Crafts

DIY Farmhouse Felt Christmas Ornaments

56 · Nov 14, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I am going to label this season at WhipperBerry the felt season. I LOVE all things felt and I love being able to cut and customize my felt designs using my Cricut Maker & my cute little Cricut EasyPress 2. I have been wanting to create a farmhouse style tree that is all black & white so I thought some simple and elegant felt ornaments are a perfect addition to the tree. Farmhouse felt Christmas ornaments are sure to be a classic staple for years to come as you decorate for the holidays, plus they are super easy to store and won’t break! I love it!! Here’s how you can make a set of your own.

+ This post is sponsored by my favorite folks at Cricut +

What I love about these ornaments is that you can tell your Christmas story right on your tree with these simple word ornaments. If you love Santa and would like to have a tree dedicated to words that evoke fond memories of all things Santa, you can create that!

If you would like to tell the story about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ you can do that as well. I know that each family is different but that’s what’s beautiful about these simple ornaments. You create your own story.

Not to mention the fact that YOU can select the colors. If you are like me and would like to stick with black & white, great. If you want to have a rainbow tree, awesome! It’s all up to you and I LOVE that. Here, let me show you what you need and how to make these simple but elegant ornaments for your tree.

Farmhouse Felt Christmas Ornaments Supplies

Instructions

First, what you’ll need to do is to click on this LINK to my project in Cricut Design Space. My design will let you add your own words and customize it how you would like OR, open Design Space and create some ornament designs of your own.

Now, if you are using my design, everything is sized and ready to go for you. If you are creating some ornaments of your own design, double check the sizes and make sure everything is prepped and ready to cut. If you don’t know how to do that you can visit this post that has a full video tutorial on how to prep your design for cutting in design space.

Once you are ready to cut, all you need to do is load your felt onto your Fabric cutting mat and follow the directions on the Design Space screen.

Now for cutting the felt, I have been more successful using the rotary blade than the deep cut blade so, you’ll have to manually change that when you’re ready to cut.

Here are a couple of VERY IMPORTANT RULES…

When cutting felt on the Fabric Cutting Mat, DON’T worry about the fuzz that is left behind. I have been cutting all kinds of felt on just one cutting mat with fuzz and all and it’s not a problem. The more you play around with the cutting mat and try to scrape or wash that felt fuzz off, the more you are damaging your mat. Just keep going and ignore the fuzz. Of course, test to make sure that your felt is secure on the mat. It will after quite a few cuts become difficult to use and at that point, it’s a better idea to dispose of that mat and start using another one.
DON’T FORGET TO MIRROR YOUR IMAGES! I’ve done it more than I would like to admit which drives me CRAZY! When you are cutting your designs when using the iron-on vinyl, make sure to mirror your images. Remember, the design is cut on the back side of the Everyday Iron-On. You will flip it over and iron on your design onto the surface of your project.

It looks like a crazy bunch of backward letters but, flip it over and cut out your words and it looks just fine.

Now that your words are all cut along with your felt ornaments now, it’s time to press the EveryDay Iron-on onto the felt.

HANDS-DOWN the best tool to press any type of iron-on material is any of the Cricut EasyPress tools. I love these gems and don’t know what I would do without them in my crafting arsenal. The EasyPress and the EasyPress 2 machines are far superior to a regular iron. If you love to create anything with an iron-on element you need to invest in one or more of these great machines. The heat plate holds a consistent temperature all throughout the plate. With irons, you will have hot and cool spots. Also, the EasyPress 2 heats up super quick! I LOVE all three of the EasyPress 2 sizes. For this project, I’m using the small 6×7 size. CUTEST LITTLE EASYPRESS EVER!!

Now, all you need to do is to lay your felt down on your EasyPress Mat, place your words on the felt in the proper place, cover your ornament with the Cricut Protective Mat or a cotton tea towel and press with the small Easypress 2 set to 35o˚ for 60 seconds.

I use the remover tool to save my heat sensitive fingers from the Easy Press Mat and let it cool for about 1 minute.

Then I carefully pull the protective sheet from the top of the Everyday Iron-on material. Always start slow and pull carefully. If you see any lifting, stop and give it another run under the EasyPress 2.

Now, all you need to do is add some ribbon bows if you’d like and some ribbon for the ornament to hang from.

And, that’s it! You have some great non-breakable ornaments for your tree or to use as gift tags or even for a simple gift for neighbors!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

How To Make A Large Scale Felt Banner for Christmas

58 · Nov 9, 2018 · 3 Comments

Boy-oh-Boy… I LOVE large scale projects! Sometimes bigger really is better in my book. There are times when you really need to make a statement and a large scale felt banner or large drop cloth sign created to wow your guests or to really make a room POP! I wanted to create a large felt sign for the Christmas season to add to my living room and to also use for a Christmas party that I’m planning this year. Let me show you what I made and how YOU can make one yourself!

