Quick Card

Hi friends!  I just needed a little card making fix, and the silhouette blog is hosting a challenge for paper this week.  So I hopped in---last minute while my earlier-today-throwing-up-child is napping.   This was a quick project (it would have been quicker had I set up the cuts right the FIRST time.  I had the offset shapes in the wrong groups at first.  What was supposed to be on top ended up on the bottom…so I recut!), because I had designed the layout weeks earlier.  I found the layout on pinterest here.  I loved it and knew I needed to make my own!

This is my version.  I chose soft flowery prints, because let’s face it, I’m ready for spring!  I stamped the, “hello,” but if I had been thinking, I would have sketch penned something that matched a little better, but I settled on brown ink and it works!

Thanks for hopping over!  I hear my son awake, and thankfully he is playing happily so maybe he feels better! :)

~Lynette~

Card Mania

Greetings!  Thanks for popping in today.  Lately, I have been trying to improve my card making skills.  I love all the really fancy hand made cards I see in blogland, but I haven’t really had any ideas on how to get those looks.  I finally looked on pinterest, and have been making cards to mimic the ones I like.

I made this one on World Card Making Day (or something like that) at the beginning of October.  The “you are loved,” was a premade chipboard cutout I received in a giveaway.  This was the first card that I felt looked really good.  I have a pretty simple style, and I’m learning to add a few details for visual appeal.

I used this card as inspiration for this one.  I would have NEVER thought to use so many pieces, but I love how it turned out.  I used washi tape for the flags.  No words on this one. I couldn’t figure out where to make them fit, and I’m okay with wordless sometimes.  I cut out all the pieces in a few different colors and made 3 cards with alternating colors.  I’m learning it’s a great way to mass produce cards.

I think this card is my favorite I’ve made so far.  I got inspiration from this card.  I again made three copies of this card, with different colors for the parts.  I made the hello in solid red for all three cards.  The font for the hello is halo handletter. 

I love how these cards use simple shapes and layers to get a really fun and complex look.  I hope you’re having a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Lynette~

Easy Scalloped Circle Card

Hi everybody!  I hope you are having a fantastic weekend.  I got a carpet cleaner a few weeks ago, and tried it out Wednesday.  The pump died after one silly pass!  I had moved furniture and EVERYTHING out of the room…only to have to move it back so we could sit on our couches (and still dirty carpet) that evening.  I was disappointed, but Coscto took it back easily and I got a new one.  I decided to try it out today- just because I was so eager to see if it would work.  I normally go on strike from major cleaning on the weekends, but today was an exception.  Once I’d finished and put my son down for a nap, I whipped up this card using the free shape of the week from Silhouette.

I simply typed out the hello in xiomara font, (it’s a freebie) welded it, and then did a small offset.  I had sketch pens draw out the “hello,” and then cut out the offset.  I used the free shape for the circle and scalloped circle.  I made the inner circle a little smaller so you can see the polka dots on the scalloped circle.  I simply cut a 1’’ strip of pink plaid with my paper cutter, and glued the pieces on.  Tada!

Now I’m off to make a few more---saying “Thanks,” instead of hello.

Thanks for reading, and Thanks silhouette for a fabulous free shape this week!

~Lynette~

Halloween Home Decor

My favorite part of this artwork is the two witches visiting at the top!  The witches were actually a border, but it was too busy for my taste after I made the cut.. I decided to cut them apart and let them ‘fly,’ all over the page.  I love how it turned out!

Hello everybody!  I guess I should have named this blog, “The Lucky Quarter,” since I’m lucky if I get a post up during each quarter of the year. :)  I like to keep my seasonal décor simple and cheap, so this year I simply grabbed some orange scrapbook paper and some vinyl and cut out some free shapes I had laying around. 

Details about the shapes (skip if you’d like):

These are all by Miss Kate Cuttables.  I upgraded to the silhouette studio designer edition for my Birthday in June, and have learned about a whole bunch of places I can get free svg files.  That’s one of the biggest perks of the designer studio-is being able to use svgs.  Miss Kate releases a new free shape each day, and she usually does ones for upcoming holidays.  This year I got probably 25+ of just Halloween files—and they are in the silhouette online store but I scored them for free! :)  If I think of all the free shapes I’ve gotten this year, the designer edition has more than paid for itself (I bought it from Miss Kate for around $30, and then got $10 in free shapes from her store for buying it through her! yay)

Just a spooky night.  I have plans to add a haunted house to the picture for next year.  I mixed and matched several sets of images for the artwork.

Thanks for reading, and have a Happy Halloween!!!

~Lynette~

Weekly Silhouette Shape Challenge: Summer Charms

 

Hi everybody! I am just popping in today to show you my latest creation. I made some very simple charms to hang on my shelf for summer. I used the sketch pens to draw the cute summer time things and used the scalloped badges as the backgrounds. I used the offset tool to make two layers of background for added dimension. I did this in about 20-30 minutes---and the hardest part is getting it all arranged to cut (of course)!

And a huge apology for slightly blurry pictures.  I have no idea what my camera was doing today!

Thanks for reading!

