Posted on May 22, 2017 by kabram — 3 Comments

Hand Lettered Art on a Watercolor Background – Free Hand Lettered SVG file too!

DIY Hand Lettered Art Project

Welcome to my website and today’s journey through my hand lettered artwork project! Have you tried hand lettering? With all the amazing hand lettering on Pinterest and Instagram, I just couldn’t stay away. Such pretty lettering ought to be admired by imitation, in my opinion!

Well, my hand lettering led to water brush pens and watercolors, which led in turn to watercolor doodles. Then, I saw this on Instagram. Watercolor hexagons! Perfect, I thought, I can usually make patterns and I love playing with the colors. Of course, I didn’t attempt the project free-handed, like the lady I saw as my inspiration. We’ll save that for a later date.

Instead, I drew nice little evenly spaced guidelines for myself. I used the materials listed below. These are Amazon affiliate links, but buy wherever you like! I generally buy new supplies at the craft stores with coupons. I love coupons.

Strathmore Watercolor Paper Pad 11″X15″-12 Sheets
Pentel Japan Aquash Waterbrush Water Brush Pen, Medium
OR a regular paint brush!
pencil
ruler

Very, very relaxing, at least for me! Try to leave a little border between the hexagons. I found that it helped to put a dot where each corner ought to go and then connect the dots. You can also add a little extra color to the hexagon while it is still wet to get some fun variation!

Adding a Hand Lettered Word, Saying, or Sentiment

I don’t know if it is a craze right now or not, but hand lettering is highly addicting! For my piece of craft room artwork, I thought “Create” would be an apt word to add. I used my Pentel water brush again to letter this on another piece of watercolor paper with the plan to cut it out and put it on top of my hexagon masterpiece.

As a sidenote, I have also been playing with brush markers for hand lettering practice. Take a look at my Instagram feed if you want to see what I have been up to in my spare time. Here are the pens I have been playing with (there are many more that I want to try as well!):

Hand Lettering Tools I have been playing with lately

After it dried, I cut the watercolor paper down a bit and stuck it on my PixScan mat for my Silhouette Cameo to cut out.

After several tries, it finally registered and cut. While it went through and cut smoothly, it was off a bit. I took it off and played around with it a bit on top of the hexagons.

It would have been okay, but I didn’t really like the look of it on top of the hexagons anyhow. So, I scrapped it, and kept just the outline.

When in doubt, use Glitter!

Glitter to the rescue! I found this lovely piece of VERY THICK glitter paper in a nice dark gray. It looked like it would go well, so I set about to cut out my lettering. Does anyone know if this particular glitter cardstock is thicker than normal?

I have not previously cut out glitter cardstock. Looking in the materials list on my silhouette, I found and choose the “glitter cardstock” settings. After running the file through the cutter, I pulled it out. Sadly, it was not cut all the way through.

So, I stuck it back in the Silhouette Cameo for another double-cut run through. Took it out, and it was still not cut through. This time I checked my blade to find it filled with glitter.

After cleaning it out, I upped the blade depth a bit and stuck it back in. Almost this time! Cleaned out the blade again. Fourth time was a charm and it looked great!

Persistence paid off and I was very thankful that it stayed aligned despite its many trips in and out of the machine. I then did a quick offset and cut a second one out of another piece of white cardstock. Isn’t it pretty?

Look at how pretty it looks on top of the hexagons! I am thrilled that the 4 times through the Silhouette Cameo paid off. Just in case you didn’t put this together, that is 8 cutting passes since it was set to double cut!

Now, it just needed a little extra depth. For this, I turn once again to my large supply of cork scraps. Use anything with a bit of thickness, I just have a lot of cork scraps lying around from making coasters!

In fact, if you need some coasters, please head over to my Etsy shop and take a look. I welcome custom orders if there is something in particular you are looking for!

[etsy-include=KabramKrafts;21231028]

Also, check out the other pictures I made for my playroom using this same technique.

Except, this time, I just sprayed the cork on both sides with spray adhesive. That seemed to do the trick nicely! Also, I didn’t get any photos of this, but I adhered the glitter cardstock to the offset white cardstock cut.

Almost Done! Now just position your lovely hand lettering on your lovely hand painted background

Beautiful! All set to frame.

A nice little glamour shot of my framed artwork next to my Silhouette Cameo.

