Tags
Hello Everyone
New video tutorial following on from the aligning text to a shape, this one is How to turn a frame into a solid shape from which you can cutout text from.
14 Wednesday May 2014
Posted in Silhouette, Tutorial, video
Tags
Hello Everyone
New video tutorial following on from the aligning text to a shape, this one is How to turn a frame into a solid shape from which you can cutout text from.
24 Thursday Apr 2014
Posted in Stencils
Tags
craft, deColourant, printing, Rose Window, stencil, stencil girl, tutorial
Hello again.
Today my eldest daughter came over to have a crafty day with me and experiment with deColourant. This is a discharge medium which takes the colour away from natural fibre fabrics and paper, rather like bleach would , but without harming the fabric and is completely non-toxic. So whilst she was playing with my stash of wooden stamp blocks I thought I would see how one of my stencils would work. I chose my 6″x6″ Rose window design a rather intricate one.
This can be purchased here. http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-rose-window-lizzie-mayne-p/s217.htm
Here are the results.
I taped around the edge just to give me an extra border width. Next I placed the stencil on a hand dyed tea cloth in the colour of denim. To assist with the placing of the stencil I folded the tea cloth and ironed to give me fold creases. (Easy to iron out again.)
DeColourant Plus which acts the same way as deColourant, but in one step it removes the color (like deColourant) and adds new color to replace the removed colour. (sounds complicated, you’ll get the idea as we go along)
http://www.i-kandi.com/decolourant.asp?idCategory=44
Cut up some scouring sponges as daubers and eventually found a use for my saved Gü dessert pots. (Gü desserts are delicious by the way)
DeColourant are mixable so make up what ever colour you want. You only need the three primary colours plus white and black.
hold the stencil in place whilst daubing the colour on.
These colours become more vivid once dried and heat set with an iron.
Once the colours were done I then cleaned the stencil in warm water and a droplet of washing up liquid, dried and used again but with just the plain deColurant which just takes the colour away.
Again hold the stencil steady and just pounce the medium on. (TIP. don’t over saturate the fabric as the medium can leak under the stencil). Once the stencil is removed you must let the deColourant dry either air dry or if you are impatient like me use a heat gun at a distance and a swirly motion as not scorch the cloth.
When the dried the clear deColourant all but disappears. You need to heat set fabric and deColourant with the iron set to a cotton setting and with the steam turned off. Then watch the Magic! begin. Move the iron over the fabric until you can see a change, don’t hold the iron in too long a spot otherwise you’ll scorch the fabric.
Voila!The colours become more vibrant and the clear deColourant part of the fabric looks as if the fabric has been bleached.

Fini!
Hope you enjoyed this little step by step playtime of mine and my daughters.
Danielle’s efforts playing with the deColourant and Indian wood block stamps.

22 Tuesday Apr 2014
Posted in Stencils, Uncategorized
Tags
Art Nouveau, doodle, patterns, stencil, stencil girl, tangles, tutorial, Zentangle
Hello everyone
I am so excited to share with you my new stencils that are now available through StencilGirl.
http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencils-s/1846.htm
I have been playing with my stencil Art Nouveau (not shown in the above picture but can be found on the ‘New Stencils’ link above). I love creating patterns to the extent that I would say I am obsessed by them. I can’t go out without looking at everyday objects, architecture, people’s clothing just about everything without thinking whether I can translate it into either a stencil, cutting file or a tangle pattern. Some which can convert nicely into all three.
Here I have combined both stencil and tangle patterns. I taped the ‘Art Nouveau’ stencil to an A3 piece of cartridge paper and traced in the spaces using a Micron 0.1 black pen. (stencil is blue as it’s my pre-production sample)
Choosing what pattern to use is probably the hardest part as I sift through thousands of tangle patterns
to see which ones will fit well within the long thin shapes of the stencil.



Gradually filling up all of the spaces takes time and took me about two afternoons. I normally choose the colours after I’ve finished the tangles. But this time I knew that I wanted to use a muted medieval colour palette and decided to colour as I went along. I used alcohol markers a mixture of Pro-markers, Flexmarkers and Kuretake Kurecolor twin markers.
It was my brother’s partner’s birthday and thought I’d frame it and give it to him for a birthday present.
My brother’s reaction was “great, we can sell it when you become famous”. Bloomin’ cheek!
17 Monday Feb 2014
Posted in Silhouette, Tutorial, video
Hello
I have made a new video tutorial on how to turn a lattice and a heart in heart lattice frame.
30 Wednesday Oct 2013
Posted in Illustrator, Inkscape, Tutorial, video
Tags
I belong to several Facebook groups that are connected to Silhouette Cameo and it’s software Silhouette Studio. I am asked sometimes how to do things. I don’t profess to be an expert in this program but it does help that I am a designer for Silhouette and can find my way around the software fairly quickly because I use other vector applications such as Illustrator which I use on a daily basis, it’s my first love and I’m very familiar with it. Inkscape I use occasionally and drop in and out of as I find that both programs are better at some things than the others. Today I have made a new video on how to erase in both Illustrator and Inkscape as that was a question asked of me. Below is the tutorial.
29 Tuesday Oct 2013
Posted in Silhouette, Tutorial, video
Hi Everyone
I have made two new videos for Silhouette Studio.
The first is how to make a swirl/spiral and then use that to make a filigree component which can then be used for pattern repeat or adding as an embellishment to card making or any other mixed media project.
The second is how to turn that filigree component and make a repeat pattern then add it to an oval frame.
23 Wednesday Oct 2013
Posted in Crafting, Homemade, Silhouette, Tutorial, video
Tags
22 Tuesday Oct 2013
Posted in Digital Cutting files, patterns, Silhouette, Tutorial, video
Follow up video to my creating a lattice. This one is making a cutout for the lattice and turning it into a frame. Watch out for a couple of bloopers.
22 Tuesday Oct 2013
Posted in patterns, Silhouette, Tutorial, Uncategorized, video
I have made a video for anyone who wants to know how to make a simple lattice in Silhouette studio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnIKLCNsW5M
21 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Crafting
Hi Everyone.
I finally made it, a ‘How to’ video on how to make faux rhinestone embellishments for your card making or craft projects. This is my first video, there are few word errors, that’s because I was a bit nervous and my mouth runs faster than my brain:). Any way have a look and hope you like it.