What They Don’t Tell You About Deployment

For six months, you spend day in and day out missing your better half. You wonder how you will cope with single parenting while your spouse is gone. How will you choose to discipline or redirect your child’s behavior in the absence of one of his parents?

You decide to not pick up toys every night. It is just going to become a mess as soon as you wake up again, and honestly, you are too exhausted to do one more chore alone. The laundry is piled high; your son has worn the same pants for the past 4 days, and on some days your pajamas are your work clothes.

You eat from the crock pot 98% of the time, and Mickey Mouse has replaced the nightly news at dinner. You crave eating at the dinner table with another adult, sharing a glass of wine and discussing how your day went.
Going to the bathroom has become your minute of solitude and quiet, and you wake up a little earlier to enjoy your coffee in peace, planning out how you will conquer the day as mom and dad; as good cop and the bad cop. As the most patient loving mother ever, and as the most irritated human being on the planet.

Yet somewhere in the chaos of it all, you find an odd synchronism to your day, your week, your month. You find that you are much more independent on your own than you thought you would be, and you find that you CAN indeed keep your child alive on your own. Wine, good neighbors, and great friends have become your new family, and you feel as if nothing can stop you.

Then all of sudden there is a deep disparity in your heart. Your loved one is days from coming home, and you can not do enough to be ready for the rejoining of this family. You still love your spouse more than anything, and you long for the warmth of their embrace, yet, something is off. You have just gone 6 long months as your own person, and so have they. And while not much has changed, and you are still the same person you were before they left, you somehow aren’t.

I did not realize that the homecoming of my spouse would be harder than his departure. I did not realize that it would take work, and time, to rekindle the relationship we had before. I didn’t know that the schedule I had fallen into with my son would be rocked yet again, and that we would have to find some middle ground to agree on as far as why I ate dinner at 6:45 pm without my husband while he was still at work.

I didn’t realize it would hurt to ask my husband for a day to myself, and that it would hurt me just as much when he agreed he also needed space. No one told me this about deployment.

No one told me we would all go through it, when I felt like I was the only one.
No one talks about how awkward it is, even after years of marriage, to pee with the door open while your spouse was in the room next to you.

There really isn’t a good answer on how to resolve this, other than patience. Realize that it is okay for you to still have the independence you gained while your spouse was away, because you will need it for their next deployment. Understand that everyone needs a break from each other at times, and that doesn’t mean you love each other any less than you did before.  Know you will fall back into a groove with each other, but you need to communicate. Talk to your girlfriends and realize that you are not dealing with this alone – it’s NORMAL.

Finally, accept that this is truly a phase of deployment, and just like the long 6 months you couldn’t wait for to be over, this too, shall pass.

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Monogrammed Christmas Onesie

When I’m not busy chasing around my 21 month old and trying to come up with new designs for my Etsy store, I do try and participate in the monthly Silhouette Challenge. I have to say, since my husband has deployed I have found it very difficult to keep up with everything!

This month’s challenge was trying to do a project in under $5 . I got lucky – I had extra blank gerber onesies laying around , and a lot of scrap vinyl as well.

I did end up spending a whopping $2.99 for these super cute monogram Christmas onesies. You can find them here, from SVGSalon.

These are fairly simple to make, so even a beginner with the silhouette can make these even though layering is required! Sounds scary, promise it’s easy.

The first thing I did was open up my files in my Silhouette Design Software.

I chose to use the hat and scarf image (seen below). I’d also like to note that I also spent another $2.99 on the monogram font (you can’t beat that price!!).

Since I wanted the green to be the glitter portion, offset the green to .01.
The offset button is the second pentagon on the top, three buttons to the left of your font button.

Then the rest is easy!
I cut out my vinyl and weeded everything. I placed the red and black monogram down first. I pressed it in my Heat Press for 8 seconds at 315 degrees.
I then peeled back the plastic, and positioned the glitter Jade Green on the top, along with the yellow ball (I just eyeballed the green on top of the red until it was positioned where I wanted it). I pressed for 20 seconds at 315 degrees.

I ended up with this!

The most perfect holiday onesie, complete with a monogram. And practically free!

