A post about the Silhouette SD

Today is something a big different for my blog.  I was asked a few questions on the Silhouette SD so I'm writing up a review!
**Update (there is now a plug in for the Silhouette for MTC that makes it even easier to use, and you can even use print and cut with it as it uses the optical eye, very cool! )  I like to use Make-the-Cut quite a bit, I have more creative control with it.  I got the Silhouette SD up and running with MTC.    What does this mean to you and me?  Well the ability to EASILY cut SVG's and MTC files on the Silhouette!  I found that in Studio I could not use all the SVG files I have (a lot!) on my computer.  And then Lettering Delights starts this super cute line of SVG's they sell, and they are super cheap.  So of course I need more options lol!  So all my Silhouette fans, keep MTC in mind if you want to use it for SVG's!  May want to check out Lettering Delights as well... Just sayin...
So here is the post I did with pros and cons on the Silhouette machine, for my Silhouette friends, and for those that support MTC and maybe looking for another cutter. 

I got the Silhouette originally because of the amazing downloadable designs that were offered for the machine. And they roll in at, get this, a mere $.99 each! Better yet, you can buy a subscription and for around $16 a month I get almost 150 downloads! (some files are licensed and cost $1.99) There are other options for subscriptions depending if you want more or less downloads each month. Now that I’ve got my Silhouette working with Make-the-Cut I will also be able to use all the MTC files I already have, as well as SVG files to!


The price for the machines isn’t that bad either, I’ve seen them around $180 for just the machine.

Pros on the Silhouette machine:

Works with Make-the-Cut! There is a great tutorial here on setting up the Silhouette machine with MTC here… http://www.creativedesignscakes.com/photo_6.html

Does an amazing job with the mini gel pen holders to draw or write journaling, even on fine details and is less jerky then on some other machines.

Cuts vinyl, you can even add a vinyl roll to the machine and skip the mat, and will cut up to 36 inches in length this way.

Has cheap downloads available in singles, no pricey cartridges and no designs you don’t want! They have a lot of designs from companies like Hero Arts, Cosmo Cricket, SEI, and KI Memories. There are also licensed designs like Peter Rabbit and the Little Miss, Little Mister line.

Does a great job at print and cut when using the Silhouette Studio software and an optical eye. You print our your image with registration marks in your printer, then put the image into your Silhouette machine which will read the registration marks and cut your image.

Has loads of rhinestone template downloads thru the Silhouette store.

Cuts a perfect circle!

Very quick, but of course you can slow down the cutting speed if you need to.

The Silhouette SD comes with an SD slot to save your designs in for on the go use.

Customer service is very helpful. There are yahoo groups that can help with small issues and answer any questions. These ladies have always been super helpful to me.

Fantastic blog put together by the Silhouette team that gives tons of project ideas and great tutorials. http://silhouettemachine.blogspot.com/


Cons on the Silhouette machine:

Only cuts to 8 inches in width.

Lacks a lot of pressure, some thick cardstocks like Bazzill may need a double cut to cut all the way through.

Will not cut chipboard.

Blades and mats are pretty pricey. But there are 3rd party companies that make cheaper blades and you can always resticky your mats a few time.

Around me I need to shop online for the blades and mats as I haven’t seen them in any stores. They are easy to find online though.


All in all a good starter machine, or a good machine for someone that likes well priced downloadable designs for purchase and doesn’t want to search the internet for files to download. Very small and very portable.

Here is a layout I did using the Silhouette to do the journaling on my page, look how nice it draws with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder!  The book was also drawn with the mini gel pen.

You can use the Studio software that comes with the Silhouette to do awesome print and cuts!  You can use their files, or any jpeg you have on your computer.  The doggy and fire truck are both print and cuts done with the Silhouette.  The chain link fence background was done with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and the title was done with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and Copic markers.

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Chomas Creations engraving tip with Maria!!!

