Silhouette | Silhouette Secrets

Quick gifts

Posted on July 19, 2017July 18, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

I love being able to whip up a quick gift to send to a friend.

I had a towel in my stash & it seemed to be whispering my name. So I went shopping in the Silhouette Design store to find a cut file I liked.

After a measurement error & my 2nd scrap of black HTV, I ended up with a nice, simple gift I could throw in my care package.

Yes, even seasoned Silhouette users make mistakes. And do you know, often times you learn more from making a mistake than not. At least in my experience, I remember things better the next time when I’ve made a mistake or had to research how to do something. Does that mean I won’t make the same mistake again? No! But I may laugh at myself more the next time!

How do you learn to use the machine? You play, you practice, you research, you create!

I love learning what new technique or new project I can do with my Silhouette Cameo.

Enjoy!

Glass etching with the Cameo

Posted on June 20, 2017June 19, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

With the end of the school year also comes end of the year gifts for teachers, aides, bus drivers, and many others who have helped throughout the school year.

I love having my Cameo to help me create a personalized gift to show my appreciation.

I cut my stencil from Oracal 651 vinyl, apply it to my clean surface and then apply my Etchall cream. I let my etching cream sit on my object for 20-30 minutes, scrape off the excess & put it back in the bottle. I love the fact that Etchall cream is reuasable!

I always pick up a new tip when I’m doing a project….

Today’s tip….. even when you are rushing, don’t forget the painters tape on the edges of your vinyl to prevent any of the etching cream from oozing off the edges of the vinyl & touching the glass in a place you don’t want etched.

I hope you explore all the different possibilities that you can create with your Cameo machine!

Enjoy creating today!

Glass cutting board design

Posted on May 10, 2017May 10, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

This is a great project for a a great personalized gift.
These glass cutting boards are textured on the top. Personally, I don’t think they make a good cutting board as they are textured on top but it makes a great coaster in my craft room.
Of course, if you have been following my blog or my Facebook group, you know I like wine designs…. wine decor, wine…. well anything wine – lol.

With these glass cutting boards, you mirror your image on the Silhouette software before you cut it and then apply on the back side of the cutting board.
I used Oracal 651 vinyl on this project, so it has a more “permanent” bond.

Once you have the design cut, you can carefully weed the design and leave the image you want to transfer onto your project. Using your transfer tape to place your image on the back of the cutting board.
Also as a note, vinyl is not food safe, so this is a great reason to apply it to the back of the cutting board.
Next, you burnish your design down really good and carefully peel back your transfer tape.
Done!

There you go – a quick simple project!
Now, I found this cutting board at our local Dollar Tree… however, they keep getting harder to find.
You can pick up a glass cutting board anywhere and personalize it.
These would be hand wash only as vinyl is not dishwasher safe.
Also as a note, vinyl is not food safe, so this is a great reason to apply it to the back of the cutting board.

Enjoy!

Classroom decor

Posted on April 27, 2017April 23, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

One thing I love about having my Silhouette Cameo is being able to help out my kid’s teacher’s with bulletin boards and other projects they have in the classroom.

I feel out teacher’s could use all the help they can get in the classroom and since I have little ones at home, I am unable to be in the classroom and volunteer, so I want to offer my help in other ways.

This year I have made a few things for my son’s Pre-K classroom including these decorations for the Dad’s Sports Night.

My love for the Silhouette started with paper crafts and has expanded to so much more, but I have not let the paper crafting go. I recommend having a separate blade for each type of medium you cut, such as vinyl, card stock, fabric, etc. I start my blade when it’s brand new as a vinyl blade and when it gets to where it’s not cutting as crisp, I graduate it into a card stock blade and just rotate it to a new job. When it gets to the point it’s not cutting well at all, then it’s time for a new one.

I found a couple sports related images in the Silhouette Design store and just click buy and start cutting.

One thing that helps when cutting paper is having the right adhesive to glue things down. I love this Dual Action Glue Pen from Close to My Heart when I’m working with small detailed images.