• This post is brought to you by the amazing folk at Cricut •

Many of you might say that a project of this size is impossible, especially with the Cricut cutting machines. You can really only cut 12 inches by 24 inches, right? Technically, yes. However, if you have learned to master the Slice & Contour tools in Cricut Design Space, it’s actually very do-able. Especially now, with the Cricut Maker & the new larger Easy Press 2… Projects like this are a DREAM! The Maker can handle all kinds of materials like the most delicate paper and fabric to the tough stuff like matboard, leather, and balsa wood. What I especially love is that you can use it to cut FELT! One of my favorite materials to create with. Now, you can do it on a much LARGER scale with the help of some tips and tricks that will follow.

How to Use the Slice and Contour Tools

I have heard a few people who have complained about the lack of freedom in Design Space and I’m here to tell you… That’s not true! You have a ton of freedom when designing in Cricut Design Space if you are good friends with your Slice and Contour tools. These are the two tools that help you customize either your own graphics or graphics from the huge library of designs in the Design Space library. Here is a quick video to show you how I break this large design ( it’s roughly about 4 feet wide and a little over 4 feet tall) into smaller pieces so that they will fit on my 12×24 cutting mat for the Cricut Maker.

Isn’t that cool! I love that with a little knowledge and some imagination, you can truly create something incredible with the Cricut tools.

Supplies for Large-Scale Felt Banner

1 1/2 yards of black canvas fabric
24 – gold felt 9×12
8 – white premium felt 12×18
5 – antique white felt 9×12
3 – red premium felt 12×18
5 – heathered gray premium felt 12×18
3 – dark green felt 9×12
3 – light green felt 9×12
24 – large wood beads of various sizes 1 inch, 1 1/4 inch
10 – black wool felt balls – 2.5cm
Cricut Maker with Rotary Blade
1 – Fabric Grip Cricut Cutting Mat
Heat n’Bond
Cricut Easy Press 2 – 12×10
Cricut Easy Press Mat-20×16
Cricut Iron-On Protective Sheet
hot glue gun
hot glue sticks
2 – 4 ft. wood dowels
cotton rope
measuring tape

Instructions

You will want to set-up your Easy Press 2 and the Easy Press Mat and iron-on the Heat n’Bond on one side of each of the felt pieces. I LOVE the Easy Press 2 for this!! Seriously way easier than using a small iron and the consistency of the heat plate make this a breeze.
Jump into Cricut Design Space via this LINK HERE to get access to my design file. I have this project all ready to go for you. It’s sized to create a LARGE 3 1/2 x 4 foot banner. The design is already sliced and contoured so that you don’t have to worry about that step. All you need to do is follow the on-screen prompts and load the mat with the color of felt that it corresponds with and you’ll be good to go. NOW, the felt that I had was smaller than the designs, not to worry though. I placed my felt onto the cutting mat and easily pieced them together while I was pressing them onto the fabric. If you’re careful you won’t even see the seam.
You will find that some of the designs don’t all fit onto one sheet of felt. Don’t worry about that. Just keep all of your pieces organized with where they need to go. Then when you’re ready to iron them on, you’ll do just that with even the little pieces and you’ll never know there was a cut there.
Once everything is cut, press your black canvas. You don’t want to have any wrinkles. I just use my Easy Press 2 for this process. WAY EASIER!
Now, I have you cutting 2 sets of the gold wreath section of the banner. That’s not a mistake, I wanted the wreath section to pop out so that it’s 3D rather than a flat design.
Lay out your wreath & quote on the black canvas and make sure that it is placed in the center and spaced according to the photo below. This is when you will want to make sure you have kept any small pieces and have placed them in the right spot.
Once you have placed the design the way you would like it. Place the Easy Press Mat under the first section and set your Easy Press 2 to 350˚. Lay the Iron-On Protective Mat on top of the first felt section and then lightly press the Easy Press 2 for 60 seconds on that first section.
Continue over the entire design until it is all ironed onto the canvas.
Next, you assemble the flowers with hot glue. I used a wood bead in the center of each flower because I like the look and it stabilizes the flower a little more.
Once the flowers are assembled, start laying them out on the canvas until you get the look that you like. Then section by section, hot glue the flowers and leaves onto the banner.
At this point, you have two choices. You can finish off the banner by sewing the pocket for the dowel OR, you can faux sew like me and just hot glue the pocket. I fold the top of the fabric down about 2 1/2 – 3 inches and then hot glue or sew across the bottom of the fold leaving a pocket to feed the dowel through.
Repeat the last step at the bottom of the banner as well. This is needed to add some weight at the bottom of the banner. If you don’t have this the banner will hang a little wonky.
Tie the cotton rope onto the top dowel so that you can hang the banner.

