Smile Card (10+ Pattern Papers) and Silhouette troubles

Y'all...do you ever have an idea for a card and things just don't go as planned?  I was creating cards for the 10+ patterned paper week on the American Crafts blog.  I had this really fun idea and it involved the silhouette and lots of teeny tiny little flowers.  I got all 10 of my pattern papers that have a hue of pink together and adhered them to my Silhouette mat.  Lined up all the flowers so I'd get flowers from each paper and started cutting.  And then disaster struck...it just quit.  Like stopped mid cut wasn't going to cut anything else.  I disconnected and reconnected the machine to my PC. Nothing. Saved the file, closed the program, reopened the program. Nothing. Rebooted PC, disconnected and reconnected the machine to my PC. Nothing.

I decided to go about creating card #2, which is featured here.  I thought maybe I'd still be able to make the other card later but several days passed and it still wouldn't communicate.  People, I have no idea what is going on.  Anyone have this happen to them?  Putting in a call to Silhouette but if you've been there, done that, help a scrappy sistah out please.

So, here's the single card I made using not 10 but 14 pattern papers. My goal was to show a more simple way to use the multiple patterns and a more ornate way. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I am all about mixing and matching various patterns on my layouts so why not do the same on cards to add a bit more personality to them? The key for me is to use as many patterns as I want while ensuring I don't go overboard on the number of colors used.

How to: Add a subtle background to your card base. Next create 3 sets of flowers (small, medium and large) by handcutting circles out of various patterns in different sizes so that they nest inside each other, the biggest in the back and the littlest in the front. Add little accents, like enamel dots and buttons to the top of the circles.  Next, add a pleather bow and a banner sentiment.

Serendipity collection: 369181 – Little Things Paper, 369183 – Lucky Stars Paper, 369184 – XOXO Paper, 369185 Hello Beautiful Paper, 369186 – Summer Breeze Paper, , 369187 One Fine Day Paper, 369188 – Sugar Sugar Paper, 369190 – Sweet Swirl Paper, 369193 – With Love Paper, 369195 – Razzleberry Paper, 369196 – Liz Lemon Paper, 369199 – Ooh La La Paper, 369200 – Bright Blueberry Paper, 369202 – Sprinkle Paper, 369211 – Accent & Phrase Stickers, 369215 – Enamel Dots, 369217 – Pleather Bows