Vinyl Fall Decor

I love using my Cameo for cutting vinyl. Last fall, I made a couple of plaques as part of my Thanksgiving decor. I think both were designs from the Silhouette Design Store. I got the charger with leaf border at Hobby Lobby last year. The ceramic tile in the lower photo was leftover from my bathroom remodel. It had a glossy, smooth surface which was perfect for applying the copper vinyl.

Fall Layout - Cox Farm

Yes, this is a 4 page layout. I realize that most people prefer one page layouts these days, or a two page spread at most. Sometimes I just have too many photos that I want to include in my albums.

This 4 pager is actually one of my favorite layouts, but it was also one of our favorite places to go to in the fall every year. Our two younger sons both took turns working there, but we started going to Cox Farm's Fall Festival long before they were old enough to be employed there. It was only about half a mile from our home in Virginia (the house which we sold a little over a year ago in order to move to another state). Because it is a popular local place, the paper used for the first two pages was a custom order that the LSS (now closed) had special ordered.  Since I only had two sheets of that paper, and I really did not want the entire layout to look the same, anyway, I improvised a bit on how to get the third and fourth pages to coordinate.  I used stamped images, pinwheels, and burlap to tie all of the pages together.

Cutting fabric with the Silhouette

This week I tried something new with my Cameo: I cut fabric to make an applique for my son's costume. I forgot to use the fabric blade that I had bought long before. Apparently there is a reason you are supposed to use a fabric blade. It still cut most of the way, but not as cleanly, and I ended up completing the cut with my scissors. I did iron on adhesive before cutting, in order to apply the dragon applique to the fabric of my son's tabard. I also stitched it, mostly because this was a last minute project, and I had more time than he did.  My son can sew. In fact, he made the tabard itself. All I did was convert the dragon design he emailed me into a cutting file, cut it for him, and zig zag the applique on while he was at work.

Oh, for those who may be wondering, the furry thing on his shoulder is a griffin shoulder puppet from Midsummer Knight's Dream. He can make it move so naturally that some people have actually asked if it's real.

October Perpetual Calendar

This is a project I created a few years ago. I had seen a perpetual calendar made using scrapping paper, and decided that it would be fun to make one for October.  I found the black tray at Michael's. I used wood blocks, painted them black, then used Halloween papers and stamps that I had on hand. I'm not going to even try to list everything I used. Few, if anything, would still be available, anyway.

Halloween Plaque

This is a plaque I made a couple of years ago, using a design from Silhouette.

It was simple and fast, just vinyl on a tile.

It's October, which means....Halloween fun!

These pictures go back a ways, although I did the layout much later. The pictures were taken at a church "trunk or treat" for the church kids. My husband and I wore our Renaissance Fair outfits, decorated the back inside of the mini van, and had a ball. I used a Tim Holtz border die to cut the fence, a Tim Holtz ticket stamp, phrase stamp by Northwoods Rubber Stamps, Skinny Legs stamp from Pink Ink Stamp Co., Graphic 45 papers and borders from their Eerie Tale line, and an acetate overlay by Little Yellow Bicycle on the left side of the page, with bats cut from a second acetate overlay for additional accents on the right page. Simple and easy.

I have more Halloween and fall projects to post soon.....

Cherry Blossom Layout

It's been a long time since I created this layout, but I had never taken a photo of it or posted it. Normally I list papers and products used whenever possible.  This is not one of those times, because I don't remember what patterned paper I used.  Our family used to go to see the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial. This was probably the last time we went, or at least one of the last times. I used a cherry blossom stamp to create the embellishments. I used the same stamp to watermark the blue cardstock.  I think it was from a Fiskars Oriental themed stamp set. 

I tend to use stamps fairly often in my scrapbooking, but as I have said before, I was a stamper for about ten years before I started scrapbooking.

Time to Flourish Mini Album

Back before we moved, I went to the Scrapbook Expo with a friend.  Pinecone Press was one of the booths, and they had mini album kits. Some of them were very cute, so I bought three. This particular one used the Time to Flourish line of papers by Graphic 45 (one of my favorite paper companies):

Above is the completed album, front cover. The kit included everything, including ribbon, although I did substitute a few things of my own. I also made a few slight alterations, such as using a different ribbon for October. However, the album itself is 99% Pinecone Press.

All of the papers are monthly themes, but each month followed the same construction format.  Here are January's pages (the calendar page is a smaller size than the album pages):

You can see the back of the calendar page shown in this next photo. There is a built in pocket for the tag between January's and February's pages, and the same is done for each month:

This line of papers was one of the best (in my opinion) that Graphic 45 has ever done. Here are a few more samplings of the pages, starting with March:

July:

October:

December:

Making mini-albums gave me something fun to work on when all the craziness of getting ready to move was going on. They didn't really require any creativity on my part, and scrapbooking with my friends gave me time away from the decluttering, renovating, and packing.  It helped me to stay sane.

