Hacks for the Silhouette PixScan – creative ways to use it!

Silhouette PixScan

As most people who own a Silhouette Cameo or Portrait already know, Silhouette America just came out with a new addition to their versatile cutting systems: the PixScan.

Honestly I’m surprised that this iconic machine didn’t come pre-built with the PixScan technology. But being the crowd-following individual I sadly am, I never questioned why it never existed even though I have, countless times over, tossed an idea in the trash because this technology wasn’t available in my moment of need. Therefore I am experiencing that sensation when you discover a new paper pad or Martha punch and you feel and overwhelming urge to just have that item in your possession. Yes, this is exactly how I feel about the PixScan mat.

So you might be wondering…what has gotten this crazy girl all obsessive about?

Well there are plenty of resources out there such as this fine blog which outlines the basic requirements for a Silhouette user (or non-Silhouette user if you so unfortunately happen to be one). Or check out the video from the Silhouette America website:

In short, it’s a sticky PixScan mat with registration marks already on it, you put your desired material/picture on it and then take a photo or scan it. Transfer the image file to your computer and import the image using the Silhouette studio 3.1 or higher software. The Software automatically detects the registration marks and makes a virtual flattened image of your picture (adjusting for angles, lopsidedness, overall shaky photography skills) at which point you can then proceed to create masks, outlines, shapes of every size, etc. etc. etc. to cut out of your material already tacked on to the PixScan mat. Just don’t readjust your picture or you’ll have to start all over again…

So why I’m excited about it…but first a little background on my experiences with cutting images out of paper…

It takes me forever to fussy cut a stamped image and I have never been able to master the detailed precision cutting that only my cameo could manage. And being the perfectionist I am, it is often frustrating when I can’t achieve the perfect cut of nice image from pretty printed papers. I always envied the crafty ladies who could cut such beautiful figures from their G45 papers or delicate flowers and whimsical animals off of a thin magazine page.

I remember one time when I was making a birthday card for my BFF and I had stamped a Tim Holtz’s stamp of a bird…I spent nearly an hour cutting out my stamped image…those little tiny legs and delicate feathers. Using a combination of scissors, xacto knife, sweat and blood, I finally managed to pry the wretched thing away from the cardstock. At any point during that one gruelling hour, I would have done anything for the PixScan technology…

Okay, so why I’m REALLY excited about the PixScan for the Silhouette:

1. cutting out stamped images

Instructions: Stamp an image using preferably medium to dark ink. Use PixScan as demonstrated above. Cut. Apply as desired.

You can probably use lighter inks as well but if you wanted to create a mask over your image to make an outline around it and cut around your irregular shape as close as possible (like print and cut), the software may not be able to pick up inks that are too light (like yellow).

You might be wondering now, how to cut around an image of choice (ie. print and cut)? Look at this video from UnderACherryTree.

I always admire the stamp and die sets that you can purchase from places like Simon Says Stamp and more recently at my local Michaels store. That is until you look at the astounding price tag and have a heart attack. Such a tiny stamp…with such a tiny die…for 50 dollars??? I could eat out for lunch and buy groceries for a week with 50 dollars! However cute the projects you could create with such a set, the notion of using one of these stamp/die sets is exactly that…a notion. It’s not easy being a student with an expensive hobby…that’s why I always have to be careful of how I spend my money. Which brings me to my next point:

2. It’s economical.

Instructions: buy a PixScan mat. And a Silhouette cutting machine if you don’t already own one.

Martha Stewart makes these little stamp and punch tools where you stamp an image and cut around the shape precisely. However they’ll run you for about $25 bucks a piece. As mentioned earlier, the die and stamp sets go anywhere from 20 dollars to 50 dollars.

The PixScan mat is 14.99 USD. almost half the price of other stamp/die sets. Buy it here.

However the Silhouette Cameo is $270 at Michaels.For a cheaper option, consider the Silhouette portrait which goes for $129 when it’s on sale. Check Amazon, they usually have good deals.

3. The possibilities are endless.

Instructions: Select ANY cute image for a project. Now use the PixScan to cut it out. Apply as desired.

You aren’t limited to just one image or just one shape to cut or just one type of material. You can try so many different things!

If you had a piece of patterned paper with say…many different stars of different sizes. You find that you don’t have the right paper punch and you need to cut out 2 dozen for cupcake toppers. This would take forever cutting out by hand…No problem, just send them through the PIxScan. Done in likely 5-10 mins.

4. Sketch precisely at any desired location on your patterned paper.

Instructions: Use Pixscan with desired paper. Sketch in appropriate location on paper.

