Hat Box Tutorial – DIY craft project for electronic cutting machines

This is a step by step tutorial to create the charming little paper hat boxes I just released.
It is cut on a Silhouette Cameo, but it should work also for similiar cutters and software which is svg compatible.

You can get the svg file here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/198100414/svg-hat-box-digital-cut-file-diy-project

Tips:
– cut the files twice with matching paper and combine them, so you get directly two beautiful bicolored boxes
– edge blending (coloring the cut white paper edges and holes) gives the box an even more realistic and used look.

Be prepared the first box will be a bit tricky and fiddling until you know how to hold everything best.
Depending on the thickness of your paper the parts are fitting more or less tight. You might have to adjust the parts a little bit in width.

The second box will be much easier, big promise! And from the third it will be a breeze and so much fun.
I guess your friends and family will rib them out of your hands.

Much success and please contact me if you need help!

 

 

 

Gothic Lolita Mini Hat from paper – cutting file

Today I tried out Inkscape.

After a bit  a complicated installation on my Mac it worked well and I must say: It is a very cool program. You can make svg cutting files with it. This is what I wanted to try. I gave myself a little task, making a gothic mini paper top hat.

I even made it to make it just as non-symmetrical as I had it in my mind and including the bow parts which I kept together with a brad in the end.

And here you see the result.

Hat off!

May an angel be vain?

On my tags YES.
And when preparing to bring a love message OF COURSE.

For the backgrounds I embossed my own printed card stock, then softly rubbed distressed ink pads over the embossed parts in matching colors to get more contrast on the damask and tape measure wall paper pattern.
Then I added the embellishments.

Have fun looking at my newest tag creations.

Paper lace doilies on elegant black and white gift tags with flowers

I love lace of all kind.
Now I tried the first time to cut paper lace doilies on my Silhouette Cameo. I recently bought many designs from the Silhouette online store, because I find them soooo complicated to make, that I do not have to do this myself.
I even had a bit of a hard time to cut the finished designs. I had to try many different settings and paper qualities. The intricate designs will not work with cheap paper, that tears easily.
You have to use new sharp blades and a slow speed.

I put different designs and sizes on letter size format and came up with a stack of beautiful lace doilies. Now I have to think what to do with them and just started with some tags I decorated with flower embellishments from my own black and white flower collage sheets.

more colorful spring cards

and more of my little spring birthday card production.

Have fun!

Colorful diy paper flowers – print – cut – enjoy

After one week of wonderful spring weather winter is back here with low temperatures, heavy clouds and much wind.

So I am going to decorate our home tomorrow with colorful paper flowers I have been drawing, coloring and cutting  during the past weeks from scratch, first the outlines, then filled with pattern and over layed with another hand drawn thick lines pattern.
After years of doing computer graphics I really love to sit with markers, paint and real papers recently.

Anyway scanning and combining the drawings and paintings gives great effects and my new Epson Expression Photo Printer makes just perfect prints and big size, too.
And I can keep my originals untouched.

Just be inspired and make your own. It is not that difficult.
Or go get the flowers as collage sheets from my Etsy shop

more gel printing

Just some more prints I made on Sunday. I love the details of the red and blue prints. I have no clue how I made those funny drops. I just layered the stencils, rolled and rubbed …

Enjoy and be inspired!

Gelli Print – Sunday!

So today I used my new stencils with the new made gelatin plate.
I think I am going to order the Gelli Arts plate next week. I saw it is available again.
My gelatin plate is full of color pigments now after 2 times usage. For my next session I definitely need a new one.

I got another stack of prints. There are not many I am really happy with today though. While printing I wished I had a redo button like on the computer, because I ruined a beautiful print with adding another layer and it has just not been a good choice, what a pity. I wished I had more control and I could repeat a print, but no way.

Here you can see some work in process pics and some results.
More pics I’ll show tomorrow….

Stencil – Saturday

Last week I designed some stencils I had in my mind for a long time and which I wanted to use with the gelatin plate.
I started with hand drawn sketches, scanned them and made cuttable Silhouette Studio files for my electronic cutter.

Yesterday I cut them all one after the other, the poor machine was running the whole day. I just used overhead film.
And today I used almost all of them. Now they are dirty, covered with paint and somehow looking like artworks itself.
This is the big advantage of making your own stencils: when they are ruined you just make new ones.

In my next post I am going to show some of my results.

Have fun!

Gel Printing – my first attempts with a self made plate

I used a simple small brayer from the do-it-yourself store here. I had just 3 colors of acrylic paint: red, blue and yellow, in addition black and white. And I had a whole Sunday afternoon for myself…

These are some of my first prints.
I am still having a lot more sheets that I do not like so much. I will keep them for further use, for stamping, die cutting or another layer of gel printing.

I love the random results. For me as I usually want to have full control over all my designs this is a wonderful exercise to let loose.

In the top pics I used some simple paper doilies I once made with my Big Shot and folded paper.
With gel printing you always get a first color intense print and a second print, which is more pale. I find the second prints more beautiful. For cleaning the brayer you even get a good 3rd print sometimes. This way I got little series from all types I tried. Great to find out what you prefer!

But I will not use an embossing folder anymore! The paint dried too quick and I didn’t get it clean anymore.
It is better to mess around with my own stencils cut from paper or film.

And I “stole” my bfs advent calendar numbers….lol…he will get new ones (or the painted ones?) on end of the year. I LOVE the number prints!