Some planner girls are obsessed with washi. Some planner girls aren't. I fall in the first category and I think I may need a program to stop purchasing it. I have about 3,000 rolls of washi (that is an exaggeration, probably) so I've reverted to buying washi samples because I can't tell you if I've ever used a full roll of washi. I also think making washi samples to swap is really cool - it gets rid of your collection, while also adding to it. So that is a win, win right?
this post contains affiliate links, please read my full disclosure here.
supplies // Cricut Explore die cutting machine, Cricut Design Space, Cricut Light Hold mat, 3 mil laminating pouches, laminator, scrapbook paper, binder rings, PNG below or create your own design.
To create this bobbin shape, I used nothing but the free shapes as a part of the Cricut Design space platform. I didn't use any cartridges or any clip art, just simple squares and circles! Add to the canvas one square and a few circles. Create an oval buy unlocking the size in the edit pane on the right and flattening the circle. Duplicate this circle. Unlock the size of the square and drag the green arrows to create a rectangular shape.
Move both of the ovals over to the rectangle. Place an oval on the top and the bottom of the rectangle. Play around with the visual ratio of each of the elements until it resembles a bobbin. Click and drag the cursor over the three shapes to select them all. Under the align tab, center the three shapes horizontally. Then click the align tab again and select distribute vertically. Right click and group these three shapes.
From three of the left over circles, create a decorative scallop shape with a larger circle and two smaller circles. Click and drag the cursor over the three circles and use the same align tab to align these vertically (along the vertical axis) and distribute horizontally to create an evenly spaced design. Right click the three selected shapes and group these together. Move this to the top of the bobbin shape. Select all shapes involved in with the bobbin and from the align tab select center horizontally.
From the pane on the right, select layers, then (with all shapes still selected) click weld. This will create a single shape from the shapes used to create the bobbin on the canvas. Now there is a whole new, unique shape on the canvas. Once the shape is welded you will be unable to ungroup or resize each shape individually, so make sure you are satisfied with this shape before continuing. If you are unsatisfied, simply click the undo arrow, resize, arrange, etc and weld again.
To create the hole in the top of the bobbin, move the final circle over to the top of the bobbin shape leaving a little bit around the top of the bobbin shape. Click and drag the cursor over all shapes to select them all. From the pane on the right, select slice. Click only on the bobbin shape and move it away from the smaller circle. You should see that you now have a hole in the top of the bobbin shape. Delete all excess circles.
Resize this bobbin shape - I found that about 1.5 inches wide is a good size for storing washi on a little binder ring.
Cut out the bobbin shape
Cut out the bobbin shape
Trim the scrapbook paper if needed and run it through the laminator, in the laminating pouches, a few times to create a good seal. This is how I make my dividers - a single piece of scrapbook paper laminated then cut with my Cricut (I have a DIY divider how to here). A great thing about the Cricut Explore is the variety of materials it will cut through - even with out the deep cut blade! The Cricut Explore has a fool proof way of allowing you to set the pressure with the click of a button or the turn of a dial - no removing the blade and adjusting the depth. This is my favorite part of the Cricut Explore - I can easily see where the setting is on the machine and the Go screen shows the cut depth as well. If I need something different, I simply turn the knob!
For this project, set the knob to Poster Board (if you find that your Cricut Explore isn't cutting through the material, you may need to create a custom setting - learn more about that in this post). The Poster Board setting does a double cut to ensure that the bobbin shape is cut completely from the thick, laminated scrapbook paper.
From the preview screen select how many copies of the bobbin shape to be cut. For this project set the material size to 8.5 x 11 inches - unless your laminating pouches were bigger - to be sure the Cricut Explore will cut the proper amount on the proper size page. Click Go.
Place the laminated scrapbook paper on the light hold mat and load into your machine (be sure the machine is on and plugged into your computer or connected via Bluetooth), set the dial to Poster Board, and push the flashing Go button.
Once the bobbin shapes are all cut out, wrap your washi around the middle and store on a binder ring! If you'd like to be precise about the length of washi on the bobbins, measure the middle of the bobbin to figure out how much washi one 'turn' of the bobbin would use. So if the middle of the bobbin is 1 inch wide, 1 turn of the bobbin is 1 inch. 18 turns of the bobbin would give you 18 inches of washi.
If you do not want to create your own bobbin shape, I've created a PNG image here for you to upload and use. Simply use the upload images feature in Cricut Design Space, upload the PNG, and save it as a cut file instead of print then cut file. Size this PNG to 1.5 inches wide before you cut - this will give you a 1 inch space in the middle of the bobbin to make measuring easy. Also, if you have Silhouette you can use the PNG in the same way. I'm not sure on the blade depth or how damaging cutting laminated paper would be on the Silhouette blade.
Remember, like with all freebies on my blog, this PNG is to be used for personal use only. If you would like to use this type of thing in your business or product packaging - use the tips above to make a unique design (who likes copying things anyway?). Please direct any friends to this blog post and pin only images from the blog post so that others can find the instructions. Do not link directly to the PNG image in any social sharing. Thank you for playing nice!
So, if you have some washi you'd like to giveaway (I'm always for making a simple thing a little more jazzy) or you have a shop that sells lengths of washi - this will spice it up! Great product packaging idea! You can also check out other washi storage ideas here & here. Check out all the Cricut Explore related DIY blog posts here. It is seriously my favorite machine for paper crafting!
How do you store your washi tape? Are you a buyer of full rolls or do you buy samples?
xoxo, Moe
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