Posted on Monday, December 8, 2014

12 Days DIY Christmas 2014 (Day 8), Silhouette Challenge Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Today is gonna be an awesome one! I am super excited and can’t wait to share this with you! And it is a little longer blog post, but worth it to read all the way 🙂

First is Silhouette Giveaway! There will be 2 winners!! Make sure to read all the way to find out the detail and how to enter. I really really really LOVE my Silhouette Cameo! Since the first day I got it (surprise gift from my husband), I have been making a lot of cards, scrapbook layouts, home decors, and even craft projects with my daughters. So, you wanna enter this amazing giveaway!

And second, today is day 8 of the 12 Days DIY Christmas this year, I would love to share with you a project I made using Silhouette Cameo today that it is one of my favorite projects ever… Candle Jar Sleeve. I participate on an awesome blog hop hosted by Silhouette Challenge group, where you can find tons of inspirations and tutorials of projects using either Silhouette Cameo and Portrait. Another reason why you want to enter this giveaway 🙂

I love candles. When they are all gone, I clean the jars to reuse them. This one is one of them. And I was thinking I need some more Christmas theme decorations in this house and came across an idea to make candle jar sleeve to decorate this used candle jar.

It is an easy and quick project that you can do for any seasons or occasions. I already have a list to make for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter again 😀

Okay 🙂 Now the supplies. You’ll need:

Silhouette machine
Blade (new is better for cutting intricate designs)
Cutting mat
Silhouette Studio Designer Edition
Shape you want to cut (I picked Nativity scene from Lori Withlock)
Spatula
Cardstock (I used black for better silhouette looking)
Glue
Candle Jar
First of all, open the Silhouette Studio software and open the shape you wanna cut. I resized the Nativity scene to 11″ x 2 1/2″ and drew a rectangle a bit longer, about 11 1/4″ and 1″ tall. Ungroup. Then rearrange the individual shapes to where you’ll like.

I did not use the phrase so I dragged it to out side of the cutting mat. Then as you can see in the picture below, I dragged the rectangle to overlapping with the bottom of the nativity shapes.

Once you like the position, select all the shapes. Open the Weld Box by clicking on the little that has letter M with circle and rectangle.

Click weld…. Ta-da! 🙂

Cut the cardstock to 12″ x 5″ and put it on the cutting mat. Load the mat to the machine, make sure the setting on the machine is “Load Cutting Mat.”
Send the shape to Silhouette machine by clicking the square button on the upper left with Silhouette machine symbol.

Make sure the setting is set for the cardstock and adjust the blade on the machine according to the correct blade setting. Always test cut to make sure everything is set correctly. Then click cut.

And done. I used battery operated tea light for this one. Also I added some fake snowflakes at the bottom of the jar.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. Pineapples and Pinecones // 2. Simply Kelly Designs // 3. Architecture of a Mom // 4. Just a Girl and Her Blog // 5. Two Purple Couches // 6. Chicken Scratch NY // 7. Creative Ramblings // 8. One Dog Woof // 9. Ginger Snap Crafts // 10. The Thinking Closet // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body // 13. weekend craft // 14. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Living My Given Life // 17. My Paper Craze // 18. The Kim Six Fix // 19. Home At Eight // 20. Queen of Everything // 21. Tried & True // 22. McCall Manor // 23. unOriginal Mom // 24. Create it. Go! // 25. From Wine to Whine // 26. GetSilvered // 27. It’s Always Ruetten // 28. Nearly Handmade // 29. Mama Sonshine // 30. Silhouette School // 31. It Happens in a Blink // 32. Create & Babble // 33. Sowdering About // 34. Where The Smiles Have Been // 35. My Favorite Finds // 36. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 37. Designed Decor

Silhouette Giveaway!

And I’ve saved the best for last. My Silhouette Challenge buddies in partnership with Silhouette America are hosting a mega-huge giveaway for not one…but two winners! The prizes up for grabs?

First prize: The NEW Silhouette Cameo Machine and Designer Edition Super Bundle! $406.93 value.

Silhouette CAMEO®
Designer Edition Software
Dust Cover
$25 Download Card
Four Essential Silhouette Tools (hook, spatula, scraper, pick-me-up™)

Second prize: Silhouette Portrait Machine and Rhinestone Starter Kit! $219.98 value.

