Design Your Own Bokeh Backgrounds

Hiya.

If you enjoy using bokeh patterns as much as I do you'll love the tutorial that I have over on the Silhouette UK Blog today.

Surprisingly I couldn't find any bokeh designs in the design store, but it is easy to make your own if you have the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio.  Using the Silhouette software, the tutorial shows you how to create your own digital bokeh backgrounds. They can be used for cardmaking and other papercrafting projects. 
 
The design only needs to be made once and then the overlay can be saved and used in combination with any colour or combined with other backgrounds, and used over, and over again.

You can use the pattern as a background, as a fill for digital elements or print out the patterns on your home printer to cut out later. They can be printed onto plain paper, textured cardstock, pearlescent card and even vellum. The printed vellum in the top right of this picture. I'll be using the paper version (top left) to make a quick card in a later post.

I love how these bokeh patterns turned out, they look even prettier in real life.

Custom Colour Fabric Designs - a Pincushion

Hello folks,

Today on the Silhouette UK Blog I show how to make a custom-coloured piece of fabric, ideal for projects requiring small amounts of material. The tutorial shows how to colour a cut file in the Silhouette Studio software to create a uniquely coloured fabric design.

I needed a 5.5" fabric square for a no-sew project which I printed on to Silhouette Printable Cotton, along with registration marks and then cut out with the Silhouette.

I like to use background designs from the Silhouette Design store as they cover a good sized area of the design space (often 12" x12"). You can find them by selecting Search Designs, adding criteria to the Browse Designs box (I wanted a roses pattern so added 'roses background') and then filter by Cut Type, choosing Regular Cut.

In the tutorial I show you how to colour the background using a colour swatch ...

... and add a white outline to enhance the design.

Using the software's print and cut feature I printed the design onto the Silhouette printable fabric on my printer, and then cut it on the Silhouette Cameo.

With the square of printed fabric I made up this pin cushion kit that I bought online.

I added a little vinyl around the base.

And voila! 

I think I might make more of these as gifts for sewing friends. What projects could you make with 5.5" squares of fabric in your favouire colours?

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FREE Weekly File - Triangle Background into Icelandic-inspired Crow Canvas

The FREE design at the Silhouette Store today is a background, or Printable Pattern, as they are called in the Store.  They are a category of file type that I've under-utilised in the past, but having played around with this one, I'm hooked and I can't wait to download more! 

I actually made loads of wall art files to make up later, but they included this one that I really liked as a reminder of my recent trip to Iceland. 

I was thrilled that while we were in Reykyavik, DesignMarch, Iceland's annual design festival, was in full swing, showcasing the work of local designers as well as some international names. There were many of examples of decorative items depicting members of the crow family (don't ask me which one, Iceland has four).


DESIGNING THE CANVAS

I opened the background in the Silhouette Studio software and re-sized it to fit my printable cotton sheet and a small square gesso-coated blank canvas. 

It was fun to spend some time experimenting with the Fill set of design Windows; Fill Colour, Fill Gradient and Fill Pattern. I settled on a semi-transparent cream colour fill layered over the background. This had the effect of changing the background colour to better match my decor and toned down the stark black/white contrast of the background.

Then I experimented with some of the various crow/raven images available in the design store and finally settled on one shown with its wings spread as I liked the way it created a strong diagonal across the canvas. I added one tiny tweak to the bird, and that was to give him an eye. To do this I drew a circle, created an internal offset, centred them and made a compound path. Then I selected the new eye and the bird and made them all a compound path. 

Finally I changed the fill colour of the raven to one from the background using the Colour Picker and then adjusted the shade slightly using the slider in the Advanced Options. 

I do encourage you to  play with the fill windows. If you enjoy that, move on to the Shader Effects Window. There are days of entertainment right there!

COMPLETING THE CANVAS

I printed the design onto printable cotton media, and in this case just manually trimmed it - making it the largest size image my media could accommodate. It was then simply a case of adhering it to the canvas - job done!

I do hope I've inspired you to make something with the free file. You can share it over on the Silhouette UK Blog using the Linky (no blog required). I'd love to see what you do!




SILHOUETTE DESIGNS USED:

Online Card Classes BACKGROUND CHECK

Background Check - Day 1

It turns out to be yet another fantastic class from Online Card Classes. 

Ink blending with Distress Inks and an ink blending tool seems easy to do, but not so easy to do WELL. It's harder than it looks - and messy too!

A stamped water reaction using a large background stamp and a mixture of water and mica powder adds interest (and shine) to the piece. 

Stamping the image again from the ink lifted from the stamped piece further extends the mica mixture.