I don’t know why Silhouette never really showcases their sketch feature but it’s actually quite capable of many different things. I have to say at this point, I do not know whether or not the software allows you to use the sketch feature with the PixScan but I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t allow you or why they wouldn’t implement this ability in the future.

For example, if you wanted to sketch something on patterned paper or a die-cut piece, you can do so using the PixScan.

I imagine this would be really popular for things such as invites, greeting cards, place cards, tags, etc. Or maybe you just have ugly writing and you’d rather your recipient be able to read your heartfelt sentiments on your irregular shaped paper. You can’t print on non-standard papers in the shapes of stars, moons and heart. Believe me…I’ve tried…it’s not pretty. But you can sketch on it with the PixScan! Cool huh?

5. Cut out your photographs with utmost precision!

Need to precisely cut a photograph to fit in a project piece like a specific frame? Or need to cut out your child’s head to paste on every imaginable surface within reach? Inanimate or animate? (Disclaimer: I do not have children, but I certainly admire the creativity, and sometimes voraciousness, exhibited by women who do).

Look no further, you can use the PixScan!!!

Okay…now I’m tired out from being overly excited about this. So now I’m going to put a damper on this technology as a warning of the possible pitfalls:

Why the PixScan may make you rip out your hair: 

As much as I love the Silhouette Studio software, I can’t say it doesn’t come with its limitations. Even being an advanced user of Adobe Illustrator, I sometimes struggle to make the perfect line, curve or outline using the studio software. Perhaps the Designer edition would diminish some of these frustrations but most Silhouette users will own only the studio software.

Therefore, take the PixScan technology with a grain of salt:

There is a learning curve to using the PixScan and adapting it to do what you need it to do for your projects. There are tons of youtube tutorials out there that teach you how to use the Studio software to its full potential but it’s not going to be a walk in the park and it will be time consuming. Hopefully the satisfaction you receive from creating a masterpiece exactly as you imagined it (or even better) will be reward enough for you to take the leap and learn a new skill. I personally feel the end result is worth the effort but it’s up to you what you feel you can do. You can still create beautiful, unique and one of a kind results with even just basic computer skills using the software  if handling some of the more advanced features are a little over your head.

So don’t be shy, hop over to youtube and get your brain juices on.

And don’t forget to comment below your thoughts and questions on the new PixScan from Silhouette.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Silhouette America, I just love their products and I want to share my wonderful experiences with the world. I have owned a PixScan for about 3 years now and have used it a few times but I haven’t taken advantage of the full capabilities of it which I am really looking forward to doing very soon!

How to prevent wet paper from wrinkling when dried

One of the things that I hate about using wet media when scrapbooking or crafting is that afterwards, the paper dries all wrinkly and ugly. As much as I like the wrinkly look for SOME projects, I don’t necessarily like it for ALL of my projects. So, I’ve adapted one of the techniques I normally use for watercolour painting to prevent my paper from curling, developing ridges and overall looking anything other than smooth.

Measure out a piece of cardstock for your project and add 1/2 inch to each of the four sides. Cut it out.
I’ve printed a picture of a calendar for a birthday card project and cut it down to size.

Tape that piece of cardstock to something hard, like a big fat heavy textbook or encyclopaedia. Or tape it to your craft table.

You can use washi tape or masking tape. Masking tape is better but whatever you have lying around is just fine.

I’m using washi tape in the above photo because I have this really terrible washi tape from K and Company’s Smash album. Terrible Terrible stuff. With a capital T. Thankfully, it won’t go to waste because I can just use it for taping stuff down like when I’m die-cutting for example.

MAKE SURE YOU TAPE DOWN EVERY ONE OF THE FOUR SIDES COMPLETELY.
This is essential to ensuring you have your desired final product free of wrinkles. If you miss even a little bit of the paper, you’ll have an imperfect paper after it dries. But hey, maybe that’s what you were going for?

Spray your favourite glimmer mist or use your distressing inks or water colour pencils, etc. Have fun, go crazy, make a mess, it’s all good!

Mine looks like this after:

Now let it dry completely.

It should look like this!

See how flat it looks?

And this is how it looks after I’ve cut it out!

I’m using a rectangle piece of cardstock for my project, but your project may need a different shape. Just use this method to ink up a larger sheet of cardstock and cut/punch out your desired shape after the paper dries. So simple right?

TROUBLESHOOTING

1. Tape lifts up from page after applying wet media.

Possible reasons why:

– Your tape is probably not suitable for wet media projects. Try masking tape, it’s awesome!
– You didn’t press your tape down firmly and there was a gap somewhere. It’s ok, just remove the piece that became unstuck, try to blot the wet area with a paper towel and then stick another piece of tape over it.

