Moms play such a huge part in our lives – and once a year we get to publicly acknowledge everything they do for us and how much meaning they bring to our lives. Whether it’s your birth Mom, spiritual Mom or adopted Mom, Moms everywhere need to hear how much we value and appreciate them – so make this day a really special one for your Mom. 

This year I am treating my Mom to a special mug with some vinyl lettering on it. And since white on white is one of her favourite things and I just happen to have white vinyl it all worked out perfectly.

Step 1 - Create a file in the Silhouette design software. I used a pre-designed one I had and love.

Step 2 - Insert the file onto the page. I added one for my card and one for my mug – both using white vinyl. Select the vinyl setting in the cut settings and cut the images.

step 3 - Use transfer tape or masking tape to transfer the images onto the surface you want.

step 1 - Fold your white AC cardstock to form a card base. Use a large stamp and stamp the grass image at the bottom of the folded card at the front using VersaFine Smokey Gray ink.

 step 2 - Clean the stamp and ink the same image this time using Memento Luxe Pistachio. Off-set the stamp slightly from the original stamped image and stamp it again.

step 3 - Clean the stamp and ink using Memento Luxe Angel Pink and stamp the image again slightly off-set from the other two stamped images.

step 4 - Die-cut star jasmine flowers from the Kaisercraft Cottage Rose papers.

step 5 - Use a burnishing tool to curl the flowers and ink the edges. Group the flowers together and fasten with a brad.

step 6 - Adhere the flowers to the card using Tombow adhesive. Transfer the vinyl word “Mother” to the front of your card. To highlight the white word on the white background, add a small amount of grey Memento ink using a paintbrush to the edges of your word to create a shadow effect. Finish off your card with diamanté and ink splats.

With all my crafting goodies, I am able to make this Mother’s day really special without breaking the bank. Try using what you have in your stash to make a special Mother’s day card or gifts for your Mom.

Today I am sharing my double page layout in the last issue of Create magazine. I used a combination of really old and slightly old patterned papers. This is one of my most favourite ever layouts simply because I could use what I had on hand instead of trying to compete with the Jones' and buy all the latest products and fancy embellishments.

How are you doing with your Christmas preparations?
And have you completed your festive layout yet - then simply add your photos from Christmas day and you are good to go.
Until tomorrow.... thanks for stopping by.

The day i made some sketch cards using the Silhouette Curio and fell head over heels in love with this amazing ability. Not only with the pens and the actual possibilities, but the fact that I can create funky and grungy and off-the-wall things that suit my home and work space so well. Yes that day!
So head on over to The Wholesaler's blog and see how the Curio got my vote 10/10 for becoming my best friend in crafting!

To purchase your Curio in South Africa you can head on over to the website and find a store near you - support local and get it through your favorite craft store today! You will love it as much as I do!

I can hardly believe it's October - the months and this year is just racing by! I am so behind blogging for the last part of September due to some technical difficulties but hopefully am back for good and regularly! Thanks for hanging out though - without blog readers and followers there really is no point to blogging! So please know that you are appreciated and loved!

For today I am sharing a few things and you can head on over to the blogs to read the full articles, and remember to leave some love there - thank you!
We are beginning to think about Christmas - gasp - I know - can we just catch up to this year and slow down for a second. But hey its true. so head on over to Lady Pattern Paper blog and see how I Created these cute little folded gift bag/boxes. So simple and yet so effective.
And over on The Wholesaler blog you can read all about my wonderful and sometimes frustrating experience with the NEW Silhouette CURIO machine and work space.
I am truly blessed to have been given this machine by our wonderful distributor The Wholesaler and Silhouette America. This is an amazing machine and if you are consider buying one - this-is-it!
 Well that's it for today! I will be back tomorrow with some more posts - full posts this time!
In the meantime have an amazingly creative day...and don't forget to book for this upcoming amazing event - you don't want to miss out!

Warning! This is not a Silhouette Curio review by an expert but rather like the rest of us who had our hands on the Curio first, a very honest write up about this baby we have all been waiting for so patiently.

Welcome to frustration levels hitting the pitch of our very high thatch roof! Literally. This is me trying to install the Silhouette Curio as I excitedly opened the box to find everything I wasn’t expecting. Yes you heard me (insert gasp) I guess both of excitement and surprise.

First off the Curio is much smaller than what you think. It’s sleek and modern square shape had me fooled too – so no worries there feeling a bit like a dummy. Looks can be deceiving! I love the look though. As you unpack the box there is everything you need to get you started with this new toy serious machine. You will notice that the machine has loads of different matts, a funky platform, the normal ratchet blade as we know it, 2 x different embossing blades fine/wide, power cables and the normal i-guess-i-won’t-need-that-manual-and-CD.

