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🦃 Mix It Up! Combining SVGs with Traditional Crafting for Beautiful Mixed Media Projects

SVGs meet traditional crafting — perfect for fall and early winter projects!

SVGs Aren’t Just for Vinyl — Let’s Mix It Up!

If you’ve been crafting with SVGs for a while, you probably think of them as designs for vinyl decals or laser cuts — but they’re so much more versatile! As the weather cools and we spend more time inside, it’s the perfect season to experiment with mixed media crafting — blending paper, fabric, paint, and wood with your favorite SVG files.

Today, I’m sharing a few ideas to help you bring your SVG designs to life in new, tactile ways that add warmth and dimension to your projects.


🎨 Project 1: Stone Coasters or Trivets with Laser-Cut or Cricut Stencil Overlay

SVGs make excellent stencils for coasters – stone, wood, etc.
Cut your design from removable vinyl or transparency film to create a crisp stencil overlay. Then paint through it onto your project, let it dry, and peel it back for that professional look.

Try this:

  • Use a simple quote SVG (“Give Thanks,” “Bless This Home,” or “Stay Cozy”).
  • Cut from stencil vinyl using your Cricut or laser cutter.
  • Paint the sign in warm autumn tones — deep orange, mustard, and cream.
  • Finish with a light matte sealer for durability.

Free File – the “Give Thanks” SVG file is one from my freebie archives. Check it out here!

Tip: If you’re using a laser-cut stencil, tape the edges down well before painting to avoid overspray.Connect


✂️ Project 2: Paper + Fabric Combination Cards

Combine SVG-cut cardstock shapes with fabric scraps or felt pieces for texture and charm.
You can even stitch or glue them onto handmade cards or gift tags for a rustic look.

Try this:

  • Cut leaves, pumpkins, or stars from paper and layer over a square of burlap or cotton.
  • Add a stitched border with thread or a faux-stitch pen.
  • Use heat-bond or craft glue to hold fabric in place.

This project is great for Thanksgiving place cards or early winter gift tags — fast, personal, and perfect for using up your scrap bin!


🖼️ Project 3: Vinyl Accents on Painted Canvases

A painted canvas gets an instant upgrade with vinyl embellishments.
Try mixing acrylic paint backgrounds with SVG-cut vinyl words, shapes, or outlines to add contrast and polish.

Try this:

  • Paint a simple winter background (snowy scene, ombre blue, or abstract swirls).
  • OR – Try acrylic paint pouring for something different and fun!
  • Add “Joy,” “Peace,” or “Thankful” in adhesive vinyl.
  • Finish with layered snowflakes, stars, or hearts cut from metallic vinyl.

You can even seal it with Mod Podge or clear acrylic spray for a long-lasting, mixed media effect.


🧩 Tips for Mixed Media Success

  • Layering: Always plan from base to top — paint → paper → vinyl → embellishments.
  • Adhesives:
    • Paper & fabric: Glue sticks or double-sided tape.
    • Wood & canvas: Mod Podge or spray adhesive.
    • Vinyl: Stick-on vinyl or transfer tape.
  • Sealing: For pieces combining materials, a matte acrylic sealer or decoupage glue helps protect and blend layers.

📸 Share Your Mixed Media Creations!

I’d love to see how you combine SVGs with other crafting materials!
Share your projects on social media with #KabramKrafts — it helps inspire others and might just get featured in a future roundup.

Mixing SVGs with traditional crafts opens up endless creative possibilities.
Whether you’re layering vinyl on canvas, painting through a stencil, or sewing fabric accents onto cards, the beauty of mixed media is that it’s personal and perfectly imperfect.

Grab your glue, brushes, and cutting machine — and let’s make something amazing!

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🎃 Free Halloween SVG Bundle — Witch, Ghosts, Tree & More!

Cut any of these spooky silhouettes for vinyl, paper, or wood projects!

Halloween crafting season is here — and I’ve got a free SVG bundle that’s perfect for your next spooky project! Whether you’re decorating your front porch, making shirts, or adding festive touches to your classroom or craft space, this set has you covered.

This freebie includes:
🕸️ A witch on a broomstick
👻 Two friendly ghosts
🦇 Flying bats
🌙 Crescent moon
🎃 “Trick or Treat” and “Happy Halloween” word art
🌳 A gnarled spooky tree
🕷️ Hanging spider and web
🎩 Witch hat and candy corn accent

It’s everything you need for quick and fun Halloween decor!


🧩 How to Use the Free SVG Set

You can use these files with your Cricut, Silhouette, Glowforge, or any cutting machine that works with SVG or DXF formats.

Here are a few project ideas:

  • Vinyl window clings — layer the witch and moon for a flying-silhouette effect.

  • Wood signs — engrave or stencil “Happy Halloween” on a board with the spooky tree.

