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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Don't Throw Away that Clam Shell! Organize!



Sometime in January Cindy McVey had a post on organizing your Cricut Cartridges with a cut file. She made a cut file for the Snapware tote and you can find her post with the cut file here.
I had thought about making a cut file for this awhile back and was happy to see Cindy's post. However, I wanted my dividers cut from clear plastic. I searched Lowes and Menards looking for something to cut last year. No luck. When I saw Cindy's post I began to think on it again. And then it hit me, my Clamshell packaging from my Cricut Cartridges. What's a clamshell? You know the plastic cover that surrounds your cartridge? That's a clamshell. So, when I got my last cartridge, I carefully cut around the outside edges, and decided to give it a try. Be careful with this piece as hand cutting the plastic with scisors give a very sharp edge.
I downloaded Cindy's file and quickly realized that I have a different size Snapware caddy. I got my caddy at JoAnn's and have found the same one at the Container store. Cindy's is four carts wide, mine is five. I am not sure how many Cindy's is deep but mine is 8. So, my Snapware caddy holds 40 carts. I then made my own cut file for the bigger snapware container and I am sharing it here. Maybe, some of you need the cut file for the larger container.
If you decide to cut your dividers in the clear plastic, you will notice that the longer strip in my cut file will not fit on the cartridge clamshell. So, I dug through my stash and used the package from my Fancy Pants 12 x 12 acrylic stamp set.
If you bought the Christmas wrapping paper set from Target this year, this was stored in clear plastic. Take a look around the house and see what you have.
Use your Deep Cut housing blade on a setting of 6. Your machine pressure should be at the highest setting too. It will not cut through the plastic the whole way, but gently fold the plastic along the cut and you will find it works like a dream. Also, it seems to help the edges from getting too sharp. The plastic stayed on my matt well too. My inside cuts needed a little bit of help to get started and I just snipped them with a scissors at the start and finished pulling open. My Fancy Pants plastic was a little stiffer then the clam shell plastic and a bit more brittle. Just take your time. You need only open the inside cut on one side and don't need to remove the whole mini rectangle. Here is the cut sheet, before I broke it apart.

I like that I have made the world a little greener, recyclying my plastic, that I can see through the dividers, and that it does not come apart as easily as the needlepoint canvas. I used to have to take my dividers out to use as a pattern for cutting a new divider. Every time I would take my dividers out to make one for the shop or a friend the dividers would fall apart, and then they would catch in the wrong spot when reassembling. This cut file made with the clam shell is better!
Would love your comments!

4 comments:

  1. Great idea for cricut storage!!

    I wanted to tell you that I received my cricut cover today in the mail!! It is right now on my E ~ looking mighty good I might add! Thank you so much!!

    I thought I became a follower when I found you the first time, but I guess I was so excited about my cover I went straight to you ETSY site! I am a follower now!! I will be showing off your cover Tuesday night at my cricut demo at Michaels!!

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  2. I got your comment. The engine picks up the image "closer" to where you have your download indicated. Closer is relative... when you are dealing with html and not space. I will pick up the picture of the box, and change it in the post.

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  3. Great instructions for reusing the plastics. Thanks for posting!

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  4. I love all the ideas....It's always great when folks that have the same love of paper and bounce ideas off of each other..Now that's team work!

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