Today I worked on an order for a customer: a monthly baby photo banner for a monkey-themed first birthday party. I currently don’t have a great printer at home to do the print and cut on my Silhouette Cameo, so I have come up with a smart way to make some of my designs by layering different color cardstock instead of using a printer. For example these cheeky little monkeys. Since I’ve made these a few times before, I already had the image set up for cutting in the Silhouette Studio software.

Here I am using a brayer to make sure the cardstock is fastened well to the cut mat, since it’s well used and losing some of its stickiness. We don’t want the little monkeys running around inside of the Silhouette cutting machine.

Next, getting these little rascals cut out, watching carefully so that no little loose bits get stuck in the machinery to mess up the whole thing. That would NOT be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I have an older version of Silhouette Cameo (I don’t even know the model), but it still works well for my purposes. Mostly. I just have to watch it.

Oops, looks like I didn’t select the correct paper thickness for the beige cardstock. Some of the details didn’t fully get cut out. Or maybe my blade is getting dull. In these cases I have to do an extra step: gouge out the little noses, eyeballs, and mouths of these little monkeys with some very scary looking tools. Don’t worry, little buddies! I’m a skilled graphic designer, you won’t feel a thing. Besides, you’re made of cardstock.

There, there. All better! Now it’s time to glue the layers together. I chose permanent crafter’s tape. (I wonder why they call it tape. It’s more like a gluey adhesive snail trail).

Beige silhouette goes behind the brown head to give the beige color for the insides of the ears. Little beige faces go on top of the brown head…

More permanent crafter’s adhesive to keep the clothespins on. Push down hard, so they don’t fall off in the mail. We want another 5-star review!

Into the boxes you go, topped with some pretty tissue paper, my business card, and a card for the Artisans Cooperative. Okay my little pretties, off you fly into the trusty hands of USPS.

Below is a mock-up from my Etsy shop of how it could look when the customer sets it up for the party.

(Stock photo credit: Eduard Militaru via Unsplash)

If you would like to try getting crafty and making these yourself, I do sell the SVG file for these little monkeys on Etsy, too. I also have a bunch of monkey themed DIY printable party decorations. For example monkey banners and party favor tags. You can print these at home on your printer or your local print shop.

If you would like a custom color or even a different character, I can make that happen, just shoot me over a note with your request. Thank you for stopping by!

about me

I am an experienced freelance graphic artist based in South Florida. With over 15 years in the graphic design field, I have worked for a diverse range of companies and clients. I specialize in print design (including package design, catalogs, flyers, business cards, collateral), as well as digital graphics (such as email marketing graphics, animated GIFs, landing page designs, web banners and more). My work is characterized by efficiently and successfully interpreting the request and translating it into a finished design. I am excited about the opportunity to work on new graphic design projects. If you’d like to work with me (or just say hello!), you can contact me at www.giddyhedgehog.com/contact.