Category: Silhouette

Rose Gold Wedding Paper Cut With Free Cut File

11/6/2018

I've been AWOL for quite a while, but don't worry I've been crafting like crazy. I have also doing lots of home improvements, so I've lots to catch up with you about!

Free Cut File to Download

As its wedding season, the first project I'm sharing is my geometric papercuts, including a free cut file that you can download here. I've included the file both in SVG and also GSD format (for those who use the basic Silhouette Studio software).

Free geometric papercut file from Craft Chatterbox blog. SVG and Silhouette studio compatible files

Click to download

Two Options: Floating and Edge to Edge

I couldn't decide whether to have the papercut floating or edge to edge within the frame, so I've included both options. I ended up cutting both and I included the smaller papercut on a greetings card to give the choice. For the perfectionists amongst us, the border around the smaller papercut allows you to perfectly centre the papercut within the frame.

Crafty Cutter High Shine Rose Gold Vinyl

Crafty cutter is the queen of speciality effect vinyl and she has a massive range of rose gold self-adhesive and heat transfer vinyls. Here's the unboxing video of a giant order I did at Christmas time if you're interested in seeing more:

She now sells a new high shine rose gold vinyl which is also rose gold on the reverse - great for glasses etc. Charlotte kindly sent me a sheet to try and I'm in love. It cuts and weeds like a dream and I think it looks ace on this project. It's currently priced at £2.50 per A4 sheet.

Other Supplies

FRAME: I got the frame for £6 from BHS, which I've just seen is closing down again:( I have seen the same frames from Boots and Paperchase, albeit at a higher price point
PAPER: I used 125gsm hammer paper from Paperchase
CARD: I used 300gsm hammer card from Hobbycraft for the greetings card
FONT: I used the Strong Glasgow by Hero Fonts which is free for personal use

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How To Make Your Own Foil Prints and Stickers

19/1/2018

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Tutorial on how to make your own foil prints and stickers using a laser printer, a laminator and foiling sheets. Reviews and recommnedations of Foiling products by Craft Chatterbox blog

I'm very excited to bring this tutorial to you today as I've been a foiling-mad woman for quite a while now! I've recorded a video which shows you how to foil your own prints. I've also covered foiling stickers and how you can layer foiling on top of inkjet printed backgrounds. I compare the different foils and give tips on the best printers and card.

To help get you started, I'm giving away a bumper pack of free printable designs - links at the bottom of this post.

Why A Laser Printout?

Laser printers don’t use water soluable ink, instead they use tiny granules of black plastic called toner. Laser printers uses static electricity to arrange the toner onto the page and then the hot rollers melt it and fuse it to the paper. If we heat the page again, the toner will melt and become a perfectly precise glue that the foil will stick to. Any parts of the paper that are white stay white, whereas anything printed black will be covered with foil.

Before - a normal black and white laser print out. Gold foil is placed on top and run through a hot laminator, giving the final foiled result. Tutorial on toner foiling by Craft Chatterbox

Bee image by Nic Squirrell https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/148628

Inkjet Printouts Won't Work, but that can be useful

Inkjet printers will not work, but the fact that they aren't reactive can be used to our advantage. We can print any design, using black or coloured inks as a background, safe in the knowledge that the foils won't stick to them. We can then take the inkjet printout and run it through the laser printer, this time printing the design that we want foiled.

Foiled designs can be layered on top of inkjet printed images, here the stripes are inkjet and the wording is laser printed and foiled. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog.

Inkjet printed background stripes with laser printed and foiled centre

Foiled designs can be layered on top of inkjet printed images. This is marble patterned wrapping paper, but equally inkjet printed pattern would work too. The wording is laser printed and foiled. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog.

This is marble patterned wrapping paper, but inkjet printed background would also work.

Printer Tips

Mono laser printers that only print in black and white are better than colour ones as apparently the formulation of the black toner is different. I originally bought a Canon printer from John Lewis but had to return it as it kept getting paper jams. In the end I bought a Samsung MD3220ND from Printerland, currently £117.58 as it was the only printer I could find under £500 that could take cardstock up to 220gsm.
If you don't want to buy a laser printer, you can get your local print shop or chain such as Staples to print you copies. Photocopiers also use toner if you have access to one.

Foiling Sheets

The Minc Rose Gold foil comes in a roll which is handy. I bought mine from Amazon UK for £7.37 and it shipped from America (there is no import taxes as the value is under the threshold).

Deco foil by thermoweb foiling sheets. Foiling Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

The Deco Foil Rose Gold foil comes in 6 by 12 inch sheets of 5 or 20. The 5 sheet tube is £6.42 and comes with free next day delivery if you have Prime. The larger pack of 20 is £7.16 but ships from America, also no import tax.

