Silhouette Tutorial: Cropping Background Shapes

I should be studying for my Pharmacy Tech: Drug Distribution final tomorrow, but I got distracted playing around with my Silhouette Studio, and I'm up with another tutorial. In this tutorial, I show you how to crop a large 12 x 12 background into a 3 x 4 that you can use in Project Life. You could also use this technique to crop a large background into any smaller size (i.e. 4 x 6 or 8 1/2 x 11) 

Here's the link:

http://screencast.com/t/ZquEfyeB9APr

Go from this ^

To this ^

Thanks for watching!!

Crate Paper

I am loving Crate Paper right now. I received 3 of their collections in the mail that I ordered, about 2 weeks ago, and have since made 2 layouts, and 1 card, one out of each collection. The first layout I made was the "A Little About Me" layout I posted in my previous post, and then the second layout I was unable to post, because I was entering it into a contest. Now that the contest is over I can post it here. This one was with the MIA collection:






I had to post all of the detailed photos, because I just love how it turned out! To get the butterfly's wings to stand up like that I first folded them at the body, and then I curled each wing around a thick pen. The title was cut using my Slice (which is awesome by the way...review to come soon) I cut it in both cardstock colors, then cut in in half and lined it up. I drew the white border around it to make it more unified (it was hard to read without it). Underneath the photo is a hidden journaling tab. To do this, I cut a rectangle of cardstock, shorter than the photo, and attached a tab to it (folded over cardstock of the same color, that I cut) then I attached the photo just around the edges, and on the bottom, so that the journaling could slide right under. Because the tab on the top is folded over, it is a bit thicker than the cardstock sliding under, and so it stops nicely and lines up where it should when I put it back. Also, the shaped pattern paper, and cardstock I cut using a die cut cardstock sheet that I use as a template.

The card I made was with the Blue Hill Collection and I used sketch 81 from the Got Sketch blog.
The flower on top I cut with my Slice.

Creating Your Own Rub-Ons

If you look up "making your own rub-ons" on google, you will get many answers. You can buy special paper, special glue, special transparencies etc. I haven't tried any of these, because I don't want to put the money into something that might not work. So, I chose the cheapest way I could find. Printing on a page protector and rubbing it onto my page. A few months ago I tried this on my cousins baby book, with pretty bad results. It printed out all globby, it smeared everywhere, and it just looked really bad. With the past layout I was working on, I decided to give it another try. I didn't have any letter stickers or chipboard to match my layout, and didn't want to write my title on. Here are the steps of what I did:

1. Get an overhead transparency (or the cheaper way) a page protector.
2. Cut the page protector down to size (ie cut the holes off so it is 8 1/2 x 11)
3. Create your design on the computer
4. The image will be inverted once you put it on your page, so remember to flip your design especially if it is words (you can use any paint program to flip your image, I used photo shop and selected "flip horizontally" after I was done. You can also use Microsoft word for your words, just make sure to use the "Word Art" option, as you can't flip regular text.)
5. Set up your printer. This is the one I had to play around with for a while, as I said, my first attempts came out globby. Using photoshop worked out the best, because it had better printing options. I chose the setting for high quality photo, and glossy photo paper. This way enough ink is deposited onto the transparency.
6. Print your design onto the transparency.
7. This is the important step (the one I neglected when I tried the first time) LET IT DRY. I was thinking if I let it dry fully that it wouldn't come off onto my paper, so I put it on my paper early, and it smudged everywhere. Let it dry for at least 10 minutes. I know...it's hard for us impatient people.
8. Put the transparency ink side down onto your paper. Make sure it is exactly where you want it before you touch the paper, because some ink will be deposited right away.
   
9. Hold it down firmly, and use a popsicle stick to rub it onto the page (just like a regular rub-on) you will see the ink darken in places where it has transfered to the page. When it all looks like this, remove the transparency..you are done :)

It doesn't look exactly the same as a store bought rub-on, but it works in a pinch. I would reccommend trying it on a scrap piece of paper first before putting it onto your layout. For me it took a few tries to get it right. Play around with the printer settings and designs, see if you like it.
Here's my layout that I used this technique on. The title "A Walk in the SNOW" is the rub-on I created. Let me know what you think :)



Update: This only works on an inkjet printer. Also, if you choose to buy transparencies to do this, don't get the ones for inkjet printers (the whole point of those is for the ink to stay on the transparency, therefore it won't transfer)

Embossing Powder....not just for stamps

Over a year ago, a friend of mine gave me a stamp and some silver embossing powder. She had used it for her wedding invitations, and didn't need it anymore. I used the stamp once for a Valentines day card, but then after that I couldn't think of a way to reuse it, but I liked the effect that the embossing powder gave to it. I didn't want to buy more stamps, because I didn't know if I would get into it, so I bought an embossing pen. It's called "ZIG Emboss Writer". Basically its just a felt pen, with two different ends (one with fine point, and one thats a bit thicker) and it has almost invisible ink that takes a while to dry. With this you can emboss whatever design you can draw or write. Something fun that I tried was to make one of my papers more exciting with embossing glitter, here is a sample of what I did:


I basically just outlined the pattern on the paper with the thicker tip of the embossing, then sprinkled "Stardust" transparent embossing powder on it, shook the excess of, and then used the heat tool to set/raise the embossing powder. You can't tell on here very well, but it made the paper sparkle very much. Another thing you can do with the embossing pen is use it to emboss your writing. I used it, with silver embossing powder, here as a title for one of the pages in the baby book:


If you are just starting scrapbooking, it is a little expensive to buy the heat tool. I have tried hair dryers and car lighters, but the results are very inconsistent. I would recommend waiting for a 40% off Michaels coupon, and buying the heat tool then. If you already stamp, this would be a cheap thing to try, if you haven't already.

The products I used:

Marvy Embossing Heat Tool
ZIG Emboss Writer (with 0.5mm and 1.2mm felt tips)
Stampendous - Stampi-N Stuff Embossing Powder in "Detail Silver Opaque and Stardust Transparent"

All of these items were purchased at Michaels
Here is a link for the current 40% off Coupon : http://vancouver.flyerland.ca/view_coupon.php?coupon_id=1315#
If you are looking for coupons in your own area, just go to the flyerland website , type in your city and go from there.