2. The paper dried wrinkly

Possible reasons why:

– Your cardstock was too thin. This technique doesn’t work with paper unfortunately because paper is so thin it’s flexible and can stretch a bit when wet. Try using a thicker cardstock next time like Baziill. I’m using Recollections cardstock here which works ok, not the best but ok…it’s cheap.

– Your tape may have come loose upon applying wet media or during the drying process. See above solutions.

And that’s it! Post a comment below if you have questions, this technique allows me to create vintage yet neat projects which I really love!

Have fun with all your wet media!

Winter Knotted Scarf

So a few years ago, I bought a whole pack of good wool yarn off of ebay. It was really cheap, 10 spools of yarn for 12 dollars! And wool too! But as much as I loved the yarn, I had no idea what to use it for and it was too precious for me to fool around with it. So I’ve just been stashing it for a bit.

Finally in November, I was trying to figure out what to get my boyfriend for Christmas. Around the same time, at the University, many local vendors were setting up a Christmas market and selling all sorts of beautiful circle scarves. I ended up buying one since I didn’t have one and I felt they were so handy and easy to wear. BTW, I totally recommend everyone have a circle scarf!
But still I had the problem of what to make my boyfriend for Christmas. At first I thought about making him a circle scarf as well, but after looking at many images of male models sporting a circle scarf, I decided…it just wasn’t manly enough for his style. Some men can pull it off really well, but it just wasn’t his style.

But thankfully I came across this tutorial online on how to make a beautiful knotted scarf for your man.

It wasn’t the easiest scarf to start at first and I had to unravel it a few times and start over but once you get past the first 10 rows, it gets pretty stable.

It’s a wonderful and simple project for someone who has moderate experience in knitting and really fun to do in front of the TV.

I have only one suggestion to this pattern, and that’s to increase the initial number of stitches cast from the pattern’s 37 to 52 stitches as I found the scarf according to the tutorial to be too narrow. But that’s my only suggestion.

I hope you all have lots of fun doing this scarf and if you have any suggestions of other awesome scarves, please do post a comment below!

How to make vintage manly holiday cards tutorial

I made a series of vintage-styled Christmas cards that would be perfect for a male recipient if ever you needed a Christmas card for a dude or maybe just a manly female?

These cards deviate from my normal use of scraps to make cards as the only scraps I used were for the inside of the card for writing a message. However many of the embellies you may want to use for these card styles.

Tools you’ll need:

1. Christmas printed paper

2. Black cards and envelopes

3. Scissors

4. Glue/ATG gun

5. Paper cutter

6. Foam dots

7. Border punch – EK success film strip punch

8. Corner punch

I used a paper stack from Recollections called “Joyful Christmas“. I’ve really been enjoying a lot of the recollections prints, their Christmas collections are really quite well done, maybe better done than many other designer brands out there. So if you’re looking for a versatile paper stack where all the papers just match up really well, try a Recollections stack.

All these cards were made using black cardstock for the card base which I bought at Michaels.

I made three different card styles and 4 cards using just one sheet of 12×12 striped cardstock for the background of all 4 cards! To decorate the background pieces, I used a corner punch from Fiskars.

Style 1: 

I used a fat strip of border paper but then realized that it was too…cream-colored and blended in with the background color. So to make it pop, there was a paper in the collection that was black with white polka dots and I used 2 strips of the black to border the strip of cream. I cut V’s into the ends of the each of the border papers.

The “Joyful Christmas” stack has many sheets of tags and frames that can be cut out. Many of them  have holiday sentiments that just fit so perfectly for a card front. You can also make your own, but I really liked these tags that I didn’t bother making my own.  

style 2:

This card just has a fat band through the middle and a sentiment tag slipped into the middle of the band at an angle. I then cut out a glittery santa and used 3D foam dots to adhere it to the band. Super easy right?

Style 3:

Notice that the background of this card is a little different as it has a strip of red printed and glittered paper at the bottom. Go ahead, mix it up a bit!

For this card, I used my EK success film strip punch to punch long black strips of film to overlay the general card template of sentiment tag over background. Then you I used a “tis the season” sentiment on foam dots to add a sentiment to just above the middle of the card.

And there you are, 3 gorgeous, easy, simple and fast vintage cards for all your vintage needs! 

Have fun making these and please LIKE MY FACEBOOK PAGE if you enjoyed this tutorial!

Until next time!