My new favorite toy in the whole wide world

Well, my nephew Baby Solly recently arrived in the world; and with him is ushered in the dawn of my new favorite toy (not to replace DeWalter White by any means; just to supplement his splendor).  I took the plunge.  Amazon had a once-in-a-lifetime (or so I told myself) flash sale, so I bought a Silhouette (basically a printer that cuts a variety of materials for those who have not been blessed with an understanding of its greatness).  And we're just so in love.  Every time it finishes cutting some beautifully intricate piece, I tenderly stroke it and whisper, "I love you, Silhouette.  Thank you."  And I wish I were kidding...  I can't even sleep at night thinking of the infinite possibilities now available to me. 

SO, first up on the list was to cut out a stencil template and use it to make a nifty pattern for one of my name cut-outs.  And if I may say so myself, I just think it turned out just totes adorbs, yo. 

I just spray painted this puppy cream, then laid the stencil (made from an old file folder since I didn't have stencil material on hand) on top and used a stencil brush to coat on some minty green acrylic.  So now my brain is figuratively exPLODing wanting to try a whole bunch of new techniques... GAH, I can't even take it sometimes.  (Did you catch that? It's my passive aggressive attempt to get people to stop using 'literally' wrong... True story: a college professor told a crowd of us that the band members literally birthed this next piece of music.  How uncomfortable.)


I feel like if one has the capability to make Casablanca and/or animal print word cut outs, one should not waste time distressing them as pictured below...  Ah, the responsibility that has been bestowed upon me.  I see leopard print on the horizon. 

Mustard Yellow!!!

While in this picture it very much looks like gold,  I nevertheless got some mustard yellow paint--booyah!  (Disclaimer: I would not advise consuming actual mustard at any point--ever.  Very toxic.  Very disgusting.  Very yellow.)  I've been wanting to justify buying more paint, and a customer's request settled it.  I kinda want to go paint everything yellow now.  How utterly pleasing.

PS- This little number is distressed with a medium chestnut under the yellow. 

Pine Plus Polymer Pandemonium

Ah, texture.  I'm a big fan.  So I slapped some polymer on this wooden name cutout and Danish oiled the exposed wood.  I'm always a little sad to paint or otherwise cover the wood, since I think wood grain is art in and of itself (go God), so this is a happy medium.  Pine & polymer, salt & pepper, me & mini Reese's... the list goes on.

Korver is my awesome neighborfriend's son.  So this one was for him.  While I don't think it's HORRIBLE to not have the middle of the O and R's cut out, I'm pretty happy that my new scroll saw can make inside cuts with ease.  Perhaps I should consider a career in Dewalt sales...

So then, I was like, "I think this is cool, maybe other people would, too..." So this became my first Etsy listing.  It's super hard though to narrow down the -here's what poly clay finishes are available- when there are virtually endless possibilities.  So I'm working on a good way to convey that in just a couple pictures and pull-down options.  Too many options hurt my brain...