  • Party decor — cut bats and ghosts for garlands or cupcake toppers.

  • T-shirts or tote bags — the “Trick or Treat” text looks great in glow vinyl!


📥 Download Your Free SVG

Click the link below to grab your free file:

I love making seasonal freebies like this one — they’re quick to cut and easy to customize.
If you download this file and make something, I’d love to see it! Tag me on Instagram or Facebook @kabramkrafts or share your project in the comments below.

Happy crafting and happy haunting! 👻
— Kristin

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🎁 DIY Personalized Gifts with SVGs for the Holidays

There’s something special about gifting something you made yourself.

 

It’s been a little while since my last post — but I’m so excited to be back here on Kabram Krafts!

Over the past year, I’ve been busy experimenting with new laser-cut projects, refining my SVG design process, and dreaming up new ways to spark creativity for you. With the holidays right around the corner, now feels like the perfect time to jump back in.

There’s just something magical about giving handmade gifts — especially ones that feel truly personal. Whether you use a Cricut, Glowforge, or another cutting machine, SVGs make it easy to create thoughtful, one-of-a-kind pieces your friends and family will love.

Today I’m sharing five easy personalized gift ideas that are fun to make, affordable, and perfect for spreading a little handmade holiday cheer.


🎄 1. Custom Family Name Ornaments

Ornaments are a classic gift that never go out of style. Use a simple round ornament SVG as your base, then add a last name or year using your favorite font.

For an elevated look, layer wood and acrylic, or use glitter cardstock for a shimmery paper-based version. These look beautiful tied to a wrapped gift or hanging on the tree.

Custome Name = instant heirloom ornament.

 

☕ 2. Personalized Mug or Tumbler

A custom mug makes a small but meaningful gift. Apply vinyl decals with a name, monogram, or short holiday quote.

Pro tip: Use permanent adhesive vinyl for mugs, or mirror your design if you’re applying heat-transfer vinyl (HTV) to tumblers.  Pair the finished mug with cocoa packets or tea for an easy, cozy bundle.

Add a cozy touch with personalized mugs — easy with an SVG and a little vinyl.

🔑 3. Engraved Keychains or Tags

Small projects can have a big impact! Cut or engrave keychains from acrylic or wood and personalize them with a monogram, pet name, or favorite word. If you have a laser – these are really simple, but even if you don’t they aren’t too hard. You can buy keychain blanks at your local craft store, and then simply add a custom vinyl name.

They’re perfect stocking stuffers or teacher gifts — especially when tied with a bow or added to a wrapped package.

Acrylic keychains are simple to make — and endlessly customizable.

 

 

🍪 4. Custom Recipe Board or Coaster Set

For sentimental gifts, engraved recipe boards are unbeatable. Scan a handwritten family recipe and convert it into an SVG (I’ll share how in an upcoming post!), then engrave it onto bamboo, slate, or acrylic.

The result is a heartfelt keepsake that brings family memories into the kitchen.

engraved cutting board

 

 

🏠 5. Holiday Home Decor Signs

Signs are a fun way to decorate and personalize someone’s home. Try one of these ideas:

  • “Joy to the World” or “Our First Christmas” wording

  • Layered nativity or snowflake SVG

  • Farmhouse-style wooden plaque with laser-cut lettering

For an extra touch, add LED backlighting behind the top layer for a soft, festive glow.

A personalized sign adds handmade warmth to any holiday space.

 

✨ Wrapping Up

I hope these ideas spark your creativity this holiday season! Handmade gifts are my favorite way to share love and creativity — and there’s still plenty of time to make something meaningful.

I’ll be sharing new SVGs, tutorials, and laser projects here each month, so if you haven’t already, subscribe below to get updates (and free SVG files!) delivered straight to your inbox.

If you make one of these projects, I’d love to see it! Tag me on social media or leave a comment with your favorite personalized gift ideas.

Happy crafting, and Merry Christmas from Kabram Krafts 🎄

Can’t wait to craft alongside you this season!
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Paper Cut Pop-Up Heart SVG Template

Pretty Pop-Up Hearts

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Time for a new file. This one, as you may notice, is a paper-cutting pop-up file for all you card makers out there! 

Sadly, my poor Silhouette Cameo has been sitting unused for a long time. After my laser arrived, I have neglected paper crafting despite the fact that I still enjoy it. Paper has an allure to it. So many possibilities. 

What better time to pull out your cutting machine and make a card than Valentine’s Day? This is a very simple file to cut. It cuts really fast, the tricky part is folding it correctly. I recommend scoring the center and folding it first. Then, you can accordion fold the sides and your card pop-up insert is all set to put in your card and add a nice sentiment. 

If you need a good sentiment to add to your card, check out 1 Corinthians 13. Best love passage there is, if you ask me. 