Patsy May Toner foiling sheets. Foiling Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

Patsy May, a UK company sell 15m rolls of metallic foil in widths of 10, 20 and 30cm for £6, £10 and £15 respectively. They also sell holographic and patterned foils in the same sizes and prices. The postage is £2.70, but even adding this, these foils work out the cheapest.

My favourite is the Deco Foil, but in the video, the Patsy May foils actually performed really well on stickers.

Card and Paper

My favourite white card to use is Color Copy by Mondi, its bright white and super smooth, especially formulated for laser printers but also works well with inkjet for those layered looks.

Mondi Color Copy 200gsm is great for foiling. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

Mondi Color Copy A4 200gsm £13.11 from Amazon with free Prime delivery.

I also like the super smooth card from Anna Marie Designs which is £5.99 for 50 sheets.

I'm a massive fan of an innovative paper from Italy called The Tube, sold by Paperstory, both for foiling and for paper cutting. It has a latex like finish and 10 sheets are £3.10. There are a variety of colours, my favourite are the matte black, petrol blue and graphite grey.

My favourite papers to foil with. Matte Black 'The Tube' paper from Paperstory. Image is #4051032 from Vectorstock. Foiling tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog

Matte Black 'The Tube' paper from Paperstory. Image #4051032 from Vectorstock

Tip For Silhouette Users when Foiling Stickers

Stickers look great foiled, I particularly like to make foiled return address labels.

Foiled stickers cut with a Silhouette Cameo, but circle punches can also be used.

For those with Silhouette Cameo cutting machines, the Cameo 3 having two blades is great for stickers. I do a light kiss cut which cuts the circles but not the backing paper (blade 1 force 5) using the left blade. It then automatically moves on to cut with more force (blade 2 force 27) through the full sheet using the right blade. Once you've cut the stickers and removed the registration marks, then you can foil as normal.

Cutting stickers with the Cameo 3. Kiss cut with the first blade then fully cut the sheet to remove registration marks with the second blade. Do this in a single pass using the cut by line option within the Send menu

How to kiss cut then trim the sticker sheets in a single pass using the cut by line option.

FREEBIES!

Please feel free to download and use the following PDF printable freebies that I have designed (personal use only). I've also included SVG and Silhouette Studio Compatible formats (GSD) if you'd rather cut the designs instead of foil them. The PDFs are black and white, I've just shown them in gold to help envisage the final product. Click on the images to open the download links

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. You Make Me Happy When Skies Are Grey

Fool For Love font https://mistifonts.com/fool-for-love/ Arsenale White font https://www.dafont.com/arsenale-white.font

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Silently Correcting Your Grammar

Ostrich Sans font https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ostrich-sans

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Origami insects

Icons created by Agne Alesiute and kindly shared under Creative Commons licence. https://thenounproject.com/grrrauf/collection/origami-animals/

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Insect mandala

Icons made by Freepik and kindly shared under creative commons licence https://www.flaticon.com/pack/animal-kingdom

Free PDF printable by Craft Chatterbox. Little Sleep Thief foiling file.

I Love Glitter font by Misti Fonts http://mistifonts.com/i-love-glitter/

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Origami christmas baubles - free templates

23/12/2017

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Origami christmas baubles free pdf printable and silhouette cut files plus video tutorial from craftchatterbox blog

This year, I went for a dark blue and rose gold theme for my christmas tree and got a wee bit obsessed making origami baubles!

Free PDF Printables and Silhouette Cut and Score Files

I've got some free PDF printable templates. For those with cutting machines, I have included a folder with Silhouette compatible cut and score files and also a folder of SVGs for Cricut users. Link for free files

Youtube Tutorials

I've previously shared a written tutorial for the diamond and pear shaped lanterns on Silhouette UK - here. I think origami is definately something which is easier understood with a video though, so here's my YouTube tutorial:

I also did a video on how to construct the origami spheres

Gallery

Silhouette settings

The paper I was using was my favy-fav pearlescent 120gsm paper from Anna Marie Designs.

I cut with a blade 2 force 27 and scored with a blade 2 force 2. I really recommend experimenting as it will vary massively depending on your paper and also blade condition.

Double-Sided Scoring for Silhouette

Most of the time, I just cut and score everything on the same side of the paper. The spheres however have an interesting feature that all the diagonal lines fold one way (mountain) and all the straight lines fold the other way (valley). So I decided to score the diagonal lines and cut the outside edge, then pause the machine. I didn't unload the mat, but just flipped over the paper, fitting it back into it's rectangle so I knew everything was still aligned. The machine then resumed - scoring the vertical lines and cutting out the circles for stringing. Here's a screenshot of my send menu.

