abc thanks card with Chomas Creations adjustable holders

I needed a quick thank you card for my daughter's teacher and love the look of "chalk" on "chalkboard" this is hot right now.  I created this card in Studio and you can get the share for it
here... abc thanks  The font I used is a Lettering Delights thin font called Sparkle.
I used the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder with a white Signo Uniball gel pen (adjust your speed to 1 and thickness to around 3) to draw the design.  I also used a stylus in the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder to score my card.  There is a tutorial for scoring cards here...  score card

Ready to give the Chomas Creations tools a try?  Use the code october13 at checkout to save 10% off your order in the Chomas Creations store.


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Square 1 vinyl and the Chomas Creations adjustable holders

Guess who was asked to be a designer for Square1 adhesive backed fabric???  THIS GIRL!  hehe  Square1 is the un-vinyl.
Being I have been looking for a vinyl I like for a long time, I was happy to say, YES!  But of course before I try to say you just have to have something, I decided to take a few things for a test run!
My first stop was permanent vinyl on my daughter's water bottle.  I had tried a different brand vinyl and when I washed the water bottle 2 of my 4 letters came off.  I added the white permanent vinyl to my daughter's water bottle and washed it a few times and let her take it to school.  A couple of weeks later and the vinyl is still going strong! 
Here is another fun thing I did with the permanent vinyl. We have a problem in our house with the toilet seat getting lifted by the boys.  So far the reminder worked!  Yes I'm surprised! hehe

The coolest vinyl that Square1 has to offer?  Has to be the GLOW IN THE DARK!  I thought it would be fun to put it on the ceiling over my son's bunk bed.  But when he wakes in the morning I wanted him to still be able to see something fun on his design, so I added "love you, mommy" with the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder and a fine point, original Sharpie marker. 
It is easy to add permanent marker to your vinyl.  Here is tutorial showing just how I did it!

Highlight your entire image (a), go to cut line settings (b), click no cut (c).



Highlight the image you want to draw (1), go to cut line settings (2) and click on cut.

Add your Sharpie to the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder.  Draw your image.  With Sharpies you want a slower speed (4) and a very small thickness (1) so you don't crush the tip of your Sharpie, and so it doesn't smear.

 Again highlight your entire image (4), click cut (5).

Now highlight the image you don't want to cut (6) and click no cut (7).

Take out your marker holder and replace your blade. With the glow in the dark vinyl I used a blade depth of 3, a thickness of 10 and a speed of 8.
I weeded out the extra vinyl but kept the inside letters for "I love you".

I added it to  the ceiling above my son's bed.  He loves it!

 Here it is at night. Man is glow in the dark hard to get a picture of!

The extra "I love you" went next to my daughter's bed. Here it is during the day and at night.

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Take me out to the ballgame with Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

While watching my niece's softball game this summer I got this picture of my youngest son intently watching and then I remembered that I had a picture of him 6 years ago doing the same thing at his brother's game.  What a difference!  Funny he was wearing orange both times hehe! 
I used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder with a Sakura Moonlight gel pen to draw the baseball stitching design at the top and bottom of my page.  Look how nice it looks on kraft cardstock!

I also used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder to draw the journaling lines in my thought bubbles.  I have a tutorial on how I made them as well as the share here... thought bubbles

Here is my completed page with Jack at 1 and at 7. 

Want to try drawing with your Silhouette?  You can use the coupon code october13 to save 10% off in the Chomas Creations store to get you started!


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Black & white card with the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder for the Cricut

I've always loved the look of white gel pen on black cardstock!  Now that the Expression2 is out, and there is no lip to block the height of the pens you put in the machine, Chomas Creations now has an adjustable pen and marker holder for it!  You can get more info on the new Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder and adjustable marker holder here... Chomas Creations
So I used the new Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder to hold the Uniball WHITE gel pen.  .  This is from the Cindy Loo cartridge.

The dots are all Viva Decor, love how that stuff stays poofy! 
Want to give it a try?  Use the coupon code september13 at checkout in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your order!