So where do you start. Well fast forward to that real life moment when you decide to just update your current Silhouette software instead of installing it via the CD included in the box. BIG mistake. Not only did it crash my system, but Silhouette Studio has not worked since then. Plan B – fast forward and install the CD on another system where I am only a user and it crashes the system so that I can’t even open the Silhouette Studio. By now I am freaking out as I can envision that all my bought and free designs in my Library are lost. Had I only backed up the library as intended a million times before. Fast-fast forward and my DH computer wiz extraordinaire did back up the library as promised and I still have all my designs! Wheh!

Ok – so now we have a Studio that works and I can finally concentrate on the task at hand. So everything there pretty much looks the same apart from a few extra buttons and functions to go with the newly included features and the main reason you got the machine right – embossing, stippling, debossing and etching.

 The main feature of the Curio is the extra height clearance the machine has. Hence the base plate with all the different matts i.e. the platforms that will allow you to draw, emboss and etch onto thicker material like balsa wood, metal etc. 

The Curio 8.5×6 inch base is included in your box. On either side there are plastic clips that hold the platforms in place. The hard base allows you to keep thicker material and other media from moving and slipping while being in the machine. Having said this, the Curio has a whopping 5mm height adjustment that needs to be filled to reach the bar. So it means that you have several cutting matts that can fill the area – much like a sandwich that has to be built up to reach the top. So the plastic clips are there to group the matts and keep them together while building up the height to reach the top.

The Curio comes with 2 types of platforms – 2 x 2mm platforms and 2 x 1mm platforms that you can clearly tell apart. An embossing matt mounted on a 1mm platform and a cutting matt mounted on a 1mm platform. The platforms are separate so you can remove them and chop and change as you need to.

 From left to right: pause button, reload button, on/off button, USB, power
What I really like about this base is that it has a precision loading system – this means that it will load the base exactly the same way each time. So it means that you can pause a process, remove the base, check the progress, reload the base, un-pause the machine and it will continue where it stopped. Awesome!

The Curio is the first machine with a dual carriage system. This means that instead of just one tool you can load two tools at the same time. So by using the dual carriage you can now smoothly jump from one command to another without pausing the actual job. You simply send the image to the Curio, tell it to draw in two colours OR score and emboss etc. you get the idea.

What I like most about this feature is that it is so easy to tell it what to do inside the Studio Software. You simply chose the tool 1 or tool 2 option and do whatever you want done.

So all in all the Curio is amazing, and although it will take a lot of getting used to this will soon become one of my favourite machines. This is a basic intro to all the differences with the actual machine. The obvious ones at least, next up I will share the Studio workspace for the Curio.

Well what can I say – why would you need the Curio as well as the CAMEO. I personally think and know that the Curio is a game changer. It is made to work hard, made for a specific purpose and it is amazing!

The machine is firm, sturdy and functional. The Curio is the machine that will take your hobby a step further and help you dabble in home décor and decorating. It will change your life and you won’t have enough hours in the day to try everything that comes to mind – it really is a must. You can do everything you have come to expect of Silhouette as a brand and then so much more.

Here’s to many more hours of experimenting and getting creative as soon as I have my hands on all the other extras soon to be launched!

So all in all – yes this machine will be your husband’s machine as much as it will be yours – be warned!

Creating texture and dimension is so easy with the amazing Neon Amplify. The perfect amount of bulk to create loads of interest on cards and other projects - have you tried your hand at it yet? You will simply love it!
Head on over to the imagine crafts blog for a how to on this amazing product and card.

Happy inking!

You guys know how much I love stamps and using them on my projects, and that I have a slight stamp addiction, so having said that, a girl can never have too many stamps and there is always that need for the next project! 