Now, put those scraps to use!!!

xoxo,

Gabriela

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. From Wine to Whine // 2. Creative Ramblings // 3. Adventures in All Things Food // 4. unOriginal Mom // 5. Small Stuff Counts // 6. Alayna’s Creations // 7. Single Yet Married Mom // 8. Comfort and Yum // 9. Tori Grant Designs // 10. Cutesy Crafts // 11. The Crafting Nook // 12. Whatcha Workin’ On? // 13. Architecture of a Mom // 14. Havalah // 15. Create & Babble // 16. A Time For Seasons

Surviving Deployment

Ugh. Deployment.

For the few months I had to prepare leading up to deployment, all I could constantly think about was, “How am I going to do this all by myself, every day for 6 months?”
Let me just stop right there. Here is what my day (on average) looked like Monday – Friday.

6:00 am: Wake up. Make breakfast for Dan, turn on coffee pot, pack husband’s lunch.
6:45am: Kiss husband good-bye for work, and quickly fall back into the deepest sleep possible, because you know your child is going to wake up as soon as you are about to drift off.
8:00am: Child is awake. Go downstairs make him and yourself breakfast. Ahhh coffee, how I love you. I love you so much, I will have you twice.
11:00am: My second cup of hot coffee has successfully turned into ice coffee after relentlessly chasing my child around, making sure he’s not sticking his fingers in outlets while simultaneously climbing over furniture and finding sharp objects I didn’t know I owned. I really don’t know why people are looking up recipes for cold brewed coffee on Pinterest?? Just add toddler.
11:30am: Ah, nap time. I should really nap too, because I’m tired and I don’t know why. But I can’t because I really need to clean the house, do some laundry, and make a grocery list.
3:30pm: Cleaned the house, did a load of laundry, went on a successful grocery trip. Somehow I’m in Target buying a ton of things I really don’t need. I’ll just return them tomorrow.
5:30pm: My stomach is grumbling and my toddler is now Hangry. This banana ought to keep him happy until dinner is ready. Let me text my husband and see if he will make it home tonight in time for us to sit down and eat dinner together.
6:00pm: 1 NEW TEXT “Sorry babe, I’ll be home late tonight.”
Nothing unusual here. Piers and I will eat dinner and maybe Dan will make it home for bath time.
7:45pm: 1 NEW TEXT “Hey hun, leaving in 5 minutes.”
8:30pm: 1 NEW TEXT “Hey babe, just left work. Sorry, I got put on the schedule for tomorrow so I had to do some flight planning. Be home soon.”
8:45pm: Why does my child hate every book I pick out to read to him, and what is so special about this Pout Pout Fish? I swear, we’ve read this story every day straight for the past month.
9:15pm: Ah, a sleeping toddler. My husband has just walked through the door and is heating up dinner. I can’t wait to talk to him about how his day went. Oh, you can only stay awake for 15 minutes because you have to shove all this food in your mouth and you want to watch Friends to decompress? Okay, I’m down with that. We’ll talk about your day tomorrow when you get home. Oh you have 24 hour duty after your flight. Okay, I’ll see you on Friday. We’ll catch up then. -_-
9:45pm: Brush our teeth, go to bed.
1:00am: My child is awake. Why is he crying!? What’s wrong!? He’s too young to know what monsters are….Why does it look like the Hoover Dam broke and all the water is flooding from his mouth? Ew, is this from teething? Stop drooling. Okay, drool if it makes you feel better, just go back to sleep. Okay eat this Orajel. No, not working? Okay, here are some essential oils. Oh, you still hate life? Okay, here is some Ibuprofen. Oh, now you want to play? No we are going to bed.
3:00am: Ahh bed,
6:00am: Repeat day.

How ever will we do this, alone?
I think we got it.

Deployment vaguely reminds me of when we brought our child home from the hospital. Both of our parents flew out to California for his birth and to spend the first few weeks of his life with us. This gave time for us to sleep while they helped out with him, did our dishes, cleaned our home…it was truly a blessing. And then BAM! Everyone got on a plane and left the day before Dan went back to work because his paternal leave ended. I had a massive panic attack the night before he went back to work because all I could think of was “How am I going to do this on my own tomorrow?”
No surprise, I woke up and I just repeated what I had done 2 weeks before, just with no help. And I made it.
This is very much deployment.
The anxiety and fear of deployment ended up being dramatically worse than deployment itself. But here are a few things I have learned that I wish to share with you on my 1st deployment journey so far.

