Hello, Janet here again from the Crafting Quine Blog. This week I've been making some new Christmas Tree decorations using Silhouette's Faux Leather Paper. The natural shade is perfect to use for gingerbread-look projects and I really enjoyed using it to make these miniature Tealight Houses. The design used is the Tiny Gingerbread House by Amanda McGee from the Silhouette Design Store. This year I'll be giving these as to friends - as 'from our house to your's' gifts.
What You'll Need
Silhouette Faux Leather Paper in White and Natural
Oracal 651 Premium vinyl in White and Red
Transfer Tape
Liquid Fabric Adhesive
Thin Ribbon or Cord
Silhouette CAMEO® 3
Silhouette Black Ratchet Blade
Silhouette 12" x 12" Cutting Mat
Cutting the Faux Leather Paper
All the pieces, excluding the icing decorations, are cut from the faux leather paper. The leather paper is quite thick, and I found it best to cut it in two stages using a sticky mat (with extra tape, as the paper has a tendency to curl up from the mat given half a chance), and a sharp blade (I used the ratchet blade).
It is a good idea to cut a piece from the roll slightly larger than the amount needed. Then it pays to leave it to flatten out for a while beneath something heavy.
For the first cut my favoured settings are the blade set at 4 or 5 with a reduced force for the first cut (adding an overcut if straight lines are involved).
For the second cut I deepen the blade to 6 and increase the force to something closer to the default setting for Faux Leather Paper and cut with one or two passes. This decreases the likelihood of the paper shifting on the mat. Your settings may differ, so do test it out using the test cut facility.
Tiny Details
There is something very appealing about teeny, tiny items, and this house is no exception. It is amazing just how small the fine details are that can be cut from faux leather paper with a Silhouette. Here are the tiny gingerbread couple made from two layers of faux leather; the natural layer on top with all the cutout details, and a plain white layer below. The hardest part is applying a tiny amount of glue, enough to adhere the layers, but not so much that it oozes through the cutouts. I like to use a strong fabric adhesive as it has a fast grip, but a bit of 'slide-y' time; enough to align the pieces before it sets.
Vinyl House Decorations
With that in mind, I wanted to make the job of applying the decoration to the outside of the house as easy as possible. To cut all the fine details, and to apply them without any adhesive mess, I elected to use the Oracal 651 Premium Vinyl rather than paper or card. It requires the use of transfer tape to move and align the decorative pieces, but can be a real time saver. If you are careful with your alignment, and don't move the relative position of any of the white parts on the mat you can apply all the wall elements in one operation. Of course you need to do the roof and red pieces separately, but you can reuse the same piece of tape, so don't discard it.
House Base
The base, the back of the people, and the candy cane are cut from white faux paper. As I intend to hang up this decoration I decided to cut the base a little smaller than the design; with a diameter of 2.7-inches, rather than the original 3-inches. I also doubled up the base to give the house a really firm foundation.
Incorporating a Hanging Loop
I made a hanging loop from narrow silver ribbon. The easiest time to install it is prior to adhering the roof to the walls. Of course, I forgot first time around, but with a bit of finagling I fitted it through a slit in the roof and adhered it to the inside after the house was assembled without too much difficulty.
Installing A Tealight
I cut all the pieces at the design's default size. The finished house is big enough to easily fit a battery operated tealight inside, but the ones I bought only just fitted through the flap. However, if your tea lights are a little bigger than mine the height of the flap can be easily be extended.
Christmas Message
As I'm gifting these to friends, I plan to add a personalised paper message to the base. They'll make lovely family or hostess gifts over the festive season don't you think?
Other Faux Leather Projects
If you haven't tried faux leather paper before, or you have some in your stash that you haven't used yet, I urge you to try it - it's the perfect media for making seasonal keepsakes.
Here are links to some of my favourite leather paper projects. Just click on a pic to visit the page for that project.
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Let us know how you get on.
Bye for now,
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