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Make Oversized Stencils With Silhouette Cameo

13/8/2017

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Make large stencils with Silhouette CAMEO. Tutorial on Craft Chatterbox blog.

In my recent Kitchen Refurb project, I used my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine to make some large scale stencils and today I'll share the two techniques that I used. For the splashback, I pieced together 6 a4 sticker sheets and used registration shapes to align them, whereas for my cocktail cabinet upcycle, I cut long continuous lengths of vinyl from a roll.

Piece Together Smaller Stencils Using Registration Marks

For the splashback, I wanted a gentle stencil material that wouldn't damage or lift my dark grey paint. I decided to use my favourite metallic sticker paper from Poundland (£1 for 8 sheets). The only problem is that these stickers are A4 in size, so I needed 6 sheets to make up the stencil. To make sure that I was aligning my sheets exactly, I cut little squares along the sides which formed registration marks. Once I piece the 6 sheets into one, I covered over the squares

I'm a big fan of the Whatcha Working On blog and Eff recently did a tutorial on large wall decals. She used the same registration idea as I did, but used stars instead of squares (any shape with corners is fine). In the wall decal tutorial, the stars are used to align then removed, in much the same way as I uses the squares to combine the sheets before then covering them. Check out Eff's guide on How to Divide a Large Wall Decal in Silhouette Studio - the principles are exactly the same for a stencil.

Cut Long Lengths of Vinyl Directly from the Roll

My cocktail cabinet is quite narrow, so I didn't need to piece together separate stencils, but at 90cm high, it's much longer than even my biggest 12 by 24 inch mat. I therefore decided to cut my stencil without a mat, directly from the roll. I normally cut everything from a mat, even vinyl despite the fact it has a backing sheet so doesn't strictly need it.

TOP TIP 1: Ensure the top of your vinyl is cut crisply and is as straight as possible

Cutting without a mat works just fine, but it's very important to load it straight. If your vinyl doesn't have a nice clean edge it may load wonkily or not at all. Similarly, if not cut square, you'll find the vinyl will eventually slope off it's rollers. The back of your vinyl will likely have a grid to keep you right and I recommend using a rotary cutter if you have one.

TOP TIP 2: Position Clear of Obstructions
I placed my Silhouette Cameo on the floor, making sure there were no obstructions

TOP TIP 3: Use Arrow Keys to Test Feeding
I used the arrow keys on the machine to feed the vinyl through and test that the vinyl would load through for long lengths without any issue. I was tempted to buy the roll feeder, but decided I wouldn't use it enough to merit the outlay (and storage!).

For more tip's check out How to cut without a mat on your Silhouette

Use the Hinge Method

Spray Tent

Oh how I yearn for a garage! Unfortunately adding a garage to a lovely apartment in Edinburgh's city centre comes at an eye watering price, so I've come up with a slightly barmy idea that works for me! I bought a deluxe aqua dome tent which is really quite big at over 2m tall and 1.65m square. It's ample size for the furniture I need to paint and I don't have to worry about fumes as the paint I use (General Finishes) is non-toxic and has no odour. My colleague thought I'd be a disaster trying to put it up, even asking me to Facebook Live it! I defied his mockery though and was quite happy that it was up within 30 minutes.

Finished Product

Bloopers and Outtakes

I'd never want to make out that all my crafting projects go to plan. Normally there's always something that goes awry! On the splashback, I got some bleeding. Now normally the sticker paper is perfect, giving very crisp results, but the force of the HVLP sprayer must have been just a bit much for it. I just tided up with an artist's paintbrush. On the cabinet, I originally tried the wet application method, but it was a disaster, I couldn't get the vinyl to stick to the cabinet and the transfer tape wouldn't come off the vinyl either!

Big shout Out to Baillie Signs Edinburgh

A while back, I contacted Baillie Signs asking if they had any offcuts of vinyl. They generously gave me a few big rolls! Whilst not the colour I'd use to directly decorate items with, they work perfectly for stencils. Many crafter pals I know have struck up friendships with their local sign makers. It might be a handy way to buy smaller quantities instead of ordering online and if they are happy for you make pretty things from what would otherwise be waste, I think everyone wins :)

©Baillie Signs Edinburgh

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Ode to Orla Kiely - My Kitchen Refurb

4/8/2017

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After a long hiatus, I'm glad to share with you my kitchen makeover - dark grey and Orla Kiely themed! Whilst my kitchen before wasn't terrible, I really disliked the mix match of wood colours and it wasn't my style. I had actually picked a new kitchen (acrylic gloss) with a U-shaped layout, but decided to cancel the order when I separated from my partner last year. The total cost of this project including all the Orla Kiely accessories was under £1000 and I'm surper pleased with the results.

