Silhouette Studio | I Tri and Craft

June 24, 2014
by Dawn Marie 3 Comments

Rainbow Brite Baby Shower

Hooray for Baby Season!

I love hosting baby showers and birthday’s and well any party really. I don’t want to toot my own horn (OK, yes I do), but my sister and I throw some amazing parties.

One of my cousins, Bailey was expecting her first baby this month. Our other cousin Darcy wanted to throw Bailey a shower, with the help of my sister and me.

A little background information for you, I have a boat load of cousins. And it can kinda get confusing, as there are two that I am going to talk about, but they are not sisters, they are also cousins.

The three of us started brainstorming about themes, my sister and Darcy throwing down some great 80’s cartoon themes. When Darcy says ‘Oh, I know! Rainbow Brite!’

A little side note: when Bailey found out they were having a girl she said “…she will wear and use anything that she is given but if you have color choices, go easy on the pink please we like the whole rainbow” so a rainbow theme was just perfect for her. Plus there was a whole ton of Rainbow Brite playing going on whilst growing up.

So to work I went on the invitations. I had less than a week to design, cut and send them out, so I went with a simple design. We also kept the theme secret from the Mom-to-be. That was really fun. I of course use my Silhouette Cameo to make the invitations and other decorations.

I cut out different colored circles in various sizes and sewed them together. This was my first time sewing paper, and I am now hooked!

We really wanted some tissue paper pom-poms and decided to make some ourselves. We got some tissue paper packs from the dollar store, instead of separating the tissue paper by color we decided to make them rainbows too.

I think we bought two or three packs, and made about nine small ones and four large ones. More than a dozen pom-poms for $3!

They look great all clustered together.

Of course I also had to make some rosettes, my other favorite party decoration. I used plain colored card-stock and matched each of the Color Kids to the color of the rosette. On the other side of the rosette the circle is the Sprite that matched the Color Kid.

For the banner I cut out onesies and rainbow letters that “Welcome Baby” as the parents had not decided on a name yet. For the banner spacers I used images of a few Rainbow Brite characters on the onesies.

At the last shower we threw (for a different cousin) we gave these Cookie-in-a-Jar gifts, and everyone said they made wonderful cookies. So we decided to do it again. We made 40 of them….

Luckily my mom had tons of rainbow-colored fabric to use on the lids. We decided to use mini M&M‘s, instead of chocolate chips, because they were the most rainbow like candy. The tags I made using my Silhouette and I was able to print on both sides of the tags. The back has the instructions for baking.

My most favorite decoration was the rainbow backdrop on the food table.

I still love looking at pictures of the backdrop.

Remember all those circles I sewed together? This is where they ended up. Looks great huh?

We tried to stick to the rainbow theme with the food as well.

Luckily Mother Nature loves colors as much as we do. The two bowls of marshmallows are the clouds that border the fruit rainbow. And of course there is a bowl of Skittles on the table.

We wanted to make a diaper cake, and just in time, SVG Cuts came out with this Tiny Miracle kit that had a diaper castle. Rainbow Brite’s castle was yellow and had rounded tops, not pointed ones. If I had more time, I might have tried to adjust the tops, but the castle still looked great as it was.

Although I didn’t take pictures of the food tent labels, they also matched the rainbow theme.

My sister made these wonderful rainbow cupcakes. To which I added the cupcake toppers with all the characters.

I also made the mom-to-be a souvenir invitation and framed it for her. My mom had a couple of dolls, that belonged to my nieces, so we added them to the decor.

My sister made some gluten-free chocolate cupcakes and some that were rainbow inside.

Oh, so yummy!

And of course here is my cousin in all her pregnant glow!

The guests played present bingo, when mom-to-be opens a present, you get to mark in on a Bingo card. It is a fun way to get everyone involved in the presents and we play it at all our showers.

My cousin was just thrilled when she came and saw the theme and all the decorations. Her baby girl has since arrived and everyone is doing wonderfully.

Happy Party Planning

June 16, 2014
by Dawn Marie 7 Comments

Surprise at the bottom Etched Drinking Glasses

Way back in the late 90’s my sister got married and I helped her make the bridal party gifts. She wanted to order etched beer mugs for the groomsmen and I told her we could just do it ourselves. So we went to the craft store and bought this:

Armour Etch Starter Kit

You see the rose wine glass? We made those for the bridesmaids. And the kit hasn’t changed in the almost 20 years since we bought it.

It was a pain! You tape the stencil to the glass and the etching cream bleeds through and smears and it isn’t pretty.

But guess what….I now have a Silhouette Cameo that cuts vinyl. And vinyl makes the perfect stencil for glass etching. They also make stencil material that has a sticky back, or you could use contact paper.

So while searching Pinterest one day I saw some glasses that state “you have just been poisoned” at the bottom of them. I just knew I wanted to make some, and I knew the perfect machine to make a really good stencil.

After getting my Silhouette Cameo for Christmas I joined a Facebook group that has allowed me to learn how to use my machine, share my projects, help others learn how to use their machine and push me to try new things.

One of the events they hosted this year was a hand-made gift exchange. Whomever in the group wanted to participate just signed up and the coordinator matched you with another group member. You then made each other a hand-made gift. Sounds like fun, huh?

After chatting with my gift receiver I thought she might just be the person to appreciate this fun gift. To the Silhouette I go!

I measured the bottom of the glasses. It is important when looking for drinking glasses that the bottom of the glass be completely flat. Typically when etching on the outside of glass you don’t need to flip the image, but with this design it will be read through the bottom of the glass, so it needs to be flipped on the horizontal.

