paper flowers

these days i seem to make crafting a pretty low priority.  i always seem to be busy doing something else, mostly just the everyday ho-hum tasks of life with fun and relaxation splattered in wherever possible.

but one recent afternoon, i found myself playing around with the silhouette studio (software) with no particular agenda.  after a few minutes of fiddling with basic shapes and the welding feature, i created simple flower petal and stamen shapes, and went on to mass produce a bunch of paper flowers in vibrant colors.  

the text weight paper i used from paper source was quite perfect for this purpose.

my machine wigged out a couple times, and didn't always make very clean cuts on my petals and even destroyed some sheets of paper entirely-- possibly because of the dulling blade or the no-longer tacky mat... or both.

that was  a tad frustrating.  luckily i could hide most of the poorly cut edges within the layers.

once all the petals and stamens (did you know that the plural for 'stamen' can also be 'stamina'? strange, no? i thought so.) were cut, i curled the edges up before gluing them together layer by layer with a glue stick.

so simple! all i needed was paper, a glue stick... and a personal cutting machine.  *wink*

i chose to take these to work to decorate my cubicle, and stuck a couple on my monitor, and the rest all over my back wall.

it's no wonder that my colleagues think i'm like, five years old.  it probably doesn't help that i wear clothes with safari animals on them and they overheard me singing the 'yummy yummy' song while i was eating lunch the other day.        

i think these flowers would also be fun in garland form, hanging straight down from the ceiling.  perhaps with some leaves (my original plan with these was to make leaves, but i got lazy).  oh, and as gift toppers.

paper heart garlands

i'm not particularly attached to the romantic connotations attached to valentine's day, but i am fond of the excess of pink + red, hearts, and chocolate.     

i made a couple paper heart garlands this weekend to festive-fy (not a word you say? it is now) my cube at work. the image above doesn't portray the colors that accurately, but you get the idea.  the other strand is in the front part of my cube.  

i cut out a bunch of hearts in various sizes (and some circles) with my silhouette and sewed them together using pink and white thread.  i really love meshing paper crafting and sewing.

i'm starting to notice that my current silhouette mat is already losing it's stickiness, and my blade is getting dull. they really don't last very long!

do you ever decorate your office space?

silhouette cameo made felt coasters (ways to rid yourself of 30 yards of felt #8??)

the most attractive feature of the silhouette cameo is its' ability to cut multiple media types.   if you happen to be a regular reader, it is probably unsurprising to you that i've been most curious to try cutting felt with the machine.  while the company does not claim the ability to do so, they encourage users to experiment.   

and while blogs all over will tell you that the silhouette doesn't do a perfect job, it does do a decent one.  i was able to produce these coasters with only a few annoying complications.  

my coaster design is based on a little sketch i once made years ago, and it was relatively easy to conjure up using the silhouette software.  my love affair with felt coasters began when i discovered verso design years ago.  my last attempt with hand-cut and sewn ones left me wanting, so i was pleased when these came out as i imagined.   

lessons learned:  

1. using the double cut feature is essential. the blade needs to be set at 10, material thickness set at 33 and the speed at 1.  

2. steam-a-seam 2 works, particularly useful in this case when i was planning on fusing multiple layers of felt together anyway (i have 3 layers here-- two solid round ones under the flower pattern).  however, make sure you fuse the felt well to the steam-a-seam 2 before placing it on your cutting mat. i noticed that otherwise it can be really difficult to peel the piece off without destroying it and leaving the sticky residue stuck to the mat.  if you're planning on cutting a lot of felt, you will need a lot of time. and patience.  

i thought i had taken more pictures of the process but apparently i didn't... so pretend this picture is more relevant than it actually is. 

if you aren't familiar, steam-a-seam 2 is a fusible web. it comes in sheets with paper backing on each side.  you remove one side of the paper backing, iron it onto the felt/fabric, and then remove the other side -- and that's the side that goes face down on the cutting mat.   if you're fusing felt, be wary of the low melting point, and always have a piece of cotton fabric between the felt and iron so the felt doesn't wind up stuck all over the metal.  

i didn't properly test cutting with regular interfacing fused onto the felt since it wasn't useful for this project-- but i'll probably test it out in the future.  

3. perfect cuts will be rare if impossible.  i had to do a lot snipping with scissors on my own.  see how the top corner of the flower isn't cut that cleanly?

if you can believe it, i'm actually running low on some of my favorite felt colors (remember this post?). i'm rather tempted to go buy more...

silhouette cameo project 1: thank you cards

i set up my silhouette almost immediately after receiving it.  i was very anxious, as you can imagine, to test it out.  after some preliminary test cuts using the included designs (the machine comes with 50 free), it was enough to tide me over until i was able to hit paper source for some proper paper.  

i was happy to discover the included silhouette design software actually has a lot of nifty features and is pretty easy to use.  i was also pleased to find out that all my computer fonts are usable in the program, and i happily produced my "first" project: thank you cards.

2014.

twenty-two hours into 2014 and we were met with a downpour of bad luck.  flight cancellations, delays, lost baggage, car problems, and bad colds have left me so grumpy most days that it's hard to remember what a pleasant holiday season i had.   

it was nearly two weeks of great times with delicious food, family + friends in texas and in new york.  

and... look what i got for christmas. 

hooray!