Thursday, March 6, 2014

Cut my own stencils with the Silhouette!!!

YES! my craftroom is still a DISASTER ZONE!!! but since I had to dig some stuff out to make previous cards......WELL....I decided to play..HA HA HA
I made my own stencils WHAHOO!!!! SUPER EXCITED!!! When I was packing up my crafts to move to another room I found Graftix Stencil Blank .007...What a disaster...no matter what I set the silhouette to,  it just wouldn't cut it and I only had one sheet....urgh....Went to the craft stores and NOTHING!! uh oh....youtube to the rescue....I noticed on youtube  they were using "Show Offs" stencil blanks from Hobby Lobby.....it doesn't state the thickness...ummmm....Well I have a 40% off coupon and they had a variety of sizes but I went with the 6x18 (3 sheets) for $1.99 w 40%off HA HA HA

clic on pics to enlarge




There is a SHINEY SIDE and a DULL SIDE.....WARNING!!! on the shiney side there is a film - yes there
is a covering....REMOVE THAT COVERING!!! REMOVE THE FILM/COVERING!!!!!
I cut my blanks down to 6x6...I'm a card maker I didn't need it any bigger.





OK, here are my stencils!!!!
Cut with the Silhouette Cameo---settings: NEW BLADE set at 9, coverstock, speed 2, thickness 33 and DOUBLE CUT. To be on the Safe side I also used painters tape and taped the stencil to the mat.
It cuts all the way thru but you still need a peircer(something with a sharp point) cause that shiney side still has a plastic coating and doesn't want to release the cuts. You could use an exacto knife too just be very careful.




 AREN'T THEY GORGEOUS!!!!! I'm SUPER DUPER EXCITED!!! The first two patterns can be found in the silhouette store. The zigzag I cut at 3.75w x 5.25h and the circles I cut at 3.865w x 5h (look at the teny tiny circle..thats smaller than 1/8" or .12 and it cut it BEAUTIFULLY). The Lucky shamrock design is mine, well sort of I found the Lucky w/shamrock in the silhouette store. I then copied it ungrouped it or release compound path (can't remember which) then I shrunk the shamrock to .48w x .375h and created my border to fit a 3.75w x 5h cardstock. The stencil it self is 4.25w x 5.50h . The Lucky w/shamrock is cut at 2.115w x 2h and was centered.
What am I going to do with them???? Well, call me a Late/Slow bloomer but I'm suddenly into "mix media"......HA HA...I want to TRY "embossing paste".....its not sold in stores.....aarrgh!!! but I noticed on you tube this product was suppose to be the same....I found it at Michaels in the Art dept for about $10 but I had a 40% off coupon...he he he....




  STOP! Warning!!! I don't know if its the same....put this stuff is a DISASTER!!!! Don't waste your money. Today I order the really stuff "embossing paste" in white from Paper Wishes ( I LOVE this company, very reliable!). link is below  ( I also order some stencils too..ha ha..want to see if its the same thickness as mine) 


in the youtube video's "embossing paste" they stuck glitter and embossing powder to the embossing paste and it stuck.....this stuff that I got NOTHING STICKS!!!! AAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!
Put I'm determined NOT to waste (since I have to wait for the "original" embossing paste) and make do.
Watching the videos.. they used a stencil and embossing paste and got perfection. I made my stencil and used the product above and got DISASTER. I did exactly what they did in the videos....I don't know if my paste is too thick and or my stencil too thin...but I figured it out!!! I doubled up on my "lucky" stencil, in other words I cut another one and sprayed the back of one with TEMPORARY spray adhesive and carefully stuck them together. WOWZA! now thats a thick stencil...HA HA but it WORKED!!!!!
When using the paste it dries very quickly so when you take your stencil off you have to put it in water IMMEDIATELY. So I stuck it in water and finished my project and then went to rinse the stencil off, I rinsed the front and back and patted them dry and carefully pulled them apart and patted the inside and because I didn't use soap I stuck my stencils back together and it restuck...SUPER!
Here's my St Patricks card I'm working on. I used my double stencil and the crappy paste and then sprinkled green glitter...."LOOKS" Gorgeous HUH??? not....if you flick the back to remove the excess glitter it all falls off....Dag Nab it!!! you oh so carefully tap the excess glitter off and try to use a very small paint brush to remove the extra but don't touch anything or MORE glitter will fall off....I did the best I could and will spray it with Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic coating(from HL) and Hope and Pray that no more glitter falls off....HA HA HA...I'm determined to make this my St Pat cards and since this is such a PAIN!!! only my immediate family will get cards. I'll only have to do this 9 more times.......then that'll be it till the "REAL" embossing paste comes in and then I'll play more and post more. You can't see it but it does give it nice demension. The card is cut at 3.75w x 5h it's a bright yellow and I will stick it to an A2 green card (I'll post when all is said and DONE!)
This paste kind of warps the cardstock thats why I didn't just do it on a card.



I also picked up these palette knives at Michaels (set of 5) for around $2.50. You need something to spread the paste.




I got one done...I need to go make the others......HAPPY CRAFTING!!!!

3 comments:

  1. I've done the same thing. If you want stencils to ink through, rather than paste, then OHP sheets, or transparency sheets, from Staples work great.

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  2. I created stencils using this material and method. I agree that a new blade was critical. I changed the depth of cut to 6 and that worked great (keeping parameters set as mentioned, 2 and 33). I used one of the new 3X "Premium" blades and was very happy with the cuts. My only was was that they made the stencil plastic in 12x24 instead of 12x18 :)

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