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June 8, 2015
by Dawn Marie 20 Comments

A TMNT 5th Birthday Party

As some of may have noticed I love to make party decorations.

This is great, as both my kids are young and have many more birthday for me to decorate.

Ian’s birthday is in March and I make him start deciding on a theme in December and verify it in January. This might seem difficult for a 4 (soon to be 5!) year old boy…..But Ian is different. Basically when he decides something, that’s it. He picks his Halloween costumes out 3 months in advance and doesn’t change his mind. So I know that if he decides he wants a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party for his 5th birthday, that’s the party he is going to get.

I loved TMNT growing up and I love that Ian does too. Now they are different and I am not entirely sold on them yet, but it’s the thought right?

I couldn’t wait to share all the projects I made for Ian’s birthday and this months Silhouette Challenge “Party” fit so perfectly. I already shared how I made his pretty awesome invitations so I am not going to go into that again.

Here are the decorations from the party we had in March, I know….March was moths ago, don’t judge. (I will warn you, this post is heavy with pictures)

I actually had plans to make rosettes with all the turtles, but only got Mikey done. I was really please how the turtle head turned out after tracing and cutting with my Silhouette Cameo.

For Ian’s Superhero Party I made a city-scape backdrop for the food table, which of course I didn’t keep. Since I had to make a new one, I used my Silhouette and cut a stencil out of contact paper. It made painting the building super easy.

I just used white duck tape for the road lines on the black table cloth. The sewer grate and decorations on the colored circles hanging down were made with the Print and Cut feature.

I had this grand idea for the food labels, instead of using the table tents, like I normally do. I would make them like large cupcake toppers and just stick them in the food.

This is where planning ahead is important. I already had my menu planned, so it was easy to print and cut the food labels prior to the party.

My idea mostly worked, but a few things needed giant marshmallows as stands.

I was really happy how my pennant banner turned out. I used the sketch pens to draw the face before cutting out the triangle and then used the Print and Cut feature for the masks.

For Ian’s “Happy Birthday” Banner I wanted to use the same face as I did for the giant rosette. I ended up adding the black outer layer to give it more dimension. I just had to trace the image in three parts.

The pieces that had letter on them did not get the black outline, or white eyes. I didn’t want to take away from the letters.

Since there are four turtles I wanted to have all of them up there, so I made a turtle shell to go in between happy & birthday.

Because the number of letters in my banner is odd, I didn’t have a symmetrical color pattern. Don’t look too closely.

The turtles all started with some toxic ooze so we needed a warning sign. Using a wood sign, scrapbook paper, and distressing ink I made a sign for the vinyl letters and danger symbols.

I was going to use vinyl for the green ooze, but decided to try some paint. After painting on the drips, I just went ahead and let the paint drip down the sign. It was one of those “umm…why didn’t I do this earlier? because it is so much easier” moments.

It gets hung on the front of my mom’s house (Party Local), which is where I hang all my party signs.

When Ian decided to have a TMNT party I was at Target and they had these buckets in the dollar spot. I decided not to wait till the month of his party to buy them. So glad I did, cause they were gone the next time I went. We filled them with stickers, candy, TMNT fruit snacks, little pens, and Toxic Ooze (of course).

With my Silhouette I made “Thanks for shell-abrating” tags for the buckets.

The stickers for the ooze were made with Silhouette’s clear sticker paper. I had the kids all help make the ooze and fill the cups.

I bought this cute little pizza box design from the Silhouette store and used the Print and Cut feature to cut them out. I put all the stickers for their buckets in the pizza boxes.

We also made masks & turtle shells for all the kids to wear and take home.

The windows on the box buildings were cut using my Silhouette. I was trying to decided between a stencil and paper, and the paper was easier.

My wonderful aunt who makes our birthday cakes was sick, so we went with cupcake for this party. I didn’t have time to make all the cupcake wrappers but there was about a dozen that had them.

I had been collecting the mini-pizza boxes to use at the party and we put some of the cupcakes in them.

For the top cupcake I made a big topper with Ian’s favorite turtle. I also used some plastic TMNT cups that I bought as center pieces. I cut out designs and inserted them in the cups with florist foam. Unfortunately I don’t have a great picture of them.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. Two Purple Couches // 2. Practically Functional // 3. Crafty Bonds // 4. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 5. From Whine to Whine // 6. Simply Kelly Designs // 7. unOriginal Mom // 8. MamaSonshine // 9. Get Silvered // 10. Made in a Day // 11. Weekend Craft // 12. Little Blue’s Room // 13. The Stamp Doc // 14. The Thinking Closet // 15. Cupcakes&Crowbars // 16. Where The Smiles Have Been // 17. DIYJustCuz // 18. My Paper Craze

Just a reminder that with my running I am raising money for St. Jude’s Hospital, click on the picture below to donate.

Be a HERO by clicking picture and donating today.

