29 Jun 2018

DIY Queen Bee Bags in Heat Transfer



Hiya, today I have a new project on the Silhouette UK Blog. I’ve used Gold heat transfer vinyl in both glitter and smooth to decorate some bags with this fun bee design by Nic Squirrell from the Silhouette Design Store (#262593 ). Do pop over if you’d like to see how to do this for yourself.








23 Jun 2018

Make an Impossible Card with your Silhouette Cameo




Hiya. Have you been bitten by the Impossible Card bug yet? They seem to be all over Pinterest, YouTube and other visual social media. There are some great tutorials for making them using pencil, ruler and cutting tools and I'll list my favourites at the bottom of this post. However, I won't pretend that I wasn't relieved to see that there is an impossible card design available in the Silhouette Design Store!



The card file is called the Flower Urn Bouquet Impossible Card (#267289), and is designed by Snapdragon Snippets. The card file includes basic bridging pieces, but there are optional banner tags  and a custom-shaped envelope available. If you search the store using the search term "impossible card" (with the double quotation marks), you'll find them all. I used part of the thank you/teacher  banner set (#267291) as I really liked that banner shape.




I have a load of hints and tips on putting this card together on the Silhouette UK Blog and more info on how to use the double-sided adhesive sheets to speed up the process. The designer has a full tutorial on how to put the card together (the link is in the item listing in the store and I've also included it here).

On the Silhouette UK Blog I show how to use the Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive sheets in three ways:
  1. to make double-sided patterned paper,
  2. to make double-sided textured cardstock, and
  3. to 'glitter-ize' coloured cardstock.
Do pop over there if you're interested in learning how to use them in these ways.


Here are some of my favourite tutorials for Impossible Cards:

Basic Impossible Card: There is a great video and blog on the basic impossible card by Mixed Up Crafts.

Square & Other sizes of Impossible Cards: Maymay Made It has all the dimensions for different sizes on video and blog.

Triple Twist Impossible Card: Mixed Up Crafts shows how to make a fun variation on blog and video.

Have fun!








21 Jun 2018

Cutting Fabric on the Silhouette Cameo



Hiya, This is just a brief post to show that it is possible to cut fabric with your Silhouette Cameo. This rose was cut using the standard ratchet blade on a regular cutting mat. The fabric has been pre-treated with Beacon Stiffen Stuff and allowed to dry thoroughly before cutting.




The rose cut file comes from Mom's Garden Gifts SVG Kit at SVG Cuts.


20 Jun 2018

Birdhouse Mobile made with the Birdhouse Box by Simply Crafty SVGs




Hiya, This week I've been making a mobile to decorate my craft room using a simplified version of the Birdhouse Box from Simply Crafty SVGs. I love the shape of this birdhouse design and decided to miniaturise the file and use just the foundation shapes (walls and roof base) to make some light-weight houses for the mobile. This is a great project for displaying your hand decorated papers. I have lots of background papers made from gel printing, but for this project I used paper that I'd decorated with distress inks. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut all the card and paper pieces, but any cutting machine that uses SVGs could be used instead.




Materials Used


Wooden Mobile Hanger Bracket
AC White Textured Cardstock
Smooth Watercolour Paper
Distress Oxide Inks (Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet & Picked Raspberry)
White Gel Pen
Silhouette Pen Holder
Pink & Turquoise Beads
Turquoise Embroidery Thread


Hand-decorated Paper

Each birdhouse roof is cut from watercolour paper that I'd first damped with water and then painted with Distress Oxide inks, blending each colour into the next. Once it had dried, I stamped a crackle pattern in the Salty Ocean colour over the top. Although I'd taped the paper to a board, it still warped as it dried. My solution was to finish off the drying in my heat press. When it was almost dry, I sandwiched it between clean sheets of paper and applied a little low heat. Then I turned of the press, and left in in the closed press to dry completely.





Sketch and Cut Birds

Using a bird design from the Silhouette Design Store (#268417) I sketched the outline of the bird in white gel pen onto the decorated paper and then cut an offset around it. I made a duplicate and some mirrored images, and gave each an eye in crystal Nuvo Drops. Then I adhered them back-to-back on a length of embroidery thread.  Beads were added at the end of the thread to ensure that the thread would hang straight, pulling out any kinks. These beads were re-purposed from a discarded child's bracelet. N.B. If you were making this for child you'd need to omit the beads and spend more time straightening the thread.




