Silhouette Machine Creations

Since I had just shared a my newest creation with the Silhouette machine, thought maybe I would make a compilation post of all the items I have made and shared.

Heat Transfer

• Silhouette Heat Transfer Gifts Created for Tweens (Headbands, pants, pillowcases)
• Silhouette  Heat Transfer Creations (headbands with various titles)
• Road Trip T-Shirts
• Silhouette Teacher T-Shirts
• "I FLY! What's Your Super Power?" Sweatshirt
• Basketball Coach Personalized T-Shirt
• 4-H T-Shirt with the Silhouette Machine
• Silhouette "Swim Mom" Shirts
• DIY Concert T-Shirts
• Girls Weekend Beach Tank Tops
• Personalized Beach Bags (End of the Year Teacher Gift)
• EAT. SLEEP. SWIM. REPEAT. T-Shirt
• SWIMMING Flannel Pajama Pants
• State Swim (Headbands and Hats) Silhouette Creations

Vinyl

• Harry Potter Golden Snitch Valentine Box
• After School Snack Wine Glass - Teacher Gift
• RETIREment Gift Idea
• Fall and Christmas Reversible Blocks
• Easy Vinyl Lettered Cups for Teachers and Bus Drivers  
• DIY Cabin Sign

And these are just the things I have shared with you on my blog. You probably noticed I haven't posted on here as much lately, but have been trying to post in other places. So, please Follow my FB page or Follow me on Instagram to see more Silhouette items I have created.

DIY Headbands using your Silhouette machine

Just finished making our "Shop with Santa" gifts. If you don't know what it is, it is an event coming up on Saturday, December 1st where kids can shop for homemade gifts (made by 4-H families) with assistance from a 4-H member and have them wrapped by an adult. Most gifts are priced around $1-2. This allows kids to pick out affordable presents for their family and have it be a surprise.

My daughter and I made these together. You can see the other (Name) headbands I created in the post Silhouette Heat Transfer Gifts Created for Tweens. There are some other fun ideas there too.

End of the Year Teacher Gift - Personalized Beach Bags

This was last year's end of the year teacher gift for my kids teachers. I used my Silhouette machine to make iron on letters for their names to make personalized Beach Bags. We filled the bags with a wet/dry bag, sunglasses, lotion and bottles of water with drink mixes. I thought this was a fun end of the year gift to give them to help them get ready for summer.

DIY Basketball Coach Personalized T-shirt

Remember how I mentioned one of the things I really liked about using the silhouette machine was that I could personalized things and this is a perfect example.
This was something my daughter's basketball coach had said several times during practice and she commented she was going to make him a shirt that said this. He didn't think she was serious but at their end of the season basketball party she presented him with this.
Again I had used the tinsel font that I bought from the silhouette design store and this basketball is also an image I purchased from there as well.

DIY 4-H T-shirt with the Silhouette Machine

We joined 4-H a little over a year ago and the kids got new 4-H shirts when we signed up this year but they we're gray and not the bright green I associate with 4-H.
Then incomes Mom with her silhouette machine and once I found a store that sold the color green t-shirt I wanted I bought a couple and made each of my kids one. Now they will have one more option to wear when they are doing different 4-H events and want to show off their enthusiasm for 4-H.

DIY " EAT. SLEEP. SWIM. REPEAT." T-shirt

 I made this top as a fun sleeping shirt for my daughter. I used the impact font on the silhouette software, which it comes pre-loaded with. No need to purchase a new font if you like this one.

The other thing I didn't purchase was new heat transfer vinyl for this one. I had saved scraps and cut out each word individually.

This T-shirt pretty much sums up how some days feel to her. LOL.

DIY "I FLY! What's Your Super Power?" Sweatshirt

 My daughter used to have a t-shirt with the same saying that has now been relegated to her cabin clothes. When she got that one I had purchased it as I didn't have the silhouette machine previously to make one.

But now I found a need to make it again for her. At school they are having a superhero day and at her age in elementary in elementary school, being the oldest grade, actually dressing up like a superhero is a little silly. This will be her take on the day.

Plus, she does swim butterfly stroke rather well and looks so strong when she swims Fly.

For the font I used a font called tinsel from the silhouette design store. I find that I would much rather spend money buying new fonts from there then trying to find clipart that I have to edit around the font. Font can be really tricky to work with and be very time-consuming if you don't have a pre-loaded font. Pictures are a different story and I will find clipart that I can download for free or purchase to use and sometimes buy them from the silhouette design store.

DIY Silhouette "Swim Mom" Shirts

The two biggest reasons that I do my own personalization and designs on my Silhouette machine to iron on clothing is 1) cost savings and 2) the ability to personalize everything.

The thing I like to personalize the most is what type of fabric I am going to wear. In the past I have bought items that a company made for the team and find that the cotton is too heavy and uncomfortable or the arms just aren't long enough in a long sleeve top. When I buy the Garment I want to wear I can try it on First and make sure I like how it fits in feels and then personalize it the way I want to and I'm excited to show my support through my outfit.

DIY SWIMMING Flannel Pajama Pants

In the upcoming weeks, I will be sharing a lot more of the DIY silhouette heat transfer vinyl Creations I have done. It seems like there is always some new, fun personalised item the kids need or want.
And if you can do that personalization yourself, you can save a lot of money.
These "swimming" flannel pajama pants are just one example. Similar pants were for sale at the last two championship swim meets I took my daughter to and they we're selling them for $27. It doesn't seem like a bad price when you compare it to how much everything else you have to pay for when when it comes to swim team but I I kn I knew I could pick up a pair of pajama pants like these at Walmart for around $10 and for a a couple of dollars in heat transfer vinyl I was able to make her a pair for less than half the cost.

State Swim Silhouette Creations

I made these head coverings for my daughter and the rest of the members of her relay for the Short Course Swim Meet last March. It was her first time swimming on a relay at state and she was very excited and I was excited for her and made these head bands and hats for her and her team mates. My daughter wears these all the time.

RETIREment Gift Idea

Tonight I am giving this gift I made to someone in my book club that is retiring from her in job. I made the sign and other members of our club are buying something that fits each of those letters. We did have to double up on a few of the letters.

I am curious and excited to see what each person buys her that goes with each letter theme.

To make this wall hanging I had bought the pre-made wood hanging from Walmart and then made the letters on my Silhouette machine.

The word retire is one type of font and the adjoining letters are another font. I thought that added some more visual interest. Once I had got the words in place I put two coats of Modge Podge sealer over the top then I did two coats of acrylic high gloss clear paint, allowing it to dry in between each layer.

When it was all dry I glued into place with a hot glue gun, ribbon and flowers. Be sure to take all the plastic pieces out out from the flower so it will glue on flat and stay into place better.

Harry Potter Golden Snitch Valentine Box

As promised on Tuesday here is the Valentine box that my daughter made for this year. It is her last year of elementary school so this will be her last Valentine Box.

She is a total potterhead so she opted to make a Harry Potter themed Valentine Box. She had several ideas but this was the one she finally settled on. If you remember reading about our problems with using a punch ball in the Pokeball post, we had the same issues but this didn't claps quite as far because it was smaller already.

To make the wings she taped cardboard from a 12 pack box and then paper mache paid the taped joint area. Then she paper mache paid over the entire Wings to add texture to them as well.

She decided to use a paste made of flour and water where as my son used liquid starch as his paste. The paste she made seem to shrink a bit more and made it more textured. But it did seem to be a thicker and sturdier project with less coats. The final coat she had to do with starch because she needed to have a smoother area in order to put the letters on.

The letters are made using my Silhouette machine using the font I bought from the silhouette design store called lightning.

DIY Concert Shirts

I am so excited! We are seeing Katy Perry on Friday night. I haven't made my shirt yet, but I made matching shirts and jackets for my daughter and her friend (we gave her friend them for her birthday when her mom was surprising her with the tickets for her birthday).

This summer we went to see Shawn Mendes (made the girls the matching blue shirts) and Charlie Puth (made us moms the matching ATTENT!ON shirts) using my Silhouette machine. I think it is fun to have our own concert t-shirts that I can make in advance and we can wear there. Concert t-shirts are really expensive once you get there and it's not in my budget to pay that much for a shirt (I think the cheapest ones at Shawn Mendes were $35) as well as pay for the tickets AND parking AND concessions.

By now, you gave seen that I enjoying using the Heat Transfer vinyl and have made several items:

• Teacher T-Shirts
• Girls Beach Weekend Tanks
• Road Trip Shirts
• SWIM pants
• Name Headbands
• Llama-Corn Pillowcases
• Pun Kitchen Towels (spoiler alert!)

