Laura Griffin Designs » Silhouette

Custom Silhouette Wall Art

Laura — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:42:49 +0000

To celebrate the beginning of my 35th year on this planet, I decided to create a custom painting for my guest bedroom that would be a daily reminder of living life to the fullest.

I came across this brilliant tutorial from V & Co on making your own custom wall art. So I dusted off my trusty Silhouette SD machine, downloaded a few diecut images, then grabbed some vinyl and a large 24 x 36″ canvas.

Since the canvas I was using was so large, I had to piece together several cut images to get the final collage. (Note to self: Use the Silhouette-brand transfer paper instead of clear Contact paper next time…Contact paper is too sticky and won’t transfer the vinyl properly!)

“Dream out Loud” (one of my fav phrases) was cut out using the Engravers MT font and was transferred onto the canvas using scotch tape to ensure the letters were aligned properly.

After the vinyl was in place, I added two layers of Rustoleum spray paint (in Wildflower Blue) across the entire canvas and left it to dry.

After approximately 45 minutes, I began peeling away the vinyl to reveal the white silhouette beneath. You can see places where the vinyl was not flush against the canvas, but I think it sort of gave an ethereal feel to the flowers.

Once all the vinyl was peeled away, it revealed the final painting…

I added some wire to the back and hung it up just in time for a house guest who arrived that evening!

I highly recommend this project to anyone with a digital cutting machine. It was tons of fun and fairly easy to make (thanks again to Vanessa for the tutorial!). I’m guessing more canvases like this one will be showing up in my house in the near future.

Anyone else made any wall art lately? I’d love to see links to your projects!

Paper-pieced Silhouette Card

Laura — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 04:33:48 +0000

One of my co-workers also enjoys scrapbooking and cardmaking. About 6 months ago, I excitedly told her that I’d bought some new Silhouette shapes including a cute gnome. She looked at me like I’d grown an extra head…”what on earth would you do with a gnome?!”

I guess gnomes can fall in either the creepy or cute category (remember the one in the movie Amelie?), but I knew for her birthday this year, there was no getting around putting a gnome on her bday card! heehee This is the result…

Supplies: Silhouette SD, scrap cardstock, ric-rac, pearls (Hero Arts), sentiment (Hero Arts), ribbon (Making Memories)

I think she laughed for a full minute before she could talk.

I forgot to take a pic of the inside, but it had a matching forest-themed log . All was paper-pieced using my Silhouette SD. Love that thing!

So what do you think? Are gnomes creepy or cute?

More fun with the Silhouette…

Laura — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:05:42 +0000

Here’s a happy birthday card I threw together with my Silhouette die-cut machine. I LOVE that thing (totally worth every penny I spent!). The possibilities are really endless with what you can create. In this example… the frame, dotted line, and sentiment were cut out with it and I added Prima flower accents, a rub-on, and some Hero Arts pearls to embellish. The embossed background texture is Swiss dots (Cuttlebug). TFL!

Fun with the Silhouette SD

Laura — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:22:49 +0000

Just playing around with a fun background pattern on my Silhouette machine…and trying out a different color combo. Fun to experiment. Hope you’re having a great week!