Geek Lab: Cutting Half a Shape

Hello everyone! Caroli here again, and today I want to show a little trick that I love when using my Silhouette machine: cutting just half of the a shape.

You may wonder why cutting just half of something? Well, because you can fold the cut part and thus create the missing part, giving an interesting effect, specially if you sew over it, like I did here:

 

The way for cutting just half of a shape is quite simple: just open the software of your machine and draw the shape you preffer. It must be a simple shape like a heart or a square. In this case I used a circle because I love circles 🙂 Then, I selected Erase Tool on the left of the screen and simply used it to erase half of the shape, as simple as that!

 

Once you’ve erased half of your shape you will have something like this. Then, you just need to copy it and paste it as many times you wish and place them whenever you feel like within your layout.

 

In my case I cut few half circles here and there and then fold the paper completely, placed some patterned paper behind it and then used my sewing machine to give a beter effect of this technique. Here is the full layout I made:

The colors and patterns of Life Noted collection are so happy and vibrant, perfect for documenting this pic of my and my best friend. Here you can see some more closeups of my project:

I hope you liked this idea, as for me I love it and used it when I want to create something simple and embellish mainly with patterned paper. Have a nice day! 🙂

July Guest Designer Nathalie DeSousa : Love Noted

Hello everyone,

My name is Nathalie DeSousa (aka Tachita55 -my Spanish nickname since birth),  a stay-at-home wife and mom from Toronto, Canada, and this month’s Guest Designer.  I am so blessed, honored and thankful to the lovely ladies at Clique Kits for the invitation to share a little bit of my work with you all.

Upon receiving this beautiful kit, I quickly was drawn to the beautiful plastic paper and the idea for this display layout was born.

First, I used the Cut Shoppe’s Everyday Essential cut file to create the ‘LOVE’ cut-out on the plastic paper using my Silhouette Cameo.  I made sure to erase all lines from the letter ‘o’ as it was where the photo would be placed.

Since I wanted the picture to show as if it was floating inside the ‘o’, I created an  internal offset on the same cut file, and cut just the edges  on two papers (the back paper is just plain paper).  I have added a small video on how the page was built  -just click on the highlighted words-

To frame the picture, a small oval was created using the letter ‘o’ space on the cut file.  Since the picture will be floating inside the space, two pictures were glued together, and large piece of fine crochet yarn was looped in between the two pictures -making sure that there was enough yarn hanging on both sides-.  The looped side of the yarn was left hanging on the top of the layout as a ways to help with the display of the project.  To secure all the pieces, some stitching from  a sewing machine was used all around the edges of the  project.

 

 

To complete the title of the piece,  I added the acetate word “NOTED” to the bottom right of the piece.   The cut-apart pieces of the collection worked nicely to complete the title.

 

 

To add balance to the project,  a small cluster was added to the bottom left corner of the layout.  Using only cut-aparts from the kit and a few pieces of the sequin mix, a small cluster was created.  I was able to fit the date  and occasion when the picture was taken.

 

 

 

Finally, I added a few more details along to finish the layout, and now it sits nicely on top of my bedroom dresser, amongst my most  loved pictures of my family.  Here is a last look at the completed layout…

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy the layout, it was easy to build with this beautiful kit.  You can pick this kit up in the Clique Kits Shop HERE!

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the layout.

Till next time,

Happy Crafting!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geek Lab: Negative Space & Sewing Machine

Hello everyone! Caroli here and today I want to talk about my fave tool so far: sewing machine! I love the pretty touch of sewing machine on my layouts, and if you add some negative space to the recipe, then it looks like a perfect combo to me 🙂

In order to make this layout I cut the word “six” from my cardstock using my Cricut machine and then placed some pretty paper behind to fill the negative space. Once the paper was adhered I used my sewing machine around each letter and voilá, that’s the effect I love ❤

 

 

In case you are not an expert sewing with a machine I suggest you to do it slowly, so the line will come out neat.

 

Do you see that gorgeous geometric heart? It was actually a clearly bold card from WRMK, included on the kit, which I cut and transformed into the main embellishment of my layout.

 

As you can see, I used pics of me and my little girl at same age, six years old, thus the title on the left 🙂

I hope you like this idea and give it a try 🙂 Have a lovely day!