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Splish splash layout with Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder

My friend Kay at Clever Someday was telling me that iPad has an app that lets you make your own fonts!  Super duper easy to use to!  You just draw each letter, number and symbol you would like to have, and then they email you the font!  The program was called urFonts.  The cool thing if you can pick the line thickness on your fonts, which I did for my font, I made it super thin!  You can get my font here... Amy Font  I've had a few people ask if my handwriting is a font, well now it is!  lol
Here is my font drawn right on my 12x12 cardstock with the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder and a white Signo Uniball gel pen. 

Yes I could have just written the journaling on the page.  But sometimes you run out of room, or the journaling starts to lean, and isn't lined up.  This way I knew exactly where it was going and what it was going to say!

I cut my title out of my 12x12 cardstock and added my patterned paper behind the background paper.

Here is the completed page, notice the focus is on my pictures, as I have a lot hehe!

Want to try this out with your Silhouette?  Use the coupon code september13 to save 10% off in the Chomas Creations store! 

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Back to school sign with Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

One last back to school sign as my daughter that is in her 2nd year of college just asked me "where is mine?"  So here is Taylor's sign!
I saw these gel pens that are Target's generic brand, up & up in action on some of the facebook pages, so I had to give them a try.  These are in the pen section at Target, I found them on the bottom shelf.  There are 24 gel pens here and they cost me just $10.49!  Not a bad deal at all!  And some of the colors work great on black!  Very exciting!  These all fit in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder.

I used a speed of 4 and a thickness of 10 to write with these.  There was some skipping, but that is easy to fix!  Just don't remove your project from the Cameo and draw it again.  The lines will draw right over!  You can increase the thickness and slow down your speed for better results. 
These fonts are all from Da font.  Listing from top to bottom...
KG Second Chance
Sketch Serif
Denne Threedee
Sketch Serif

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The biggest difference between the adjustable pen and adjustable marker holder...

I get asked this question A LOT!  The biggest difference between the Chomas Creations adjustable pen and adjustable marker holder is of course the size.  The adjustable pen holder is 3/8 inch in diameter and the adjustable marker holder is 1/2 inch diameter.  But what does this mean when using gel pens in the adjustable marker holder?  Well you are going to get what they call an offset (meaning the gel pen is NOT centered in the holder).  Now this means that if you want to draw an image, when you go to cut it it isn't going to be centered when you try to cut your shadow.  The adjustable pen holder is very close to center with most gel pens (Chomas Creations mini gel pens, Sakura, Gelly Roll, and more).  So when you go to cut your shadow with these gel pens, it is going to line up right for you.  If you go to put these same sized gel pens into the adjustable marker holder, you will notice you have to tighten the screw quite a bit, making it even further off center. 
Here is a card I made using the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder for the Cricut with a Chomas Creations black mini gel pen (if you own the Expression 2, you can use any length gel pen!)  Notice how the shadow cut around the design very nicely!  If you want to try to make this card with Once Upon A Princess in Cricut Craft Room, I have the file here... birthday party
Oh and notice how far my cupcake pops off the page?  That is an Action Wobble Spring!  How neat is that?  I'm going to make my cards more fun with these hehe! 

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Back to school layout with Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

Back to school is fast approaching, let the countdown begin!  Just 1 week from today I will be sending my kids back and getting a lot more done every day!  lol
I take more pictures then I will ever be able to scrapbook, that is just something I am learning to live with, so these are the kids going back to school 2 years ago!  The year in a new school that we woke up late and I forgot to do anything with my poor son's hair!  lol  But such is life!
I used a white Gelly Roll gel pen in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder to draw the title and white border around the layout.  I used a speed of 5 and a thickness of 4. 
Here is a hint for when you are drawing with your Chomas Creations holder.  Make sure your whole image draws before you unload the mat from the machine.  The "b" in back to school didn't draw the first time around, so I increased my thickness, decreased my speed, and voila, you can now see the "b".  I would have had to start over if I hadn't checked my work first!
The title is from the Silhouette Studio store. 

