Learning to Sew

My great grandma was an amazing seamstress. I actually have a couple dresses she made that I’ll wear on occasion. My mom was the mom that made our Halloween costumes growing up or costumes for our school plays. When my sister and I wanted a pair of MC Hammer pants… Yep, my mom made those too. I also have two aunts that are amazing seamstresses and they’ve made entire wardrobes. You would think sewing was in my blood. But no. That’s where it’s stops. They did not pass those skills on to me.

I know the basics. How to sew a button… how to hem pants. And if I’m feeling really froggy, I can sew patches onto a Boy Scout uniform (but I’ve I discovered that magic tape, sewing is out).

When I was about 12, a church small group I was in made quilts for the homeless. That was probably the last time I really touched a sewing machine.

Fast forward 20 years. T-shirt quilts are all the rage. I’d successfully made a quilt before, so I figured why not do it again. I started saving my sons t-shirts and other memorable clothes, and bought a sewing machine. And it’s been sitting in a corner for the last 3 years.

I finally pulled the sewing machine out again when the CDC recommended we wear cloth masks when we are out in public. After a bit of reading and a few YouTube videos later, I was ready to make some masks. I found a great pattern that I could cut with my Cricut Maker from Jennifer Maker, and she also provided a YouTube video that’s pretty easy to follow along.

After I’d made a few masks I actually found that I was enjoying sewing and have decided to give my quilt another try. I’ve also found the cutest Harry Potter fabric and want to try to make myself a skirt.

Not only have I discovered a new hobby (like I really needed another one), but I’ve also exposed my son to something new. He recently told my he wanted a new learn to sew! His first project was a pillow. I was actually impressed with the finished product. And I love how proud of himself he is. He actually told me he was going to start a business making pillows. This summer is going to be full of possibilities!

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A “Universal” Sized Surprise

This is not the first time I’ve talked about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, and it probably won’t be the last.  You may already know I visit once a year with my friends for the Orlando Informer event. This will be the first year that doesn’t happen. Thank you COVID-19. If you’d like to learn more about the experience, check out my previous post (which also contains directions for an awesome HP themed luggage tag) or head to the Orlando Informer website.

Since Florida isn’t going to be in my near future, I thought I’d share the experience I had around this time last year.

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My best friend and I decided this would be the year we would introduce our kids to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I decided to also invite my 12-year old niece to join us because the more the merrier. AND, it just so happened that my friend’s son would be turning 11 while we were in Florida. (For those of you that are not familiar with the Harry Potter universe, turning 11 is a big deal). To make it even more exciting, we decided to keep the trip from the kids, and surprise them when we were getting ready to leave. This was shaping up to be the best trip ever!

Fast forward to the day of the trip. We had a Harry Potter scavenger hunt set up that would lead the kids to their luggage and personalized Hogwarts acceptance letters, telling them about the adventure they were about to embark upon. Most of the clues were printed images, but my favorite were the Golden Snitches created from Ferrero Rocher and paper wings. While they were hunting, they also enjoyed custom HP cookies, purchased from Swoon Cookies Crafters.

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Each child got new Harry Potter luggage which contained a HP blanket personalized with their name using Cricut Iron-on, a Platform 9 3/4 lanyard, their own personal Hedwig stuffed owl, and of course a t-shirt representing their house. I was lucky enough to find it all at Target, and of course I used my RedCard to save 5% (more money to spend at the park!). It really was a “one and done” shopping trip.

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Once we arrived in Orlando, we stayed at the Loews Sapphire Falls Resort, which was one of the discounted hotels for the event. (I would definitely recommend it for comfortability, but it was lacking in the dining options department.) When we checked in I mentioned in casual conversation we were celebrating a birthday and the host (who turned out to also be a huge HP fan), gave my friend’s son a Happy Birthday button, and each kid got their own HP branded room key (that was NOT connected to my credit card. Haha!) Everywhere we went, everyone (staff and park guests) told him Happy Birthday.

I know we had a blast planning this surprise and an even better time once we made it to Florida. We made tons of great memories and I can’t wait until the world gets back to normal, and we can once again visit the happiest place on Earth.

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Wedding Gift with the Cricut Joy

Cricut release a new electronic cutting machine back in March called the Cricut Joy. It is a fraction of the size of their other machines, and has its own ecosystem of materials. It’s marketed as a great machine for beginners. In my opinion, the largest limitation of the Cricut Joy is it can only cut a maximum width of 4.5 inches. Right of the bat I thought this would be an issue. I make a lot of shirts. If I need to cut iron-on, my design is usually between 8 and 11 inches square. This is a no go with the Joy. However, knowing these limitations, I did still purchase it. For me, the draw of the Joy was its size and portability. I’m still on the fence, but officially past the point where I considered returning it. And to tell you the truth, I definitely appreciate it more after completing my most recent project.

