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Come Learn to Knit with WhipperBerry & Craftsy

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When I was a little girl, my Mom patiently tried to teach me how to crochet & knit.  The crocheting came rather easily to me as long as I could crochet one looooong chain and didn’t have to figure out how to turn and then build something out of the massive chain.  Unfortunately, I didn’t really have a need for a yarn chain that was two miles long… so I quit! The knitting on the other had was a little more challenging, you know… having to use two needles for a young girl who had no hand-eye coordination to speak of was almost impossible.

Fast forward several years… My sweet Mother-in-Law came to visit and taught me how to crochet FOR REAL and I discovered a love of the yarn arts.  Knitting on the other hand, as much as I would love to knit… I have to admit that art has been a bit of a challenge for me.  It’s a hand-eye coordination thing again, I can’t play video games either.

That is until I discovered Craftsy…

Have you discovered this site yet? It’s amazing! The team at Craftsy has worked really hard to create a site that is not only beautiful, but super user-friendly. I wrote a full craftsy review here.

It delivers top-notch online video classes that are unmatched on any other site that I have seen. They have searched high and low to find instructors that are masters at their crafts and then given them the tools to create the best online learning environment out there.  Here’s an example…

If you are taking a class on how to quilt and half way through the video a question pops into your head. You can pause the video at that point and type your question right there in the user interface and the INSTRUCTOR will answer your question as soon as they see it!!  How cool is that?

So here’s my thought… I want to learn how to knit.  I want to be cool like Julia Roberts and all those other cool knitting people or if you just want to gift someone a handmade gift. I am going to sign-up for…the Knit Lab at Craftsy and I would LOVE it if you guys {all of you who don’t know how to knit, or would like to brush-up on your skills} to join me!!  Won’t that be fun?

The sweet folks at Craftsy have given all of you guys a 25% discount on the price of the class.  It’s only $29.99 for all my sweet WhipperBerry friends!  Head over to Craftsy and check out The Knitting Lab and see all that it has to offer.  You can even watch sample videos to see if this is something that you would like to do.

So, come learn to knit with me! If you decide to accept this challenge, leave a comment in the comments section and then let’s get started!  I will check in with a post next week to show how far I have gotten and then maybe we can set-up a link party for everyone to show off what they’ve made in a few weeks.

So who’s in? I can’t wait to give this a go!!

Shirt to Skirt

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Hey guys just jumping in for a minute while I'm still working on operation new flooring.  I'm guest posting over at one of my favorite blogs today… Craftaholics Anonymous!!  Eeeeek, I know totally excited.  Hales and I worked on a super fun shirt to skirt refashion together and we thought you guys might want to give it a try. 

And you may want to come on over to learn another little secret about me… I know, it's like true confessions week at WhipperBerry this week.  If you missed yesterday's confession, you may want to check it out!

Also, you don't want to miss Friday Flair tonight!! Can't wait to see what you've been working on…

Fabric Wall Art with Silhouette’s New larger Cutting Mat | Tutorial

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This last Christmas my Mom gave me a pretty special gift that I have repurposed and will now be re-gifting it right back to her for Mother's Day.  Now don't worry, this is the kind of re-gifting that is alright, even special in my book.  Thanks to my Silhouette CAMEO I've been able to make a stunning piece of fabric wall art with Silhouette's new larger cutting mat for my Mom…

Over Christmas my Mom gave me some beautiful buttons that she salvaged from a dress that my grandmother used to wear.  It was one of those 1950's black Audrey Hepburn kind of dresses that my Mom just loved.  She thought I could use the fabulous buttons for one of my projects.

Sure enough I thought of a project that would be perfect for these treasured family heirlooms, however I didn't have a cutting mat big enough to make the project just right.  I wanted to make a simple piece of wall art that was the silhouette of a black dress with the buttons on it.  The problem… if I used my 12×12 cutting mat the dress would be too small and the buttons would look silly.

Then I when to CHA and learned about Silhouette's new 12×24 cutting mat and I knew it was going to be perfect for my project. I ran out and bought some black dress fabric, some off white canvas duck cloth for the background and a 10×20 frame that I found on clearance.

To start I ironed the black fabric onto some of the Silhouette Clean Cut Fabric Interfacing and then placed it on the 12×24 inch mat…

I then started the search for the perfect black dress silhouette for the project.  Unfortunately, all of the dresses in the Silhouette design gallery didn't fit the bill so I searched online for the perfect black dress {isn't that always the never ending search? A black dress for my party now I have to find one for a project! he he…}  I finally found a great SVG file that was PERFECT!! Because I've upgraded to the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition it was not a problem at all to use the SVG file. I downloaded the image and then open the design studio…

I opened the image and sized it to 14×7 and then added the text at the bottom. Using the Modern No. 20 font and sized it to fit the frame.

Next, I had to go to the Cut Style tool on the top right of the screen to allow my Cameo to recognize the SVG file while it was cutting.  While the image was selected I clicked on the Cut Edge tool and a red line appeared around the edge of the dress showing that the cameo now recognized the image and was ready to cut…

I placed the fabric lined with the Silhouette Clean Cut Fabric Interfacing on the 12×24 mat and ran it though the CAMEO.  I cut the dress first and then the words, just to make sure I didn't have any issues.

