Silhouette Schools tips to using the Chomas Creations engraving tip!

I was so excited when Melissa at Silhouette School wanted to do a tutorial on using the Chomas Creations engraving tip!  Head on over and check out her 7 tips for perfect engraving!

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My amazingly, fantastic, super duper, saaaweet oily necklace with the Chomas Creations engraving tip

I have an amazingly, fantastic, super duper, saaaweet guest post coming to you from Michelle Glaeser.  Now because I know nothing about metal clay, this is all written in Michelle's words!  And if you are interested in an oily necklace all your own, look at the bottom of this post as she will work with you to make one for you!  And if you want to see what kinds of oils I'm putting in my new necklace you can visit my getting oily! blog.

Making Fine Silver Essential Oil Pendants with the Chomas Creations Engraving Tip

Amy is one of my best online friends these days!  We met over her lovely tools which make my main hobby (metal clay) more interesting.  About 1.5 years ago, I decided to follow along with some other metal clay artists on these Silhouette Cameo paper cutters for metal clay.  Well, I sure have enjoyed using this tool!  We had used it for cutting metal clay in the form of “paper.”  Wanaree Tanner has shared some great projects with this material and Amy’s cutters. 

Lately, Amy has gotten me interested in the use of essential oils, for well everything.  She asked if a pendant could be made of metal clay to allow the essential oils to be smelled all day around your neck.  For example, the blend oil called “Motivation” will help Amy stay motivated to get all our orders out right from her website!  (How could I not offer to help?)  How could I also not use her Engraving tip on the pendant?!

The idea behind this pendant is many cut outs to let the essential oil vent.   A piece of felt will be used to hold the oil.  I provided Amy several pieces of felt per pendant, so they could be interchanged and dedicated to particular oils.  The pendant is fine silver, and is reversible, so it’s like two pendants in one!  Who feels the same way each day?  So, besides swapping oil, Amy can swap designs with her mood!

So here’s what I did!  First Amy and I worked together to design a pendant for both herself and her son. I prefer to make pieces inspired by my clients, so we looked over some images and came up with the two images (top) below.  The black spaces are what I intended to remove to allow the essential oil to vent through the pendant and a grabbing notch for felt removal.  Then I rolled PMC 3, in lump form, rolled 2 playing cards thick the size of both the front and back of the piece.   I did not use glycerin to make it flexible and had no issues!  I made it dry flat.  In the image below right, it is on a piece of furniture foam; lets air all around the clay, helps it dry  flat. 

 

Then I add a piece of contact paper to the back, seen upper left in the image below.  It helps the clay on removal from the cutting mat and prevents silver from getting  stuck in your mat.  Because silver is pricy, and I don’t want to mis-cut on my Silhouette, I usually cut a window into a sheet on top of my cutting mat, so I know where to place the silver.  I slightly oversized my silver and matched the window.  After I cut the window with my blade, (I do not remove the cutting mat) I peel out the window, and place my silver in the window (upper right image below). Next, I install the Chomas Engraving Tip!

  Have you seen this cut?  Here she goes on fine silver metal clay!

I set up my engraving tip as a sketch pen; I set my thickness to 15.   I wasn’t looking to remove lots of material,  I was looking for a nice fine line. I ran my pass and ended up with the image seen above, lower right.  

There are other things I could have done here.  Because 2-cards thick is 0.5mm, a blade setting of 5 would cut through the windows I was looking to add.  Likely I’ll do this next time! ;-)  But I just used these lines as guides.  I used both an Exacto knife and a needle tool to trace the lines and remove the windows.  I used tiny needle files to clean up those edges.  Look how cute it turned out!!

So…I had to charge my camera…and didn’t get pictures of the box assembly.  I found 8-cards thick was sufficient to fit the felt inside the pendant.  I had two options, make wedges 8-cards thick (2 mm), or use a thinner sheet that is 2 mm tall.  This is what I did, to reduce distortion during firing.  I used Sherri Haab’s Paste Maker to make a thick paste to attach these walls to the faces of the box.  I filed the sides to create nice flat edges around the box (image below left, prior to firing).  I used a nail file to sand those edges flat and smooth.  The boxes stand on their own fairly well! 

 

Above, right, you can see the pieces after firing, polishing, and oxidizing.  I will let you know the boxes did fall (pinch inward) slightly during firing, next time I will add kiln paper in the center to help prevent this.  Another option is to set this on kiln paper, and fill with alumina hydrate.  I don’t prefer to use the alumina hydrate because it is caustic; however, because it is fine, it will be pushed out the holes as the box shrinks in the kiln.  I did use one of my flat needle files after firing to push the walls back flat (against the table) after firing.  You can see it all worked out just fine! Below we’ve got both pendants with felt ready to go!

