Posts Tagged ‘Silhouette’

Learn New Things Every Day

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This week is in full-swing with preparations for this weekend’s Sewing Summit. I’ve been hard at work on my business cards (I’ll share once they’re done) & have come across a few road blocks. Chris & I recently upgraded to a Solid State 27″ iMac (HOT!!) and while Penelope was at preschool this morning I discovered that Mac OS X’s Lion does NOT play well with the CutMaster for CraftRobo Illustrator plugin. Once I figured this out, I was in a panic. What the heck am I going to do?!? How on earth am I going to use my Silhouette now!? How am I going finish my business cards in time for Sewing Summit?

I spent a frantic two & a half hours searching online for CraftRobo patches or new downloads, trying to export & tracing in Silhouette Studio & emailing friends to see if they could convert the files for me. I found out: CraftRobo won’t be coming out with an update until November 2011 (Serious?), tracing in Silhouette was not promising and I wasn’t getting responses from friends soon enough. Just as I was about to give up, @Drew_Noland piped up on twitter & suggested I read an article by Maggie Muggins Designs about the subject. The first part of the blog talks about the plug-ins (which don’t work for Mac at the moment), but at the end was the saving grace. You can import graphics into Silhouette Studio if you export your Illustrator files as an AutoCad Interchange File or .DXF. A couple other things: make sure your graphics are outlined, not filled & not compounded or grouped before exporting.

Hallelujah. My sanity has been saved. I just thought I’d post this little tidbit up here in case anyone else finds themselves in the same predicament as I. Hopefully this can help someone else!

Hanging Front Door Banner

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Silhouette sent me some flocked heat transfer a while back & I’ve made a couple of fun projects with it. It’s great stuff & oh so fun to be able to have texturized iron ons! I made Penelope’s dino napkins & birthday shirt using the flocked material. She loves rubbing her hands along the soft dino decal.

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Just today I finished a project I’ve been meaning to do for ages. I found this sweet banner via AnnilyGreen & before I even knew that these were being sold (I really hate to be a copy-cat, but let’s be honest I totally am) I knew I had to make one for our front door. I thought instead of a wreath, this banner idea would be the perfect way to welcome friends & family to our home.

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I used teal fabric from Hobby Lobby, a dowel that I had lying around, velvet & satin ribbon I scored on the cheap (less than $1) and flocked heat transfer courtesy of Silhouette. When I sewed the banner together, I stuck a neodymium magnet inside at the bottom so that it would 1) weigh down the banner so it didn’t fly off & 2) stick to the metal door, keeping the banner from flying around when it gets windy. It sure has been windy around our house the last few days. I heard there were 60 mph cross winds on the freeway yesterday. NUTS, hu?

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I digitally calligraphed the phrase & if you’d like to use the artwork, feel free to download it by clicking one of the buttons below. The top button is to download the PDF, the bottom is to download the Silhouette Studio file. I’d love to see what you make out of the download so please send me pics! As Usual, artwork is free for personal use only and should not be distributed or altered without my consent. If you would like to use this for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Speaking of Illustrator, when I first got the Silhouette I had Illustrator CS3. I’ve now since upgraded to CS5 & have been designing cutter graphics in CS5 then cutting them in CS3, as the CS3 plugin doesn’t work with CS5. It’s been really annoying to have to save a file, then open up illustrator again in order to cut the stuff out. I’ve been fussing around the last few days trying to figure out how to get the plugin to work & frustratingly enough, it stopped working in CS3! Long story longer, I figured out how to get the plug-in installed in CS5!! First you need to uninstall the old driver (if applicable) then install the correct driver: C-Master2forCraftROBO(M)ver180. I didn’t have the correct software, so that’s why it wasn’t working. I somehow had the C-Master2(M)ver180. It’s VERY different, because it doesn’t include support for the CC3300L models. As soon as I followed the instructions on the correct software, it worked like a charm. You also want to make sure that Illustrator is closed before installing.

On another note, it took 3 attempts to get this to look right. The first attempt, I had some crap on my desk & the cutter got bumped & ruined the piece of flocking. Clear off the area around your cutter before cutting! The second attempt was ruined because the iron was too hot & I didn’t put down a sheet of cloth covering the wax paper, so it just crumpled up. I ended up having to turn the banner around & use the back side, because that completely ruined the front. All worked out okay though. Despite my swearing. If everything had worked according to plan, this project would’ve taken less than an hour.

If you’re interested in buying a Silhouette, use the above code at check out for:

  • 1 Silhouette SD
  • 1 package white flocked heat transfer material
  • 1 package teal smooth heat transfer material
  • 1 package dark pink smooth heat transfer

for $219 ($125 savings) Valid May 17th – 25th

Or, if you already have a Silhouette (or any other cutting machine for that matter) save 25% using the above code on heat transfer materials.

Penelope’s Dino Brunch Favors

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Right now I’m working on getting all of the final details of Penelope’s birthday Dino brunch ready. Like I mentioned yesterday, I’m totally getting carried away, but I’m having SO much fun! I just finished making the favors – packaged dino eggs.

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I just bought Sweettarts jelly beans (SO YUM!) and Reeces pieces peanut butter eggs & filled my little favor bags. For the bags, I designed & printed the chevron on lightweight paper, then cut the pouches out using my Silhouette. For the stickers, I used Bebas font & my own writing along with my own hand-illustrated dinosaur. I printed them on Avery 2″ circular labels & stuck them to the outside of the pouch with glitter ribbon underneath. The chevron was inspired by this gorgeous (and ridiculously expensive) swimsuit & the pouch was inspired by these pouches. Both of which I wouldn’t have found if it weren’t for Pinterest.

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I’ve been avoiding signing up for yet another time waster. I’ve avoided it for just about a year. But then caved this last week. It’s actually been great since I’ve joined. I’ve wasted way more time on it than I should, but I’ve found so many awesome & inspiring things on there!! If you’d like to sign up, leave a comment. I’ll send you an invitation.

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