**If you've clicked here from my UnstampaBelles post you're good. If you haven't, you need to go
here and check out the card so you'll know what I'm talking about.**
A little bit ago I waved a happy goodbye to my THE CRICUT (dun, dun, dunnnn). (Because I had such a wonderful relationship with that beastly contraption. You can read about some of our fun times together
here. I'll admit, I actually felt a bit guilty selling it to the woman who purchased it through kijijiji. Still, she had told me that she'd just attended a crop where a lot of the other women had brought their Cricuts so at least I knew that she knew what she was getting into. Or, at least she had a good support group to turn to when her Cricut drove her crazy.) And I purchased a Silhouette Cameo.
Now, I did do a bit of waffling before I decided to buy the Cameo. But some of the awesome features, like designs that cost only 99¢, being able to use my own fonts to make text and the ability to manipulate the designs in all sorts of different ways convinced me to make the plunge. Still, there was a little voice in the back of head (that was talking very loudly as it was trying to be heard over all the other little voices) reminding me of previously luck with getting die cutting machines to do my bidding (which, like most everything else, was bad).
When I first got my Silhouette home I couldn't seem to find the time to do more than get the machine out of the box and browse the Library for a little bit. On my premiere go with it I decided I would try something simple. I was going to cut out a zig-zag border for
this card. Now, do you see any zig-zaggedness on that card? Nope, ya don't. That's because my first go-round was a pretty big failure.
I was getting everything ready to go, mat in one hand, instruction manual in the other. I set both down to grab the cardstock for said border....and set the instruction manual on top of the ready-to-go cutting matt. Holy crap, does that glossy paper stick to a brand new cutting mat. It took me half an hour to scrape and pick all the instruction manual page off that mat, and it still looks like there's some of it stuck there. And then I just couldn't seem to get a zig-zag border to cut out properly so I promptly abandoned the Cameo for another few weeks.
Fast-forward to this card, my debut attempt at creating an entire card using the Silhouette. I had a clear idea in mind (which turned out pretty much exactly like the card) so all I needed to do was create it. I found Grandma & Grandpa at the Silhouette store (and yes, I do know that these are mostly intended to be those vinyl stickers you see on the back windows of vehicles......I could go off on a sidebar 'bout those vinyl sticker and how I put them on my vehicle y-ear-s ago back when it was unique..... but I won't...) and excised Grandma from the picture. Then I set about creating that Grandpa frame. Eye-yi-yi. It took forever. Type letters, weld letters together, create frame, weld letters to frame, watch letters disappear, undo, try again, letters vanish, undo, try again, wave goodbye to letters, undo, shift things around a bit, try again, curse loudly, undo....and so it went.
Then I decided that I wanted to offset the letters anyway. Aha! Maybe this will work. Create offset, weld to frame, watch offset disappear, undo, resize frame, weld, so-long offset, undo, google tutorials, rant at Google for five minutes for being completely useless, really just once I'd like to search for something other than song lyrics or a celebrity and have the answer pop up right away, try a few things, weld, offset takes off, undo, try again while threatening the Silhouette that I'm going to throw it's $300 ass out the window if it doesn't start doing what I want, weld, offset bids au revoir, get up from the computer to take a break, hear the Silhouette snicker at me, sit back down, try a few more things....and success.
Of course I really don't remember what I did to achieve this frame so I'm really doubting if I could ever duplicate it. I did save this though...but seeing as there's only one Grandpa in our family, I'm not going to be using it all that much. (Although that would be funny. A friend opens a card with a beautiful Silhouette cut 3-D flower...in a Grandpa frame. The inside reads: "Happy Birthday. And really I don't think you're old, or male for that matter, but well, it's a long story. Go read my blog.")
So frame cut, and believe it or not, Grandpa himself cut out perfectly, twice even when I decided on a paper change, so I was ready to assemble the card.
Now, since the Silhouette was all done it's work I guess, technically, I can't blame any more of this adventure on it. But, I'm positive it gave me the stink-eye (and the real stink-eye, not the Katrina stink-eye from the movie
Juno) when I walked past it so I going to blame it anyways.
All along I had planned on making a wobble card. I figured I could attach the wobble to the back of Grandpa's head, easy-peasy. Dumb. Of course that just made Grandpa's feet drag. So I had to trim my wire part down super small so it could fit in the middle of Grandpa's skinny, scrawny body (not that he really has a body, he's more like a head, glasses, arms, legs and a tie). Then, of course, I couldn't get Grandpa balanced properly. But I remembered my grade 3 Science class and set about cutting little itty-bitty pieces of cardstock and gluing them to the back of Grandpa's feet (2 on his right foot, 3 on his left) in order to achieve perfect (well, not quite perfect but let's just pretend) equilibrium so he could shake his geriatric old fann....wait we already established Grandpa doesn't have a butt....his geriatric old tie off for all the world to see.
And that, dear readers, was my first adventures with my Silhouette Cameo. I'm really hoping the next time I dare use it that it goes smoother....or I at least keep my cool long enough to open the window before I give it the old heave-ho.