When working will really small details such as the baseball stitches I love the Xyron sticker maker. As you can see I don’t even use the little “X” part of the machine any longer… I just stick my object in the adhesive roll and pull it out the other end and use scissors to cut it off.

For all the larger paper areas my favorite adhesive is this tape runner by Scrapbook Adhesive 3L. It has been my go to for as long as I can remember and I’ve found a great online store to stock up on this as I go through it quickly when making cards. I highly recommend Scrapbookpal.com and order from them when I need to replenish my supplies. They even have free shipping over $25 and it’s quick.

Here is the titles I made for the classroom door.

I typed out my title and then created an offset around it and welded that offset, so I would be able to cut the outline in black.

Owning a Silhouette Cameo allows me to be creative and help out in so many ways and I enjoy every minute of it.

What are our working on today?

Enjoy!

Halloween decor – yes that’s right!

Posted on April 13, 2017April 12, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

Halloween is of course several months in the past, but when you can pick something up on clearance…. why wait until next year to finish it.
I found a couple signs at Target that were perfect to add vinyl to.

I had a couple files from the Silhouette store & they were perfect for these…..

With my first design, I weeded the large area first & then I applied my transfer tape & uses a technique commonly called “reverse weeding” in the Vinyl crafting lingo.

How do you reverse weed?

Burnish your design well, so it all sticks to your transfer tape.
Then peel the backing off of your vinyl design & very carefully weed out the bits of vinyl from the delicate parts of your image.
This works especially well if you have small eye pieces or small dots for letters, etc. It does take some practice to get the hang of it.
The first time I did it, I hated it because my transfer tape kept sticking to me.
But, the more you practice & get the hang of it, the more you fall in love with the technique & use it for those delicate designs that you don’t want your pieces moving on.
In my design, I used this for the spider web that was in the center of my “O”.

After weeding my design, I then carefully placed my design on my sign & burnished it down really well. Then I carefully peeled the transfer tape off, watching for any vinyl that did not come off the transfer tape and I would put it back down & burnish it some more to get it to stick.

And my second design, also from the Silhouette Design Store.

Now these are ready to pull out for next year and will go perfectly in my dining room that has a wine theme.

Whenever you get the chance to grab some decor items at a discount, grab them, but don’t let them sit around too long without adding all the finishing touches.

Enjoy!

Quick gift – I love Rhinestones

Posted on March 14, 2017March 13, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

Rhinestones – once you start, it’s addictive and you just want to make more.
I held off as long as I could, until I took Terri Johnson Creates hands on retreat last July.
In her class, we designed our own rhinestone design and cut it out. After that one design, I was hooked and started shopping in the Silhouette store for more.
This one jumped out at me and I knew I’d be making some for my nieces in the future.

I had just ordered some supplies from The Rhinestone World and had the opportunity to make these as quick gifts to send with my husband on a trip.

So with this magic flock you cut the design with your machine and then peel it off the backing – rip it like a band aid gets the best results. If it has cut well, the little holes will stay on the backing and you can just scrape them off…..

You can then lay the sticky design down on a safe surface, press it and peel it back again to get more of the circles to stick out.

I then look for any that didn’t come out, remove those and put it back on the backing paper.

Now, sprinkle your rhinestones on top of your template and rub them around until all the holes are full.
Once all the stones are in place, using heat transfer tape, lay it over top of your design and burnish. Carefully life it up and make sure the rhinestones are stuck to the heat transfer tape.

Place your heat transfer on the shirt where you want it and I used an iron with a board under it and lots of pressure on high heat with a teflon sheet to set the stones on the shirt.

I love the ability to make a gift up really quickly and hope you enjoy making rhinestone designs as much as I do.

I would highly recommend attending a retreat by Terri Johnson Creates, you will learn so much and be able to try all kinds of new projects.
The possibilities are endless with the Silhouette Cameo!!!

Enjoy!

Designing Lesson 4

Posted on March 7, 2017March 4, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

In Lesson 4, Melissa from Silhouette School talks about using the Polygon & Arc tool.
We created the Snowman’s nose, mouth and snow banks using these tools in Lesson 4.

