League of Legends / World of Warcraft Christmas Stocking Custom

It's been forever since I posted and quite awhile since Christmas, obviously.  Regardless, I wanted to share this adorable stocking I made for my boyfriend.  He came to my place for Christmas and I didn't want him to feel left out of the stocking part of things, so I made this for him and filled it up.

I used to love Warcraft and he humored me by playing it a bit with me.  He loves League of Legends so I learned how to play for him.  I decided to combine both and make something cute and personal.

First, I took the World of Warcraft logo, and removed the words, so I was left with the overall shape and texture:

Next, I traced that with my Silhouette Cameo so it'd be a separate cut file.

I wrote his name with the Warcraft-style font found here: http://www.dafont.com/lifecraft.font and added some contrasting border to the letters.

The next thing I did was start looking around for holiday-themed League of Legends images.  This wasn't hard, as they even put earmuffs on one of the miniboss style mobs during the game that time of year.

One adorable Christmas-fied minion later, I had everything in my Silhouette Studio program and traced for cutting.  First was obviously printing- I used Avery Inkject Paper for Dark Colors as this type of paper is basically fabric that you print on, cut, and iron on.  If you use paper for light colors, you're basically just transferring ink, so it doesn't work on dark colors and not very well on textures either.  This stocking is red & fuzzy, so dark it is.  Everything cut without a hitch in the Cameo- settings were for HTV but I ramped the blade up a notch.

I don't have a heat press, so I used an iron on the highest settings with a piece of teflon in between the transfer and the iron.  It took a bit of time and pressure due to the texture of the iron, but I think ti was completely worth the effort:

My boyfriend told me that he shared it with some online gaming groups and it was pretty well received, so that made me happy :)  It was his idea to post it here too, so hopefully I'll be around and more active again!  Can't wait to see the new machines Silhouette has coming out next month!

Print and Cut Magnets with the Silhouette Cameo

My son has a Mickey Mouse magnet board and randomly asked me (after we'd been to the mall and several other stores today) for Cars and Turbo magnets to go on it as well.  Luckily I found a pack of Avery magnet paper that I bought who knows when, and voila!

Well it wasn't quite "voila."  I had to find all the images (and nice clean ones without tons of background to mess up the trace), save them, open them one by one, trace them, and get them arranged before printing and cutting.  All the images were hunted down via Google Images.

Once open, you have to trace them to get cut lines.  I normally make the image really large, erase anything I don't want (like a logo in the corner), and trace it by turning off High Pass Filter, bumping up the threshold into the 90s, and then hitting "Trace Outer Edge."  Below you can see my settings to trace Francesco.  By hitting Trace Outer Edge it only traces the outer edge as stated, so that white area inside his tail will NOT cut.  If you want to cut out the details like that, hit Trace, not Trace Outer Edge.  I figured that the tail probably wouldn't be that sturdy and this is for a 3 year old so I stuck with the edge.

Arrange everything on your paper- letter size as the magnet paper is, as registration marks on.  I then hit the cut line window just to double check that all the cut lines are turned on.

And print!  I set my Preferences to "Best."  The instructions for magnet paper say inkjet printers only.

Now on to cutting.  After scanning registration marks, I set it to the preset magnet paper settings, but I bump up the blade from 4 to 5.

After cutting...well, this is the best photo I could get!  My son was so excited that I made something just for him and he couldn't wait to take them off the mat- all by himself of course.

Now he's occupied playing again.  Score!

Using Printable HTV (heat transfer vinyl) for dark colors with the Silhouette Cameo

I loooove to make shirts using HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and my favorite brand is Siser Easyweed.  My least favorite is the Silhouette brand...it's awful.  Anyway, as easy as it is to layer Siser Easyweed, sometimes you have projects that just don't work with the limited colors offered, or maybe you want a photo to be ironed on your shirt, or something.  That's where printable HTV comes in.  I have used and liked both Jolee's and Transfermations brands, and been less impressed with the Silhouette brand, though it's not terrible.  As a general rule I like to use the ones made for dark colors even on light colored clothing as it's way more vivid and just looks better in my opinion.

For this shirt I used Transfermations for dark colors.  I either got it at Michael's, Staples, or Walmat, not 100% positive on which.

Normally when you use HTV and even HTV for light colors, you need to mirror the image before you cut.  You do not need to mirror the image with HTV for dark colors.  I'd always read your instructions to be sure but I've used several brands and none require this.

First, get your image all ready in Silhouette Studio.  Get your cut lines situated- if you layered some elements you may need to highlight them and hit "Cut Edge" or whatever works for you.  Do not mirror it!  Turn on registration marks and print it.  I use "Best" settings for quality.  You have to use an Inkjet printer.  If you've found a brand that works with a laser printer, please share!  I've never seen one.

Once it's printed, stick it on your mat and load it into your Cameo.  Have your machine scan the registration marks and get your cut settings ready.

