Cross your fingers we don't get sidelined with the weather for our next Silhouette group meeting at Absoutely Everything.  It is next Monday, March 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Have some interesting subjects to cover......Different uses for the knife tool........More text to path options.....how to cut out scraps from anywhere on your Silhouette without counting spaces or blocks (can't believe it took this long to discover this).....downloading more fonts that contain images (called dingbats) to play with.   Know there won't be enough time to cover all these, so speak up and prioritize what we do first at the meeting.  We'll carry over what doesn't get done to the next meeting and/or add new questions about using the Silhouette.

Always, always love it when we share our creativity with samples and latest projects!  Bring to show and tell.  Inevitably that brings new info on uses for the Silhouette.  I honestly get inspired by what I see at our meetings and shamelessly, copy.

Sooooo, here's hoping we see each other next Monday.

Cathy

Putting down my knitting (what a marathon to make Christmas gifts) and turning on the Silhouette.  Happy to be back to scrappin' and our first meeting of this new year.  We will be getting together next Monday, January 6, 2015 at Absolutely Everything from 11 to 1 p.m.

Know we have some new Silhouette owners and hope you can join us  this year.  We are a group of continuous learning with a variety of skill levels. Beginners to more skilled. And none of us can say we have explored all of what the Silhouette can do.  What a machine!! We have members who focus in specific areas of use, so it is neat that so many different approaches and ideas of use are shared.

We talked last month about doing a potpourri of skills menu. Since there are meetings that you may have missed and you want to go back and catch up or learn some topics it seemed like a good idea. (Myself, I still need to go back and play with the make-your-own stamps.)  So to cover topics competently, I need to hear from you what I should prepare.  Unfortunately, I don't always retrain the exact steps to a skill and  need some preparation so I don't stumble around too much.

I bought some Silhouette chipboard I have not cut yet. If there is time, would like to see how well that cuts..  Thought this might be good for boxes or stand up 3-D projects.

Always love playing with the tools on the Silhouette left-side desktop.  Was looking at some robot images I know we could create with squares, rectangles and circles.  Maybe we can play at that.

Take a look at some ideas that were shared last month...

Really like the "Jingle all the Way" picture frame made with vinyl phrase and filled with jingle bells.
Wish I could show you all the pages of the two December daily albums from Jennifer and Amy.  So many die cuts. The green 2014 page made from scratch by Karen is really creative.  I shared the simple bar cut-out Christmas tree files I created from an on-line inspiration (saved me from buying an expensive die).

What will we see this meeting?  Always something creative!!

Wishing you a great New Year's eve.  Stay health and safe!

Cathy

Looking back at the last post, I found I had not uploaded the picture of Jennifer's Halloween nails.  They are tooooooo cute not to show, so here's the photo.

Can't wait to see if she does some Christmas nails!

Cathy

Know we are still wrapped up in Thanksgiving prep, but please mark your calendar for our December 1, 2014 meeting coming up this Monday at Absolutely Everything from 11 to 1 p.m.

Have been looking at Christmas Tree dies and was drawn to one that is just a series of rectangles.  Of course, by using my Silhouette,  I can create the same.  Wow,  how many times have I saved a big chunk of bucks! by using my machine.  Well, I am going to share how I went about making this banded tree with the Silhouette at the meeting.

Also, am playing with my magnet sheets using family photos.  Think these will be a cute stocking stuffer.   Will share this also.

Last meeting we talked about everyone bringing gift ideas using our Silhouettes.  Hope you all will be showing up with some of those.

Check out the photos of the creative projects our group have made.  The ones above are from last month's meeting.  Check out (can you believe it)  Jennifer's Halloween nail designs she made with her Silhouette.  Silhouette has a bunch of these nail files that are fun to use.   Amy (it's hard to see) made a Mickey Mouse image from three circles and used iron on fabric to put on a t-shirt.  Don't you love the decorative post-it note holder and the card envelope you can put those dimensional cards in.  Another item from Jennifer is the halloween card made with glitter paper and a Silhouette file.

Made because of a sad event (one of the hostages beheaded by Isis came from Karen's town) and looking for something comforting, she made these plaques with biblical quotes to help her deal with the sadness.

Those tags came from free files on line at Monica's creative craft room.  What an incredible designer she is and she has a great many files she offers free.  Don't know if you remember the gazebo I made; it came from her site too.  Speaking of sites and great files that are free, check out Bird's cards on the web.  I love her designs and she is very generous to share them.

Hope these inspire!   We love to welcome new members.  It is a sharing and learning experience to expand our abilities using the Silhouette.  Many experience levels and everyone, no matter how long you have been using the machine, keep adding info and learning new things.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Cathy

See I wrote "shop" for ship in my opening sentence.  Freudian slip, love to shop!

Returned home Friday from a no-cruise to Bermuda.  Hurricane diverted our shop to Nassau.  Still had a fun time scrapping with friends in our own conference room on board.

Hope to see many of you Monday, November 3rd at AE for our regular meeting.

Last month we checked out some of Silhouette's products.   The interfacing for fabrics to cut on our machines worked pretty well.   So many of there items are really "easy peasy" to use and expand our creative juices.  This time I will bring the new pen holder to show how to use it with a variety of pens.

Also, working on a demo of "text to path" that is on the Silhouette Blog.  If you don't already follow it, check it out.  Their design team come up with some clever uses for our Silhouette.  After checking out Monica's Craft Room, am inspired to share creative gift tags and how to make your own designs.

While I was away, I see they introduced a new Cameo.  Don't have much knowledge of it as of yet, so maybe some of you will and can share what's new with it.

Don't forget to share anything you do with your Silhouette.

Cathy

Home after a nice long vacation!!  and ready to turn on that Silhouette machine and try something new.  Where did this cold weather come from?  It's only September!  It means we will be spending more time indoors unless you are caught up in winterizing your garden.... out to the orchards for the new apples....taking long walks to see the leaf changes or heavens to Betsy, getting ready for ski season.  But that's not a description of me......indoors...hot chocolate...cooking soups....knitting....sewing...books...and any sedentary activity that involves food.

As I look at the Silhouette blog and You Tube videos since I've been gone, I feel they are moving past me with all the new stuff.   Have not set in stone what I will go over at the meeting, but it will be definitely be something new.   I have fabric interfacing, magnet paper, adhesive paper and more in my stash of Silhouette stuff that I haven't worked with.    Also, have a request to come up with some holiday projects.   Who knows what it will be.   And e-mail me if you want me to incorporate something you are interested in.

Can you ladies bring any ideas (you have done recently or past) with holiday themes....past Christmas cards, Thanksgiving ideas, Halloween, etc.  to share.   If you feel up to a challenge with a fabulous prize (and you know how much I invest in those...at least a dollar or two), bring a holiday idea to show.

Also, come with your questions about our new Software or any topic that you ( and probably others) are struggling with.   If we don't have a ready answer, we'll put it on the "need to find out and learn" list.    It doesn't seem there is an end game to mastering this machine and I love it!!

If you haven't been following the Silhouette blog, take a look.  Their projects inspire me or are a jumping off point for doing something new and different.

Well, enough rambling...hope to see many of you at Absolutely Everything as we meet:


Monday, October 6th, 2014, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Cathy