And now for my light bulb moment….. there is always something that really sticks out for you in the lesson. Before I mentioned not skipping over the definitions of the tools and learning a few new things…

This past week, I was trying to do something in Silhouette Design and I just could not remember how to do it….. I knew there was a way but it was escaping me.
I wanted to create a Word Art in a shape….
So while I was playing with the Arc tool, I realized this would be the perfect way to create a Word Art that matched an Arc shape.

Now if I could only remember the project I was trying to do this for….

I am sure it will come to me another day.
I hope you enjoy crafting today!

Customized cards with my Silhouette Cameo

Posted on March 3, 2017March 2, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

I love being able to create these customized cards for friends, especially for special occasions…
A friend of mine just received the results of her dental hygiene exam and I thought I would create a unique card for her.
I found all the designs in the Silhouette Store and loved that I could just click buy and then get to cutting.
You can find the Congratulations Pop & Twist card file HERE.
Find the Tooth file HERE.
Find the Dentist tools HERE.

You can see a short video of how this card works HERE.

I took the tooth cut file and resized it down to make a bunch of teeth confetti to include inside the pop & twist card. And then I stuffed it into the envelope.
Just a tip… I even measured this card and it was under the weight limit but U.S.P.S still returned it for more postage. You just never know.
Sometimes with these fancy fold cards they can get to be a bit thick and you need to allow for extra postage.
I thought I was good this time, but guess not!

Now while you can find instructions on how to create these fancy cards such as Twist & Pop or Cards in a Box, I still prefer to use my Cameo machine and let it do the work for me.

What kind of fancy cards will you try with your Cameo?
Enjoy!

Design Class – Lesson 1-3

Posted on February 17, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

Last week, Silhouette School announced her new book called The Ultimate Silhouette Guide to Designing in Silhouette Studio and I just had to grab it. I didn’t even wait for her contest to win a free copy to end, I just clicked Add to cart, paid & downloaded it.

Why would you want to make your own designs?
Here are just a few reasons:
– you learn a lot about the software by creating your own designs,
– if you cannot find something that you want to use, you can create your own,
– if you want to sell items you need to use your own designs or purchase Commercial Use products to use in your sale items – don’t forget to research Trademark & Copyrights.
Just because you CAN create it does not mean you legally can use it!!!

I was able to sit down and work through a few lessons this past weekend and thought I’d show you what we did.
We created our own little snowman, from scratch…. just using basic tools.
And we will be adding on to this as we go.
This is the design I had when I finished Lesson 3.

Now, I’ve been designing or creating my own designs since Day 1 of using my Silhouette machine, but you can always learn new things & new ways to do things.
So I jumped and I’ll tell you what…. I learned new things in the first few pages.
It took all my will power not to skip over the first few pages of the Tool definitions and buttons, but let me tell you DON’T SKIP IT!
I resisted the urge and I learned several new buttons and tools and that was just in the first few pages.
I’ll tell you, I am excited to continue in the class and hope to keep showing you my design as we go.
You can always learn more about your software program!

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2017February 14, 2017 by silhouettesecretsplus

Where ever you are, I hope that you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

After hubby asked me if I could make a pop up flower card, I just had to try out several that I found….
In my last blog post, I showed you a card in a box bouquet that I found in the Silhouette store – you can see that HERE. But I found several others….. how do you ask? Well, Pinterest of course!!! That is my go to source for ideas… I’ll either browse the front page or if I’m looking for something specific, I will use the search function and see what cool things it will bring in to my life that I must make. You can find my Silhouette Pinterest page HERE for all thins I’ve pinned Silhouette related, but I also try to keep things organized in folders so I can find things easily when I get the time to make them.

I used the cut file I found at Paper Pulse for the Rose pop up card and cut the pieces out of card stock. And then I referenced her instructions on how to piece it together and assemble the card.

I used the CTMH Stamp of the Month from January and colored it in with the Shin Han markers.

I cut the card base and inside from a retired CTMH paper pack called La Vie En Rose.

And then I used my Envelope Punch and created an envelope for my pop up card.

I hope you have a wonderful day!