Project Roadblock

I believe I mentioned yesterday that my head is just bursting with project ideas right now. I was excited yesterday to finally get to start on one of those many projects!

I am the maid of honor in a friend's wedding taking place in June and at the end of May we are having her lingerie shower and bachelorette weekend. Yesterday during my lunch I designed a basic rough draft of the invitation for the shower and was pretty pleased with it. I was totally motivated to finish my book review that was due today for one of my online classes, so that I could work on it. Once I sat at my desk and took care of a few distractions, the review was done in short order and I got to work. I use the Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter (which I love - best gift ever!), so I will be referring to it a lot.

Step 1: I had to decide which elements I wanted to cut out of paper and which ones I wanted to print on paper and then cut out. There are quite a few little details, so this took a little bit of time.

Step 2: Hmmm...now that I knew which pieces I needed to "print and cut" I had to learn how to do it as I have never used this feature of the Silhouette machine before. It can be so much fun learning new capabilities of this machine! And as I quickly found out...so frustrating, too...

Step 3: Time to print and cut...the first one worked GREAT! Second one...well, it did NOT work. Either the pattern of the paper I was trying to use for that piece was too bold or the printing just was not dark enough...or the printing bled on the paper...Silhouette's online tech support offered a plethora of possibilities and none of them were what I wanted to hear. So, I moved on to the next piece - a lighter colored and more subtly patterend paper was needed for this one, but it still did NOT work.

That is about where the steps from last night ended. I have the base cut (could have done it by hand, but I was lazy), part of the background (which did not cut out well), some letters (which also did not cut out well) and one of the cut and print circles I created (the only perfectly done piece, besides the base piece, at this time). Pitiful. So very glad that this is just a "rough draft". Now, part of the problem, I am certain, is the sorry condition of my cutting mats. They have been used quite a bit and I have been a bit lax in keeping the adhesive part covered, so the paper is not sticking to them well. After a semi-successful attempt at cleaning one of them, I got my one perfect print and cut circle. Considering all the trouble I had after that, it did not take long for me to order new mats and, of course, the scraper I said I would never buy but now I feel I have to in case I grow lax about keeping the adhesive part of the new mats covered. Again. Hopefully this time around I will be better about it, though, because those things are expensive! These babies need to last longer this time around, so I am going to do everything I can to keep them clean by using my new scraper (smile) and the paper cover thingy that comes on them when they are brand new.

Just remembering last night's roadblock and the frustration it caused is exhausting! I plan to keep you posted on the progress of this project...and a plethora of others I have in the works. I may even post pictures when I have a good sample made along with instructions for how I did it. I am seriously considering posting up pictures of some of my past creations, but I am not quite sure about that yet. I am hoping my new projects, a product of new inspiration, will far outshine my previous work.

As an afterthought, it has just occurred to me that there was a positive outcome to my project troubles of last night. I learned something new about my Silhouette and in the process of working on the project started becoming more familiar with the program I use for it. One prime example is how I can group multiple elements that I want to move to a blank project, then copy the group and paste it as opposed to copying and pasting each individual element. The latter takes far too long and gets annoying really fast. So, yes, I do have somewhat of a reason to pat myself on the back after that experience. That makes me happy.

The following links take you to the original Silhouette machine (which is what I have now) and to the new Silhouette SD (which is what I plan to have as soon as possible, LOL):