Love Never Fails

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV



FREE SVG DOWNLOAD

My project-1

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Inspirational SVG Quote for the New Year

Bag with "Secret to Getting Ahead" Quote

Some inspiration for a new year!

Bag with "Secret to Getting Ahead" Quote

Happy New Year!

Well, 2023 has arrived. The older I get, the faster time seems to fly by. I spent some time this week thinking about what I actually wanted to do with the year. Usually, I just try to get through each day. With three little girls running around, that is about all I can manage sometimes, and that’s okay. It is a season in my life. However, I still want to be a bit more intentional this year if I can. I find myself in an exhausted stupor too often. These are some things I think may help me this year.

Just do the next right thing!

Daily Walk

Drink more water

Eat less sugar and more protein

Read parenting books

Set exciting goals

Have a positive attitude

Realizing that I need goals to work toward that excite and motivate me, I am going to really focus on working on both this blog and the svg designs I have for sale here on my website and on Etsy. I have the resources. I have the knowledge. What is stopping me? Well, it is like this quote from Mark Twain says, I just have trouble getting started. So here is to new beginnings. 

Just GET STARTED!

And, if you weren’t here for my mildly inspiring rant, but were looking for this lovely SVG file of Mark Twain’s quote – “The Secret of Getting Ahead is Getting Started” – here it is in all its motivational glory. My plan is to make a nice little bundle and put it up here and on Etsy for sale. However, I need some more design time before I have enough for a bundle. Hence, you get this freebie as a teaser. Maybe it will motivate you to do some awesome things this year. 

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Pumpkin Face SVG Freebie – Great for making some cute little Jack-O-Lanterns!

October means pumpkins, leaves, and cooler weather?

Here it is already October. I know it is cliché , but time really does go by so fast. I feel as though I just posted with the full intention of getting so much extra time to post so many good things in the past month. And yet, it is October. 

Time for pumpkins. Time for cooler weather and fall. Here in San Antonio, it means, it actually goes below 80 some mornings, yippee! I have been working hard on a lot of projects. Especially the never ending project of being a mom with a lot of chores to keep up with. Laundry in heaps. The dishes are dirty again? My family wants to eat every… single… day…?! 

In the midst of this, I remember that GOD IS GOOD. That has become my current mantra. Take a moment, thank God for your breath of air. Thank Him for all that is good. Forget the to do list and just enjoy this minute of life. 

Maybe you will get to build a memory carving pumpkin faces this year. Or maybe, that is simply too much for you right now. That’s okay too. If crafting is calming for you, I have some perfect little jack-o-lantern faces for your pumpkins!

Have a fabulous October! I hope you make some wonderful things with these cute jack-o-lantern pumpkin faces!

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Christmas Tree Time – SVG Freebie

I am back. After a long hiatus from my blog, I feel as though my life is once again in a place where I can spend time posting to my blog, and doing what I love – designing new SVG files for you! Perhaps a glut of Christmas svg files, since December is fast approaching!

Perhaps you clicked on a Pinterest image with these cute little wooden Christmas trees, or you stumbled here by accident. However you came to be clicking around my site, welcome! If you haven’t been here before, allow me to introduce myself. I am Kristin, a lover of creating, wife of an actuary, mother to three beautiful young daughters, and a math and programming enthusiast too.

Likely the 3 biggest reasons I have not posted for so long!

I have a big yellow laser, which I love. My poor Silhouette Cameo has been gathering dust in the closet as I have a new favorite in the house (or rather garage). I have pulled it out for vinyl a few times, but I think I am overdue for a Cameo project, so let me know if there is a file you are dying to see and maybe I can make it happen!

My big yellow laser in action!

Christmas trees are so versatile in crafting, so I am putting a few Christmas Tree Designs out here for you. These are the simple ones for you and your Cricut or Cameo, or perhaps your Glowforge and a wooden sign? These Christmas trees would also work great in vinyl on a t-shirt for your holiday festivities with the whole extended family!

Simple Christmas Tree SVG files for your Christmas crafting.

Download by clicking the button below!

If you like these, be sure to check out my 3D Christmas Tree files that I designed for 1/8″ material like Baltic Birch. For the trees in these photos, I used a green gel stain on the wood, cut them out, and slipped them together. As a bonus, you can slide them apart for easy storage!

Hope you enjoy these fun Christmas Tree SVG files. Let me know what else you want to see as I am always hunting for new ideas.

Don’t forget to check out my other Christmas posts. Merry Christmas in September!

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First Day of School – Distance Learning Covid-19 Style!

First day of school is coming. Back to school sales have started. Backpack sales are going to be down I am guessing!

