Embellished Clothing

I have seen lots of blog posts about people using their Cricut to cut fabric, but I have never done it..until today!  I did it and I am very happy with the results!

I decided to make some embellished outfits for my daughter and neice, who are only 6 months apart.  I picked up some plain pants and shirts at Old Navy.  They were pretty inexpensive and I had a coupon, which made then even moreso!

I chose my images for the shirts.  The flower comes from Art Philosophy and the initial comes from Sesame Street Font.  I did a few test cuts on plain white cardstock to get the best size determined.  A 4" cut seemed to be a perfect size for both the "A" and the flower.

I ironed on Wonder Under to the fabric.  Then I put this fabric on a Cricut mat.  I thought it cut best at higher speed.  I cut more than I needed in case of error.  Overall I think cutting the fabric with the Cricut was good.  I may research a bit and find some tips from people that do it often.

The next step was to iron the appliques to the shirt.  Then it's time to hit the sewing machine.  I appliqued the letter first as it was a bit easier, considering I hadn't used my sewing machine in years.  After I did the letter I sewed coordinating ribbon around the left leg of the pants to give them a little flair!

I did the grey shirt with pink flower second, as the applique sewing was a bit more difficult with the curves.  Then I embellished the leg of the pants.  I thought the shirt needed a little more so I made a bow and attached it with a button.

I am super happy with how these outfits came out!  I'm going to let my daughter have the blue outfit in the morning.  If she wants to wear it then the project is deemed a success!  I think she may be a bit shocked to learn that Mom can sew...she may have more "work" for me!

Update...here she is wearing her "A" outfit!  She liked it a lot!  I see more sewing in my future!

I had forgotten how enjoyable sewing is for me...think back to a hobby or activity that you enjoyed years ago and give it a go again.  You may find yourself pleasantly surprised!

Lori

Shadow Box

One day I received a call from my neighbor, Lori.  "Hey, are you still doing crafts with shadow boxes?" she asked.  Yes, I was, so she told me that she had found several at Goodwill for a buck each.  She said they had a design in them but thought that it would be easy to pop the back out and replace it.  I asked her to go ahead and pick some up for me and I'd see what I could do with them.

I put them aside for a while but recently when I started my Christmas crafting I remembered the boxes.  I unpacked them and found that they had a seashell design on the back panel.  Not very Christmasy, so that was going to have to go!

(I wish I had taken a photo of the "before", but I didn't so just imagine a peachy, seashell thing in the back of the shadow box!!!)

I popped out the back panel and then traced that shape on some chipboard-type stuff I had laying around.  I don't buy chipboard.  I keep the insert in packages to use later.  I cut that shape out and then covered it with scrapbook paper.

Next I added some small jingle bells to the inside space of the shadow box.  I then closed it up.  I thought it could still use a little something extra so I cut some "frosted glass" vinyl and added the word "jingle" to the front of each box.

Now, you don't really notice "jingle" unless you're really looking for it, but I like it.  It casts a shadow on the back of the shadow box, which is kinda cool.

You can really see "jingle" in this one!

Difficult to see in this photo, but "jingle" is on the front glass.

This project was inexpensive, simple, and fairly quick to make.  Most of the time involved was figuring out what I was going to do and how!  Once I had that figured out the actual project itself went really quickly.

Hope you enjoyed todays quick project!

Lori

Jazzed Up Gift Bag

I find that I buy a lot of stuff and then don't use it.  I think some may call that hoarding, but not me!  I found a stash of Kraft and white gift bags.  Whenever I want to use one I just hate how "plain" they are, so they sit.

Time to jazz up a gift bag!!!

I cut a piece of decorative red paper to fit nicely on the bag.  I inked around the edges with black ink.  Then using the Cricut Teresa Collins December 25th cartridge, I cut the tree image out at 4".  I added gold Stickles to the star to jazz it up even more!

Then I used the Stitched Oval Die from My Creative Time to cut the sentiment oval out from the leftover paper that I cut the tree from.  I used a Peachy Keen sentiment stamp to stamp "Merry Christmas" on the oval.