If you’d like one of your own for your essential oil, I’ve got a listing in my etsy shop: mfglaeser.etsy.com!  For the Chomas Blog Readers, I have a $10 off coupon code: CHOMAS10!  Each of these will be made on demand with your help.  It’s not hard to get something you’ll like, just need some ideas about what you’re interested in!  The pendant itself is listed here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/176360753/design-your-own-essential-oil-necklace

If you try this one your own and need any tips feel free to contact me at mfglaeser@yahoo.com!  Hope you all had fun with this project and Amy’s engraving tip!

Amy here again!  I'm loving being in the Silhouette tools business and now the oily business!  I'm finding out so much about both, and there is so much more to find out!
And how lucky am I to be the first for the necklaces??   Want to see some of the oils I am using with my necklace?  Check them out on my new blog getting oily!

 

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Father's Day card with Chomas Creations engraving tip

Oh boy, I almost (I did say almost, right) feel guilty because this card was soooo easy to make!  The title is from the Studio store.  The kraft cardstock is made for cards and pre-scored.  All I did was use the Chomas Creations engraving tip in the Cameo with a speed of 3, a thickness of 33, and double cut to etch the sentiment in the card.  Then I swiped a Tim Holtz distress ink over the top of it!  I've been sooo busy lately (I know excuses, excuses) and had just a few minutes to get this done!  I think it gives a pretty neat look as the ink absorbs into the etched cardstock and is darker then the rest of the card!

Don't forget to use the coupon code june2013 to save 10% off your purchase in the Chomas Creations store!


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Using the Chomas Creations engraving tip on odd shaped objects

If you are looking to try the Chomas Creations engraving tip on some of the aluminum tags, look at Ohax Industries, Inc. They have tons of colors and sizes of these metal tags and they are made out of aluminum so they are nice and light weight!  And the owner says he will work with us crafters if we have special sizes we would like.  This is the information I was sent on the tags and free shipping...

20pcs. Combo pack of assorted colors and shapes for $17.00 - Free Shipping
after applying the coupon code ASS-DT1 for $12.98 credit on shipping.

10pcs pack of individual shape sells for $8.98 and does not qualify for free shipping
with the code, but 2 pack will qualify for the Free shipping after applying the coupon.

The coupon is good for your group on these items plus other items in the store when
the aggregate purchase is more than $16.98, then he//she gets the $12.98 shipping
discount after applying the code.

Here is one of the other types of tags I have done from Ohax Industries with the Chomas Creations engraving tip.

How about a tutorial for lining up these odd shaped pieces like shown above?   If you have a tag that is shaped like a rectangle, or easy shape to recreate in Studio, you can skip these steps and go to step 3.  This is more for the odd shaped tags you would like to engrave on.  So pretend my rectangle is an odd shape, but then you get an idea on how to do this.  You could also use this tutorial for drawing with the Cameo as well!

 

1. First I used a BLACK pen to trace the tags I wanted to use.  These are some sample tags I was sent, but there were a lot in the same size, just different colors.  This will work for any size.

2. I then scanned my traced paper and opened the image in Silhouette Studio.  I used the trace function in Studio.  First you click on select trace area (1), then you highlight what you want to trace (2), then click on trace outer edge (3), and finally adjust the high pass filter so your image is all yellow lines. 

3. Now because I want to line up my letters on my tag, I need to figure out where they are going to be in my machine.  I used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder with a pen to draw my tags on a piece of scrap paper. 

4. Now I want to turn off the cut lines for when I am engraving.  To do this first click on the image of the scissors (1), then click on your image, in this case the tags (2), and then click on no cut (3).

5. You can add any text or designs you would like to the Silhouette Studio file. 

Now add the Chomas Creations engraving tip to the Cameo.  Add the tags to  your scrap paper with some glue dots, these are easy to scrape off after you engrave.  I used a thickness of 33, a speed of 4, and checked double cut.

 

So now you are probably wondering where I am getting these fonts?  Well Kay at Clever Someday has 2 posts on her blog with these engraving fonts.  Kay has used as fill fonts, hmmm... going to have to give it a try!  The Cameo is a lot quicker then you would think it would be in doig this.

Fonts part 1

Fonts part 2

 

 

Don't forget to use the coupon code cozy10 at checkout in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your purchase of $30 or more!

 

 

 

 

 

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Cozy and warm with Chomas Creations engraving tip

One of the favorite gathering spots in our house in winter is around the fireplace!  There are often fights for who gets this prime spot!  You are lucky if no one else is around when the fire is burning in the fireplace! 
I wanted a cozy feel to this layout, so I used warm brown tones.  I used the Chomas Creations engraving tip (thickness of 33, speed of 4, double cut) on Core'dinations kraft core cardstock to etch the herringbone design.  A light sanding later and this is what you get!

I used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder with a Staedtler pen (thickness 2, speed 3) to draw the journaling and then cut it with the Cameo.  The font is a Lettering Delights thin font.

The title is from the Studio store.

Here is the finished page!  I also added some arrows and brads to the page for a little extra!

If you want to give the Chomas Creations tools a try use the coupon code cozy10 at checkout in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your purchase of $30 or more!  Good until the end of March!

 

 

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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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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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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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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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