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Want to learn how to use your new holders? Look to the right of my blog to see everything in categories!





Thursday, January 31, 2013

Super fine lines and the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

Oooh I found a new pen that I am in love with!  Everytime I go shopping down the pen aisles I have to see what is new.  I found these 0.3 mm superfine pens at Staples, and look, acid free! 

So of course I had to give them a go!  So far the smallest pens I've found are .5 mm, so these are even more detailed.  Because they are so small in diameter I added them to the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder in the Cameo.
This is a very detailed design that I got from the Studio store.  As you can see it worked great! 


All orders placed after 12 pm on Friday February 1st will ship on February 11th.  I'm going to be celebrating my 10 anniversary (even taking the husband hehe!)  It is a much needed break as our last week alone was when we got married!
 
 






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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Luggage tags with the Chomas Creations engraving tip



The Chomas Creations engraving tip works best on aluminum tags. Not all tags are created equal (quite a few people have tried them on ebay tags, and they just don't work).  I've tested the Ohax Industries, Inc tags  and I know that they work.  Use the coupon code ASS-DT1 on the 21 tag assortment and get free shipping.  You get 21 tags for $16.98.
If you ever want me to test a material in the Silhouette or Cricut feel free to send me samples and I can let you know if they work or not. 

Here are a few more luggage tags I've made for my family.  Keep in mind that I've edited out the phone number & part of the name on these tags.  My sister and nieces were so excited for these!  The darker colors photograph easier then the lighter ones, but they all look so nice in person.  Click on the tags to see them even better.


 

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Birthday Wishes with Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder

This is a simple card I made using the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder in the Cameo with a white Signo Uniball gel pen.  The cupcake with 1 candle (perfect for my nephew's 1st birthday!) was a sketch download from the Silhouette Studio store.  I just love the white gel pen on kraft cardstock!  The birthday wishes sentiment is also a Studio download.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

More thin fonts and the Chomas Creations adjustable holders!


After seeing this looong list of fonts that Gigi from One Day at a Time put together, I asked her if I could pretty please share them on my blog as well!  And she was nice enough to say YES!
So if you are looking for some thin fonts (did I mention most are FREE???) to use with your Chomas Creations adjustable holders, hop on over to Gina's blog to find out where to get these fonts, as she linked to each one!  Thanks for spending all of the time doing this Gina!  You ROCK!

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Disney/Pixar blog hop day 2!

Welcome to the Disney/Pixar blog hop!  If you are just stopping by today and want to do the whole hop, start at Shawn's blog Crafty Chics.  If you are interested this is day 2 of the blog hop, so you can also check out day 1! 
If you are coming from Shawn's blog Crafty Chics, you are in the right place! 

I've been using the Chomas Creations engraving tip in the Cameo to do these tags, but I also have an engraving tip that fits in the entire Cricut line!  You can see that here...  engraving tip for Cricut
Some of my nieces and nephews are heading to Disney for vacation and I thought it would be fun to make them their own tags to put on their bags, and of course I had to add Mickey to them!  I used the Chomas Creations engraving tip in the Cameo on aluminum tags to engrave these Mickey designs and their names.  I got the aluminum tags here... Ohax Industries, Inc.  The Mickey designs are some I found online and traced in Silhouette Studio.  The fonts are part of Lettering Delights thin fonts.  Keep in in mind I smeared out the last name and phone number, so the color may be a bit off in those areas.  Click on the picture to see even better!  You can get more details on engraving with the Silhouette Cameo here... engraving
I read on Shawn's blog that we have been doing this blog hop for over 2 years now!  I thought it would be neat to go back and show some of the things I have done on this blog hop, a little revisit!
Here is a card I embossed with the Chomas Creations embossing kit and the Cricut!
And another card made with the Chomas Creations embossing kit in the Cricut
 
Here is a card using the Chomas Creations engraving tip on clear cardstock to etch the Mickey ears!  This to was with the Cricut!
Again with the Cricut, this time using the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder to draw Buzz & Woody and then color them in with Copic markers!  The background papers were also drawn with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder!
And another Toy Story layout, this time using the Cameo with the Chomas Creations adjustable marker to draw Buzz and Woody.
And here is another Cameo layout using the Chomas Creations engraving tip to etch the Mickey ear background onto Core'dinations cardstock & the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder with a pen to do the journaling!
 
