Category Archives: Silhouette

I Brake For….Sunflowers!

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Hello my creative friends.  It’s Wednesday and time for another look at stamps from I Brake For Stamps.  Today I have a card and little gift box with a sunflower theme to show you – first the card.

I have several sunflower stamps – just can’t seem to get enough of them!  I suppose it reminds me of the place I grew up – down the street our neighbors had a small patch of sunflowers in their front yard. They looked enormous to me, probably because I was just a little thing. I’ve always love the big bold blooms.  This sunflower  image from IBFS can be found HERE.

Usually when I do a sunflower card I use darker colors – mustard yellows and browns.  This time I wanted to go a little brighter and found some digital paper in my computer files that worked well.  It has yellow and browns but cooled down with blue.  Love it!  I stamped the image on copic x-press it cardstock in memento tuxedo black ink.  The stitched design on the panel (hard to see in the photo) was created using my silhouette. Copic markers were used for coloring.  The vellum panel with the word “sunflower” was computer generated. It originated as a silhouette cut file but I could not get my machine to cut the intricate design in a small enough scale to fit on the card.

Tell me about your coloring process.  I’ve evolved over the years – I’ve been stamping since the late 1990’s.  In using copics I’ve found that it helps me to have a practice piece to work out the right mix of colors.  I usually take a small piece of cardstock and stamp the image – it doesn’t have to be the full image – and test my colors.  It’s what I did with the sunflowers in this card.  I worked out a few different shades in the copic color Y and YR ranges on my practice piece first and was able to color the final version quickly.  It may seem like an extra step but it helps me get the right blend of colors.

Now for the little box.  I had enough of the digital paper left over and decided to put it to use by making a small coordinating gift box.

The box was created using an easy origami fold and two pieces of paper.  To top it off I cut a circle with a spellbinders die and stamped one of the sunflower blooms .  The box is about 2.5 inches.

I have a short video on how I created the box – I hope you find it useful:

I’m so glad you stopped by today.  Hop on over to the IBFS store – I know you will find something there to love!  Remember you can get 10% off your order by used code SAVE10NANCY.

I carry your heart with me

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Hello friends – hope your Monday is going well. I have a valentine card to share with you..and some news at the end of this post. First, here are the cards.

The large card was made using a silhouette file that was generously shared by a fellow crafter on a facebook group I belong to. The file is actually three panels of heart shapes – which each panel the hearts are smaller and when you put them all together it had a nice dimensional look. I used foam tape to pop the layers up, but that is not necessary. On the front I added a couple of hearts along with a sentiment that was computer generated – the first two lines of one of my favorite love poems – i carry your heart – from e.e. commings. Here is a closer look at the front to show the three layers.

When these panels are cut you end up with many cut out hearts – a whole pile of them!! So I took nine of them and popped them up on a smaller panel and made the smaller card. I think it took longer for me to line up these nine hearts than it did to make the entire first card!

Now some news.. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but there is a new blog badge on the right side of my blog for I Brake For Stamps. I am now on the design team for this company and can’t wait to show you what I’ve made with their stamps. Come back on Wednesday for my first card. And save 10% on your purchases at their store when you use code SAVE10NANCY. They had thousands of stamps!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

baby onesie card

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My niece and her husband are expecting their first child right around Christmas.  I won’t be able to make it for the baby shower (I live too far away) so I decided to send her a gift card – enclosed in a cute card shaped like a onsie!

onsie

The card is from the silhouette design store and you can make it any size you want – mine ended up being about 6 inches tall.  The truck on the front and the edging on the arms, legs and collar were all cut from the same patterned paper.

When I first cut the onesie shape in blue cardstock it looked a bit flat so I embossed it with a cuttlebug folder called Oxford.  It’s my latest favorite embossing folder!  In fact I liked it so much that I ended up buying a second one because I forgot I had already purchased it!  And now I am trying to sell the extra one on one of those de-stash facebook sites.  Take a closer look at the embossing.

onsie-closeup

 

Once the card was put together I did not have a regular envelope to fit it, so I just grabbed a sheet of scrapbook paper from a baby themed pad and made my own.  I made a tag using a file from the silhouette design store (baby boy) and adhered that onto a scalloped circle cut with a spellbinders die.   Here is what the final package looks like. Thanks for stopping by today!

onsie-envelope

 

 

 

 

 

 

too early for Christmas?

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It’s still hitting 90 degrees here in Florida but Hobby Lobby has had their Christmas merchandise up since August 1st so I will be bold and post this Christmas box and tag.  It was created for the Power Poppy Power and Spark challenge for September – details can be found here.

The box and bow are Silhouette designs and were very easy to put together.  I love the combination of kraft cardstock with the light blue.  The pieces of the bow were run through a cuttlebug folder before assembling them together.  The tag is a stamp from Power Poppy’s Bottlebrush Holiday set and was colored with copic markers.  The box top has scalloped edges – here is a view of the side.  It’s sized to fit a gift card.

box side

 

Thanks for stopping by today!!

bringing the tree home

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It’s the day after thanksgiving…are you still stuffed???  I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday – now we are on the home stretch for Christmas.

Here is a cute card  – made with the silhouette and tools I learned at the latest class from Kerri Bradford.

 tag with car and tree

I created the tag first and added the text at the bottom – then did a “print and cut”.  The tree was a bit hard to cut out because it is so small but I eventually got the machine to cut.  We created it from scratch – using basic shapes and putting them all together.

