From the Seamstress's Room

What a fun project this dress form was! I was a bit intimidated by the pieces when I first cut it out, but I watched Mary's tutorial and did it step by step, following her directions to just take your time and attach each tab one at a time. It went together much easier than I thought it would!
This dress form cut file is from SVG Cuts' Dress Shop SVG Kit.  It won't be the only thing I make from this kit. I don't know how Mary makes these cut files, but she is the best out there. This was made for my sis-in-law's birthday.

I know I got a bit carried away with the butterflies, but I just liked them so much I couldn't stop! I did a small addition to the base of the stand. I wanted to add a bit of weight to stabilize the base a bit, since it's made completely out of paper. So, I traced the bottom piece (octagon) of the base onto heavy chipboard, and cut it out with scissors right inside the trace lines. Then I cut a hole in the center, such that I could put my finger well inside to guide it into the bottom. It's not a pretty hole, but it does the job.

I took some rocks (I believe they came from the dollar store in the floral section), and used some Beacon's 3-in-1 glue to glue the rocks to the chipboard. I put a little more glue between the rocks. I then opened the tabs on the bottom of the base and inserted the chipboard into the base.

I used the finger hole to pull the chipboard to the edge of the tabs, and put glue on all of the tabs. Then folded the tabs onto the chipboard.

Once that was done, I was able to just glue the solid black bottom onto the base, and you can't tell I put anything inside of it. It's not too heavy, but just makes the base feel a little more stable.

For her card, I made a card-in-a-box or a pop-up-box-card. I made the cut file myself. It's a pretty simple concept, that ends up being quite impressive. The box folds flat to fit in an envelope for mailing. If you're interested in them, you can find lots of tutorials on youtube.com that will show you all of the measurements and how to make them.

Hope she doesn't see this in the next couple of days!

Happy Designing!

Walking Dead Birthday

This is a short post on a few items I made for my great-niece's 13th birthday. When I inquired about what her birthday theme was, I was surprised that she had requested The Walking Dead.  Really? 13 years old and wants The Walking Dead? OK. Also funny is that The Walking Dead is also her grandma's favorite program.

First was the cake. I used elements and did a cut-to-print, and just attached each to a thin wooden dowel, and that was it. The Happy Birthday font was a zombie font, and had hands and zombie faces in it. Nice and simple. They loved it.

 Next I cut vinyl and applied to a tumbler (her fave color is blue).

And, lastly, I made a box for the tumbler and decorated it with Walking Dead panels. The box is from SVG Cuts' Gift Boxes SVG Kit. I made the box 2" taller to accommodate the straw.

And, that's it!

Watch Your Back, and Craft On!

Bunco Babes

It's my Bunco month, and I wanted to do something special for my girls since it was close to Valentine's day. Decided to make tumblers for all 12 of us. We always have glasses on the tables, and if you know Bunco, you know that you don't sit in the same place for long at all. So, we are always forgetting to take our glass of water or water bottle to our next spot. I designed these tumblers and put everyone's name on the back. It was really nice to know what cup belongs to who!

 Have fun rollin' those dice!

ATC Box

What do you do with all of your ATCs? I really didn't want display all of them for the long run, but I wanted them accessible when I wanted to look at them or show them to others. This just came to mind, and I thought I'd give this a try. I made the little tea carton from SVG Cuts' Tea for You and Me SVG Kit. In increased the size to as large as I could make it on the mat (ended up being 117%), so that it would accommodate the 3.5" wide ATCs. I love this double-walled box. I designed some little dividers and did a p2c with them. The paper and elements came from Basic Grey's Out of Print (digi paper and elements). The box works just perfectly for me.

The box goes together so easily. FYI, the finished inside dimensions are 3.5"x6". The finished outside dimensions are 4.25"x6.8125". It was initially made a bit smaller for tea bags. Take a look at the kit. It has a darling tea pot, cup and saucer.  Enjoy!

Happy Sharing!

Birthday Time!

Such a busy time of year at my house! We've just finished off with Christmas, and come the end of January, the birthdays just pile up. I've got my husband, daughter, son-in-law, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law and some friends whose birthdays are all within a week and a half at the end of January/beginning of February. As hectic as it is, it does take the pressure off for the rest of the year!