The journaling oval is one I keep on hand.  I make a bunch of these at a time with the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder and a gel pen of my choosing.  The file for the journaling oval is a share here... journaling oval

Here is the completed layout.  I added some old chipboard letters I have on hand (use up that stash!) and ribbon as well. 

Want to try drawing with your Silhouette machine??  Use the code august13 to save 10% off your purchase in the Chomas Creations store to get you started!

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Chalkboard look with Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

Ok I do have plans with this project, but I was so excited how these Soufflle gel pens by Sakura show up on the black cardstock and kind of gave that chalkboard feel, that I had to just share!  That and this fun blog called I should be mopping the floor (shouldn't we all?  lol) shared these awesome fonts that would be fun to draw, and even engrave, she calls them chalkboard fonts.  There is a long list (25!) of these chalkboard fonts here... I should be mopping the floor
Here are just 3 of the fonts I chose to try out.  I used the Souffle gel pens in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder in the Cameo to draw these.  This is just normal black cardstock.  Because these gel pens are very juicy, I do slow my speed down to about 3-4 to do this.  And they do take a couple of minutes to dry, so let the project sit on the mat until dry so as not to smear (live and learn!)

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Bee happy card with Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder

Looking for a white gel pen that will center in the Chomas Creations adjustable  pen holder, well here you go... The Gelly Roll by Sakura.  I did try it on kraft cardstock and it didn't show up well enough, but it did look good on the black.  So the darker color cardstock does work best.

The slower speed worked better with this gel pen, so I did do this on a 1 speed with a thickness of 5.  As you can see in the picture the gel pen is centered in the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder, so that it lined up just right on my edges of my card!  Bee happy is one of Lettering Delights thin fonts.  The bee and flower are a download from the Silhouette Studio store.  The loop de loop around the outside of the card was done with the Studio sketch feature.

Want to try this out for yourself?  Use the coupon code august13 in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your purchase!


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Back to school with Chomas Creations mini Sharpie holder

It is that time of year again!  Time for my favorite commercial... It's the most wonderful time of the year, they're going back... back to school!  Where the dad is dancing down the aisles... hehe  They should really use a mom in that commercial! 

Being I have 4 kids that go to school each year, I get a bit behind on these back to school layouts!  So this is from last year, my daughter on her way to kindergarten.  You can get the Design Studio file for this page here... back to school
I used the Chomas Creations mini Sharpie holder to do the border and accents on this page on cork board.  Yes corkboard!!  There are so many surfaces out there that the mini Sharpies will write on that normal markers just can't handle!  This corkboard is by Quickutz.  They are 4x12 self adhesive sheets.

I used the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder to make my own lined paper!  I used the file here for the horizontal lines, that I usually use for my journaling circles....  journaling circles  I drew all the lines in the Chomas Creations light blue glitter mini gel pen.

The back to school file has the vertical lines, I used the Chomas Creations red glitter mini gel pen for these.

This also made for some easy journaling on the page!

I designed the title with a shadow and cut it out of red and green paper.  The title is also on the back to school download.

Here is the completed layout!  The ribbon is Imaginesce.  And of course the patterned paper was made by me hehe!

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Fabric markers in the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder

So I was out shopping at Staples and found these...

Yes they are Sharpie markers, and they are made for fabric!  I thought, why not try drawing with them in the Silhouette?  So I did!  They fit in the Chomas Creations adjustable marker holder.   You have to make sure you are using a sticky mat so the fabric doesn't move or bunch up.  The directions say they are machine washable on cold, and you should hang dry. 

I drew this flower and then colored it in with different colored Sharpie Stained markers.  I left my fabric on my mat for coloring, it was easier and didn't move on me.

 I had to play around with my settings.  The faster speeds left a thinner line (think 4 or 5, not too fast) while the slower speeds left a thicker line (1,2,3).  This was just me playing around!  I used a thickness of just 1.  Don't want to much pressure, these are brush tip markers.

The top 2 fonts on the left are some thin fonts from Lettering Delights. 

Want to try this out with your Silhouette machine?  Use the coupon code july13 at checkout in the Chomas Creations store to save 10% off your purchase!





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