A whole new (crafting) world!

It all started (as it often does) with a YouTube video wandering session...

The Beginning:

I have always had a passion for pretty nail art. The idea that you could have tiny pops of art/color/design literally at the tips of your fingers makes me smile inside. It is both subtle and dramatic at the same time and I love the juxtaposition of it.

My downfall is that I'm usually to lazy to do most of it myself and sometimes it can be a little costly to get all of the different types of supplies for a all of the different techniques that I am always wanting to test out so I will often just live vicariously through YouTube. I often pick a subject that's caught my interest that day and start to wander through videos to learn what other people are saying/doing about it and more often than not, it's art related for me. I had already wandered through acrylic painting ( I love Robin Moses) and nail art stamping (too many to list) and even liked water marbling so much I created my own tutorial (on this blog).

Enter: Nail Art Vinyls!

This time, while looking for something new, I found nail vinyls. My nail vinyl hero is Cristine from SimplyNailogical. This seemed easier than free hand painting, less costly and time consuming than stamping and far less messy than water marbling and still produced some really amazing results.

Crafty Brain:

Here's where I went a little overboard. I wouldn't be satisfied with ordering generic designs and waiting on shipping, I had to figure out how to do them on my own. I wanted custom designs, immediate gratification, and, of course, the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing DIY projects (right...finishing a project...).

I started learning about how nail vinyls were made and learned about at home plotter/cutter machines that would use computer software to guide a small blade to cut the designs for you. I researched the different styles available in my budget and decided, after another YouTube wandering session to purchase a Silhouette Cameo.

Levels on Levels:

The Silhouette software has it's own learning curve but with the help of YouTube and some amazing facebook groups, I am getting the hang of it and have already created some cool designs. More recently, this pretty look I did for fall:

The more I learned about what this machine and the software could do, the more I learned that I had opened up a new level of crafting. Something that made projects like custom etched mirrors and one of a kind gifts totally doable. Heck, it even inspired me to jump back on here and write this up for you guys to tell you all how excited I am!

Going Forward:

Hopefully, I'll take the time to write up a few more of the fun projects I've been working on. 

Hopefully, I'll be moving into a new house soon where I plan to have a craft room with studio space so I can start doing more fun "show and tell" and sharing more of the tips and tricks I'm learning along the way. 

Hopefully, I'll have the time and resources to always keep learning and sharing with you guys. 

Hopefully, I'll always have awesome readers like you to keep giving me someone to share this info with.

Happy Crafting!