General Finishes Queenstown Gray

I'd seen upcycle projects using my favourite General Finishes Milk Paint on Pinterest and thought it might be a fun project to try. I originally thought I'd go with the paler Seagull or Driftwood, but I kept being drawn to projects that used the darkest Queenstown Gray, so decided to be brave. I used the High Performance Flat Topcoat. The worktops were sanded back and stained with GF wood stain in Walnut. For the walls, I used Johnstone's who colour matched to Farrow and Ball Ammonite

General Finishes milk paint colour chart

As you can see from the above photo, I have 12 cupboard doors of varying size and 6 drawers. I boxed in some pipes with MDF and painted that along with a freestanding shelving unit. There were also the kickboards, cupboard sides, wall shelves and backsplash, not to mention random stuff like my doggie door stop and even some picture mounts! I opted for 1 large (gallon size) tin of the milk paint and 2 of the top coat. I painted 2 -3 coats of milk paint on both sides and 3-4 coats of topcoat. I opted for the smallest tin of wood stain for the worktop. The total price for all the paints, topcoats and stains was £241.

Paint Sprayer

Earlex HV5500 HVLP sprayer used in Kitchen Upcycle with General Finishes Milk Paint

C/O Screwfix - Earlex HV55 HVLP Sprayer currently £187.99

I wanted a perfect finish, so decided to abandon trusty foam brushes and set about researching a paint sprayer. Bamboozled by options, I spoke to the helpful guy at General Finishes Edinburgh who said a HVLP (high volume low pressure) sprayer would be best. I was set to hire one from Glasgow, but managed to get a bargain on EBay for £107.

Prepping the Space- Just Call Me Dexter

OK, so I did go a bit overboard with the whole prep thing! Life would have been infinitely easier with a garage, but alas, I don't have one *sigh*. I needed to fully protect the floor and window area and spray inside the room. I got the dust sheets, overalls, mask and floor protector all from Screwfix. When a friend told me that the orange mask filter looked like a massive tongue that photo gets even more ridiculous!! I ended up ditching the overalls, the sprayer really wasn't that messy. The floor protector however is really an excellent product, I ended up hoovering and mopping it and it was very durable but peeled back without damaging the floor or leaving residue.

First Coats

I did quite a full coverage on some of the first coats, but then decided that it would be better to layer up the colour more gradually. I had a scrap of cardboard about 60cm by 30cm that turned out to be very handy when blocking any overspray, as this was the size of my full and half sized cupboards/drawers.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

I started the project over the Easter weekend and thought I'd prep the room Friday, paint on Saturday and Sunday and be finished and relaxing on Monday. Pah-hah-hah, what wishful thinking! I was still doing topcoats each night after work and then when I got a horrible lurgy-flu it was just grims-ville trying to paint whilst coughing and spluttering into a mask. I'm glad I painted the fronts and backs, but it certainly added more than double to the time as each side had to be completely dry before I could flip and paint the next layer.

In a distressed call to my close pals, they wisely told me to get some help in for the final push. My lovely Polish decorator Gregor and his friend Paul came to my rescue. The lads boxed in an ugly pipe left by nightmare plumbers, did the emulsion and sanded and stained the worktop along with other jobs around the flat. I was honestly am so indebted to them for all their hard work and for rescuing me from my mini meltdown!

Splashback Stencil

I love the Poundland metallic sticker paper for stencils. It cuts well with the Silhouette and has a washi-tape like stickiness, never taking off even the most delicate of paint finishes. This time though, the force of the Earlex sprayer meant there was a little bleeding. No biggie, I just tidied up with an artists' paintbrush, but a repositionable vinyl may have been better in this instance.

Hob Cover

One of my major bug bears of the kitchen is the tall cabinet in the middle of the wall. It splits the kitchen in two, reducing worktop space and would have been much better at either end. I therefore ordered bespoke hob covers from Hob Covers Direct for just shy of £100. I was very impressed - the technical drawings came back same day (Sunday) and the covers were with me a few days later. They do scratch easily, but overall have been a lifesaver for giving me much more worktop space. They lift up when cooking and so have the benefit of also shielding the splashback from splashes and splatters.

Shelfies - from Shameful Shambles to Shipshape Order

I had a tatty old set of pine garage shelves that was basically in a disgraceful mess. I painted them and bought some boxes for storing the likes of tea towels, food processor accessories and tupperware. I covered the £2.50 DRONA Ikea boxes with Orla Kiely fabric (£18/sq metre), which, as luck would have it, is the right width to cover the 4 sides perfectly! The felt type uncovered boxes are also Ikea - the lidded one next to the microwave is EKET (£10) and BLADDRA ones are £7 each.