I just love when Maria fills in as guest designer!  She always comes up with the coolest ideas, and her Copic coloring skillz put me to shame hehe!  The directions and project are all by Maria from Believe Dream Create with Maria so stop on by if you love the cute card as much as I do and wish her a Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patricks Day with Chomas Creations

Hi, it's Maria and today I am using the Chomas Creations Engraving Tip and Mini Gel Pen Holder in a project for you. I had colored this Leprechaun a few weeks ago and set it aside, but I figured the big green day was coming so I better do something with it!

I decided to to a technique that Amy has done with the Engraving Tip that I haven't tried yet. I used Core'dinations Cardstock Black Magic. The inner layer of the one I chose is green--what else??! I was making a card for a man so I thought this technique was perfect to give it a more manly look. I made a file in my Gypsy for the background piece by adding shamrocks all over the rectangle.

To make the sentiment, I chose the saying Happy St. Patrick's Day. First I made a layer in the Gypsy with the shadow of this sentiment and cut it with the blade.

Without unloading the mat, I changed to the Mini Gel Pen where my blade housing goes without moving the carriage. On a new layer on my Gypsy I had the sentiment in the exact same place on the mat. I now drew the title in.

Before I put my card together I sanded the engraved parts lightly with a sanding block.

I colored in my sentiment with a Copic marker. I love Chomas Creations Gel Pens because they don't smear with Copics. Hard to find in a regular pen! You can also see in the picture above how I engraved a line around the sentiment base and shamrock base. Great way to add some texture to the piece.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!







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Mommy I'm a good morning with Chomas Creations engraving tip!

Every morning when my youngest would wake up, he would yell "mommy I'm a good morning" and this meant I was to go and get him out of bed!  How can you not smile every morning hearing that?
I used the Chomas Creations engraving tip on the clear plastic sheet to make the small circles, then added a navy blue paper behind it.  It really shows up nicely!

For the title I used Boys WIll Be Boys and welded the letters from it together and cut it in yellow cardstock.  I also used the sailboat and rocket from Boys Will Be Boys.

The journaling is a file I made for Make-the-Cut with my Wacom tablet that I will be sharing soon!

And here is my little sunshine waking up in the morn calling to me!

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Welcome little one card with Chomas Creations engraving tip

A friend of mine had a bouncing baby boy and I need to make a trip over for a visit, just trying to get rid of all the sickness in our house first, not good timing hehe!
Here is the card I made for her with the Chomas Cretions engraving tip for the engraving on the clear cardstock.  I also used the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder with the light blue glitter gel pen for the star front!  I used the Simply Charmed Cricut cartridge for the title and star. 

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Quick card with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder

I figured since I already had the file for the 4x6 card, that I would put together another quick card today!  Instead of the graph I used in yesterday's card... beary cute card I used hearts today instead and drew them with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and red glitter mini gel pen.  You can get the card file to download for Make-the-Cut here... 4x6 card file
I used the Chomas Creations embossing tip (with my regular Cricut mat, no embossing mat) to score the top of the card for easier folding.  I have a tutorial on this on yesterday's post as well... beary cute card
Then I welded the love you title, and cut out an extra heart for the card.  I accidentally cut a few of the hearts at the top, and instead of starting over, I decided to make that part of the card.  I added pink paper inside the card, and they look like little heart peek-a-boos!

 

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Sorry about the slow blogging week!

But I do have something awesome in the works!  Samantha from Scrapmaster's Paradise has been helping me set up an easier way to shop!  Putting together a shopping cart has been consuming a lot of my time, but it will be worth it!  And I'll be able to take credit cards now to, not just paypal, as I've had a lot of requests for that!
Whewwwh will be glad when this is done, and I believe Samantha will be just as glad hehe!

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Beary Cute card with scoring tutorial for Make-the-Cut

Looking for an easy way to get that folded edge on your cards? Well here goes, it is easier then you ever

thought!

The Make-the-Cut file for this Beary Cute 4x6 card is located here... Beary Cute card
I started with the embossing page of the file, which is just a straight line. I used the Chomas Creations embossing tip on max pressure (I did NOT use the embossing mat for this, just the embossing tip, I used a regular Cricut mat) on multi-cut of 2. This left a scored, or embossed edge on my paper.