 
Want to try drawing, embossing or engraving with your Cricut or Silhouette machine?  Use the coupon code disneyhop10 at checkout to save 10% off your entire purchase!! 
 Coupon good until 1-27-13.
 
And how about your chance to win a Chomas Creations adjustable pen OR marker holder for either your Cricut or Silhouette machine?  Just leave a comment on my blog of what you would try with them!  Remember I need a way to contact you!  This drawing is going until midnight eastern time on 1-27-13 and the winner will be announced shortly after.
 
If you got lost anywhere along the way on the hop here is your list to find your way!
 
Shawn  Crafty Chics Blog
Amy Chomas Chomas Creations (you are here!)
Bobbi Jo Sweet Sassy Diva
Jenny Crazy About Cricut
Kathy  Kathy & 3 Kids
Tami  Scrappin Rabbit Designs
Claire  Scrap My Way
Kim  U Scrap 2




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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Day 7- 1 design different looks with the Chomas Creations tools

Sorry a day late, but you may have noticed I was doing another project at the same time!  Engraving with the Cameo!  You can see more about that here.. Chomas Creations engraving tip in the Cameo

I was looking through some old scrapbook pages a few days ago and realized how much I missed it!  So I snuch this one in on my challenge of taking 1 design and changing it up a bit for different looks!
For this scrapbook page I used the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder with a Zig Ball marker.  I changed the chevron design into a sketch with Designers Edition for this look.
I also used the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder for my journaling, which I added in a thought bubble.  The font is a thin font from Lettering Delights.
The metal heart accent in the upper right corner was also embossed with the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder and a stylus on a metal sheet.
I went through all my goodies (and there are a lot, I'm going to have to do that more often!) looking for hearts to add to the page!  This is my oldest son and my nephew.  My son has the biggest heart!  



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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tag using the Chomas Creations engraving tip, how small can you go?

I'm getting asked how small the Chomas Creations engraving tip for the Silhouette Cameo can engrave.  Well that answer is pretty darned small!  Keep in mind that is 4 lines on this tag just a bit taller then a quarter!  I'm going to add this to my luggage!  I did smear out a few lines of information on this to protect the innocent...


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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Day 6- 1 design different looks with the Chomas Creations tools


Wow I can't believe I'm still going strong on my self made challenge!  I think this was the boost I needed to get me going again as I want to create, woohoo!!  If anyone wants to join in and share, feel free!  You don't have to use the same design as me and you don't have to use my tools, just create!
If you are just joining me, there are 5 other days of using this design in different ways!  Just scroll down and you will find them, as well as some other cool things on the way!
This is a file from the Silhouette Studio store called chevron lace background single fold square card.
I've had quite a few questions lately on "why use a glue pen in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder?"  I hope this gives you a good answer!  Besides glitter, or embossing powder, you can use foil transfer sheets!  I had some glitter foil sheets laying around and decided to bust them out!
I used the Sakura glue pen in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder for the Cameo to draw the chevron design.  I used a speed of 2 and a thickness of 10.  Slow and steady!  Because the first time I let the glue dry too long (hey had to help the kid brush his teeth lol!), I tried again and used it right out of the machine.  You add the foil sheets to the top of your design and rub them with a popcycle stick and voila, the foil sticks only to the glue!
The be mine file is also from the Studio store and I added it to my card!


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Monday, January 14, 2013

Day 5- 1 design different looks with the Chomas Creations tools

Well it is Monday and I'm back.  Problem is I might be running out of ideas, eeeeek!  Here's to hoping I have one for Tuesday!  5 days is pretty good though, right?
I did realize I never used this as a cut file!  So that is what I did for today.  I then used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder with a stylus to score this card.  If you click on the picture it will enlarge it so you can see the scored line even better!

With the Silhouette Studio Designer's Edition you can take any design or font and turn them into a sketch.  That is what I did with the happy birthday on this card.  Then I used the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder with a Papermate Liquid Flair to draw the design. 
 
 
 
Don't forget to use the coupon code tag10 to save 10% off at checkout in the Chomas Creation's store!
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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Chomas Creations engraving tip guest post!