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards and a cute little project I made for my husband.

First is the card I made for my daughter. This was made with Homemade With Love paper by Carte Bella, purchased as digi paper from Jessica Sprague. I took the design from a banner that was on Carte Bella's FB, and designed by Carte Bella DT member, Tegan Skwiat . It's so my girl, as she loves to bake and cook.

 The next card I made for my sis-in-law, who is a major quilter. It was from a file at KaDoodle Bug Designs, with a little alteration as to the occasion and some other added digi elements.

And, lastly for today, I made this little ukulele for my husband's birthday. He was born on Feb. 2, Groundhog's Day. And, he builds ukuleles. We found out just the week before his birthday that Feb. 2 is also World Ukulele Day. How cool and appropriate is that! This little ukulele is a little box. I decided to make it a bit more realistically for him, so I used wood grains. He made me a uke with purple heart (a purple-colored wood), so I incorporated purple wood grain into the rosette. He also uses ebony for his finger boards, so I used an ebony wood grain for the fingerboard on this one.

The pattern for this darling ukulele (they called it a guitar with four strings) comes from SVG Cuts' Instant Memories SVG Kit. There are also some nice Valentine's Day items in this kit as well. Click on the link to take a look.

Wishing You Happy Birthdays and Lots of Love!

Baby Month Markers

Thought I'd give a try at making some of the baby month markers I've been seeing lately. I noticed that there are some placed directly on Onesies with HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and some made as stickers. The HTV ones are darling, but I wanted a little more color, and the parents of the new baby I made these for are pretty tall (both basketball players), so I didn't want to estimate the size of the baby to the size of the Onesies. I felt that the stickers could be used just that one time. So, I decided to make them out of heavy card stock, since I felt that they could be used again for another baby girl. I designed them myself using digi paper from different paper packs from Jessica Sprague. I made a total of 13 for the kit, adding in a newborn one with the family last name. And, I knew it was a girl, so made it in pinks. I printed all of the markers on white card stock, and cut a second group in pink A/C card stock, then used my Xyron to apply adhesive to join the two layers so that the cards were more sturdy.

The box pattern came from SVG Cuts Camp Firefly. It's the bottom layer of the Smore, and I took the chocolate drips off the edge of the box top. I enlarged it just a bit to accommodate the 4" scalloped circle. I then designed a little label for the top with all 13 of the cards.  On the inside bottom of the box, I made a small scalloped circle which personalized the gift.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I've added a few photos of a couple of babies with the markers, and I'll add additional ones as they are available.

This is baby Kraker in her newborn photo. So tiny and so precious.

This is baby Mamelli in her one-month photo! Hope you enjoy the project. It was definitely a fun one, and I love how it turned out.

Here's cute baby Claire Mamelli in her 2-month photo. They grow and change so fast!

Claire at 3 months...growing so big.

Claire at 6 months! So sweet.

Also made these items with G45 Mother Goose paper. I inserted Onesies with booties in the center into the cupcake box. The cupcake box pattern and the bag pattern are from SVG Cuts' 3D Numbers Party SVG Kit.

A New Baby - A New Joy!

Print-2-Cut Fun!

I have a new favorite process to use when paper crafting. It's called print-2-cut, and I've sort of become obsessed with it. I buy a lot of Jessica Sprague digital paper, as well as the element packs, which are made so that people can do digital scrapbooking. But, I've learned that I can cut out the individual elements, and make cards and other items with them.
The first one I'll show is a Christmas item, then I'll be all done with the Christmas theme for the year. I make a chex mix each year, and I usually put it into Chinese food containers that I get at the restaurant warehouse store. However, they were out of the size I wanted this year, so I ended up getting these soup containers. I made the circle label for the top and put peoples names on most of them, and Merry Christmas on the rest. Also cut the label that goes around the side, and put our name in the hanging ornament. These elements came from Carte Bella's Christmas Day Element Pack #1.

Next, I did a fun p2c with some elements from Basic Grey's PB&J element pack. I put them on 1/8" dowels and inserted into the cake. It turned out kind of fun! I'm posting a photo of the elements on the mat as well.

This is a card that I put together quickly with paper from Echo Parks Victoria Gardens element pack. I've been using this paper pack a lot lately. Did the p2c for the lantern light and the oval on the front, and popped out the oval with pop dots.

