Showing posts with label Silhouette Cameo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silhouette Cameo. Show all posts

Monday, December 28, 2020

First Post-Christmas Cards: Cream Gray and Turquoise


 

I hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas celebration.We Zoomed with our son on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and fingers crossed, his packages will arrive today. Grrr. He took that in better stride than we have! 

I started on my "catch up" New Year's cards ( a couple people I inadvertently missed with Christmas cards) and January birthdays. After making the snowflake card using some Christmas papers, I really liked the color combination so I used it to make the first of my January birthday cards. 



For this one, I used a snowflake patterned paper from Recollections "White Christmas" stack and then an icy bluish / light turquoise Craftsmart glitter paper. I cut snowflakes using my Cricut Explore Air2 from cream glitter paper, and layered using foam dots as shown. To finish, I added an iridescent snowflake sequin and light turquoise snowflake sequin. Simple but fresh and clean for a new year!



I liked the color combination so much I went with it for the first 2021 birthday card I needed. I used the same glitter papers to make the party hats. I'm an "ecumenical" crafter so for this one I used my Silhouette Cameo and an image from the Silhouette online store. It's a layered image so I cut out of three different glitter scraps and then layered to make the hats. I think I'm going to do more of these in other color combos so I have party hats at the ready for future cards. I mounted these on a gray Echo Park Paper and used the Craftsmart light turquoise glitter papers. The sentiment is also from the Silhouette online store, and I cut it using Cricut silver adhesive foil, applied it to a cream cardstock scrap, then a light turquoise glitter scrap, and finished with some silver star sequins. 


Happy last days of 2020. I don't think any of us will be sad to see you go! 





 

Monday, January 21, 2019

Valentine's Day : Blasts From The Past



Yay! I have my laptop back and didn't lose anything and I'm so happy! Have some photo editing to do for some things I've worked on recently and have to re-install some stuff,  but in the meantime, thought I would take a trip down memory lane and re-up a few Valentine's Day home decor and card projects from past years.  Projects are linked in the titles. 

Home Decor


This is a really quick way to add some Valentine's decor that can actually stay up all year long and not look out of place. Neutral colors make it versatile. 

Valentine Canvas Bling Arrow


This is another thing that you can leave up all year long. 

DCWV Bling XO Letters


I actually did this in "traditional" Valentine's colors ( primarily since it was a stash bust from an extra charger I had from Christmas)

Love You and Me


Cards 

Mizuhiki Cord Valentine's Cards:

Handmade cards using Mizuhiki Cord (found w/ Origami supplies)

DCWV Decor Noir Valentines


Metallic and Bright Valentine's Day Cards:





Valentine's Cards 2013



Grey and White Valentine


Hope you've found some inspiration!




Monday, September 25, 2017

September Celebration Cards


I make probably one or two cards a week during non-holiday times and don't post them all but sharing two special ones. 


My two oldest ( as in length of time, not age!) friends happen to share the same birthdate. Same date, one year apart. So my birthday "twins" each got this card, using washi tape one of them gave me for my own birthday last year. For the birthday cards, I used the "Confetti Stack" by DCWV that has coordinating birthday papers, and cut layers of a cake in two different colors using my Silhouette Cameo. I alternated the layers of the cake and glued them together then added to the center of the card with foam dots. 



The second card was for a friend celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Since apples are a prominent part of celebrating Rosh Hashana, I had fun doodling an apple and then using the Recolor app to color it. 


After I colored the apple, I chose coordinating papers from my stash to make the card. 


I had this gorgeous brocade looking paper ( Recollections, Michaels) that went w/ the colors,  accented w/ coordinating glitter papers, printed and layered the sentiment as shown. 



Monday, September 11, 2017

Peacock Feather Anniversary Card and Envelope Art


Hard to believe that my oldest (as in number of years we've been friends...since 7th grade) is celebrating her 30th Anniversary! They got engaged before I left for a study abroad program in college and got married shortly after I came back the following year so I missed a lot of the wedding planning. I don't have pics but let me tell you, she was DIY before DIY was what it is now. 

She made her wedding dress, our bridesmaids dresses, the groom's tux, her mom's dress... basically EVERYTHING. Each of us bridesmaids wore a different jewel tone color and they used peacock feathers in the bouquets. 

I wanted to capture elements of day in their Anniversary card. 


I found a peacock feather design in the Silhouette online store that I downloaded and cut from gold adhesive foil. 


I dreaded weeding these because I hate weeding. Love vinyl. Hate weeding. Did I mention how I hate weeding? Fortunately these weren't as bad as I feared. 

I layered these on different colors of cardstock and trimmed. 


Layered onto coordinating papers as shown using foam dots, and then finished with self adhesive rhinestones. 

I also wanted the envelope to be special. One of the reasons I started playing with hand lettering is because I wanted to make the envelopes as special as I hope the cards are . 


I did a simple laurel wreath and mixed faux calligraphy and printed lettering styles. Fortunately the Post Office didn't get snippy with me and it arrived just fine! 

