Silhouette Cameo Design Team 2016 News!!

I am really delighted to say that the other week, I was one of eight folk picked to be a member of the Silhouette Cameo Design Team UK for 2016. It took me a while to decide if I had the nerve to do it, but I submitted my application, and here I am - nervous as heck, but pleased as Punch!

We have to make and document projects each week, so although it will be a challenge, as my husband said, I make things with my Silhouette Cameo every week anyway! Tonight is just a quick post as I will be away for a few days, but I am really delighted with my first project which involves daisies, and that will be posted at the end of the month.

This week's free file from Silhouette is a flower, and as a friend has a birthday this week, this is the design I came up with. The flower reminded me of a Poinsettia, hence the colour choice, and as one of the backgrounds in the Silhouette Cameo software consists of black and white stripes, that just seemed perfect with it - classy elegance with a touch of pzazz!

By releasing the compound path in the Silhouette software (on the top menu, Object, release compound path) you can alter the individual pieces and choose what colour to make them. I chose white for the background that lies on the layer underneath all the other shapes, and once everything is reconstructed, you have this beautiful, colourful flower. The Silhouette software that comes with the machine is super easy to use, not only for altering bought (or free!) shapes, but also for making shapes of your own. It is the best craft machine I have ever used, and I have been using it almost every day for three years.

After I made the card, it occurred to me that matching gift wrap would be fun, so I printed out the stripes and the floral paper on ordinary printer paper, plus a gift tag.

Check out my fellow Design team members , who will be posting regularly on the Silhouette UK Blog. 

Welcome to my world, and I hope you will start to follow my Blog and ask lots of questions about using the Silhouette.

Using the free shape of the week Silhouette Cameo

My husband isn't the declaration style lover. He is more "I'll wash your car and top up the washing fluid" style of guy, which l actually prefer, so the inside had to be something that would bring a smile. Inside it reads "Yesterday you really made me mad!", which is true as we are always arguing about something, and yesterday it was how to get to our daughter's house after he had taken a wrong turn :)

When I used my own dotty infill for the letters, for some reason, as you can see, the scale was different within different letters. This could be sorted by separating the letters and adjusting the background scale, if it bothered you.

I always have packs of cut outs left over from other projects, so I used up some flowers, made the card as a gate fold and fastened the front with a brad and some Bakers' twine.

If my Mum had been alive, it could have been used for Mother's Day, but the inside would have read"...and less than tomorrow!"

I hope it inspires you!

This was designed by myself from scratch and took a day and a half to get to this point. It is a surprise for a friend's daughter and son-in-law.

4th February 2016 free design from Silhouette Cameo

I have to say that initially I was not inspired with this week's free file, but once I had injected more colour, changed the words a little and given it a James Bond style bow tie, I have to say my husband  may actually get a Valentine's card this year! I hope you like it!

I turned the black heart upside down and made a small stem to fuse to it, to make the spade symbol. The club symbol was made by fusing three circles and giving it stem as well. The four symbols were aligned, spaced horizontally and then I made a vertical pattern to make the frame. I used one of the Jacquard style backgrounds on the cards and copied that grey for the bottom mat. The next layer was simply the supplied card shape with a few extra words. By tracing the black lips I made red ones. I was going to put a red bow on the card then I suddenly thought about Sean Connery and the card just had to have a bow tie! 

This just goes to show what you can do with a few very simple shapes and a Silhouette Cameo.

Favourite things made with my Silhouette Cameo

As I may be applying to be a designer/blogger for Silhouette Cameo SC) for a year, I thought I would do a quick post of some of the pieces that are my favourite "makes" with my Sil. This house was a complete copy of one made by Torie Jayne. I thought it was simply the most beautiful thing I had seen, and that I could not improve upon it. The advent house came from Panduro hobby and arrived with several drawers broken in transit, however they kindly sent me another - which also had broken in transit - so with a bit of glue I had two houses to decorate. It too me 2 years to get around to it, using papers by Tilda, which are to die for I reckon. I gave this to my daughter for her November birthday and I hope it will become an heirloom!