Window Seat and Blind

Orla Kiely Cool Grey Linear Stems Blind and Window Seat. Upcycled cocktail cabinet also themed in OK style

I made the window seat myself but ordered the blind from Lilac Tree, who I was very pleased with. I ordered the foam cut to size from efoam and opted for the dacron wrap with stockinette, so the total came to £48. I actually had issues with my first attempt - the continuous zip kept splitting and I didn't like how the seams on the side panel looked. So I managed to reuse the fabric for the bases of the shelf boxes and started again. This time I wrapped a continuous length of fabric around the cushion and just boxed panels at the angled sides. This time I used thick width velcro instead of a zip. I used the exact dimensions of the foam width and depth for the fabric. The only change I made was to use a cushion thickness of 10.5cm in my calculations rather than the actual thickness of 12cm to give a nice and full plumpness.

OMG are you still with me?

I didn't intend on this post being quite so long, sorry!! I'll come back and talk about the large stencils I cut with my Silhouette machine for the cocktail cabinet upcycle project and also the backsplash in my next post. Until then here is a slide show of before and afters.

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How to Draw Raindrops in Silhouette Studio

2/7/2017

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Here is an easy technique for making your own raindrop and teardrop shapes in Silhouette Studio. I've also included a free Silhouette Compatible cut file which you can download from here.

Point Edit the Top Node OF A Circle

The key, is to start with a circle and simply point edit the top node. Double-click on the circle to show nodes and drag the top one upwards. Change the node type to a corner and drag into the shape you like.

How to drawn raindrops and teardrops in Silhouette Studio. Tutorial plus video and free cut file by Craft Chatterbox blog

Duplicate, Flip and Intersect to Ensure Symmetry

Duplicate the shape in exactly the same position by holding down the Alt key and clicking on the shape. Flip the shape by right-clicking and selecting Flip Horizontally. Then select both shapes and chose the Intersect option within the Modify window

GIF animation of how to make raindrop shapes symettrical in Silhouette Studio. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog

Round Tip Using Offset

If you want a rounded tip, I find the easiest way is to use the Offset tool. If you want your shape to remain the same size, simply internal offset and then external offset y the same amount. That way the shape will be identical, but just without the sharp tip

How to round tip of raindrop using the Offset Tool in Silhouette Studio. Tutorial by Nadine Muir for Craftchatterbo Blog

Replicate to Make Flowers

Designer Edition owners can use the rotate copies option within the Replicate window to turn their raindrop shapes into flowers. Simply drag the centre of rotation to the top or bottom and click replicate. Alternatively the new Object to Path functionality can do this too and it's available to all users. I'll post an another video soon.

Free Cut File

Want a selection of raindrop shapes to use immediately? Download my freebie and you'll have all these shapes to choose from (click the image to download).

Freebie Silhouette compatible cut file with raindrop / teardrop shape and flowers from Craft Chatterbox blog

Requests?

I've been neglecting the wee blog recently, but don't worry I've been crafting hard, so I have lots of things to update you with. In the next few weeks I'll tell you all about my kitchen revamp, screen-printing and enamelling workshops and my paper weaving hot air balloon project. If you have any requests for tutorials, let me know and if know how to do it I'll certainly rewrite a post. If I don't know how I'll try my hardest to find out!! 'Til next time, Nadine

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Laminator Lovin' : Liberty Fabric & HTV Cards

12/3/2017

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Using a laminator to apply heat transfer vinyl (htv) and liberty fabric to cards. Shapes cut with my Silhouette Cameo. Tutorial on Craft Chatterbox blog

I bought an A3 laminator from Aldi a few months back to use in conjunction with a laser printer for the purposes of foiling. Now, foiling has been a rollercoaster ride of a craft hobby, so I'll cover that separately, but I just had to share with you the fabulous, consistent and easy results I've had using my laminator with fabric and heat transfer vinyl (HTV) cut with my Silhouette Cameo.

Chrome HTV

I tried applying gold chrome HTV to card ages ago and it worked well, but when I used it with an iron, the card curled massively and no amount of time under heavy books would fix it.

Well, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. I was having a drama with a leaving card that I designed to be foiled and I needed it for the next day. I had no self-adhesive gold vinyl, but I did have some in heat transfer vinyl. I decided to give the HTV a whirl and as my laminator was already up and running, I figured I would run it through and see what happened.

Gold Chrome HTV card applied with a laminator. Free Sheep design by Phil Laver at The Noun Project

I was chuffed, it applied perfectly with just one pass through the laminator and unlike with foiling, I was able to use very thick, textured card too, which I thought suited the sheep!

Why Not Just Use Regular Vinyl?