And, if you were waiting for this, I’m sorry for the long post. Here is the FREE HAND LETTERED CUTTING FILE! Just click the link below and the free SVG file should download.

Posted on May 10, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

Mother’s Day Card Making with the Silhouette Cameo

Mother’s Day!

Hello to all you of you mothers out there! This image of a mother and baby is beautiful, don’t you think. I really want to make it into a cutting file, of course, but haven’t captured it well enough in my attempts yet. I will share my results though if I do succeed!

Good news if you create your own cards – there is still time to get that Mother’s Day card out of your head and onto the paper for your own mother. Especially if she lives nearby!

Also, though a bit more somber, I wanted to acknowledge all the bereaved mothers out there too. There are many women who are mothers, but do not have a child to hold. This day may hold its own meaning for them as well. Please think of them this week and don’t be afraid to say something to acknowledge them and their pain. At least, this is what I have learned from an article I read recently shared by a friend who knows this pain!

Hand Lettered

On a lighter note, here is the pretty little watercolor lettering page I started this process with. Just recently I have started playing with watercolors. I just started, so don’t judge too harshly, but I am having a lot of fun! And, I am also having fun with hand lettering.

More particularly, I have discovered the water brush pen! It is a pen. It is a brush. It is full of water. Awesome.

If you want to play with one, these are the two I have currently. I think I like the Pentel one better, but I’m not sure.

Pentel Medium Brush Pen
Ranger Ink Water Brush Pen Fine Detail
A lot of other ones online look great, but I just got the ones I could find in the craft stores immediately. No patience here!

Simply moisten some water color ink, dip your water brush pen in and have fun.

Mom Mother Mother’s Day on the Screen

Next, I traced my lettering in Adobe Illustrator. In the past, I have used Inkscape forthis and it works well too (and is free!). There are plenty of tutorials on this around, but I may add my own at some point as well. Here is what I ended up with in Silhouette Studio at the end of the day.

Once I cut it out, I realized that the “HAPPY” and “DAY” parts of my lettering were too tiny for me to hassle with. So, I opted to just hand-letter those words in on my final cards.

Mother’s Day Card Construction Time!

Then, construct your card. Many of you, I’m sure, have more card making experience than I. However, a few layers, a little texture from my embossing folders, and these sentiments made for a pretty nice looking card.

I also cut out a few of the butterflies that came with the Silhouette Cameo (I think).

Thought I wanted this in silver, but I changed my mind. Sharpie to the rescue!

Here is my finished product and the cutting file for the sentiments too!

I made two cards. One for me to send, and one for my husband. Who knows if my mother-in-law would get one otherwise? Plus, she loves butterflies.

If you need ideas for the card base, take a look at this card. She makes absolutely gorgeous free cutting files! Or, take a look at the pretty floral cards I made a while back. You will need to scroll to the end of this post.

And, what you might have been waiting for all along, the promised Mother’s Day cutting file!

And, what would a post be without a nice little picture for Pinterest?

Posted on April 26, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

Mommy Duck and Ducklings Card

Ducklings!

A mommy duck and ducklings just screams Spring! I am so glad that Spring has arrived and the flowers and birds have come to stay a while.

We had a little yellow duckling once. Sadly, it was a part of our failed run with guinea hens and a duck. Apparently, we have a hungry m
ink nearby good enough to weasel in almost anywhere.

Find the FREE SVG File in THIS POST

Happily, this little SVG cutting file is much more cheerful in nature. The bow, the ducklings, the flowers, it is hard to pass up.

Pretty Little Cards

Well, I have finally gotten around to actually cutting out this little file from a while back. Take a look at the original post for this cut file if you would like the free svg file download.

You can see the cute little results. You can also see my first experiment with watercolor for a background. While it looks nice enough, I think I have significant room for improvement!

Sentiment?

As of today, they are ready to go on cards but haven’t been assembled yet.

What sentiment would you attach to these? Is there something nice and springy? Or perhaps a simple “hello”? I may try to incorporate it into a Mother’s Day card.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful Spring!

~Kristin

Posted on April 8, 2017April 8, 2017 by kabram — 2 Comments

HOPE – free svg file download – hope for the future!

Hope.

I ALWAYS NEED HOPE!

Hope is what I feel as though I need lately. Sometimes life is heavy whether you have good reasons or not. As Easter approaches, it reminds me that there is a lot to appreciate and a wonderful source for true joy and true hope. However, it can often be hard to internalize it!

While I was going to create a lovely lettering file to give you a very nice free svg file download, I found one lovelier than I could make already in existence!

While I’m not sure where this was originally posted, everywhere I found it credited it to José. This is the location I got the image I used to create this SVG from.

Well, I HOPE you enjoy this free svg file download. It is a beautiful hand lettered expression and I would love to see it framed on my wall in the near future! Hoping all is well for you and yours, enjoy this free svg file download. Alright, I am done with the hope puns. For now.

And, while you are here, stop by and get this adorable free duckling svg file. This one also need a frame. It most definitely needs a frame.

These ducklings are Ready for Spring. Are you??

Posted on March 31, 2017February 20, 2020 by kabram — 2 Comments

DIY Pillowcases!

DIY Pillowcase Fun

This DIY Pillowcase project was relatively simple and a great project for the licensed fabrics that we ended up with on our last outing to the craft store. Do you bring your husband along when you go to the craft store? Well, I end up bringing him because we are often out of town together when I have the opportunity to go.

Shopping with the whole Family

What happens when you bring your whole family to the craft store? This happens:

As you can see, we ended up with lot of licensed character fabrics. While the Star Wars fabric is still waiting to be made into pillows for the man cave, the girls’ Dory and Frozen fabrics made it into these cute DIY pillowcases. (Do you like my awesome table? It is a giant 4 foot by 8 foot piece of melamine board!)

Since I am a beginner at sewing, I followed this lovely tutorial on My Childhood Treasures Blog. While she said it only took her about 10 minutes for each pillow once the fabric was cut, mine took at least 30 minutes each. So, your timing may vary depending on your ability, but mine still came out quite adorable.

how to make a pillowcase — Tutorial at My Childhood Treasures

In this DIY pillowcase, the cuff is sewn on all at once while the body of the pillowcase is rolled up inside. Although envisioning how all the layers work is a little tricky, the sewing itself was straightforward. For my first ever pillow cases, I was very pleased with how they turned out.

Cutting the Fabric

Also, I used my new rotary cutting tools for this DIY pillowcase project. While I got them to cut squares from my rolls of cork, they made cutting the fabric out for this project super simple! If you give a girl several 60% off coupons, she will use them. So, while I recommend you get them with coupons from one of your local craft stores, here are the tools I used on Amazon. Actually, looking at the current prices on Amazon, I see that they really aren’t that much more than getting them 60% off at the craft store. While I love the craft stores, I do feel like they mark things up significantly!!

What do you think? Do you have different methods? How about customizing them with names or applique? For a long time now I have wanted to use the Silhouette Cameo for doing applique. However, I am intimidated by the sewing half!

My adorable girls enjoying the results. No hesitation here…

Story: “If you bring your family to the craft store, they will want to buy some fabric.”

Moral of the Story: “Don’t bring your family unless you are prepared to make pillows.”

Posted on February 11, 2017March 19, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

How To Make Button Art – Fun and Easy!

Fun With Buttons

Do you have a lot of buttons? Well, I have at least a modest amount stowed away in a small jar. I feel like it is a collection that will increase over the years. Perhaps someday, I will be a little old lady with a hoard of buttons. At any rate, I was definitely happy to find a bag of pink and green buttons for $0.99 at the thrift store. I love thrift stores. They have loads of potential. At any point, you could round the corner and find the best deal you have ever seen. Granted, it is probably going to be an awesome deal on something you probably don’t need, but it will still be awesome. See how pretty my bargain buttons are?

Wonderfully, the buttons I found on this particular occasion were perfect for my next project because pink and green are the colors of the playroomI have been working so diligently at the past year or so. Buttons, buttons, and more buttons!! Sitting around in my craft room waiting for some love were white letters to decorate for the playroom – I had picked them up at JoAnn Fabric at some point, on a big sale of course.

Consequently, here are the letters I started with, the link will take you to Amazon but know that they do exist at the craft store if you have a coupon burning a hole in your pocket!

Now for the fun part. While I used the lighted cardboard letter shown above, you really could use almost anything. And I mean almost anything. As long as it can take the heat of hot glue, you can probably cover it in buttons.