Scrapbook Paper to Home Decor

This had to be one of the easiest home decor projects ever.  My daughter and I went to a scrapbook store near her apartment, and they had something like this on display. They also had the right sized wood blocks.  All we had to do was paint the blocks white, and once the paint was dry, use Modge Podge to adhere cut outs from scrapbook paper we had bought with this project in mind. Easy peasy!

One More Homemade Christmas Gift from 2015

Last summer I posted pictures of some gifts that I had made for 2015 Christmas. Money was tight that year, because we were gearing up to start renovations on our home prior to selling it. 

Home decor projects made with regular vinyl are very affordable to make, so one of my projects was a cooky jar for my then 22 year old son.  He loved it and took it with him to college. The container was one I found at Walmart, which only cost about $3. I filled it with Costco cookies.

To make the design, I found clip art on the internet of Chewbacca, which I turned into a cutting file.  I used a font called Star Jedi to label it.

For those wondering if I still do paper crafting, yes, I do. I have been gathering my pictures, and taking pictures of the things I have made but didn't take time to post during our renovating, decluttering, packing, moving, and unpacking days.  I'm actually surprised at how much crafting I squeezed in, but mostly it was because I had a regular scrapping day each month with my friends.

Two More HTV Projects

The above is an apron, using a design from the Silhouette Design Store that I had cut and had ready for about a week. However, the heat press uses a lot of power, so I don't want to do just one project at a time.  The phrase was cut with Silhouette heat transfer vinyl (HTV), which was much harder to work with.  It took several tries with the heat press. I even increased the heat (which had worked fine for the shirt below), and it still took several pressings to get the Silhouette vinyl to stick. The HTV which I prefer to work with is the Siser brand, and which I get from Vinyl Outlet when I visit Salt Lake City. Thankfully, it looks like they do ship, because I'm going to want more of the good HTV. I won't be buying any more of the Silhouette brand vinyl. I had heard it was not as good, but I had already bought some. Now I understand why it is not as good.

The panda shirt below was a phrase which I saw on a meme and decided to put on a shirt.  The pandas are from the Silhouette Design Store.

I know that my HTV projects have been pretty simple, but I'm pretty new to this type of project.

Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) Projects

These are my first heat transfer vinyl projects using a heat press. I have done a couple of t-shirts before, just using a regular iron. That was a pain. The heat press was much easier. The bib was my first project. I had it on hand, so I figured it was no loss if I messed up. The phrase on the bib was from the Silhouette store.  The t-shirt phrase was also from the Silhouette design store, but I tweaked it by incorporating other designs.  I added the musical notes, the dancer, and changed out the word "dance" with one from another  Silhouette design store file.  I was very happy with how it turned out.

On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, I had visited the Vinyl Outlet store with my daughter. They have a bunch of projects on display in a room there, including a black t-shirt with a filigree pumpkin. I bought a sheet each of the orange and green glitter HTV, but when I came home, I could not find any design at Silhouette or online that was nearly as nice as the one on display at the store.  It turns out, it was the project for a class. So I created my own version.  It's not exactly like the one they had, but close enough. The leafy flourish I used was from the Silhouette store.  I copied, welded, subtracted, and drew some things with my mouse, using the Silhouette software. It took me awhile to create it.  I could have done the entire thing from scratch, but I'm lazy, and it would have taken me a lot longer. 

More HTV projects to come later!

Where has the time gone?

2016 was kind of a blur. After living in the same house in Virginia for 33 years, we decluttered, packed up, renovated, and sold it.  We moved to Texas. Right after moving, some family challenges occurred, so getting unpacked and settled took a bit more time than we'd hoped. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays were busy, busy, busy, and we put some of the unpacking on hold. We are mostly unpacked now, although there are still boxes in the garage where my husband's car needs to go. My craft room was mostly set up, but then I realized the shelves were sagging and needed replacing. I bought some new shelves, and had to pull everything apart as I replaced sections of shelving, so it went from a "ready to craft" state to a "chaos again" state. Our two youngest sons both moved in for the summer, too, so I went from being an empty nester to being a mom again, complete with cooking for two young men with healthy appetites. At least they do their own laundry. I haven't had much time for crafting. I've made a card or two, and a few pieces of jewelry, but my papercrafting has been put on hold for the most part. I am hoping to get back to doing some major crafting soon.

For Mother's Day this year I got a heat press. I am recovering from Shingles, so I haven't felt up to doing much, but I have done a couple of t-shirts. This could be a lot of fun.

Once I figure out how to post pictures here again, I will add a few photos. It's been so long that I can't remember how I did that in the past. I'm not seeing any option for uploading from my iPad.