Equally exciting is that this time next year, my friends will be recovering from their daughter who's getting married 2 days prior to their 31st Anniversary. Cannot wait to see what she does for her daughter's wedding!




Wednesday, August 23, 2017

What Good Are (Altered) Wings Wall Art


I teased these when I shared my last project: Another Altered Cabinet Door. I might need to change my blog name to something w/ "altered" in it . 


I saw these wood wings earlier in the year at Michaels when they first came in and went back and forth on them mostly because they had a whole selection of different wings and I couldn't decide. That became easier when after procrastinating, there were fewer to choose from but the ones that remained were 70% off. Score! I mean they were originally only $19.99 but I got them for $5.99. Deal. 

Supplies: 
  • Wooden Wings
  • Acrylic Paint
  • White Glue
  • Leafing Glue
  • Silver Leaf
  • Vinyl Quote
  • Misc. Embellishments 
I had all of the other supplies in my stash which Mr. Chocolate calls "The Michaels Annex".


Paint with your basecoat color of choice. I used Craftsmart gray. Since I'm partial to a chippy / shabby / crackled look, I didn't care about complete coverage. 


If you prefer a more opaque look, go over w/ another coat. 

Did a combination of my fave white glue crackle and dry brushing over the grey using white acrylic paint. While the paint was drying, I laid out my quote in my Silhouette software and cut w/ my Cameo. The quote is by the poet Atticus: 

This is the same font I used for my vinyl ( it's called Ambrosia) and of course now I don't remember where I downloaded it from!  

I cut out my quote using black matte vinyl and since I'm easily frustrated w/ vinyl projects and inevitably muck something up that results in swear words , I trimmed the words into individual pieces to minimize the muck up opportunity. 


This also made it easier to lay out the words. Once I was happy with where I wanted them, I applied them to the wings. 


Never content to leave anything alone ( what fun is that?!) I decided to add some silver leaf to the tips of the wings and pulled out this pair of plaster wings I had in my stash, along w/ some adhesive rhinestone swirls. 

Metallic leafing is such a rich accent. I love adding bits and pieces of it to things. You need a good leafing glue ( called size) and I like the Mona Lisa brand. Basically paint where you want your leafing to go using the glue, wait 20-30 min (weather conditions matter so if hot, shorter time) until tacky and then apply your leafing. You can find many tutorials on how to use metal leafing on Pinterest and You Tube so won't go into that here. 



It hangs in our entryway which I pass everyday on my way to my office and it's a great reminder to me to be fearless, try new things, challenge myself. 

Monday, August 14, 2017

Another Altered Cabinet Door: NEST Sign


I mentioned in an earlier post how I love using cabinet doors for projects. I usually find mine at a local architectural salvage place and got this one along with a previous one for a donation of $5 ( for both) to Habitat for Humanity. 

We have a lot of blank wall space which I don't actually mind, but it's also great for when an idea does hit because  I haven't had to take something else down. This will hang in our TV watching area where we end up spending a fair amount of our time .  This is where I find out all of the latest intrigue on "Game of Thrones", say goodbye to my Sestras on "Orphan Black", see who's up to what on "Scandal" and "How to Get Away With Murder" and Netflix and chill.

We also read here when the TV's not on. We're homebodies so the them of "Nest" seemed appropriate.

Supplies: 
  • Salvaged Cabinet Door
  • Acrylic Paints
  • White School Glue
  • Printed Tissue Paper (Recollections)
  • Mod Podge
  • Adhesive Foil (I used Cricut Gold Metallic)
  • Scrabbook Paper (C'oredinations Cream and Black) 
  • Misc Embellishments
  • Die Cut and/or Electronic Cutting Machine (Silhouette and Cuttlebug)


The wooden wings will be part of another post but I took a pic of the unfinished cabinet door with them so more on that later in the week. 




I painted the "frame" of the door with black acrylic paint (I used Craftsmart). Taped off the edges and then painted the interior with cream acrylic paint. 


I didn't worry about complete coverage of the interior because I knew I'd be putting the tissue paper here.  Cut the tissue paper to size and then apply using Mod Podge. 

Measured out my tissue paper before I painted
Using my favorite white glue technique, I crackled the frame of the door. Basically paint a layer of glue ; let dry until tacky but not completely dry ; paint over w/ contrasting color. 

Tip: You want to use long even strokes and go in one direction, not up and down. Back to School is the perfect time to stock up on cheap, white, glue! 


While that was drying, I laid out my design on my Silhouette Cameo, then cut the images and lettering using Cricut Gold Foil. 

Enter frustration. When I applied the foil pieces, the transfer tape pulled up the Mod Podged tissue paper in some spots. The nice thing about working w/ the tissue paper was that it was easy to tear some "matching" pieces and just repair those spots with a little more Mod Podge. 


I don't think you can really tell where I had to patch. I used my Cuttlebug to cut the flowers ( Tim Holtz Tattered Florals) rolled the edges and added rolled roses in the center. I rummaged around in my mismatched embellishment stash and found some swirly things ( technical term) that I painted to match and put on the nest image and the corners of the door.