I’ve dubbed this Christmas season in our home as the “Die-Cut Christmas” because I plan to make several projects using both my Cuttlebug for die-cuts and paper punches. First there was the Christmas Card Addresses, then the place cards and I liked how they turned out so I moved onto today’s project: Buffet Labels.
Editor’s Note: These will actually get quite a bit of use during the holidays with not one but Christmas potluck lunches, and I’m so excited to see them in all their glory!
Materials Needed:
- White or Ivory Text Weight Paper
- Small pieces of Heavy weight card stock or even recycled cardboard
- Green Cardstock or Construction paper (it’s ok to reuse envelopes, etc.)
- Red Paper (it’s ok to reuse envelopes, etc.)
- Glue Stick or pen
Tools Needed:
- Top Note Die from Stampin Up
- Die Cutting Machine (I use a Cuttlebug)
- Sizzix Festive Christmas Set (purchased 50% off at Joann’s)
- Standard Hole Punch
- Scissors or Paper Cutter
- Computer with Word Processing Software of your choice
- Home Printer
Getting the pieces punched out:
- Cut your paper. I cut my paper ahead of time so it is easier to center it on the die cut. Since I am using regular 8.5 x 11 paper, I simply cut my paper into fourths. For this project I used my paper-cutter because it has the outlines for this size paper on the board so I just line it up and cut. Each piece of paper should end up 4.25 x 5.5 inches.
- Setup your document in your word processing software. I use MS Word, so I just create a new document and then set the page size to be the 4.25 x 5.5 inches of my pre-cut paper. Then I center the document and choose my font/size of choice. For this project I used Monterey BT which you can download for free (see my templates page for a link). This is where you could get really fancy and use the mail merge feature of MS Word to fill in from a spreadsheet, it’s a great time saver but is a bit tricky to setup…or you could just cut and paste in each one like I did.
- Print out your individual buffet labels.
- Start die cutting. Using the Top Note Die face up in your machine, carefully center the printed page in the center of the surface. Run through the machine. Repeat for each printed page.
- Continue die cutting. Now take out your green paper and the holly die and start working on cutting out your leaves. A large holly shaped paper punch would also work well for this if you have one! You’ll need 2 holly leaves per buffet label. Note that I didn’t use whole pieces of paper when I cut out my leaves…I had some scrap paper from the edges of some green top notes I cut out earlier so I just used the scrap paper to line up over my leaves. This is a great usage for scraps or even perhaps those envelopes from the Christmas cards you’ve already received!
- Punch out your berries. Now the Holly Die comes with a berry if you’d like a single red berry…but I liked the smaller berries so I went with a standard hole punch. You’ll need 3 to 4 berries per buffet label. Again this is a great place to reuse paper…you can see I used the cover of an old PaperSource catalog that was in my recycle bin.
Putting it all together:
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Start with the Leaves. Using a piece of plastic or paper, take the glue stick and cover the back of 2 of the holly leaves so the portions of the leaves that will attach to the buffet label are covered.
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Carefully lift them from the backing and place onto label (I found it easier to start with the lower leaf in the bottom left corner and then add the upper one afterwards). To remove the leaf from the backing I was able to use my fingernail, however tweezers would also work well for this.
- Add the berries. Using a glue stick repeat the step above for the berries, this is the most tedious step. I think a glue pen or even school glue might have worked more quickly for this step.
- Cut a small piece of heavy cardstock or recycled cardboard (think cereal boxes) approx 1 inch by 3.5 inches per buffet label.
- Fold the first third of the cardboard strip forwards and align on the back of the label, holding in place with a glue stick or even tape.
- Stand it in front of your tasty dishes and let them tell the world that your cobbler is made of blackberries 😉
If you like these, you might also like the other entries in my Die-Cut Christmas Series:
– Die-Cut Christmas Card Addresses
– Die-Cut Seating Cards
– Die-Cut Food Buffet Labels