Without removing the mat from the Cricut, I used the cut page of my file, carefully replacing the embossing tip with the blade.  This cut my card out.

Again, leaving the mat in the machine, I carefully replaced the blade with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and pink glitter mini gel pen and drew the graph design on my card.

Now you can take the mat out of the Cricut!  The scored line is now easy to fold!  I gave it a quick fold, then used my bone folder on the edge of the card to give it that smooth folded edge.

The cute bear was embossed with the Chomas Creations embosing kit.  I had an extra bear embossed from another page I am currently working on, so thought it would look cute on this card!
The title is part of the file if you choose to use it on your card.

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Dana's tutorial for stamps and digi stamps in MTC

Dana from SVG MTC files has posted a tutorial for Make-the-Cut on her blog on how to turn your stamps and digi stamps in Make-the-Cut!  You can see the tutorial here... SVG MTC files
She made this awesome design with the Chomas Creations mini gel pens and MTC.

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Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder project with Make-the-Cut

My friend Dana from SVG MTC files made this awesome card with Make-the-Cut and the Chomas Creationg mini gel pen holder.  This is what she told me on how she made it... 
It's a stamp that I have, stamped, scanned, and traced in MTC, broke it apart, "cut" with the gel pens, made a shadow layer, cut the drawn image out and then did my marker and rhinestone stuff.

Amazing eh?  And look at all the details!

Here is the finished project!  Be sure and stop by and give Dana some love at SVG MTC files

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Snow Angels with Chomas Creations adjustable holders

I shared this file for my Cricut friends, but wanted to add one for the SIlhouette as well!  This scallop doodle journaling circle was designed by me with my Wacom tablet & then drawn with my Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder and gel pens!  You can download the Studio draw file here... doodle draw file & the shadow for the file you can download here... doodle shadow cut file

To make the journaling circles, first use the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder to draw the file scallop circle cut.  Then without removing the mat from the Silhouette, replace the Silhouette mini gel pen with the Silhouette blade and cut the scallop cricle shadow file.  They are all lined up and ready to go! 

I swear Michigan set world records in the amount of snow received this year and I had to climb through over a foot of snow to get this photo of my kidlets!  This is how I took the photo, and I think it is fun, so I didn't flip it over. 

The snowflakes were files I downloaded from the Silhouette store, and then I used the Chomas Creations adjustable pen holder and the light blue metallic mini gel pen to draw them on my background paper!

The title was also one I downloaded from the Silhouette store, I cut the word snow, and the snowflakes with the Silhouette fuzzy vinyl, love this stuff for my snow pages!

Here is the finished page! 

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Welcome little one with Chomas Creations engraving tip and mini gel pen holder

I ran across this photo of my youngest (almost 5 years ago) and couldn't resist scrappin it hehe!  I never thought I would have 4 kids (yes I have 4 kids!!!) but I sure do!  Some people think I'm crazy but I can't imagine it any other way hehe!
Sometimes I like my layouts super clean, but sometimes I like to shabby them up a bit!   I love the look of the Chomas Creations engraving tip on the Core'dinations cardstock.  Core'dinations cardstock has a solid color with brown or black on top, so when you engrave, or etch through the brown or black you get the color underneath!  I did a lot of lines on this page with the Chomas Creations engraving tip and Design Studio.  Then I lightly sanded the top to get this look!

To go even further with the shabby I roughed up the edges of my paper, and then sewed it to my page. 
I designed the title and stars in Design Studio with Simply Charmed and you can download that file here... welcome little one file
I drew the title with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder & the light blue metallic mini gel pen from the assorted pack, then cut around the shadow.  I also layered the stars.

The journaling oval is something I did with MTC and my Wacom tablet and the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and I'll be sharing the file for that soon!

The papers and brads are all Making Memories  Pitter Patter Oliver line. 

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Layout with Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder

Amber from Staying Crafty did this layout with the Chomas Creations mini gel pen holder and the glitter gel pens.  For more details and close ups, head to her blog!!!
Thanks Amber!  And don't worry, 2010 is NOT being far behind hehe! 

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