Whooooo Lives Here?

As always, I searched the internet for clip art to use as my rough starting point. And a recent shopping trip to Paper Source suggested an inspiration – they have an owls wearing glasses. And I wear glasses! And Mr. SuzerSpace wears glasses! So we are set.

In Adobe Illustrator

I drew the shapes needed to create my basic owl, and sized them to fit the colored paper stock I have (it’s 6 x 6). I added a few details on the chest to make them more interesting, and created glasses for one of them. I drew them as colored composites so I could sort of see how they would look assembled.

And then I took them apart and made the actual cut files – two duplicate bodies, one different body, and then sets of eyes, pupils and noses plus the glasses.

I exported my file as a DXF, since the basic version of Silhouette Studio® doesn’t support SVG files, but it does work with DXF files.

In Silhouette Studio

I like to set up my Design Page settings first to avoid accidents when I send to cut. Although my paper is actually 6 x 6, I’m going to set up my Design page as 12 x 12, because if I’m careful where I place those 6×6 sheets on the mat, I can actually cut all three owls at once.

I merged in the owl file, and then moved everthing off to the side. I positioned the three owls to they’d match up to the three  sheets of brown paper on my mat. If you change the Reveal in the Design Page settings you can see the matching mat ruler marks so you know where to line up everything.

 

I sent that file to cut on my Silhouette Cameo. And weeded it. I trimmed a 1” section off the edge of all three squares of paper to create the hanging loops.

Then I set up 3 sets of the white parts of the eyes, and sent that to cut on white paper. And weeded them.

And 3 sets of the black parts of the eyes plus one glasses frame and sent that to cut on black paper. And weeded them too.

I cut the squares for the orange noses with a paper trimmer, but you could use the Silhouette Cameo for that too.

Once I had all the parts, I began assmembling them. A glue stick worked for all the body parts (be sure to put the nose down first, and put the eyes OVER that).

I used a stapler to make the hanging loop and double stick tape to stick the loop  to each owl.

I have a dowel rod that is the right length for my door, and I have black rubber bands on each end that I tie yarn to to hang it from a nail.

And once everyone is looped on and the hung on my door, I’m ready for this season!

True story: I made this in the afternoon, and that very evening, a H-U-G-E horned owl flew into the tree in the yard behind us. And later, at about 2 a.m., I woke up to his call. Personally, I like to think he saw the little guys on the door and though “Hey, this must be an owl-friendly zone.”

Want to make your own owls? Click the image below to download the files. I’ve saved them as SVG and Silhouette Studio 3. The files are for personal use only. Please don’t link directly to them, or send them directly to anyone else. And if you found them fun to use, I’d appreciate a shoutout on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram.