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