Hello,
Today I have a simple but useful post on the Silhouette UK Blog about adding a hanging loop to your own designs or those bought in the Store to make gift tags, present decorations, tree ornaments and banner elements.

To demonstrate how easy hanging loops are to design I included a step-by-step tutorial using snowflake files from the Store designed by Lori Whitlock. Just pop over to Silhouette UK Blog for the instructions.


KEY FOBS: Snowflake decorations cut from faux leather to be used on a festive key chain, or as an embellishment on a handbag or a zipped bag. These are double-layered snowflakes with the silver vinyl trapped between and all stuck with Beacon Fabri-tac (great for sticking faux leather).

GIFT TAGS: Weld a hanging loop to the background of this snowflake design to make pretty gift tags.

SLIDERS: Add elonganted loops to make sliders to decorate a parcel or a card. 

LETTER TAGS: Add loops to letters using Lori Whitlock's Splendid font to make decorative letters to enhance your parcels using glitter heat transfer vinyl and faux leather paper. These were cut from faux leather and layered 3 or 4 thick with Beacon Fabri-tac. The glittery layer is Glitter HTV from this fantastic supplier.

I'm sure you'll find lots more uses for your new hanging loops.

Painting Uglazed Ceramics

Hello, I have a tutorial on the Silhouette UK blog today on how to decorate unglazed ceramic items (available in UK craft shops at the moment). I bought a few different blanks including the tea-light set I decorated for today's post.

In the post I show how to use your Silhouette to make a set of stencils to sponge metallic acrylic paints onto the blank tea-light holder set using two Silhouette Design Store files by Nic Squirrell.

I used a repositionable matte vinyl to make my stencil, having found that using a too sticky stencil material removed some of the painted (slip) surface.

What material do you prefer to use for your stencils?

Polar Bear Gift Boxes

I made another project using the darling Christmas Polar Bear SVG from Sanqunetti Designs. These boxes each house a Christmas tree bauble.

The basic box comes from the Silhouette Design Store (#20744), and is designed by Lori Whitlock for a cupcake. I made the design a little taller to acommodate bow and decorations that are on top of the ornaments.

The box sides are decorated with panels embossed with an embossing folder that came free with a magazine. Highlights and names are in antique gold paper.  Love this little guy's lob-sided grin!

Entered into the Daring Card Makers - Step Away From the Cards (Gift Bag or Box) Challenge. 

Cardmaking Basics - Shaker Cards

Hello,
I can't count the number of shaker cards I've made - it must run to hundreds! I think they look great, it's fun to set the shaker elements into motion and some made a lovely noise too!   I've been sharing a heap of  tips for making shaker cards recently on the Silhouette UK Blog in a two-parter. This is just part of a series of posts on cardmaking basics over on the blog.

The first post deals with the 'ingredients' and looks at alternative ways of constructing shaker cards. The second includes detailed step-by-step tutorials on constructing the two cards seen in these pictures. Do pop over and have a read whether you are an experienced 'shaker-maker' or if you've yet to try one out.  The principles can be applied to almost any design and occasion.


WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Plain or Pattered Paper
Smooth Cardstock (decorative top layer)
Heavyweight Cardstock (for layers)
Acetate Sheet or Clear Packaging
Seed Beads or other shaker elements
5" x 5" Heavyweight Cardbase (300gsm plus)
Extra Strong Double-Sided Adhesive Tape
Liquid Card Adhesive
Silhouette Cameo, Portrait or Curio
Digital files - I used the Baby Postage Stamp files by Tanya Batrak  (#156139, #156133, #156136)

Part 1 - Construction and Ingredients

Part 2 - Step-by-step tutorials


I hope you have much fun making them as I do!

Polar Bear Shaker Card

The new SVG release from Sanqunetti Design this week is this adorable Christmas Polar Bear file.

I made this cute fella into an arched shaker card and so far without a sentiment.  I might 'retro-fit' a personalised sentiment later; adding it in white vinyl onto the acetate window will be an easy adaption.

 

The entire card is made from paper and card with the exception of the facial features, which are cut from black vinyl.  Not forgetting the sequins of course - three types of regular sequins (opaque white, white pearl and iridescent) and two of snowflake confetti (opaque white and iridescent)!

The shaker frame is a 'built up' style made from 5 card layers, one acetate and one using a product new to me, the Stix2 Sparkly Adhesive Acetate Sheet. This latter item I applied to smooth white card prior to cutting on my Silhouette, cutting one frame and also the fur parts of the hat.  The decorative papers used are from Lawn Fawn 6" x 6" pads (Perfectly Plaid Christmas and Snow Days (retired)). The card base and frames are cut from 300gsm cardstock from my local paper mill (Papeterie) - these shakers cards need a really stable firm card base!

Shame this is retired - it is great for quick backgrounds!

Wondering what a Built Up style of shaker card is?  Well it is my own terminology, but I have a full explanation in my post on the Silhouette UK Blog.

The file is available from Sanqunetti Design store and from Etsy.

I think I might make more cards and card items with this fella. What do you think, gift tags? wobble cards? hanging tree decorations? What would you make with him?

I have entered this card in the Delicious Doodles November 2016 Non-Traditional Christmas Challenge.

FREE Design of the Week - Autumn Leaf Cushion

Hiya,

My apologies! Despite setting myself the challenge of making something with each of the FREE Designs of the Week from the Silhouette Design Store I failed my own challenge! What can I say, I've been busy with lovely things (like my daughter's wonderful wedding), but have also been procrastinating a little too!

Anyway, this week's FREE file is a Geometric Autumn Leaf which I've turned into a new cushion for my sofa.

What You'll Need:
Plain Black Cotton Cushion Cover (Clever Baggers)
Copper Pearl Metallic Heat Transfer Vinyl (MDP)
Teflon Sheet
Iron or Heat Press


Method:

• The only change made to the design was to remove the cutout from the leaf's stem.  I released the design's compound path, deleting the stem cutout and then re-making the compound path.
• The design was then cut from vinyl placed shiny side onto the mat.  There was no need to mirror this design as it was symmetrical and contained no text.
• The cut settings I used on my Silhouette Cameo One were Blade 3, Speed 5, Pressure 8. 
• I haven't used this type of HTV before but it cut and weeded beautifully. 
• I pressed the blank cushion first to move any moisture from the fabric. 
• The decal was pressed using an iron (I love that MDP include instructions for iron as well as heat press) with my Teflon sheet between the decal and the iron. 
• Just a few seconds pressing down hard and the design was stuck.
• I peeled off the backing sheet and gave the design a final press through the Teflon sheet.
• Job done!

The Geometric Autumn Leaf design is available free in the Silhouette Design store for one week from 1st November 2016.

If you haven't yet used heat transfer vinyl why not try this out as your first project?

I'm really enjoying the lovely creative makes coming through my Instagram feed just now. Why not follow along?