I purchased a baby sign on clearance a while back with the plan to paint over the message and apply my own. It went into my pile of stuff until the day when I would find it useful. I had a wedding coming up, and wanted to give the couple something unique. I’ve been seeing the Wedding Established signs everywhere and thought it would be a nice personalized gift.

I started out by painting over the original wording on the sign and I layed out my project in Design Space while it was drying. I added the couples last name, the date they were married, and a Bible verse about marriage (And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Col 3:14). My original design was 24 inches long, just a 1/2 inch longer than I could cut at once with my Cricut Maker. This is where the ability to cut 4 feet (or 20 feet depending on the design) on the Cricut Joy came in handy. I ended up decreasing the total length of my design to 23.5 inches (which would fit the Maker), but still decided to cut my project with the Joy.

Take a look at this process video, showing the steps from cutting Smart Vinyl on the Cricut Joy to installation.

Unfortunately the wedding was postponed due to the current state of our world, so I took the opportunity to drop a special gift off to the couple.

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Teacher Appreciation – Coronavirus Edition

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. When I was on the PTA board we would plan a special treat for each day of the week for the teachers and staff. This year, since we are all at home in a virtual learning environment, that will not be possible. Our elementary school set up a virtual card drive for teachers that will deliver letters to them throughout the week. My son’s teacher happens to live a few blocks away, (we learned this while trick-or-treating last year), so I thought it would be a nice gesture to give her a physical gift as well.

I purchased the cutest svg file from Pigskins and Pigtails that expresses the situation we are in perfectly. This blogger does a lot of work with screen printing, (she has some great tutorials), but I decided to use the saying to make a shirt using Cricut’s Infusible Ink. I really enjoy this product and there is actually a great sale going on right now. Their white t-shirt Infusible Ink blanks are 60% off! I picked up a few in each size the last time I placed an order, so I already had everything on hand needed to make the shirt. Check out this quick Infusible Ink process video on YouTube. It is a Boba Fett shirt created for Star Wars day. If you have any questions about the process, leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer it. The steps to creating the tshirt are the same ones used when I created a blanket as a Housewarming Gift. If you missed that you can check it out here.

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To round out my gift, I also included a Target gift card and a bundtlet tower from Nothing Bundt Cakes. I absolutely love that place and will find any excuse to go there. Trust me, you haven’t had cake until you’ve had Nothing Bundt Cakes. Normally you can get a sample in store, but not right now, because you know… corona… Hopefully we’ll get back to that point someday.

If you have a Cricut Explore Air, or Maker, you can use my file from Design Space to create your own Target gift card holder. Make sure to update the “From” section with your child name. If you have a Cricut Joy you will need to delete the red layer and cut a 5×7 card by hand. The dimension are too large for the cutting space on the Joy. And don’t forget to get a Target gift card! If you want the iconic red envelope, you’ll have to request it from the cashier.

It’s always important to recognize our children’s teachers and staff that support them everyday, but now, with everything as crazy as it is, I believe it’s more important than ever. And maybe do something special for yourself… you’re a teacher nowadays too!

Fancy Jars – Glass Etching

I love candles. Especially candles from Bath and Body Works. Some might say I’m obsessed, but I’m not quite ready to admit that. I won’t bring up my secret candle stash. I wouldn’t want to give “them” any ammunition. In addition to my love of candles, I also hate to throw anything away. I’m always thinking what else could this be used for.

If you’re anything like me, you know counter space in your bathroom is very valuable. To try to give my bathroom a different “feel” (read: not cluttered) I transformed my empty candle jars into holders for my Q-tips and cotton balls. This should be a pretty simple thing. Clean the jars out and viola, you’re done. But of course nothing is that easy for me. In an effort to upscale the jar, I etched the words “swab” and “swipe” on them. I thought it would be a fun little touch.

The Process

Overall this was a quick project that can be completed in a afternoon or during the kids nap time. I think it took longer to get the jars clean than anything else. I must have got a mutant batch of candles because I soaked them in dish soap, then Clorox, ran them through the dishwasher and STILL had to scrub them clean.

After you get your containers nice and clean decide what you want them to say. If you have a cutting matching you can cut the words from vinyl or you can use stickers.

Apply your vinyl to the jar. Whatever part is exposed is what will be etched (look foggy). In my case I wanted the negative space to be etched so I cut my words from some scrap vinyl with my Cricut Maker, weeded the letters, then applied the vinyl to my jars.

I used painters tape to cover any areas I don’t want etched (in case you paint outside of the lines). Grab a paint brush or foam brush and apply your etching cream. Make sure to use gloves when working with the glass etching cream as it can cause chemical burns. Let the etching cream sit for about 3 minutes and rinse it off. I was a little nervous about rinsing it off in my kitchen sink which is steel, but nothing happened. I did however make sure to give the sink a good scrubbing before I did dishes again.