It seems barmy to use a laminator when you could just use regular self-adhesive vinyl , but I find it is actually a good option for a few reasons:

I can buy one product and use it two ways
I use HTV more, so I have a big selection of colours and finishes to choose from.
I find it easier to source unusual finishes such as chrome, glitter and flock in HTV rather than vinyl and they are often available in smaller sizes, such as 30cmx50cm sheets from MDP or even A4 sheets from Crafty Cutter
No need for transfer tape as HTV comes complete with a low-tack transfer sheet. This has just the right amount of stickiness to hold the design in place but comes away easily from the card without ripping or leaving marks.
Applying self-adhesive vinyl is a right-first-time type gig, but you can take your time aligning or moving the HTV before passing through the laminator.

Using my Liberty London Fabric Stash

I have already attached fusible stabiliser to my Liberty Tana Lawn fabric for my applique onesies , so cut out some more shapes to use on cards. For the mother's day card, I applied the fabric directly on the card. As the sentiments above and below were done with sketch pens, I also drew on the card where the fabric MUM letters should be placed. I made sure the pen would be covered by using a 0.1cm internal offset. The word MUM uses Clarendon font and the wording above and below uses the Sketch Serif Font from the Silhouette Design Store

Sketch pen trick for aligning fabric, use a 0.1cm internal offset so the pen won't be seen. Applying fabric cut by Silhouette Cameo with a laminator by Craft Chatterbox blog

Mock up of my card in Silhouette Studio. Use the Internal Offset trick to help align the fabric shapes

Mother's Day card using sketch pens and Liberty London fabric cut by the Silhouette Cameo. Attach the fabric using a laminator. Craft Chatterbox blog

The Silhouette is so versatile, it cut the fabric, the card and also sketched the sentiment

For passing through the laminator, I held the fabric in place with a piece of HTV carrier sheet that I kept from my last project. If you don't have any, kapton (sublimation) tape would also work - eBay and Amazon sell it for a few pounds.

Try adding dimension

I normally like to have a little dimension in a card, so decided to apply my fabric to some brown Kraft card. As the fabric and Kraft card pieces were small, I fed them through the laminator sandwiched in some plain copy paper and then attached to the card with foam squares. The Kraft card was cut with a 0.25cm external offset to the fabric L.

Liberty of london fabric attached to kraft card using laminator. Both cut with Silhouette Cameo - Craft Chatterbox blog

Fabric with a HTV Border

Just as I combined fabric with a HTV border for my applique onesies, you can do exactly the same for cards. I used my favourite elephant design, and the bloom font to make a new baby card.

Using my fabric and HTV onesie method, I used a laminator to apply to a greetings card. All shapes cut with my Silhouette Cameo - craft chatterbox blog

I couldn't bare to waste the elephant shape that I weeded from the HTV, so decided to make a second card. All I needed was the wording and water splashes, so used up a scrap strip just 3 by 9 cm and got a totally cute card made out of scraps and waste!

Using scrap pieces of weeded HTV in other projects. Make cards with HTV using a laminator. Craft Chatterbox blog

Future Projects

I plan on making big versions of the Kraft card and Liberty fabric letters strung together to make pretty bunting for a new baby gift.

I was also thinking that I could make a baby mobile, with lovely fabric shapes. I plan to cut a front and back piece and give it a nice plumpness by sandwiching a smaller piece of felt inside or maybe use some wadding. If I was using wadding, I'd maybe use a pair of straighteners instead of the laminator to nip the edges closed, like a very pretty Cornish pasty!

As my laminator is A3, I can do some nice big wall art for my hall that I'm currently decorating too :)

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Besotted with Bows

25/2/2017

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Bows. Like many crafters, I have a love-hate relationship with them. I would hate to count the hours I have a faffed with a bit of ribbon that is tormenting me with it's wonky loop or tail. That said, I wouldn't be without them - whether on cards or in hair, made with ribbon, paper or fabric, there is something so prim and pretty about the perfect bow.

Fabric and card Bows

I started a little bow factory at Christmas making lots of shiny and sparkly bow hair clips as presents for the little kiddos in my life.

I bought my supplies from GlitterGlitterOnTheWall. Beware, this site is amazing and you may find your cart growing uncontrollably!

Download your free SIlhouette cut file or PDF here

Free Silhouette cu file and pdf bow template from Craft Chatterbox Blog

Click on image to download free Silhouette Cut File or PDF

I thought I would be able to cut the chunky glitter fabric with my Silhouette Cameo, but no dice. I could barely even cut it with my crazy sharp big fabric scissors! Instead, I printed out my templates onto A4 sticker paper, stuck this to the underside of my fabric and cut out by hand.