How to Make Your own Button Creations

What could you use? Other forms of letters like wood ones, paper ones, plastic, your own cardboard shapes, canvas, paper you will frame, vases, decor items, candles, and the list goes on. Have you decorated anything with buttons?

Materials I used:

Buttons – I got mine at the thrift store for $0.99, yay!
Lighted Cardboard Letter, or whatever object you would like to decorate. Mine probably cost around $5 with a coupon or sale. (I used this one: American Crafts Letter Kit, E)
Hot Glue Gun (I already had one)
Scrap paper or covering for your workstation

Time: about 30 minutes for this letter.

Total Cost: About $6 for my materials, but could be more or less depending on what you decorate and what supplies you have on hand.

Tips:

First of all, layout at least a few buttons ahead of where you are so that you can arrange them how you like.
I put the glue on the project, not on the button. I don’t know which would be best though. Any hot glue gun experts?
While my buttons do not overlap because I wanted to ensure that the lights would have enough room, if you don’t have this constraint, you don’t have to stick to one dimension! Overlap those buttons, place some on top or in between to add more dimension.
Choose your colors wisely. I picked a pink and green theme (to go with an existing room theme). You can use any button if you want an eclectic look, or go with only one or two colors in different shades. While it doesn’t matter what you go with, just put a little thought into it before you start.
Now you have fun and don’t be shy! Just start gluing. Don’t be afraid, the buttons can’t hurt you. 🙂

Do you have any tips for button art? I would love to here them or see any of your projects or creations. Here is some more inspiration from pinterest. I LOVE the button animals!

Posted on December 20, 2013April 12, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

Experimenting with my new Silhouette Cameo!

New Silhouette Cameo = Excitement

I can’t stop feeling thrilled about my new silhouette cameo, which I was really blessed to receive as a Christmas bonus from my work – LTIIT. And… working on my new craft table was awesome!

First Project

After opening up and marveling at how light it was compared to my ecraft, I knew exactly what I wanted to try cutting out first. Awhile ago, I had made a file from one of our engagement photos that I was really excited about. It is an image of us standing together and it made a great silhouette.

Unfortunately, the ecraft could not cut this image out no matter what I tried. It would always mess up either my husband’s pants, or my nose and face. I think that due to the no mat cutting approach of the ecraft, it would always slip a little. Or, maybe my machine is just out of alignment. At any rate – the cameo got it on the first pass! Here is a picture of the finished cut:

Feel free to download the SVG for this file below.

Sketching with my Silhouette Cameo

My next thought was about sketches. Now, while the ecraft has a pen and theoretically can cut and draw an image simultaneously, the results are always less than stellar. The pen usually skips or doesn’t write, and the cut is not lined up properly. So, though I don’t yet have the cameo’s sketch pens, I decided to try a makeshift option. I wrapped a pen in some cardstock, stuck it in the cameo, and tada! Here is what I got:

So, how did I do it?

Well, for both images, I played around in both gimp and inkscape – both free programs you can download online! For the engagement silhouette, I simply picked a photo that I thought would make a good silhouetted and played with it in gimp. I changed the brightness and contrast dramatically. Turned the image to grayscale. Simplified it quite a bit and then pulled it into inkscape and hit “Object to Path”. Once I had a path, I simplified it further in inkscape and played a little with the nodes until I was satisfied. Since I don’t have the designer edition of the cameo software, I saved it as a dxf file for import into the cameo studio, and cut it out!

Making the Sketch File

The sketch was a bit more complicated. I started by following directions from this blog post that I pinned. The best thing I learned from that post was about the Eggbott Extension for Inkscape which allows you to fill a path with a hatch. This looks like a sketch and gives you a bunch of open paths – exactly what you want for a cameo sketch file.

However, I wasn’t satisfied with the very straight looking results in the post. I explored further and found the path effects editor already in Inkscape! Once you have a bunch of open paths, click one of them and go to Path -> Path Effect Editor. In the drop down, select “Sketch” and hit add. Then play around with the options until you get something you like. Once I had done this and liked my result, I then selected each part one at a time and hit “Object to Path” once more. The results of the Path Effect Editor aren’t turned into paths automatically, so I think this step is necessary. Now, you have a nice sketch! Save as a dxf file, and import it into your cameo software (this took more than a few seconds on my computer – it was a big file!).

Let me know if you have any questions!