Pretty sweet, huh? We want you to have the chance to get that Silhouette machine that might still be on your wish list.

To enter: just complete the entries in the Rafflecopter widget below or at this link. Because of my many blog friends who helped make this giveaway possible, you have 42 potential entries, which means a lot of winning power. So, hurry up and enter!

{This giveaway runs from today through Monday, December 15th at 11:59p eastern and is open to anyone 18 years of age or older with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. You can read the rest of the terms and conditions in the widget below.}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank You for visiting and Good Luck!

Posted on Friday, December 5, 2014

12 Days DIY Christmas 2014: Day 5

Today’s project is one of those projects inspired by Pinterest. And this is one of our new Christmas decorations this year.

A couple of weeks ago I found this simple and awesome tutorial of making this platte Christmas Tree light. I showed it to my husband and he said that it is doable and he would get some wood pallets for me. Sweet!

Last week he brought home couple of them for this project 🙂 I love my husband!

You will need Christmas light, star, nails and hammer beside wood pallets. My husband got me this big and circle light at Big Lots for only $10!

I took the bigger wood pallet inside the house because it was super duper cold to work on it outside. I cleaned any dirt or spider web using vacuum cleaner. On the tutorial, she did not paint it. So I did not pain it too. The original color is pretty in some ways.

Next is adding nails on the wood pallet. I started from top to bottom. The nails shape like a giant triangle.

Start to hook the light from top to bottom. On the tutorial blog you can see the diagram how to do it.

And it only took 15 minutes to finish this project! Plus my 2 years-old-daughter was trying to help with the hammer… 😀 And all of us LOVE the result 🙂

This project I link up at:

Creative Spark Link Party #31

Pretty Pintastic Party #32

Hope you like this project as much as we do 🙂 Thanks for being here again today!

Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2014

DIY Painted Pumpkins, Kids Can Do It!

A couple of weeks ago, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch where they picked their own sizes of pumpkins. It was an interesting thing to do as family for sure, especially now the little girl is walking and pretty much wanna do what her big sister does. We also thought that it would be fun for them to decorate it by themselves.

I asked the big girl how she wanted to decorate hers by giving her some clues like with stickers, or glitter, or gems, or markers, or paint. And she decided to paint her pumpkin. And I thought… That will be a messy one!

And of course the little girl also wants to do the same thing like her big sister. So we went with Painted pumpkins.

The big girl wanted a black car on her pumpkin. I thought would be easier for her to paint using stencil. So I got a cat shape at Silhouette Online Store for only $0.75 because Silhouette has 25% deal for all Halloween shapes until October 31. Scored!

I opened the shape on Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software, resized it to about 4 inch tall and sent to cut the piece of cardstock.

Cat Silhouette (Sarah Hurley)

After that I used pushpins to hold the cat cutout on the pumpkin and traced it using a pencil.

Then she started to paint the cat using kids acrylic paint we had at home. You can use any kind of acrylic paint as long as it is safe for kids. Sometimes the fume from the paint is too strong for kids.

MAKE SURE you have enough scrap paper or old newspaper covering your table before you let the kids star painting.

The big girl took her pumpkin to her school Annual Fall Festival & Pumpkin show on Oct 18th, 2014.

And for the little girl, she used Crayola Finger Paint for kids (this a no mess paint, washable and in tubes). I put red, blue, green and yellow on a paper plate. Then I gave her a brush but she asked for two because her big sister had more than one. Once she had a brush on each hand, she just went ahead express her creativity on her pumpkin.

And she loves her arty pumpkin!

I was so afraid it could get super messy, but turned out both of them were so good with paints! And old newspaper surely helped to prevent the messiness 🙂

What did you do to decorate your pumpkin this year? Did you do it as a family?

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Link Up at:

Inspire Me Monday Week #147

Creative Spark Link Party #26

#SoMe2 Week #57

Posted on Friday, October 17, 2014

A Warm Welcome Gift Basket

It less than 4 days our friends from Indonesia, who serve with a local mission organization will visit us and stay with us for 3 nights! I am so super excited! 😀 It has been a long time since we have guests from my home country. And to welcome them to our little home, I made little Warm Welcome Gift Basket with my Silhouette Cameo.