Assemble it all together and you have a jazzed up gift bag!  Add some holiday note cards, a fun pen, or even some holiday treats and it's a gift waiting for a new home!

Quick, simple, and using stuff from my stash!  I love it!

Lori

Holiday Wreath - Pinterest Inspired!

I love trolling through Pinterest to find new ideas for crafts, recipes, holiday fun, etc.  When I saw this post I couldn't believe my eyes!  Finally...something to do with all of those extra ornaments, and something BEAUTIFUL at that!

Tip #1...hot glue the caps on the ornaments.  This is seriously a step you don't want to skip.  It doesn't take long and it will save you so much time later, when (if you don't glue them) the caps pop off and you start losing ornaments.

Tip #2...Really shape the hanger into a circle and make sure it's a flat circle.  Mine was not shaped the best and it's seriously not easy to reshape it once you have all those ornaments on there!

You can follow the instructions from the inspiration post so there's no sense in me typing that all out. You're a smart cookie and can follow those instructions just as easily as I did.  It is pretty cool how after you get more and more strung on the hanger the ornaments will start to bunch up and create that beautiful full look that you're wanting.  It happens on it's own and it's like magic!

Add a bow and you have a totally cool, completely beautiful wreath that you made all on your own!  You can use extra ornaments you have in your holiday decorations or hit a dollar store and buy some to use.  I had extras because I used to put up several trees.  I fished out all of the red and gold ones and went for it!

Don't forget my two tips...they'll help you have a beautiful end product!

Apparently our Elf of the Shelf - "Randolph" really liked the wreath also, because this is where we found him this morning!

He looks so happy in there!  I think he has a good view of the living room, dining room, AND kitchen from that spot, so he is able to get lots of material to take back to Santa!  Ha ha!!!

Take some time today to get your craft on!

Quick Christmas Tags!

I hate to admit this, but I ordered the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge "Artiste" many months ago and have not taken the time to "play" until tonight.

You know that phrase "good things come to those who wait"???  Wowza!  It's a good thing I didn't open this cartridge earlier, 'cause the holiday decorating may not have gotten done with me hiding in the craft room!

I wanted to make some quick Christmas tags to use for a "You've Been Elfed" basket.  I saw this as a great opportunity to break out the Artiste and coordinating CTMH stamps.

CTMH makes using the stamps with the Cricut cut really easy...like "idiot proof" easy.  Seriously.  The size and page number for the cut are printed next to the stamp.  Doesn't get much easier than that!  I chose the tag and the correct size.  Then I pushed the "Auto Fill" button on my Expression to get as many of the tags as would fit on a piece of good old Staples cardstock.

 If you're really paying attention, you'll see that I forgot to hit "Set Paper Size" or whatever that button is, so I cut a few "half" tags...oopsie!

 Here's a little closer of me stamping right on the Cricut mat.


I did not remove the tags from the mat before I stamped them.  Keeping them on the mat keeps the cut nice and stable while you're stamping the coordinating image.

I stamped the "To" and "From" on the back to make a
functional and beautiful tag!

Stamp...Stamp...Stamp














DONE!  Wow!  How easy is that?  I cut baker's twine and there you have a tag!

~Close-Up of green tag~

Here's another one I did...same instructions.  Artiste, Cricut...auto fill the page and then stamp away.  I used CTMH stamp pads that I bought a while back and they are beautiful!  Great colors for Christmas projects (New England Ivy and Cranberry).

~Close-Up of red tag~

Now, if a quick and easy project isn't your style, you could always "dress" this project up a bit by inking the edges of the tags.  I thought they looked really nice when I was done and I didn't think they needed to be messed with, so I left them as is.

Hope you enjoyed this quick project.  I really enjoy Art Philosophy (another Cricut cartridge by CTMH) and how it works so well with their coordinating stamps, which is why I ordered Artiste.  I knew it would work well together and I wanted to get mine as soon as possible!  Now that I've used it I'm sure there will be more Art Philosophy projects in my future!

