DIY: Ornate Faux Leather Earrings using the Silhouette Curio

This post is sponsored by Silhouette America - I have been sent the Silhouette Deep Cut Blade to try out, but all opinions and ideas on this post are my own. 

I've been waiting so long to try out the new Deep Cut Blade from Silhouette. I love cutting leather on my Silhouette Portrait but unfortunately, some just don't cut all the way through even with triple or quadruple passes. With the Silhouette Deep Cut Blade, some of my materials cut nicely - it just takes a bit of practice to get the right settings! Read on to see how I made the leather earrings, download the template and for some tips I have discovered when cutting faux leather and leather pieces on the Silhouette Curio. 

Supplies:

• Silhouette Deep Cut Blade
• Silhouette Curio
• Silhouette Curio Base + Cutting Mat
• Leather or Faux Leather
• Painter's Tape
• Scissors
• Earring hooks
• Jump rings
• Jewelry pliers
• Template (download at the end of the post)

Cut a piece of your leather or faux leather material. For this project, I tried cutting the earring out using real leather and some faux leather with a mesh backing. Back your leather piece with painter's tape - this is to pevent hairs from dirtying your mat really fast and acts as a stabilizer for your piece. It also helps your leather to stick better to the mat. Tape the sides as well to prevent further movement of the piece on the mat.

Just need to poke out those details - but they're all fully cut in ONE PASS.

If you want additional adhesion, spray the painter's tape backing with repositionable adhesive - you don't want to spray this directly on to the leather as it would just absorb it. 

With a regular ratchet blade, the Silhouette doesn't cut all the way through on faux leather (I had to peel off the mesh backing) - but with the new blade, the Silhouette cuts it like butter - you just have to play with the settings! Don't be afraid to test cut on a scrap piece of material first. Experiment on the material thickness - you don't want the material to be dragged by the blade, resulting in uneven cuts. For the faux backed leather, I tested thickness settings 15, 18 and 20 with 18 having the most optimal result  (minimal dragging, cut is truer to real shape). The same speed and blade depth and mat height was maintained (speed 2, blade 20, mat total stack 5). Thickness setting 33 just dragged my material on the cutting mat. 

I also tested cutting real leather - for the piece I used, I used blade 12 and thickness 30 double cut twice, but it doesn't really work for intricate designs. I have cut the same material with a somewhat intricate detail on my Silhouette Portrait with okay results, so I'm pretty sure I just need to play with the settings more.  

Once you have discovered the optimal settings for your piece, cut the template. Attach the earring pieces onto some hooks using jump rings, and you are done! 

I am sure I'm going to use the deep cut blade a lot, since I loved the results. I haven't tried it on other materials yet, but I'm sure I will now that I have broken it out of its packaging and played with it for the first time. What would you like to cut with the deep-cut blade?

DOWNLOAD HERE

Ornate Earrings Cut File (.studio)

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DIY: Grunge-effect Tie-dye Summer Bag

This post has been sponsored by Blueprint Social and ILovetoCreate as part of their Tie-Dye your Summer Campaign. All opinions and comments though, are 100% mine so don't you worry! :)

I'm sure you've been noticing the crazy obsession people have over tie-dye lately - like seriously, tie-dye stuff everywhere. I wanted to make something for my little sister for all her pool/beach stuff and I also wanted to teach her the basics of tie-dyeing (she's a little me, you see) so I figured I'd make this little tote bag with a saying for her. Have you ever tried tie-dyeing? If you haven't yet or want something easy, go ahead and tie-dye your summer with this fun craft :)

Supplies:

• Tie dye - I used the Tulip brand in Fuschia (they come in squeeze bottles, very handy)
• Blank canvas bag
• String / yarn
• Rubber bands
• Pole / pipe / cylindrical object
• Template - download mine at the end of the post
• Scissors
• Transfer tape
• Contact paper / stencil vinyl
• Iron
• Sponge dauber
• Metallic paint

I tried the shibori technique:

First, roll your bag tightly around a cylindrical object - in my case, I used a pvc pipe. Wrap string/yarn tightly around your bag and scrunch your bag as best as you can. 

Using your dye in a bottle, carefully cover the bag with dye. You can also dip your bag in a dye vat - but this method is much easier for me since I don't have a bucket. (I love this dye, btw - they're so vibrant and don't fade in the wash). 

Cut off the strings and rinse your bag until the water runs clear. Mine turned out like this - which isn't really what I was going for, but I liked the grunge effect that it had so I continued on. I think that's because canvas fabric takes in more dye than your usual tee fabric. Let your bag dry!

Cut your template - mine is available for download at the end of the post. :) Use transfer tape to transfer your stencil onto your bag - I cut up mine in pieces because I wanted to save on transfer tape. Haha!

Iron your stencil onto your bag if you're using contact paper to adhere it fully and lessen paint bleeding. Make sure to use a piece of paper in between the contact paper and the iron when doing this - failure to do so will cause your contact paper to curl up and get destroyed (I know this because I am speaking from a ton of frustrating experiences, lol). 

Fill your stencil in with your color of choice - I really love the look of metallic paint so I ended up using a lovely metallic gold color. Peel the stencil off after it dries. You are done! It's a little difficult to photograph the awesomeness of this tote though. 

You can always choose a color that will show up more against the color of your bag, but I just really love the glint and subtlety of the gold against the pink. 

Now all that's left to do is to show it off to friends :) My little sister is so excited to go to the beach with this new tote of hers.

What is your favorite tie-dye technique? Are you planning to try your hand at tie-dyeing? I hope you will - it's fun and awesome once you get the hang of it. Have a great weekend you guys!

DOWNLOAD HERE:

Hello Summer (PNG) | Hello Summer (PDF)

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