Hello fellow scanners!

You’ve heard the saying – “Big Things Come In Little Packages”. Well, it couldn’t have been more true for me this week than when I had a bit of a eureka moment whilst playing with my Brother Scan N Cut.

Read on and I’ll tell you more…

Why this elation and mention of eureka?

Because I figured out how to include single cutting lines and scoring lines within my cutting files for the Brother Scan N Cut.

Now, I’d love to tell you how I did this however I don’t think that I can easily explain this without causing mass confusion so I decided that it would be easier for me to share the template that I came up with during this eureka moment until I can figure out an easy way to share the method.

The template that I made was for a small matchbox (about 2 inches by 1.5 inches) and a corresponding slide over cover. Like this …

Yes, yes, I know that grey wasn’t a very inspiring cover but this was a test piece and I didn’t want to waste the good stuff.

When I had made this little matchbox, I actually squealed with joy! It was so cute and perfectly formed :)

Ok, now I guess that you want the files so that you can have a go yourself?

Not a problem, but do reminder that these are already in the FCM format so no converting needed, just download directly to your USB stick and then load the designs into your Scan N Cut machine and get cutting.

I have formatted these into two different files, one with dashed scorelines on the drawer part and one without the score lines. The box wrap into which the drawer slots will have the score lines in either case as it’s not obvious where to put them.

Anyway, here are the links.

• Matchbox and Cover WITH scorelines on the drawers
• Matchbox and Cover WITHOUT scorelines on the drawers

(Windows users you will need to RIGHT CLICK on the link and SAVE TARGET AS… or SAVE FILE AS…)

At the size they are you can cut four (plus covers) from one sheet of twelve inch square cardstock. If you need to add more to your cutting area of the Brother Scan N Cut, just group (unify) and then duplicate – you may need to rotate a couple of them to make it all fit though.

The cardstock that I used was the American Crafts cardstock which is around 220gsm (80lb) – I wouldn’t go much more or less than that as the cardstock probably won’t fold well or it might not fit together properly.

Now, a couple of things to note.

First, if you download the one without the scorelines you will need to manually score the lines as shown in the image below. I drew them so that you could see them; you don’t need to draw and score, just score.

In either case, the following steps are how to assemble the matchbox and box wrap.

Pre-fold all score lines.

For the box wrap, apply glue to the end flap and then fold the other end tab over this and stick.

You can hold the tabs in place with mini clothes pegs or paper clips whilst it dries if you need to.

For the drawer apply glue to tabs and fold in and stick, one at a time until you have this.

Now, apply glue to the two end flaps, fold inwards and hold briefly until stuck.

Repeat this for the two side flaps and then smooth down the sides with a scoring tool or bone folder, paying particular attention to the corners.

That is the drawer complete and it should look something like this.

Now slide your matchbox drawer into it’s cover, make your favourite drink and admire :)

You could always make several and then stick them together to create a unit like this.

Or of course you could decorate them with all sorts.

Now, I am sure that some of you are wondering if you could resize this box – the answer is yes!

In your Brother Scan N Cut machine just group (unify) all elements together and then resize in the usual way. In the next picture I resized the cutting file so that it filled a whole twelve inch piece of cardstock.

I have shown it in comparison to the original matchbox sized box.

Ok, well that’s about it for this post.

It just remains for me to say that these are from an original cutting file that I created so please feel free to make as many as you like, and sell the finished projects that you make. Just please don’t sell the cutting file (Brother don’t allow this) or the resulting unfinished cuts.

I would love to see what you make with this file so if you want to tag me in an image you can find me on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/GentlemanCrafter or on Twitter – https://twitter.com/john_bloodworth or feel free to email a pic to me – there’s a link at the top of this page.

If you know someone else that would like this file for their Scan N Cut, or run an internet based group that would be interested, please share a link to this post (there are lots of handy sharing buttons at the bottom of this page) rather than sharing the file itself :)

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time scanners when I hope to have more boxy-templatey fun-times for you then!!!

Ok. Signing off now.

J :)