BARN PARTY

Silhouette Cameo project

Hello again.  Here I am back with another project to share.

This project was quite difficult for me but let me start at the beginning.  I have had my Cameo for about 12 months and to date, it has been this pretty little thing sitting on a desk in my craft room.  I have watched countless youtube videos and read umpteen dozen books but was still flummoxed about how to use it.  I had been to various sites and had purchased cut files that I was dying to try out.  Sooooo, long story short, I decided to just jump in and have a go.  The cut file I have used is called Barn Party and it's from SVG Cuts which is a fabulous site and the cost of the packages are quite reasonable.  Anyway, back to the story.....

What possessed me to start with a project like this?....must have been a moment of madness.....

So there was lots of cutting and recutting.  Lots of asking questions on the Cameo page on facebook and lots of wonderful people who tried to help me out.  My life totally changed when I realised that I could right click to select all and then "make compound path".  Those little perforations had me beat for ages and ages.  I was even toying with putting the score lines in afterwards by hand! But once I worked out about "make compound path" I had no more trouble getting all the bits cut out.  The only other thing I will say is that it would have been easier if all the bits that belong together would have been on the same page.  Some things I had cut out in black that should have been cut out with designer paper and so on.  My problem was that I couldn't picture where the pieces went in my head (now I can because I've made it).  

  So I worked on the base  which was pretty much just a box with two boxes inside for strength.

All up the project took me about 4 days.  It will probably not take nearly as long if I make it again, simply because I can now picture where the pieces go and whether they have to be black or designer paper.

The back bit has a hole for a lead to go through so you can have plug in tea lights in there to light it up which I thought was really cool.  I have some battery operated ones that would work just as well though.  If you don't want to put lights in it you can always fill it with lollies and snacks and use it as a table decoration for a halloween party :)

Let's take a minute to talk about the roof.  I had a lady on facebook ask me whether I had any problems with the roof as she had made it and could not get the roof to fit.  I'm not sure whether there was an issue with the roof or if it was just my inexperience but once I glued the roof on I noticed that it had slipped at the other end and try as I might, I could not get it to fit (the glue was drying so it was hard to take it off without tearing it).  All I can say is next time I make it I will take extra care with gluing the roof on and see if there are any issues.

The other thing that is noteworthy is be careful what gauge cardstock you use.  Mine was not that thick so I feel it does not sit as straight as it could if I had used thicker card stock.  All in all, I enjoyed making the house and will be making more things from SVG Cuts.

Happy New Year Art Journal Page

Hi everyone, it's been some time since I last posted.  First we were renovating my craft room, then we had Christmas so it's been a hectic few weeks.

I decided to make an art journal page as I haven't done one for quite some time.  This page is inspired by an extremely talented lady called Kath Stewart.  Her blog is http://kath-allthatglitter.blogspot.com.au/.  I used her page as mainly placement of the dogs and used what I had for the rest of the page.  I have had the Crazy Dog stamps for a very long time and have never used them.

I haven't done a full tutorial but you get the idea.  I pretty much followed Kath Stewart's tutorial on her page but used a different colour for my background and mine is not as "busy" as hers.  As I said, you can use what you have, you don't have to go out and purchase everything.  I used a Tim Holtz stencil and whipped spackle to do the stenciling.  The balloons are popped up on dimensionals and the hats and bow ties are glued on.  I used watercolour paper and distress markers to colour the balloons and hats and bow ties.  I used another stencil (by Dylusions) to outline the words Happy New Year.  I'm not overly happy with how that turned out but it's an art journal page so it is what it is :).