Karen Hamski was nice enough to add this post with even more information on engraving with the Chomas Creations engraving tip and the Ohax Industries, Inc aluminum tags! Order a sample pack today with 21 tags for just $10.75, price includes shipping here... sample pack.
So everything you see below is done by Karen and she was kind enough to let me share it here!  Along with how to make your own engraving fonts!  Here are some samples of what Karen has done so far!

Aluminum & Engraving



This is my method, for converting graphics and lettering for engraving. NO NEED TO HUNT THEM DOWN…I wish I could tell you the hours I spent trying to get fonts or graphics for engraving, hours and hours of googling, until in the middle of the night I woke up last weekend and the “lights came on”, it was so simple and it is so cheap.  Engraving fonts can be extremely expensive and now you will have your computer fonts at your disposal.  Not all will work but keep trying; you will find your favorites.

First you need to get your shape templates on your mat on the screen, this will work for most basic shapes.  Amy Chomas has come up with a method for more involved shapes, really very clever lady, and for those not confident in making their own shapes and sizes using Sil tools.  Right now we are limited to squares, rectangles, octagons, ovals and circles, if he sees this part of his business growing he will add more choices in all areas and purchase the needed equipment.  When you get your tags, plates or signs, you will either measure them and just use the tools to draw them, on the mat and make the holes where you need to, MAKE SURE U TURN OFF THE CUT LINES ON THESE SHAPES…they are your templates and won’t be getting cut, you will be placing your lettering and graphics on the template and these will need cut lines but not the templates themselves...if you don’t feel confident to do it that way, Amy’s way is longer but so much safer…you will need a scanner. 

Ok now the big part…

1 Pick your graphic, first time keep it simple (THINK TATOO)

2 If your graphic is surrounded by white trace and detach your graphic, remove the white areas and delete the white (not the graphic...lol) then trace your graphic again but make sure u have a thin lines, if you let the yellow line become too thick than you will have more lines than u need and will be doing a lot of editing to get rid of them.

3. Remove the graphic you just traced, off the mat…enlarge your traced outline so u can see what is going on

4 Make sure u have your traced graphic highlighted or clicked on, go to Off Set most of the time u will be doing internal off setting. 

This is what I learned. When it starts and you say internal it will default at 40 you now have 3 choices, 1 to go to a smaller number which will make all the engraving lines closer together, 2 keep it at 40 or 3 go a bigger number so the lines are spread out more.  I have yet to find a reason to use bigger or 40.  Now just incase you are like me and a novice at off setting, I will go into more detail…if you want the lines to stay the same distance apart, just keep using the same number.  I seem to stick mostly around 10-15, unless I am just trying to get an outline well defined then I will go to 5.  Here is the tricky part, after each trace you will hit internal off set again and again it will default to 40, (this is a swearing point after several off sets on a design...PITA) Ok so if you started by going down to 10, then on the next one you will want 10 again so the lines stay spaced evenly. 



Here I changed the number for 15 and then started doing 4 and the lines were closer and there for produced a different affect.
When you go for the second pass and all passes after that the program will go to 40 and you will see that the selected area is no longer taking up the full graphic.  What is happening is the program is showing you the areas that can still be traced at 40 however, soon as you lower the trace number more and more areas becomes highlighted because you are defining that your lines are closer to the last trace and now the program is finding other areas in your graphic that another trace will fit into.  Now you will keep repeating this same thing until you have it filled in or to the level you want it filled in.  I found with some fancy lettering I liked a  good engraving around the edge of the letter but wanted the centers of letters to be shinny and not engraved.  We have a saying in knitting…Knitter’s Choice here you have Designer’s Choice and what you like, there is no right or wrong.  If you use a font that requires it to over lay like in cursive then you will want to hit the weld on the lettering so the letters are not being cut apart.
Ok now that you have it all traced and ready you must GROUP or you will be dragging lines all over the place…ask me how many times I forgot to do it and thank goodness for UNDO.
Once you get it all grouped and happy you can shrink it down to the size you want to engrave and make sure it fits in your template.  Then the next trick is to make sure you place your tag or whatever you are making in the same spot on the mat, that you see it on your screen, this is where Amy’s method rocks…ask me why the cross on this one is off the tag!
Things to remember:
Do not put your tags too close to where the rollers are, I found putting them in the center lengthwise and not letting them interfere with the rollers worked great and no problems.
When working with the license plates, feed them short side first they go out to the back pretty far, and the weight tips them down in back, I didn’t but I think from now on I will put something flat back there so when the mat slides back there the top of the license is supported and not dipping down.  I did do a bunch and no problem BUT, why ask for one.
I found most of the time my old mat was sticky enough to hold everything including the tiny dog tags in place with no problem.  If need be either spray your mat or your tags with repositioned spray glue…clean up is easy with a little googone.
A few times I had the cut holes for the license plates in the wrong place and my design was over the holes, amazingly it didn’t matter, the engraving tip just kept on drawing.