1. You will have bad days (if you don’t, you are clearly drinking too much wine).
You will want to pull out your hair, and scream, and you’ll probably eat McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the same day because you really don’t feel like cooking. It’s okay. You deserve a break. I mean Jesus, eat a salad maybe for lunch just to watch out for your arteries, but take the day off. I hear red wine is good for your heart, so maybe pair your McDouble with a glass of it…should counter-act each other. It’s just science.

2. Don’t ask another spouse if she’s heard from her spouse that day. For the love of God, it doesn’t matter. It’s just going to worry her or make her upset that you have heard from yours and hers hasn’t skyped/emailed (this is different from asking “How’s ‘xxx’ doing?”). Just invite her over and pour her some wine.

3. Don’t compare deployments. Don’t tell me how much harder your deployment was because you barely got to email/skype your husband on his.
I mean what is this, a contest? Regardless of where they go, they are still gone for 6 -9 months. That’s months of someone’s spouse/father/son being gone. Guess what, it sucks. It sucks when they are gone for that long and you get to skype, and it sucks when they are gone for that long and you get A skype. And please, don’t tell me my husbands deployment isn’t “real” because he’s not in Afghanistan/Iraq.
First off, what kind of a friend say’s that? You suck. Don’t be a sucky friend. Unfortunately I have heard some women utter these words and it breaks my heart. My husband’s best friend died on his deployment, and he was not in a War Zone. Don’t degrade any Marine’s death. I know you may not be doing it intentionally, but you just did. And now I hate you.

4. Call for backup.
Bueller, Bueller? No seriously. call someone. I have called my parents so many times to come down for a weekend to help me with my son. I just needed to eat dinner at my dinner table and feel like I was part of a family. I had dinner with my girlfriends, pout sessions, bitch sessions, you name it. Call someone. You’re not the only feeling the way you are, and someone will appreciate the fact that you are reaching out for help because they need it too.

5. Take it one drink day at a time.
Stay busy, get out of the house every day, even if it’s just to return the Redbox you’ve been hoarding for the past 14 days (you should probably keep it, I think you own it now). Fresh air is so good for the soul. Join a gym, find a new place to explore every day, ask for a good book to read, or find a new hobby. Keep busy! Do something that challenges your brain, but is relaxing and enjoyable (please don’t watch too much of Keeping up with the Kardashians. I have found this does challenge my brain, but in a way that hurts. It hurts so bad).

And remember – Wine is your new friend best friend.

How to Apply Permanent Acrylic Paint to Fabrics – without cracking!

Hi there! Gabriela from the Single Yet Married Mom blog, and I’m so excited to be guest posting for the Silhouette School Blog (seriously, what A dream).

I have had my Silhouette Cameo since Christmas of this year, and I have to say – I am obsessed. From designing signs and nursery art, using it to address letters in fancy calligraphy, to even applying vinyl on fabric – this thing does it all; and I’ve yet to even really skim the waters with this awesome machine!

I have been dying to get my sewing machine out and doing some fabric appliques, but I haven’t gone out to get any new fabric in a while. What I do have lying around my house however, is a ton of acrylic paint. I really think I have 2 of literally every color that was available in Michael’s! I also have a large amount of freezer paper on hand – so I thought, why not paint onto fabric? I really love the ease of vinyl, but sometimes a little diversity in my closet would be nice.

I decided that my first acrylic paint fabric artwork would be for my best friend’s daughter. Not only does this momma LOVE the White Stripes (and maybe a slight obsession with Jack White), but her favorite song is Jolene. The White Stripes had a vinyl record released with an image of Meg White (at least, it REALLLLY looks like her) and the name “Jolene” in her hair.  I decided that’s what I would do on a baby onesie. EPIC.

Now, before you assume you’ll need fancy Adobe Illustrator to do a nice trace of this image, you are so wrong! Here is a screen shot of a trace from Silhouette Design.

Pretty awesome, right!

Now here’s what you’ll need to complete this project:

Acrylic Paint color(s) of your choosing
Textile Medium (helps make the acrylic paint permanent on the onesie, and will give it a smooth make, so it won’t crack after you’ve put it in the dryer and wash multiple times!)
Foam brush
Freezer paper
Iron
Baby Onesie (pre-wash if you want, just don’t use any fabric softeners)
Handy dandy black magic Silhouette machine

Make sure you read the instructions on your textile medium when mixing this with your acrylic paint. Mine says 2 parts acrylic to 1 part medium.
Mine also suggest pre-washing your fabric (no softeners!) to make sure all the stretching and shrinking takes place.
This is the one I used (you can use any fabric medium!).

Place your cut out freezer paper stencil onto your fabric (shiny side down), and iron on your freezer paper. This allows the freezer paper to adhere to the clothing so you can be a bit messy with your paint, and it will help prevent bleeding. You can also prevent a lot of bleeding by using a small quantity of paint at a time. Don’t slather it on there. Patience is a virtue here!

After trying this experiment, I will say that when you put your freezer paper onto your mat, place it so the wax from the paper is NOT what is sticking to the mat (you following me here?). When you do this, you’ll have to remember to MIRROR your image, so when you place the wax side on your fabric, you’ll get the correct image. I say this because I found when I tried doing a direct stencil (so no mirroring and the wax side – which is the shiny side) was laying directly on the sticky mat), when I was weeding my image and transferring it to my fabric, sometimes the wax adhered to the mat! This means when you go to iron on the freezer paper, wherever the wax is missing from the paper, that portion will not create a stencil layer with your shirt, causing bleed marks from the paint. Boo!

Using a foam brush, dab your paint onto the fabric until you have reached your desired look. I would wait about 3 hours to make sure the paint has dried onto the fabric, and then you can peel off the freezer paper. Again, slow and steady wins the race.

My fabric medium also suggests ironing over your new image (after you’ve peeled off your freezer paper stencil) for about 20 seconds.

That’s it! You have your awesome new design.
Wear it around proudly 🙂

Free Princess Printable

With the anticipation of the new Cinderella movie coming out (and since I have terrible insomnia), I thought I would make a free printable for all those princess lovers out there (particularly Cinderella lovers).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on each picture to take you to its downloadable PDF version!

Wouldn’t the be so cute on top of a little girls desk, or hanging on her bathroom wall?

 

Happy Crafting!

xoxo

Using Sketch Pens (and Markers!) For Beginners

Sometimes in life, we need a little nudge and reminder of just how wonderful we are.  Or sometimes, you just want to let a friend know just how beautiful and inspiring they are in your eyes. I have a friend like that. And I have my moments too where I’m that person. But she deserved this.

It’s no Mona Lisa, but, I keep hearing it’s the thought that counts. 😉

This was my first attempt at using my Silhouette Cameo with the pen holder. Friends, my life has been forever changed. I thought print and cut was my favorite thing (and I’m sure it will be every other week), but these pen holders have opened up a brand new avenue for creativeness that I did not know was possible for me. I can address envelopes in schfancy calligraphy while secretly making people think I have the handwriting of an angel.

I can outline an image with pen and color it in with marker, alluding to the idea that I know how to color in the lines (nope, still can’t at 26).

I am here to tell you, that if you can’t draw, have no fear; your Silhouette can, and will for you!
Here’s what I did.

I found a giant book of colored and embossed cardstock at Hobby Lobby’s (don’t forget to use your 40% off coupon!). I found a page that I thought the quote would fit well in, and measured the diameter of the circle on the page.  I then drew a circle on my software, and went ahead and clicked scale, and manually input 9″ for height and width.

I found 3 different fonts that were free on dafont.com, and I used those to write out my quote.
This was the hardest part: I had to play around with positioning the words so they not only fit perfectly inside the circle, but flowed well enough that when you read the quote – it made sense. This was the most time consuming part of the project, and I moved the words around hundreds of times, but when I had them in the perfect position I just knew.

I then colored in the words using the fill button at the top so I could get a great visual of what it would look like on paper. I won’t lie – I totally googled “red color palette” to make sure my colors wouldn’t clash.

When I had everything where I wanted it to be, I deleted the circle (this is an important step), loaded my cardstock page onto my mat, inserted the pen holder with said ball point pen, and let it run. Make sure you change your settings on your computer for Sketch Pen, and that your cut settings are for “cut edge.”

This is what your preview should look like when you’ve correctly selected “cut edge” and “sketch pen.”

After the entire piece had been outlined with a ball point pen, I had to go back select every word that was going to be in a color group (say orange; I only selected “created to be, you will set”) and inserted my orange fine Sharpie into my pen holder, and watched it color in the word.
Here’s the finished product.

I hope this left you feeling inspired.
What projects have you tackled with your sketch pens?

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. My Paper Craze // 2. The Stamp Doc // 3. Peanut Life Adventures // 4. Creative Ramblings // 5. Pitter and Glink // 6. The Thinking Closet // 7. Single Yet Married Mom // 8. unOriginalMom // 9. Sisters, What! // 10. Where The Smiles Have Been // 11. From Whine to Whine // 12. Adventures in All Things Food // 13. Practically Functional // 14. Patina Paradise // 15. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 16. Weekend Craft // 17. Two Purple Couches // 18. Ribbons & Glue // 19. TitiCrafty // 20. Simply Kelly Designs // 21. Confessions of an Overworked Mom // 22. Get Silvered

Butternut Squash Soup

             Butternut Squash Soup                  

 Prep Time: 25 min.         Cook Time: 30 min.

 

Picture taken from http://www.wishfulchef.com/butternut-squash-soup/

Original Recipe from “The Taste of Home Cookbook”

The recipe has been slightly altered from its original content.

• You will need:
  1 medium sized sweet onion
  3 celery ribs, chopped
  2 tbsp butter
  3.5 cups water
  2-3 chicken bullion cubes
  1 tsp. sugar (can be substituted with 3 large carrots, peeled and cut)
  1/2 tsp. salt
  1/2 tsp. ground ginger
  1/2 tsp ground turmeric
  1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  1 bay leaf
  1 butternut squash peeled and cubed (around 2 lbs)
  3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
  1.5 cups milk (1 or 2% milk works best)

1. In a large pot coated in non-stick spray, cook the onion, celery, and butter until tender. Stir in the water with chicken bullion cubes, sugar (or carrots), bay leaf, salt, ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon.
2. Add squash and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover; let simmer for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
3. Remove from heat and discard the bay leaf. Puree the mixture in batches using a blender. Return to the pan, and add milk. Heat for another few minutes, but do not let soup boil.

Serve warm, and enjoy!

Bacon Infused Burgers With Gorgonzola Cheese

Earlier today I was reading a post on a delicious Mac N Cheese Pot Pie. Somehow, that led me to really being hungry for burgers (I’m still working on that connection, too). And then I really wanted bacon. But that wasn’t enough – I craved cheese – specifically Gorgonzola.

So I thought, Hey, why don’t I just put all of those things together on a big ‘ol meat patty? So I did. And it was glorious.

Bacon Infused Gorgonzola Burger

Prep time: 5 minutes   Cook time: 30 minutes

You’ll need:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 sliced onion
• 2 crushed and sliced garlic cloves
• 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 package of Bacon
• 2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Pepper
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil

Directions

1. Place bacon on baking rack and broil on HI for 10 minutes (you want it cooked, but not super crunchy). Once the bacon is cooked, remove from oven, lightly press with paper towel to remove excess grease, and chop into tiny pieces.
2. Place meat in a bowl, and add pepper, salt, bacon, and garlic. Don’t be afraid to really mix it up and get your hands dirty!
3. Make patties about the size of your palm, and make them about an 1/4″ thick. Place on grill on HI for about 5 minutes on each side, or until middle is no longer pink.
4. In a saucepan, turn heat on HI and heat olive oil until you see it start to simmer. Add sliced onions and turn heat down to medium-low.  Constantly move onions around pan. They will cook for about 10 minutes. Add oil as needed.
5. Take your cooked patty, place on buns with your caramelized onions and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.

Add any desired dressings, like mustard and ketchup, though you’ll find this burger already has a lot of taste without those!

Enjoy!!

Melt In Your Mouth Cheesy Chicken Quesadilla

I am a huge sucker for any meal that will take me less than 25 minutes to cook.
Typically, I plan what I’m going to cook for dinner at least three days ahead; however, I got lazy this weekend and didn’t plan for anything.

Luckily, I had chicken thawed out so I knew that was going to be the base of what I planned my meal around. If you know me, you know I love anything spicy, and I love me some cheesy quesadilla’s. To make dinner filling, I made some cheesy chicken quesadilla’s.

Cheesy Chicken Quesadilla

Prep Time: 5 minutes     Cook Time: 15 minutes

You’ll need

• 6 tortillas
• 1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• 1 8 oz package of Mexican 4 Cheese
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 6 oz can of Tomato Paste
• 1  oz can of Black Beans
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp Sriracha Sauce (omit if you don’t like anything spicy!)

Directions

1. Cut chicken breast into 1/2″ strips. Place in broiler on High for 5-7 minutes (or until chicken is no longer pink in middle).
2. In a Dutch oven, sauté the chopped onion in Olive Oil until it is translucent and soft (roughly 8 minutes). Halfway through the sauté process, add your garlic. Make sure garlic does not brown.
3. Add tomato paste and equal amount of water to pot. Bring to a boil, simmer, and cover for 5 minutes.
4. Take cooked chicken and throw it through the food processor for a quick shred.
5. Add shredded chicken to pot. Mix in black beans and Sriracha sauce.
6. Place mixture on top of your tortillas, and sprinkle desire amount of shredded cheese  over mixture. Fold tortilla over and press down.
7. Place in oven at 400 for 5-8 minutes (until tortilla is golden).

Add some sour cream or guacamole to the top of your quesadilla for a little extra taste! Serve Warm, and enjoy!

Paddington Bear Themed Thank You Cards

So, I super love Paddington Bear.
For my son’s first birthday, I decided to do a Paddington Themed Party!
It was a lot of fun making all of his creations with my Silhouette.
Here are some images from his birthday party.

I wish I could say I baked that awesome cake…but I have no baking skills!
All of the creations you saw however, were made using my Silhouette Cameo. I really had a lot of fun using the print and cut method for this.

I decided to stick with the Paddington theme for his thank you cards.
They turned out simple and cute, so I thought I would share a tutorial on how I made them.

You will need:

Yellow cardstock
White cardstock
Paddington trace (I googled my image)
Weeding Tool
Silhouette cutting mat

1. Find a design you’d like to layer on top of your colored cardstock. I chose a design that was already in my Silhouette store (It came with the designer edition). It’s called Moroccan background.
2. Open your chosen design in Silhouette, and scale it to the size of the cardstock you are working with. Mine was a 4.5″x6.5″. The most simple way to do this is by clicking on your object, going to “Scale” and imputing the design length manually (make sure to uncheck “Lock Aspect,” or it will keep the design in a square format).

“Scale” button is in blue on the top right hand corner.

3. To add a square border around your image like I have, you’re going to need to draw a rectangle that’s also a 4.5×6.5″. The draw button is on the left hand side.

Draw your rectangle, and make sure to manually input your dimensions.

4. You are going to need to “Weld” the two object together so it cuts as once solid piece. BUT, before we get there…..
Place the square over your lace cut out, and make sure your lace design overlaps the square just slightly. Select your drawn rectangle and click on “offset.”
5. I did my offset so the outside square is .15 inches away from the original square. Select both rectangles and right hand click over them. Select “Make compound path.”
6. Now, select both the rectangle (the two pieces have become one) and the lace cut out and click on your align tool. Then click “align middle.”
7. Carefully making sure your “moroccan background” overlaps the rectangles most inner box, select all images (or hit command+a) and click on your weld tool (you can also right hand click and the option to weld will be available).

This is what your design should look like after you weld your background to your rectangle border.

***Make sure you select your object and re-scale it so it is the same size as your cardstock!! I had to resize my image back to a 4.5×6.5***

8. When you are ready to cut, make sure your cut settings are set to “Cut Edge,” and to be paper wise, make sure your design is along the top left/right corner, (but make sure you are within the cut lines).

Phew…that was a lot of work.

You are ready to cut this lace design!  Send to Silhouette. Weed out the white spaces shown in the design.

All you need to do from here is adhere this lace background to your cardstock.

For the Paddington Design, I just did a print and cut. I googled Paddington, resized him to my liking to fit on the card, and then adhered his cut out to the already dried cardstock design. I wrote my “thanks” on the back of the card, using sketch pens for a signature – a tutorial for another day.

Don’t know how to print and cut? Check out The Silhouette School Blog on it! She rocks when it comes to tutorials!

As always,

Happy Crafting!

PS – head on over to Simply Sundays for some amazing Recipes! I’ve just linked up with them for my first ever link party. Wahoo!