Modern Twist on Advent Calendar

Hey there, it's Sara. Christmas is just a couple of days away! Today I wanted to show you a tutorial for how you can make a modern and one of a kind advent calendar, using your silhouette machine.

What you need:
White Cardstock
Thread
twig/stick
Silhouette Cameo/Portrait/Curio
LITTLE 3D STAR BOX OR ORNAMENT Design (ID #104791)
LD TIMES SQUARE Font ( ID #134147)

PREPARING YOUR DESIGN:

I made four different sizes. You can choose any size you like but these are the sizes I chose):

Six cuts of these two sizes (26 x 15 cm & 22 x 12 cm),

 one cut of this for Christmas Eve (35 x 20 cm),

and four of this (20 x 12 cm) , with one extra just in case I do a mistake with one of them.

Cut them all using the card stock setting, make sure you to do a test cut as some card stock are thicker than others and you might have to increase thickness to get a good cut. 

After that I cut out the numbers for the stars, to know which number I will cut in what colour, I coloured them grey and blue. You can choose any number you like and here I chose numbers randomly and not in any specific order. 

Numbers that will be cut in silver glitter.

Numbers that will be cut in blue glitter.

On the numbers, I chose to cut them using the Chipboard setting as the texture is quite thick and a normal card stock setting wont give me a clean cut. 

ASSEMBLING YOUR DESIGN:

Now that you have all your stars and numbers ready, you can start assembling your advent calendar.

Start by adding thread to your twig, roll the thread on the sides of the twig and make a knot on each side. It will look something like this:

Now work on your stars, for the stars you will need twine cord as well, so cut in advance 24 metre long twine cords to add to your stars.  Once you start folding your stars, glue the tip of the twine cord on the top part of your stars and add your advent presents inside the stars before gluing it together. 

This is how it will look like after its folded and glued together. 

Using paper glue, add your numbers to your stars. 

Once you have them all ready, you can start adding them to your twig hanger. Hang your twig, where you want it to be for Christmas and start adding your stars. Make some longer and some shorter till it looks something like this. 

A modern twist on advent calendar ready for Christmas countdown!

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Using the Silhouette Stencil Material

Hi! Bev here with a tutorial on how to use the Silhouette stencil material to create a planner or diary stencil for marking important information or to do lists to stay organised.

What you will need:

• Silhouette Cameo/Portrait
• Stencil material

Step One

The first step is to begin to think of the kind of shapes you would like on your stencil.  squares and circles are always good to bullet point tasks and  also larger circles and boxes for quick notes.
Open a new page and start to build the shapes into your stencil.

Once you are happy with your stencil, select all and duplicate it so you have two.

The backing of the stencil material is sticky and as we are going to be using this in a different way than usual, the second stencil will be used to back the front piece of material.  It will strengthen it and make it more durable and hard wearing.

Select one of the boxes and right click and flip horizontally.  This will make the cuts a mirror image of the first stencil and you will be able to fit the pieces together perfectly.

Step Two

Ensure that your cut settings are correct and all of the shapes will be cut.  The default cut settings have the blade at 3, but I changed this to 5 as the 3 wasn't cutting the material.  A 5 cut perfectly for me, but its always a good idea to do a test cut.  I also decided to opt for loading the media only and not using a mat.  It worked so well!

Carefully place the two pieces sticky sides together and your stencil is complete!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and I can't wait to see your stencil material makes!

DESIGNS USED:

I used the shapes available in the studio and created the tabs by using the Polygon tool.


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Making your own Washi Tape cut files

Hey there Silhouette Fans, Niki here today showing you how to make your very own washi tape cut files. I love washi tape but sometimes it just doesn't stick properly or it isn't in the right colour so I thought I'd make my own out of coloured cardstock.

I started off by drawing two lines on my mat using the Line tool. I made them slightly different lengths.

I then used the Draw Freehand tool to draw a wiggly line at each end.

 and then I choose a few small shapes from my Silhouette library and multiplied them within my washi tape.

The triangle one I just used the Polygon tool and the circle one I just used the Elipse tool. The heart, star, and arrow all came from Design Store files.

and I cut them out from different coloured card and make them into this layout:

Thanks so much for looking and enjoy making your own custom washi tapes!

Happy scrapping xx 

 Designs used:

Sn@p! Plane, star, heart

I am Arrows

Circle Hearts

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3D Triskele decorative globe

According to Wikipedia, a triskelion or triskele is a motif consisting of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry. The spiral design can be based on interlocking Archimedean spirals, or represent three bent human legs - like the Isle of Man legs.

I came across the work of Manja Burton on the internet and if these shapes appeal to you, please check out her wonderful work at Hattifant. She has very kindly agreed to allow me to share this tutorial with you as they are such fun to make.

I love making mathematical sculptures with paper, and there is something very satisfying about taking a flat 2D piece of card and making it curve into a ball or star shape. There are many online resources and books published about 3D modular or mathematical shapes.

I wasn't sure about doing a blog about the triskele until a friend came into my workshop and couldn't stop touching and turning them. She loved them, so I reckon they are simply a fun decoration to have in a bowl around the house, or you could hang them up as Christmas decorations near a window. They consist of three strips of card, and the Silhouette design store has many background patterns to use in the different sections. You can find my free file for the Triskele globe here.

EQUIPMENT:

Silhouette Portrait or Cameo, colour printer

Pattern files such as

Griffin Park Dog Pattern

Carousel Paper collection

Moroccan print by Silhouette - one of the free files in your library, and shown in the video below.

STEPS:

• Open my file and you will see three long strips with semicircles as in the left hand section of Image 1. The semicircles are grouped separately from the long rectangle. 
• The middle section below shows that I have set the rectangle outline to Cut and the semi circles and end tabs to Perforate.
• Select the first long rectangle and fill it with a colour or a pattern. Select the group of semicircles and choose a solid colour or another toning pattern. For example, see the right hand section of Image 1. 

Image 1

Switch on registration marks and print on card. The smaller the sphere you want, the thinner your card will need to be. Using A4 card I use weight of 180 - 200 gsm.

Here is a short video I made of the process of putting them together. Make two rings and then the third strip must be woven through as shown. In the video I use sticky tape for ease of use, but you may want to use a less visible glue, or a glue gun. At the end of the video you will see quite a few examples.

The dramatic black and white Damask pattern by Rivka Williams can be found in the Silhouette design store.

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