Other felt back fabrics, leatherettes, paper and card are of course fine with the Silhouette. Below are photos of some bows I made from a fab glitter wallpaper that cuts like a dream. I haven't even gotten around to buying a full roll yet as I'm still going strong with just the couple of small sample strips I got from my local B&Q store!

Karen's Perfect Bows

Now let's move on to ribbon. A friend that I met on my favourite facebook craft group makes the most adorable bows.

Courtesy of Karen McCarthy from Karamac Krafts

We pestered Karen for the secret to her perfect bows and she kindly photographed all the steps, so I converted them into a wee video:

Flat Knots for the 'Bow-Impaired'

One of my favourite ways of decorating a gift is by faking a bow with a reef knot. It is quick, uses very little ribbon and is simple and stylish.

Here's the video that I follow. My brain annoyingly refuses to store these simple steps, so I have to watch the video every single time!

Origami Bows

I decided to have a shot at making an origami bow and found a good YouTube tutorial. The steps are easy once you've practiced them a few times, but I found it a bit more complex than other origami designs.

Great Bow Shops

If you're short on time and would rather buy a fabulous bow instead of making it, I have a few shops that I can recommend. Karen from the ribbon tutorial runs Karamac Krafts, Margaret Read owns Daisy Dots Boutique and Laura Patterson runs L & A Bespoke Designs.

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All About Etching

17/1/2017

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Following my trip to La Vidalerie where I learnt salt-water etching, I've been a woman obsessed! I've been etching copper, steel and silver with all different types of methods and I've written up quite a few tutorials too.

Salt-Water etching

My first tutorial was on salt-water etching, featuring a copper keyring I made for Lisa at Silhouette UK.

Salt water etched copper heart using vinyl resists cut from Silhouette. Tutorial by Nadine Muir for Silhouette UK Blog

Check out my wee diagram illustrating the set up:

Diagram of process for salt water copper etching. Tutorial using vinyl resists by Nadine Muir for Silhouette UK Blog

Edinburgh Etch Solution

I then made some things with Edinburgh Etch Solution, which is just ferric chloride with citric acid added. This simple addition of the acid that's in lemon juice makes a faster, cleaner and longer lasting etchant that is cheap and non-toxic.

Stainless Steel Hipflask Etched with Edinburgh Etch Solution (Ferric Chloride) using Vinyl Resists Cut with Silhouette Cameo. Tutorial by Nadine Muir for Silhouette UK Blog

Hints and Tips for Designing and Applying Resists

As the hipflask that I made my dad also used Edinburgh Etch Solution, I decided instead to make more of a hint and tips tutorial for all etching methods. Indeed this tips are relevant for etching non metals too, such as glass or tiles. I covered how to chose which parts are to be weeded or kept, how to envisage the end result in the software, cutting spares and also reverse weeding/weeding in situ.

Etching SIlver

Finally, this post covers two techniques for etching fine and sterling silver. I used electro etching with silver nitrate for the swallow and ferric nitrate for the hummingbird.

Electro etched sterling silver swallow using silver nitrate

Silver nitrate etched sterlinng silver hummingbird.

Future ForAys

Brass - I ordered up some copper and brass shapes from Just Simply Blanks and they have just arrived today, yippee! I also ordered a cheap guillotine cut 1kg mixed bag of brass sheet from Ebay.

Letterpress - I plan to make a letterhead or return address design to emboss onto paper using my Big Shot mangle thingy to make a letterpress stamp.

Champlevé - I'd like to have a shot at filling some etched pieces with either real enamel (torch firing) or cold enamel (epoxy resin). I also have some efcolor which has the benefit of needing only a domestic oven at 150 degrees, but I'm not completely convinced - think it might be a bit plasticky. I will of course keep you updated.

A New Etching Solution for Zinc, Steel and Aluminium - I've been using Edinburgh Etch for steel, but I discovered this article recommending a new solution , so bought me some cheap copper sulfate from eBay, again in the words of Arnie,"I'll be back!"

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Loving La Vidalerie

1/12/2016

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I'm just home from a week's holiday at La Vidalerie in France and it was fabulous!

My First visit in 2013: An Introduction to Jewellery Making

I first discovered La Vidalerie when shopping for handmade silver jewellery findings a few years back. Browsing through the website, I noticed that they also run jewellery making holidays. So, my buddy Jenny and I went along for a few days on their beginners' course.

Mastering the Basics

We covered the basics and it was a revelation to learn the correct techniques for things I always just muddled through with. For example how to securely crimp and attach clasps to bracelets, open and close jump rings tightly without distorting them and how to make the perfect wire wrapped loops every time!

