups. I just trimmed down the sides after I glued them on.

Next glue your arms and legs onto the back side of your minion.. he's starting to take shape, don't you think?

Here, I added the gloves boots and strap for his goggles. I trimmed down the sides again when I was done. Or, I suppose you could fold them around the back.

I used a fine tip black pen to add hair and a mouth and I added some little black button brads for his cute suspenders.

I googled a bunch of minion images to get ideas of how to doodle their hair and mouths. No two minion is the same, of course, so it doesn't really matter what you try! You could also try doodling some mouths and hair on a piece of scrap paper first if you want.

Minions come in all sizes, so it is okay to shave of a few sides or two to make them shorter, fatter or whatever you want. They come in one eyed, and two eyed varieties, so that is where the bigger circle punches and eyes come in. I've been working on a small army. :)

Soon I will take over the world!!! I gave this little guy a sign to hold. :)

Into the Operation Write Home box these little minions will all go... I hope that they brighten the day of lots of children when they receive them in the mail! Thanks for stopping by!

iPad Tutorial - storing PDF files

Welcome - I've promised to give a little tutorial about using your iPad for paper crafting and the response was very positive! I'm so glad that there was interest. Today's first lesson is using your iPad to store PDF files. This can be VERY handy. There are tons of things that are available in PDF files that have to do with making cards or scrapbooking layouts. You can find tutorials, sketches, ebooks and loads of other things in PDF format on the internet! For today's lesson, I'll show how I stored several sketches, because these are the things that I use most.

Start by using your iPad to search the internet for PDF files. I'll give you a few handy links. PDF files of Operation Write Home sketches can be found here. You can find PDF files of some of Jen's awesome Deconstructed Sketches here - click on "The Deconstructed Sketch" and then "Sketches 1-40 PDF"

In this photo, I have opened the PDF file for the OWH sketches in my browser:

When you have a PDF file open, there should be a grey bar at the top of the page. It says the name of the PDF file, in this case, OWHSketches_1-150.pdf and next to it there is a button that says "Open in iBooks."
If this bar is not present, touch the top of this page and that bar should show up by itself.

Go ahead and touch the "Open in iBooks" button.

Here is what will happen next. The browser will close itself, and iBooks will automatically open. iBooks, if you haven't seen it, looks like this:

I'm pretty sure that most iPads have iBooks already installed. If you don't have it, you can get it from the App Store for free.

Here is what it will look like after you touch the "Open in iBooks" button:

Not much different, other than it is now open in the iBooks app, instead of your browser. Notice the little "Library" button at the top left, and a review of all of the pages that can be seen along the bottom. (If this action does not happen INSTANTLY, be patient. I've noticed that it sometimes takes a few seconds to move a whole PDF file from a browser or my email to the iBooks app, especially if the PDF file is very large. I would imagine that this is because it is downloading.)

When you touch the "library" button, you will be returned to a screen that shows you all of the books or files that you have stored in iBooks. No need to "save" your PDF file... your iPad will automatically keep it for you, until you are ready to delete it.

Here is what my screen looks like after I touched the "Library" button:

The "cover" of this PDF collection just looks like the first page. Now then, your screen will look different than mine because I have downloaded other things to my iPad. But your collection of sketches should show up on a "shelf" like this too. You can see that I have also downloaded other PDF files for Close To My Heart books and a few other things. Now, to keep things organized!

PDF files are on a different "page" than your downloaded iBooks. If you open your iBooks and don't immediately see your PDF files, don't panic! Just touch the "Collections" button in the top left of the screen.

You will notice that touching "collections" opens a drop-down menu of different categories. By default, there are different pages for Books, Purchased IBooks and PDF's. You can touch "New" and add as many new pages as you like. I have added a new page for "Cricut" books. (I'll do a tutorial for this next week!)

You can add, delete or move your PDF files any time by opening the "shelf" that they are stored on and touching the "Edit" button in the top right of the screen.

To move a PDF file to a different shelf just do this:

Touch "Edit"

Touch the PDF file you wish to move.

Touch the "Move" button in the top left of the screen.

Touch the collection you wish to move the PDF file to or touch the "New" button to create one.

What is the benefit of all of this, anyway? Well, it is awfully convenient for me to not have to print whole PDF files any more and store the paper in some kind of binder. That is a big savings on printer paper and ink. I also love the convenience of having all of these sketches at my fingertips any time that I want. As long as my iPad is with me, I am good to go. :)

Thank you for stopping by and please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Next week I will show you more tips and iPad tricks. 

Hugs!