I recently participated in the Galentine’s Day Swap. The swap consisted of sending a handmade card along with an extra small crafted item.
Prior to committing to the swap, I started racking my brain on what I could make as an extra small. My mind flashed to my LC Love ornaments and how I made those as a way to share my love for LettuceCraft with those who love it as much as I do. So I started thinking on how I could turn those into an extra small and I came up with the idea of a sticker. My first idea was to try and recreate the sticker in Silhouette studio using the .svg of the shelf as the base. I quickly realized that this method was going to take me forever and that it wouldn’t have the pizazz I wanted. So, I thought back to photo editing apps that I’ve had that had an option to turn a picture into a cartoon. I figured this would be the way to go, but it turned out that a lot of those apps are only intended to turn people into cartoons. So, I googled ‘turn any photo into a cartoon,’ and discovered that this can easily be done with AI.
I uploaded a photo of my LC Love ornament that had already been edited to remove the hanging loop and string (said photo was used for the ornament box) and had it turn the photo into a cartoon. I got lucky on the first try, because it was the exact style I was hoping for. I was really happy with the outcome, but needed to change a few things. The more I asked the AI to make alterations, the worse and worse the results were. So, I took the original AI outcome and modified it myself.
Using Silhouette Studio, I took the Crafty Shenanigans book cover I’d previously created and turned it into the display book in the top right corner. Then I replaced some of the the book spines with the ones that I had previously made.
I printed the design on Cricut printable vinyl (which I highly recommend, the colors come out so vibrant) and sealed it with clear vinyl. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the stickers (which was such a frustrating ordeal, the machine gave me so much trouble it was a wonder that I finally got them to cut! I had planned on making some extras to send out to other LettuceCrafters and made an attempt about a week later. The machine refused to cooperate and had me wanting to throw it out the window, so those stickers never actually came to fruition).
While the process may have been frustrating at times, I feel that the end result was worth it and am really pleased with how the stickers came out. It was interesting to work with AI and discover that it could bridge the gap for skills I don’t possess.
