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Tips to help you prepare for your next class or event

Packing-text

So I'm going to Version Scrap in Paris in 2 days and I am so giddy!! I'm taking classes from Debby Schuh and Ali Edwards.  I've just finished packing and I realised that I've got it down to a system and I'm pretty good at it ;)

Here are some tips to help you pack for your next class or event so that you are prepared and organised without overpacking but are ready to scrapbook!

I'm packing a lot of my stuff in a Cath Kidston bag, jsut for Debby ;)

Packing

If you are taking multiple classes with very different supply lists, then pack a different bag for each class.  For example if you are taking one class that has a lot of messy paints and inks, keep them in a separate bag from your paper trimmer and crop-a-dile for that next, less messy class.

Better yet, if you can, try and schedule all the messy classes on one day and the more paper-only classes on another.  We did this a few years ago, we took all of Donna Doney's classes on one day and Debby Schuh's the next to minimise the amount of things we needed to bring each day.

Don't over pack.  If you feel like you'll want to add your own embellishments in addition to the supplies that are included in the kit, wait until you get home. Otherwise you'll have to bring a tonne of stuff to make sure you have enough choice.  Am I right? ;)

If the teacher asks you to prepare things before hand, make sure you do it.  Even if you end up not finishing the project and you feel like that prep could have been done afterwards, do it beforehand anyway!  I find that I make more effort to finish a project if I've put a lot of work into it before hand, like priniting photos.

Here are all my photos and notes for the Day in the Life that I documented for Ali's class.  It's all tucked into one of my take along memory keepers.  and see that cute little Paris tag, it's from the Cut Shoppe!

Prepare

Since I'll be out of the country, I won't have much access to internet, but when I do I'll be posting photos to Instagram, you can follow me here!


5 awesome cool things that you didn't know your Silhouette could do :D

 Text

1. Did you know that included in the free cutfiles that come with your Silhouette there is one to help you customise your control panel?

Control-panel

 Control-panel-photo

2.  If you use scraps on your mat to cut out different colours for your design you can not only use up your scraps instead of a new sheet of cardstock, you can also cut all of the pieces at once so that you don't have to keep coming back to cut each individual colour.

 Scraps

Bloom
cutfile from the Cut Shoppe

3.  Have you noticed this funny little hole on your Silhouette?  At first I thought it was just a place to hold the ratchet-y thing that you use to change the blade setting.  but it just kept falling off and getting lost and then I may or may not have used my teeth to change the blade setting ;)  Recently I found out that it actually is a built-in ratchet!  Wow, do my teeth feel stupid ;)

 Rachet

4. Did you ever have a cutfile you loved but it was just a little too thick or too thin?  Or maybe you wanted to mat it with another cut?  I've tried to adjust images and text before by changing the size, but the dimensions were still too thick or thin. And when I tried to mat things this way the images or text didn't line up.  I just discovered the Offset function! It's fantastic for making things the thickness you want or adding mats!

I love taking cutfiles from the Cut Shoppe and making them really big, but I find they get too thick, so I love to use the Offset function to thin them out and make them look their best.

Offset-function

5.  I recently posted this layout where I used my Silhouette to make the holes for the stitching.  I thought I could use one of the dotted lines in the Line Style function, but they were too 'dash-y' and I needed holes.  A quick google search turned up a tutorial by Corri Garza that showed me how to run a text along the outside of my cutfile, a text with only periods that would then be just a bunch of circles.

Shine-2