When Your Project Doesn’t Have Instructions…

Last night I excitedly pulled out one of the new Silhouette files I purchased this week. It was SO cute! But then, I was a little confused and couldn’t find any instructions, a website, different pictures of it that might show me that one little piece of info I was missing. I even asked on one of the Silhouette pages I’m on on Facebook and they weren’t sure either. Finally, I figured it out – in my defense I was crafting on little sleep – and because we couldn’t find any help online, I thought I’d take some pictures and do a quick tutorial in case someone else has the same question I did.

First, here’s the file I was using and a picture from the Silhouette Store of the project. What I needed to see was the side, which obviously isn’t shown here.

Let me show you what I wasn’t sure about.

I knew what I was supposed to do with the center slot. What I couldn’t figure out was why the other notches were there and what I was supposed to do with them. Here’s what I finally figured out 🙂

Two of the ball gown pieces slide into the slot and are folded and glued down – one on each side. Those notches line up with the dress design. See 🙂

After I realized that, the rest was gravy 🙂 The design cuts six of the skirt pieces. I ended up using eight. You crease them in the center where the score lines are cut, then glue them together to form the bottom of the gown. I put them together in threes, three for the front, three for the back as pictured below.

Next, I added the front of the skirt, then the back. This will fold down flat, so I took advantage of that and folded it flat to make sure I had the designs lined up before giving it some good pressure to make sure my glue had a good chance to adhere to everything.

Once everything is in place and where you want it, you can stand your project up and celebrate 🙂 This really was a quick and easy project once I figured out that one little issue. That being said, there might be other ways to assemble this piece, and that’s okay. Papercrafting is so flexible it allows for various ways of getting to the same outcome, so find what works for you and go with it.

Here’s the finished project. Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

***Non-paper things used:embossing folder for dress, copics, colored pencils, and white gel pen

Fairytale Forest Card

Recently I had to describe my craft “style”. I hadn’t really thought about it before so I thought about it. Then I asked my friends what they thought. The common consensus was that I had an eclectic style – this is not helpful when applying for a design team position, by the way 😉 The other thing I realized about my style is that I like fantasy, but maybe not whimsical fantasy. I like realistic fantasy which seems to be an oxymoron, but I promise, it’s legit 😉

I just finished a card that is probably a little more whimsical than I usually do, but I like how it turned out.

Because I do a lot of cards using different programs, I thought I’d share the process with you.

1. I use Craft Artist 2 for a lot of designing, this card was no different. At http://www.daisytrail.com, there are thousands of digital art kits. I used Fairytale Forest. After getting my card set up how I wanted it, I switched it to black and white then lightened the lines. This is what it looked like when I was finished. Once I’m happy with it, I exported it as a jpg on to my desktop.
2. After it’s on my desktop, I can drag it straight from there into my Silhouette workspace. Even though the image *should* still be 5 x 7 because that’s the way I made it, I’ve found I have to tweak things a little to have the original dimensions. For good measure I also trace the outside of the image to make sure I have a solid exterior line. Once that’s done, I place it on the work space like you see here. I leave a lot of white space to the right of the image so I can test out different color combinations. It’s a simple print from here. The diamond shaped patterns you see, as well as the darker lines are my registrations lines. This is what enables my cameo to cut the image out after it’s printed.
3. Here’s the image part way done. The reason I lightened the black and white lines in CA2 was to try out the Copic multiliners. Once the piece was printed, I used the pens to put in the outlines of each part of the image. As you can see, the foreground and midground are colored here. Off to the side, you can see where I played with color combinations. I found one I really liked so I left myself notes/numbers so I could use it again some day 🙂
4. 4. Here it is, ready to be cut out. I may have tried a few more color combinations 😉
5. This is the finished card. I inked a few different colors around the outside to help define the edges of the card. I also used this thing called a Perlen-pen by Viva (I found it at JoAnn’s) for the lights in the tree and the center of each flower to give the card a little texture.Thanks for stopping by 🙂  xoxo

A Thank You from a Mouse

Working on a few thank you cards for a friend 🙂

These were nice and simple and both items can be found in the Silhouette Store ( Thank You and Mouse).

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

xoxo

 

 

Because Mermaid

I needed to work on something that wasn’t sympathy card related. I pulled out my mermaid stamps and played. Now I have a card for sometime in the future 🙂

Used copics and prismacolor pencils to color the image then inked in the white space.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

XOXO

Struggling with Another Sympathy Card part 2

This is the follow up from my last post. Usually, sympathy cards aren’t that hard for me, unless they’re for family. Then I stress and hope it’s good enough. I did have a card, but it didn’t feel right. So I went back for another try. I’m much happier with this card, and it’s nothing like the first one. I have ideas to make the first one better, but it still wasn’t the right card. Maybe it will be the right card for someone else, though 🙂

I hope my aunt and her family feel peace at this time.

Thank you for stopping by.

Hug your families tight and remember, everyday with them is a blessing.

Struggling With Another Sympathy Card

I’ve made plenty of sympathy cards. While they aren’t the most fun cards to make, I’m grateful I can do something, no matter how small, that may bring comfort to someone. The comfort may not come right away, because nothing can replace the lost one loved, the crater of loss is just too big. But maybe when they’re no longer numb, they can look through the cards that people have given them and find comfort knowing they’re not forgotten.

In January, one of my cousins was shot and killed. I struggled trying to make the perfect sympathy card. I received wise words from a few of my online friends that helped settle my nerves about this card being perfect. This allowed me to create from my heart. I later heard from my mom, that her sister (my aunt) loved the card, that it was what she needed and it brought comfort. That is one of the reasons I create, to let people know someone is thinking about them.

Yesterday, my uncle (other side of the family) passed away. I find myself in the same position as before. I want this card to be perfect. It won’t be. The only perfect card for this situation is one that can bring their loved one back, and as magical as cards can be, they just can’t do this.

So far, I’ve tried two card ideas. They don’t feel right. So tonight, I’ll keep working on it. My uncle was an amazing man and I want to honor him.

It may take me a few days to get something that’s just right, but he’s worth it.

When Paper is Useful

Useful is great. Useful AND pretty is awesome 😉

I’ve been using this craft storage bin by Art Bin to hold my markers. I added the marker holder inserts to help keep things organized. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really happy with it. There was too much wasted space and the holder kept coming out. I’ve had to resort my markers way too many times.

So then I went with the “whatever” system of sorting my markers which was really no sorting at all, which was great, until I needed to find certain colors.

This led me to adding in the dividers the box came with and dividing markers by color, but just letting the markers hang out. This created a lot more usable space, but still, I wasn’t as happy with it as I wanted to be.

Finally, I used my Silhouette Cameo and made these boxes, you can buy the file here if you’re interested. The boxes work so well, because they were designed just for this reason 🙂  I used cardstock with double -sided designs so they looked pretty inside and out 🙂

Each compartment holds 6 markers. Each box has 2 compartments. I’ve grouped my markers by color and now, I can reach in and pull out the box of colors I need at that moment to color. When I’m done, the box goes back in and I move on. So far, I REALLY like this set up. It’s organized, user friendly, and has created so much more usable space. The $0.99 I spent on the file was totally worth it 🙂

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

XOXO