Kids Craft personalised bookmark

With the start of a new school year, a whole new group of friends could be on the horizon. What better way to forge friendships than an after-school craft party. This little project will not only keep them busy expressing themselves but also gives you the chance to learn everyone's names, (I can never remember anyone's name but I can remember what they made) here's a fun little bookmark project suitable for all ages.

Open silhouette studio and type the intended participants names by clicking on the text tool and then on your virtual page, use your keyboard to add names.

 By opening the text panel you can choose any a font that is installed on your computer, simply select one from the drop-down menu. If you are unsure what your text will look like in a particular font simply type the word and select the word by clicking at one end and dragging the mouse to the other end, the word will become highlighted click on any font type in your menu and the word will change to that font ( you can scroll through all your fonts one by one using the arrow key on your keyboard .   Big blocky fonts work best for this project. I have chosen Accord Heavy SF, bear in mind the age group you are working with when making your choice.

Select a flag type file from your library (lots of different styles are available from the silhouette store if you do not have one). You will need a flag for each name. Resize each of the names to make it fit nicely inside one of the flags.

Arrange the flags and names to make the best use of your media. I am using silhouette chipboard as its sturdy but not too bulky to place inside a book.(ensure your page settings match the size of your media).

 Select some designs from your library or the store to use as embellishments. Resize the designs so they will fit onto the flags. This is done by clicking on one of the boxes in the corner of the design and dragging it inward.

Arrange the embellishments to make the best use of the media.use the rotate button located in the transform panel to rotate you pieces where necessary.

Send the project to your silhouette from the material menu select chipboard and carry out a test cut, adjust the settings if necessary. Click send to cut your project.

Give each child a flag and place all the letters and embellishments in the center of the table with some markers and/or paint, perhaps put out some glitter and gems.
Let the children's creativity flow.
For younger children, this project also works well if the letters and embellishments are cut from silhouette self-adhesive card  weed the unwanted card away leaving only the "stickers"

Designs used:

File: flags

Artist: Silhouette

File: brontosaurus dinosaur set.studio

Artist: Studio Ilustrado

File: car.gst

Artist: Silhouette

File: Heart.gst

Artist: Silhouette

File:flower

Artist: Silhouette

PRODUCTS USED:

Creating a circular background

Hello lovely Silhouette fans! Maria here with you today with a very quick tutorial on how to create a circular background that you can use in scrapbooking or cardmaking.

Here's what you will need:

- Silhouette Cameo or Portrait
- Cardstock
- Pattern Paper
- Glue and other ancilleries to finish off your creation

Instructions

Firstly, open your Silhouette Studio software. We are going to create a random set of circles, so click on the circle tool.

If you hold your shift key on your keyboard whilst dragging the circle, you will get a perfect circle (otherwise, you will get more like an oval)

As you can see from the image above, I have done a very random design of different size circles overlapping each other.  I have left blank space on the top right corner because that is where my photo and my title will go.

Next, select all the circles and copy and paste them. Move the new set of copied circles to the grey area outside the mat and leave them there for now.

Back to the circles on your mat, select them all and weld them.

They should look all funny like this:

We have pretty much finished with this. Now let's go back to the circles that we pasted in the grey area of our screen.

What we are going to do with them is resize them a bit smaller. I do this by holding the shift key in my keyboard and dragging one of the corner edges towards the centre of the design. In the image below I have circled the overall size of the design so you can see how little it changes once I've resized it.

In the image below I have already resized the circles and highlighted the new dimensions. 

Now that they have been resized, I bring them to my mat (you can move the welded ones for now, or go ahead and cut them with the right settings for the material you are using, and then you are free to delete from your mat if you wish)

I want to cut each of the resized circles in pattern paper, so I arrange them on my mat so I can cut them in three clear strips. I have turned the grid lines on for now, so I can use them to guide me on my positioning of the circles.

And you are ready to cut your circles! Use the recommended settings for pattern paper.

Now you can assemble the layout, by putting the pattern paper circles on top of your welded circles. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't resized the circles so much, as there is a bit more white showing than I would have liked, although overall I am quite pleased with how this looks!

I hope this has inspired you to create your own background from scratch!

Read you all very soon!

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PRODUCTS USED

Cutting edge with Designer Edition- knife overview

Why upgrade to designer edition?

One of my favorite things that unlock when you upgrade is the selection of knives that are now at your disposal. While the knife in the standard edition is very useful, the extra options and functionality within Designer edition will have you slicing every edge on your projects.

   The straight knife remains the same cutting in a straight line with the options of solid or outline cut. By holding down shift while you drag the knife across you shape you will ensure that you get a perfectly straight horizontal or vertical cut.



 Then the fun begins, there are 11 knife types to choose from in designer edition.

The first new knife we will look at is Poly. This knife behaves in the same way a poly draw tool does, straight lines are created between a number of points. while these points can be positioned anywhere to create a jagged edge as in the picture above this knife will enable you to cut out solid shapes form your shapes as though you had used a paper punch. So to create a triangle you will create three points and then double click back on the first point. (It is the double click that tells the software that you have finished the shape). With your shape complete a process bar will pop up on your screen. On completion, the triangle will be cut out of the shape behind it.