Cut your stencil out of vinyl, others have had success with contact paper, but I have yet to try it as a stencil. I used the default vinyl settings and it cut perfectly.

Clean the glassware and wipe with rubbing alcohol. When completely clean and dry apply stencil.

Follow the instructions on the glass etching cream you have purchased. The etching process is pretty quick to apply it next you a running water source. That way if you happen to get any on your skin you can quickly rinse it off.

Please remember this is a caustic substance and can eat away at your skin. Be safe and use precaution and proper safety gear. Gloves are highly recommended, as is a well ventilated work area next to running water. If you do happen to get some on your skin rinse under high flowing cold water for at least 15 minutes.

As per instructions I used a wooden stick to pile on a helping glob of cream and let it sit for about a minute. I then ran it under cold water until it was all rinsed off. If you are concerned about the cream etching your pipes, don’t be, but you can run cold water down your sink for 2-3 minutes if you want to ensure you have full diluted the cream.

I think they turned out pretty awesome, don’t you?

Now while these are awesome drinking glasses, I also wanted to make something a little more personal for her. My gift exchange partner is going to school to become a forensic investigator! What an awesome degree huh? So I decided to make her a some artwork that encompass that goal.

I used sketch pens to draw the finger print and cut the microscope out of card-stock. I used dimensional tabs to lift the microscope off the paper.

I framed it in a frame that had some depth to it so the microscope didn’t get all smooshed.

In return I also received a box of goodies from my exchange buddy. Don’t you just love the “Talk Nerdy To Me” bag?

This was a super fun event and I am so excited to get back into glass etching. I can’t wait to etch my next project.

Happy Crafting

Check out some more projects from the talented women who participated in this event.

June 14, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day!!!!

SPOILER ALERT!

Hey Dad, your cards are in this post, so if you keep reading you will see them. Because, like always, they are not in the mail. OK, I don’t know if the one my sister is sending you is in the mail yet or not, but I do know mine has not yet shipped.

Love you!

I made this card for my cousin to give her dad.

This is just a basic card for dads, there is no theme, but I really like it.

Inside is a simple pop-up that says “Dad” so from front to inside it reads “Happy Father’s Day Dad”

I really like the way the front turned out. I just used colored card-stock and a patterned scrapbook paper. I made sure there was no distance between the rectangles when cutting the patterned paper. I used Silhouette‘s print and cut feature for the front sentiment.

I used sketch pens on the letters before cutting them out.

I think the card is elegant and still masculine.

My sister asked me to make a card for our dad, but she requested it be different from the one I would give him.

So I made this one for her to send. I think it fits her and her family pretty good, as they are (well, really, we all are) huge Star Wars & LEGO fans.

The LEGO Darth Vader was also part of the blog hop I talked about here.

I wanted to do something different for my dad, than just another card. I have seen all the fun puns on Pinterest saying “World’s Best Pop” attached to a soda bottle. But my Dad lives out-of-town, and really I didn’t want to give him some soda.

At SVG Cuts I found this soda bottle in their Surf Shack kit and knew it would be perfect.

Using the bottle, I made a custom label, for the base and the neck. I also used the print and cut feature to decorate the bottle top.

The base label says “Happy Father’s Day to the Worlds Best Pop” which I again used the print and cut feature. I filled it with candy for him to enjoy.

I think it is quite a unique card and I had a blast making it.

Happy Crafting

June 12, 2014
by Dawn Marie 4 Comments

Star Wars Birthday Cards

I had an older brother who loved Star Wars, so I too, loved Star Wars.

When you are the youngest sibling and your older sibling becomes obsessed with something, you will go one of two ways. You will either loath it or love it. I went with the latter option.

We watched, we played with the action figures, ate off the dishware, wore the underoos, slept with the stuffed animals on the sheets, and reenacted our favorite scenes. When you love Star Wars, you always love Star Wars. It doesn’t fade with time, it actually gets stronger.

As a result my siblings and I have passed on this love to our children. My eldest son could name all the main characters before he was two.

But let me clarify something, while we all love Star Wars, we are not fanatics. I do not know all things Star Wars, nor do I know the names of obscure characters or their back histories. We’re not that bad.

Thanks to the internet and media there is now a ‘holiday’ for Star Wars. It is May 4th, why you ask (as if you don’t already know), because when you say “May the Fourth” it sounds like “May the Force“. I know, I know, geekdome at its highest.

As a result a SVG company (SVG Cutting Files) hosted a May the Fourth blog hop, and I received some fun Star Wars cutting files from them. (The hop was only the one day, so you can no longer participate or receive the files, sorry).

I used a couple of files to make some birthday cards for my Star Wars loving nieces.

One of my nieces also loves Hello Kitty, so the Hello Kitty Yoda was perfect for her. Both of my nieces, and everyone, loves Ewoks, so I made my other niece a card with the cute little Ewok.

I had intended cut out her name on the front, so that the inside color would show through, but I was having some major operator errors that day. I kept doing it backwards, upside down, etc. When I messed up with the last piece of cardstock, the night before I needed them, I had to improviser. I cut a rectangle out of the inside color and used the negative of her name.

Inside the Hello Kitty Yoda I phrased the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment just the way Yoda would.

You can actually translate words from Ewokese to English and back. Ewokese doesn’t have words for every English word, but they have enough. However, they do not have a phrase for “Happy Birthday” or anything close that I could use to convey that message. So the sentiment on the front of the card translates to “wow! Gee Whiz” or “Oh My Goodness!” as a way to show excitement.