Silhouette Project Idea: Turn Kids' Notes & Drawings Into Keepsakes

A few months back my daughter brought home this note from school and I immediately teared up.  My little first grader with her precious handwriting
just can't put her love into words because she loves her mommy and daddy 'soooooo o bad.' OMG....I die.   And so I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about what I could do with this precious note so I could enjoy it's innocence and sentiment every.single.day.

Last week it finally hit me and when it did the idea of turning part of that love note into a throw pillow would not leave me alone until I pulled it off.  It literally consumed my thoughts.  Did you ever have a nagging project like that?

The great thing about this one was it took me less than 20 minutes from start to finish. The longest part of the entire project was my Silhouette actually cutting the design.

If you have a sweet little note like this or your child's drawing or maybe the first time they wrote their name, you can turn it into a pillow or a shirt or some other kind of keepsake pretty easily.

Start by either scanning or taking a photo of the original image and then uploading it onto your computer.




Then you want to drag it into Silhouette Studio and trace it.   I did a detailed step by step tutorial here on tracing handwriting so go ahead and read through that if you need a little refresher because I won't go into detail on that here.

My daughter wrote this note on lined paper. I didn't particularly want the lines on the pillow so I got rid of them after the design was traced. There are a few ways to do thi: 

1. Select the design > right click  > release compound path. Select the lines > delete. This works for lines and stray marks that are NOT connected to part of any letters/words. 
2. Delete and modify the edit points as I shared in a detailed point editing tutorial here
3. Use the knife tool to separate any lines and letters that are touching
4. Use the eraser tool to delete any lines and/or stray marks (always my last resort since the eraser tool seems to freezer Silhouette Studio more often than not)

Once my design was ready to be cut, I sized it then added weeding lines to make weeding easier.

Since I was putting this note on a pillow cover (that I also made) I flipped the entire design (lines and all) to cut it on HTV.

For small and detailed HTV cuts I slow the speed to a 3 or 4, put the blade on a depth of 2 and double cut.

The design cut line butter and weeded very easily thanks to the weeding lines.

I wanted to make an 18x18" pillow cover. While the machine was cutting the HTV,  I cut down a piece of canvas drop cloth (seriously perfect for pillows!!!) to 19" wide (have to allow for the seam) and about 42" long to create an envelope style pillow cover.  I was working fast here (had to pick up my other one from pre-school in about 10 minutes so I forgot to take a few pictures...bad blogger!! But I did make you some graphics to make up for it! ) 
But what you want to do is fold in the two sides so you can create an 18" section in the middle of the fabric.  This will be the front of your pillow cover. Use your iron to press the two seams.

Don't sew the pillow cover closed yet. Open it back up into one long sheet and apply the HTV onto the middle square.

THEN fold the two sides over the middle (you'll be flipping it inside out so you want the HTV design on the inside.

Sew up the sides...

 And then flip that pillow cover right side out! Now stuff it with an 18x18" pillow insert and you've got yourself an adorable pillow cover with your child's sweet, sweet love note!

When my daughter got home from school and saw that I had turned her hard work into a pillow she could not have been more excited! She hugged that pillow like it was the best thing she'd ever seen!  Day made. Again.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine! 

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!