Merry Christmas!

I haven't uploaded anything in such a long time but since it's Christmas, I felt that I should at least post something! I have finally started to play with vinyl and I made some ornaments for my fur babies this year. I am so happy with the way it came out!!

Late post - Halloween card!

I had to wait until AFTER Halloween to post this card because I wanted to surprise a friend who loves the holiday. The funny thing is, I didn't even make him a card for his birthday but he gets one for Halloween instead. WHO MAKES CARDS FOR HALLOWEEN?? Well, I guess I do now =)

This card was inspired by other cards I found on Pinterest but other than that, it is my design. I had found a paper pad in Michaels that had paper for all holidays in a year and inside it had one with a spider web which was perfect. I used my cameo to cut out the holes on the left corner to give it some dimension and that was it!

Happy Halloween!! Free Trick or Treat Lantern Silhouette cut file

Hi everyone!

It's been a long time since I posted and since I have been so distant with this blog, I decided to make a cut file and share it with everyone. It is Halloween today and if you are in a rush to decorate for tonight's party I have a quick and easy cut file for you!

It is a Halloween lantern and I used clip art it and a built base for you put it all together.

You would need the following:

1. Silhouette Cameo software
2. Paper
3. Vellum (Orange for the best affect)
4. Tea lights
5. Glue

For you to make a complete cube, you would also have to cut out a 4x4 square which is not part of the cut file. ENJOY!

Download HERE

My five quick tips for Silhouette Cameo users - Ordered by importance!

I have had my Silhouette Cameo for about 10 months now and it is easiest the best investment I made in terms of my crafting hobby. Since buying one, I think I might have convinced about three people to purchase one of their own! (I'll wait for my check Silhouette America =P )

Anyways, here are FIVE quick tips for those who are just getting started with the Silhouette Cameo. They are ordered by importance! (#1 is the most important obviously):


1. Sign up for a free account with the Silhouette Online Store and download the weekly FREE designs! Why wouldn't you want to do this? You get free designs to use and some of them are really cute. You never know if you you will end up using one of designs later on.

2. Buy extra mats - Having extra mats will help if you have a lot of projects to cut. With a second or third mat, you can create an assembly line by preparing the mats with papers while you peel your design off of your first one! I currently have four mats and I bought all of them from Amazon (Silhouette Cameo Replacement Cutting Mat). It is cheaper to buy from there than straight from Silhouette America AND you can get it in two days if you have PRIME!

3. Do not throw away mats after they become "unsticky" - For a long time I was trying to figure out how to make my mats become sticky again and a lot of people suggested using spray on adhesive. Here is my opinion on it, DO NOT DO THAT!!! Over time it will create gunk all over your mat and it will become unusable. I had it ruin two mats and thankfully I just used Goo-gone to clean it. 

I now use Re-nu sheets from "That's Scrap, Inc" (website here). It is a layer of sticky stuff that is temporary and holds paper just as good as a new mat. It's not as tacky as the original Silhouette mat but it is strong enough to hold onto cardstock and thick glitter cardstock from Michaels.

4. Learn how to use the Trace tool in the Silhouette software - The tracing tool is amazing and honestly, you can trace almost anything! For best results I would find an email that is black and white with clear cut lines. You can even take screenshots of silhouetted images to trace in the software! I'll write a blog post on just tracing another time,

5. PIN PIN PIN!! Since using my silhouette cameo, I have been pinning a lot on Pinterest. I find a lot of ideas that way and I try not to copy others but sometimes you find things that are just amazing! I have two boards on there now, one on only handmade cards, and the other is silhouette tips and tricks. Find me there and follow or just pin things I already pinned if you fancy them!

Hot air balloon themed card

If you haven't guessed yet, this card was given to the owner of the baby mobile I posted about last week. Here is the link in case you missed it!

The baby shower itself was hot air balloon themed so it was appropriate for me to make a card like this. The original idea came from Pinterest, and I was able to recreate it using the silhouette cameo. The hot air balloon clip art was found online and I had printed it out using the "Print then Cut" feature on the cameo. I'll probably do a blog post later on down the line on how I do that, so stay tuned!

The new Silhouette Cameo! WITH GIVEAWAY!!!

Everyone knows I love my Silhouette Cameo and a new version has come out with a new design and LCD touch screen!

There are limited quantities and guess what? Silhouette America is giving one away before it even becomes available to purchase! To enter visit their blog post here!!!

The pricing info is below and if you preorder you can actually get 10% off right now. It is also available for preorder on Amazon!

A new video they posted showing off their new machine :

Introducing the new Silhouette CAMEO® from Silhouette America on Vimeo.

Woven hot air balloon baby mobile

For a friend's baby shower I was looking for a different kind of baby mobile idea on Pinterest and came across a woven 3D baby mobile that caught my eye. I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into!

I didn't take many photos in the process since it took me a LONG time to make each balloon and I am so thankful I only had to make five of them haha. For these balloons, you do not need a die cutter like I have, so you can still cut it out by hand if you want. It would just take a longer time. The pattern can be found here.

The PapterMatrix website is great and actually provides tutorial videos, they aren't perfect but it helped me out a lot when trying to figure out how to put the balloons together.

The materials you need are:

1. Glue
2. Paper
3. Tons of paper clips! (You NEED these!)
4. Beads
5. Dowels
6. Fishing line or another type of thin string
7. PATIENCE!

The first balloon actually took me TWO hours to make, YES TWO!!! I was pretty frustrated at it and I started to think about whether or not I should actually make them. I decided to push through and the rest of the balloons took me about 45 minutes each to make.

It was pretty hard to get the baskets on the balloons too, as you can see some of them are crooked in the photo =(. I probably wouldn't make another one of these since it took a long time. However, if you have the patience and this would be a beautiful one to make for yourself or for a friend!

Happy birthday with layered balloon stamp

I created this card for a friend who has a birthday coming up and hopefully this person is going to like it when it arrives in the mail! I normally don't post cards before the recipient receives them but the timing of posts didn't work out!

For this card, I first used my silhouette cameo and stamping kit to cut out a balloon shape. Originally I was planning on buying a balloon stamp, but it was hard to find the perfect shape that I wanted to use. Stamps are also super expensive and the Cameo allows me to create any shape I want, whenever I want! 

The inspiration for this card was from Pinterest and the original card had three different colors but I decided to stick with two to make it easier for me to stamp.

Also! It is so convenient to have envelopes that I pre-made with different colors! Beats having to find an envelope every time I make a card!! For the post on how I made more cards, click here!

Crafting Days: I heart U card

I wanted to try something different for handmade cards this time around and I had seen some cards on Pinterest that used embroidery thread as accents. The idea was very simple but the process did take some time since I hand punched all of the holes needed for the pattern.

First I printed out a heart and added the letters. I made sure the sizing was fine when compared to the card and taped it down onto the back of a magazine. Using a sewing pin, I poked holes along the outlines as evenly as I could.

After all of the holes were done, I used needle and thread and sewed randomly through the holes, while making sure that the letters were recognizable.

Crafting Days!: Stamp Catalog

So I don't have that many stamps but I am starting to a get a bit worried that I would buy the same ones on my weekly trips (shh don't tell my husband) to Michaels. After being on Pinterest for such a long time, I have seen a lot of people who catalog their stamps so that they can see what they have and to make it easier for them to choose the right one.

I figured since that I don't have that many right now, it would be a smart idea to start now before I bought more and go out of hand (shhh don't tell my husband ;)). With the amount of stamps I have, it still took me a 3-4 hours to sort, stamp, and clean all of them.

In the end, I ended up with 10 pages and I even scanned them in and uploaded it to Google Drive so that I can access them on the go! Now I don't have to worry about buying the same stamps now!

Crafting Days: Custom Toms!

One day at a friends house, I was web surfing through Etsy looking for random things to buy and I came across a woman who painted custom Toms. I saw that she sold one that were of Disney's Stitch and thought, "I CAN DO THAT MYSELF!". So here we are, with a little tutorial/step by step of how I did it!

Materials:

• A pair of Toms. I chose white so that I wouldn't have to worry about painting
• Paint
• Pencil
• Sealant/finishing spray

Steps:

1. Open the box of Toms!

2. Draw your design using pencil.

3. PAINT!!!!!!

4. Seal it, yea... seal it good. (make sure you do it outside haha) I did get a bit dizzy from the spray, just FYI.

5. Wait to dry and then wear them!

Crafting days: Buttons galore

On August 30th, Kollaboration NY had it's showcase (my post about it will be up later) and in preparation, I made 200 buttons that were used that day. They were placed in our VIP ticket holders swag bags as well as used to promote our brand at our booth. 

The buttons didn't take too long to make. With some help I was able to make all of them within 2hours. Luckily I have the Cameo otherwise cutting the 200 graphics would have taken forever! Oh, by the way.. I have a button maker ;)

Crafting Days: Happy birthday cards

Last Thursday, I made two birthday cards for two special people who had birthdays within days of each other. Both cards were inspired by others on pinterest but for the most part it was my own design.

The first card belongs to my lovely cousin who is very talented in baking and cooking in general. I made her this cake card which was cut out all using the silhouette cameo and then hand glued on.

The second card I went for something bolder and more colorful. It now belongs to my aunt who is very thoughtful and always willing to help. The card that inspired this one was "busier" with more colors but having just the bold pennant banners and washi tape does it for me.

Which one do you like more?