Big Birthday Card for Important Birthdays

Hiya,  Over on the Silhouette UK Blog today I'm sharing a HUGE Birthday card for an important birthday. I've used a very versatile accordion card design from the Silhouette Design Store; the Expanding Birthday Candle Card by Marji Roy.

It is a fantastic design for important birthdays, as it can include a candle for every year of the birthday person's age. This is done by adding whole 'pages' of eleven candles, and then trimming away the flames of the surplus candles.

It was the perfect card to take along to a combined birthday party I've been to recently - a 130th Birthday. Perfect, that is, except for the number of candles required. It was the ideal opportunity to use adhesive-backed cardstock, a real time-saver!  In my post I've shared loads of additional tips including how to further personalise the card design.

For the special sentiment I used the Sweet Pea Sketch font and a green/blue glitter pen from the Silhouette Sketch Pen Starter Set.

The finished card was pretty BIG, but a fun card to give for a BIG birthday!

Make your own adhesive card and paper

Hiya, Over on the Silhouette UK blog today I'm sharing a trick to make your own adhesive-backed card and paper sheets.  They can be used right away or kept for future projects; with the peel-off paper backing they store perfectly.

Using adhesive backed cardstock saves time, adhesive, and often a good bit of mess. They are great for unusual shapes and batch projects.

I used the Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive sheets to make them. I've tried other brands, but they tend to have thinner backing paper and I've had them stick badly to my mat when cutting and have torn and taken an age to peel off.  The Silhouette brand peels off the mat easily and having a thicker backing has the bonus of giving the paper/card additional strength and rigidity.

The post over on the Silhouette UK Blog includes instructions on how to make the self-adhesive sheets and how to cut them on the Silhouette desktop cutting machines.

I used this lovely Wild Flower patterned paper from Trimcraft to decorate these 5-Sided Pillow Boxes by Carina Gardner from the Silhouette Design Store.

It was quick and easy to stick all 33 pieces on, and even the patterns matched correctly!

I hope you find this useful.

Fast Cardmaking with Adhesive Cardstock - Unicorn Card

Hiya, This week on the Silhouette UK Blog I've been using my Bokeh backgrounds and Silhouette Self-adhesive Cardstock to make fast cards.


Using self-adhesive cardstock speeds up the cardmaking process; no need for adhesives, scissors or protective mat. Just cut out the design, peel, press and your card is made.

I used the Unicorn Card design by Nic Squirrell (#176308).

My post includes instructions on how to make this card and a few extra tips and suggestions on how to make speedy cards. Feel free to add any of your own in the comments below the post.

A Mouse Ice cream Cart and Hints on Using Scraps

Hiya, Over to the Silhouette UK Blog today I have a post all about using scraps, making your media go further, and using substitutes if you don't seem to have just what you need. To illustrate these tips I made this cute little Mouse Ice Cream Cart by Samantha Walker.





Here are some close-up pics of my favourite tweaks.



Cork ice-cream cones

A tiny silver tray in the cool box (great for a secret message).

A birthday message on the custom chalkboard

I hope like this fun little project and that the post gives you some ideas for using up your bits and pieces.

If you have tips of your own I'd love to hear about them in the comments. Do share!

Making a card with an Acrylic Panel and Designing Vertical Text

Hiya,

Firstly I have to share my news ... I'm really pleased to announce that I'm back on the Silhouette UK Design Team for another year. Today my first new project with the Silhouette UK 2017/18 Design Team has been published on the Silhouette UK Blog.

I love to add acetate windows to my cards, and the post contains instructions on how to put this card with an acrylic panel together.   It also features a colourful topper by Doodlebug Designs made with Silhouette Adhesive Cardstock, and a happy birthday sentiment using vertical text.

I've also included a tutorial on how to design the vertical text sentiment in the Silhouette Studio software. 

TO MAKE THE CARD

What You'll Need
A4 Pearl Heavy-weight Cardstock (300 gsm)
A5 Heavy-weight Clear Acetate (at least 220 microns)
Double-sided Adhesive Tape
Silhouette Adhesive Cardstock (white, strawberry, pink, sea mist, mint, yellow)
Silhouette Vellum
Downloaded Umbrella Drink file by Doodlebug #160426
Downloaded Cheers file by Rivka Wilkins #72361
Downloaded LW Bubble Letter font by Lori Whitlock #47853

One of the benefits of using the self-adhesive cardstock on an acrylic panel is that the back looks good too - no need to neaten it with a reverse image.

The Silhouette Adhesive Cardstock makes it super easy. I hope you'll try it.