Photo Expressions

Sewing and Quilting with Silhouette Products

Cute Box tutorial with the New Silhouette Chipboard

 

Silhouette has some great You Tube videos that show you step by step how to create. They recently released 12x12 chipboard that cuts using your Silhouette. This one shows you how to use the newly released chipboard to create an adorable box.  Available at Photo Express in store or online here. It is only $9.99 for 25 sheets!

Mother's Day Gift Idea - Gift Card Holder

In case you missed it, here is a great idea from the silhouette blog. (and remember, download cards are always 10% off at Photo Express)

Mother's Day gift idea :: Gift Card Holder

Did you catch our Instagram post yesterday with a sneak peak of our Mother's day gift idea series? {you can follow us @silhouetteamerica} Now is the time to get a jump start on your gifts for mom and we'd like to help you out. :) Along with a darling box of chocolates, you can throw in a gift card to her favorite place for pampering or retail therapy...

The fun part of giving a gift card is getting creative with the card holder. I created this little gift card holder using a library pocket shape from the Silhouette online store, and in keeping with my floral theme from the chocolate box, I added a 3d peony to the front. {love, love, loving that peony shape!}

The pocket shape I used here is designed to hold a 3"x4" card. Most gift cards are normally a bit smaller than that, so I had to reduce the size a bit. This is an easy fix. To change the size of your pocket so that there is just a little bit of wiggle room on either side of the gift card, you can enter these dimensions in the Scale window. The width is 6.070 and the height is 6.755.

Besides being a great gift card holder, the shape also comes with a card to write a little note on and slip in behind the gift card. {2 for 1... yes please!}

Well, we've got a few more gift ideas up our sleeves that we will be sharing the rest of this week... so we'll see you back here tomorrow. :)

Have a great day, and happy creating!

Shapes: click on the shapes below to link to them in the Silhouette online store. The size listed is that of the shape used in today's project. When entering this size, be sure to click 'lock aspect ratio' first.

3x4 life library pocket {6.070" w}
3d peony {6.93" w}

PS...  There is a 50% off shape sale going on in the Silhouette online store. It's happening now through May 2nd so nows the time to grab all the shapes on your wishlist!

Graduation Party Ideas

Graduation is coming quickly! Here are a few Graduation Party ideas  to help you have a fabulous grad party. Whether you are graduating from High School or College, pick and choose some of these ideas and you will celebrate in style! If it is something we can help you with at Photo Express, I've highlighted it in red.

Graduation Invitations and Announcements

Photo Express has lots and lots of graduation announcement and invitations to choose from and starting at $.49, they are very affordable ways to annouce your graduate. You can order in store or online here . 

Graduation Gift Ideas

Collection of memorabilia for a graduation gift (framing and photos) (from graduation party pinterest)

Get an inexpensive umbrella from the dollar store and dangle bills from the inside so that when opened up – tada! "A little something for a rainy day…" (from happyhomefairy.com)

College Survival Kit - great graduation gift! from artsymaqnolias.blogspot.com

Personalize a gift with your graduate's photo. Lots of gift items to choose from at Photo Express. Order in store or online.

Graduation Party Decorations:

My sister in law took pictures from Kindergarten thru Senior and put them on 24"x24" sign board. We decorated the driveway to the house for my son's graduation party. It was not only a great decoration but very emotional. from graduationparty.com. Photo Express can print posters for you.

Order up a Photo Collage of your Grad and print it as a poster, large format print and have it framed, as a banner, or as a canvas. Use it for party decor and then it is a great keepsake after. Order online or in store at Photo Express.

 

Night time graduation party? Fill balloon with water, drop a light stick in it, put it all in a white stocking and hang from tree branches, ceilings. from yankodesign.com

Congratulate your graduate with a "Good Luck" banner in his or her school colors. from marthastewart.com

Photo Wall: choose photos that showed all of the kids that were invited to the party. (Hint: Black and White looks much better). from blog.kandrac-kole.com

Plastic tablecloths draped to make and awesome (and cheap) party ceiling! Use school colors for a graduation party. from designdazzle.blogspot.com

photo display for a graduation party - double sided so they can spin a little. from 3.bp.blogspot.com

Photo Collages and albums or scrapbooks of your grad from www.graduationpartyplanner.com

