Reason #163 why I love my Silhouette

I love my Cameo. I am not a card maker but I often need cards so I turn to my trusty machine to do most of the work for me. Holden is going to a video game birthday party this weekend. I grabbed this image from the online store, mirror image copied it, welded and voila...a card! I used my sketch pens to do all the text which is one of my favourite features of this amazing machine! Then I used the envelope punch board to create a custom size envelope and I was done.

I think I will be making a bunch of these for all the boy birthdays this year!

Crafty challenge at TSF

It's time for our first challenge of 2014! I was cropping recently and I went back to something I used to do a lot and then veered away from..distressing. I had this great paper from 'Chic Tags' that had what looked like coffee cup stains on it. I love when the paper does the 'work' for you!

Here is what I came up with:

 

I added to the stains by spritzing a bit of brown mist and lots of  'vintage photo' distress ink around the edges of the background. This colour is by far my favourite ink to use and I reach for it often.

 



 

I crumpled and ripped strips of paper that fit the distressed feel of the layout and layered them up as a backdrop for one of my favourite pics. I used canvas letters, jute twine and wooden bits that I inked with vintage photo again. I love how all the different textures add to the outdoorsy theme.

 

SO for this month's challenge let's see lots of distressing!

 

You could win $25 to use at the store or online.

Just remember a couple of rules:

1. Create as many NEW projects as you like for each challenge! Each creation will gain you an entry in the draw to win. (Please enter a double page layout as only one entry.)
2. Projects can either be uploaded to the TSF gallery or linked up using the tool on the TSF blog post to be entered to win.
3. Projects must be entered no later than January 31st at 11:59pm.

Let it snow...

So anyone in my area knows that it is snowing like mad outside so I thought I would share with you a layout I created when I was away a couple of weeks ago.

I am really in LOVE with these jillibean placemats. They are a lot of fun to work with and come in several different designs. I knew I wanted to use the circle one as soon as I saw this collection from Bazzill called 'Nordic Pines'

 I cut circles from various papers to fit behind the placemat. I strategically placed my title so I could use one of the circles as my 'o' in snow. I used glitter cardstock from Best Creation in white and red. This is THE BEST glitter cardstock as it has been treated so the glitter doesn't come off. It also cuts like butter on the Silhouette Cameo, just use the glitter cardstock setting and adjust your blade depth accordingly. Do you see how tiny and intricate the 'let it' part of my title is???

AWESOME machine!

 I love me some twine so I added 3 coordinating colours around my photo and tucked an acrylic snowflake underneath. I used up some wood veneer snowflakes and trees from my ever-growing hoard of wood embellishments. I also used some itty bitty maya road tickets and one Tim Holtz ticket, they complimented my colour scheme and hey, they are just cute!

When I was happy with my design I backed it with black cardstock to pop all the red.

This collection is so fun to work with and I adore the black, kraft, red combo. I cannot wait to take more snowy pics and play some more!!