Felt Bag

Something different today - no paper involved!  When I was in Florida last month I came back with a whole hoard of goodies - I couldn't actually fit everything in my suitcase and ended up mailing a package home.  One of the goodies was this lovely felt bag.  It was given to me by my friend Kymberlee (The Paper Midwife) - well actually it was from her mum.

I couldn't wait to get it home and start playing with it, but what to do HTV? Rhinestones?  Finally I settled on using some of the mass quantities of felt I'd been given (also courtesy of Kymberlee's mum.)  As the Silhouette does not cut felt (unless someone tells me otherwise) I had to find another method (and no I do not do well cutting out mass quantities with scissors.)  So I turned to one of my Sizzix dies and came up with this.

I cut the leaves freehand and sewed the swirls by hand (as you can tell I AM NOT MUCH OF A SEAMSTRESS.)  Here is a close-up of one of the flowers.

Overall I pretty pleased with the way it turned out - and it's fun once in a while to get out of your 'comfort zone'.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

Poppy Card

I was looking through a copy of Paper Crafts magazine 'Card Creations - Get Inspired' and came across a very simple 'shaped' card that I just had to replicate.

Many of the files that I cannot resist from the Silhouette online store are the 3D flowers, and I have a few of them (OK most of them.)  One of my favorites is a poppy, so I went straight to it to create this card.

Once I had the file open in the Silhouette Designer software, I took all the pieces and enlarged them by 150%.  Next I ungrouped all the pieces, took the bottom (largest layer) of the flower replicated it using mirror image, moved the two together and then welded them.  The Cameo then did the difficult part and cut everything out for me.  I took a Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad (Vintage Photo) and, using sponge, lightly inked the edges of the petals. The whole thing is assembled with a few glue dots.  The finishing touches are a glittery brad (also sponged with ink) and a sentiment stamped on to kraft cardstock and adhered.

I also made the file at it's original size and used that for a gift tag.  I love the elegant look of this paired with with black wrapping paper.

I hope I have inspired you to take a look at some of the 3d files and use them in a slightly different manner.

Michelle

Cupcakes anyone?

Although this was a fairly straightforward project, it ended up taking me a couple of days to complete.  I just couldn't make up my mind - which paper combination, which embellishments, too much not enough?  This is what I finally settled on, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Aren't they cute?  This file is designed by Kelleigh Ratslaff, and can be found at The Digi Chick.  They are so simple to put together, and Kelleigh has great pictures and step-by-step instructions on her blog Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs.

The papers I used to make the cupcakes are from 'The Glitzy Glitter Stack' (DCWV) in both bright and neutral.

I love this paper, it is so smooth and when you cut it with your die-cutting machine the glitter doesn't flake off or get stuck to your mat.

Here is a close-up of one of the cupcakes.

I used Scor-Tape to adhere the ribbon (from Michael's) to the top off the cupcake wrapper, and the flowers on top are cut from a silhouette file in the same papers.

The finishing touch is an adhesive backed gem in the center of the flower, and a sentiment from 'Small Script' (Stampin' Up) heat embossed on vellum.  The flower and sentiment are held together with adhesive dots.

The cupcakes are for an event I'm attending later in the summer, so I haven't actually filled them with goodies yet.  They would be a great size for holding a few chocolates, or a piece of jewelry.  There are so many options for these they would be great for a bridal shower (they would look stunning just plain white) or a baby shower in a colors to co-ordinate with the theme.

As always thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

3D Trees Wall Art

I was working on a project last night that I am hoping to post this weekend, I got the pieces all glued together and decided I would embellish it today.  Unfortunately I discovered this morning that I don't have just the 'right' sort of pretties to finish the project off.  Well, what is a girl to do when she is still in her pj's?  I could hardly run to the craft store :(

So I decided to play with a file I got from the Silhouette online store the other week - 3D Trees Wall Art.

I just love the simplicity of this piece, and it was a breeze to put together.  The only thing I added was the stamped/embossed sentiment from a Stampin' Up set called 'Happy Harmony'.

Now I have lots of ideas buzzing around my head to use this file for Halloween - I can see the whole thing in black with some 'critters' peeking out from behind the trees and some strategically placed glow in the dark glitter....

