My New Toy and What I've Been Making With It

I have been having so much fun with the Christmas gift my Hubs gave me! He's really something when it comes to buying gifts. I never know what I want for Christmas or my birthday so he's pretty much always on his own trying to come up with something for me. He, on the other hand, is very precise about what he wants and reads every.single.review. known to man before making his final decision on any purchase. But that's a good trait to have. I do not have that trait. He learned that lesson several years ago when he asked for a good leather toolbelt for Christmas. {Carpentry is one of his hobbies.} We had looked at many from local places, etc. but being the cheap frugal person I am, I found him a leather toolbelt online - and it came with lots of 'tools'. Needless to say, it wasn't anything like he had dreamed of, or shown me or hinted about. The tools {which he is also very picky about} were junk and the toolbelt, albeit not very pretty, is still working out very well. Now every Christmas, he sends me an email with links to the EXACT items he wants and we always get a good laugh out of the Toolbelt Christmas.

All that to say, I didn't know what I wanted for Christmas. I had no idea what to ask for. So, on his own, he decided to surprise me with a Silhouette Portrait. I'm sure by now you've heard all about them, but I am still learning about all the awesome features this incredible machine has! I'm giddy to try them all out and can't wait to show you some of the projects I've done.

I snuck this monogrammed shirt into this post the other day. I used my Portrait to do all the tedious cutting for me. Piece.of.cake, I tell you!

Hubs knows WAY more about this machine than I do already. He watched many YouTube video tutorials on it and read pretty much every review on this machine before purchasing it. He cracks me up, but no one can ever accuse him of not being thorough! When he bought my machine, it was during a promotion so I got a lot of extras with it, like this gorgeous red cover {my favorite color!}. There are so many tools you can use with this machine. I love that it hooks right up to my computer and I can use any image for downloading and I don't need to buy a million cartridges for it. It takes up very little space, but you better make room for all the fun projects you're going to be making with this thing!

Really, the whole creative world is at my fingertips and I can't wait to explore it!

Do you have one of these? What awesome projects have you made with it? What YouTube video tutorials would you recommend?