FaveCrafts

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Click “Like” & Enter to Win a Silhouette CAMEO™ Prize Bundle

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We’re giving away an amazing prize bundle from Silhouette and you won’t believe how easy it is to enter. The winner of this giveaway will receive a Silhouette CAMEO™, printable white sticker paper, printable gold foil, and printable silver foil! The paper and foil were just introduced this summer at the Craft and Hobby Association Summer Trade Show, so you’ll be one of the first people to take advantage of these amazing products. Set a trend and change the way you look at paper crafting!

So here’s the most important part: you simply have to enter by heading over to our Facebook page and clicking “like.” No gimmicks, no hidden fees – that’s all you have to do. Before you know it, you’ll have amazing homemade stickers, labels and more made with your very own die cut machine from Silhouette!

Good luck to everyone and we hope to see you on Facebook.

Bonus Entry!

Get a bonus entry, or if you are not a Facebook user, you can enter to win a Silhouette CAMEO™ prize bundle right here on this blog! Just enter a comment below answering this question…

What would you make if you won this Silhouette CAMEO™ prize bundle?

Your comment counts as your entry! Limit one comment per person. And don’t forget our rules below.
Giveaway Rules:

  •     Contest open to US residents 18+ only
  •     One entry per person, to enter visit our Facebook page or make a comment on this blog post.
  •     Contest closes Friday, October 18, 2012 at 11:59p EDT.
  •     The winner will be posted on FaveCraftsBlog.com and notified by email.

 

Treat Yourself: Save on a Silhouette Bundle with Our Promo Code

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It’s hump day, which means we’re smack dab in the middle of a long (never-ending?) week. Need a little pick-me-up? We’ve got you covered with this amazing deal from Silhouette!

By simply using the exclusive promo code FAVE, you can score a huge Silhouette bundle at an awesome price! The bundle will be 1 Silhouette CAMEO™, 1 package of white sticker paper, 1 package of printable gold foil, and 1 package of printable silver foil for $269.99! That’s almost $57 in savings! If you already have a CAMEO, you can still save big with the FAVE promotional code. A bundle without the CAMEO is just $19.99.

The products in this bundle are truly amazing. Use the printable gold and silver foil to create labels, stickers and more. Each package comes with eight 8.5″ X 11″ sheets of foil. The printable sticker paper is also great for making labels – who wouldn’t love their own address stickers for mail and packages? Like the foil, the sticker package includes eight 8.5″ X 11″ sheets. All of these products are brand new and were just recently introduced at the Craft and Hobby Associate Summer Show in Rosemont, IL.

Who knew four little letter could be so important? This promotion ends September 30th – don’t wait until it’s too late!

 

Want to win this prize package?

We’re giving away this prize bundle to one lucky winner!

All you have to do is head over to the FaveCrafts page on Facebook and click the “like” button. Seriously, that’s it! You can also enter by commenting on the blog post, “Click ‘Like’ & Enter to Win a Silhouette CAMEO™ Prize Bundle.” You only have until 10/18, so don’t wait until it’s too late!

 

Silhouette Cameo Black Friday Sale!

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Hey Crafters! Remember all the fabulous things I made with the Silhouette Cameo? Well, the folks at Silhouette are having a Black Friday sale right now! Get all Silhouette accessories for 30% off with promo code: BLACK from now through November 28. Plus, all shapes are only 50 cents!
But wait–there’s more! Use our special FaveCrafts promo code: FAVE to get an additional 10% off all Silhouette accessories. Plus, if you want to buy a discounted Silhouette Cameo machine, go to the secret Black Friday page (Shhh…it’s a secret!) and purchase it at a discount using our promo code: FAVE.

Happy shopping! 🙂

Silhouette Cameo Giveaway: Winner and Awesome Sign!

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Well, crafters, our Silhouette Cameo giveaway has come to an end. We made paper lanterns, tested out some of the features, made paper heart garlands for my wedding, and had a cupcake party. Today I’m going to share with you a “You’re Awesome” banner I made for one of my bridesmaids who designed our save the dates for free. I decided to make this sign for her as a thank you for her help.

But first–the winner of the Silhouette Cameo is…Cody! Congratulations on your new Cameo, Cody! Don’t forget you can still buy a Cameo for yourself using our coupon code through tomorrow.

Here’s how to buy one:

Just use promo code “FAVE” to get yourself a brand spankin’ new Silhouette Cameo with choice of starter kit (Fabric Ink, Rhinestone, Vinyl, or Heat Transfer) for only $299. But hurry, the code only lasts until October 31, and the machines will sell out!

And here’s how I made the “You’re Awesome” sign. First, a closer look.

The sign was made of cereal boxes cut into letters and covered with fringed tissue paper, like a pinata! I thought this would make the sign more festive. (Note: I didn’t make up this idea. I found it somewhere and decided to copy it, but I couldn’t find the original post anywhere, which means not only can I not credit them, but I also had a ton of trouble figuring out how to make this!) First, I deconstructed a box of Reese’s Puffs.

Then I used the Silhouette software to type up the letters and arrange them on the page to optimize  the space.

Then I loaded the cereal box into the machine and adjusted the settings to account for the thick medium.