Wire work, Riveting, Fold-Forming and Soldering

We drank a hell of a lot of cups of tea with choccie biccies, so I don't know how we managed it but we also branched into loads of 'proper' silversmithing. We made our own earwires and clasps and learnt how to herringbone weave silver wire around beads. We got our hammers out and learnt how to fold-form flat silver into 3d shapes. We stamped and riveted pieces and even learnt how to solder our own stacker rings!

Precious Metals Workshop in Edinburgh

After my first holiday at La Vidalerie, I started making things at home and took an evening class at Precious Metals Workshop in Edinburgh. I got quite into it and hired a bench with a friend, Di, whom I met at the workshop.

After a couple of years, my jewellery hobby dwindled, as my Silhouette Cameo had taken over and a flat move took up my remaining spare time. I decided to cancel my bench as it was £60 per month and packed away all my tools.

In need of a Retreat

Not many people know, but things have been tough recently, as I've separated from my long term partner. I needed a break and the first place that sprung to mind was La Vidalerie!

Rekindling My Hobby

Since visiting last, Karen and Tim have built a fabulous workshop, kitted out with loads of equipment, so I had a ball.

Keum Boo

My favourite jeweller Misun Won uses this Korean technique of fusing fine gold foil to silver a lot and I was keen to find out more. I experimented with cutting it on my cameo, which was very nerve-racking given the cost!!

Electro (salt water) etching

At PMW in Edinburgh, I tried chemical etching on copper and silver, so was keen to try out salt water etching on copper with Karen. This technique passes an electric current from some household batteries through the water to etch your piece. We also used the same idea of electro-etching on silver, but instead of salt needed to use silver nitrate. We tried out resists, including vinyl cut from my Silhouette Cameo.

Glass Fusing and Etching Dichroic

I learnt how to make fully fused glass pieces and how to make custom designs etching the special sparkly dichroic glass

Rolling Mill Textures

This was an unexpected delight, so much so I have ordered my own mini mill arriving tomorrow! I cut designs in paper with my cameo, many inspired by retro Orla Kiely style stems. I particularly love my brooch and learning how to make the fastening.

Claw and Tube Setting Stones

Apart from constantly dropping my teeny weeny topaz when I was trying to set it, I love this sea glass pendant and learning the versatile claw setting. I want to take a trip to Seaham near Newcastle where this glass is from - apparently there was an old Victorian bottleworks factory which routinely dumped its end of day glass into the sea. Almost a century after it closed, the sea still churns back daily loots of beautiful sand-polished glass nuggets. Closer to home, I hear South Queensferry is also good, but this time because of the nearby pubs!

Completing my Origami Hummingbird

I etched this little fella in PMW but he had languished in an unfinished projects box. I soldered a brooch pin on and we gave him a wee polish and he's ready. Do you think I should keep him or gift him this Christmas?

Itinerary

I know it seems like I have some sort of affiliation, but I don't at all, I just really loved both my holidays! Karen and Tim are so warm and welcoming and really easy-going. Tim picked me up and dropped me off at Montpelier airport, although we realised that Beziers is actually a way better option late March to October as Ryanair fly direct from Edinburgh.

Breakfast and lunches are included and veggies are well catered for as Karen herself is vegetarian. For dinner, you can cook in the gite or Tim will happily drop you off in the local village and collect you again.

Incredibly materials are also included, yes really - silver, copper and glass! I even got a little laser engraved usb with all the photos Tim kindly took and my own polishing stick. My makes were wrapped in little bags and tissues and I was given some La Vidalerie jewellery tins so I didn't damage them travelling back home.

My holiday cost £890 - this is the 2016 price for 5 workshop days and 7 nights. This can be split into shorter holidays such as 2 Workshop Days / 3 Nights for £395 per person or 3 Workshop Days / 4 Nights costing £495 per person. I think this is fabulous value considering day courses in Edinburgh cost as much or more without food, accomodation or materials! Here's their website La Vidalerie.

Oh, I should mention that Karen and Tim are English ex-pats, so teach in English in case you assumed my French is way better than it is!!

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Flat Knots for the 'Bow-Impaired'

Origami Bows

Great Bow Shops

Salt-Water etching

Edinburgh Etch Solution

Hints and Tips for Designing and Applying Resists

Etching SIlver

Future ForAys

My First visit in 2013: An Introduction to Jewellery Making

Mastering the Basics

Wire work, Riveting, Fold-Forming and Soldering

Precious Metals Workshop in Edinburgh

In need of a Retreat

Rekindling My Hobby

Keum Boo

Electro (salt water) etching

Glass Fusing and Etching Dichroic

Rolling Mill Textures

Claw and Tube Setting Stones

Completing my Origami Hummingbird

Itinerary

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