Hallway Signs - Home decorating fun!

This project was really fun.  I saw the idea on pinterest and tweaked it a little.

Both of the following were purchased at Hobby Lobby 

Iron works - $6 each  (50% off sale - normally $12)

Wood Plaques - $2 each

I tried other shapes of wood plaques but this one just seemed to look the best with the scroll work.  Use whatever suits your fancy.

So I painted the boards just like she said - almond for the base coat and a dark brown for the outside edge. It's just spray paint so it went on quickly. Give it time to dry - like at least 24 hours. You don't want to peal the paint off when removing the vinyl.

Then I created custom designs using Adobe Illustrator and then put the SVG file onto my Silhouette Cameo.  And yes, my parrots have their own room.  When building our 6 bedroom home I was diagnosed with cancer, so 2 children are it for us.  Now we have birds, very well trained birds!

Instead of putting the vinyl onto the spray paint, I wanted a little more of a rustic look. I did the opposite of what APlaceForUsBlog did.  I pulled the letters out and discarded them.  I put the transfer plastic on - I prefer using the plastic over the sticker paper from Silhouette because I wanted to see through to the board.  It just adds a bit more control. 

 Carefully peal the plastic away.  

And you can see that everything looks just perfect and ready for more paint. 

Out to the garage I went and used some left over spray paint.   

After they dried I added a little brass hook to the top and they slide right onto the iron work.

I really have to thank APlaceForUsBlog because this was the most fun I've had while decorating my home. I love it.  My son is upset that there is not one for his room - his sister has one and he doesn't - so I purchased more iron works and more wood plaques and I will making 4 more.  

Creating Custom birthday cupcake toppers in the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition

This year we combined the birthday party.  It was at a trampoline park.  It was wonderful and enough room for everyone to be in their own space.  The boys spent a lot of time playing dodge ball and basketball while the girls were busy doing all sorts of gymnastics.

The one theme they could agree on was a Parrot theme.  I know it's a stretch but just imagine the bird jumping. Our parrots hop sometimes.  Anyway... I told you it was a stretch.

I drew the parrots in Adobe Illustrator with some inspiration from the web. They are supposed to be a cartoon version of Kiwi and Mambo.  Close enough, right?

I then opened them in the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software - which I use because I wanted to create my own .svg images and use the print and cut feature.  I then printed them on the sticker paper using my HP printer.

 Next they needed to be cut. After running them through my Silhouette Cameo,  I pealed the birds off the paper.

And I stuck them to some lillipop sticks by Wilton that I picked up at Michael's craft store the other day.

And I added them to the cupcakes that I baked and decorated myself.  Simple and much less expensive than the local bakery and I'm blessed to have the time at home to do all this.

Silhouette Cameo Valentine Pillow Boxes

Happy Heart Day!

These turned out super cute.  I downloaded the pillow box shape with the $10 gift card that came with my Silhouette Cameo. I cut them from the cutest polka dot embossed scrapbook paper.  

Then I created the shape and added the text all in the Silhouette Designer Software. In that software I was able to send it to the printer and then put it on the cutting mat and it cut all of the shapes out in the Silhouette Cameo.

Uhm seriously so cute! My daughter tied them to the little purse handle with fine crochet thread.

We cut the pieces ahead of time and then my daughter easily tied them all together.

All 34 right here!

Valentine 's for boys

My son is bringing Valentine's to school to share with his classmates tomorrow.  He wanted a race car box.  So I made a race car graphic and cut that and his name out of vinyl using my handy dandy little Silhouette Cameo.  Love that thing. 

My son painted the box, can you tell? I love it. It will remind me of a little boy who spent the afternoon having fun with paint while putting off homework as long as possible.  His smile made it all worth it.  And yes, he got all of his homework done.

Here are the pillow box dinosaur Valentines.

We just cut the dinosaurs out of scrapbook paper from the Babysaurus line from Little Yellow Bicycle.

We made the labels and cut them out using the Silhouette Cameo.  I love the print and cut feature.

You can see these are actually quite big.  Next year I will cut them down by 30% - between his and hers we used a lot of candy.

Fun project with vinyl

Click on the images to see them larger

I have a lot of blank space on my walls.  I don't put stuff on my walls just because it's empty.  

