Boys Bike Card using the Silhouette Offset Feature

Hello!

Did the weekend fly by for you like it did for me!?  Yesterday we had an open day, so we each wrote down 3 things we wanted to do on scrap pieces of paper, folded them up, put them in a hat and let Lil A pick out 3 activities.  Here's what they were...
- Watch the Lego Star Wars Movie
- Practice the loop for the Redlands Bicycle Classic
- Work on the garden

And I'm happy to report that we were able to cross each of these off our list!  My favorite part was the garden.  Big A and I were able to put together 1 garden box (we're replacing the pallets from last year since our dinosaur keeps growing and stealing our harvest!)...

(last years pallet garden)

We still have 1 more box to make and Lil A and I are going to plant our seedlings this week so that hopefully next weekend we'll be able to finish off the garden!  The weather's been so nice where we are that it makes all of the earthquakes we've been feeling seem like a mote point!  Well, kind of...

Anyways - our little cousin turned 6 a few days after Adam but they didn't have his birthday party until last weekend so I created a card with my Silhouette that I thought reflected one of his interests - bicycling!

I made this bicycle card by using the offset feature on the Silhouette.  The offset basically makes an outline of the image that you can make as small or as large as you want!  I made my offset image large so that my card base would be the same shape as my bike.  I also mirrored my offset shape, welded the two shapes together to create my actual card.

I wanted the card to have a little dimension so I sized a grass border to the bicycle and cut it out of different papers.  I then glued my bike to the card but left the tires free of glue so I could add the grass behind the wheels.  One I glued the grass down I glued the tires down.

I added the "6" as if it was riding the bike.  Looking at the card now, I wish I would've added some googly eyes to the 6!  Next time, next time!

That's it - a simple, fun, personalized card for a fun little boy!  

Remember to check back tomorrow - I'll be sharing my Studio Team April project and taking part in the Studio Team Blog Hop with a link to the WeR blog where you can enter to win a HUGE giveaway!

Have a great Monday!

Andrea

Gold Rush Miner Birthday - Part Two

Hello!

Today let's talk about the fun part of the Gold Rush Miner Birthday Party!  The part that's all about the kids!  Because lets be honest, the banner, invite and cupcake pics aren't "fun" to them!

  

Since we were having a "Gold Rush" party, I figured there had to be some sort of gold finding activity... so we decided to let the kids pan for gold!

Such an easy and fun activity!  I purchased some aluminum pie pans from the Dollar Tree, spray painted some lava rocks gold and filled 2 plastic tubs with sand, hiding the golden nuggets in the sand.  Big A punched holes in the pans so the sand could shift through and I made some cute Gold Loot bags for the Miners to carry their gold in!

Now, I know I said I was going to focus on the kid activity part of the party, but I have to take a quick turn and just say that I made my Gold Loot Bags with my Silhouette Cameo, the Silhouette Stamping Supplies and a Staz-On Ink Pad!  I formatted my image, cut it with the Silhouette Stamping Material and then stamped it onto some muslin bags I purchased at my local craft store!  So easy!  I LOVE the stamping material!  Maybe I'll do a tutorial on it soon... 

Okay - back to the fun!

Of course, half of the fun of finding gold is getting rich and spending the gold!

We set up our store with different containers from the Dollar Tree filled with fun kids toys and candy.  We had kits, batons, necklaces, Matchbox cars, puzzles, bouncy balls, Army Men and so much more!

I made the store sign using contact paper from the Dollar Tree, some patterned paper I had on hand became the border and the letters were formatted with my Silhouette software and cut from solid cardstock which I then glued to the covered foam board.  We hung the sign from our patio cover with bakers twine (my Crop-a-Dile had no problem punching through that foam board!!) and the Miners were able to come in and trade their gold for goods!  I loved this - so much more fun than just a goody bag!

We also set up some fun booths with activities for the kiddos.  My friends and I all see to go over-board when planning our kids parties - all of the booths I used for Lil A's party were actually made from my friends Halloween party!  We just covered them with butcher block paper and decorated them to represent our theme!

The Sharp Shooters booth was my favorite.  The kids used a rubber band gun to shoot down cans and bottles - and since I'm crazy, I covered the bottles in cute paper because I just couldn't leave it alone.

Another booth was a bean bag toss.  We used some small tin buckets I already had on hand (I think I got them from the Dollar Tree or Targets Dollar Aisle for a past party) and some corduroy bean bags on a wooden stool and let the kids aim and through!

We did end up taping the tins to the stool with duct tape - otherwise they were getting knocked down more than they were getting bags in them!

And last, we had a Gold Ore Toss!  It's similar to the Bean Bag Toss, except the kids were tossing gold coins into ore carts!

