May 2014 Brings May Flowers

Despite the sadness going on in my life right now, I managed to complete a Mother's Day card for my mom, and thus complete my 50 Project challenge. This means that all bets are off and it's on and [craft] shoppin' until I decide to take up the challenge again. **Blitsy here I come!** Craft shopping is therapy, right? This girl is really in need of some intense and immediate therapy right now.

I made my card to participate in the "May 2014....Brings May Flowers" over at SOC. We were supposed to make a project using our state flower, which for Arizona is the Saguaro Cactus Blossom (Carnegiea gigantea).

In 1901 the saguaro’s blossom was adopted as the official territorial flower, and later, in 1931, it was confirmed as the state flower. The saguaro cactus typically blooms in May and June. It is one of the most unique state flowers, and is characterized by having a waxy feel, but fragrant aroma. There may be hundreds of flowers on a saguaro cactus that bloom just several at a time over a period of more than a month. The saguaro flowers have a short life; they open at night and close permanently during the next day. Many of the blossoms will become pollinated and, later in the summer, the flowers become red-fleshed fruits that are enjoyed by the local bird population.

And here is my card...

The flower and label are from Silhouette Online Store cut files. I used Flower Soft with a little Distress Stickles mixed in for the flower center. Patterned Paper is from the DCWV Haute Pink stack.

Thanks for looking!

WrinkleFreeDiva

Teacher Appreciation Day

It is Teacher Appreciation Day. Trust me... I know, since I am one! ***Who, by the way, is counting down the days until summer break. By the time this posts, we will be down to 12 days...tick...tick...tick...**

Once your kids leave 5th or 6th grade, they usually end up with three or more teachers. Could make giving gifts to your kids' teachers a pricey proposition, especially if you have more than one kid who has multiple teachers.

On one of the many message boards I'm on, someone posted some pics of decorated notepads they had made and I thought... "what a great, inexpensive gift for my son's teachers!" I lucked out and got the last set at Amazon in early April. They are now showing as unavailable. I may have to go on the hunt for a suitable substitute for future teacher gifts.

Projects #45-49 of the 50 Project Challenge.

All of the cut files are from the Silhouette Online store. I have only a few vinyl colors hence the reason only two of the designs are in color. The inside cover of each notepad has a place to put an insert, so I made some cards to put on the inside that say "Thank you for being my 7th Grade Teacher! 2013-2014" with a place for my son's signature.

I am really enjoying working with vinyl and am going to have to purchase more colors so that I can keep them on hand for when the mood strikes! I've almost completed my challenge so I'll be going shopping sooner rather than later...tee hee! 

If you have children, don't forget to show their teachers some appreciation this week. They will thank you for it.

Thanks for looking!

WrinkleFreeDiva

More Vinyl, No Fear!

Yesterday I mentioned that I used my Cameo for the first time to cut vinyl. Because I was so pleased with the results, I couldn't bring myself to put the vinyl away quite just yet. Took a glance at my Cameo and it was begging to be dressed up a bit.

So I found some cuts in my Silhouette library (remember, I can't buy anything new). I chose the "Create," the Southwestern Pot Set, and a Flourish Flower Corner.

After cutting out the images, I found one little shortcut for weeding some of the tiny pieces. Scotch tape! You have to use a small piece and gently touch it to the vinyl while holding the vinyl down, but it really helps to get out the teeny-tiny pieces in one fell swoop.

After finishing my cuts, I put some of the pink vinyl behind the cut-out sections on the first two pots. It wasn't until after  laying the cuts down on my Cameo with blue painter's tape that I realized you could see the outline of the second piece of vinyl and it really didn't look too good. Oh well.... realized too late that I could ungroup the pots in Silhouette Design Studio and just recut the portions that were removed from the pots and so I did that for the third pot. Much smoother, don't you think?

I didn't put any pink in the space at the top of the middle pot, and after looking at it for a little while decided I didn't like the white showing through. But it was too late for me to cut that portion out in pink because I had already closed the file and hadn't saved it. I would have had to guess at the size...that would have been way too much trouble! So... Smooch Ink in Gold to the rescue! Remember when those were all the rage? 