No more messing around I have to get to the craft store.  Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

Six (6) cards to share - call me a colouring fool!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing with my new ProMarkers, colouring both stamped and digital images.  I love the way these colours blend, and want to give a shout out to Kymberlee from The Paper Midwife and Kate from Sassy and Scrappy - who both helped me with some colouring techniques on my recent trip to Florida.  These ladies are both very talented and I recommend you take a peek at their blogs.

First here is a look at my new 'babies' in their case.

Many of these pens were a gift from my friend Cheryl in the UK - who I'm sure is expecting lessons with them when she comes out here in the summer :)

So basically I have become a colouring 'fool', and a little bit of a paper snob - preferring Bee Paper to almost anything else (it's all Kymberlee's fault!) 

Here are the cards.

The image and sentiment for both these cards is from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, all the paper is from my stash, the butterflies from a Martha Stewart punch decorated with stickles, and the front of the purple card is embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder.

These images are from Mo's Digital Pencil - she has some gorgeous digital images available (I dare you to go look and be able to resist.)  The sentiment stamp on the second card is from a Stampin' Up Set called "Happy Harmony".

Another one from Mo's Digital Pencil (I just love this image - maybe because it reminds me so much of the antics of my youngest when she was this age!)  The paper is from Target (the $1.00 packs), Prima flower, gem brad from Joann's, and the sentiment is computer generated.

My last card is also an image from Mo's Digital Pencil, called "Extra!"  This image is great and just what I needed to make a more masculine card.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Michelle

Quick Birthday Card

I never have enough birthday cards in my stash, for those birthdays/occasions that just seem to pop up.  So today I am sharing with you a quick card I made for Cameo Creations Challenge #4 over here on Monica's Creative Madness.  The challenge is to create a square card using a digital stamp and buttons.  Here it is.

The image is from Digi My World, and I used the print and cut feature of the cameo for it - Monica has a great video tutorial on her blog showing the technique I used.

I used a couple of buttons, one on the balloon and one in her hair.

In the bottom right-hand corner is a journalling tag that I had in my stash, all I have to do is highlight the day and month - voila, a personalized card.

Thanks for stopping by today, and thank you Monica for the great challenge.

Michelle

Ladybug Notepad

Last week my youngest, Phoebe was home from college on spring break.  She told me that her room-mate loved the handmade cards and things that I send Phoebe.  Well, it's always nice to be appreciated, so I decided to make this little notepad so her roommate could have it on her desk.

This is a cut file available from here from The Digi Chick.  It can be made into a card or mini album, and although probably more suited to a 'little gir'l, my daughter assures me that the' big girl' who is going to receive this will love it.

The file comes in 3 parts: the body (black), 2 wings (red) and the 6 spots (black glitter).  I used my Cameo to cut and re-size all the pieces, and then made large circles with white paper that were just slightly smaller than the body.  I punched a hole through everything and fixed it together with a brad.  Of course I had to add some googly eyes too!

Each of the notepad pages is stamped with a ladybug image - this stamp is from Stampin' Up and is called 'Very Punny'.

Hope you enjoyed my project today.

Michelle

Use Your Scraps

Here are a couple of pics of my projects for Paper Craft Weekend Challenge blog where I am guest designer today.

Hope you will pop over to Paper Craft Weekend Challenge and take a peek.

Michelle

Heat Transfer Vinyl and Rhinestone T-Shirt (Part 2)

For the next part of this project I went back to the Cameo and pulled up the floral filigree image - as I was only working with the central part I copied this part of the image to another page to work on.  Before starting to fill in the rhinestone design I had to check the size of my rhinestones.

These ones are 20SS.  Next I opened the 'Rhinestones Window' on the Cameo.

I chose the rhinestone sizes, and the 'Draw Rhinestones' option 'Single Click'.

Then I just filled my central image with rhinestone holes.

Once I had filled the image to my liking, I deleted the outer edge (leaving just the rhinestone holes) and cut out the image on rhinestone template.  The next pictures show the setting I used and the template loaded in the machine blue side uppermost.            

Once I had the template cut I peeled it off the backing and stuck it on to a backing board.

Then I sprinkled my rhinestones over the template, using Silhouette brush supplied in the kit  gently brushed them in place.  I will admit here that I found this a bit tedious and ended up picking up some of the rhinestones and placing them where I wanted them.

Once the rhinestones were in place I carefully laid the transfer tape over, and voila my rhinestones are ready to iron on.