The next step was to cut long strips of tissue paper, accordion fold them, and cut fringe along the edges. Then I glued the fringe to the cardboard letters in rows, as shown. I just used glue stick.

Once the letters were all covered, I trimmed away the excess tissue paper and hot glued them to some kite string.

Easy as pie! Thanks for entering the Silhouette giveaway, and congrats again to the winner, Cody! Don’t forget to use our coupon code, FAVE, to buy one for yourself at a discount!

Silhouette Cameo Giveaway + Cupcake Party!

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One of the crafts I was dying to make with the Silhouette Cameo was cupcake liners and cupcake picks. Yes, even I have fallen prey to the cupcake trend that’s swiffering the nation. I also discovered a cupcake stand shape when I was browsing the Silhouette store online, so I bought that and made one as well. Before I show you those…

Here’s how to buy one:

Just use promo code “FAVE” to get yourself a brand spankin’ new Silhouette Cameo with choice of starter kit (Fabric Ink, Rhinestone, Vinyl, or Heat Transfer) for only $299. But hurry, the code only lasts until October 31, and the machines will sell out!

Here’s how to win one:

  1. Like Silhouette on Facebook
  2. Follow Silhouette on Pinterest
  3. Leave a comment on any of our Silhouette blogposts (this one or any post I write this week that has “Silhouette Cameo” in the title) telling me what you would make if you had a Silhouette Cameo.
  4. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce who won on October 30!

There’s the cupcake stand I made from a purchased shape. I also purchased that liner design. The heart shape is a smaller version of the hearts I cut out for my garlands.

And here are all of the different liners I made. The pumpkin ones were purchased shapes as well. I found the polka dot design as a free download online (just search for free .gsd files and you’ll fine a veritable cornucopia of free designs) and I altered it to make both of the heart liners on the left. The scallops on the second one were made by melding circles along the edge of the original liner.

Here’s what the liners look like after the Silhouette cuts them out. I just applied some glue stick to the edges and glued them shut to make a 3D liner shape. Side note: My family was not pleased with all the tiny yellow hearts that are now all over my kitchen as a result of this project!

Now it’s time for artsy cupcake shots.

Everyone at the FaveCrafts office loved the cupcakes (they were Funfetti, so of course they did)! And the pink frosting and cute, yet unnecessary, paper accents didn’t hurt either.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below telling me what you would make if you had a Silhouette Cameo! Every comment is an entry into our giveaway!

Silhouette Cameo Giveaway: A Lovely Hearts Garland

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I haven’t posted a wedding craft in a while, but fear not, I have a bunch waiting to be blogged about! I noticed on my self-imposed to-do timeline, I had “railing decor” on the list for October.

Our venue has a huge balcony that guests can use (and I am really hoping we can do some sort of royal wedding kiss on it while our guests look on adoringly from below, but that’s besides the point) so naturally, I need to decorate the railing. Yes, I realize that I don’t really need to make railing decor in October for a June wedding, but trust me, I have a bunch of other stuff on the timeline for the other months! Since I’m playing around with the Silhouette Cameo this week, I decided to make something with it to decorate the railings with. Before I continue, here’s our giveaway spiel again:

Here’s how to buy one:

Just use promo code “FAVE” to get yourself a brand spankin’ new Silhouette Cameo with choice of starter kit (Fabric Ink, Rhinestone, Vinyl, or Heat Transfer) for only $299. But hurry, the code only lasts until October 31, and the machines will sell out!

Here’s how to win one:

  1. Like Silhouette on Facebook
  2. Follow Silhouette on Pinterest
  3. Leave a comment on any of our Silhouette blog posts (this one or any post I write this week that has “Silhouette Cameo” in the title) telling me what you would make if you had a Silhouette Cameo.
  4. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce who won on October 30!

Now back to the railings! I immediately thought of those cute sewn garlands that have been circulating in the craft blogosphere for the past few years. You know, these:

from Purl Bee

from Kojo Designs

from Sparky & Marie

from Frog Prince Paperie

You get the idea. You take a bunch of cut-out shapes (either paper, felt, or fabric) and sew them together in a line, and hang them up as a garland. I decided to use the Silhouette to cut a bunch of heart shapes (I used the trace tool on a heart picture I found online so I wouldn’t have to buy one!) and sewed them together.

Here’s what I came up with:

I’m going to play around with using different shades of yellow and white, and different sized hearts too. I would love to figure out how to leave space between the hearts, but my machine wasn’t too happy when I tried to do that. Any tips?

Don’t forget to leave a comment below telling me what you’d make with a Silhouette Cameo! Every comment is an entry to win one!

Silhouette Cameo Giveaway: The Ins and Outs

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I spent the weekend playing with my new Silhouette Cameo (aren’t I lucky?! What a job perk!). I made a bunch of little things that I’ll share with you throughout the week, but mostly I was trying get the hang of how the machine works so I could report back to you. After all, you need to know if it’s worth it to enter to win one (or buy one using our promo code!). Here are the details again:

Here’s how to buy one:

Just use promo code “FAVE” to get yourself a brand spankin’ new Silhouette Cameo with choice of starter kit (Fabric Ink, Rhinestone, Vinyl, or Heat Transfer) for only $299. But hurry, the code only lasts until October 31, and the machines will sell out!

