The thirty-minute pet memorial ornament I made with leftover chipboard (and why I skip the fancy finish)
A simple bone or paw-shaped chipboard ornament you can cut and paint in under an hour with materials you probably already have. No Cricut Access required.
My friend's dog died two weeks before Christmas last year. I had about 90 minutes before I needed to drive to her place, a 6x9 scrap of chipboard, and zero interest in making something that looked like it came from Etsy. This is that ornament. It's not fancy, and that's exactly why it worked.
What you need (and what you can skip)
One 6x9 inch piece of medium chipboard. The brown kind from the craft store, not fancy white board. You're painting it anyway. If you've got scrap from another project, use that. One SVG of a bone, paw, or heart shape. Ours is 4 inches wide when scaled, but anything between 3-5 inches works. Acrylic craft paint in one or two colors. I used a $1.50 Walmart burnt sienna. A foam brush or literally any brush you don't care about. Twine or ribbon for hanging, maybe 8 inches. A fine-point Sharpie or paint pen if you want to add a name.
Skip the sealer. Skip the glitter. Skip the fancy calligraphy. This isn't an Etsy product, it's something you made because you care, and that difference shows up in how it looks. The edges stay raw chipboard. The paint can be uneven. It's better that way.
The actual cut (15 minutes, including the mess-up)
Load your chipboard onto a StandardGrip mat. If your mat's losing stick, this is actually the project to use it on because chipboard doesn't lift mid-cut the way vinyl does. Set your Cricut to Chipboard in the material menu. If you're on a Maker, it'll use the deep-point blade. If you're on an Explore, it'll do multiple passes with the fine-point and it takes longer but works fine.
Scale your shape to about 4 inches at its widest point. Bigger than that and you're using a lot of material for one ornament. Smaller and the details get lost when you're holding it at arm's length on a tree. Send it. The cut takes about 8 minutes on a Maker, maybe 14 on an Explore with three passes.
Painting it (the lazy way that looks better)
One coat of paint. That's it. I brushed burnt sienna onto the front and about a quarter-inch down the sides. The back stays raw chipboard because nobody's looking at the back of an ornament on a tree. Let it dry for 20 minutes while you clean your mat or scroll your phone or whatever.