To iron the rhinestones on I just positioned them on the shirt, covered them with a thin cloth and with the iron on 'wool' setting pressed down on top for 45 - 60 seconds.  After peeling off the transfer tape I turned the shirt inside out and iron the back of the rhinestones to "pull the glue into the fabric."

Here is the finished design.

Until next time.

Michelle

Heat Transfer Vinyl and Rhinestone T-Shirt (Part 1)

I bought this plain t-shirt last year thinking that it would be good to use for heat transfer vinyl (HTV).  I had lots of different ideas swirling around in my head, and that is where they stayed, because life got busy.  So today I decided to 'bite the bullet' and finally do the project.

I started with just a plain long sleeved t-shirt, and picked out a design from my Silhouette studio.  I started out by cutting my design out on plain paper and laying it on the shirt to see how it would look.

Originally I had made the design 12" x 12", then I discovered that my vinyl was 12" x 9" so I had to make a few adjustments to the size.  Here is the original design, it's called floral filigree.

Because I knew that I wanted to put rhinestones in the centre of the flower, I had to adjust the design to make the centre a blank space.  I had to take each of the shapes from the middle and delete them ( you need to ungroup them first.)

When I had gotten rid of all the little shapes, I took the 'draw freehand' pencil and drew a shape which would be cut out from the centre.

When I was happy with my freehand shape I grouped it with the rest of them image.  This is important to remember as some images need to be flipped before cutting them in vinyl (letters are a good example of this.)

Next I moved on to cutting my image out of the HTV.  I got my HTV from Craft Vinyl - the prices here are great and Nick is very efficient with fulfilling the orders and shipping.

HTV needs to be cut with the DULL SIDE FACING UP and the SHINY SIDE FACING UP (the exact opposite of how you cut regular vinyl.)  Here are the settings which I used on my Cameo.

Once the HTV was cut I started to 'weed' - that is, peel away all the unwanted parts of the image, leaving the main image attached to the backing (this backing acts as transfer tape.)  Here is the partially 'weeded' image.

Now for the fun part - applying the image to the shirt.  First I ironed my shirt, just to make sure I'd removed any moisture.  Next I laid the image where I wanted it on the shirt, covered it with a Teflon sheet and began ironing.  The HTV comes with full instructions for applying, but basically the iron needs to be 280-300F, press the iron down on the Teflon sheet moving it back and forth, not staying in anyone place for more than a few seconds.  This HTV is 'cold peel' which means that it needs to cool down for 30 - 45 seconds before trying to peel off the backing.  Here is the image applied.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the finished shirt with instructions for adding rhinestones.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle

Bright Ideas Notebook (using vinyl)

I decided on a very simple project today - blame it on a lack of sleep plus a dog, who despite my tiredness, still insisted on getting up at 6.00am for breakfast!

While I was in Florida I received this cute little note book from my friend Kymberlee  The Paper Midwife,  (well actually from her mom,) - thank you so much.

I just love it, and whilst it is very cute just as it is, I still want to have some kind of simple decoration on it.  Then I had this 'bright idea' of using some vinyl - this is what I came up with.

I cut the vinyl with my cameo (I used the recommended silhouette settings for vinyl with the exception of upping the blade depth to 2.)  The polka dot lamp is a Silhouette file and and font is called DokChampa.  I love how it turned out.

Michelle

Just a 'little' note

Well, I can't believe I have been back from Florida since Sunday and this will be my first post - what a 'slacker'!

My project today is this cute little box from  Kelleigh over at The Digi Chick.  I just love the design of this top heavy box and couldn't wait to put it together so that I could embellish it.

The paper I used is from K & Company (I'm not sure which line it is), the flower is cut from a Silhouette file and the butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.  Here is a close up of the flower, which has been sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist and finished off in the center with a pearl brad.

I wanted to make some little note cards and envelopes to go inside - these are very small (2.25" x 3.5").  They are just the right size for writing a quick 'hello' or 'thank you' to put with a gift.  The stamps I used for these are from The Angel Company ('Just Because' and the Russian Proverb) and Stampin' Up ('Hello' - Elementary Elegance.)

And of course there have to be matching envelopes.

Here they are all together in the box.

Thanks for stopping by - I promise not to leave it too long until next time.

Michelle