Silhouette Freebies!

I finally got around to sprucing up my original Silhouette files and uploading them to box.net.  I've made a page with a photo, original post link, and file link for each card that you can get to by clicking "free silhouette files" at the top of my blog (or just go here).  In cases where I did use some Silhouette downloads, I deleted those from the file and told you which images to buy from the store.  It's the first time I've tried sharing Silhouette files, so if you find something that doesn't work, let me know.  I'll try to keep it up to date as I make new files.  Let me know if you use them, too, I'd love to see what you create!

In other Silhouette news, they are offering 20% off online subscriptions with code YEAREND until 11:59pm December 31st, which means you can get $25 worth of downloads for $8 a month, i.e. each download will cost you about 32 cents instead of a dollar.

In other other Silhouette news, the Silhouette Santa was good to me and bought me a Silhouette hook for weeding vinyl.  He also bought me some starter kits (fabric ink and heat transfer) that each came with a weeding hook, which means I have 2 more hooks than needed.  So I will give them away to "beta testers" who download one of my silhouette files and try it out.  Let me know which one you tried and if it worked in the comments by 11:59 December 31st ETA: extended to 11:59 January 8th and I'll use random.org to pick 2 winners. 

In other other other Silhouette news, I can now attest to the awesomeness of glass etching with Etch-All.  Check out the mug I made for my brother- and sister-in-law:

Yeah, I know it's not a great picture, but you try taking a picture of a glass!

I admit I was a bit scared by the "may cause burns that are not immediately painful or visible," but I just wore some rubber gloves and tried to be careful.  I just used a paintbrush to apply it and to remove it (you can put it back in the jar to reuse it again and again), and don't really think the squeegee is necessary.  I was also a bit worried about getting the vinyl to behave on the round concave mug, but it worked like a charm!  I used a frame image from the Silhouette store, then added the stars, which is the Bailey family crest (thanks, Interwebs!).  And what couple gift is not complete without a "est." date on it (although next time I will be doing EST. because that little part in the middle of the "e" was the most frustrating thing in the whole process!)?   Here's a close-up:

Of course, they just loved 'em.
Total cost for a complete set of 4 personalized mugs: ($2.99/mug x 4 mugs) + (1/2 foot of vinyl at 40% off) + (4.99 etching cream * 40% off) = 11.96 + .25 + 2.99 = $15.20 (plus I can reuse the etching cream)  When compared with buying personalized mugs online, I'd almost consider them a freebie, too!