Sign Making Time - In Pictures

Creating signs with the Silhouette Cameo - my favorite new toy!

 Vinyl Removed

Sanded to distress

Silhouette Cameo First Try

Confession; My first attempt with the Silhouette was a bust. I put the blade in upside down, couldn't get the vinyl to feed and this thing that looked so simple in all those YouTube videos was frustrating me!

So, how did I figure it out? Back to YouTube. :)

The white part of the blade with the numbers goes
"down." Move the sliders on the bar in so it can grab the vinyl to feed it. Connect  to my computer and hit send to Silhouette. I'm trying to cut, "Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History."

Fail! What now? Still not cutting. It's grinding and moving but the cuts aren't there.

Oops! Change setting to "vinyl." Try again. Still not cutting.

I change the blade setting to 2. It says set it to 1 but that's not working so I figured I'd just step it up. Maybe I just bought fat vinyl? I also made a simpler design. It cut it perfectly. I "weeded" it, which in Silhouette speak means to remove excess vinyl. I used the little tool that looks like a sharp crochet hook that I got in my Silhouette Vinyl Kit. Then I cut the transfer paper to size and put over it the vinyl. It came up nice and easy. I wasn't sure what to do with my cut out so I placed it on my Silhouette Cameo, peeled away the transfer paper slowly, making sure the vinyl stayed and done!

Lesson learned? Patience, Grasshopper, Patience. And when in doubt, look it up on YouTube!

The Art of Lettering

If you've ever really looked at my art, you'd know I stink at lettering. Keeping all those little characters neatly lined up, making each one look kind of the same, then remembering to spell everything correctly. Don't get me wrong, I'm a good speller, but when painting letters I'm thinking more about lines and color than how to spell Welome or Welcome. It's so easy to miss those little letters! My biggest problem? I love words and quotes on furniture and stuff so I'm always trying to improve.

This one is supposed to day Go out for adventure ~ Come home for Love.  I wish it was clearer or I'd thought it out better. I love the piece but....

So for Mother's Day my sweet family pooled their gift money and got me a Silhouette Cameo! (Truthfully, I just asked for gift cards I could save towards one, but they surprised me!)  I'm so excited! Now my lettering won't look like scribbles.

Don't get me wrong. I know how to letter. Take the ruler, measure carefully, make lines, measure, measure, measure....blah! I think I'm just too anxious to get the project done that I rush the lettering. (Yeah, that's a good excuse!)

I went to Michael's because the Silhouette Cameo didn't come with any vinyl or transfer paper or anything, but since it was Mother's Day the place was picked clean. Going online to order a few supplies tonight and hopefully I'll have a project to share by the end of the week.

Do you have a Silhouette Cameo? What do you use it for? Have you made anything exciting?