ScanNCut: Dachshund fun!

As I always disclose – I am a paid consultant for Brother- and all ideas and opinions are my own.  So imagine my total delight when they let me know they had a brand new set of animal patterns for my ScanNCut!

Full disclosure – I was totally overwhelmed by the intensity of these patterns at first. SO MANY pieces! SO MANY possibilities! I decided to take one pattern and really play with it and see what I wanted to do. After cutting out of a scrap of brown cardstock (the dog, without the box portion of the pattern) I realized… these would be great for coloring!!

So I got out my watercolor markers and water brush and began!

I went for the ears first – and man. This was FUN! I really love blending color + water it’s so soothing! So the more pieces, the more to play with!

Then I just kept playing with shades of color and body parts! Body, the “behind” leg piece, the head…

Once they were all colored I used a liquid glue (glue pen) and worked through the pieces! I glued the eyeball bits together separately then attached entire eye to my puppy. I also left out the muzzle piece. Don’t be afraid to mix up intricate die cuts! Why not?

To recap the how-to on the ScanNCut end:

  1. The animal patterns are available in the online Brother Mall (here)
  2. Download/move the patterns to your ScanNCut wirelessly or via USB thumb drive
  3. Open the pattern, remove any pieces you do NOT need, arrange pieces.
  4. Cut!
  5. Repeat cutting for additional pieces/layers if needed

I turned this sweet guy into a simple card.

My tip – I realized white paper or watercolor paper would be best first. That way I could color as needed vs try and guess which pieces were which color.

Ready for more? Me too! Here’s a Peacock I did with the box it came with! I added white accents to it as well as using cardstock vs coloring all pieces. Such fun! This will be up on the Brother site with full “how to” soon. It’s a project I made for them with another pattern. Now my only question is which animal will I make, out of what material, and what will I do with it?

A card? Gift bag? Box/project as shown in the cut files? Who knows! I’m always one for new creative play and my day spent with these animals was such fun! I love having project bases that I can take as a starting point and run with them.

Wishing you happy creative running today as well…

Decor pumpkin with ScanNCut

We saw these painted textured pumpkins for a LOT of money at the store and thought… we can do our own! Then Rebecca saw this teal pumpkin and went nuts. Got to have it! It was on clearance, and everything else I already had – so this is a very budget friendly addition to our fall décor. The key to projects like this for me – and the reason I love this tool – is the ScanNCut. When I get whacky ideas like this – I know it is totally doable and I will be able to work with my supplies on hand. Continue reading “Decor pumpkin with ScanNCut”