Chipboard Favour Boxes

Hi everyone, 😊 My name is Jordy, and this is my first ever blog post for Silhouette UK. 

May is a one of the best times for wedding season and nothing says wedding like gift boxes for your guests.

Materials Used:

Silhouette UK chipboard.

Your favourite type of adhesive, I like my tape roller as it’s easy to use.

Paper of your choice, I used white paper.

Silhouette CAMEO® 3 machine

Adhesive pearls for decoration.

Silhouette files:

Cage Box #89363.

Now onto the design...

Step 1: Open the file in Silhouette Studio: 

Once I decided on the designs I wanted to make, and purchased from the Silhouette Design Store. I opened then up. I did also make the box a little bit bigger, but not too big that it goes outside of the red cutting line.

Step 2: Cutting the design:

I don't want to do anything fancy with my design, as I love the rustic look of the kraft colour chipboard. I will be adding some accents once the design is cut, but I'm not going to do anything fancy within the software.

Now the best thing about this design is its super easy to cut on the chipboard. Load the chipboard onto the strong hold mat and run the designs through. I tweaked my cut setting in the software, because I know my machine cuts better with a little bit force. But as with everything, it is best that you start with the Silhouette Studio softwares default settings and find what works best for you! Because Chipboard cuts on a speed of 1, its best you grab a cup of tea coz we're gonna be here a while. (It's totally worth it though!)

Step 3: Put the design together:

Now all your parts are cut – we can put them together and have fun. I used a bone folder to get a smooth crisp fold on the chipboard. I used some tacky glue to glue it all down, usually I would opt for a tape gun but sadly my tape gun is out of tape! One little tip I have for using glue on projects, use mini pegs to hold the bits in place whilst they dry.

 I felt the design still looked a little bit boring - which is one of my biggest problems with crafting. I always feel projects need that little extra something. 

I cut a little bit of  vellum that would fit behind the cage bars and adhered it on the back. It just adds a little extra to the box.  Now the fun part (in my opinion) the adhesive pearls and crystals! I opted for a mix of both crystals and pearls, because it just made the box look so pretty.

And now, to put all the pieces together. I used coordinating yellow ribbon to match the theme of the box. I also decided not to use the heart, it didn't look right when I put it on but that is down to personal preference.  Obviously if it looks a little plain, you can jazz it up with some ink but I don't have access to any of that so I left mine as it is. Sometimes I love the look of items with no fancy extras.

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial and I can’t wait until the next one. Happy crafting.

Xo Jordy

FREE Design of the Week - It’s a Wrap with Printable Patterns - 17th July 2018

Hello, It’s Janet here using this week’s free file in the Silhouette Design Store - a lovely Tropical Leaf Printable Pattern.

Printable patterns are very versatile, and I’ve chosen to make some sheets of gift wrap for this week’s project. I’ve printed the pattern onto the largest paper that my printer can handle and used it to wrap a special gift. I’ll show you how to set this up in the Silhouette software to prepare it for printing. The actual print options available will differ from printer to printer. I used a large format,  A3+ Inkjet printer, and printed onto A3, 120 gsm, smooth, ultra white document paper. You can use a regular sized printer and join several sheets together if you don't have access to a larger one.

STEP 1: Adjust Paper Size in Silhouette Studio

Firstly set your page size to reflect the size of your paper (Page Setup window, Page Size tab, Size). My paper was A3 (297 x 420 mm, approx. 11.7" x 16.5"). If you are using paper of a non-standard size, enter the dimensions in the Width and Height boxes and press Enter. Turn on Show Print Border, and your see the current print page setting for your printer displayed as a grey line.

STEP 2: Adjust Printer Settings

From the top menu change your printer page settings to match your paper (File > Print Page Setup). Select your printer and the new paper size. Select Borderless if your printer has that option and you want the pattern to print right to the edge. The grey line will now be aligned with the paper edge on your virtual mat, and is barely visible.

STEP 3: Prepare the Paper

Using the Drawing Tools, draw a rectangle to match the size of the paper.  Select the rectangle, open the Fill Panel (artist palette icon) and click on the Fill Pattern tab (dotted square). Scan through the pattern thumbnails and select the Tropical Leaf pattern. The rectangle will then be filled with the leaf pattern. Click on the Advanced Options arrow to reveal more options. You can adjust the pattern scale using the Scale Pattern slider. The picture below shows the pattern at 100%.

This picture shows the pattern at 20%, and a grid is now visible, showing the edges of the pattern 'tiles'. There is no visible grid if the pattern is a seamless design, and in other tiled designs the grid can be less obvious. Choose a setting which you find attractive, I chose to print the paper at 100% and 50% to see which I liked the best.