Here’s how to win one:

  1. Like Silhouette on Facebook
  2. Follow Silhouette on Pinterest
  3. Leave a comment on any of our Silhouette blog posts (this one or any post I write this week that has “Silhouette Cameo” in the title) telling me what you would make if you had a Silhouette Cameo.
  4. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce who won on October 30!

Here’s what I learned:

Setting up the Silhouette Cameo is really simple. You’ve got to install the software on your computer first, but all that entailed was putting the disc in my CD drive and doing what my computer told me to do. The software comes with each machine, and you can also download it from the Silhouette website. You do have to use your computer every time you use the Cameo, but this gives you a lot more control over what you’re cutting too, because you can manipulate everything on the screen.

Once the software is installed, you merely plug the Cameo into a power outlet, connect it to your computer via the USB cable that comes with it, and you’re ready to go! The blade needs to be adjusted depending on what you’re cutting (I turned mine up when I was cutting a cereal box and down when I was cutting printer paper). Adjusting the blade setting is as simple as twisting it until it clicks into place.

You can also adjust the rollers depending on how wide your paper (or other media) is. The best part? If you tell the Silhouette what size and weight of paper you’re cutting, it’ll automatically adjust the blade speed and pressure to match!


The Cameo comes pre-loaded with 50 different shapes to cut. You can also cut text with ANY font you have on you computer (and we all know we can download infinite fonts for free at a number of websites).

I cut this with one of the pre-loaded shapes. Wouldn’t this be a cool scrapbook background?

And here’s the negative space left behind:

Yeah, that wasn’t fun peeling all those leftover shapes off.

If you want to cut a shape you don’t have, Silhouette sells shapes on their website as well! They have approximately infinity shapes for sale, and they add new ones all the time. Each shape is about 99 cents, and your machine comes with a $10 gift card to use for shape-purchasing! I already spent mine on these:

I blew up the chandelier ornament I purchased and made a kitschy full-size chandelier for my kitchen:

As if that wasn’t cool enough, I then discovered the Trace tool. Readers, prepare to have your mind blown. I found this tutorial on how to use the Trace tool and followed it in order to create my own shape to be cut. That’s right–you can use this tool to turn any jpeg image into a shape that your Silhouette can cut. My mind is clearly blown as well.

You can also alter existing images or combine purchased images with your own designs, fonts, or traced shapes to make one-of-a-kind shapes. So if you’re crafty enough, you’ll never need to spend a dime at the Silhouette store (though they have so many cute shapes for sale, I bet you will anyway).

There’s so much more you can do with a Silhouette Cameo! Stay tuned for more craft ideas and insights tomorrow!

What would you make with a Silhouette Cameo? Leave a comment below for a chance to win one!

Silhouette Cameo Giveaway & Paper Lantern Tutorial

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I’ve got some exciting news for you, crafters! The first bit of news is that I’ve got a brand new Silhouette Cameo cutting system, and I’ve been playing with it all week. I’m going to be sharing some project ideas with you throughout the week, so if you’ve got a Silhouette, or if you’re planning on buying one, stay tuned to get some ideas!

The second bit of news might be even more interesting to you: At the end of the week, I’m giving away a Silhouette Cameo to one lucky FaveCrafts reader!!! You’ll also get your choice of one starter kit (Fabric Ink, Rhinestone, Vinyl, or Heat Transfer). And if you don’t win, you can always buy one (or ask for one for Christmas) using our handy dandy promo code. Just use “FAVE” to get yourself a brand spankin’ new Silhouette Cameo with choice of starter kit for only $299. But hurry, the code only lasts until October 31, and the machines will sell out!

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Like Silhouette on Facebook
  2. Follow Silhouette on Pinterest
  3. Leave a comment on any of our Silhouette blog posts (this one or any post I write this week that has “Silhouette Cameo” in the title) telling me what you would make if you had a Silhouette Cameo.
  4. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce who won on October 30!

When I first got the machine in the mail, I was struck by the shape they have pictured on the box. I really couldn’t believe it was made of paper. Here’s the box:

And here’s the shape:

Isn’t it cute? I decided I had to have one. I have a huge stack of lightweight yellow paper leftover from my heart straws project, so I used that for most of my Silhouette experiments. Yellow is my favorite color, after all.

One wasn’t enough, so I ended up making a bunch of them. It was really easy to make them too. All I did was tell the Silhouette to cut the shape out, and then I peeled the remaining paper off the cutting mat, folded along the perforated lines, pushed the little tabs into the flaps, and glued the tops together with glue stick.

After I’d cut out a few, I started thinking these would be cute paper lanterns to hang at a wedding or outdoor party. How pretty would these look with Christmas lights or LED candles inside? I strung them up on a piece of kite string to see how they’d look:

I don’t have any lights to put in them yet, but I think I sense a wedding appearance for these little guys! Check back tomorrow to see what else I’ve made so far!

Don’t forget to leave a comment telling me what you’d make with a Silhouette Cameo–you just might win one!

 

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