The fun part of this technique it that it can be used in so many ways… mirrors, windows, candy jars, drinking glasses… wherever you have glass.

A side note, if you are concerned about the permanent nature of etching, you can also buy frosted vinyl that looks like etched glass and apply it. Also, the etching cream is a bit on the expensive side, so I’d recommend using a coupon if purchasing from JoAnn or Michaels, but you only use a little, so it will last you forever!

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IKEA Game Center

I made a quick dash to IKEA before the shelter in place orders went into effect for my area.  I figured if I had to stay in I might as well make the most of it. I love to organize things, but don’t always have the time to do it. Sound familiar?

I picked up a 14.5 inch KUGGIS box with lid ($14.00) and the coordinating insert ($7.00). My plan was to organize all the video game accessories that were strewn around our tv. Like most things from IKEA, the KUGGIS is simple and neutral. Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a little more for my newly organized game center.  That meant my Cricut was going to get some action soon.

I searched the word “gaming” and “gamer” in Design Space and found a ton of great images.  The image library has over 100,000 images!  Since I am a Cricut Access subscriber, in addition to the images I get access to without paying an additional cost, (the images with the green flag with an “a” on them), I also get unlimited use to over 400 fonts. 

Since the organize was for my son’s video gaming accessories, I let him have the final say on the design. We decided on a Professional Gamer image (#M11F80855) and a Videogame Typography Art image (#MA5FCAC3) for the top and Nintendo images for the sides.  I found the Mario and Nintendo Switch images with a Google search, and edited them in Design Space.

The typography image probably took the longest to weed, and Mario took the longest to install, since he was 8 layers.  Check out this video which shows a smaller version of Mario I added to a birthday banner, but the process was the same.  The remainder of the images were pretty simple, and I let my son help transfer them onto the KUGGIS.  This is something he will be using often, and it’s nice for him to be reminded of something we created together.

 

 

 

Housewarming Gift with Infusible Ink

Like many crafters, I was in love when Cricut released their Infusible Ink line. Prices were a little painful, but in true Cricut fashion, they had some awesome sales after the product had been out of a bit.  At the time of this writing, Infusible Ink materials are 40% off at cricut.com. Missed the sale? Don’t worry, sign up for their sale emails and get notified next time there is a sale going on. 

For those that are not familiar with Infusible Ink, it is very similar to sublimation, but easier to use (in my opinion). It is a process of applying a high heat to the Infusible Ink product. The heat will change the product from a solid form into a gas, which then allows it to bind (or infuse) to the fibers in your project. The important thing to remember is this only works with fabrics with a high percentage of polyester in them or poly-coated ceramics.  Want to learn more about Infusible Ink? Head over to the Cricut Infusible Ink product page for more!

When my family outgrew our home and knew it was time to find a larger one.  Our realtor was awesome! It took what seemed like forever to find the right home, but she stuck with us until the end. This last Christmas she surprised us with an unexpected Christmas gift, a cozy chenille blanket. I have this weird obsession with blankets so I was super excited to curl up under it by the fireplace. I was even more excited when I found out the blanket was 80% polyester.  My mind immediately went to Infusible Ink. I came up with this idea for a blanket for my home, but this can easily be created to give as a personalized housewarming gift.

Step 1: I created a simple design in Design Space using a house silhouette (#M327E3) and some text. This particular house image came with a door cut out, but I wanted a solid image. To solve my problem I selected a square from the Shape palette, lined it up to cover the door cut-out, then welded the two images.

Step 2: I selected my preferred text (Jacoby Black and Jacoby Extra Light) and aligned it on top of the house. After welding my text together, I selected it and the house image and selected Slice. This will cut my wording out of the house. Delete the cut outs as they won’t be needed.

Step 3: I added the date we purchased the house for the established date, and lined up all of my text. One I had everything how I wanted it, I selected all of my images and selected Attach. This will keep everything lined up where I want it when I send it to the machine to cut it.

Step 4: After selecting Make it, you’ll want to remember to mirror your image, like you do when using iron-on/HTV. I used a sheet from the Tropical Florals Infusible Ink transfer sheets pack. Place the transfer sheet on your mat pretty side up. Try to handle the sheet as least as possible as any oils or moisture you have on your hands can cause the ink on the sheet to rub off. 

Step 5: After cutting the image, weeding with Infusible Ink is a bit different than vinyl or iron-on. You’ll actually bend and kind of crack your sheet to weed out your image. Now your ready to apply your Infusible Ink! I’ll refer you to Cricut’s website for instructions as the application process is a bit different. Even though my blanket was not a Cricut blank, I used the transfer sheet with apparel instructions.

Step 6: You’re done! Now go cuddle up under your newly customized blanket, or wrap it up and send it off to someone deserving!

Luv My Lightbox

Organized chaos. Familiar with the phrase? Well, it is a way of life for me.

I purchased a Heidi Swapp Lightbox a while back (of course using a 50% off coupon at Michaels). Since then I’ve collected quite a few accessories and have been storing them in box the Lightbox came in. That method works, but I knew I could do much better.

I fell down the rabbit hole that is YouTube one day and came across this video with a great storage idea. Considering I had everything needed, (except the frig bin) I knew I had to see if this would work for me!

I placed my order and got it 2 days later (yea Amazon Prime!), but the product was cracked (boo Amazon shipping). In the mean time I began cutting some cardstock down to size and used My Favorite Things dies for the tabs. I am aware I could have used an electronic cutting machine like the Scan N Cut or Cricut, but sometimes you just want to use a metal die and a die cut machine. I also created a filing system for the background slides too. I kept the cardboard packaging that showed the contents and used that to separate each group.

I also have a mini lightbox, and therefore mini letters. I was concerned about those getting lost, so I created small coin envelopes with my We R Memory Keepers 1-2-3 Punchboard to store those. Then I filed them with their larger letter counterparts.

I haven’t seen any new lightbox slides released in a while, but I don’t have all of them. This system give me room to expand if I buy or make additional slides.

Are PopSockets Here to Stay?

Some fads I jump on the moment they are announced. Like the iPhone. Others I resist and they may take me a bit of time to come around. A perfect example of this would be PopSockets. When I started seeing them everywhere I just didn’t get it. I didn’t feel like I needed an different way to hold my phone and I take about as many selfies as my 88-year-old grandma… so there’s that.

Anyway, I wound up with a free promotional PopSocket from a vendor so had no reason not to try it out. And no. This product has not changed my life, and I honestly can’t say why I keep it on my phone except for the reason that it’s now one more way to express my love of Harry Potter.

Like I said, it was a free promotion item, so it was branded with the company’s name. Nothing against that company, but since I’m a Harry Potter fan, I figured I’d change it up. (I recently just found out one of the selling points of a PopSocket is a chance to show off your style… so maybe I’m more into it than I originally gave it credit). To change it up, of course I used vinyl. One, it’s quick and easy, and two, when I’m tired of this design I can replace it with something else.

The whole project took less than 30 minutes. I probably spend the majority of time figuring out my design and creating it in Design Space, (Cricut’s design software). Check out the video below for my creation and application process. Any suggestions for what I should change it to next?

Rosettes, Rosettes, Rosettes!

We were recently commissioned to create a backdrop for a dual 1st and 60th backyard birthday party. While looking for inspiration, I found a video about rosettes on Cricut – The Official Page on Facebook and thought those famous words, “I can make that”! So we did!

Our customer gave us a color palette to work off of, so a trip to Michaels was first on my to-do list.  I lucked out and found various Craft Smith Paper Pads in coordinating colors.  I bought a couple pads in each color scheme since just one of the largest rosette requires 8 sheets of 12×12 paper to create it.

We used the Martha Stewart – Wall Rosettes design from Design Space, so I didn’t have to create the design from scratch.  I altered my  file to reflect the number, color and size of rosettes we needed and added additional scoring lines for deeper creases on each piece.

I have the Cricut Maker. This baby is a work-horse. It probably took about 6-7 hours to cut all of the pieces for 28 rosettes. I did break it up over 2 days, but my Maker powered through. Not one issue! Around hour 4 I did wish I had another machine, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Next was the folding.  There was A LOT of folding!  Instead of Netflix and chill, it was Netflix and fold. Let’s just say I’m finally caught up on the last season of Fuller House.

Child labor is a beautiful thing, and I put my niece to work for the next step. (No children were harmed in the making of these rosettes, and she actually ended up getting paid for her contribution!) Since the decor was for a dual party, we decided to make two rosette clusters, one for the 1 year old, and the other for the 60 year old. To differentiate between the two we would add vinyl numbers to the centers.

To assemble each rosette, you glue the side tabs together then curl them into a circle.  It helps to use a dinner plate to help you curl them. Then you attach the center piece. I’ve made many rosettes, and depending on the circumstances, sometimes I put the center on the front and other times the back. The center piece helps to secure the rosette together, so you definitely need to put it somewhere.  In this situation we placed it on the front since we’d added the vinyl numbers to it.

Once all 28 rosettes were complete, we split them into 2 clusters.  We attached the clusters to wooden dowels so that we were able to hang them up.

To finish off the party decor, we also created a coordinating Happy Birthday banner, and matching chair signs and cake toppers for the guests of honor.

Let me tell you, we finished this project about a week before the scoring wheel for the Maker was release. Talk about bad timing on our part! I think the scoring wheel would have made this job SO much easier! At one point I actually ended up pulling out my old school scoring board to get better folds in the rosettes. Now I know for the next time!