Halloween Photo Props

So recently my sister was in charge of a Fall Festival activity in her neighborhood. This activity is apparently a big deal, with pony rides, pumpkin carvings, and of course: candy.    This year they decided to tap into the Photo Booth craze that has been hitting the wedding scene, where guests are provided props to use as they get their picture(s) taken. They are then given a copy of the photo(s) to take home with them, while the host is also usually printed a copy for their memories.  It's great fun. And in this case, a terrrrifyingly fitting and good idea. ;)

How To: Personalized Silhouette Chipboard Puzzle

Well, I guess my last post sort of left you with a slightly unfinished product. :)  The idea was to have that post be for sharing some basic steps of how to use chipboard with your Silhouette, for those who might feel uncomfortable testing out a new product.  Also, it was easier to only do one video per post. :)  But as you can now see, chipboard is easy enough to use.  So, to follow up and finish off the project, watch the video above for the rest of the tutorial on how to make your own personalized puzzle! However, for those of you who know how to use chipboard and who say "Who needs a tutorial?!  Let me get my hands on that stuff!"--to you, I say "have at it!"  :)  I can't wait to see what you make.  Also, we've obviously got some chipboard on our website for a good price.  Have at that, too. ;)

But, if you are looking to polish off your idea, here's mine:

I took a photo of my nieces from when we got free 7Eleven slurpees on one of my visits, and added on the "Families are cool" (get it?) tagline. Yeah, I'm a little cheesy (or cool), but that's alright by me.  Then I gave them the puzzle as a gift.  Family momento and a puzzle, in one?!  Can things get any better than that?  Maybe. :)  But I still like things that preserve family memories, share family love,...and I also really like puzzles. So have at it.  Make a family puzzle.  Take a photo of your kid's favorite toys having a tea party and then turn it into a puzzle.  Scan a photo of a picture they drew and use that.  There are so many fun possibilities. I think I am going to try one more next week.  

Also, I got the free puzzle file from www.birdscards.com.  Thanks, Bird's Cards!  They have a few different options that you can check out here.

And that's all, folks!

Key Reminder:  Be sure to print your photo with the registration marks clicked on to "show."  This is needed so that your Silhouette machine will then know where to cut out your image, and will match it up with your printed image.   Yeah.  That's important stuff. :)  (The registration marks are those two corner markers, and the black square in the top right-hand corner. 

Puzzled at all?  Just watch the video above.  And have fun!

DIY Travel Guess Who, Disney Style

Going on a road trip with kids, but don't just want them watching Frozen on repeat for the ump-teenth time?  Travel games are great, but why pay the price when you can just make your own, and personalize them to your own interests ta-boot?

Well welcome to another DIY game, this time--a travel version of Guess Who.  Thinking about how my post on DIY Homemade Qwirkle Game has been so popular, I thought I'd come up with another DIY game.  

Simple Summer Craft for Kids

Looking for an easy craft project for the kids to keep them busy one of these summer days?  Try this fun paper tissue art. Here's all you need:

Materials Needed:

* Colored or pattered tissue papers

* Die cut shapes (heart, butterfly, etc.) in cardstock

* Glue sticks

For this project, first cut out a few simple shapes on cardstock using your Silhouette or Cricut.  My nieces really love butterflies and flowers, so those were easy choices for me.

Next, using some scissors, cut the tissue paper into small squares, about 1 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches.  You can make them bigger if you want the design to come up...taller. ;), but I found that this size works well.

And now...you hand it over to the children.  :)   Because this craft will include children using glue, having a table cloth down is always a good idea. :)

To make the design, you put a little glue on one side of a piece of tissue paper.  Then put your finger into the middle of the paper square on the opposite side and press the paper down onto the cardstock, glue side down.  Repeat with other squares of tissue paper.

Put your finger in the middle and then put a little 

Press the tissue paper down onto the cardstock using your finger and "fluff" the tissue on top.

The kids can have fun making patterns with the different colored tissue papers on their shapes.  If your kids like art, this can keep them occupied for awhile and not make much of a mess.

Isn't my niece a good little design maker?  This is her butterfly. :)  Hope your kids enjoy it just as much!