I removed the paper backing from the fabric and then ironed it onto the canvas duck cloth that I had cut to the perfect 10×20 size to fit the frame. Then I hot glued the precious buttons to the dress.  Next I cut the letters out of the same fabric…

I used some vinyl transfer tape, just like you would with vinyl, to transfer the letters onto the canvas duck cloth.  This is where it got a little tricky.  I wasn't sure how the transfer tape would react to the heat of the iron, but I wanted my word to stay perfectly intact.  So, I took a risk.  I carefully and quickly ironed the letters through the transfer tape and it worked perfect.  I worked fast and I didn't place the iron on for very long. I could tell that it could cause issues if I lingered too long.

I removed the transfer tape and it looked PERFECT!! I was so excited! I placed it in the frame and was in awe.  Look at those letters… THEY ARE FABRIC!! 

Look at the clean cut and the perfect lines…

Have you ever had an idea in your head and once you've made it, it far and away surpasses your expectations?  This one totally did! I have to say I am madly and deeply in love with my Cameo now {not that I wasn't before, ha ha}…

Sorry Mom, you get to see your Mother's Day present early!

What a fun way to display my Grandmother's beautiful buttons.  A Priceless treasure that could've easily been tucked away in a drawer and forgotten about.  Now my Mom can have this on her wall and remember her beautiful and elegant mother every time she walks by this lovely fabric wall art. Happy Mother's Day Mom… I LOVE YOU!!

Here's a special deal for all of you…

Visit the Silhouette store by clickin here or on the Silhouette logo above and don't forget to enter WHIPPER at check out to get this smokin' deal!!

My favorite Finds from CHA 2012

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I am officially ruined! This year was my first venture to CHA {the Craft & Hobby Association} tradeshow in Anaheim, CA… Boy was I smitten. Now, I've been to many different types of trade shows, some that were more interesting than others.  When I walked into CHA I felt that I had found my place in this world. This was the trade show that spoke my language… The language of creativity! I wish I could share everything but here are a couple goodies that are up and coming…

Lifestyle Crafts

Start saving your pennies, Lifestyle crafts has all kinds of fun goodies that they are getting ready to release. The Evolution is the follow-up to the ever popular Epic tool and I can't wait until they release that later this spring.

 

Along with the new Evolution Lifestyle Crafts is releasing a new magnetic cutting tool with an improved cutting mat.  I can't even decide which one I am most excited for… The magnetic board is genius and I can't wait to give it a go.  We won't have to worry about our dies slipping anymore and wasting paper with a partially cut image! The new cutting mat is stronger and thicker so no more warping when you run it through the machine, YAY!! And I'm super excited for the new EVOLUTION!!

Lion Brand Yarn

I have many craft obsessions one of them being with yarn.  I love to crochet, I haven't done much on WhipperBerry, but it is one of my favorite hobbies.  I also love to use yarn when I craft, I love the colors and textures and how just a piece of yarn can had such dimension to a project.  I also tend to hoard yarn like crazy.  My favorite new line of yarn comes from the ever popular Martha Stewart via Lion Brand Yarn…

Silhouette

Silhouette is always a fan favorite and at CHA it was no different.  They had people lining up down the eisles to have a crack at dolling up their very own Silhouette bag with the heat transfer material.  Everyone loved it!

 

I can't wait until they release their new 12×24 cutting mat sometime this spring.  I promise you guys will be the first to know when that little goodie is up for grabs!

Now I'm left full of anticipation waiting for the release of all these fun goodies.  I go to the craft store now and I can't help but get excited about all of the fun items that are getting ready to hit the store shelves!!

Playtime

Now CHA is not all business.  It's a great time to get together with great friends and spend some much needed time together.  To start off the weekend we headed to Disneyland with a small group and had a MAGICAL time! We were celebrating Tauni's birthday…

From left to right, Mique from 30 Handmade Days, Steph from Somewhat Simple, Jen from Tatertots & Jell-o, Marie from Make & Takes, Kami from No Biggie, Heather from Dollar Store Crafts, Lara from Less Cake More Frosting, ME & Tauni from the Snap Conference!

We had a ball getting reacquainted over a handful of dinners and parties…

Beckie from Infarrantly Creative, Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous, Steph from Somewhat Simple, Yes, I'm the dork with the closed eyes, Kristyn from Lil' Luna and Jamielyn from I Heart Naptime.

We had fun getting to know crafting celebrities. Kristyn and I had the chance to meet Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune. She has her own line of yarn through Lion Brand and We had a ball at the Plaid booth with Cathie and Steve from Creative Juice on HGTV. They have a new line of craft products coming out soon!

Yours truly, Kristyn Lil' Luna, Cathie, Steve, Heidi from Sew Craft Create, Jamielyn from I Heart Naptime & Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous.

And of course if you are spending anytime with Lara from Less Cake More Frosting… We have to do a little more Disney shopping and goofing around…

 

It's a MUST!!  All in all, I had a ball at CHA and can't wait to go again next year!!

What's up today…

That's just to name a few, hop on over to the WhipperCafe to see all of the fun chats that are happening.  We would LOVE to hear what you think!