February 9, 2015
by Dawn Marie 5 Comments

Custom Birthday Party Invitations using Silhouette’s Print and Cut

I feel a little behind this year. Ian’s birthday is next month and I have only been working on his invitations for about a week.

Ian decided in December that he wanted a Ninja Turtle birthday party. I knew it was on the list of parties but didn’t know he wanted it this year. (He has the next six birthday’s planned, yep, he takes after me.)

I decided I wanted his invitations to be a pop-up card with the front as a sewer cover. I designed them knowing I would need to use my favorite thing about the Silhouette. It’s Print ‘N Cut feature!

It is the main reason I got it and it just so happens that this month’s Silhouette Challenge was to make a project using this very thing I love so much.

I started with a picture of a NYC manhole cover. I used Photoshop to make the sewer cover look a little more comic-booky. I couldn’t find a TMNT one with out words on it, and while I could have altered it in Photoshop to remove the words, I just didn’t want to go the trouble, this was easier.

I had thought about having just a circle card, but the pop-up part would have been to small, or the circle card would have been too big. So I used a card template from SVG Cuts Haunted Forest kit.

I needed something above the manhole cover, and I didn’t want to use a solid color so I used a picture of NYC that I found on one of the TMNT sites. Since the angle of the city is from the street it worked perfectly. For that part and the sewer cover I used the fill with pattern feature, or more accurately, I dragged and dropped the pictures into the shapes.

I used foam dimensional tabs to raise the ‘Let’s Party’ text.

I didn’t want to apply the letters individually to each invitation. I connected them with the offset tool, I made the offset as small as possible while still maintaining connections between each letter.

It was still in two parts, but that was better than 9 parts.

I made the “Ian is turning 5” part in Photoshop and traced it in Studio.

But a TMNT party invitation would not be complete with out some Ninja Turtles!

p.s. I decided to use the Old-School version from my childhood because I like them the best.

I traced a PNG copy of a picture of the four of them coming out of a sewer. This was the part that I wanted to use as a pop-up.

It is pretty amazing how close and accurately the Silhouette cuts with the print ‘n cut feature. I could even cut out the little spaces on the bottom that would have been white after printing. There is no way I would have been able to cut that out by hand.

The party information will be printed out on vellum and attached to the bottom of the inside. I decided on vellum because I didn’t want the inside to be white. I could have printed it on colored paper, but with the size of the card I couldn’t get two on one page, and I hate wasting paper.

Stay tuned for how the party turned out and all the other things I will make, although you will have to wait till a couple of months.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so pursue the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration! With a heavy emphasis on hearts!

1. Clever Someday // 2. TitiCrafty // 3. GingerSnapCrafts.com // 4. My Paper Craze // 5. Simply Kelly Designs // 6. Little Blue’s Room // 7. Mama Sonshine // 8. Small Stuff Counts // 9. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 10. GiveMeAPaintbrush // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Barb’s Life // 13. GetSilvered // 14. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 15. Minted Strawberry // 16. unOriginal Mom // 17. Where The Smiles Have Been // 18. Persia Lou // 19. Silhouette School // 20. From Whine to Whine // 21. DailyDwelling // 22. Creative Ramblings // 23. Paper Garden Projects // 24. It Happens in a Blink // 25. Perfectly Fabulous // 26. Adventures in All Things Food // 27. Create & Babble

December 8, 2014
by Dawn Marie 7 Comments

DIY Christmas Coasters ~ and a GIVEAWAY!!!!

‘Tis the season for giving, and there is nothing better than giving someone a hand-made gift.

Except being able to giveaway a new Silhouette Portrait or Cameo, that is.

That’s right, a wonderful group of bloggers and I have gotten together to giveaway not one, but two Silhouettes. These ladies have also came up with a variety of holiday projects to make with your brand new Silhouette. Just follow the links at the end of this post for some inspiration.

DIY Christmas Coasters

I thought I would share some of the gifts I have been making for Christmas this year.

I made some Christmas coasters from tiles using a couple different methods, including etching cream, vinyl and sharpies.

I love making etched glass items and thought how great it would work on glass tiles. I found these blue glass tiles, they are clear glass with a backing that is colored, and knew they would be perfect for a snow themed coaster.

Since the tile would be a coaster I wanted the majority of the surface to be rough with the design smooth. I cut my design out of scrap vinyl, I have been told contact paper works too, and transferred the design on to the tile.

I like to apply my etching cream right next to the sink. I lay down wax paper for a work surface, and use gloves to protect my skin. At the end of the etching time I try to scrape the etching cream back into the bottle. No need to waste! Rinse the rest of the cream off the tile under cold running water. Peel off the stencil and wash again with soap and water.

Please follow the directions on your etching cream and be safe.

Because the tile is thick glass the unetched parts refract the light and distort the design when trying to take a picture.

I absolutely love how these turned out, but the elegance of them is lost in translation. They do look lovely all wrapped up in a bow.

Did you know that etching cream will also take the glaze off ceramic tiles?

