ONE MDS DESIGN, ONE SILHOUETTE CAMEO UPFIT, AND TWO CARDS FOR "FREESTYLE FRIDAYS". WHEW!

NOTE:  This is a very long blog post, which is in direct proportion to the amount of descriptive information it contains.  With her Freestyle Fridays post last week, Julie created a gorgeous "wet" brick wall with a vine of Cherry Cobbler 3D flowers on it, and she issued a mission for me to create something this week using a color palette of Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, and one other color.  Admittedly, I had a difficult time using Cherry Cobbler, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I'm ready for Spring--not Summer, but Spring.  And so I turned to Stampin' Up!'s MDS software and filled some hexagon shapes with digital designer papers that included Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, and Pool Party.  Oh yes, that was definitely the way to accomplish the mission.

I thought the design would work for a Father's Day card, so I added the large anchor image and, on my MDS page, I added the Pool Party tag and Happy Father's Day sentiment.  After printing the digital creation, I cut and punched all of the elements and completed the card.  Shown below is a clip of what my MDS design page looked like:

But I didn't stop there.  I decided to export the SVG images (the shapes--not the anchor or designer paper images) so that I could use them with the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software.  As you can see from the clip of my Silhouette Studio design mat below, I filled the hexagons with Stampin' Up!'s "Newsprint" designer paper images, which I had previously imported to the Silhouette software.  I also filled the tag shape with a color gradient and manipulated the size/shape of the sentiment.  If you're familiar with the Silhouette software, then you recognize the registration marks on my Silhouette design mat.  Those registration marks make it possible to design with an imported SVG image, print the design onto card stock, and then load the card stock into the Silhouette Cameo machine to cut the design.  Before cutting the design, I added an Offset, which you can see as the red outline around the group of hexagon shapes and the tag.  The Offset (outline) tells the Cameo where to cut, and I think the outline adds a nice finishing touch in that it gives the illusion of matting for the hexagon shapes.

Once my shaped design was printed and cut, I used the cuts to create this hybrid Father's Day card:

How cool is that?????  One MDS digital design laid the foundation for TWO cards!  To be honest, I really wanted to do something vintage-y with the "Newsprint" filled hexagons, and it was so difficult for me to not add feminine touches to the card.  To "man" it up, I stamped, colored, and cut out the truck image from Stampin' Up!'s "Countryside" stamp set and adhered it with Stampin' Dimensionals on top of the Natural Trim ribbon.  Every masculine card needs some "hardware", so I added the arrow-shaped Cute Clip to hold the sentiment.  I scored framing lines around the border of the Very Vanilla card, but I'm sure they are not easily seen in the photo.  The other thing that you probably can't tell from the photo is the "Honeycomb" embossing on the Basic Black card stock.

Are you impressed?  There have been times when I've wondered if I did the right thing by purchasing a second electronic cutter but, like almost everything in a craft room, it has a purpose of it own and an absolute right to be here!  Best of all, I have found the Silhouette Cameo to be VERY easy to learn and work with, although I still have a lot to learn.  Being able to use this machine to cut MDS designs almost seems like cheating, but it's a good cheat.