I have changed the color
of the triangle to help you see it 

By default, this is done automatically when the double click is applied. But what if you would like to alter your poly before it applies the knife cut? If you scroll down in you knife menu at the bottom there is an opportunity to switch off the auto apply.

with the auto apply unchecked you can now select the edit points button. when you click on the edit points button the nodes will become active again and you can now move any of the points to get fine tune your shape. When you are happy with the position of the nodes you will need to click back on your knife tool and with the triangle selected simply click on the "apply to selected knife" and the triangle is now cut and is now a separate shape.

These principles can be applied to the curve and freehand knives. As long as you have the Auto apply box unchecked Studio will not apply the cut to your knife line and the nodes remain editable.

The additional 7 knives are tools that will allow you to create uniform cut decorative edges with just a few clicks. Each works in the same way so I will use the Dovetail knife to demonstrate the actions and their effect on the style of cut. (just because I love it the most).

 Draw a shape on your mat to practice on.

Select the Knife tool and then click on the dovetail option in the left window. make sure the auto apply option is unchecked at the bottom of the knife window. Draw a cut line across your shape

 you will see that you have a perfectly uniform knife line of dovetails across your shape. This function saves hours of editing. don't like the size of tails? well, that's why we unchecked the auto apply. When the auto apply is switched off you can modify the height and width of the style of knife, in this case the tails. while the knife is still active there will be a slider bar in the center of the cut line. By moving the little "bubble along the slider you can change the width of the "tails".

Moving the slider to the left will increase the width of the "tails"

Moving the slider to the right will decrease the width of the "tails".

As well as the slider bar there will be a red dot close to the start of your knife line. This dot will affect the height of the "tails".

Click and drag the red dot away from the knife line increases the height of the "tails" bringing it closer will decrease the height.

When you have created the desired height and width on your "tails", with the knife line selected and the knife tool active, click on the "apply selected knife" as before.

 A perfect dovetail is now created across you shape. 

The knives in designer edition have saved me hours in editing. This is only a one of the options unlocked when you upgrade to designer edition but I am sure you will agree its a good one.

Happy crafting 

Ready for Easter?

As Easter is creeping up on us, here is a fun bunny make.

For this make you will need

vinyl green brown and tan

Heavyweight cardstock blue and green

Drinking straw

Wooden skewer

Two eyelets

Glue

Double sided tape

A4 sheet of acetate

 Bead

Download the free file HERE and open in silhouette studio. When the file opens the first piece to be cut is the fan.

As this is the “sky” I am cutting it in blue cardstock. The card I used was a textured card so I selected this from the preset menu and did a test cut I found it was not cutting quite the way I would like so I increased the thickness by 1 and tested again this gave much better results. Remove the cut piece from the mat and insert an eyelet into the center of the piece, I used a cropodile for this. Move the fan off the mat in studio.

The next pieces to cut are the pieces of green that will form the base. Select the green circles the sawtooth strips and the rectangle and bring onto the cutting mat in the studio software and send to your machine to cut. The cardstock I used was the same brand of cardstock so the cut settings remained the same if you are using different brands/types of card you will need to adjust your settings to match, remember test cut so as not to waste your card.

Once cut remove the pieces from the mat. 

Attach the strips with the saw tooth edge to the circle without the hole as shown in the picture.

Take the straw and wrap the straight edge strip to one end making sure it is flush with the end of the straw and glue in place.

Insert the straw into the hole of the other circle and apply glue to the coil on both ends.

 lower this piece onto the free sawtooth edge and glue into place this piece gives strength and stability to the straw, ensuring that the straw is straight, allow to dry.

Load some tan vinyl onto your cutting mat and bring the bunnies onto the cutting mat in studio.

 Use appropriate settings for your media, for silhouette brand I used blade 1 speed 5 and thickness 10 as I had a new blade. Send the file to your cutter once you are happy with your settings. Repeat this process with the tree trunks using brown vinyl and green vinyl for the tree tops. Having cut all the pieces take the sheet of acetate and arrange the bunnies and trees along the long side of the A4 sheet. 

Try to keep these fairly even to balance the weight. Allowing some space above the trees trim the acetate. Run some red liner tape along the top and down one side.

Stick the two short sides together to make a drum. Using the edge of the tape as a guide attach the fan pieces allowing an overlap of 1-1.5cm. Take time to look at the direction your bunnies are running and ensure that the fan will turn in the direction that the bunnies are facing. 

The edges of the fan can be glued down or a length of red tape can be applied to the piece and a decorative strip can be applied. 

Load some Green card onto the cutting mat and bring the grass pieces into the cutting area. 

After working out the correct cut settings send this to cut. Remove the grass pieces from the mat and glue around the green base created earlier.

Drop the skewer down the straw and place the other eyelet down so it drops to the straw. I have added a strip at the top of my straw for stability.

Slot the drum into the skewer to rest on top of the eyelet. Your drum will now spin freely around. to top off my spinner I added a bead. glue the bead to the top center of the fan and allow to dry. using a pencil make where the top of the bead end on the skewer.

Remove the drum and cut the skewer just below the pencil line. Replace the drum and you now have a neat finish.

This completes all the construction part of the make now you can enjoy adding some decoration, perhaps some flowers and gems. I will share mine to the Silhouette UK facebook page when it's decorated. I'd love to see your finished pieces up there too.

Designs used

PRODUCTS USED: