Cleaning Your Cutting Machine Mat

I have always struggled with trying to efficiently clean my cutting mats whether it's the Cricut mat or the Silhouette mat.  I NEVER was able to get all the goo off until now!

I re-stick my mats with a chisel Zig Pen and it works great but it is a pain in the butt to get the glue off when I need to clean it and re-stick.  My mats are a huge ugly mess of old glue and grossness.  I tried the soap approach to no avail.  Baby wipes didn't work.  I also tried the Goo Gone or whatever that pungent smelling stuff is.  All it did was give me a headache, stink up the house, and eat up the printed lines on my mat.  Big huge fails!  Today I discovered the answer to cleaning my mats...baby oil!  Seriously.  No joke!!  I just tried it and it took some scrubbing (probably from a years worth of glue stuck on the mat) but it worked!

I put some drops of baby oil on the mat and spread it out by rubbing it into the glue.  I let it sit for a few minutes then added soap and scrubbed with a scrub sponge.  The glue came off!!  I really wasn't expecting that to happen.  I am so happy to have finally found a solution that is cheap and super easy!

I would have taken pictures but my mats were so embarrassingly gross that I couldn't bring myself to post pictures of the before.  Anyway, if you try it let me know if it worked for you!

*UPDATE*

I noticed that the glue definitely came off but then stuck to my scrub sponge.  I had to keep peeling it off.  Also, because I have so many layers of glue on my mat it took some serious effort for me to scrub the glue off.  Not sure how much scrubbing is needed for just one layer.  It took most of the glue out but I'm tired of scrubbing so there's still some on my mat but it's much much cleaner than it was before.        

Announcement & Design Team Project Friday

Well, I told you I had a big announcement and today is the day you get to find out what it is! It actually has nothing to do with paper crafting, cards, scrapbooking, etc. Sorry to disappoint if that's what you were looking forward to. I actually think it's better news than anything that has to do with paper. :)

Since it's my day to design for SVG Attic I decided to combine my announcement with my DT project. Ready for it?

Can you guess who? Hehe, it's me silly! After two long years (to the month!) we are ecstatic to announce that we are expecting child #2! This is going to be an interesting new addition. My daughter is already 10 and will just about be 11 when baby Blueberry Nugget Bean (long story) is born so there's a huge gap in age. It's actually nice though because I will have an automatic live-in nanny! Hahaha. This child is going to be annoyed by this baby before it's born if I keep teasing her!

This is my excuse for being around a lot less lately.  I have been absolutely exhausted!  I'm still in my first trimester and I really hope this fatigue goes away.  It's zapping ALL my energy and creativity from me.  My mind draws blanks when I try to think up something to make.  This better go away soon or I'll have a craft room that never gets used.  :(  *sigh*

On to the details of the announcement card.

I used the Tent Cards from SVG Attic as the base of the card. I also used the Give a Hoot collection from SVG Attic for the 3D owl inside the tent card. I added glitter to the owl's eyelashes to bling her out! I used some pink and white Trendy Twine as a border for the frame where the owl sits behind. The front circles were actually the left overs from the cut of the card. I decided to recycle and use it as a slide window. I used my Sew Easy to stitch the floss around the outter circle to create a border. I set some snaps that I purchased on Etsy from wickedwoolgathering with my Crop-a-dile. I added a pink brad to the top so the outter window can slide up to reveal the rest of the message.

That's about it for this project and announcement! Stop by SVG Attic and browse around. You won't be disappointed! New sets are always being released!

Pendant Banner Card

I love how pendant banner cards look. They are so simple yet so pretty if done right.  I made one a few weeks ago by cutting and piecing together the pendants but this time I decided to try my had at designing my own pendant in Silhouette Studio. Ack, what was I thinking?!  I'm not a graphic designer!  I tried anyway. 

It actually wasn't too hard once I got the bowed line to look decent.  Once I got that part down I created some triangles and lined them up on the bowed line.  I removed the bowed line and welded the triangles together and and had my pendant!  I could have left the line but I decided against it and used twine instead to *hang* it.

Here's my lovely vintage-inspired card.

 
I used the print and cut feature in Silhouette Studio to cut the banner.  I used the Distrezz-it-All on the edges then went over it to smooth it out a little with the Tim Holtz' manual distresser.  I then lightly inked the edges, pendants, and twine to give the card an aged look.  I decided against a sentiment stamp this time around.  I like the look of it without one plus it can be used for any occasion without a sentiment. 

So what do you think of my first venture in graphic design?  Not too shabby for something so basic!

Flying high!

I am one of those people who makes cards but never seems to have cards ready for special occasions such as family birthdays!  I am horrible at making cards when they *need* to be made.  Seeing that I am a procrastinator I ran into that exact situation today.  It's my father-in-laws birthday and we're headed to his party later this afternoon but of course since I procrastinate I had to get my butt in gear this morning and make him a card.  I wanted something simple with little piecing together.  Thankfully I have the perfect machine to help me with that!

I used the print and cut feature in Silhouette Studio to make the hot air balloon.  The balloon came from Lettering Delight's Around the World graphic set.  I found the clouds in the MTC gallery.  The sentiment comes from the My Thoughts Exactly Under the Sea stamp set.  I used Tim Holtz' Tumbled Glass distress ink to stamp the sentiment.  I used the Sizzix Plaid and Snowflake embossing folder to emboss the basket of the hot air balloon.  Another super awesome tool I used was the Crop-a-dile to set the eyelets.  What would I do without all these super cool tools!?

Did I ever mention how much I adore my Silhouette?

It's beach time!

Well, guess who got their Silhouette this week?  Yup, this girl!  Wait, can a 30-something year old be considered a girl?!  "Yes", whispers  my readers.  Oh well, then thanks!

Back to Silhouette news.  Last night was the first night I got to really play with my new toy...*cough cough and a few others a bought cough cough*.  I got home from work and set out to make a card for two challenges.  Yes, two....kill two birds with one stone right?  Oh so cliche.  Before I show you the card, let me tell you how AMAZING the Sil is on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest (the need to clearly explain the scores of a scale was drilled into me in college!).  The Sil gets a 9!  The cutting ability far surpasses that of the Cricut but the cut width is it's downfall.  Maybe it's because I'm used to the full 12" of the Expression and not having to cut my paper down to size all the time.  Either way, the Sil is my new best friend and poor Mr. Cricky will be left on my desk to gather dust.

Now to my cool card.  It's beachy, it's colorful, it's fun.  It's perfect for this holiday weekend!  I am entering this card into two challenges.  One is for the Paper Dolls challenge which requires the use of a stamp.  Just a stamp and SVGs.  Super simple.  The other challenge is over at SVG Attic.  The requirement is to use the colors red, white, and blue and also use one of the way cute SVG files that Jessica has made.  It just so happens all but one of the SVGs in my card are made by Jessica at SVG Attic.  I seriously love her files!!

Pictures, you say?  OK OK, I'll stop blabbing now and show ya.  Be warned...you may get overloaded.

It's beach time!

Surfs up!

Stair step card

Dimension shot

Surfer chick

Surfer dude

Flipper

The end

It was a lot of fun making this card.  All the ideas that were floating around in my head!  I used SVG Attic's Just Beachy SVG collection for most of the elements and the Paper Dolls collection for the dolls (psst, that one is free...go grab that and a few other awesome SVG files!).  The dolphin came from SVG Cuts free files, DeWayne the Dolphin from 7/28/09.  

The card measures 5 1/2" by 11 and I scored the steps at 1.25", 2.5", 4.25", 6" and at 8.25".  I then folded the smallest step (1.25") down the folded the rest like an accordion.  This creates the stairs of the card.  I used kraft paper for the base DCWV Linen Closet stack for the sand and open stock paper from either Joann's or Michaels for the water and the front where the sentiment is.  For the doll's bathing suits I used paper from Me & My Big Ideas stack, Renee Argyle Green (part of their Renee Family collection I guess).  I picked this stack up at Marshall's for $6.99.  I love discount stores!  

Oh, I have to at least briefly mention my other toys!  I bought a Crop-a-Dile and used that to set the eyelets on the sentiment part.  I also bought Martha Stewart's scoring board which is what I used to score and make the creases for my card.  It made life so much easier!  Why didn't I buy this before?!  

Hope you enjoyed!  Now off to blog hop!      

Silhouette for Cheap!

Just wanted to let you all know that the Silhouette is $153 at Overstock.com after using coupon/discount code 206572!  That includes shipping.  It also comes with a $10 download card.  Jump on it!  It's a great deal!  Guess who bought hers last night!