3rd July 2010 - Christmas is coming!

It sounds almost obscene to talk about Christmas when we are in the middle of a heatwave, but all the craft programmes are into it already.  This is one card I did a couple of years ago, just after treating myself to a Silhouette die cutting machine, which links to your computer as an extra printer.  It is just a series of rectangles and semicircles put together to make up the door.  It was rather fiddly fitting together the small rectangles to make the panels, and I recommend the use of silicone glue or something moveable so you can make the fine adjustmenst to get them right.  The letter box was offcuts (card samples, mainly) of black pearlescent card and gold mirri card, with a slight gap between them to allow the insertion of the Merry Christmas.  A strip of gold mirri card along the bottom, and white glitter glue added a bit more bling.  The wreath was from an old card, and scanned in, and reduced to fit, then decorated with red glitter glue.  The cat was one of our own pets.  I used acetate for the windows and a metallic brad for the doorknob..  All the designing and cutting out was done on the Silhouette, fiddly initially, but once it is there, you can reuse and tweak it for another time.

The Silhouette was, admittedly, a relatively expensive investment, but it does allow you to really go to town with more complex cutting.  It earned its place for me by allowing me to cut perfect circles and ovals.  There are loads of free files out there on the internet to download and use, but you can make up your own just as easily.

Any piece of equipment I buy has to earn its place again and again, and this one does.  I have a number of photos I have turned into decoupage, and several files of decoupage sheets downloaded from other generous crafters.  I transfered them into the Silhouette software, and created the cutting files.  Then it is easy to print on your existing printer, then transfer the printed sheet into the Silhouette for cutting.  It uses registration marks printed by your printer to tell the blade where to cut - clever that!

Use what you have 2 - 13th June 2010

This is another card done early on, and I would make changes if I did it now. It still uses silver birch bark from our own garden, but also has bark from another tree, which sheds it naturally - the prunus serulla, which produces brilliantly coloured coppery red bark. Again the card was basic white hammered card, trimmed with the decorative scissors. This time, the silver birch hearts were mounted on white glitter card and gold mirri card, but the border down the edge was cut from the prunus bark. I did put strips of glitter down the red bark, but I would probably not do that another time, just let the beauty of the bark speak for itself. The Happy Birthday peel off finished it off.