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Fabulous Silhouette CAMEO Vinyl Bundle with Bonus Discount Code

10 · · 12 Comments

You may have already guessed this, but… my Silhouette CAMEO along with Silhouette Premium Vinyl pretty much makes my world go 'round!

I had this fun globe that I bought at Target. A while ago I painted a small section with chalkboard paint and loved playing around with sayings on it.  The issue… my kiddos kept erasing the sayings, so the majority of the time it looked like a smudged white cloud on the globe.  I decided that I needed to create one of my favorite sayings with white vinyl so that it could be a little more permanent. I love the saying, " A good deed makes a dark world brighter" and I thought it would look fun on my black globe.

How to Prepare the Globe

I covered a smallish {technical, I know} section of the globe with black chalkboard paint not worrying about creating careful lines.  I just kind of smeared the paint over the section I wanted to cover…

Once the paint had dried completely, I was then ready for the Silhouette Premium Vinyl installation.

Designing and Installing the Vinyl Lettering

I love the look of hand drawn chalkboards and I kind of wanted to go with that feel.  Now… I will be completely honest here… this project {simple as it was} took a ton of patience! I tried several different designs that I had created with the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition, that once transferred to vinyl just didn't work. They were all a little too swirly for the vinyl's taste. I finally came up with a design that worked for me and also for the vinyl as well. 

I used three different fonts for this project. The top section… "A good deed makes a dark," is the Doris Day font. "World," is Modern No. 20 and "Brighter" is Vaguely Repulsive from Kevin and Amanda. All really fun fonts.

I just played around with the design until I found the right fit in the design studio, and when it felt good I cut the vinyl.  By the way, if you are looking to learn how to use your Silhouette you should check out yesterday's giveaway… it's a good one!!

I carefully installed the vinyl on the globe and now I have a fun decor piece that can proudly display in my new living room without the kiddos smudging it up!

A Special Silhouette CAMEO and Premium Vinyl Discount Code

Now's the fun part… DEAL TIME!!! The super special Silhouette CAMEO discount code just for you guys is…

Click on the image above to link to the special deal on the Silhouette Website.

 IF you already have a Silhouette CAMEO but would like to stock-up on Vinyl… all of the vinyl will be 40% off when you use the WHIPPER promo code between May 9-16! Happy Shopping!!

Learn the Art of Digital Design with Jessica Sprague | Giveaway

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I have been recently introduced to a fabulous online learning site that I adore!! Many, many moons ago I was a scrapbooker. I hoarded paper and embellishment like they were life sustaining materials. I would pull out all of my supplies and my house would be over taken with buttons and brads, pens and chalk, stamps and ink… whatever the hot scrapbooking trend was at the time.  A few years later I discovered that you could digitally scrapbook and my life completely changed!! I loved that I could still create the same look with just a click of my mouse and a little digital creativity. I loved that my house no longer had to look like a craft store tornado and just come through every weekend.  The issue, there was a bit of a learning curve involved with figuring out this new digital medium.  I learned on Photoshop elements with the slow, trial by error method.  How happy I would have been if I would have had Jessica Sprague come to my rescue!!

What is JessicaSprague.com?

JessicaSprague.com is a fabulous online digital art classroom.  They teach classes in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator and now they even have classes for the Silhouette!!!

 

Haven't you ALWAYS wanted to learn how to use these powerful tools? I know I have! Even though I feel pretty comfortable with some of these programs, I know that I don't use them to their full potential. This would be a great way to start from the beginning if you are new to the software or take some more advanced classes just to sharpen your skills. The classes are on your own time and self paced.  You can start and stop the video and practice the skill you've just learned so you know you've mastered it before you move on. Not only that, but if you have questions they have a fabulous forum that you can pop into and ask away, plus a fun gallery to share your work with others who have taken the class.

My Class Experience

I had the opportunity to take the Silhouette classes over the weekend and I LOVED them!! I was shocked that even in the very first lesson, an old Silhouette veteran like myself… LEARNED SOMETHING NEW!!

 

The class was so easy to follow with a very talented and knowledgeable instructor named Kerri Bradford…

Of Kerri Bradford Studio fame… She is one talented lady! She takes you step by step, on how to get to know your Silhouette. It doesn't matter if you have a CAMEO or an older version. She makes sure that everyone learns how to use their machine. The videos are clear and very well laid out, plus they are visually appealing {that's a big deal to me!}

Here is what Lesson One looks like and a brief overview of what you cover…

And a quick little snip of the beginning of the video… isn't it pretty?

The nice thing about these classes are that they are very affordable. The beginning class is $25 and the more advanced class is $30.  A steal really!  Think of all the wonderful things you can do with your Silhouette if you COULD JUST FIGURE OUT HOW!! I know I was in that boat… and YES, I'm a seasoned veteran.

The Giveaway

The lovely folks at Jessica Sprague have generously offered BOTH Silhouette classes for one lucky WhipperBerry reader. So, if you're one of the thousands who have reciently purchased a Silhouette {no matter what model} or know someone who has, this giveaway is for you!! Here's what you need to do to enter…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you head over to JessicaSprague.com and check out all of the fabulous things they have there.  They also have wonderful digital library that you can purchase for all your digital designing needs. Don't forget to come back tomorrow… a little bird has told me that we are going to have another great Silhouette DEAL!!

