Silhouette Curio Button Box Matchbox

Printables.

Simplified sketch pen version.

Papercraft sewing accessories are some of my favourite things to make - they are useful and giftable. I am looking forward to attending The Knitting & Stitching Show next week (Oct 7-11, Ally Pally, London) - so my crafty thoughts have turned to stitchery. Can't wait to see the creative exhibitions - and add to my ribbon stash.

These Button Box Matchboxes are sized to fit on a Silhouette Curio machine. The Curio has a petite cutting area because it concentrates on its other powerful creative capabilities - such as embossing, stippling, and cutting heavier materials. (You can also make it on a Silhouette Cameo or Portrait - if that is the machine you have. Or even cut it out by hand if you have not gone digital yet.)

I have made a print-and-cut version of the design and also a simplified version, suitable for the Sketch Pen feature on all Silhouette machines.

Here are your files:
ButtonBoxMatchbox.pdf 
ButtonBoxWrap.studio3 
ButtonWrapSketch.studio3 

ButtonBoxMatchboxDrawer.studio3 

Your matchbox consists of a drawer and the wrap. Cut the matchbox drawer out of plain coloured paper. The drawer pulls are brads. 

You can tweak the colours and make several for a colour-coded button stash!

 

Stippling with the Silhouette Curio

I am going dotty – playing with the Stipple function on my new favourite toy – the Silhouette Curio machine. The Curio is the new digital cutting machine from Silhouette – it features a powerful bag of creative tricks, the Stipple effect being one of them.

My first “real” job was as a colourist in a textile studio. Many of the designs I worked on had stippled features – a budget airbrush-style pointillist effect. It was achieved by flicking a paint-loaded toothbrush. The paint was applied through a stencil. Fun, but labour-intensive. Now you can get a stippled effect – with much more sophisticated results ­– by clicking a selection on the Curio.

To actually produce the Stipple effects shown, I have used Sharpie markers held by a Silhouette Pen Holder. (You can also use Silhouette Sketch Pens, which need no holder.) A handy feature of the Curio is that it has two blade carriages – so you can double-up and do two operations at a time – two colours at a go or one colour, then cut.

The Curio Stipple has lots of fun options. You can stipple outlines, stipple-trace designs (great for photos), apply dots in undulating patterns of grids or shapes. You can also combine the Stipple effect with othe Curio functions, such as the Sketch Pens. So for some designs I have done the text in Sketch Pen outline and the design in Stipple.  I am still playing – but I am posting some of my first Curio Stipple experiments to share the wonder.

The stippling process isn’t quick if there are lots and lots of dots in your design (and you will probably want to go for it) – so make yourself a cup of tea and/or browse the web while the Curio is busily clicking away.

If you are lucky enough to have a Silhouette Curio machine and want to have a go with stippling, I would recommend two different ways to get started. Either start with a simple linear vector design and tweak it or scan in a photo and do the same. Select a photo with lots of contrast.

Another tip: if you want a multi-colured design, then you must stipple-prepare each section of the design that you want in a specific colour individually. When you output the design, you can then stipple colour by colour.

Snowflake, Seashell, Star. By Alex Bellos with Edmund Harriss. Review.

Snowflake, Seashell, Star

Colouring Adventures in Numberland

By Alex Bellos with Edmund Harriss

Canongate, Sept 2015

Trade paperback: £12.99

ISBN 978 1 78211 788 9

Star rating: ****

I’m telling you upfront that I’m not the greatest fan of the difficult-to-ignore colouring-books-for grown-ups phenomenon. I do get it – mindful relaxation, decision making without consequences (pencils or markers?/what colour next?). I am glad that talented artists have an opportunity for publishing success – colouring book specialist is a whole new creative field. But, my personal reaction is that I’d rather be crocheting a scarf or jumper – just as relaxing and something useful produced. Until now.

Today I am featuring a themed colouring book that I can really get excited about. I am so enthusiastic about it that I am blogging about it on its publication date!

