I admit I can be cheap sometimes. And impatient/lazy. I don’t want to bus out to Michael’s to pick up supplies, or wait for them to be shipped from the states. So I sometimes have to McGyver my crafts. And I’ve come up with some creative alternatives to certain materials. I’m going to talk here about my substitute for vellum, and stay tuned for chipboard and metallics in part 2 and 3 of this series.
I love vellum. It gives a soft look, it can tone down a busy pattern, it is great for layering but allowing a pattern to peek through. I make my “vellum” from parchment paper.
PROS:
-looks like vellum
-can be cut by silhouette,
-cheap
-rips easily for a torn edge look
CONS:
-not printer friendly (unless you tape it to copy paper, but even then it’s iffy, the ink pools…)
-rips easily
-doesn’t actually stick to the cutting mat (you have to use a piece big enough to fit under the rollers or tape it down with masking tape), which makes it not good for a detailed cut with more than one piece (the cut out bit ends up moving around because it’s not stuck down)
-sometimes doesn’t stick well to things (looks really good stitched down though)
Cut settings: vellum
There is a solution to the problem of cutting compound shapes with parchment… it works fine if you cut the inside bits first. To do this, release the compound path, and select the inside shape. Make the line a different color, then when you get to the cut window, select advanced cut. Arrange the colors so the inside one is first. You don’t need to put pauses, it will just cut in order.
When I was writing this, I thought, does it have to be parchment paper? Why not wax paper or freezer paper? It’s what I use because it’s what I have in my kitchen, so thought I’d do some research on what the different types of kitchen paper actually are:
-wax paper: waxed on both sides
-freezer paper: waxed or plastic coated on one side
-parchment paper: no wax coating
Well there you have it. I’ve never tried waxed or freezer paper so I can’t really comment, but apparently freezer paper makes a great stencil:
http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/01/freezer-paper-stencil-silhouette.html
I cut clouds with my silhouette, then stitched them down.
Here I ripped a piece and layered it under the letters to make the background less busy under the title.
Do you have any secret alternatives to fancy products?
xoxo
-A
