Swing Kids 12 x 12 Layout Done with the Silhouette Cameo

 

Swing Kids

When my kids were little, we spent our summers in Central PA at the house that had belonged to my grandparents.  It is a 100+ year old farmhouse in a Borough of about 600, so small we used to joke about a population spike when we were in town.  It was quite a change from our suburban life in South Florida and I have many fond memories of those days.  My kids loved being up there, we had a huge yard with 20+ acres beyond that.  We raised chickens, planted a garden and enjoyed the slower pace of life in the country.  One of their favorite things as toddlers was the Little Tykes swing that hung from the large apple tree in our backyard.  I have pictures of both my son and my daughter, born 6 years apart, in the swing being pushed by their daddy on their 2nd birthdays.  In reality, I was the one who spent hours upon hours pushing them in that swing, but of course, I have no pictures of that!  Anyway, I have wanted to scrapbook these pictures for a long time and when I got my Cameo, I decided it was time to tackle this layout.  I created the cut file for the swing in Silhouette Studio, link to download for personal below.  I used grass – tree border by Alaa’ K for the tree, grass by Silhouette, the clouds from hot air balloon by Lori Whitlock, all from the Silhouette Online Store, and Comic Sans for the title.  You can’t tell in the photo, but the swings and the clouds are mounted on Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals.  I am sorry for the pitiful photo, my scanner is not speaking to my laptop, some sort of tiff between the two!

Cut file on this post, Baby Swing.

 

 

Summer is Coming to an End, Time for Some Fun!

 

ThePaperCabana.com

Well, we weathered Tropical Storm Isaac with no damage, just lots of rain.  Poor Stella, she really hates thunderstorms and we have had day after day of storms!  We have a busy week ahead getting my daughter ready to head back to school, she and my husband are flying up on Sunday.  I am sad to see her go, but she is ready to get back to her life in Boston.  I haven’t had much time for crafting the past few weeks, but that will change once my daughter is back at school.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have started a new weekly challenge blog and our first challenge starts in one week!  The guest designers are all in place and geared up for the September challenges.  And what a talented group of designers they are, please visit The Paper Cabana to read all about them, I am so excited to see their  fabulous new projects!  So I will be back soon with some fun things, promise!

The Paper Cabana, A New Challenge Blog!

The Paper Cabana

Now that my daughter is heading back to school, I decided I needed something to do with myself!  Last year, I wasn’t really an empty nester because I was so busy taking care of my dad, who passed away the end of January.  But this year, my nest will truly be empty, just me, Stella and Lucy at home for 12 hours each day.  If you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you know how much I love a good challenge and my new Silhouette Cameo has reignited my love for electronic cutters.  So I have decided to combine these two loves and start a weekly challenge blog for electronic cutters!  The first challenge will begin on Wednesday, September 5th at 9:00am.  You can do a card, a layout or any other project, as long as it has at least one SVG cut.  The prize for the first challenge is a $10 Download Card for the Silhouette Online Store!  I am also looking for a few guest designers for the first challenge, if anyone is interested, please email me at thepapercabana@gmail.com.

For more details, please visit The Paper Cabana

Torn Paper Challenge

 

Lynn is up this week with a challenge for the Card-a-Day Blog Group, Torn Paper.  First, I have to tell you how much I LOVE this group!  They are such a talented group of women and so encouraging and supportive, I feel so fortunate to be a part of this group!  And now for my challenge card:

Torn Paper Beach

I used Very Vanilla cardstock for the sand.  I tore the strips, sponged with Creamy Caramel and layered on the aqua card base.  I added the AMuse Clouds cardstock (thanks Kay!) for the sky.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the beach umbrella from Summer Set by Jamie Koay in Basic Black and Stampin’ Up! Polka Dot Parade Real Red Designer Series Paper.

Materials List 

Stampin’ Up! Very Vanilla and Basic Black Cardstock

Unknown Aqua Card Base

Stampin’ Up! Polka Dot Parade Real Red Designer Series Paper

AMuse Clouds Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Creamy Caramel and Basic Black Ink

Summer Set Cut File by Jamie Koay

Studio G Glitter Glue

Stampin’ Up! Small Oval Punch

Stampin’ Up! Pendant Park

 

 

More Swap Cards!

Here are a few more of the cards I received in my Demo Group Swap!

From Kim Medlock:

25th by Kim Medlock

I love all the texture on this sparkly Christmas Card!

 

Dare to Dream by Kim Medlock

Love the color combo on this one!

 

And from Gina Mustain:

Peace by Gina Mustain

I love the silver with the black!

 

Flowers by Gina Mustain

I love the colors on this card and the embossing really takes it up a notch!

 

Office Inspiration Challenge

Our Card-a-Day Blog Group has a weekly challenge and this week Andrea challenged us to make an office inspired card.  I chose to incorporate a file folder in my card.  I used a label punch for the tab, inspired by some pretty file folders I saw recently.  The file folder pulls up and holds a gift card.

File Folder Card

File Folder Gift Card Holder

The card is easy to make:

2 pieces of 4 x 10 card stock

1 piece of 4 x 5, trimmed slightly

Punch Shapes for the Tab and Sentiment

Designer Papers

Score both pieces of 4 x 10 card stock at 5 inches and trim from scoreline to opposite corner to create a triangle.  Layer the two pieces of cardstock and adhere securely.  Cover triangle sections with patterned papers.  Apply adhesive to the bottom edge of the rectangle and adhere one triangle section.  Apply adhesive to remaining triangle section and adhere.  Trim the 4 x 5 piece of cardstock so that it fits and slides in and out easily.  Fold punched shape in half and adhere to the back, then cover with patterned paper .  You can also adhere to the front and back with the cardstock sandwiched between.  Now just add your sentiment!