This is even harder to photograph because of how subtle it is.

My first thought was to make a minimalist snowman design with vinyl, but then I decided to take it one step further. I used a vinyl stencil for the snowman base and a few circles of falling snow. I then applied the etching cream to the entire coaster as above. This left a rough background with a shiny snowman and snow.

After etching, washing and allowing to dry for at least a day, I applied the vinyl decorations, using outdoor vinyl if I had it. I love how these turned out, they are impressive with just the vinyl but when you look close you can see the subtle outline of the snowman and snow.

But why stop there? Sharpies on ceramics are always a fun craft.

Since I am pretty sure my 4-year-old draws better than me, I use my Silhouette to cut out stencils for all my Sharpie work as well. As I did with these Rudolph coasters and they are fantastic!

After coloring I cured the ink by placing the coasters in a cold over, turning on the heat to 350°F, baking for about 30 minutes, turning the oven off and letting the coasters come back to room temperature slowly.

Using the same sharpie and stencil method I made some Christmas light coasters as well.

On one set of coasters I simply colored the lights in. On the other set I used the negative of the stencil and used scattered dots to draw the lights. I should tell you that I did not use oil based markers or ceramic pens. I cured them just as I did with the Rudolph ones.

Some of the colors (uh, all but the red and green) did not hold up as well with the curing process. *sigh, lesson learned. So, if you are going to cure them in the oven, use ceramic markers. Another option would be to seal them after coloring with a clear waterproof sealant. Sealing them is still probably a good idea anyway.

Not to worry though. They can just be recolored and then sealed. (which admittedly I have not yet done, but plan on doing)

These coaster would make great gift to with a new mug and box of hot chocolate, coffee or tea. *spoiler alert

Silhouette Giveaway!

I know, I know, here is the part of the post you are most excited about. As I said above, my Silhouette Challenge buddies in partnership with Silhouette America are hosting a mega-huge giveaway for not one…but two winners! The prizes up for grabs?

First prize: The NEW Silhouette Cameo Machine and Designer Edition Super Bundle! $406.93 value.

Silhouette CAMEO®
Designer Edition Software
Dust Cover
$25 Download Card
Four Essential Silhouette Tools (hook, spatula, scraper, pick-me-up™)

Second prize: Silhouette Portrait Machine and Rhinestone Starter Kit! $219.98 value.

Pretty sweet, huh? We want you to have the chance to get that Silhouette machine that might still be on your wish list.

To enter: just click on the image below or on this link, either will take you to the entry form. Because of my many blog friends who helped make this giveaway possible, you have 42 potential entries, which means a lot of winning power. So, hurry up and enter!

{This giveaway runs from today through Monday, December 15th at 11:59p eastern and is open to anyone 18 years of age or older with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. You can read the rest of the terms and conditions in the giveaway window. You only need to enter the giveaway on one blog.}

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

click on me to go to entry form

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so pursue the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. Pineapples and Pinecones // 2. Simply Kelly Designs // 3. Architecture of a Mom // 4. Just a Girl and Her Blog // 5. Two Purple Couches // 6. Chicken Scratch NY // 7. Creative Ramblings // 8. One Dog Woof // 9. Ginger Snap Crafts // 10. The Thinking Closet // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body // 13. weekend craft // 14. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Living My Given Life // 17. My Paper Craze // 18. The Kim Six Fix // 19. Home At Eight // 20. Queen of Everything // 21. Tried & True // 22. McCall Manor // 23. unOriginal Mom // 24. Create it. Go! // 25. From Wine to Whine // 26. GetSilvered // 27. It’s Always Ruetten // 28. Nearly Handmade // 29. Mama Sonshine // 30. Silhouette School // 31. It Happens in a Blink // 32. Create & Babble // 33. Sowdering About // 34. Where The Smiles Have Been // 35. My Favorite Finds // 36. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 37. Designed Decor

April 16, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Easter Bunny Juice Boxes for a Preschool Easter Party

Ian has his Easter party at school today.
So what do I volunteer to bring?
Juice boxes of course because I can make them look like super cute little bunnies.
I found these Hansen’s Junior Juice
boxes and thought the would be perfect because there are just 4.23 oz, a perfect size for little 4 & 5 year olds.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out all the parts for the bunny.

I was grateful that I had two mats! I could load another one to cut, while I was taking all these little parts off.
I then just glued them all together and wrapped around the boxes.

I made 20 boxes and was able to use one 12×12″ sheet of pink card stock, scrap pieces of black and 7 sheets of 8.5×11″ white card stock. I also had the googly eyes, so I only had to buy the juice boxes, which I got 20 for less than $7.

I also broke out my Cameo to make a letter matching egg game. I got the eggs 18/$1 and I already had the vinyl. I cut out an upper case and a lower case letter, and put them on different colored eggs.

I put the upper case on the top half and lower case on the bottom half. The kids then would match the two letter s together.