Stuck On U Sketches has their new Die Cut Challenge up on their blog now with theme: Everything Autumn. You are invited to play with our challenge and share your project you create with any of your die cutting machine that goes with the theme this week.

What you need for this project:

1 – 12×12 Silhouette Chipboard
1 – double-sided Pathfinding paper (or any pattern paper you have)
Woodgrain Embossing Folder
Embossing Machine (CTMH embossing folders work well with any brand of die cut/embossing machine)
Strong glue (I use Xyron Max and Tombow Xtreme)
Liquid Glass
Tombow Liquid Glue
Embellishments: brads, or gems, or pearls, hemp or twine, etc.
Silhouette Cameo
Silhouette cutting mat
Silhouette Spatula
Silhouette Studio Designer Edition
Cutting file: Leaves with veins (Hero Arts), 3D Bushel Fruit Basket (Lori Whitlock)

First open the file on the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. The original size is small that makes easy to resize to as big as you want. I resized my basket. And then ungroup the shapes. First I cut the base basket using the Chipboard cardstock. I cut them all at once.

Second time I open the leaves and resize them again, put them all around the space where they can fit so I can cut them all at once. I used the pattern paper for the leaves and the layer the base basket.

I cut the paper basket shape into 5 pieces. I cut at their folding lines. It is easier to add them on the chipboard basket. After all shapes cut, I use my Xyron Max to add adhesive at the back of every piece for the basket layer paper.

I used Liquid glue to assemble the basket after adding the layer papers on it. I love this liquid glue because it is multipurpose glue that can be used on anything, dries clear and even you can use to give some dimensional glossy looking on any flat embellishments.

I also made one layer Fall theme cards to put inside the basket with other knick knack. It is a quick one. I cut white cardstocks in 3.5×3.5, stamp it with Quick Cards – Autumn stamp set (retired) using Autumn Terracotta exclusive inks pad. I tied up some Natural Hemp and added some sequins to finish the cards.

I embossed the trim pieces for the basket using Woodgrain Embossing Folder with my WRMK Embossing machine. I love the woodgrain looking for the basket. I added them on the basket edges using Tombow liquid glue. And then wrapped the Natural Hemp cord couple times. Before I tie up the bow, I added those leaves. I use the other side of the Pathfinding paper, the one side I use for the basket layering. Using liquid glue, I added the leaves one by one, made them like a cluster of leaves. Carefully curl them if you want like I did just the edge of each leaf.

I finish it up with a metal brad after I tied up the bow. For extra security, I added some Liquid glue. Let it sit to dry before I put all the goodies inside the basket. And all done 🙂

I hope you like it as much as I enjoy making it! Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to check SOUS Challenges this month!
Have a fun weekend!

Posted on Thursday, October 2, 2014

Scrapping Everyday Miracles October Challenge

We had a fun Mini Crop Challenge last 3 weeks and the entries are gorgeous! Thank you so much for participating with our Mini Crop Challenge! And don’t forget to check out the Winner on the SEM blog in the couple of days 🙂

Scrapping Everyday Miracles October Challenges is now open until Oct 31, 11:59 PM for you to link up your projects. We have 4 challenges! This month I participate for Card Sketch Challenge and I also incorporate with the Theme/Scripture for this month from Matthew 11:28 (you can use your favorite version of the Bible.):

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Here’s the sketch I use from one of our DT member, Bev:

My card I used Pathfinding paper packet for the pattern paper underneath the chevron die cut from Winnie and Walter. I added the chevron layer on the card using glue pen.

I stamped the verse from Look To The Light stamp set (B1428) with Barn Red pigment ink pad. And then heat set with Craft Heater for quick drying. Then I added some Gold Sequins (I love these sequins comes with 3 gold colors and back adhesive!).

The inside of the card, I stamped the message from Card Chatter set (D1476, retired) with Barn Red and Autumn Terracotta exclusive inks stamp pads using tissue papers. This is an easy technique. Tap couple times the tissue paper on the ink pad. Add the lighter color first and the darker color. Then stamp. You have 2 tone colors sentiment 🙂