Keychains and Luggage Tags/Identifiers

So...travel much?  If you answered yes, you know that most everyone in the world has luggage that basically looks like this: 

Rectangle.  Black. And almost exactly the same.  And, if you are like me and have such nondescript luggage, you likely also resemble me when I'm at baggage claim at the airport, lifting up lots of luggage as it comes around the turn-stile, not quite sure if it is mine.  "Does mine have handle like that or not?" "I don't remeeemmmber a pocket there, but maybe it's just because it's upside down?"  And then I wonder, again, why I didn't tie something to it to help me identify it easier, or why I didn't duct tape a giant "X" across the front and back with neon colored tape.  ;)  Which is why something like the following would be useful:

I made these handy-dandy little things just using my Silhouette as gifts for my nieces to put on their backpacks and one for my roomie who is just about to go on a trip (to Russia!).  The butterfly and cat are my nieces' respective favorite animals, and the "S" was meant to be reminiscent of the OSU emblem for my roommate Sarah who is getting ready to leave her work at OSU and move across the country to start med school.  Way to be, Sarah!  Each was simple to make with just some scrap fabrics, and each would be easy to tie to some luggage, a child's backpack, or to use as a personalized key-chain. 

Obviously, such thing won't help you spot your luggage or bag as easily as, say, buying bright orange and yellow stripped luggage might, but it's an easy (and cheaper) alternative.  ;)  Plus, they're just kind of fun to have. Here's how to make them using your Silhouette:

Materials needed:

*Silhouette Fabric Interfacing (sewable or clean cut both work fine for this)

*Fabric scraps (large enough for the various pieces--the size you desire.  My two smaller ones were each about 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, so obviously only need scraps, especially for the lettering.)

* Ribbon

* Key ring (optional)

Wedding Drink Table: Pucker Up!

Ahhh...weddings.  Everyone knows that with the advent of Pinterest all of our minds are constantly filled with images and ideas of fanciful and delightful decorations and ideas for weddings--everything from how to do our hair (up-do, or down?), apply our make-up, venues, and especially DIY decoration ideas. :)  (Or perhaps this is just me, what with my about one billion friends getting married these days, inundating their Pinterest boards with wedding ideas.)  But I love it.  Rather than miss the boat....;) I thought I'd share a few cute things that we did recently for my former roommate's wedding.  Specifically, I want to showcase one of the fun uses we had for our Silhouette Chipboard.  I know that it is the holidays, but who doesn't get to planning their wedding ideas months early?  So here it is.  Pucker up, love birds!

"Pucker up" swag/banner on lemonade drink stand for a wedding drinks' table

Items needed for banner/swag:
Silhouette Chipboard
Jute or ribbon
Hot glue gun
Silhouette Double-sided adhesive (optional)
Glitter (optional) (we have a variety of colors)

Organizing on a Dime, pt. 2: Storage Compartments

Well, it's about time I do the "part 2" of my organizing on a dime post.  (Click here for a link to my first post.) Here are a bunch of simple ideas for storing crafting supplies (and other things) on "a dime," and keeping them looking cute at the same time.  You can use scraps of items you probably already have on-hand to "cute-ify" them.  So here's a peak at what I've done on my college budget to organize and spruce up my crafting space.

Repurpose Old Food Canisters/Boxes

As a place for storing scissors and glue sticks, I used an old oatmeal canister. First, I Mod Podged some paper to it, and then cut out a border from my Cricut Folk Art Festival cartridge.  I got a wooden knob from the hardware store for $1.25, and super-glued it to the top for an easy-to-remove lid.

Border made using Cricut's Folk Art Festival cartridge

Save old canisters to repurpose--an old oatmeal canister or fancy cheese case

And remember my cheese party post from ages ago?  Someone brought Brie in a fancy case, so.... :) Perfect case for push and safety pins! 

Next, why throw away all your cereal boxes when you can use them as a perfect storage unit with just a little effort?  

Fun with Silhouette Interfacing, pt. 3: Tote Bags

For parts one and two of this 3-part idea series, see:
Part 1-- Dish Towels, and
Part 2-- Monogrammed Throw Pillows.
You can also check out a post on my floral lamp shade decoration project.
Again, we have two types of Silhouette Interfacing, fabric blades, stencil vinyl, and fabric paint on our website. 

