Spotlight: Plantin Schoolbook - End Caps

This was supposed to be shown at the beginning of the month, so I am way behind on my Cricut Cartridge Spotlight.  I am going to try my best to still show everything I was going to show, but I did get a bit behind with everything that has been going on.  Just a recap, each month I am going to feature a different Cricut Cartridge and every Monday I will show some projects I did with that particular cartridge.

I know end caps are a bit confusing, so I thought I would show some of the things I made using this particular feature.  I also tried to put together a tutorial (in pictures), and I will try my best to get that up one day.

First, I made a little sheet that shows all the shape end caps.  Most of these I cut at the size of 1 1/4"  It is amazing to see the size differences depending on which shape you choose.  Having these little sheets help to see which ones will end up being larger.  One thing to keep in mind is that the size you choose is the size of the letters that are cut out in the middle, and not the shapes at the end.  So for my examples here, the 1 1/4" size is for the "hi"

The first real project I really had in mind for end caps was to make license plates for both my sons' bikes.  They have the same bike, and even though they know which one is theirs, I don't!  I also wanted to make it a little personal to them.

Brandon's favorite color is red and Connor's favorite color is purple.  The black layer is the main one you cut out first, with the letters cut in the middle.  For these, I chose 1" for the letters.  Once I cut both of the black layers, I put the red and purple paper through and did the end cap shadow.  This layer goes behind the black, and the color shows through where the letters cut out of the black.  I then cut the regular star shape to layer on top, and I cut this at 1 1/2"  To get the right size for this was trial and error to see which size worked best.  Next I want to laminate them and then attach it to their bikes.

My next project was a bookmark, although I forgot to put the ribbon on this before I took the picture! 

I once again cut the main layer in black, and for the shadow I used paper that I made using distress inks.  The colors are Shabby Shutters and Worn Lipstick.  I rubbed the 2 colors of ink on my non stick craft sheet and the spritzed it with water.  I then took my plain white cardstock and put it down on top of the colors.  I also cut out an extra shadow layer to put on the back so it didn't have a plain white back.

This next project was really my test pieces that I was playing around with, but I think I am definitely going to use them for something for my boys!

Main layer was cut with white paper and then shadowed with black.  I can't remember what size I made this, though.

I know end caps can be a bit confusing when you are trying them for the first time, but after you do it a couple of times the directions start to click.  Even now, though, I can still get confused.  I don't know how well my tutorial pictures came out, but I will try to get them on my computer and post that tutorial some time this week.