Inspirational Bird Frames

Tax season kept me so busy and tired that there's been no crafting going on at my house since last year!  I saw a set of canvases similar to these on display in a local church's youth group room.  They caught my eye and this is my version.

Over the past few years I've really limited my crafting.  I have no room left to display things in my home and I like to have a purpose for the items I make.  These turned out nicely and now I have to decide what the heck to do with them!

These are the original canvases.

I started out with  plain black frames that were going to be thrown away at the office.  They're painted with Home Decor chalk paint.

The backgrounds are "cheaters".  I found scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby that had perfect colors for the background.  The birds are print and cut images and the letters were cut using my Cameo.  The font is Courier New bold.

Red Roses Mother's Day Card

The roses are a print and cut image.  I pop dotted one onto the doily and then pop dotted an identical image on top.

Daffodil Pocket Mother's Day Card

The small envelope was cut using my Cameo.  I added some pen work along the outer edges.

The daffodils are a print and cut image.  The sentiment was computer generated.  I used PesannaHMK font.

The inside sentiment is "and wishing you a Happy Mother's Day".

"Cheesey" Card

This card was totally CASED from one seen on Splitcoast Stampers.

I used MTC to cut the holes for the cheese and used Silhouette software to print and cut the mouse image.  It was colored with Promarkers.  The mouse is from Your Next Stamps Quirky Animals stamp set.

Print and Cut Mickey Valentine

The Mickey image and large heart are print and cut images done with my Cameo.  The smaller hearts were done with a Stampin' Up punch.  I rounded the corners of the card.

"Bee" Happy Card

Once again the bee images are clip art that were done with print and cut on my Cameo.

The card was laid out and the elements were cut using  MTC. 

A Stampin' Up marker was used to add the antennae and the flight trail behind the bee..

The corners of the card were rounded with a Corner Chomper from We R Memory Keepers.

You Rock! Card

I cannot believe how long it took me to get this card designed, cut and assembled.  The first hurdle was doing a print and cut on my Cameo of the rocking chair.  When the images were printed, the color was totally off.  That lead to replacing the color ink cartridge in my printer and spending time getting the printer aligned.

The Cameo did a super quick job of printing and cutting out the chairs once the printer ink was adjusted.

Then I decided I wanted to print "You rock!" onto a star shape and do a print and cut on it also.  There has to be a secret process to print text and cut a shape using Silhouette software---one that I'm not privy to since I could never accomplish that task!

Thinking I'd be able to accomplish it in Make The Cut, I switched software programs and tried one more time.  How hard can it be to cut a star with two words printed inside the shape?  Evidently,  pretty hard since I couldn't figure out how to do it in MTC either.

That lead me back to Hallmark Card Studio software where I was able to load a jpg image of the colored stars and add the text.  Knowing I was only going to make four cards, I just gave up and cut them out by hand.

The stars and rocking chair are pop dotted on the card front for dimension.  The acrylic dots in the corner came from the Dollar Tree.

It's simple projects like this that make me wish there was a decent manual for Silhouette software or a hands on class nearby!

Coffee Bean Card

The background paper is from Graphic 45.  I stamped it with a coffee bean stamp.

The sentiment was done using Silhouette software print and cut. 

I traced the coffee cup and did a print and cut on it also. 

The cut out shapes were shadowed using the offset feature in the software.

This card could be used for just a note or maybe even a Valentine.

Candy Hearts and Cupcake Card

Make The Cut has been my preferred software program ever since I began using it with my Expression.  I love how easy it is to use and got comfortable with its capabilities.  Even after I purchased a Cameo, I continued to use Make The Cut rather than learning how to use Silhouette software.

Since doing print and cut has become so popular, I've decided it's time for me to get serious and learn as much as I can about the Silhouette program.  Thanks to a Facebook friend, Kat Schrieber,  the past couple of days have been really fun since she spent some time teaching me shortcuts and tricks.

It still takes me quite a while to do things I want, but it's getting easier.  This card uses what Kat taught me yesterday.

I traced the cupcake image, did the print and cut and then I traced it again and was able to separate the cupcake liner from the top and did another print and cut of that image.  That gave me the cake portion to pop dot onto the full image and provide more dimension to the card.

The candy hearts are also clip art images that were done with print and cut.

I embossed the white mat underneath the cupcake with a heart folder and added a pink and brown mat.

Everything is sitting on top of a paper doily.

The dimension of the card shows up better in this photo. 

I know I have barely scratched the surface of what the Silhouette software can do.  For now, I'll continue working with clip art, doing print and cut, and learning how to break apart and color clip art images.  Once I have that process down, I'll move on to something else---like maybe point editing.  Right now, that just sounds too complicated!

You're the best" Card

The two ovals were cut on my Cameo.  I inked the edges with Chestnut Roan.  The stamps used are from various sets.  The bird is a clip art image done using the print and cut function on my Cameo.

30 Minute Card

I used the print and cut feature of my Cameo for the butterflies.  It's so nice to have the capability to cut things out that way.  It sure saves a lot of time when you do multiples!

Vintage Butterflies Card

It takes me forever to pick colors and elements for a card.  The butterflies were what I started with and it took a couple of tries to get a background I liked.  Since I wanted flowers in the corners I tried every flower punch I had with different patterns and colors of cardstock before I gave up and just added some paper flowers with Pearl Pen dots for centers.

So, this would be a 30 Minute Card times four since it took me two hours to complete one.

Part of that time was spent messing with my Cameo to print and cut the butterflies.  Never did get it to work so I cut the first ones by hand.  I contacted customer support and the representative walked me through the process step by step and isolated what I was doing wrong.  It works just fine as long as you do it correctly!  lol!

CASED this card from one seen online.