Friday Flair |Inspiration Link Party

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eeeeek it's {almost} Friday!  Time to strut your stuff here during this weeks Friday Flair.  I stumbled upon this photo the other day from a foreign language site that I wish I could read!!  The photo totally spoke to me…

img source | work from lily

Have you ever seen a photo that just made you think that the photographer captured you on the screen? Everything about this photo screams me. The clothes pins, the scissors, the roll of twine, the washi tape… everything.  That is my work… and I am so thrilled that it is.  I love having a passion and being able to exercise it every day.  Thank you all for being my amazing friends, for reading WhipperBerry and for giving me a forum to be able to share my passion with you all! From the bottom of my heart… THANK YOU!!

Gift Card Candy Lei | Gift Gloss

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Spring has sprung, the flowers have started to bloom, the sun is warming up and we are entering the spring gift giving season.  Mother's Day, Graduation, Teacher Appreciation, Weddings all start to fill our calendars.  With our calendars filling up, we now have a need for easy and fabulous gifts! I don't know about you, but over the years I have found that I LOVE getting a gift card.  That way I can get exactly what I want, plus it's an excuse to go shopping!!  The problem… they are kind of boring when you gift them.  With the help of my favorite GiftGloss you can give a boring gift card with a little pizzazz!!

 

If you aren't familiar with GiftGloss it is a fabulous way to create stunning gifts for your friends and family.  GiftGloss® is a unique gift wrap material, developed by the FoofQueens®, that allows you to create snazzy gifts in minutes. Whether you’re wrapping a birthday treat, wedding gift or plate of yummy cookies, GiftGloss instantly turns your gift into a show-stopping celebration! It's a fabulous slide n' tie sleeve that all you have to do is slide your item into and then tie it off on both ends and voila, you have a fun gift. 

For the candy leis I picked some fun candy and tied off the end of the gloss with what ever material you would like. I used baker's twine, but you could use anything. Then dropped in a few candies at a time tying it off every few inches to create the lei effect.

 

Then drop your gift card into your desired spot and tie it off just like the candy…

Once you have the desired length, tie the two ends together and you have a fun gift card candy lei…

Now what mom or teacher wouldn't love this fabulous sweet treat? I embellished mine with a fun cupcake liner flower that I made with my i-top button maker. Here is how I made it…

I used two small cupcake liners, two large cupcake liners and one i-top brad. I trimmed the edge of one of the small cupcake liners to fit the brad and secured it in place by folding it down.

   

Load into the i-top. Take the second small cupcake liner and place on top of the loaded brad top and then place the bottom of the brad inside the i-top and click it into place.

   

 

Take your two large cupcake liners and arrange them how you like by manipulating the center of the liner to create the desired effect.  Take the brad that you just created and push through the center to create the flower.

 

You can then take your flower brad and poke it through the gift gloss and secure it to embellish your gift card candy lei.

How fun is that? Now you can be excited to give a gift card, rather than sheepishly handing them a boring flat envelope thanks to the FoofQueens and GiftGloss!!

The FoofQueen are offering you guys a fabulous deal so that you can create some of these for your spring gift giving needs…

As a special offering for our readers, enjoy 20% of your entire cart when you use Code Whipperberry at the check out~ Expires May 20th, 2012

Thanks FoofQueens, you guys are WONDERFUL!!

Mirror Memo Board | Teacher Appreciation Week

2 · · 4 Comments

Can you believe the traditional school year is coming close to the end.  You know what that means… It's time for Teacher Appreciation week!!

The other day I was hosting a get together at my house and for hours I was busy playing hostess.  When everyone headed home I finally had a chance to take a look at myself in the mirror and almost SCREAMED!  My hair had gone totally NUTS!  I yelled at my husband and asked how long my hair had looked like that… to my chagrin he lovingly said, "the whole time… I thought you were trying something new."  Ahhhhhhh! I was mortified.

Although the experience was not one of my favorites, it got me thinking.  I'm sure that teachers have the same problem.  They are busy working in front of their class for hours at a time and do not time to run to the bathroom to just double check to make sure they haven't morphed into a bag lady.  It would be a perfect teacher appreciation gift to give your teacher a small mirror to add to his or her classroom for those quick little hair and makeup checks throughout the day. Then I thought it would be good if it could serve a dual purpose.  That's how I came up with the idea for the mirror memo board.  Here's how I made it…

I started with a thrifted mirror that I spray painted white and then distressed a bit.

I found some great washi tape at Target that coordinated with some fun clips that were perfect for dressing up the mirror. I framed the boarder of the mirror with the tape and then with another tape pattern I created another boarder on the frame.  It looked great!

With my Silhouette CAMEO I cut "Mrs. Johnson, You make life beautiful!" out of a lovely green vinyl and applied it to the mirror.  I used Courier New and Sign Painter as my fonts for the saying.  Then I glued the coordinating clips to the bottom of the frame with E600 and that was it.  It truly can't get easier than that!!

For good measure I added the cutest apple Post-it Note pad holder to the mix.  All I did was again, used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut the same green vinyl to add Mrs. Johnson's name to the apple.  A perfect addition to any teachers desk!

Here is another Teacher Appreciation Idea from last year that I just loved…

It's a super cute pencil bouquet that our teachers just loved.  You know you can NEVER have too many fun pencils, especially if you have a classroom full of kiddos who are constantly needing new ones.