Onuoha the owner of the shop will do custom cuts, however it is real important you use the correct terminology.  Tell him if you want the holes on the short side or the long side, this is an important thing to remember.  He also loves drawing with markings.  I used Paint and it was easy enough…you don’t have to make them to size but do type or print your sizes on the drawings and measurements for the hole placements, hole sizes how many and shapes…round or oblong.  I will include my silly drawing to show you, you don’t have to be a graphic artist and he will understand.






He also has color samples.  I asked him to make them up, I know for one I want to see the color not guess off a computer screen.





What can you do with this?  What can’t you do with it, let’s see what you ladies come up with, let those juices flow.  Knock some socks off.
My brother actually came up with one idea, SS cards, he says he carries his and every few years he has to replace it.  Now back in the early 70’s when I got married I did order mine in aluminum…he also mentioned Medicare cards…so making personal card, maybe even with a hole in it…??.
I use to do jewelry and you really can do a lot with very little in the way of tools.  A jewelry saw, some files, steel wool and emery cloth, tube of lipstick, soldering torch and a vice grip and it is amazing what u can do.  I will be working on making up some wrapped rings and name bracelets…and I want a Nanny necklace…lol.  But I will get more into that much later.
Pet memorial plates, Memorial plates in general, personalized car tags.  Now I can’t put them on the front in NY so I purchased some suction cups that I can put on the back side window and hang the plate there.
I am not even going to go into using this for vinyl…the options are endless.  I am sure with time we will see it being used a lot.  Some ideas I came up with license plates…some of these I have turned into engraved, and permanent markers are great too, but it has been suggest you spray over them with clear sealer.








 Thanks Karen!  For all the time and effort you put into this!!!  You have been amazing!
Don't forget to use the coupon code tag10 in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your purchase!
Coupon good until the end of January, 2013.



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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Day 4 1 design different looks with the Chomas Creations tools

A lot of people ask me if they can fit an original Sharpie in the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder and the answer is YES!  How awesome is that?  That is about the thickest marker that you can fit in it. 
If you are just joining my blog, I have given myself a challenge to use the Chomas Creations tools to create different looks with 1 file.
If you would like to see some of the other designs I have tried out, here is...
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Today I used the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder with a Sharpie to draw the chevron design from the Silhouette Studio store on clear cardstock.
You don't want to crush the tips of your Sharpies, so I used a thickness of 3, a speed of 3, and double cut (this makes your design really POP). 

The sentiment is a download from the Studio store.  I added 2 square pieces of white cardstock to the back of the card.  For these kind of cards I write a message on the very back so you don't see it inside the card.

Now I won't have another different design tomorrow, but come back as I have another cool project that I have done!!
And I will continue the 1 design different looks either Monday or Tuesday next week as I have a couple more ideas!
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Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Day 3 1 design different looks with Chomas Creations tools

Wohoo!  Day 3 is on!  If you haven't seen days 1 and 2 with the chevron file from the Silhouette Studio store .they are here:
Day 1
Day 2

Today I used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder in the Cameo with a stylus and embossing mat to emboss on a thin metal sheet.  With the colored side of the metal facing down, I used a speed of 5, thickness of 33 and double cut to get this look.

I then sanded the raised image and added it to my card.
The file wish big is also a Silhouette Studio download.
Don't forget to come back tomorrow for another look with the same file!  I have a few more birthday cards I need done before this weekend hehe!


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