The next is one of my faves. I used the scrapbook paper from Basic Grey's What's Up paper pack. The paper was sky on the top 2/3s and little village houses at the bottom. I used the top part for one card, and the remainder of the bottom for a second card. I have this all set up and saved now, so it will be a quick card to make whenever I need one. I can add the wording before I print it out to personalize the sentiment. The other great thing about printing digi paper is that you can print on both sides of the paper, and make the inside of your cards look good.

I cut out two cards worth of the elements at one time, since the one piece of paper makes two cards.

And, here's a little thank you card I made. This paper was from a couple of digi paper kits by Basic Grey and, I think, Cosmo Cricket. Of course, it can be changed out for a birthday or another occasion as well.

If you're interested in print-2-cut, you can go to youtube and there are quite a few tutorials that will walk you through it for the different cutting machines. It's done by making a cut line (vector) around the edges your image, printing it out with registration marks, and then cutting them so that your cutter will recognize your registration marks/cutting lines.  Most of the people that I know who do this use the Sizzix Eclips or the Silhouette Cameo. I used the Sizzix Eclips myself. Hope you enjoyed them.

Happy New Year, and Many Crafty Days to Come

Wrapping up the Holidays 2013

The year is over, and we're all getting ready ease on down that 2014 road.  Just thought I'd share a few of the projects I did for Christmas, 2013.

This is the Christmas card I sent. It was a free pattern from Bird's Cards. She is the most generous crafter out there, freely sharing some really amazing files. Easy to make, and very simply pretty. It's an easel card, which I love because so much of the time I'm having to lean photo cards against something. Of course, I made the mistake of sending them out without any instructions, explanations or photo of how to stand it up, so I'm sure most of the people I sent them to had no idea what they were to do with it. Yup, this was a lesson learned. Oh well!

I made some Christmas ornaments this year. My favorite was one for my dear friend's new baby girl. I glittered the inside using a mixture of Modge Podge and water as the adhesive. Then I cut vinyl for the name and baby footprints for the front.

And, here are a few more I made the great nieces and nephews. One other one is glittered, but the rest are made with a floating image in side. They are made with vinyl on clear acetate that was rolled up and placed inside, and then unrolled. I put the names on the outside.

Next I did a vinyl project from SVG Cuts. They do 99.9% paper patterns, but they just wanted to make a vinyl collection to change things up. This pattern came from SVG Cuts' Christmas Gifts Vinyl SVG Collection. My husband pieced together a couple pieces of scrap wood for me, then I sanded the edges. I first painted it white, and then sprayed on chalkboard paint. I then sanded the edges to make it look a bit distressed. After it completely dried, I applied the vinyl. I gave it away at our Bunco Christmas party, and it set upon the recipient's mantel as shown in the photo below.

The next projects were a couple of firsts for me. Made my daughter and son-in-law sweatshirts with a greyhound on them. They adopted Annie, a brindle greyhound this year. I cut the pattern from freezer paper, and ironed it on the sweatshirts, then used fabric paint for the images.

Then I used HTV (heat transfer vinyl) for the first time ever. Made this shirt for my hubs, who builds ukuleles.

I've made this box before, and posted the photos in a past blog posting, but just thought I'd drop in the photo of this one-piece box from SVG Cuts. These are so fast and easy, and are the perfect size for so many things. It comes from the Christmas Open House SVG Kit. It can be made with a solid front, or with an opening that you put in clear acetate for see-through top (like I did in the previous postings).

This next gift was not a paper craft at all, but I still wanted to share it. I do some graphic design, and make some posters for children's theaters. This was a poster I had made for a show. When my great-niece played the part of young Alice in her elementary school's production of Alice in Wonderland, I made this poster for her to remember it by. I luckily had retained the old poster file with the layers, so I was able to take out all of the children, and put my great-niece into the Alice spot, and then fill in the others with actual Disney character photos. She was so proud of this...and I was a bit proud also. I love the way it turned out.

And, one last little project. This is a small box with some note cards (box is 3-1/8" square) that was made with the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board. Saw a great youtube tutorial on how to make a box with this tool. Quick and easy! The ribbon ties in the back to hold the box closed.

Well, that's it for now! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

So long, 2013!