I keep most offcuts in a little box, and every so often I challenge myself to make cards using only those scraps.

One weekend I was half heartedly watching a movie on the iPad in the craft room whilst making a layout and the layout finished before the movie. I grabbed my scrap box and started pulling pieces and building little self assembled embellishments. I didn’t dwell too much on matching colours or worrying about what they would be used for, I just kept going until the movie finished.

As the credits rolled I looked at my desk and I kind of surprised myself. There were loads, and it wasn’t long until inspiration took flight. I grabbed a photo and used a grid type design to build a layout about Piper and her cousin Jack.

Because the elements were already assembled, it took no time at all to put this layout together. Once again I didn’t get caught up in the colours or styles, I just went with it. I love that the layers give lots of interest and dimension too!

What a great way to use up those scraps and transform them into beautiful elements that quite frankly could cost a lot of money in the shops.

See ya later alligators!

I don’t think I have shared these three cards yet even though they were made earlier last year.  Forgive me if I have shared them and forgotten about it. Stranger things have happened before! 🙂

I am really loving using my silhouette to personalise cards. You know when you are little and you go into a garden centre, or a touristy place and there are pens and keyrings and other such wonderful things with names on them- well, I loved looking through to see if I could find my name. It almost never was there, or if it was, it was spelt incorrectly as Leslie (which in the UK is actually more commonly used as the masculine form!).

When we were having our own bambino we wanted a name that was unusual. I didn’t want our child to be just another Joanne, or Emily or Andrea. I want to teach her that its okay to be different. In fact, that its wonderful to be different! That she is unique and wonderful and she doesn’t have to do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it.  We went with the name Piper, and even two and a half years in, when people hear it they usually exclaim “oh, thats an unusual name!“. {Sometimes you can tell that they are really saying “OMG how weird!” LOL.}

Did we stop to think about those pesonalised keychains and pencils? In fact we did, but choosing an unusual name does not exclude personalised paraphernalia when there is a crafty mom in the house!

And I think that most people get a little kick out of seeing their name on a card or a gift. I guess its an another way to make a connection with them, in the same way as you would use favourite colours or a suitable theme.

And so I’ll say it again, I LOVE using my silhouette to make personalised cards! Lets take a look at three that I have made:

The first card up the top there is for Ankita and Vivek to congratulation them on their lovely new house. A basic application of using the type tool in the silhouette software.

Next up is Sarah’s birthday card. I decided to put a fun spin on the traditional greeting and say Happy Sarah Day instead of Happy Birthday. Just cos i could!

For this one I made the text in photoshop elements, flattened the image and then imported it to the silhouette software. I love this effect- will definitely be doing this one again!

And can you guess who this engagement card was for? haha! For this one I used my wacom to draw the design in photoshop before importing into the silhouette software.

This is lots of fun. I think I will be doing this more and more and more…