Never a dull moment

The sprinkle of little pastel coloured cardboard dots on the studio floor gave the game away. I had too much time on my hands and simply had to make the idea that had been in my mind since I saw something similar in a picture last week. Like everyone else socially isolated at home right now, I’m thinking of Easter and wondering how we might make the weekend special. In my case, I thought I’d make a fun little garland for those with whom we’d planned to spend next Sunday.

Out came the Silhouette and I cranked up the software.

My Hero smiled as I juggled the shapes to get as many out of one sheet of card as I could. Is it age, upbringing or OCD tendencies that make us fiddle around for ages, just trying to squeeze one more rabbit in there? I surely can’t be the only one to wince when someone cuts a shape from the middle of a huge piece of fabric or card and throws the rest in the bin? I even have to give myself a strong talking to before I save all those little leftover bits that “might come in useful” too.

Ermmm. How many rabbits did I need? Maybe I’ll make a few garlands to share with friends too?

Thankfully, it was one of those days when the Silhouette was on song. Cutting beautifully first time.

I created sheets of five different rabbit shapes and cut each from a different coloured card.

I can’t tell you how glad I was that it was all working so well. There’s always that slight anxiety when peeling the card away, just in case the cut hasn’t made it right through first time. Once it’s out of the machine, there is no way back and I just have to start again - but today, perfect first time, every time!

I soon had quite a heap of rabbits, each with pierced ears ready for the garland.

Cutting letters on the Silhouette is always incredibly satisfying. The software can read any TrueType font with no bother and all I have to do is to type in the words and edit the font. Oh, and add the holes. Amazingly, the foil card cut through like butter too!

As I watched the daily MetOpera streaming yesterday afternoon (Norma so I wasn’t exactly rushing) I sat and threaded rabbits onto very long pieces of thread. I might have got in a bit of a tangle at times.

I took it outside to take a photo when the opera finished, but it was a bit blustery and I got in even more of a tangle!

But hey, it takes more than a long piece of thread and a few rabbits to get the better of me! I managed to tame all but the most ill behaved rabbits into submission and quickly took my photo before wrangling all that super twisty thread into submission again and bringing it back inside.

I made a few garlands, carefully winding each one onto a card as I went, adding a little warning to our friends that they should hang it as they unwind - or they could be in for a weekend of untangling!

Oh, and you know how I squeezed in a few extra bunnies here and there, getting as many as I could from a sheet of card?

I might have a few left over!