Here's a snap of what settings I use.  I set it to "Flocked HTV" and then change the blade to 5.  That's why it says Custom Media.  ***Note- I get a lot of use out of my blades, but when I switched to a new one, I only had to use HTV Smooth settings, blade on 1!  Big difference!****

Have your machine cut.  You're basically doing Print & Cut, easy, right?  I love Print & Cut and it's the biggest reason I bought my Cameo.

Once your design is cut, you then remove it from it's backing paper.  You'll see that this stuff feels more like Siser Easyweed and not regular printable HTV.

Here's me just peeling up the corner and removing all the excess white- the backing paper does not cut, see it?  I did rip it a little when grabbing that corner but it's almost like the carrier sheet of Siser Easyweed (except not used as such- just that you don't cut that paper, just your HTV.  A kiss cut.  Anyway..)

Aaand here's me peeling my design off the backing paper.  This is the one thing I don't like.  Unlike Siser Easyweed which is on a carrier sheet, I have to line up all these elements by hand separately on the t-shirt and yeah, they end up off center sometimes.  I'm working on that.  Practice makes perfect!

See how it weeds itself in between letters and stuff?  It's pretty nifty.

Your next step is to line everything up on your shirt (iron it first, but let it cool before you start re-arranging stuff on it) and when it's to your liking, grab a sheet of parchment paper.  I've always had 1-2 sheets included in whatever pack of dark color printable HTV I buy, and it lasts for several sheets.

Place that over your design- careful, don't jostle anything- and iron.  My iron goes from 1-6 so I set it on 6, no steam, and press really hard for 20 seconds.  Then I pick it up, move it, press again, until I've done the whole design.  The instructions do say not to drag your iron but to pick up and move it.

When I'm done I just lift the parchment paper- unlike the Siser Easyweed carrier sheets, it's not going to be sticky to your shirt or anything- and voila, shirt!

This IS a classic example of me arranging things crooked and/or off center, but on a wiggly 3 year old, it's not very noticeable :) With Siser Easyweed and it's sticky sheets I normally line everything up on the floor and then step back and look at it, and then I can just pick up the shirt and move it to the ironing board, but you can't do that with this stuff- no carrier sheet.  My only pet peeve.

You'll also probably notice that the fishing line is missing some pieces- in removing the design from the backing that part was just too thin and I went too fast, but oh well.  It is what it is.  This is a tiny shirt for a tiny little toddler.

I always wash inside out, and never iron on the design itself, but other than that, I've found this stuff to be very durable!

Cutting Fabric with the Silhouette Cameo

Well hello!  It's been awhile!  I am almost 30 weeks pregnant at this point and seem to be finished with the nausea.  In addition, I finished up my 2nd degree!  I have a lot more free time right now.  I'm working on another sewing project and decided to use the scraps to test out something that I haven't tried yet, cutting fabric with the Silhouette Cameo.

Silhouette sells their own version of Heat n Bond and it's expensive.  I read that a lot of people use Heat n Bond Lite and then are able to iron whatever they cut onto something else.  I did not need to iron this on to something else and I also didn't have Heat n Bond, but I did have fusible interfacing that I use when I embroider.

So, my materials here are:

-100% cotton fabric (woven, not a knit)
-Fusible interfacing (generic brand, I don't even have the bag anymore, but it's used with embroidery machines and I'm sure other things that I don't know of)

I decided to cut out an iPhone case insert, since I love this fabric and I also love the textured look of the fabric inside an iPhone case.  I cut a lot of custom cases but they have always been cardstock.  My case is actually from Paparte and I love it- it's a rubber enclosure with a clear acrylic overlay, so I can layer something in between and make it pretty.

Anyway.

I started by ironing out my fabric so it was flat, and then ironing the fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.  Fabric side up, and make sure you don't have excessive interfacing sticking out or it will gum up your iron.

Once ironed, it's nice and stiff.

I then got out my fabric blade.  Silhouette sells one, but it's just a regular blade in a blue housing.  Go for it if it makes you happy.  I personally have 4 blades and have them labeled for separate use (Cardstock, Vinyl, Fabric, and a spare).

Stuck the fabric on my mat, set blade to 4, speed 3, thickness 30 as I read somewhere (don't rush to copy these settings- finish reading, you'll see why).  I also set it to double cut, figuring better safe than sorry.

So, this didn't work.  It cut though the fabric ok but not the interfacing.  I could tear the interfacing, but it wasn't neat.  Had I needed to iron this to something it really would not have worked.

See, fabric is cut:

Interfacing is not.  I already tore the top line but do you see any cut lines?  Nope.

Round two.  Ironed more interfacing on to more fabric.

These are the settings you want copy :)

I then changed the blade to 6 and kept speed at 3, thickness 30, double cut on, and cut the shape again.

I then changed the blade to 8, kept everything else the same, and cut a 2nd shape below the first one.

You'll see that both worked fine, so 8 may be overkill.

In addition to these blade settings, I cleaned my mat with a scraper and then sprayed with 3M Re-positional Spray.  I use this to re-sticky my mat with a light hand so that paper doesn't tear, but I sprayed it a bit heaver than normal to help hold the fabric steady.

