Pinterest Projects #3,4,5,&6 or Krafting with Kristen

I don't feel like following NaBloMoPo's writing prompt today ( Who is your favourite person in your extended family? ) -- I don't want to choose who is my favourite anything. I guess, I would choose Mark and Mason. Instead, I decided to share what I've been busy doing.

There is an amazing local blogger that I adore: http://www.houseofhepworths.com/ I started following her long before I knew she lived in Austin. She shared some amazing projects that she made using her Silhouette machine. I did some research. Some of my friends have Cricut machines, but after checking out some websites, I decided I wanted a Silhouette instead. They are about the same price, but you can do so much more with the Silhouette for a lot less money (I pay $15/month for 50 downloaded images and anything after is $.50). Mark bought me the Silhouette for Christmas and I've been putting it to good use since!!!

I've made some cards, a canvas picture, and a few other things. However, this last week, I've been cutting up a storm!

The Silhouette is so easy to use. You just connect the machine to your computer, select the image or font you want cut, place the material you want cut on the cutting board (it can cut fabric, cardstock, paper, vellum, vinyl -- plus more), and let the machine do the work. After it cuts, you do what they call "weeding," using tools to pull the negative away from the image and then you finally pull the image off the cutting board. You can use either the positive or negative of the image. I haven't played around with negatives yet.

A picture of my laptop screen with the Silhouette studio.

Beginning to "weed" out the image with a Silhouette tool.

Using a Silhouette spatula to "lift" off the negative image.

I made these two Valentine's Day prints this week. The cupid is on an 11x14 canvas that I painted red and used black vinyl. The Valentine's Day Subway art is on an 8x10 canvas that I painted hot pink and used the same black vinyl. This one, I had to mess around with -- there are actually more words on it, but it didn't fit right on the canvas. Not bad for maybe $5.00 each in supplies, huh?

This next project I've been wanting to do forever, since I pinned THIS on Pinterest. I just didn't want a simple bee. Because that would have easy. No, instead, I downloaded a complex bee image from the Silhouette store. I wanted to make sure I liked it, so I cut it on on white cardstock first. I usually do that, to make sure I have the size right for the project without wasting vinyl. I'm glad I did, because the bee was awful. It had tons of little single lines that were very difficult to "weed" out that I knew wouldn't transfer well on canvas. Luckily, the Silhouette Studio software allows you to play around with images. I was able to cut and pick and select exactly what lines I wanted to keep. I tried to make as much of the image one piece. The wings were full of of small lines that I was afraid would be hard to see on the canvas. This whole process took a novice like me about an hour to finally get the image to what I wanted. Then, I painted an 8x10 with a beige acrylic I liked for the background. Then, I cut out the bee in a white vinyl (big mistake -- should have used a different color) and cut out "Happy" using a font I like. In hind sight, I wish I would have used a different font. Then, I used transfer tape to "grab" the vinyl, then stuck it on the canvas. Once it was placed,I painted over the vinyl in the same beige paint I used. After that dried, I painted the whole canvas in white a few times. Once THAT dried, I used a Silhouette tool to peel off the vinyl so that the beige paint would show. This is why the white vinyl was bad -- if I had used black, it would have been easier to see the image to pull off.

Anyway, here is the finished project! I LOVE it and plan on hanging it in our hallway once I spray paint it with a top coat.

The next two projects I did were also from Pinterest. Together, they cost less than $3 to make, not including the frames because I already had those. Not bad for a decent accent for Valentine's Day, if I do say so myself.

The first project, I used the Silhouette to cut out a heart image. I got inspiration from this pin and this one. You wouldn't need the Silhouette to do that. However, I can never draw the perfect heart, so I used the Silhouette. I could have just as easily print out a heart using some clip-art. Oh well. Then, I traced the heart on some cute scrapbook paper I bought (for $0.29), making sure I used a light pencil. Then, I got out my glue gun and glued a bunch of buttons onto the heart (I bought the buttons for $1 for 100. I ended using all but 4). I cut the scrapbook paper down to fit in my frame. I LOVE this and it only took about 30 minutes (I was anal about the outline of the heart at the start). So -- one project down for $1.29. And? I LOVE it!!

Second, I made a Heart Specimen piece, like I found from here. The stickers cost $1.00 and I still have a ton of Xs, Os, and Cupids to use. I didn't end up matting this. I liked it just the way it was. I plan on doing the same for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, well... any holiday I can find cute 3d stickers for! You can't really see it well, but these are glittery foam heart stickers. Glitter is the best!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately. I am getting a lot of use out of my Christmas present, that's for sure!!!

I just linked up to House of Hepworths' Link Party! <3