Houseful of Handmade had a great looking feature a few weeks ago where the blog owner (Kati) created paper lanterns that look like they are heavy metal versions. (Ha – Heavy Metal – I didn’t mean it like that).
I’ve been making tea light boxes since the first weekend I owned my Silhouette Cameo so I knew these were going to be fun.
And HOH has a digital download library that’s free if you’ll sign up for her newsletter (which you should, because it’s also good).
Mid February through late March are an interesting craft time for me. There aren’t many holidays (we don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day), so it’s kind of a weird let down after the rush of Christmas, Super Bowl and Valentine’s themes.
We’ve always loved birds, and owls in particular are a treat when we hear them at night calling at each other. And they make a great craft profile with their easily exaggerated features.
So down with the paper chain hearts and up with my owls!
Click the red arrow to see how I made this. And the cut file is available as a free download at the end of this post.
The test letters came out great. The final version for the actual craft? Not so much.
I really love 3D paper art, and I’ve been wanting to do something cool with letters for a while. I saw this craft post that looked like a good starting point. It’s on a craft supply website, so naturally they are using pre-made letters. Not my thing. I sourced around and found a few options for using my Silhouette Cameo 3 
I test cut and assembled an “S” (for Susan, naturally) and a “P” for my better half. They went together pretty well (a few glitches in my pattern but I fixed them).
I even found a green bottle brush on super reduced after Christmas sale, so I figured I’d be set.
I had an old framed cross stitch that no longer suited my style. The frame has a heart shaped mat, and I have saved it for several years, always thinking it would be good for something.
We also have several road atlases, from back in the day before GPS existed. Yes, there was a time when the passive-agressive voice saying “Re-calculating” was more a frantic voice in my head saying “Oh no. That was my exit.”
This craft puts both the old maps and the old frame with mat to good use.
I’ve use the maps to highlight the four cities Mr. SuzerSpace and I have lived in for a very personalized wall decoration.
Click the red arrow below to see how I made it.
I almost always test cut projects out of 80# white smooth coverstock.
This project came to me from my Pinterest feed, and landed me at Unoriginal Mom’s post on Paper Rosette Wreaths.
She credits another crafter for the inspiration. (Side note: I totally love the craft blog community. It doesn’t feel competitive as much as it feels cooperative.)
In her post, Unoriginal Mom is even friendly enough to give away her cut file.
Which works perfectly. I test cut several flowers of various sizes. They are easy to assemble. And I can see how her process of making all the flowers and gluing them while binge-watching TV and then assembling the wreath would work.
But I can also see I’m not going to follow through with this one. I’m sure it would be worth it, but I don’t want to end up with a big paper bag of roses that never become anything.
I do have visions of cutting them out of pastel paper and making magnets or gift wrap toppers.
