Anyone for Tennis? Cutting intricate pieces in Vinyl

Hiya, Anyone for tennis? Today I've adapted the At The Ball Park  card file from Simply Crafty SVGs into a tennis card - in fact TWO tennis cards! Thinking of the Grand Slam Tournament, I've made a US Open as well as a Wimbledon version.

Living in the UK, I don't see many baseball games (live, or televised). However, tennis features much, much more, and Wimbledon was always such a HUGE event in my household as a child. I couldn't find any dimensional tennis cards out there, so I thought the fun baseball card could be successfully adapted.

I substituted the baseball and starred balls for tennis balls, and used tennis rackets in place of the baseball bats.  The court was a little more tricky and I sliced off the baseball field and welded on an offset of the tennis court.

For my card I needed some tennis images, and I found these open source ones at Openclipart.org. However, although they can be downloaded as SVG files, they aren't what you'd call 'cut ready'.

Tennis Racket by johnny_automatic
Tennis Court by netalloy
Tennis Ball by casino

I'll have a separate post on how to manipulate the new images ready for cutting, but in this post I'm concentrating on cutting out the intricate bits in vinyl (and a surprise material)! Now, I should emphasise that all the original pieces will cut fine; it's just my new bits that were too intricate to cut from cardstock.


Tennis Court Lines

The court lines are cut from white vinyl.

The Wimbledon court has card stripes to represent the grass courts used in the UK ...

whereas the US Open court is flat blue to represent the hard courts used in the USA tournament.

The cut for the lines could have been paper (the one on the right), but paper would have been tricky to adhere without some glue residue, so self-adhesive vinyl was a 'cleaner' way to go.

Tennis Net

Now the material chosen for the net might come as a bit of a surprise. It is actually some trimmed, self-adhesive, paper lace.

Very quick and easy to apply.

Tennis Rackets

I cut the tennis racket bodies from wood-look vinyl for a retro look. They could also have been cut from silver, or coloured vinyl, to resemble steel, aluminium or carbon fibre.

As it is would have been difficult to adhere the paper handle on top of the vinyl, I trimmed off the handle first, before applying it to the cardstock backing piece. Then it was an easy matter to apply the paper handle onto the racquet.

Sentiments

The sentiments were written in LW Classic in the Silhouette Studio software and then cut from white vinyl. I love how it is possible to design custom sentiments without having to rely on using stamps or someone else's phrases.

You'll noice that I have cut extra dots for the exclamation mark. I find that this is good insurance in case one is lost along the way.

Tennis Balls

I LOVE how these tennis balls turned out. They are made of two layers, the white under part, and three separate yellow/green top pieces. The American Crafts cardstock was the perfect colour! As an aside, do you think that tennis balls are green or yellow? My husband says yellow, but I say green.

Here's the finished US version of the card.

I like them both. Which is your favourite?

Valentine Cards - Love U Two Pieces

Hiya, today I have a pair of cards over on the Silhouette UK Blog which feature one design idea, but which use very different techniques and methods.

My post includes information on using the Silhouette Scratch-Off Sticker paper.  Hop over to read about using this usual crafting medium with your Silhouette Cameo.

Little Wooden Boxes made with Wood Effect Vinyl

Hiya, I have new post over on the Silhouette UK Blog today using Silhouette's new Wood Effect Vinyl. Today's project uses this new product to decorate some of Lori Whitlock's new Polygon boxes.

These boxes are made in dark brown cardstock and decorated with panels cut from wood effect vinyl in maple and walnut. Additional images in contrasting vinyl are applied on top (stag, tree, camp).

The boxes would make great little gift boxes for rustic jewellery and small crafts, but larger versions would be pretty enough to be displayed in their own right.

You can get great results by adding vinyl to cardboard. The wood effect vinyl gives a great wood look finish, and intricate decorative designs are easier to cut from vinyl than from cardstock. I hope you'll try it.

My post on the Silhouette UK Blog gives details of the product, how to cut it, and how to apply it to the cardstock boxes.