Who is ready for school to start? Well, I would be if I wasn’t going to be the main teacher. At one point, we were seriously considering homeschooling. However, I decided some precious quiet time without supervising kids would go a long way toward preserving my sanity.

Yet, here we are. Covid-19 has placed many parents in the role of teacher, or at very least student supervisor whether they wanted to be or not. I am really hopeful that the distance learning my Kindergartner and Second Grader participate in this fall will be more streamlined than what we experienced in the Spring. There were WAAAY too many sites and logins to navigate for a first grader.

What have you decided will work best for your children? Honestly, I think homeschooling would be really great this year if you can swing it. We want to keep our spots at the charter school, so distance learning it is until it is safe to go back.

Now, on to the file I made for you. I thought we needed a special back to school sign for “first day of school” this year. I think this has good potential and can be customized for those starting the fall off distance learning.

Enjoy! Please share pictures with me if you use the file, it makes my designing more meaningful to know people are enjoying it. 🙂

Here is the download. For the custom one I just inserted text. I am probably going to use this on some cute little chalkboards I found at Michaels. Have fun crafting and good luck with schools!

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Father’s Day Card SVG Freebie

In this post, I assure you, there is a nice easy Father’s Day Card for you to make. It is a very cute simple design, that is really easy to throw together last minute. That is my favorite kind of card SVG. Don’t get me wrong, the complicated ones are really cute when people make them, but they take waaaaay more effort and time than I am typically willing to invest.

Where have I been? I haven’t had much time to devote to my website for the past month or so, but not because I am not creating. Is it just me, or is it really difficult to not be creating? I have a really hard time putting projects down to get the daily chores done.

LASER LASER LASER

I haven’t been here because I have been in my hot garage drooling over my latest crafting toy. What is so exciting that I am sweating away in my garage in the summer in Texas?

MY NEW LASER CUTTER!

Yep. That is right. I bought a laser cutter! It is absolutely awesome and to top it off it is yellow, my favorite color. It is a 60Watt Chinese Laser purchased on Ebay, in case you wanted to know. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to set it up when it came, but it wasn’t actually too bad.

Now, I am designing and cutting files on wood instead of paper! It is really really awesome. You may get tired of hearing this, but it is awesome. Yes, awesome.

Anyhoo, enough about my really awesome yellow laser, which needs a cute name.

Father’s Day

On to the point of this blog. Father’s Day is upon us again. I have a lot of cute cutting files already here for you to use or be inspired by. Take a look if you like.

Father’s Day SVG Freebie

However, I wanted something simpler and more generic this year. I am planning on sending one to my dad, and as you can see, my daughter’s already absconded with the other’s I made to give to their dad. My six-year-old added artwork and it turned out adorable too.


So, here is this year’s Father’s Day SVG Freebie. The download link is right below the image. The file has three parts. The main card, two optional shadow components, and an overlay. The overlay goes over “happy” and “day”, and creates a outline later for “fathers”. Let me know if you have any questions with it. If you use a standard 12×12 paper, you can make it approximately 4″x6″.

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Mother’s Day Free Card SVG and Sentiment

Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow mother’s out there. (Don’t worry, if you aren’t a mother, we won’t ban you from crafting.)

Have you been crafting away during this time of quarantine? I have certainly been trying to, but three little girls have me running around doing things like feeding them, washing their clothes, cleaning up messes. I mean, the nerve. Just kidding of course, they are wonderful little people to have around but sometimes you just want to be quarantined alone!

On that same note, I certainly can’t be the only one who plays deaf when my children are running around the house shouting “MOMMMMM”. I figure they can get a little exercise before I reveal my top secret location. Mwhahah!

All of this, of course is super on topic as my freebie today is a a Mother’s Day card. Yay! Although, it is not a card that screams Mother’s Day, so you could definitely use it for other occasions. If you do, I would suggest not bothering to use the “Happy Mother’s Day” sentiment. Or do. I am not your mom.

Whew! Apparently I am feeling rather sarcastic today. Hopefully you are staying healthy and sane. Enjoy making this beautiful Mother’s Day Card.

While you are here, be sure to check out the Mother’s Day Card I posted way back when I first started this site. My images have come a long way since then, but the file is still super awesome as well.

And don’t forget the layered Mom file for another quick variation of a mother’s day file!

Goodness, I forgot to mention one super exciting thing. I cut this card out on my new super duper awesome laser! Yep. I got a laser. A giant yellow CO2 Laser. I have been eyeing them for a long time and it actually happened. And as a bonus, I figured out how to set it up and get it to actually work. I suppose it is my Mother’s Day gift for the next decade.


And now for the actual freebie. I have included a “Happy Mother’s Day” sentiment that I made to go with mine. I don’t like fussing with the little letters, so I welded it all together. That way, just one piece to cut and glue. Laziness for the win. Happy Mother’s Day!