I have had my IKEA Expedit shelves for a year and a half. The bottom row of my Expedit contains five IKEA BRANÄS rattan baskets.

The baskets hold my craft supplies. I’ve wanted to make labels for them for a long time and this month’s Silhouette Challenge of “organization” gave me the nudge I needed.

I wanted labels with personality. When I saw butterfly wood shapes at Dollar Tree, I knew I wanted to use them as the base for my labels.

Supplies for 5 labels:

• 5 wooden butterfly shapes (from Dollar Tree)
• 8.5×11 piece of patterned scrapbook paper
• 8.5×11 piece of coordinating cardstock
• paper adhesive – I used Xyron 510 with permanent adhesive (affiliate links)
• adhesive backed Velcro squares
• Silhouette Portrait (affiliate link)
• Silhouette mat (affiliate link)
• Silhouette Studio software
• printer
• scanner
• coordinating rhinestones (optional)

Instructions:

1. Scan the wooden shape. The wooden butterfly shapes were uniform enough that I only scanned one at 300 dpi. My scanner had a hard time distinguishing the wood from the white background so I used a piece of navy cardstock behind so it would scan properly.

2. Trace the shape in Silhouette Studio (SS).

• Open SS and import the scanned image.
• Choose the Trace pane.
• Choose Select Trace Area. Then create a box around the butterfly. Usually I try to trace the shape but in this case the background is not transparent so I am trying to trace the outside of the shape.
• Adjust the Trace Settings so the shape looks smooth.

• Select Trace. This will create cut lines around the box and around the butterfly. Both cut lines will be part of a compound path.
• Click on the scanned image and delete it.

3. Separate the butterfly.

• Click on the compound path.
• Then right click and select Release Compound Path.

• Select the outside rectangle and delete it.

4. Cut the butterflies. Copy and paste the butterfly 4 times and use the Silhouette to cut them out on the patterned paper.

4. Create the inner part of the label using an inner offset.

• Select the Offset pane.
• Click on the butterfly.
• Select Inner Offset.
• Adjust the Offset Distance. The larger the number the further offset from the original shape.
• Click Apply.

• Moved the butterfly shape off the mat because it isn’t need anymore. This leaves only the label on the mat.

5. Skip to Step 10 if you don’t want to add typed text to your labels. Otherwise turn on Registration Marks.

• Select the Registration Marks pane.
• Check the Show Reg Marks check box. Do not put any shapes or text in the gray areas.

6. Add text to the label using the Text tool. I also changed the color of the text to purple.

7. Copy the inner offset label and text. Paste the copy 4 times for a total of 5 shapes. Change the text as desired. Make sure the labels are positioned so they do are not within the registration mark areas.

8. Set the text to no cut. This makes sure that the text does not cut when you do the print and cut.

• Select the Cut Style pane.
• Select the first text area. Press shift and select all the other text areas one at the time.
• Then select No Cut under Cut Style.

9. Print and cut the labels. Here are print and cut instructions:

• Place cardstock into the printer.
• Select File->Send To Silhouette from the SS menu.
• Choose Click here to print in the Print Image window.
• Select Continue to cutting page.
• Place the printed paper onto a Silhouette mat and load into the Silhouette.
• Select Continue.
• Select Detect Automatically. The Silhouette will now detect your registration marks so it will know where to cut the design.
• Select Cut.

10. Add adhesive to the butterflies and labels. Adhere the patterned paper butterflies to the wooden butterfly shapes. Then adhere the labels on top of the patterned paper. Add some pink rhinestones  to the antennae area for a little bling.

10. Add Velcro to the back of the butterfly shape.  Attach the two opposing pieces of Vecro together and place it on the back of the butterfly shape. Then push the butterfly shape with Velcro on the back of it to the basket. It holds well.

Now, my husband and kids won’t have to ask me when they need craft supplies! There were 10 wooden butterflies in the package I bought so I think I will make more labels and have them fly to label some of my other Expedit cubes.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

Check out other ways to get organized using the Silhouette from my Silhouette loving friends below!

1. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 2. Simply Kelly Designs // 3. Daily Dwelling // 4. Ginger Snap Crafts // 5. Our Southern Home // 6. Sowdering About // 7. The Moberg Family // 8. Decor Adventures // 9. Pineapples and Pinecones // 10. Patina Paradise // 11. The Thinking Closet // 12. It Happens in a Blink // 13. Adventures in All Things Food // 14. From Wine to Whine // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 17. unOriginal Mom // 18. One Dog Woof // 19. Creative Ramblings // 20. My Favorite Finds // 21. Create it. Go! // 22. A Prudent Life // 23. Where The Smiles Have Been // 24. Barb’s Life // 25. Everyday Paper // 26. Pitter and Glink // 27. Peanut Life Adventures // 28. Feto Soap Blog // 29. Our Rosey Life // 30. Two Purple Couches // 31. My Paper Craze // 32. TitiCrafty // 33. Lil Mrs Tori

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you order through the links I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.