~Lynette~

Kitchen and Sewing Room Wall Art

Hi everybody!  I hope you’re enjoying spring weather.  We have had a pleasant week, with rain and cooler temperatures which has been fantastic.  I love it when it rains because I don’t have to water the garden or our baby grass! :)

I participated in Silhouette’s Weekly Shape Challenge.  I had so much fun, I made two projects!  The first I’ll show is a simple banner I made for my craft room.  I needed to craft with something girly, and had bought the dresses during the 50% off shape sale.  I thought the dresses would look so cute strung along on a banner.  I hung it with a piece of lace and mini clothespins. I love the look of the clothespins so much, I used it on both my projects. I got them through a giveaway, but I’ve heard you can find them at Wal-Mart. I hung it on my pegboard and just love how it turned out!

I had seen this project from A Lemon Squeezy Home a week or so ago, and loved how she displayed several quotes at once.  I decided I needed to do a similar project soon.  When I heard about the shape challenge, I knew that I could do this project and add a few banner pieces to make it whimsical and colorful.

I decided I wanted the display to be in a frame, but I didn’t have one big enough at my house.  So I hit a slightly creepy thrifty store, and found one for a dollar.   Isn’t it lovely?  I got some red spray paint and went to town on it.  I only had to do one coat, which was fantastic!

I had my helpful husband install hardware so I could string the baker’s twine across in rows.  I used the half circle banner, cut it out in a few types of paper, and clipped them up.  I made small rounded rectangle cards and used silhouette sketch pens for the quotes.  Now it’s hanging in my kitchen, and it cheers up the room a whole lot!  I think this is probably one of my favorite projects every.  When I get tired of these quotes, I can change things up with the seasons or even do an advent calendar with it.  It was a pretty easy project, and only cost me $5! 

Thanks silhouette for the weekly shape challenge!  I got two projects done I probably wouldn’t have without a little push.
Thanks for reading,
Lynette
p.s. I’m also participating in a challenge with the blog Silhouette Challenges.  Anything goes this month, so enter if you’ve made something with your silhouette! Details HERE.

Hand Made Birthday Card

Good morning!  I just wanted to show a quick and easy card I whipped up for my brother’s Birthday last week.  I made a template for the card in my silhouette software (you could easily just cut it out, but this was easier for me) and then cut out the letters.  I had the decals in my stash that coordinated with the paper, and stuck those babies on.  Easy peasy, and turned out cute too!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend!

~Lynette~

Too easy to be called a tutorial: Framed Quotes!

I love the framed quotes that you find everywhere these days.

I have a few I've bought from the store, but I like finding my own quotes, and framing them myself.

I decided to find a way to frame some of my recent favorite quotes.

Here's what I came up with:

You can do it too!

Here's what you'll need.

A frame (I got mine for $2.50 from Walmart)

A computer and printer

Paper (I've done scrapbook, and I've done plain white- you decide)

Any Embellishments desired

Scotch tape or Glue

The steps are way easy:

First, Type your quotes

Second, Print

Third, Cut out, embellish, and hang up

For those of you who need a walk through of the computer settings, here they are.  If not, it's pretty self explanatory!

First off, open a new Word Document

I set up my paper size to be 4 X 6 in (tab) because that's the size of frames I had.  Set it up to fit your frames.

Then I copied in my quotes.

I like to have key words be in different fonts, so I highlighted the ones I wanted and changed them.  If you want some new fonts for your quotes, I use www.1001freefonts.com

To make the text be centered vertically on the page, go to Page Setup, click on the Layout tab, and then where it says Vertical Alignment, select Center.

 Once you get your fonts looking the way you want it, print.

If you've set the page size differently, each quote that is on a "page," will come out on a separate page.  So, plan your paper accordingly.  

(If anyone can figure out how to get all four to print on one page, holler!  I am mad at Word for this particular reason!)

Cut out your papers, embellish, and mount in frames.

I did the tear and mount on another paper because my paper cutter and brain weren't in sync I really like the look!!! :)

And there you have it, my tutorial that's so easy, it can't be called a tutorial!

Scrap Can

There are tons of ideas out there for modge podging formula cans, but we don't happen to have formula in our home at the moment, but we do drink lots of Tang!  We recently ran out (sad day for yummy drinks) but I was able to make this (happy day for crafting) to throw my sewing/crafting/paper/everything scraps in.  It sits very nicely on my desk!  I used my handy dandy clear Elmer's glue instead of modge podge for some fast acting drying action.  (Oh, and by the way, I've seen this idea somewhere and I'm not sure where!  If you know, holler and I can link it up!)

And yes, the can says, "So Long Scraps!" (I was in a silly mood that day, but it's cute just the same!)

Discovery of Modge Podge

Today, I'm going to share a couple of projects I did with modge podge.  After a few more posts of catching up on old projects I've done, I'll get to share the most recent stuff!  I'm so excited!

~Before~

This is the very first project.  Found the tray at DI, and loved it, but needed it to match my decor.  Some black and red paper cut into squares, and some modge podge, and we have a fabulous place for magazines and mail piles!

~After~

This next project was simply 3 little square pieces of woods with ugly pictures from DI for like 75 cents each, and I modge podged cute paper to them and hung them up!  Way easy, and super fun!

This was another of my first projects, that I really am not fond of anymore, but it's not horrible I guess!  I went to Dollar Tree and found a wreath and some cute flowers, and just went at it.  I didn't use any glue or anything, I just stuck everything into the wreath and it's held up pretty well.  Maybe I should do one for fall! :)

Well there ya go, some of my very first projects!  Stay tuned for the most current stuff, coming as soon as I get caught up on my lovely pile of homework! :)