Layered Vinyl Rudolph with Sanqunetti Design NEW Cutting File

I've seen a lot of lovely examples of decorated acrylic shapes, but I hadn't got around to decorating my own until now.  The release of Sanqunetti Design's new Reindeer SVG file was the perfect opportunity to use them for the first time.

I also wanted to use the beautiful rose gold permanent vinyl from Crafty Cutter for the body. I have both the plain and the glitter, but opted to use the glitter for this project.

For the first design I used a 74 mm round acrylic blank from Acrylic Crafts to make a tree decoration for a new baby.  

I opened the outline of the acrylic blank (downloadable from the Acrylic Craft website) into the Silhouette Studio software as well as the reindeer design and then re-sized the image to fit on to the blank.

I enlarged the whites of the eyes just slightly as they were just a smidgen too small to manage at this reduced size. I used Ed's Market Regular font to type the letters and numbers separately then dragged the text-to-path button on the name to a circle, centred but smaller than the outside of the blank.

I used three small pentagon shapes as guides to help align the layers and use the hole and the circular outline the size of the acrylic blank as placement guides.  I duplicated the whole thing for each colour and deleted the unwanted parts. I coloured them so that it was easier to keep track of the pieces. 

Once I'd cut out the vinyl in all four colours I trimmed them to squares close to the circles with scissors. Then I weeded the unwanted parts on each circle leaving the circle outline. 

I first transferred the body piece on transfer tape to a blank that I'd cleaned with alcohol. Then I layered up the remaining pieces onto the used piece of transfer tape starting with the white bits. On this design is doesn't matter which colour is next, red or dark brown, as neither overlap each other. It is then easy to remove the stacked pentagons once the layers are all on the transfer sheet. I just flicked them away with my fingernail. 

I recommend applying the glitter rose gold first using the wet method. Just press out the moisture from the centre using a scraper or squeegee. Then add the remaining three colours at once (I sprayed the smallest amount of liquid onto the blank and lifted most of it off with a paper towel.

You'll find lots of instructions and videos on how to use the wet method for layered vinyl. Most seem to recommend using paper transfer tape, but I found it unnecessary on a project as small as this one and I used regular clear tape. For the spray liquid I used a mixture of baby shampoo (just a drop) and a small amount of tap water in a tiny spray bottle (craft spray size) and allowed the rose gold layer to dry before applying the other colours.

For the star ornament I used a duplicate decal of the same size but without the name and date. The star blank is the 100 mm star, also from Acrylic Craft.  I didn't bother with the downloadable template this time and just 'eye-balled' the placement of the image.

To finish them I just added hanging ribbons to both, and a bow to the star ornament.

I'm pleased with how they turned out and think the Rudolph image is adorable - great for all manner of seasonal items.  It is available from Sanqunetti Design with Commercial Use in formats to suit most cutting software (Silhouette Studio DE and above). Use code 'janet15' for a 15% discount.

Planner Goodies to Make with Your Silhouette

Taking delivery of a new printer this week was all the excuse I needed to crack on with some more planner goodies. I'm a relative newcomer to the world of planners, but am really enjoying making custom bits and bobs for my little purple friend (aka Filofax Domino) with my Silhouette Cameo.


MONTHLY DIVIDERS

I made monthly calendar dividers on thin card using a 'Month per Page' free download from the Philofaxy website. I scanned the page size and holes from an actual page and added the Purple Haze fill pattern from the Silhouette Design Store (#21898) by Sophie Gallo.

I added my own month tabs to each page and cut them out (holes included) using print and cut. You can't see my cut lines here as they are hidden with a printing 'gutter'.

CUSTOM PAGES AND MONTHLY STICKERS

I made plain note pages in a similar way and used the Print and Cut facility, printed on to high quality copier paper. I attached some custom tab stickers made using the Months of the Year file by Echo Park from the Silhouette Design Store (#73523). Echo Park files are 25% off at present. Offer finishes in just a few hours.

The stickers were also made using Print and Cut, printed onto adhesive sticker paper.

COVER CUSTOMISATION

I used some premium cast vinyl (Oracal 951) from Crafty Cutter to make a decal for the cover. This vinyl has a permanent adhesive, and is more durable than regular vinyl.  It is also a bit thinner and can be applied to flat, curved, uneven and even corrugated surfaces, so ideal for this textured leather planner cover.