Using the Pixscan mat for my SC was invaluable as I could get all the front pieces cut out centrally on many of the paper pieces for the drawers, which also had round holes cut in them for the drawer handles. The SC made it all a breeze, and a most enjoyable project.

Below, you can see a card I designed from the photo of a house my friend was moving to. The SC software makes it easy to draw simple shapes for windows, doors etc, and both, me and my friend were well pleased with the result!

Box cards were all the rage for some time, so I made one for the arrival of our first grandchild.

The onesie, and the rocking horse shapes I designed for myself on the SC. Templates are available now for the box card, but I designed my own.

The friend of a friend was being given the honour of being made a Lord Lieutenant of Scotland, so with a little research, I came up with this simple, but effective card for him. A Lord Lieutenant is the Queen's personal representative within a country.

Having seen a lovely birthday card in a certain High street store, I thought, "Now there is a good idea" and I designed this card. SC users will recognise some of the background patterns used. It took quite a while to design, just to get the colours right, and the different levels of letters right, by which I mean some were printed, some pieces were cut and stuck on flat, some letters were cut out with paper stuck behind, and then some letters were raised on sticky pads. Letters which were to be printed could be a thin font, but for cut out letters the font had to be chunkier, so there was a lot to think about!

This card features a drawing I did on my Ipad using the app Paper53. My little chickens have now been used on a multitude of projects! I am dotty about spots which is one of the reasons I started my little shop for customised paper items at PaperspotUK.

Finally, I used to do a of silk painting and have a lot of scrap material lying around, so this was an effective way to use some pieces up to make a one-of-a-kind card.

Well there we go. Not sure if what I do will be good enough to join a design team, but I love my Silhouette Cameo so much, I can't help but use it every day for something or other! If I am not accepted I will simply have to continue making cards for friends and family :)

Happy crafting!

Hilary

How to calculate gsm of the card you are using

I have a lot of card bought from various places and I sometimes would like an indication of the gsm (gram per square metre) of the card to help me with cut settings on my Silhouette Cameo. So I sat down today to work out the formula! If you don't follow the Maths, then just believe me, and I will give you the formula at the end.

1 square metre is 100 x 100 square cm = 10,000 square cm.

A4 card = 29.7 cm x 21 cm = 623.7 square cm

10,000/623.7 = 16.03
So the weight of your A4 card x 16.03 = the gsm

If you have accurate weigh scales, you need to weigh your piece of A4 card. Mine weighed in at 14g.
14g x 16.03 = 224gsm

The weight of your A4 sheet in g, multiplied by 16.03 = your gsm

I also have an A4 sheet of Kraft card weighing 18g
18 x 16.03 = 288 gsm

For 12" x 12" card (30.5 x 30.5cm = 930.25 sq cm)
10,000/930.25 = 10.75

I weighed some card stock that is labelled 200gsm. It weighed 18g on my scales.
18 x 10.75 = 194g which is close enough.

The weight of your 12" x 12" sheet in g, multiplied by 10.75 = your gsm

Glass jars painted with Pebeo Vitrea 160 paint

So often I buy craft supplies and never get around to actually using them, but this morning I forced myself to use some glass paints that had arrived following an evening on Pinterest looking at painted glass and reading how easy it is to do. My 60th birthday is coming up, so I thought I would start to collect 60 jars for lights or flowers for the tables. I am having a few friends over! 

It is a bit messy to do. Things I learnt: Don't paint the outside as some folk suggest. It is impossible to put the jar down without fingermarks. Paint the inside. Jars with "shoulders" are difficult to do. The best jar of all was a Bonne Mama jam jar. The paint is easier to apply if it is thinned down quite a lot, but this will make the colour lighter. I used a long Squirrel paint brush and worried as it all looked streaky and there were bubbles as I laid them to dry, but miracle of miracles, most of these disappear as they dry, and I told myself not to stress. No one will notice on the night. I may finish them off with twine around the necks and the names of guests.

You can mix colours, so I may make a purple once I gather more jars! I hope to be able to give everyone a jar when they leave the party. They are left to dry for 24hrs then will be baked in an oven at 160 centigrade to permanently set the paint. I love them!