How to Make Paper Feathers

I went on a little bit of a decorating frenzy for Halloween, and now I can’t stop!

I couldn’t get the idea of making some feather decorations for Thanksgiving out of my head, and I realized a gaggle of paper feathers would be the perfect #turkeytablescapes project!

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These are super easy, and they look so pretty in a group.

I put a cluster in a floral arrangement, but there really are unlimited ways to use your feathers. Use them as gift tags or place holders at the dinner table. Hot glue a bunch around a wreath. Glue them around a mason jar and add a tealight inside. Thread them on some yarn and hang from a chandlier or make a garland!Read more…

Silhouette SD digital cutter review

Today I finally sat down to play with my new Silhouette SD! I’ve been intrigued by the personal electronic cutting machines for a while now, and I’m ecstatic to finally have one of my own to play with!

I know you’re probably super jealous, but I’ve got good news for you.

Now through June 29th, you can get the Silhouette SD and 2 packages of temporary tattoo paper for $199! That’s $120 off!
Just use the Promo code “WHAT
Also, all other Silhouette shop items are 25% off through the 29th!

So onto the review!

Setting up the machine and installing the software took ten minutes, tops. Super easy.

You get some cool designs with the machine. There are cakes, flowers, leaves, and hearts, along with a pattern for a box and patterns for a card and envelope combo. Right out of the box with just the included designs, you could make a custom gift box and matching card for a birthday, shower, Mother’s Day… That rocks.

I downloaded a few designs from the Silhouette Online Store, which was easy to navigate and has TONS of designs. I’m a Halloween fanatic, so I was excited to see that they have 26 pages of Halloween designs. I can NOT wait until Halloween. My house is going to be decked out.

My favorite items in the online stores were the 3D designs. They have tons of gift box patterns (as I mentioned before), but also 3 dimensional sculptures, baskets, and decorations you can cut out and assemble.

The designs are inexpensive and you get to choose the individual designs you want, a huge step up from the cartridge style machines where you have to buy a whole set even if you only want one of the designs. Oh yeah, the BEST part is that you can cut your OWN DESIGNS. That was the most important feature for me.

Okay, let’s get cutting!

I chose a poseable skeleton design that I downloaded. I cut this one on plain white printer paper just as a quick test. The Silhouette design software was very easy to use. Scaling, moving, and deleting parts of the design is simple and user friendly. It took about 4 minutes for the machine to cut the skeleton (and it made all sorts of adorable R2D2 style noises while it did so).

Plain old boring paper, begone!
All cut out!
The paper curled a little because it's super humid here, but still! I can't wait to make this guy out of cardstock.

 

My next project is going to be cutting some appliques because this thing cuts fabric!  Awesome. They also have heat transfer materials available so you can make custom shirts, bags, etc, adhesive vinyl for stickers… so if you think the Silhouette SD is only for scrapbooking, you’re wrong!

Make a pop-up book!

Fun fact: I graduated from the same high school as pop-up book king, Robert Sabuda! You may have seen some of his books before- he’s done tons of pop-up versions of famous fairytales and other children’s books like The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, etc.

His website, robertsabuda.com, also has a whole bunch of awesome tutorials for making your own pop-ups, including a STAR WARS POP-UP BOOK!!!

The pop-ups make awesome cards for pretty much any occasion. I was in need of a Get Well card, so instead of buying a cheesy Hallmark card, I decided to make a pop-up card using the Bat tutorial here: http://www.robertsabuda.com/popmake/animals/bat/popmake_bat-step1.asp

Not only is it handmade (10 times cooler), but it’s THREE DEE (cool to the third power). So thats like Cool x 1000.

I’d suggest reading through the instructions before starting, and gathering all of the tools you’ll need!

Tools you’ll need:

paper – something heavy like cardstock works well for the base of the card. I used scrapbooking paper to “line” the base, though this step is totally optional. I used black construction paper for the bat.

sharp scissors

scoring/folding tool – I used a knitting needle. You could also use a chopstick, bamboo skewer, and old pen, etc.

glue – I used a quick dry craft glue that’s similar to rubber cement. Glue sticks or double sided tape will also work well. White glue will work if you have the time and patience to let it dry.

printer or markers

extra decorating doo-dads – like googly eyes!


Here’s my finished card!

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