Sep 24, 2014 | Die Cut, Embellishments, Project life, Silhouette
You may or may not have heard the term “binge cutting” but I’m sure many of you have done it. I heard it for the first time this week in a Facebook group and I thought it was brilliant! There are so many times in my crafty life that I’ve binged on crafting and today it was die cutting! I started by spending probably two hours cleaning up and organizing all of the die cut files that I collected back in my Cricut days. With the help of my overzealous organizational skills, I got them all nice and neatly organized so I know exactly what I have. There are no more duplicates, old/outdated files that I won’t use or renegades laying around. My workspace may look like a disaster when I’m in the middle of a project but after I’m done I like all neat and organized which is easy enough when you’re working in a small space and you don’t have a bunch of stuff.
After I got organized I wanted to cut out some cameras I needed for a PL card swap I’m participating in. Being that photography has been one of my longest standing hobbies, I collect everything and anything with cameras! (even vintage cameras) I had 5 different cameras that I was considering so I put those on a page. Being the thrifty crafter I am, I didn’t want to waste paper so I filled up the rest of the page with some fun Halloween die cuts, some date markers for journaling, two bookmarks in honor of my junior year at ASU and two special little word tags that are TOTALLY AMAZEBALLS!!
These are just a few of the pieces that I cut. Some of them I stamped and some I doodled or hand wrote sentiments. I can’t wait to start using my Silhouette to make more Project Life cards!
Sep 22, 2014 | Die Cut, Embellishments, Silhouette
Die CutI used to be a Cricut user but hadn’t used either of my machines for a very long time. It was just too cumbersome for me to put down four different scraps of paper to get one embellishment cut. I’d been eyeing the Silhouette Cameo for a while now. Being a graphic designer I like the fact that I could create my own cut files. I also liked the fact that I didn’t have to pay a monthly fee for the designer edition of the software to cut said files. Just a one time purchase and I’m good to go. So this past Friday when I took my roommate to Michael’s and saw that the Cameo was on sale for $229 I almost died! I’d been surfing many websites looking for deals and this one beats any online deal hands down. I had the added bonus of instant gratification because the store had one left so I snagged it. I also had the good fortune of having a 50% off coupon last week so I purchased the stamping starter kit for only $15!
I was so excited when I got home, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I quickly unwrapped my beautiful new toy, got it up and operational and quickly set out to learn how to use it. I loaded some basic black cardstock and my first cut was creating the word smile in about 10 different fonts. I needed this for a Project Life card swap that I’m participating in and wanted to test the waters. The cuts were beautiful and everything worked perfectly. I even added some music notes to use on a future page for my nephew’s band photos.
For my second cut, I wanted to test out the print and cut feature. This one didn’t quite go as smoothly. I watched several videos tutorials but each one seemed to do things just a little bit differently. The first attempt the cut lines were over an inch off the mark. The second attempt was better but still off. After a little tweaking to my process, my cut lines were almost perfect. There was definitely a little bit of a learning curve to using the print and cut feature but it’s going to be SO worth it! I can already see how this machine is a game changer for the way I scrapbook.
I have a lot to learn and more tutorials to watch but I’m going to have so much fun doing it. Tomorrow I’m going to try creating my own cut file and cutting a rubber stamp. I’m also going to create my own digital scrapbook embellishment and cut file to print and cut. I’ll post some pics after I’m done to show you the results.
