ratty daddy dinkdum: What We Like Wednesdays

Last year I found out about the Cricut machines from reading all of the wonderful blogs I follow on my personal blog. Mom and I shopped around and almost bought one around Thanksgiving because they were so cheap at the time. However, while Mom was researching she came across the Silhouette and after reading all about it, I was SOLD! :)

Photo from the Silhouette America website
I ended up getting one for Christmas from Adam's Dad. (He asked me if there was any one thing that I REALLY wanted for Christmas, so I picked the Silhouette!) The funny thing is, he was really worried it wasn't going to get here in time for Christmas, and it ended up coming on Christmas Eve. :) haha We were leaving their house to head to my mom's house and as we were driving away the UPS guy pulled up in front of their house. I of course started screaming and jumping around the car, and Adam of course told me, you don't know if it's the Silhouette or not. Yeah right! haha :) His Dad even had a backup gift for me just in case it didn't show up in time. He rounded up some colored paper, scissors, markers, cookie cutters (haha, cute right?), and a few other miscellaneous crafting tools for me.

Now if you know me, then you know I'm really bad about using new stuff right after I get it. I'm not the type to rip open the box, plug stuff in, and get started right away. I usually let things sit for awhile until I'm "ready" to use them. LOL :) However, I got to do my first project with the Silhouette the very next day! :) I made Adam's Mom a birthday card since her birthday is December 26. Then I got to make another card on December 28 for my Mom's birthday! :) So needless to say, I learned how to use that machine QUICKLY! Here are a few pictures of those cards.

Here is the first card I made for Adam's Mom for her birthday! It was the same cutout as my Mom's card, I just didn't layer the present shape on top of it so there were no cutouts. Instead, I cut out individual present shapes in coordinating paper and put them on the front of the card! :)

For my Mom's card I went with 2 prints. It made the letters kind of hard to read, so lesson learned for the future. :) Don't pair 2 bold prints because they overwhelm each other. But I still love the colors and both prints! This was a simple card cutout from the Silhouette online store, and I used the extra pieces from the present shapes inside the card to give it some dimension. For my second card, I think it turned out pretty good, but a little hard to read!

They didn't turn out too bad, but I think I've improved a little since then! :) I made some Mother's Day cards as well for our Mom's and they turned out super cute I think!! :)

My Mom's card was a simple card cutout that I downloaded from the Silhouette Online Store. I used a print for the main card, and then put a solid color underneath the front flat to give it some more color. :) (It looked A LOT better than the first card I made using 2 papers with bold prints!)

Adam's Mom's card was also a simple card cutout from the Silhouette online store. I used the yellow, red and pink floral paper for the exterior of the card. Then I used the blue and red coordinating paper for the inside flap!

The interior of the card was just the white back of the floral paper, so I added the 2 little swirls to the corners to give it a little color. They were from the cut-out part of the flourish! :) I always like to reuse those little shapes! They come in handy!

If you're thinking of getting a cutting machine I highly recommend the Silhouette. The software is easy to use and you can get cutting right away without buying any shapes. (Plus, with the Cricut you have to buy those cartridges, so it's like the gift that keeps on giving when you have to keep buying new cartridges all the time!) I also love that with the Silhouette you can also draw your own shapes and use any font that's on your computer with it. There are millions of free fonts online, so the possibilities are endless.

I ended up signing up for the Premium Subscription Plan with the Silhouette Online Store for 1 year. It's gives me $150 in credits per month. (Downloads are usually 99 cents each, but they do offer discounts all the time. There is a free weekly download, weekly clearance sale, and sometimes they do a discount on all the designs.) I paid for it in full and got a discount, so I think it cost me $180 total for the year and I'll end up with $1800 in credits over that time period. :) I'm very happy with it so far, and I've downloaded about 600 shapes so far. :) And I still have credits left from previous months. When you have a subscription plan, you have 60 days to use your credits. So your January credits are good in January and February, then they expire in March. If you use up your monthly $150 credit allowance, you can buy additional shapes at 50% off the normal price too. :)

If anyone has any questions about the Silhouette or needs help figuring something out, just shoot us an email! We're happy to answer your questions! :) Also, be sure to check out the Silhouette Blog for more great tips, ideas, and free stuff!!

Have a great day!