Silhouette Sketch Pen Promo and Portrait Giveaway!

Friends, I have some great news for you!  Not only are we halfway to the weekend, I get to share a fabulous promotion with you, show you a fun new project, AND offer another Silhouette Portrait giveaway!  Are you ready?

First, THE PROMO!

This month, Silhouette is featuring their super-cool sketch pens…including the new Glitter Sketch Pens!  Yep, you read that right.  GLITTER!  Seeing as how our motto here in the Artsy House is, “Glitter makes everything better,” you can imagine my excitement about these.  Here’s how the promo works.  There are three sales going on; the first two are great deals if you don’t already have a cutting machine.  The third one is for those of you who already have a Cammie or Portia, but haven’t yet explored the wonderful world of sketch pens!  Here’s what you get with each bundle:

(1)    CAMEO plus sketch pen starter pack, metallic and glitter collection packs, plus a $25 gift card and a pen holder for $269.99 ($88.96 off the retail price)

(2)    Portrait plus sketch pen starter pack, metallic and glitter collection packs, plus a $25 gift card and a pen holder for $129.99 ($108.96 off the retail price)

(3)    Sketch pen starter pack, metallic and glitter collection packs, plus a pen holder for $19.99 ($13.97 off the retail price)

Those are some seriously great deals, especially with the $25 download cards thrown in!  If you’re on the fence about the pens, wondering how you’d use them, let me share with you one of my most recent “sketchy” projects!  Take a look…

THE PROJECT: My Project Life Card

Back in June, my friends Christina and Eva got me hooked on a new addiction.  Project Life.  It’s an easy-peasy method of scrapbooking that has no mess and takes about 10 minutes per spread.  I bought a core kit and pages, then every weekend, I sit down and combine my favorite photos from the week with the pre-designed cards to capture the highlights of the previous week.  To see some of my spreads, take a look at Project Life: What Is It?

I love the kit I have {the Honey edition}, but sometimes I want to add a little extra personalization to the patterned cards.  So, I pulled out my new Glitter Sketch Pens and made exactly what I wanted!  Here’s how I did it.

Materials:
– Silhouette Cameo or Portrait
– Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software
– Sketch Pen
– Project Life Card
– Cardstock
– Crayons or colored pencils {optional}
– Adhesive

Step 1: Choose and sketch a design.
I chose this fun little camera, which I believe was the free shape of the week a few months ago in the Silhouette Online Store.  I opened it in my software, sized it, and sent it to Cammie {my beloved Cameo}.  Make sure that when you send the design to your machine, you choose “Sketch Pen” instead of Blade so the machine knows to draw instead of cut!  

Step 2: Place your sketch pen in the blade holder, tighten it, and load your cardstock and cutting mat.
I chose the black glitter pen for my design.  Once everything is loaded, let your machine do the work…how great is that?!  Now, if you want to cut the image out, do NOT unload your machine.  Just leave the mat and cardstock exactly as they are and switch the pen for your blade.

Step 3: Go back into your software and trace the outline of your image.
To do this, select “Trace” from the dropdown menu, select the trace area, and choose “Trace Outside Edge.” Then, be sure to click on the original sketch image and move it off your page so that your machine doesn’t try to cut that too.  Make sure you don’t move the outline from the original spot of the image or it won’t cut properly.  Send it to your machine and be sure to switch your settings back to blade.

Step 4: Your machine will cut out your image.
Nice, huh?!  How cute and fun is that?

Step 5: Type your word{s}, convert it to a sketch, and position where you want it to appear on the card.
There are several things you need to do to make this happen.  First, just type what you want in a font you like.  If you’re using a script font, you’ll want to go to Modify, then Weld, so that the letters get joined together.  Then, choose the “Sketch” option {this is only available in the Designer Edition Software; the regular software doesn’t have this feature}.  I chose a plain edge effect, and it turned my text into a sketch design.  Finally, I positioned it exactly where I wanted it to be when I loaded my pre-cut Project Life card into the machine.  I made the grid visible so I could see where the 3×4″ card would be and moved my text to the lower right corner.

Step 6: Load your machine with your Project Life card and your Sketch Pen.

Step 7: Send your design to the Silhouette, remembering to change from blade back to pen in your settings.

Step 8: Assemble your card.
I adhered my camera just where I wanted it.  At this point, if you like how your design looks, you can stop!  But, I personally wanted a little more color…so I broke out the crayons.

Step 9: Add color!
Yup, I went old school.  I broke out some regular and metallic crayons and got to work coloring very carefully to add some accents to my design.

I absolutely love the way it turned out!  So fun, so personalized, and so perfect for an album filled with photos, right?  Look how cute it is in my spread!

It’s so easy to use the Silhouette Sketch Pens for all kinds of projects.  If you want more inspiration, check out my Easter Gift Tags, my “You are my Sunshine” framed art, and my “Do small things” wall art projects!  Then, go get yourself some!  Really!  Remember, Sketch Pens are on sale, along with the cutters if you happen to not have one of your own yet.  Don’t miss out on this super deal.  The promo ends August 29!  And *super important* don’t forget to use the code ARTSY at checkout to get the discounts!

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for… THE GIVEAWAY!

One lucky ducky will win a Silhouette Portrait!  Hooray!  The winner will be announced Monday morning.  Rafflecopter will walk you through the entry process; good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hugs & Glitter,

P.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a paid affiliate with Silhouette America, meaning that I make a small commission from each sale during this promotion using the code ARTSY.  However, all tutorials and opinions are my own; I honestly love this stuff.  And hey, if it helps send Little Crafter to the most fabulous school I’ve ever heard of, so much the better, right?  Thanks!