Materials List

Stampin’ Up! Night of Navy Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Brocade Blue Cardstock

DCWV Winter Stack Papers

Stampin’ Up! Oval All Stamp Set

Stampin’ Up! Large Oval Punch

Stampin’ Up! Decorative Label Punch

Cameron’s Backpack Shaped Card

If you have read my About page, you know that I have a very special great-nephew Cameron.  Today is his first day of school, so I wanted to make a card to celebrate the start of a brand new school year!  A week or so ago, his mom posted a picture of his new backpack:

Cam’s Backpack Inspiration

I thought it was so cute that I wanted to make a scrapbook page element for Cam’s scrapbook and I figured I might as well make it a shape card since I have to mail it anyway.  When I looked at today’s Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoaststampers, Inspired by a Word – School, I saw that my idea fit the challenge perfectly, lucky me!  It also works for this week’s Paper Players Challenge, CAS Paper Piecing, as well as Stampin’ with the Dragon’s Anything but a Square or Rectangle Challenge.

Cameron’s Backpack Shape Card

For my shaped card, I used the backpack by Sarah Bailey  from the Silhouette Online Store, modified to fit my needs.  I flipped the image so that the flatter side was on the left where I wanted my fold.  I considered having the fold at the top, but the shape of the bottom would not let the card stand up.  I also skipped the buckle and pockets so it would look more like the real backpack.  For the dinosaur, I chose dino t-rex by Jennifer Wambach, also from the Silhouette Online Store.  I added the dots by welding circles to the top layer and subtracting them so the red base layer showed through.  The zipper is by Jamie Koay, but it did not cut well at this small size so I just used a marker to make the zipper tracks.

Challenges Entered:

CAS184- Inspired by a Word – SCHOOL

Stampin’ with the Dragon Challenge ~ Anything but a Square or Rectangle

The Paper Players #109 ~ CAS Paper Piecing

Materials List

Stampin’ Up! Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Whisper White and Green Galore Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Real Red Marker

Backpack, Dino T-Rex and Zipper Cut Files

Custom Rhinestone Designs Silhouette Studio DE Tutorial

Rowing in Rhinestones

This is my first time playing with the Rhinestone feature in my Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software and I am having so much fun!  I really want to make a t-shirt like this for my daughter’s regattas, but she is less than thrilled at the prospect of me walking around Boston wearing this.  Actually, it was more like she will never speak to me again if I wear this shirt!  Oh well, I think it’s cute and it sure was fun to design.

To make my custom rhinestone design, I imported this logo into Silhouette Studio:

NCAA 2011 Rowing Championships Logo

As you can see, the logo has a solid white background that I need to get rid of.  To do this, I selected Trace and highlighted the entire logo, adjusted the High Pass Filter until the entire image was yellow and selected Trace Outer Edge:

Select Trace with High Pass Filter

I then selected Trace Outer Edge and moved the copy to the right:

Outer Edge Traced and Separated

The next thing I have to do is get rid of the writing at the bottom of the logo.  I did this by selecting Modify, Release Compound Path and deleting the part of the logo I didn’t want and remaking the Compound Path.  Now I just had the outline of the rower that I want to fill with Rhinestones. To do this, I highlight the design, select Object, Rhinestones, 10ss Rhinestone Size and Linear Fill.  I then went to Fill Color and selected black. The result is a custom design ready to cut with my Cameo!

Rhinestone Filled Design

From this point, you can customize your design however you want.  In my design, I changed the rhinestone colors and added the text using the Text to Path Feature.  This was my very first time working with the rhinestone feature in Silhouette Studio DE, so there may be others ways to do this, but this is what worked for me.  Have fun designing your own rhinestone designs!

Eye Candy from My Card Swap!

Remember the 10 cards I made for my demo group swap?  Well, I got my swap cards yesterday and thought I would share some of these fun and fabulous cards with you!  These first two were made by my Upline, Kim Medlock:

Pears for You by Kim Medlock

Isn’t this adorable, I love the orange polka dots, such a fun background!

Shake Your Booty by Kim Medlock

I love this witchy boot, too cute!

 

These cards were made by my Sideline, Gina Mustain:

Fabulous Shoes by Gina Mustain

I love this shoe stamp and the scalloped borders accent it perfectly!

Sand Dollar Hello by Gina Mustain

I love the texture the Chevron Embossing Folder adds to this card and isn’t that shiny sand dollar fabulous!

That’s all for this post, more to come, promise!

Inspired Primrose and Wood Roses

 

Primrose and Wood Roses

I finally had a chance to do a card for today’s Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge IC350 ~ LEIF.  I chose this Cactus Queen Scarf as my inspiration.  I was also inspired by this Hawaiian Wood Rose.  When I was a kid, these wood roses grew wild in a woody area behind my elementary school.  My mom loved them, so I would jump the fence and pick them for her whenever I had the chance.  The background on my card is the Berry Branch Background cut file by Loni Stevens.  The Stampin’ Up! 5 Petal Punch flowers were punched in vellum, embossed with the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder and sponged with Versafine Sepia Ink.  I had a very hard time photographing this card, this was the best shot believe it or not!

Materials List

Stampin’ Up! Primrose Petals Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Very Vanilla Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Vellum

Versafine Sepia Ink

Unknown Sentiment Stamp

Stampin’ Up! 5 Petal Punch

Stampin’ Up! Spring Bouquet Punch

Stampin’ Up! 3/4 inch Circle Punch

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder