L'Amour

This was my first engagement photo shoot and I have to confess I was anxious about it - but I also had fun testing out some of the things I learned in my recent photography class. I just wish I could remember it all and change all the functions on the camera quickly. I wish this adorable couple all the best for their relationship.

These are some of my favorites. I don't think I posted all of them, but I don't want to overwhelm you! Which ones do you like best?

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Spring Banner & Garland

I absolutely loved the scalloped globe garland from last month's free shapes. I knew it would be perfect to use for some Spring Decor. So for this month's challenge I made the garland following Silhouette's tutorial here. It was fun and easy to use the shape.

All the papers were from a designer pack of Amy Butler papers (much thanks to an awesome sister-in-law of mine for these). Gorgeous papers. I used the scalloped globe shape on the garland as well on the banner. They now hang in my dining room.

For the banner I used an old book and used almost the full size of a page for each pennant. I created a shape from the font and ungrouped each letter in order to get a nice outline.

Silhouette Shape:

Scalloped Globe Garland
(Click on the shape to link to it in the Silhouette Online Store.)

Font:
Andalus

Paper:
Old Book Pages
Amy Butler Designer Paper

Other Supplies:
Baker's Twine
Twine
Xyron Sticker Maker
Scrapbook Adhesives

Silhouette Free Shape Party #3

It's time for our monthly link-up party! I can't wait to be inspired by all of you! Please link up photos or blog posts with your projects.

Silhouette Free Shape Link Party!

MARCH'S SHAPES:

Shapes:
January-April Calendar 2012
Kite
Scalloped Globe Garland
Wave Background
(Click on the shapes to link to them in the Silhouette Online Store.)

WHEN?

At 3pm on the first Thursday of every month I will put up a link party for projects made from Silhouette's Free Shapes of the previous month. The link party will be open for links for one week from the date it is posted. (Giving you an extra week to work on your projects!)

THE RULES:

1. You may link up ONLY one item per free shape from the previous month. (Meaning 4-5 different projects may be linked depending on the month).

2. The free shape must be incorporated in the project but does not have to be the main shape, or only shape in the project.
3.The project you enter must be your own project and something you have made. (It can be inspired by someone else's project, but must be your work!)

4. All Silhouette shapes used must be listed within your post or on the SAME page as the photo linked. (Sources for other shapes not from Silhouette would also be appreciated, that way we can all easily recreate your project.)

5. The party will be open for one week to link up. It will close the Thursday after it opens.

6. You must specifically link back to my site within your blog post or on the SAME page as the photo you link up. There are two button sizes and a banner with their links for you to choose from.

7. I will reserve the right to remove any links (be it inappropriate, marketing, or otherwise).

8. If you link up please check out the other projects linked up and comment on them.

When possible (remember, I am a MOM first and foremost) I will do reviews on my favorite projects. 

ADVERTISING:

If you are interested in promoting your business (Silhouette related) by sponsoring rewards for the SFS Link Party or by having your business highlighted in the link party post, please feel free to contact me.

GRAB A BUTTON HERE

Import a Silhouette .Studio File into Adobe Illustrator

A few people have emailed me or commented on my blog asking the same question. How do I bring my Silhouette .studio files over to Adobe Illustrator (.ai). Unfortunately even Silhouette Studio Design Edition doesn't let you export the files you create to any version other than .studio. For those of you who prefer using Illustrator and cutting directly from there, I do have an answer. It's a round-about method, but it's been tested and confirmed. I've made a quick Tutorial for you to see how it works.

*Warning - this post is heavy on the images, but it's to make things easier for all of you following the tutorial.

Convert a Silhouette file to Adobe Illustrator

1.  Open the Silhouette file you want to bring in to Adobe Illustrator.

2.  Ungroup the image, fill the shapes in with black and change the line color to none.

3.  Make sure no shapes are overlapping unless you want them to become one shape in Illustrator.

4.  If there is negative to a shape that it is white NOT black.

5.  Open the Print Dialog in Silhouette and choose "Adobe PDF". Then click on Preferences. Select the Paper/Quality Tab, set the color to Black & White and then select Advanced. Change the Paper size to "Postscript Custom Page Size" and then set it to 12x12". Press OK, OK, Then Apply and Print. Choose the name and location for your PDF file and save it.

6.  Open Adobe Illustrator and Open your new PDF file in Illustrator. If you select them image you will see that your image is broken into a bunch of squares. That's not exactly what we want, so there's just a little more work to do.

7.  Go to Object->Rasterize to flatten the image completely. Choose Grayscale and Transparent Background. Don't freak out as you see the edges get a little messy on the shapes. That will get better in the next step.

8.  Click on arrow beside Live Trace and go to Tracing Options. Check the box beside "Ignore White" (this step will save you work later). Click on Trace. See how the edges cleaned up? It's still one complete square though.

9.  Click on Expand. Now you have all of the objects as shapes in Illustrator! Of course, they are currently all grouped together so to work with them individually you may want to ungroup them.

Best of luck as you try this out! Let me know if you have success!

For those of you wondering why there's a need to bring a shape over to Illustrator when it's already in Silhouette Studio - there are a lot of fun tools in Illustrator (patterns, fill options, shape editing) that are not available in Silhouette Studio. That combined with the ability to cut directly to the Silhouette from Illustrator have a lot of designers sticking with Illustrator!

Are You Using Your Free Shapes?

Can you believe it's April already? I still sort of feel like it's February. This year is going way too fast for me.

February's party had some really inspirational projects! Did you see them? Check out the link-ups HERE.

This Owl is adorable - from Eamgower's Flickr Pool:

And I love this Tag with the rolled rose on it:

Check out all the rest too. It's so fun to see everyone else's take on the same shapes.

Did you download all the Silhouette Free Shapes in March? I loved this set. I'm also looking forward to seeing what you did with them. Don't forget to link up this week, starting Thursday! You have a whole week to get something in there so you don't have to feel rushed.

Shapes:

January-April Calendar 2012

Kite

Scalloped Globe Garland

Wave Background

(Click on the shapes to link to them in the Silhouette Online Store.)

Also, all you Silhouette & Adobe Illustrator Users, check back to find out a new trick!