Now, you’re all finished! You have an amazing work of art that you will treasure for years. What other large-scale signs are you wanting to make? I just finished creating all kinds of large-scale projects for my daughter’s wedding and I can’t wait to show you what I created for that amazing event.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

Toddler Activity Pencil Jars

27 · Nov 7, 2018 · Leave a Comment

This post is brought to you by Ball® Fresh Preserving Products by Newell Brands

Do you know that old saying from Chaucer, “Idle hands are the Devil’s tools”? It’s an understatement when it comes to toddlers and preschoolers. I’m the mother of four and I would have to say, I’ve experienced love from those cute little puggy hands along with total mayhem. We have one member of our family who has been called “Poopy Picasso” a few times in their life. I’ll let you figure that one out on your own. I’ve also worked in early childhood education and have learned that busy hands that have been guided successfully, are hands that are constantly learning and growing. That’s why I am making these Toddler Activity Jars for all of my younger friends this year for the holidays.

There are two key components for this project. The cute Ball® Sharing Jars along with fun activities inside of the jars. These jars are meant to be managed by an adult so that the kiddos won’t risk breaking the jars. I like to keep mine on a shelf where the little ones can see them but have to ask to have them brought down by a grown-up. They know there are going to have something fun inside, and each time you bring one of the jars down, they never know what they are going to find. One time the yellow jar will have the fishing game, the next time it might have a matching game or, maybe a pad of paper and some fun crayons. That’s what’s fun about these jars, they will always have something fun and colorful inside. That’s pure magic for this age group. Here’s what you need to do to make some of your own.

Toddler Activity Jars Supplies

Ball® Wide Mouth Quart Sharing Jars
Chalk Paint
- White
- Black
- 4 complimenting colors
Chalk painting brush
Small flat paint brush
600 grit sandpaper

Instructions

The minute I was introduced to the Ball® Sharing Jars I thought they would look super cute as a pencil jar and couldn’t wait for a chance to give that project a go. Now, when chalk painting jars like this, the plan from the beginning is that you will distress them a bit as you are finishing up the project. With that in mind, you will want to decide on what color you want to come through as you distress down through the paint. For this project, I decided to go with white as an undercoat and then set to work.

I painted two coats of the white letting it dry in between coats. Make sure that you don’t paint the bottom of the jar. This is a fun little element that the toddlers will love. It’s a little window where they can sneak a peek to see what’s inside.

Next, I painted the four different colors, one on each of the four jars.

Because of the nice white bottom layers, I didn’t really need a 2nd coat for the other colors. I let these dry overnight at this point. You really need the paint to have time to not only dry but to also cure. The following day I distressed the jars to give them that worn-in look.

Once the distressing was finished and I had wiped the jars down with a damp cloth and let them dry, I added the white scallop at the top to look like the sharpened pencil. I just followed the lines of the Sharing Jar which are perfect for the pencil shape. I painted in rough small circles with a thicker chalk paint to add some texture to the surface to make it look more like wood. Once that had dried, I added a ring of black chalk paint to make it look like the pencil lead. I also used the small flat brush to lightly line the raised edges on the side of the Sharing Jar to highlight the jars structure and its pencil-like shape.

Now, with these jar being used by sticky little fingers, I would use a chalk paint finishing wax to protect the paint and keep it from distressing any further.

Pro Tip – If brush lines bother you in your finished project (sometimes it adds to the effect of the project) all you have to do is smooth the surface of the paint after each layer of paint. You can do that by lightly sanding it with a 600 grit sandpaper.

Toddler Activity Ideas

Here is where the sky is the limit. You can fill these jars with all kinds of fun for toddlers and preschoolers alike. I made a couple to show what you could with these fun jars. A color matching paint palette & a fishing game. Both of these projects were no-sew and easy to put together. I used my Cricut cutting machine to cut the felt, but you could always print a pattern and then cut them out yourself. If you do happen to have a Cricut Maker, you are more than welcome to use my Toddler Activity cut files for this project. It’s already sized and ready to go.