3-Dimensional Clouds

I designed my own 3-D clouds to hang on each thread. Each cloud consists of three identical cloud-shaped pieces with a fold line down the centre of each.  Any cloud shape would work so long as it is symmetrical along the fold line.



The clouds were cut from white textured cardstock and the cut edges highlighted with blue oxide ink.



The pieces were folded in half and they were adhered together in sets of three with one side left open. The last sides were stuck with liquid glue around the embroidery thread once the birds and houses had been attached to the threads.




Miniature Bird Houses

I made the houses by reducing the size to 65% of the original.



I used just the house and the roof (without the panels). To keep the weight down, I didn't use the door and frame, but just added a hole in their place, with a simple circle frame around it. The house parts were assembled and two small holes added in the floor, used to attach the thread together with a bead. The the roof was then threaded on and adhered to the house with a bead added on top.


Assembling the Mobile

The four 'house' threads (of identical length), were attached to the mobile hanger arms, and the 'bird' thread was attached to the loop in the centre. The finished mobile is in constant motion and consequently proved somewhat difficult to photograph.




I'm so looking forward to putting this up in my craft room once I've finished tidying and decorating. There is something rather special about having a moving paper craft project on display!




Simply Crafty SVG Files:
Bird House Box


Additional Silhouette Files:
Bird (Fox Sister) #268417
or
Bird (Fox Sister) #268416


12 Jun 2018

Ewe Will Be Missed - Retirement Card



Hiya, Here is a cute leaving card that I made for a work colleague who is retiring. The file is one of a range of files by Lettering Delights called 'Feeling Sheepish'. All the files feature cute sheep and there are a host of punny sayings too.




I used the  Feeling Sheepish Treat Tent (from the Silhouette Store, but its also available direct from Lettering Delights in SVG format). Initially I failed to notice that the file wasn't for a card. I really wanted a card, so I took the sheep elements and added them to the front of a card blank. I've shared my card and how I adapted it over on the Silhouette UK Blog today.

Here are the materials I used:

Silhouette Cameo, Portrait or Curio
Silhouette Glossy Permanent Vinyl
Silhouette Transfer Tape
AC Textured Cardstock (white, light pink, medium pink, light grey, black)
Heavyweight Square Card Base
Ribbon & Thread
Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue
Dimensional Adhesive Pads
Nuvo Glaze


... and here are the designs that I used




I've also experimented with a little video. Enjoy! (To view this in HD click here)




This is such a fun card, I hope you like it!

2 Jun 2018

How to knockout a Vinyl design for Rhinestones



Hello, its been all about the gorgeous Silhouette Rhinestones on the Silhouette UK Blog this week and I've shared a decorative pillow/cushion using rhinestones and flock heat transfer featuring the Eiffel Tower and a custom rhinestone phrase - Ooh La la! Pop over to read that post if you'd like to find out how to design your own rhinestone decal. I used the Eiffel Tower file (#41675) by Samantha Walker and Madilyn Sketch font (#77519) by Rivka Wilkins, both from the Silhouette Design Store.




In this post I'm concentrating on the heat transfer part, and particularly how to 'knockout' the rhinestone design from the flock heat transfer layer to allow the rhinestones to adhere directly to the cover's fabric rather than the flock. This is important because although the stones might initially stick if applied on top of the flock, over time they will likely loosen and drop off.



With regular shapes I use the offset feature in the Silhouette Designer software to make a slightly larger version of the design and then cut the design and the larger holes. However, there is a quicker way with the Designer Edition of the Silhouette software. 

This is how:
  • Copy the rhinestone design, then Paste in Front (right mouse click actions)
  • Release the Rhinestones (from the Rhinestone Panel)
  • With the new copy still selected, increase the size of the rhinestones to the next size up
  • Move the original rhinestone holes away and use to cut the rhinestone template & make the decal
  • Delete any of the new holes which fall to either size of the design
  • Cut the new rhinestone holes along with the background design.
  • Weed the design and the holes.





The vinyl design is applied to the item first and the slightly larger holes are then in perfect alignment with the rhinestone transfer with a small gap around them so the rhinestones can adhere directly to the item without being deflected by the edges of the vinyl design.



The result is very neat and the larger holes are barely visible.

I hope that you find this technique useful for your rhinestone text decals.