And here is my dressed up Cameo. I put rhinestones in the center of the flowers and gave her a bit of pink vinyl on her control panel. Couldn't let her be unmatched, could I?

I think it's safe to say that I no longer fear vinyl and am actually pretty excited about how easy it is to work with. I will let you know when I cut the iron-on vinyl in my stash (purchased about three years ago) for the first time!

Thanks for looking at Project #27 out of 50 to be completed!

WrinkleFreeDiva

Vintage Vinyl and Well-Used Washi

I just love Spring Break! It gives me the opportunity to give my brain (and my mouth!) a rest and just be! That's when all thoughts turn to "what do I want to work on in my craft room now?"

Today it was breaking out the Cameo and some vintage vinyl and seeing what I could personalize. I say "vintage" vinyl because I think it has been in my stash since 2008 or 2009! I have some Oracal 651 and Cricut Vinyl (which says Oracal 631 on the back). Did I mention that I've had it that long because I've had some deep-seated fear about how to use it and the amount of work (translated: weeding) that would be involved?

This week I redid my Copic storage case because I had placed the fluorescent light panel a little too low in the case and every time I took my markers somewhere they slipped out of place. (Here's a link to how to make your own...) So... after my dear honey cut and replaced the dowels for me, I had to put every marker back in the correct order. I figured that since this was the task of the week I would do something to identify my markers AND personalize the top of the case.

I used washi tape (that I never should have bought in the first place!) to identify my Copics. Got the idea from a lady in a class last week who was using thin black artist-type tape to identify hers. I don't have any black tape, but I have TONS of washi tape that I never use. I managed to use up 2 1/2 rolls.

I need to get over my fear of using vinyl and decided to use some to decorate the cover of my case. I made a simple design (that wouldn't require a lot weeding)  in Silhouette Design Studio. Before moving everything off of the virtual mat so that I could cut everything separately, I took a screen shot of the design so that I would have something to follow when I began laying everything down.

I couldn't move the white roller over on my Cameo so that I could feed the vinyl directly into the machine, so I used a cutting mat for another die-cutting machine (which shall remain nameless). I have tons of those mats and use them all the time in my Cameo although this was my first time ever using my machine to cut vinyl. I used the cut settings for Silhouette vinyl and it cut like butter. All of the cuts came out perfectly and the weeding was a piece of cake.

I left the white piece of vinyl on the mat and layered all of the pieces on top of that BEFORE putting the whole thing on the case. If I had it to do all over again, I would put the white piece on the case first and then add each of the other layers. I used blue painter's tape as my transfer tape for everything except for the large piece. For that, I used a regular 12 x 12 transfer sheet.

 

Considering my limited supply of colors I'm pretty tickled with the way it turned out.

Project 26 of 50 in my quest to use up my stuff!

Stay tuned for my next post and see what else I did with my vintage vinyl.

Thanks for looking!
WrinkleFreeDiva

See What It Can Do!

This weekend I was quite productive in the crafty sense. And I'm just tickled pink (and green!) about it.

Last fall I purchased a Silhouette Cameo but hadn't had lots of time to play with it. Well this past weekend it was all about the Cameo and coloring digital images.

First, I colored my images (a larger size than needed) using Copic markers. Next, I scanned them into my computer, saving them as JPEG files. Then I brought them into my Silhouette software, traced then resized the images. Finally, I printed the images (using registration marks) and then cut. *I could have actually cut out the space between the little girl's neck and the stem of the flower, but time was an issue and I didn't feel like fooling around with it. Next time though, I'll be a little bit more meticulous!* A BIG thank-you to Miss Alice B for offering the suggestion to do it this way because now I not only have the images stored in my computer for future use, but I can resize them for use on any project. I am very slow (and not very patient) when it comes to coloring so this might actually motivate me to color more and help me to build up a collection of colored images for use on projects.

Both images are from Robert Jackson

 I used the first image to make a card for my soror's 40th birthday which we celebrated last night.