We also moved into this house just a few weeks after I finished cancer treatment which included 6 months of chemo and 5 weeks of radiation.  So I have been slowly working on my house because I've really been working on the garden - it took us an entire summer to put the sprinkler system into the 1/2 acre yard and up to the garden.  Then I've mostly spent the summer planting flowerbeds and the veggie garden. Last summer we added 4 trees for a total of 6.  Still need way more.  I mostly just work on the inside when it's winter.  I painted a mural downstairs in the closet under the stairs which took one winter.  And a few months ago I painted the branch on the wall and the leaves and birds.  

I was waiting for my Silhouette to cut some vinyl to really give the hall the look I wanted. 

Yesterday before school I photographed my daughter inside with backlight from the window so I could create a silhouette. 

Then I turned the photo black and white.  Next I upped the shadows and the highlights creating the contrasty look you see below.  I used a white paintbrush to get rid of all the extra stuff I didn't need. I used the black paintbrush to fill in the hair. I didn't want the Silhouette to have to cut too much detail.

Then I turned it into an SVG file in Adobe Illustrator. In fact while in Adobe Illustrator I used the Live Trace. Then Expanded it and used the Pen tool to remove a few of the anchor points to smooth things out. I have the Designer Edition of the Silhouette software so I can open SVG files that I create in Adobe Illustrator.

Here you can see I pulled it into the software.  If you right click on the image you can change the file into a path and then a compound path.  I knew my blue vinyl was 9" wide so I didn't enlarge it any bigger than the brown frame I cut from 12" vinyl. 

I painted the branch, birds, and leaves a while ago but had to repaint the branch to match the dark brown frame color.

Then I traced the birds and cut them from the 9" vinyl.  And I realized my red leaves were not the right red - I want it to match the red in the quote I'll be adding along the bottom. So I traced all of the leaves using left over tissue paper from Christmas packages.  I scanned them in and did the same thing as above. I love the red vinyl for the leaves.  It's beautiful! 

This is my favorite photo because you can see the large wood baseboards near the floor and how it wraps around the corner.  And yes, my son's room is painted navy blue but the wood work that is 3 feet tall is a light tan color.

My entry ceiling is 12 feet tall and my hallway and bedroom ceilings are 9 feet tall.

As you can see it's been a busy 3 days and I have the Quote to add to the lower part of the wall still.  Time for me to go find that measuring tape.

Silhouette Cameo at it again

Remember this?  

Well I made this bag using the designer software.  Of course, you can see that the doll came with a bag that I used for inspiration.  They are not quite the same but close enough that her dresses fit in it.  My daughter is loving all the new bags.  I haven't bought cardstock in years because I am a digital scrapbooker but now I am really loving paper crafts since I got the silhouette cameo. Now I just need to get some glue so that they sides of the bag look all snug and pretty.

Extreme Paper Crafting

This tool is amazing! Maybe you have the old Silhouette.  This is the new Silhouette Cameo.  Uhm, can I just say WOW! It is 12 inches wide. The old one was 8.5 inches wide.  And my husband not only rocks for buying this for me for Christmas but also letting me get lots of extras such as the ultra cool Designer Edition Software.  Why is that so cool?

It's cool because I also have Adobe Photoshop Illustrator.  I can make my very own designs (Illustrator is what gives my designs those smooth edges that don't have any pixels).  Well, making my own designs is cool enough for me but the EXTRA cool thing is that I can turn them into and SVG file and send it to that Designer Software.  Then I can trace it with the click of a button, print it, and then feed it into the cameo and it cuts MY DESIGN out perfectly and quickly. Print and Cut is sooooo cool.

It will also cut out fabric as long as you use the iron-on interfacing.  It even cuts vinyl.  

No, I'm not going into business.  As many of you know, we just shut down Vanderbeek Images after years of photographing weddings and families.  What I am doing are all those projects around the house that I've been wanting to get done.  In fact, I better go because I have a 2010 and 2011 family scrapbook to complete this year, hallway quote to cut and put on the wall, silhouettes of my children to cut from vinyl, magnetic paper dolls to make, and lots of other cool projects.  

Silhouette Cameo - you are Perfect!