Silhouette Dogs - Using the Silhouette Cutter and Laminate Chips

I got some random idea the other day...super random...but super cute! So I found some laminate counter sample tiles in the trash at work...and don't you even think it..trashdigger!!! Yes, I stuck my hand in the trash to grab them; but it only had paper and other samples in it...so  no worries.

Anywho. I decided I was going to try to put my Silhouette SD cutter to use with a different project. It would help be build a template for a silhouette of my pups!! Then I would make some nameplates for their crates....I know right, how cute?!

So this post is super picture heavy, but enjoy my lame attempt at a tutorial :)

First, I took pictures of both dogs. (even though you will only see Olive spotlighted in this post, they each got a nameplate!) I had to tease them with treats to get them to face the right direction to get that person profile, silhouette shot.

Gosh, she's cute...

Then I headed to Photoshop Elements...and I used the "magnetic lasso" tool to cut Olive's profile shot...

Then I took it and dragged it into a new blank file. I drew a black box over Olive's picture.

Then I hit "CTRL + g" and waallaaa up popped Olive's wittle head. Still so cute.

It should look like this...

Now...it's time to open up the Silhouette SD Studio...one of my new favorite places on Hattie Pearl. (that's my lappytop.)

There are many times that angel start singing simultaneously with programs or things happening on my Hattie...this is one of them... :)

Import your picture into your Library. Then import your picture from the Library and then resize it to the desired size.

Now, it's time to trace the image; this tells the Silhouette where to cut! So hit the "trace" button, select the area to be traced and choose "trace outer edge."

Before you move on, load your paper and cutting mat into the Silhouette. I haven't given her a name yet, I need to work on that...she's a beaut too, even though our relationship had a rough start! :/

Now it's time to cut...

And here is the finished results...

Then it was off to the bat man cave to do a little tool work. As always safety first...I put on my high school chemistry class safety goggles and got ready to cut using our Dremel tool...

Gosh, that was not a cute picture.... haha!
I took my mono adhesive and lightly glued the silhouette cut-out onto my laminate tile.

I traced the cut-out with pencil...

Does this look scary or what? Luckily we still had the manual for the Dremel, so I looked up what the best attachments to use would be...and then I went to the mecca of attachments...oy.

I used a clamp to attach my tile to the table for stability...

And I started cutting out...I wasn't very good at it at first, so it was smart of me to start in the middle because I had a few hops, skips and jumps in the beginning.

So there you have it...the completed project.

Here it is with the original cut-out...not too shabby.

I then took some pretty rosey-pink colored paper and glued it to the back of the tile...

And I headed back to Silhouette Studio to cute the letters for the name on the nameplate. I used "suede" as the font. Again, yes I know...it's a favorite! (Download it here.)

Once it was cut, I glued it to the tile and it was all ready to go!!

I asked Olive what she thought about it...she sniffed it...but didn't seem to care too much.

I went into the office, where we keep the crates and started attaching the nameplate with fishing wire. Olive came in and guarded me while I worked. She's sweet, huh?!

And it's DONE...I lurveee it!

So, I hope that you enjoyed my tutorial or at least the photos... :) I  had a blast making it and I LOVE the result!

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Date Night - in a jar

So, about a week or so ago Husby mentioned he felt like we, meaning our relationship, was hitting a rut of sorts. Falling into some boring routine. So he wanted to jazz it up a bit with a regular "Date Night." Isn't he a stud for coming up with the idea!!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist using another JamesVanDerMeme! :) Oh, and I meant Husby was the STUD...not this guy...heehee.

So I thought, how can we take this a step further and add some excitement and spontinaety to the situation?

What about a "Date Night Jar?!" Husby seemed perplexed at first but quickly fell inline with the idea!

So I decided that we would each come up with a list of 10-15 things that we could do for around $25 that could be either random, fun, something we have done before or not. So we each whipped up a list and it was funny to see the similarities in some of our ideas!

So then came Wednesday...my night off. Husby heads to church for small groups and it's just me and the pups...although Olive spent most of her time in her crate for jumping on my chair and stealing some chicken off my plate at dinner time, cause I walked away to help Husby with something. GRRRR. Never steal food from a woman on a diet! :P

Anywho...I sat down with my new Silhouette SD Craft Cutter....*cue angels singing* and began to build an idea.

btw...I had lots of plans for this evening...

• make a date night jar.
• make some flower headbands, rings and such.
• work on some of our favorite picture digital albums.

I only finished the first one...because my SD cutter...well it has a learning curve, i.e. condition the mat so your paper won't stick repeatedly, download updated software so you can actually cut fonts like you are supposed to. After about an hour and half I finally was ready to begin work on my jar....sheeessshh!

*warning, pictures are crappy...at this point I didn't care...*


So here we are...I picked an old plastic container that housed some rocks for vase filler... 

I then took some decorative packing tape that I picked up at Michael's like forever ago for $.25 each!

Then I used the Silhouette to cut some black strips of paper to wrap around the container. And get this...they were straight and I didn't have to cut them by hand!

Then I went back to the cutter to cut out the letters for "date night." I used the font "suede" which is one of my favorites right now. Yep, you can follow that link and download it yourself for free-heeee!

Then I cut out my envelope for the back of the container to house the list of "activities."

Then I cut out all the jumbo numbers that would sit inside the jar. This is what we will pull out to determine our activity for date night!

Then, I was all done!! Here's the crappiest picture...sorry! I sat it on top of our cable box in the bedroom.

So, here's how the "Date Night Jar" works.

Date Night rolls around, or we sit down to plan out our week...and we head to the "Jar." One of us pulls out a number...

See, so like we got "#8." Then we turn the "jar" around and we find our list of activities...

So it looks like we are taking some "House Tours." Yeah, we like to do that...visit model homes and dream about what our HOME could be many, many, many years down the road. :)

Then we cross that number off the list and set "#8" aside and go on our happy little "Date Night."

All for under $25 and planned with a little twist of surprise.

So what do you think of our little idea and craft project?!



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