Silhouette UK: Mail art using your pen holder

Monday, 19 February 2018

Mail art using your pen holder

Hi everyone. It's Verity here from Pretty Little Button bringing you another project. Today I've created a fun project using the pen holder from Silhouette. Mail art is quite popular, and many crafters also use their machines in conjunction with weddings, whether its your own, a family member or a friend. So, today I am showing you how to add some beautiful decoration to your envelopes without having to pick up a pen, other than to put it in the pen holder!

Mail art using Silhouette Pen Holder details:

To start off, find a design from the store and download this. I used a selection of floral bouquets from . I thought these would look beautiful on an envelope. The outline would provide beautiful decoration without overpowering the envelope.

In the design panel, I drew an oblong that measured the same size as my envelope. I also drew a small oblong in the centre of the envelope so I would remember to leave this space blank to write an address. Once I had my 'envelope' in my design panel, I added the floral design I downloaded from the store. I resized and rotated the designs until I was happy with the layout.

To prevent the envelope lines intersecting the floral designs and to avoid these being drawn along with the design that expands the edge of the envelope I cropped the image. This will ensure the pen won't draw of the envelope and onto my mat.

However, as you can see from the photo above, there is a still a line denoting the edge of the envelope where no design intersects. This isn't too much of a problem, however I didn't want my pen to draw this either. An easy quick fix is by using the 'knife' tool. Once I had selected the knife, I just drew along the outside edge of the 'envelope panel' from one corner to another. This removes any straight lines of the edges of the flower.

With the design as above, I was ready to draw this out. I selected 'copy paper' as my medium and 'sketch' as the action. From the toll drop down, make sure you select 'pen holder' as opposed to sketch pen. I used two different pens for these envelopes, one a gel pen and another Staedtler Triplus Fineliner. I used large 'white' thread for the gel pen and the medium 'grey' thread for the fineliner.

Now, when you come to send your project to draw, I would practice on a scrap of white paper. If the pen nib is poking out the bottom of the pen holder too much, you could get drag lines on your project, as seen below. Now I had made sure this was just right by doing a test run, and this didn't happen until the end. I drew the silver envelope first and realised the mistake of the pen nib too close to the mat. So I had adjusted the purple pen so there was enough clearance when not in use. I even did a test draw and it wasn't catching where the silver pen had - I thought success, and stopped half way through. However, this little scrape was towards the end, so if I had pulled the pen up slightly it might not have happened.

I hope this has inspired you to attempt mail art and spice up your envelops. I know if I received an envelope through the post like this, I would have a smile on my face and look forward to opening it. Beats junk mail and bills any day!

Until next time,

Verity