And the second image is for my cousin's birthday card.

So today's lesson is especially for those who have expensive die-cutting machines, other crafty tools, and heck...even computers! We've shelled out megabucks on all of these toys and many times we only use 5% to 10% of their capabilities. So today, commit to learning a new feature on one of your crafty toys. You can use the manufacturer's user's guide or website, YouTube, discussion groups and forums, google it or just sit down and start playing around with your machine. You just might be surprised at what that toy can do and how it can enhance all of your craft projects!

Adhering Vellum (or Spray Adhesive to the Rescue)

The other day I went to Michaels with my honey. He picked up a can of this repositionable tacky spray adhesive and with his silly self sprayed it all over his hand, ostensibly to see how tacky it was. Apparently, it worked the way he wanted it to (he wanted to use it on his softball bat grip and I think his golf clubs too) so off to the cashier we went, he with his glue spray and me with my pretty paper box. As we were walking to the car, I thought hmmmmm.... I've got lots of different adhesives, but I don't have any spray adhesive. Wonder if I should have some in my stash? *You know how we crafters can figure out a need for anything!* Well...I got an opportunity to try it today.

I made this card for my nephew who will be graduating from high school this Friday. After putting the whole card together, I decided to do the inside sentiment on vellum. Next problem, how to put the vellum on the cardstock. I didn't want to use brads, eyelets or staples, and although I have some adhesive squares made just for vellum, I'm not thrilled with how they look when they're applied. Then I remembered honey's spray adhesive. Now mind you, I have lots of other adhesives made by this manufacturer and really like them (great for gluing on bows!) but I didn't know they had a spray. Am I the only one?

Can I just say, that I LOVE this spray? Application was clean and quick and my vellum adhered to the cardstock with no bubbles, marks or anything else! Looks like I will finally have a way to adhere and use up all of the vellum sentiments in my stash! My dear sweet man said I could use his can of spray but nahhhhh....I want my own! Next up, I'll try it on a transparency. So, here's the card...

The sentiment was typed on both the cardstock and the vellum.

Graduate die-cut, Silhouette file; 2013, American Crafts Thickers; and a little Glossy Accents to make his shoes shine.

So for today's lesson: If you have an element that could be marred by using regular adhesives, either because it is too sheer or too flimsy, try a spray adhesive.

Thanks for looking!
WrinkleFreeDiva

If at first you don't succeed...

So today was my first experience with the "print and cut" feature on my Silhouette Cameo. I watched a great video on Youtube and had no trouble importing and preparing my images to print with the registration marks and then cut. When it came time to cut, that's when I nearly said to heck with the whole project. My Cameo wouldn't (or couldn't) detect the registration marks. I looked at Silhouette's support page and a checklist on the Silhouette Plus forum and checked and double-checked everything they told me to, or so I thought. First thing I missed was that my Cameo had switched from "load mat" to "load media." Don't know when or how that happened since I never told it to do that. OK... problem solved, or so I thought... again! Still no registration mark detection after NUMEROUS trys and adjustments. Finally, I decided to just turn the darned thing off, let it rest a moment and then start it up again. Voila!!!! It detected the marks and cut like a charm! So what you see below is a card made with my very first "print and cut" images. Big hugs to Alice B. and Charice for sending the files to me.

This card if for my honey-do's friend. Said honey-do used to sing in a band, and his friend, who's name is Sol, used to love to hear him sing Mustang Sally. So I thought it would be cute to make a play on words for this card. I didn't know the lyrics so I looked them up online and used one of the line's for the inside sentiment: "Guess you'd better slow your mustang down! Happy Birthday" It's kind of hard to tell, but I pop-dotted the new mustang to add some dimension.

So today's lesson is this: If at first you don't succeed with your die-cutting machine, go to YouTube "university," check out the manufacturer’s support page, look for any forums related to your machine… and, when all else fails, turn your machine off, let it rest for a minute and then turn it back on!

Thanks so much for looking... I promise I'll be back soon!

Karen,
Your WrinkleFreeDiva!