Hopefully I'll use my newly prettified planner a little more now.

New Chalkboard Cardstock - Family Menu Chalkboard - with FREE Design Elements

Hiya,

You might have realised by now that I LOVE having the to opportunity to try out new products and this week I got to try a NEW Silhouette product in the UK - Silhouette Chalkboard Cardstock

This cardstock has a surface similar to that of the Silhouette Chalkboard Vinyl, but slightly smoother surface. Obviously, it is thicker (like medium-weight cardstock) and more rigid but similar in that it has a peel-off backing sheet covering a sticky adhesive surface. It was fun to play with - it is always good to try out a few different techniques before committing to a project. I really liked the effect of writing with gel pens, so used my Silhouette Pen Holder and Uni ball white gel pen to make a Family Menu Chalkboard. I made the permanent decorations with matte white vinyl so I wouldn't erase the days by mistake when I was being over-enthusiastic with erasing the meal listings.

So, if you'd like to make something similar with you Silhouette® CAMEO, Portrait or Curio, head on over to the Silhouette UK Blog for a tutorial and the low-down on this new product.

These are the items you'll need: 
Black Picture Frame (**)
Silhouette Chalkboard Cardstock
White Matte Adhesive Vinyl
Clear Transfer Material
White Marker Pen (Uni ball)
Silhouette Pen Holder
Downloaded Typewriter Key Font like LW Type Print
Downloaded Sketch Font like Rivka Wilkins' Madilyn Font
Downloaded Plain Font like LW Perfect Type Font


The Silhouette UK Blog links to a FREE file to make a modified header for your chalkboard.

The piece in the download just needs to be welded on to a rectangle matching the size of the top of your frame, all achieved very easily in the Silhouette Design software. As a bonus, the file format is GSD so may be used in other software too.


NOW, for readers of THIS blog I have a special gift for you! You can download an exclusive file of the additional Design Elements as shown in the wee picture below. They are also in GSD format, and are downloadable HERE.

(**) Note on the frame: I re-cycled an old certificate frame, originally with a bevelled edge. The rather unpleasant red-brown stain was covered with matte black acrylic paint and also turned around, to have the flat rear frame surface facing front.

I love chalkboard items and using this chalkboard cardstock is an easy way to obtain a very neat and effective look. I hope you'll try it.

SVGs

 Hello, I have a new post over on the Silhouette UK Blog today. This is about how to open SVGs on in the Silhouette Studio software, but only in the Designer Edition and above.


In the post I used a free SVG file that I downloaded from Open Clip Art called Aegishjalmur Retraced. 

I show how to download it, and how to work out how it will cut. In the file there are two versions, one made up of lines, and one welded together.

One of the versions could easily be changed, and to that I added some wording.

 

From this new file I made a vinyl decal in gold vinyl which I added to acrylic coasters purchased from Acrylic Craft. 

  

If you download SVG files from the Internet you will generally find that they don't have cut lines selected. Simply turn them on by selecting Cut in the Cut Window.

FREE Design of the Week - Enjoy the Ride Mug

I was so pleased to see the lovely free design (Design ID #144689) in the Silhouette Design store this week and knew I had to make something with it. 

I decided that I'd decorate a mug in vinyl with the design and only had to re-jig it a little to make it work. 

These are the main changes I made:

• Reduced the size to fit my mug (to approximately 82mm x 66mm).
• Ungrouped the lettering so that I could re-arrange it around the bike.
• Released the compound path on the bike to delete some of the smaller pieces and the basket work.

The advanced cut feature made for easy selection of the five different colours of vinyl for cutting. 

I was lazy and didn't use an alignment shape as I usually do, I just aligned each piece with the top and left hand edge of the cutting box. I picked up each cut colour with the transfer tape in turn until all the colours were on the tape. Then I transferred the complete vinyl decal to the mug.

Here's the original design. It will be free from the store until next Tuesday morning (August 9th 2016). 

Have I tempted you to make something with the free design? I do hope so.