Snowflake, Seashell, Star is an interactive mathematical colouring book. No – don’t shy away. This is big fun. Fun and awe. It is a collaboration between Alex Bellos, who writes about popular mathematics (he has a Guardian maths/puzzle column and has written two bestselling books, Alex’s Adventures in Numberland and Alex Through the Looking-Glass) and Edmund Harriss, a well-known mathematical artist.

The book is divided into two sections, with a total of 80 images. Upfront is the colouring section featuring exquisite patterns from nature, optical illusions, tessellating shapes (they interlock, as in the art of M.C. Escher). Just looking at these pages is a treat – they have a life all their own, even before colour is applied. Part two of the book is interactive. Here you will find sophisticated connect-the-dots pages and directed colouring exercises (follow the sequence to get an impressive result). Wish my maths workbooks had been like this! 

Back-of-book is the reveal. It gives capsule descriptions of the principles featured in the colouring pages of the book, explaining  their mathematical significance in friendly and accessible jargon.

So – congrats to Alex Bellos and Edmund Harriss for producing a colouring book with a sharp new angle.

Tessellating fish on the back cover.

BTW, if you live in the States, this title has a different title - and cover (see above): Patterns of the Universe. Cosmic!

Sharpie Art Workshop, by Timothy Goodman. Review.

Sharpie® Art Workshop

Techniques & Ideas for Transforming your World

By Timothy Goodman

Rockport 2015

Paperback £14.99 UK/$22.99 US/$27.99 CAN

ISBN 978-1-63159-048-1

Star rating: ****

I received my review copy of this fun title yesterday, at the very same time I received a pack of Sharpies that I had ordered in the mail. I am taking this to be a cosmic message, and am posting my book review a.s.a.p. to seize the moment!

Sharpie®- love is a mega-phenomenon in the craft and graphic design world. For the uninitiated, Sharpies are permanent-ink markers that can write – and draw – on most surfaces. They come in a range of colours and tips. Timothy Goodman, the author of Sharpie® Art Workshop, is in the lucky position of being able to earn his living as the world No. 1 go-to guy for Sharpie artwork.

The author, a graphic designer, had a Sharpie® epiphany five years ago. He brainstormed an assignment using Sharpies and the experience was so successful and immediate it changed his way of working. It resulted in snowballing commissions. And now he wants to spread the word about Sharpies, hence this lively and enthusiastic book. The concept: the Sharpie® is a universal, multi-purpose medium of creative expression, available to all – pro-artist and guy in the street alike. 

There is an enthusiastic buzz to this title, in both the visual content (Sharpie®-created A/W, natch) and the text, so, as a Sharpie® love-in – mission accomplished. 

For those, like myself, just getting acquainted with the – um – finer points about Sharpies, there is an extremely useful pictorial guide to all the Sharpie® products. (There’s a pretty big product range – different nib widths, colours, standard inky type or paint marker.) You get a pic of each marker, sample scribble above, a line drawn with the pen, plus a capsule description. Handy. 

The Sharpie® History + Facts spread is big fun. It is an anecdotal timeline of Sharpie®-ness. (The Sharpie® was invented in 1964.)

The book is both a gallery of Sharpie® artwork – complete with bios of contributing artists, and a guide, complete with useful tips, such as working with tracing paper to refine your designs. There are lots of great ideas – such as whimsically embellishing photos with Sharpie® adds. There’s also chapter on Sharpie® Post-It art – a winning combination, two of the 20^th century’s greatest stationery inventions, destined to be together. As you would expect, word art figures large. There is also good coverage of using Sharpies to decorate surfaces other than paper.

A bit more on projects featuring the different types of Sharpie® markers – such as paint markers or metallics, or simply more multi-coloured projects – would have been nice – but I guess there were space constraints. 

For those who are into digital designing, this book offers a refreshing time-out. An opportunity to get doodling and re-charge your batteries (and not an adult colouring book in sight – just a Sharpie® marker and a non-intimidating blank surface). (BTW - Sharpies® can be used for making digital artwork, too, if you pop them into the pen holder of a digi-cut machine.)

For birthdays or Christmas, this title – plus a pack of Sharpies (and perhaps some Post-It notes) – would make a memorable, treasurable gift for a creative friend.