My nerd flags going to fly for a minute - my favorite part of the whole thing??  The Gold Rush educational posters/pictures that we found online (hello, Google!), printed off on regular printer paper in various sizes and glued to the covered booths!

The kids loved the fun activities, Lil A was thrilled with everything and he keeps finding gold in the backyard that he wants to trade in!  Oops - guess I should have disposed of the extra gold nuggets from our panning center better!

I hope this party inspires you with a difficult theme!  Have a great weekend!  And make sure to check back in next week - the WeR Studio Team Blog Hop is Tuesday for National Scrapbook Day... and you'll have a chance to win something HUGE on the WeR blog!

Andrea

Gold Rush Miner Birthday Party - Part 1

Good Morning!

Last month was Lil A's 6th Birthday.  If you know my child, he seems to always pick unusual themes for a party and this last party was no exception!

Hello Gold Rush Miner Party!

You may remember when Lil A decided to be a Gold Miner for Halloween last year...

Well, he's still really, really feeling the Gold thing so a Mining Party was the request for our Family/Frimily Birthday Party (Frimily= friends that are family).

You may (or may not?) be surprised that there really isn't a wide selection of mining themed party supplies.  But, luckily, I own a Silhouette Cameo and am addicted to Pinterest so I was golden (wah wah).

The entire party was started with the invitation.  I'm going to be completely honest, this idea is NOT mine!  I saw a similar invite (from PixelSeeds and you can find it here!) on Etsy and would've ordered it but I was running behind and needed to get the party invites out the next day.  And when I say I needed to get them out, I mean that Adam and I drove around town dropping off the invites because we were so short on time!

I formatted the invites with my Silhouette software.  I was able to curve the "Gold Rush" title after watching an awesome tutorial on using the Text to Path feature!  You can watch the video by clicking here!  After I had the invite looking exactly how I wanted it, I turned it into a print and cut file which you can learn how to do by watching this video!  I added some "gold" to the shovels with my Tattered Angels Gold Dust Paint and distressed the edges with Rangers Distress Ink in Corduroy to finish the invite.

Since we were trying to do a simplified birthday party, we decided to just do cake/pie and ice cream instead of a full menu.  This turned out great!  We had the party at 2:30 and included what would be served on the invite to avoid confusion.  I made these super cute cupcake toppers with the print and cut feature on my Silhouette software as well.  Once I had all of the pieces printed and cut out, I popped them off a scallop circle with foam tape and taped a toothpick to the back - completely customized cupcake decor!

I made the birthday banner with - yes, you guessed it! - the print and cut feature on my Silhouette software!  I used the train car for the shape and added my wording.  I inked the edges, glued black circles to the tires, used my WeR Crop-A-Dile to punch holes and add eyelets before stringing it all together with bakers twine.  I really tried to keep the look rustic and manly and this banner came out perfect!

I'm just going to sing for a minute...
I LOVE my Silhouette!  I know that the price tag of the Silhouette can turn people off, but once you start playing/learning about it, you realize that it's so totally worth it!  The Silhouette is so versatile, I LOVE my Cameo, but I also loved my SD and I think the Portrait is pretty awesome if you're looking for a smaller sized and priced machine!  The Silhouette products are fantastic as is their customer service!  They're a company that is all about the customer and the sky is really the limit with this software and their products!  And no, I am not affiliated with the company - I just love them that much!

I'll be back to share more on the Gold Rush Miner Party tomorrow!  Thanks for visiting!
Andrea

Copper & Wood Caddy

Hello!!

Today is a little different than normal because I'm not sharing a project that I made... but a project that my husband made!!

Big A made this caddy for his BF's birthday - it turned out so well, I LOVE it!  It'll fit cans, bottles, whatever you'd need to travel with... and look awesome doing it!

I'm feeling the mix of metal and wood - I'm not bragging, but it was my idea to use a copper pipe for the handle instead of a wooden dowel... I'm just saying...

You can see the plans that he used here.  You can also check out Etsy if you love this idea and want to grab one for your Man/BF/Dad/Bro!

Have a great day!
Andrea

Dino Boy Birthday Card

Good Morning!

Today was Lil A's first day back to school after a super fun Spring Break!  We've spent the last two weeks, (yes, our Spring Break is 2 weeks long!!), spending time with friends, going to the mountains, river, beach, park... and we had 2 super fun birthday parties for some very special boys that needed just the right cards!

My favorite little 3 year old loves cars, robots and Dino's... so it was easy to come up with a card using my Silhouette Cameo!  And once I saw the car shaped card, the idea came together!  I size the car card and then brought in a Dino shape.  I overlayed the Dino image on the car to size the Dino, ensuring that everything would fit perfectly!  I also sized the no. 3 to fit on the door panel of the car before cutting all of my paper. The best part, I was able to cut all of the different pieces, everything, on one mat!

I made one small modification to the car by adding the open trunk so the dinosaur's tail could stick out!  I used the drawing tools to make the rounded rectangle (my trunk door), sized it next to the car and welded it to the car.

I traced the windows onto the Dino and hand cut him into pieces (sounds gruesome!) to fit in the windows and out the trunk.  I inked all of my edges on every cut piece before assembling the card using my Sticky Thumb tape runner.

A perfect card for a very funny and sweet 3 year old!

-Andrea

Wee Lil' Leprechaun Trap...

Top O' The Morning To Ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!  I'm so happy to be back - blogging full time again!  Yay!  My laptop to replace the replacement laptop arrived Friday and I'm so excited because... it means I can share a super fun, easy St. Patty's Day project with you!  Lil' A and my nephew, Lil' AY put these fun guys together and are super excited to see if they work - I kinda am too!

Would you or your Little like to make one?  Here's what you'll need!
-  Noteable Paper by WeR 
- Sheer Metallic Vellum Pad by WeR
- Evolution Die Cutting Tool
- Lifestyle Crafts Dies by WeR:
Village
Hearts Punch Die
Banners
Grass Border
Lemon Drop Font
Berry Container
Arrow (2x2)
- Wet Glue (I used Scrappy Glue but it's your choice)
- Sticky Thumb Adhesive Runner
- Glue Dots
- Sticks
- Cardstock
- Scissors, Paper Trimmer, Bone Folder, Buttons, Pen

Go ahead and die cut all of the piece for your trap.  Trust me, if you're doing this for Little people, make sure they're all cut because while you say, "Just one more second! I just have to cut (blank)!" they'll sigh and start turning dies into pretend guns/weapons and pretty soon you're in the middle of a war zone between your flowers die dand the hearts punch die!

They sure do look sweet while they're assembling their traps!

Bam!  Those are some talented Little's, I tell ya!

Now, let me walk you through the part that actually turns just two super cute die cut shapes into a true Leprechaun Trap!

Cut a 4"x4" square from cardstock and score the sides.  Cut of the corners using the score lines as your guide.

Turn over your cardstock and place your house in the middle.  Mark your corners.

Cut a rectangle out of the cardstock, this is going to be the hole that the leprechaun falls into!

Put a line of glue all around the edge of the rectangle. 

Place your house on the glue and press gently.

To finish off your lid, we need to seal the lip.

Glue your grass border to the edge of the lip.  Don't cut off excess!  Instead, fold at corner and continue onto the next edge.

Continue all the way around - you'll need to piece it a little bit so you'll actually need 1.25 sections of grass.

Now it's done!  But, you can always add more... my Little's were done by this point but I sure wasn't!  I felt like maybe the Leprechaun needed a little more pizazz to entice him to our trap!

So I made a Shamrock with my punched out hearts and a button.  So easy!  I could have sworn I had a 2"x2" shamrock die but I couldn't find it and I'm kind of glad I didn't because this turned out so cute and it was so easy!

I also thought that I'd rather over-do-it than have the Leprechaun pass the trap by so I made a sign to go over the trap (GOLD was die cut from the WeR gold cardstock)...

And just to be clear, I cut an arrow from the WeR gold cardstock (Sheer Metallic Paper Pack) and pointed it towards the house so there was NO confusion!

I was pretty proud of the trap!  Cute.  Too the point.  Effective.  Until Little AY said, "Auntie?  How's the Little Leprechaun going to get up to the door so he can fall in?"

UGGHHHH.  Why did I make such a big deal about how small Leprechauns are?  Because it was pointed out by my observant Little's that the door was tiny.  Itsy bitsy.  So I really drove home the point that Leprechauns are teeny tiny.  Yep.  I am my own worst enemy.  And yep.  My Littles are very quick on the uptake.

But, it's okay.  I sent the Little's out to collect sticks (a boys dream) and with a little Scrappy Glue and some strong cutters, we were able to make a wooden ladder.

Which turned out super cute!  And totally made the trap.

So, to sum it up-

Put fake gold in your basket.  We used Rolos.  They're like gold to me...

Put your lid/house on the basket.

Don't forget your ladder!  Imagine the wee leprechaun climbing in and stepping through the door into the wee house, looking for his gold when..

He falls through our hole (which is more a lack of floor!) into our basket and can't get out!  Bam!  The Little's release the wee man and in return for his freedom, they get his crock of gold.  And they get to by every. single. Lego. that. ever. existed.  EVER.

I'd you'd like to grab the supplies to make a Leprechaun trap, visit the WeR Online Shop, and don't forget to use the code: KUTZPAPER to receive 20% off!  Look at that, it IS your lucky day!

Thank you so much for visiting!  We hope you have a super lucky, happy St. Patty's Day!  

Andrea (and the Little's)