STEP 4: Print the Paper

Send your paper to print (from the top menu, File > Print). The larger scaled paper is on the left, and the smaller one has been used to wrap the parcel.

STEP 5: Additional Decoration

I used the decorative elements from the Hawaii Bag by Daniela Moscone (#197821), layered with double-sided adhesive foam tape, and finished them off with drops of pink dimensional paint (Nuvo Crystal Drops).

If you haven't printed your own wrapping paper before I urge you to to try it. Imagine the variety of gift wrap you could make (there are currently around 3500 printable patterns available in the Silhouette Design Store).

The Tropical Leaves Pattern (#269750) is available for free until the 23/07/2108, after that it will revert to the regular price.


Bye for now,

  Crafting Quine Blog | Instagram @CraftingQuine

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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:

Where are my Silhouette fonts? Making Herb Labels

Hello Janet here with a post on locating the fonts you've purchased from the Silhouette Design Store.

There are some beautiful fonts available from the Silhouette Design Store, but I sometimes hear folks saying that they can't find fonts once they have purchased them. Today I have some hints for helping you locate them if you are having a similar problem.

I recently downloaded this lovely font (#212857) from the store called Vision, by designer Rhonna Farrer, with the idea of cutting it from vinyl to make plant labels. It is a lovely thick script font - a combination of style and thickness that was just perfect for the job.  I'm not singling out this font for criticism, it just happens to be the last font I purchased; there are other fonts, by other designers, that can be similarly difficult to locate.

However, I had a great deal of difficulty finding the font, convinced that it hadn't downloaded it.  I found the font in the Library, but couldn't locate it in the dropdown font list. I've included a brief tutorial for making the labels further down the page, but firstly I'll run through a few things which might help you locate those elusive fonts.


(1) Is the Font Installed?
When fonts from the Silhouette Store are installed you should see them in two places, (1) in the library,

and (2) in the font list (Text Style panel > Text Style tab > All Fonts).

Note, fonts purchased elsewhere, once installed, appear only in the font list and not in the library.



(2) Restart the Silhouette Software
Some versions of the software require that you to close Silhouette Design Studio and reopen it in order to see your newly downloaded files in the places shown above.

(3) Find the Font Name
You might have noticed in the above example that the font name in the font list is different than that in the library (that is why I initially had difficulty finding it).

(a) From the Silhouette Design Store
Sometimes the correct name (corresponding to the one in the font list) is shown in the store listing. If you can't locate it easily by browsing searching in the store you can look it up via your purchase (STORE > My-Account > My Download History, or STORE > My-Account > and browse My-Downloads).

(b) From your computer
You can also look up the correct font name (corresponding to the one in the font list) in your computer system's font list.

Search Font Book (Mac)
Open Font Book (double click it  in  Finder > Applications > Font Book, or Launchpad > Other > Font Book, and enter part or all of the font name in the search box. Results are shown in the list on the left of the window.

Search Installed Fonts (Windows 10)
Open Control Panel and select Fonts. In the search box (top right) type the partial file name. Results are displayed in the window below.

Using the Fonts

Once your fonts are installed you can either access them by (1) double-clicking on them in the library, which will take you to your workspace with a text cursor ready to place to type, or  (2) by clicking on the text tool located on the left-hand side of the software screen, and while still in text editing mode, highlighting the text you've typed, and selecting your desired font from the dropdown font list. With some older versions of the software only the second method is available.

These instructions relate to v4 of the Silhouette Studio software (v4.1.191, at the time of writing), but in earlier versions you might receive this message on downloading fonts "Fonts are different from other designs you purchase and do not appear in My Library. Rather, you will find access to all of your fonts by using the Text tool in the Silhouette software and choosing your new font from the dropdown selection box in that dialog box."

Making the Plant Labels

I know I'm a bit late in the season, but I wanted to mark my perennial herbs before they died down over winter, so I could locate them again in spring (they are slow to get started again this far North)


What You'll Need
Plastic or slate plant labels
White permanent vinyl
Clear transfer tape
Rhonna Vision Font (#212857)


Brief Instructions

1. Type out the herb or plant names in your chosen font.
2. Reduce point size to fit the labels (I drew a shape of similar size to the label).
3. Adjust character spacing as required.

4. Draw boxes around the names to aid weeding.
5. Left align the words so that they will be readable when the label ends are in the ground.

6. Cut the names from white vinyl.

7. Lift the names from the backing sheet with strips of clear transfer tape.

8. Burnish (rub) the words firmly onto the labels and peel away the transfer tape.

9. Hold off using them in very wet weather until the adhesive has had time to cure (48 hours).

10. The labels are ready to use.



I hope this helps you keep track of your fonts AND your herbs.


Bye for now,

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