Happy Birdie Card

Hi everyone,

I am home today -- as working for a state government agency we have Cesar Chavez day off. It is a nice treat to have a day off in the middle of the week. I am spending my time in the craft room. You can clean house and do laundry any time right?

The flowers are from our yard. The white rose opened beautifully -- we call them Zeus roses. (We planted them after our Zeus dog died, and they have bloomed beautifully for over 2 years.) Tucked in the back is a red rose that Oscar tends so carefully. The daffodils are from work -- a Cancer Society fundraiser.

Here is a card I made using some of my recent haul goodies. I have subscribed to some sites lately and met (virtually) anyway some great people who are using the Silhouette. I was inspired to try my hand at the digital stamps to use the print and cut feature.

Here is my first print, cut, and I color card!
I am also doing it for the Mojo Monday inspiration too.

More news later about a very exciting opportunity to join a design team! My first!

About the Card...

Most of the diecuts are from the Silhouette store. The happy is a sizzix sizlet 12 inch happy birthday die. The birdie is a free download from Laurie Wilson at Clearly Delightful Blog. I linked to there from AIfactory Graphics and Cliparts. Believe it or not, I printed it from the Robocraft software, did a mini trace to add the cut out border and I colored it with my limited stash of Copic markers and newly developing skills. Want to know the marker colors -- just leave a message. It was a test to see if the Copics would play nicely with my HP laserjet ink. The white cardstock is 80# Neenah classic crest cover. I had to send the cutter pass through twice to cut cleanly.

The blue paper is part of my huge Costco cardstock pack from many years ago... use it up right? The patterned papers came from Tuesday Morning -- it was a 5x7 pad of cardstock called "life of the party" from Momenta. It was a great deal at $1.99 for 40 two side sheets. I used my Silhouette custom page size to cut the scallop and circle perfectly. The white ribbon is part of my stash -- $1 Biglot ribbon.

Thanks for viewing and commenting. Another haul video and acard making demo is coming.

Look out for exciting news regarding my participation in a great design team! Note to self -- seize the opportunity -- even on the last day of submittal you just might get picked. :)

Yippee -- so happy.

I am off to a class in Carlsbad this evening. Thanks for reading and more to post later!

Thanks for support

Hi followers and friends, Thanks for the support with the Silhouette Sweet 16 Contest. Even though my Duckie treat boxes did not make it to the final four it was so nice to be recognized. I can't wait to try the iron-on materials. Here is a clip from My Creative Classroom's newsletter:

Click on the bmp graphic above or jpg graphic below to enlarge. You may have to scale up with your browser to read... blogger was giving me fits. :)

Easter Egg Card using Marukai Paper

Here is a video of an Easter card that I made using some paper from a recent haul video. This paper is a pad of paper from a store here that sells Japanese products. Most of the things at the store retail for $1.89 USD. I also bought some other smaller than letter sized paper and wanted to make sure I could cut on custom sized stock.

This video is how I figured out how to cut on smaller than letter stock. Do you do it differently, please post and share how you use the Silhouette for custom stock sizes.

Thanks for watching and all your comments.

Terrie

Treat Box How To Video and Images

Here are the impages I used to make the treat box.

The video quality when it was imported into Sony Vegas and exported for YouTube is a bit lacking. So here are the impages I picked to use from the Silhouette store library.


click on the image to enlarge

Here are the how to videos -- part one is the layout in the Silhouette software and part two is the assembly. Thanks for all of your votes and well wishes during the Sweet 16 Contest.





Dimensions of the box top - 5.93 x 5.25"
Dimensions of the box bottom - 7.57 x 6.9"

Vote for me - Silhouette Sweet Sixteen

Hi everyone,
Here is my YouTube Video. I am trying this "viral" marketing thing.
Check out the video. Sign up for the Silhouette blog and vote for me.
Thanks!
Terrie

Silhouette Sweet Sixteen Selectee!

Yippee!! My duckie boxes were picked as one of the "sweet sixteen" on the Silhouette Blog. They are having a contest to pick the final four. So visit the blog, and if you think mine is super cute, vote for me. If you think another of the selectees is cool too -- it is ok to pick it. Voting is open to one pick per day. Click here to go to the Silhouette Blog and vote.

Using Adobe Illustrtor to Cut - Video by Kristina Warner

Hi, I found this link but digging around on Paper Craft Planet. I subscribed to a group of "non cartridge" digital machine cutter users. This video is not mine, but I will try to embed the link. Thanks to Kristina for making this video and I hope it helps some of you with Illustrator. I like to cut from Illustrator especially when I am using postscript (non-true type) fonts and graphics or clip art that need some cleanup.

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Illustrator to Quickutz Silhouette - Merged Letters from Kristina Werner on Vimeo.

Silhouette Library Video - Folders

I got a request for a "how to" add folders to your Silhouette library. I appreciate the comments and will do my best to answer questions based upon my experience as a user. Enjoy.

Treat Boxes - Easter or Mother's Day

I have been working with the Silhouette digital cutter recently. I signed up and took a class on-line and have been inspired to try a variety of techniques. These are made with cut files from the Silhouette store. The rubber stamp is from Hero Arts. The butterfly top would be nice for a bridal shower, Mother's Day or a birthday. The duckie is also a Hero Arts die cut and would be great for Easter or a baby shower. The cut outs could be used for cards or added to party favor bags or name tags. Enjoy!

Silhouette How To - Print your image catalogue

My goal was to make a catalogue of my images that I have purchased from the Silhouette Quickutz Store site and then share that video on YouTube. (Arrow down for the links to videos.)

Today I attempted to make a video and used Jing to create an swf or Flash file to capture my screen shots.

1. I tried to get the swf Flash file into the video editing software but the quality looked poor and no sound followed.
   
2. I tried to upload the flash version here on my blog, but that was really slow and I abandoned that idea.
   
3. Finally I sprung for the full version of Jing that would export mp4 files. I imported the unedited mp4 Jing files into Sony Vegas 9 but lost the audio again*.
   
4. Then I uploaded the unedited mp4 files to YouTube. Those are the links you see here.

*Geek speak I know, but the overall results I am quite happy with even though there are 3 videos, but I hope you find the information valuable.

The Three Videos:










Enjoy!
Terrie

Here is a sample of one pdf page saved as a graphic.

FYI - Click on any of the images and they will likely get bigger in a new window, so you can see better detail.

Something from Almost Nothing Pre-Class Work

Pre-Work for my new class:


"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to admit that you have well...quite a bit of stash."

Head to your scrapping supplies and really think about what you have, why you bought it and why you haven't used it yet. Whatever your reasons may be, it's time to admit them to the world!

Post a picture or two of your stash (bonus points for those who get creative with the posing of their supplies for the camera, of course!) and come clean to your friends and readers. Why do you have so many supplies and what are you waiting for? You can proclaim a goal: how many pages you want to make from existing stash in the next month or how many sheets of paper/sets of stickers/yards of ribbons/etc you want to move from your stash to your albums before the end of March.

Assignment 1 - Post the stash

OK, I signed up for a class. The idea, use your stash. I have significant stash -- scrapbooking and cardmaking and paper crafting supplies. This is simply a random sampling of the goods. More frames and fabric and paints but I just got tired of taking photos. Want to see the room tour -- I have a YouTube video.



Pre-class work, document the stash. Why so much?
About a year ago I began watching the YouTube haul videos for organizational ideas.
Then I discovered "hauls" and started to think... wow what a deal or I could use that or I want to try that. Then off to the store I am with my 40 percent off coupon. While there I find something that has a dog on it -- anything Dachshund themed is a must have. And now I have more than I really know what to do with and need some help to get moving on creating.

Collecting, hording, planning ahead for when glue dots go extinct, or simply a genetic disposition...
Honestly I am lured by the bargain ...whether I need it or not. I adore thrift stores or charity shops as they are referred to in the UK. I do stick to a budget, pay cash not credit card, and those bi-weekly allowances have afforded me the stash to make just about anything I want. I am also fortunate or enabled with my own crafting space and a door to close. Of course sometimes I have to put the dogs in the hall to walk around and get things from my closet. Here is the theme of my general weakness and I must be saving all these dog and pup and pet goodies for something...

My goals:

1. scrap/create/sell on Etsy or at my work classifieds 3 pet themed cards before April 15
2. Not buy anything crafting related for the next month*. 03/10/10 to 04/10/10
3. Remind myself and accept that it is OK to pass up a "bargain" and another discount coupon will come -- someone else needs that incredible deal so much more than me
   
   
   
   
   

   
   *Just to be honest, I do have a yearly Silhouette subscription and that will likely satisfy my need for something new...
   
   

Week 3 - Silhouette Class Assignment - Happy Bird

I have had challenges with the print and cut feature in the Silhouette software. I finally got it to recognize the registration marks and cut out the images seen in the card. I am very excited that the Silhouette America people are adding great crafters to their site. The had SEI images added today!

Here is my assignment for week 3. It was to use a print and cut image to make a card. I didn't cut the circle card out of the Silhouette but used the Quickutz cookie cutter dies and the Cuttlebug.

A side note: I am still searching for the Cuttlebug extra long cutting plates I saw at CHA.

Silhouette Class On Line - Assignment 2

Here is my first Silhoutte class assignment We learned about cutting and adding shadows. I had some challenges with my robocraft software and the library but resolved them. I ended up using Adobe Illustrator to cut the vancouver lettering as it needed some editing that I could not figure out how to do with the built in software.

I ended up re-doing the page with this paper. I had the frame from Michaels for quite some time and thought it would be good to complete a finished product.

Please let me know what you think. I am open to advice on how to make my layouts better.

Have a great day!

Terrie

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