How about that cut VW bug?  That started as a font – called Volkswagen (duh!) and in a few steps we went:

 from this to this car

 

The tag itself was sponged with blue ink at the top.  I stamped and embossed some random dots at the top to make it look like snow.  The patterned paper is from Basic Grey.

Thanks for stopping by today!

why not take a class?

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Why is it that some people will spend money on a craft machine that has some awesome capabilities, but balk at spending a little more $$ on classes to get the best use out of it?  So – all  you Silhouette users out there that are struggling with this machine I am talking to you!!  This machine can do so much – provided you know how to use it.  The more I learn the more impressed I am.  Now I know there are about a million free YouTube videos out there so why spend the bucks on a class or two?   Because you don’t know what you don’t know!!  You can spend hours…days…weeks…struggling with YouTube videos and still be in the very beginner stage.  You will waste so much time and be so aggravated to the point where you won’t even want to use the machine.   Which would be very sad!!

There are many talented people out there offering classes and I will give my recommendation to Kerri Bradford’s. (www.kerribradford.com) .  She does an amazing job with her step by step videos and has several that build upon the other so you can progress easily.  I can’t tell you how many times I have read on some forum or facebook group questions that I would consider very basic – things I learned in Kerri’s first classes.  So for all of you who want to get the full use out of this machine take a chance on a paid class!

Today I am showing a gift card holder – and some of the cool things I learned in the latest class with Kerri.  The class, Santa’s Workshop, is not really a beginners class since it builds on things learned previously.

 christmas gift card envelope

Now, the gift card envelope is a shape that is familiar to many papercrafters – and easy to cut with the silhouette…

 gift card envelope

But let’s take a look at the details….

 gift card details

See the pinked edge?  Or is it pinking?  Well – you know what I mean – the shape you get from pinking shears! In class I learned a cool way to get that edge around the overall shape.  The tag with the text was easily created in silhouette – a rectangle with the middle points adjusted.  The font is Roboto and was added at an angle – the text are the words to jingle bells –  a very nice design touch.  Now the snowflake…no that is not a die cut or file purchased elsewhere.  I created it from scratch – learned how to do it in the class.  So – I know what you are thinking…isn’t it easier to just buy an image from the Silhouette store (or elsewhere)?  Yes it is.  But if you learn to make one from scratch you learn so much more about the design elements and what this great machine can do.  And you begin to realize how much more you can make on your own and not rely on third party images.     Ok – that’s my lesson for today!!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

The Bells of Christmas

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So, it’s almost mid November and the holiday season is in full swing.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner with Christmas soon behind.  I hope your days are filled with the goodness this time of year brings.  Here is another Christmas card for you.

The bells of christmas

The image – the Bells of Christmas – is from Justrite and was colored with copic markers.  Now to get the image framed with red and white here is what I did.  I stamped the image on paper, scanned it and brought it into my silhouette software.  Then I used the trace feature in silhouette for the frame.  The red portion used the trace and offset feature in silhouette to allow for a little space in between the image edges.  Then, I made a copy of that trace and did another offset to use on the white piece.  Once I cut the white cardstock I embossed it with an embossing folder.  The poinsettia  on the front is a silhouette file and the greenery is a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas stocking

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Hello once again crafty friends!  Are you in the holiday spirit yet?  I am continuing my post featuring holiday cards I’ve done this year and this is one of my favorites…

christmas stocking

 

The stocking  image is a digital stamp from Monika Martinson – she is from Sweden and I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it!  It was colored with copic markers and love how she drew in the contents.  The background of snowflakes was done on my silhouette!  I took a cut file of snowflakes and turned off the cut lines and colored the images trying to match closely the blue I used for the ornaments in the stocking.  I don’t know why it did not dawn on me before to use the silhouette images to create print backgrounds, but it adds a whole new way of looking at those images.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

life is better at the beach

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I’ve seen so many wonderful handmade ornaments on the internet and thought I would try one with a beach theme.  I thought this one would be easy but it proved to be a bit more time consuming!

 beach ornament

It’s a “floating” ornament – meaning the sentiment inside looks like it is floating.  In reality it is vinyl lettering on a piece of transparency.  It is hard to tell from the photo but there is sand and some shells inside the ornament as well.  I tried to get a good photo but the glare from the lights and window made it difficult.  The shells are from our local beach here in Pensacola.  The grosgrain ribbon and blue/white twine wrapped around the top were things I had in my craft room.  I also found that wonderful sand dollar charm as well – thought it went perfectly with the ornament.

For those of you interested in working with vinyl – the sentiment used here is from the Silhouette online store – it is not easy to work with, especially when you are dealing with very small letters.  But – this was my very first attempt with vinyl and I hope it gets easier the more I use it.  For this ornament I printed the sentiment first on transparency sheets.  I then cut the words out on blue vinyl using the silhouette cameo.  By printing the sentiment on the transparency it was easy to line up the vinyl.  Once the vinyl was on I trimmed the transparency into a shape that would fit inside the ornament – you gently roll the transparency and place it inside – it  will unroll once it is in.  Then I added the sand and small shells.

beach ornament close up

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Thanks for stopping by today!