#BeInspired Cass Art Challenge Part 1 - Art Pack Review

I'm so excited to be taking part in Cass Art's #BeInspired campaign!
Making art brings so much pleasure and anyone can be creative.  It doesn't matter if you think you're not very good at making things, you can still enjoy the process - and just like anything else, the more you practise the better you get!

Cass Art wants to encourage everyone to explore their own creativity - they are on a mission to fill every town with artists!  They are dedicated to supporting artists and keeping their art supplies affordable - so that making art can be accessible to everyone, which I think is great! (You can find out more about Cass Art here, I found the history of their family, which they recently blogged about, really interesting too.)

The #BeInspired campaign is all about inspiring people to get creative and finding out where people find their inspiration from.
Cass Art have sent me a Drawing and Graphic Art Pack filled with new art materials to play with! I'll be reviewing the pack in today's blog post and sharing some artwork I made with the materials in another blog post tomorrow.

Before I go on to tell you about the art materials, I have to say that I was really impressed with how the pack was packaged.  First impressions are really important and receiving a package sent with care is such a joy to open!  The items inside had been wrapped in tissue paper and the shiny blue padded envelope just added to the excitement!

Introducing my Silhouette Cameo 2 Electronic Cutting Machine

I have an exciting new machine to show you today – my Silhouette Cameo 2 Electronic Cutting Machine!
It’s still quite new to me, so I decided that a good way to learn all the features and ways of using the machine would be to set myself some projects to blog about.  I’ll be sharing some of those soon, but I thought that I would start off with just introducing the machine for anyone who has never seen one before.

What’s a cutting machine? Why choose the Silhouette Cameo?

I do cut things by hand with a knife or scissors, but was considering buying a cutting machine which would be able to cut detailed designs, more quickly (and with less pain - not more hand cramp!).  There are various cutting machines on the market, from manual die cutting machines (eg: the Sissix Big Shot) which use metal dies, to electronic cutting machines which look like home printers but use a blade to cut rather than print designs.  I wanted an electronic cutting machine so that I could cut my own designs and not be limited by using dies.  Also, although the initial price of an electronic machine is more expensive they actually work out cheaper than a die cutter in the long run because you don’t have to buy a metal die for every design you want to cut.

I had looked at the Brother ScanNCut and the Cricut Explore before choosing the Silhouette Cameo 2.
There are pros and cons for each machine, but for me the Silhouette came out on top when balancing the features I was looking for with the cost (it’s about half the price of the Brother machine!).

Some of the features I like about the Silhouette Cameo…

• Cuts a variety of materials including card up to 350gsm, fabric, magnet, vinyl – either using the 12x12 inch mat or on a roll feed.
• Cuts your own designs using the Silhouette Studio Software, which is easy to use.  It also has an optical scanner to read registration marks printed on the design to cut precisely around the image.
• Cuts fonts installed on your computer.

What comes in the box?

There are different packages available, with extra tools and pens, but I chose to buy the basic package from Amazon.
This included the machine, with power adapter and USB cable, Silhouette Studio software, blade, 12x12 inch cutting mat, crosscut blade and instruction booklet.  It also came with 100 free designs and a free 1 month's subscription to their design store.

How does it work?

I found it was easy to set up – it connects to your computer by USB and within a short time I was able to start cutting.  The only problem I had initially was that the cutting mat is very sticky when you first use it.  I tried a sheet of scrapbooking paper for my first cut – this became firmly stuck to the mat and was not easy to remove without tearing the paper, very frustrating!  I read that you can try pressing a smooth fabric (jeans!) over the mat to reduce some of the initial stickiness, also use a thicker card for your first cuts.  Now I’ve used the mat a few times it is much better.

There are extra tools you can buy, but I have been using things I already have.  For example, a scalpel has been helpful in picking up small pieces from the mat.  You can get a scraper tool to help ease paper from the mat after cutting, instead I have been using an old credit card.

These are a few of the shapes I have tried cutting so far.  I have been impressed with how accurately it cuts very small items – the letters are less than 2cm tall…

I will be posting some projects I have used the Cameo with soon - the first one will involve cutting text to use on a card.

Do you have a Cameo or another cutting machine?  What have you made with yours?

Pick of the week...

This week's Pick of the Week is an online magazine; UK Handmade. I came across it by chance yesterday and thought it contains a great mix of articles. Although it has 'UK' in the title and is focused on promoting UK artists and designers I think it would appeal to anyone interested in handmade around the world.

The pages of the magazine are well laid out, with easy to read text and lots of great photos. Articles include handmade finds, interviews with designers, recipes, tutorials, business advice and more!

The magazine is produced quarterly and the Autumn edition is available now - I'd definately recommend it for a good read! :)