This project has been shared on the Link Up Party, Craft-O-Maniac Monday!  Check out the site for tons of inspiration!

I also linked up on Tuesday to "Link Up Tuesday" at Pink Cricut.  This is another good spot to look for holiday craft inspiration!

Go forth and craft....

Lori

Crafty Inspiration!

Are you looking for some crafty inspiration today?  Well, if so, head on over to Craft-O-Maniac's blog, where she is hosting her Monday Link Up Party.  Jen's blog has lots of great ideas and inspiration all on its own, but today she's invited other bloggers to add a link to a crafty project of their own.

My oh my...if you can't find inspiration here, you might as well hang it up for the day and try again tomorrow!  There's loads of good stuff on there, no matter what your crafty pleasure is!

I linked up to my teacher appreciation gift post from a few posts ago.  Have a look through and if you find some great inspiration, leave me a comment and tell me which post inspired you!

Go get your craft on!

Lori

Halloween craftiness

I know this is a tad late, but there's always inspiration for next year, right?!?

Here are a few crafts that I whipped up for a quick Halloween party.  Nothing fancy here...these were all quick easy projects.

First of all, our bar!  I had a neighbor save some cool looking bottles for me.  I found the fun labels online, printed them off, added water and food coloring, and stuck the label to the bottle.  Easy, inexpensive, and fun.  The one on the far left is "Pixie Pee"...yellow colored water with glitter.  The kids thought that one was really funny!

Next up is good old cake pops.  My son decided he'd like cake pops for his class so the weekend before Halloween I made up a double batch of cake pop balls.  I have found that if you freeze the cake pop they're much easier to decorate, so I tend to make a bunch of them (like 6-8 dozen) and freeze for later.  I have the Baby Cakes cake pop maker and quite frankly, I think it's the best!  Easy to use and so much fun.

Spooky ghost cookies...which may quite possibly be the EASIEST treat ever and so freaking adorable! I found this inspiration on Pinterest.  So simple...take a Nutter Butter cookie, dip in vanilla candy coating (some call it almond bark), let it dry.  I added the eyes and nose of my little ghosts with some black gel frosting.  It seriously took longer for these to cool than it did to make the entire tray full.

Pinterest idea...take a clean latex glove, fill with water, freeze, use as ice for your Halloween punch.  OMG...I'm in love with this trick!  How adorable!  The kids thought it was so funny when the fingers would melt and fall off!  They kept checking to see how many fingers "he" had lost!  Next to the punch you can see mummy hotdogs.  You can find the instructions for these HERE.  I wasn't sure if the kids would really like these, but they did!  Plus it's a fun, on-the-go thing to eat.

Again, Pinterest to the rescue for last minute Halloween fun...jack-o-lantern mandarin orange cups.  Oh yeah, baby...quick and oh so easy!  The pin that inspired me is HERE, but I'm pretty sure you get the idea.  I drew the faces on with a sharpie and then handed over the job of coloring the faces in to my 11 year old.  He was a huge help.  Time investment on this one...MINIMAL.  Cute factor = 10+

And finally, a safe way to have a few candles as table decoration...MUMMY jars!  I picked up a few rolls of gauze at the pharmacy when I was grocery shopping.  I was short on time the night before Halloween so I grabbed 2 jars from my cupboard (I usually keep a couple spaghetti sauce jars for various things), smeared Elmer's glue on them and wrapped the gauze around.  Glue on a couple of googly eyes and it's done!  The post that inspired my Mummy Jars is HERE.  These are big jars, so I wasn't worried about the candle in them.  Fun, cute, and so quick to put together.

I hope you enjoyed these Halloween ideas.  I know we've all moved on now to the next holiday, but PIN this for future reference for next year!  If you stop by any of the blogs I've linked for these projects, please leave a comment!  Us bloggers like feedback, so even if you just take a minute to type "cute idea", it's nice to know someone out there is actually reading and enjoying what we post!  Feel free to leave a comment for me also....I love to hear from readers!

Until next time....go be crafty!

Lori