 So I was thrilled to finally try my hand at cutting my won stamps on the Silhouette – and it worked like a dream. The stamps are not bad at all – they will never last a lifetime like the proper manufactured stamps we buy made from red rubber or acrylic but they work beautifully. The only thing that sets them apart is that the stamp material is not that thick, although it is very strong. This is only a problem when you start inking the stamp, but even then, when done the right way is not really an issue at all.

step 1 - You will need some stamp material, your special stamp cutting matt and your Silhouette machine.

 step 2 - Remove the white protective sheet from the cutting matt. You will notice the cutting matt is full of small holes. This is so that the stamp material [rubber sheet] can breathe – when you adhere the stamp material to the cutting matt you need to press it down to remove all the air bubbles from the sheet and the holes in the cutting matt helps with this process. If there is any air bubbles while cutting the stamp material may scrunch up and cause a misformed shape being cut.

 step 4 - Set your cutting blade to the #9 setting for cutting the stamp material.

 step 5 - Change the rollers on the machine so that they will fit onto the stamp cutting matt. Then load the cutting matt into the machine.

 step 6 - Open your Silhouette software. Open the design page settings and select “stamp” mat from the cutting matt box.

 step 7 - Change the paper to fit onto the cutting mat – which is also the size of the full sheet of stamp material 7.5×6”. TIP: I chose to use the entire sheet of stamp material rather then cut it to size to just cut one stamp. I filled the entire sheet with a range of stamps and cut them all at once – the left-overs I will use in another way.

 step 8 - Pick the design you want to cut for your first stamp. I used this gorgeous flower silhouette, but knew that the detail may be too much for the thin stamp material, so I edited it a bit. TIP: remember when cutting stamps, you rather want a bold solid design than a thin detailed image.

 step 9 - Pick your eraser tool from the menu on the left.

 step 10 - Erase the parts that you do not want to cut from the original design. I then copied the image so that I would cut two stamps of the same flower.

 step 11 - I also added some more designs to my stamp material that I wanted to cut.

 step 12 - Send the file to the machine and cut. Remove the cutting matt from the machine and carefully peel off the stamp sheet. You will notice that some areas you need to full at the stamp a bit release the design – be careful but not overly careful. The stamp material is quite strong and will tear with just the right amount of pressure.

 step 13 - Remove the stamp and adhere them to an acrylic block. You are now ready to stamp your images.

 step 14 - Because your stamp material is brand new, you will notice that it seems that the ink does not take to the stamp, this will correct itself by adding ink and stamping for a couple of times before you get perfect image. Using the right type of ink for this is essential.

step 15 - Stamp the image and sprinkle with embossing powder. Heat set until the powder turns shiny with a heat gun.

 I recommend using Versafine ink pads for basic stamping, Versamark for embossing your images and Versamagic for colourful stamped images. I tried all of these inks and they work perfectly on the Silhouette Stamp Material.

 Products Used

Instead after a flop or two I decided to just cut the foil and see what I could create. Obviously the more I cut the more it turned into some funky and gorgeous projects, but a quick and simple one was a layout title – create entirely out of a left-over piece after cutting something for a little framed piece of art I am working on.

Head on over to The Wholesaler blog for a full sxs  

 

So by now we have all gotten to know the LADY and her gorgeous range of Basic Essentials range of patterned paper. Well the thing is it really is a basic essentials range of paper, there’s everything and anything that you could possible need to throw together with any other international brand of paper and embellishments to get amazing results.

I am so pleased with how the colours from the Lady Pattern Paper (LPP) worked with the other paper and elements. It all is a match made in heaven. One of the things that I love about the paper is that you can die-cut it with ease using your Silhouette machine.

Now, I am not a great lover of titles – go figure – they are important. But when I used them they have to be big and cursive and not in your face, but rather blend into its surrounds and not take away attention from the photos.

For this layout I used this nice and cursive cut, but made it stand out a bit more against the background by adding a grey shadow on the outside of the words to highlight them. To create this quick and easy effect, add some grey VersaFine ink to a craft sheet and mist with water. Then pick up some ink with a small paintbrush and paint the thin lines. It’s amazing how a little thing like a shadow make the words pop and seem dimensional, when in fact they are flat and thin. The quality of cuts using the LPP is amazing – clean and fresh. 

Other details on my layout include machine sewing and hand sewing. Because the LPP is thin and smooth, sewing is so easy and effortless. And my layouts are never complete without some sewing for texture and colour. 
I am so excited to explore the possibilities using this amazing paper range. But above all I love the paper, colour and design of this range makes my international paper brands look just as good. Local quality at its best!

Other Products:
AC Cardstock 12×12 Smooth – White
AC Cardstock 12×12 Smooth – Coffee
Little Birdie Jewelled Florettes – French Carnival
AC 663398 Confetti 12×12 Paper Pad (48 Pages)
Tsukineko VersaFine Ink Pad – Smokey Gray
Tsukineko VersaFine Ink Pad – Vintage Sepia
Tombow Mono Multi Glue
Silhouette CAMEO® Electronic Cutting Tool
Sewing machine, diamanté, thread, stapler