And then there is the regular vinyl I have used in the Silhouette Machine:

• Cabin Sign
• After School Snack Wine Glass
• Lettered Cups for Teacher and Bus Driver

Road Trip T-Shirts

We are off on another road trip soon and will probably take along these shirts I made for our summer road trip through CA, NV & AZ on our fall road trip through MN, SD, and WY.

These were the shirts I made for our family by importing images and text that I learned working with text in an image can be very tiresome and difficult. The complexity of some of the images was difficult to format and edit, and after lots of putzing around I learned that it is worth it to spend $3 to buy some new font so you get the look you want and not have to spend hours editting the font.

You don't always have to buy images and fonts though, below is information my mom emailed me about free images and fonts to use with your Silhouette machine. I thought I would share the info so my readers can see it, and I can easily look it up when I need to and not have to search through old emails.

http://www.fontspace.com/

http://www.dafont.com/

These both have preview boxes, so if you are looking for a particular look for a word, you can type that into the preview box and all the fonts will show what your message looks like. Be sure to do a search for the theme of your project.I have used these among others: http://www.fontspace.com/donna-j-morse/dj-kitchen, http://www.fontspace.com/nymphont/nymphette These are just your basic letters, unless you buy a commercial font. 

The following font place has a free font every week and it includes a "Premium Font License", so you get ( PUA Encoded meaning that it is fully accessible to everyone and all glyphs are available in Character Map on Windows and Fontbook on Mac.). These are swashes and flourishes you may want to add to some letters. 

https://fontbundles.net/free-font-of-the-week?ref=livesearch

If you have the current version of Silhouette software, Designer Edition, like I have, you can do this right in the program. This gives you the rundown on the new features. http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2017/08/silhouette-studio-v41-released-update.html

https://apexembdesigns.com/cuttables/subject/all?keys=&commerce_price_amount=1&field_font_type_tid=All

This has a free design several times a week. I usually check it every day, and download the ones I think I will use at some point.

https://www.misskatecuttables.com/products/freebie-of-the-week/

This used to be a free one every day, but went to a freebie of the week.

http://freesvgs.blogspot.com/

This one has a lot of free files and you can do a search to see if there is something that works for your project.

https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/ 

Don't forget the Silhouette store. They have a freebie every week and it goes directly into your Silhouette program. If you computer crashes, you are able to get back all of the files from the Silhouette store, usually automatically.

Fall and Christmas Reversible Blocks

A friend and I had a crafting afternoon and each made our own set of these reversible blocks. We wanted to be able to see the grain so we watered down some acrylic paint and basically made a stain.

We did this to each side in the colors we wanted for each block. When it was dry we used the vinyl letters and images I had created using the silhouette machine. My job was the make the vinyl pieces and she cut out the blacks from leftover 2x4 pieces.

I then covered the edges with duct tape while she chose to sand them down smooth and paint them.

Girls Weekend Beach Tank Tops

I created theses custom tank tops for for our upcoming Girls Weekend. In the past I have made us coordinating jewelry, but this year I went for clothes. It's our first year doing Florida together, even if it is only for a weekend. We have done trips in MO, AR & MN together in the past.

Like the teacher t-shirts I made, I used heat transfer vinyl to make these. I used 2 fonts I purchased from the Silhouette Design Store and then cut out parts of images from other clipart in my silhouette library to add in the sun, stars and waves.

I don't like to make us all matchy-matchy, just coordinating and somewhat matchy. So, I purchased the same tank in four fall colors.

Some of the things I made in the past include:

• Pottery Pendant Necklaces
• Birthstone Color Beaded Earrings
• Hemp and Pearl Bracelets (like this one)
• Pottery Pendant Necklaces
• Wire Wrap Pearl Rings

I think I got them all listed and not I have gone in to clothing. I should really look in my jewelry box and find all of them I made to bring along to wear on this trip too.

After School Snack Wine Glass - Teacher Gift

So, these are #3 & #4 that I made. I used my Silhouette machine to create the vinyl to put these letters on wine glasses. I had purchased 2 different fonts from the Silhouette Design Store to do the words and modeled it off of a similar craft I found on pinterest. I originally made 2 of them to give to each of my children's main grade teachers during teacher appreciation week in May, but then was commissioned by one of those teachers to make 2 more for a couple of teachers that were retiring. I thought they all turned out really cute.