The paint palette was easy, I glued the circles of “paint” onto the artist’s palette with some fabric glue and then glued two other circles of “paint” onto a clothespin. One on the top of the clothespin and one sandwiching the top section of the clothespin, inside of the open pin, so the top piece of wood is sandwiched in felt and the bottom section is free. This way your little ones can clip the paint sticks onto the corresponding paint on the palette.

When the glue is totally dry, I fold the palette in half and then roll it up like a cone and place it inside of the jar and put all of the paint sticks inside as well.

The fishing game is just as simple. Just a little cutting and gluing.

I placed a heavy-duty washer in between two layers of felt fish and used a fabric glue to glue the two pieces of felt together.

Then I wrapped a strong magnet in fabric (to minimize the choking hazard) tied it off with a string. Then, I hot glued a piece of rope to the wrapped magnet. I put a finger loop at the top of the string for our little friends to slip their finger into and go fishing!

These are just two ideas to fill your fun pencil jars! You can make some memory games, matching letters and number games. All kinds of stuff will go in these fun jars.

Michaels Dream Tree Challenge 2018

22 · Nov 1, 2018 · 2 Comments

+ This post brought to you by the amazing folks at Michaels +

I am beyond honored to be able to participate in the Michaels Dream Tree Challenge again this year. I LOVE getting to put together my perfect tree and share what I’ve created with you guys. This year’s tree is standing majestically in our entryway and it looks beautiful!! I love how Michaels makes it so easy to create a cohesive holiday look. Michaels holiday décor collections make it easy to find your holiday style and bring your vision to life! From the perfect tree and trimmings to creative gifts and DIY supplies, Michaels has all the ingredients to create wonder-filled memories for family and friends.

I had so much fun working on this tree! Several of the decorations on the tree were made with inexpensive items that you will find at Michaels that have been crafted into something simple and timeless for the tree. For example, we’ll start at the base of the tree and work our way up. I purchased this bucket at Michaels a little while ago and spray painted it a bronze-like gold and that is what I am using for my tree stand. I removed the official tree stand from the tree and fill the bucket with styrofoam cake rounds from Michaels to secure the tree in place. Then I filled the bucket the rest of the way up with matte white Christmas balls.

I wanted the tree to look nice and full regardless of the fact that it is a pencil tree so I filled in the tree with batting to make it look like it has been out in a glorious winter snowfall.

It’s crazy how the batting can add so much to the look of the tree. I wanted this tree to have a farmhouse style and what’s more farmhouse than some greenery? I wanted to think a little outside of the box and add greenery that isn’t the typical evergreen that you find during the holidays. I opted for different types of eucalyptus and some other basic greenery that you can find in the Michaels floral isles. I also tucked some wood snowflakes in as a base element for the tree.

Now for the extra fun part! This year I made my own clay ornaments out of oven-baked clay that you can find at Michaels.

I rolled out the clay and cut out stars and circles with cookie cutters that I found at Michaels. Then, I used a leather alphabet stamp set to imprint words into the clay. I will have a full tutorial on how to make these fun ornaments in the next few days. Stay tuned!

One of my favorite parts of the tree are the ball ornament clusters.

Instead of just hanging the balls on the tree, I hot glue them together in clusters and then wire them to the tree with floral wire.

This little trick can take your Christmas tree to a whole other level. It makes it look like a professional decorated your tree for you. Also, making ribbon picks by folding a 6-inch piece of ribbon in half and then wiring the ends together also make your tree look professionally decorated.

Then there is the star! I made mine using 1 inch unfinished wood balls that I found at Michaels. I did have to drill holes in them myself but, that was totally fine. I wanted a nice large wood ball for this star tree topper. I will have a post shortly as well for how to make this classic Christmas star.

And, finally… The fabulous Christmas Farmhouse decor that I just HAD to add to my Christmas scene. You guys REALLY need to check this stuff out. They have come up with some fabulous collections for this season! This is the Fireside collection that I used for my tree inspiration.

photo credit | Michaels Instagram

I LOVE the Advent House that is huge and will be a Christmas treasure from now on in our house. the reindeer, the wood presents and the pillows! Michaels has fabulous holiday pillows right now. AND then… there are the signs! You guys, enamel signs!! Metal signs!! So many incredible signs!!

All you need is to stock up on some Command Strips and you can add all kinds of great holiday signs all over the house! Are you excited to start your holiday decorating?! I know that I’m loving my entryway tree corner and can’t wait to put up my main Christmas tree in a few weeks! I can’t wait to see what you guys create this year!

Crafts

Farmhouse Felt Christmas Ornaments Supplies

Instructions

Here are a couple of VERY IMPORTANT RULES…

How to Use the Slice and Contour Tools

Supplies for Large-Scale Felt Banner

Instructions

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