I also burnished the fabric to really help it adhere.

This time it worked great!  When I lifted the corner of the fabric, it removed cleanly & easily around the cut lines.

top sideways- blade 8, bottom vertical- blade 6

Even better, when I lifted my cut shapes, the camera hole cut out also peeled away cleanly!

One thing I want to point out- interfacing is a must!  This cut out was totally within the interfacing edges and it's clean and perfect. This was the "blade at 6" cut.

Meanwhile, the "blade at 8" cut had just a smidge of fabric without interfacing, and it's already frayed on that side.

Lastly for this project, I removed the current decorative insert from my cell phone case (you can see it in the photo!) and inserted this fabric cut out.  I love how it looks!

Next up (after I finish my sewing project, anyway!) will be to get some Heat n Bond Lite and work on making custom shirts for my son & soon-to-be-born baby using iron-on fabric cutouts with the Cameo :)

Baby banner, and shape cropping with the Silhouette Cameo

I was reading the Silhouette blog for the first time in awhile and noticed that today's posting involved a shape challenge.  You can see it here, along with a link to the shape's download page.  Since I have been trying to make some baby shower decor (so far my tissue balls are more like tissue wheels...) I decided to use this as an opportunity to make a banner to string across the 8' long dessert table at the baby shower.

I think it's pretty obvious that my favorite feature of the Silhouette software is print & cut, since I don't need to have anything on hand but plain white card stock.  I bought the blue & brown pattern in the Silhouette store and filled up the shape's triangle banners.  I then created a circle inside the triangle, turned off the cut lines, and color matched it.  I then used print & cut to make 4 of those.  The letters BABY were cut out of white card stock and adhered with rolled glue dots to give them a little dimension.

Next came my ultrasound photos.  I used the other two shapes from the banner and shape cropped my ultrasound photos.  This is really easy to do.


First lay your photo and then choose the shape you want it.  Drag that shape over to the photo and align it where you want the crop.  It might be hard to see, but that banner shape is over the baby in the ultrasound in the screenshot below.

Next, drag your mouse and highlight/select both the photo and the shape at the same time.

Last, click Modify (top right, looks like a rectangle with a circled M in the upper right corner- see pic below) and then click crop.  Voila!  Easy peasy!  You may have to manually turn the cut lines on the shape when you crop it this way so just go to your cut line window (scissors with red, to the left of the font's A symbol) and click "Cut Edge."

I then created offsets for all 5 of my ultrasound photos and fill color matched them blue and brown to the triangle's pattern (you can see the blue offset for this particular ultrasound in the screenshots above).

Lots of printing & cutting comes next- I love print and cut, have I said that?  All I needed to have on hand for this was 12 sheets of plain white card stock and some string.

I used glue dots on the corners of the ultrasound photos and stuck them to the offsets.  I then used my bar, which is 8' 5" long, marked off 8' exactly, and measured out the string, taping the ends to the bar.  Starting with the center ultrasound photo and working out, I taped the string about 1/2 inch down the back of each banner piece.  For the party, this will be strung across the dessert table, with a white tablecloth behind it and white and blue tissue balls at each end (if I can get that particular craft mastered!).

So cute!  I love personalized decor and thought this was much more fun than a cluster of framed ultrasound photos. 

If you don't like to print, cut, and glue x1000, just make every single banner piece one layer- IE, shape crop your ultrasound, turn off the cut lines, offset it, color it, turn those cut lines on, and print & cut it.  That should print you a photo with a border, basically (the offset) and then cut it.  Ditto on the letters- just turn off the cut lines and group them in the circle of the pennant and print & cut it into one piece.

Thanks for looking!

Vinyl Tumbler Decoration

Yesterday my Cameo went crazy.

It started randomly cutting dots and dashes and despite all my best troubleshooting efforts, it won't stop unless I disconnect it from the computer.  This makes crafting difficult but not impossible.

The Cameo has a "Cut from SD card" feature and I learned how to use it (though I hope I won't have to very often- it's a longer process).

First, you have to save every part of your design to the card separately unless you want more than one piece in the same color/material (in my case, anything orange was one file, turquoise another, & white was a third file).  Just put what you want on your virtual mat and hit "Save to SD card."  Name it something obvious so you can find it.

Now, go ahead and put your first material on your mat and load it.  Then pop in the SD card.  You'll see that you have to hit "Pause" for the SD card settings.

 Go to "Select File" and hit enter (eek, ignore my nail polish!!!)

Scroll down until you see what you want to cut and hit "Enter" again.  The photo is NOT the image...at all.  This particular file was the small orange border piece in the middle of the turquoise part.

Now you'll see your file name where it previously said NONE.  Scroll down to Cut and hit "Enter."

And it will cut!  Then you will just find your other files one by one as you reload your mat.

Tedious, but it works in a pinch.

I'll be changing the X.  The flourish looked better on screen.

This file is actually a coffee cup wrap and can be found in the Silhouette online store