So, this is my last post for a little while on ideas for using Silhouette Fabric Interfacing, although, I'd love to hear some of what you've made with it.  Also, just to see your versions of any of these projects!  Post a comment or send a picture! We'd love to see your stuff.

For this project, my aim was to make a personalized bag for a birthday gift.  I made my friend promise not to read this post, or look on our Facebook or Pinterest pages until after her birthday.  I'm so cruel.... but not really.  :)

Labeled Herb Pots with Chalkboard Vinyl

Last year my roommate grew her herbs on our windowsill in empty Ben & Jerry's ice cream cartons. This year (those having disintegrated), I opted for this instead:

This is super easy, and cheaper than buying a pint of Ben & Jerry's (though, perhaps, not as tasty). Plus, you can reuse the pot as many times as you like and just erase the label since it's written on...bu bu buuuum-- chalkboard vinyl. Using a chalk-marker makes it stay on, even when you over-water the plant and the water comes dripping down on top of it (trust me, I've already done it plenty of times), but can be erased easily with water and a cloth.  Labeling it in this way means that you can reuse the pot as many times as you want to switch "crops."  Plus, it just looks darn cute.

To make this, you only need a few items:

Small pot (about $1)

Craft Paint

Sponge brush

Small piece of chalkboard vinyl, and chalk marker (or real chalk)

Magnet Paper, Who Knew?

If you're like me (and just about every other girl, and frankly, guy that I know) then you are a fan of Disney's movie Tangled.  Almost every time I whip out a frying pan I think "Frying pans, who knew?"  So when I wanted to finally try out Silhouette's Printable Magnet paper, I thought, "why not?" and made a few Tangled magnets for my nieces to play with.  To be honest, what I really wanted to make was a new magnet for our dishwasher, so as to replace what we were (shamefully) currently using:

Ahem.  Yeah, embarrassing.  But I digress.  There was sadly a lack of many options for already created images in the Silhouette online store or just on the web, for that matter, so I made my own.  Rather than waste the rest of this lovely sheet of magnet paper, I came up with some other things I might want to make with it.  Enter-- college sports' team mascot and the Tangled characters.  

What a great way to use excess paper, or to use this paper in general!  Make your own fun magnets of your favorite team to give out at a "game-day" party or of your student's school to show support, create some with your business logo and contact info, make your own magnet of places that you've visited to get one looking just the way you want, "paper" dolls and clothes, or just make some of your favorite characters for the kids to play with on their magnet board.  Capturing images from online and then making them something you can cut on your silhouette is actually pretty easy using the trace and detach feature in the trace window in your Silhouette Studio.  After selecting your area to be traced uncheck the "High Pass Filter" and then play around with your threshold to get it so it has the image covered where you don't want it to cut.  For these images, I set my threshold at about 98% each time because I didn't want any of the inside portions cut.  Check out the following Tutorial on how to do this in more detail.  Note:  I didn't follow all that the author of this tutorial suggests doing, but the video was still helpful in getting showing me the basics of how to get it to cut my image.  

Once I had detached my image, I cut and pasted it onto a new page just so I didn't have to deal with all the white space stuff left behind.  Then I went to the "cut" window, and clicked "cut edge."  The great thing about looking at your design with the cut window open, is that it shows you exactly where your cuts are going to go.  Be sure that you look over your design to make sure nothing is being cut that you don't want to.  This is how you make your own print and cut designs.  I didn't want anything inside my dishwasher magnet to be cut out beyond the main outer edge, so I just selected each of the inside images and changed them to "No Cut".  

Be sure that you have your registration marks showing,  and that you check what part of your images are going to be cut.  Select "No Cut" for any image you dont' want cut.

 After that, I sent my page to the printer and set it to "photo paper" so that my printer would compensate for the slightly glossy feel of the printable side of the magnet paper.  Because I had everything just fine and dandy and within the lines of my registration marks, the Silhouette cut the paper PERFECTLY and out came some fun new magnets.  My niece will love these.

Magnet paper....who knew?