 

Graduation games and activities:

Photo Booth Props are so popular right now (Buy a Silhouette Cameo at Photo Express and cut your own!) (from aprilfosterevents.com)

Memory Jar: Have all of your graduation party guests write a fun memory of you, put it in the jar, then read on your first night in the dorm. (from inchmark.squarespace.com)

How fun would it be to play twister outside! (from graduationparty.com)

Glow Stick Rings Fun Night Games for an late night graduation party. From rugged-life.com

Even big kids like bubbles! (from la-lashomedaycare.blogspot.com)

DIY bean bag toss for a graduation party activity! Just shapes cut in a tarp and wrap duct tape around the edges. (from familyfun.go.com)

 

 

DIY Spice Jars

Here is a great idea for your spice jars from the Silhouette blog. You can order Silhouette online at Photo Express

Organization Week :: DIY Spice Jars using the FREE Shape of the Week

Hi there and happy FREE shape Tuesday! 

spring labels

Today I want to share another project that has helped me organize my home. I recently moved into my house, and in my kitchen I still find myself moving things around trying to find the best home for them. My spices are a perfect example. They are all different shapes and sizes. Some have labels on the top, others just on the side. So, prior to this little DIY I kept them all in a plastic bin up on my shelf and would take them down and rifle through them to find what I am looking for. It's worked ok, but in a perfect world all of them would be the same size, I'd be able to access them a little more easily and I'd be able to see the name of all the spices at a glance. So... my solution ::  DIY spice jars with printable labels. 

To make them... I bought a baby food jar for each of my spices and donated the food inside to one of my neighbors who's little one looooves applesauce. {You can find empty jars online or at thrift stores too if you don't have anyone that can use the baby food.} Then I removed the labels and the glue from the outside with goo-gone, washed them and spray painted the lids white.

Next, the fun part. I opened this week's FREE shape in Silhouette studio and ungrouped it.

Then I deleted all but the floral circle with the white background.

Next, because I was printing on the printable clear sticker paper which is letter sized, I opened the page window and selected 'letter' from the menu.

Then, I opened the registration marks window and turned them on by clicking in the box next to 'show reg marks'.

Next, I opened the scale window, clicked the box next to 'lock aspect ratio' and entered 1.6" for the width. Then, I duplicated the shape so that there was one for each of my spice jars, making sure to keep them inside the red line and out of the grey hash marks.

Once I duplicated the shape, I used the new Paprika font in the online store and typed the spice name in the center of each label.

Then, I selected all of the text, opened the fill color window and used the eye dropper to select the orange color from the label shape.

Then, I opened the line color window and select no color.

Voila, they were all set to print. Once I printed them out, I opened the cut settings window in Silhouette studio, selected printable sticker paper and for good measure selected double cut. Then, I placed my printed sticker sheet on to my mat as shown in Silhouette studio, loaded the mat into my CAMEO and clicked cut.

Once the labels were cut, I removed them from the white backing and adhered one to each of my lids. After the jars were filled with the corresponding spices, I placed them in the drawer next to my stove. Now, they are super easy to access and having them in alphabetical order has helped quite a bit too. I'm loving the way they turned out!

This week's free shape worked perfect for this project, and I think I'll use some of the others to make labels for my salsa garden. Hmmm the possibilities!

What will you create with this week's free shape? I'd love to see! If you instagram use the tag #silfreeshapeoftheweek

Happy labeling!

Silhouette card using Frisket

Did you know that you can get the full Silhouette Line of products at Photo Express either in store or online?!  We ship all across Canada too.  Here is a beautiful card from Christine G. in Montreal that she made with her Cameo.  See her instructions below.  Thanks for sharing Christine!

 

 

From Christine:

First I make my design in illustrator and save it in .svg file, I import it in the Silhouette software, I have the Designer Edition so I can import my own design. Than, I cut the Frisket, it's like a thin vinyl but it's transparent. I peel off the part I don't want and I transfert the Frisket on the paper card to hide what I don't want to paint and after I paint the exposed parts using the airbrush. If I want a texture like gold on the card, I make it in the same way as the design.

For the envelope, I design a series of holes around the edge to embroider by hand.

In this project the paper is blue and I paint the brown and the gold.