Review

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

0 · Feb 22, 2012 · 16 Comments

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!!

Packaging your Valentines with GiftGloss

12 · Jan 24, 2012 · 7 Comments

Can you feel it in the air? It's getting close… "What" you ask? Valentine's Day!! I know that there are haters out there, I choose to not be one of them. I love, LOVE! It doesn't need to be romantic love {although that's my favorite} the love between family and friends is just as amazing. What makes Valentines day for me, is coming up with a fun little goodie to share with ALL the loved ones in my life. This year I've discovered the love of homemade donuts and I am packaging them with GiftGloss from the FoofQueens.

Because quite honestly, it's not just what you give… IT'S HOW YOU GIVE IT!! You guys know that I am ALL about the packaging. I have been as long as I can remember. I'm so glad that I found GiftGloss it has so many applications. If you haven't heard of GiftGloss it's a dandy little system where you can create your own custom wrapped gifts. It's a sleeve of a unique material developed by the FoofQueens that is so fun to create with. I used the small six inch sleeve to create the perfect wrapping for my heart shaped donuts.

Using the handy GiftGloss Dispenser to unroll the appropriate amount of GiftGloss and then neatly cut the sleeve without having to run and search for scissors. I carefully placed my donuts into the sleeve and then found some fun materials to tie off the ends.

I used some Divine Twine, ric-rac and some fun pom pom yarn to tie off the ends. Then I created a fun, simple tag from some basic tags, washi tape, my alphabet rolling stamp & some fabric…

Super Simple and then added it to the end of the package…

There is no way that I would've been able to make a package that cute to show off these FUN donuts!! It's just soooo easy! Here is another idea that I had for a fun way to give a simple Valentine gift…

Take a simple recycled bottle and put some fun candy inside. I found these fun heart shaped Honey Lover candies that are just too cute and make for the perfect Valentine. I placed the bottle in the six inch sleeve and then tied off the top with a thin strip of fabric along with a key tag from the office supply store. Simple and yet so fun when packaged the right way! You need to head over to the FoofQueens Facebook page to see all kinds of fun and inexpensive Valentine ideas that I'm sure will tickle your fancy.

The FoofQueens would like to give each and everyone one of you a special Valentine gift as well. For the rest of January all of the products at the Gift Gloss store are 40% off they would like to give all of you guys an additional 10% off your total purchase. All you have to do is enter A SWEET DEAL at check out to receive the additional 10% off. Act quickly this special deal is good thru next Tuesday the 31st.

Thanks FoofQueens for the fun early Valentine's Day gift!!

* Don't forget to enter this weeks DownEast Basics giveaway and don't you worry… I'll post the recipe for the heart shaped donuts next week!!

DownEast Basics | Giveaway

0 · Jan 23, 2012 · 91 Comments

Raise your hand if you've gone shopping with a teenage girl recently? A daughter, sister, niece or friend… How was it? Did you want to pull your hair out after about 20 minutes? Did it turn into a power struggle between you and your shopping companion? Ok, maybe this only happens when my 14 year old and I go shopping. We travel from store to store looking for fun, cute, stylish and MODEST clothes… only to by terribly disappointed. If it's cute and stylish, it shows too much skin. If it covers all the appropriate areas, it's a "Mom, you're kidding me right? That looks like something YOU would wear!"

Hales and I have struggled for sometime now looking for the perfect store for her to shop for some stylish & modest clothes. A few weeks ago we walked into the DownEast Basics store here in Vegas and managed to have the most pleasant shopping trip EVER!!!! Their new spring line is sooooooo cute!! Here is a picture of Hales in one of the cute outfits that we bought that day. It was so funny, the sales ladies where having a ball watching her put together outfits. She came up with some really fun options.

Isn't it CUTE!! {yes I know the Uggs are a little questionable, but whose to argue with a teenager who is willing to get all dolled up for you to take pictures of her to put on your blog!} The outfit is LOVELY!! Every piece the Uneven Beauty skirt, the Across Town cardigan, the belt, even the Rhinestone & Chains necklace are all from the new January line. She LOVES the outfit {we even have a matching bag, but we forgot that} I love it for so many reasons. First, it makes her happy and helps her to feel pretty. Second, I LOVE that I didn't have to spend an arm and a leg to purchase an ENTIRE outfit!

I just love the belt! It takes the simple cardigan and kicks it up a notch! We saved enough money on this whole outfit that we were able to buy another shirt, that paired with the skirt created a whole new look…

I've gotta say, I'm one happy Mom!! The thing that I love most is that I found some fun stuff to add to my wardrobe there as well….

Here are a few of the items that I am crushing on. The Destiny Dress, The Avenues Top & the Reporter Dress are just a few on my wish list.

The folks at DownEast Basics would LOVE to share some of their new January line with you guys!! They are sponsoring the DownEast Basics Giveaway here on WhipperBerry and are offering one single item from their online store to one of you. You got it… YOU GET TO PICK WHATEVER YOU WANT!!! Here's what you need to do to enter…

…

Read On →

Crayon Heart Valentines | Lifestyle Crafts

84 · Jan 10, 2012 · 132 Comments

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and today I thought I would share my "you color my WORLD" Crayon Heart Valentines, made with the new Sweetheart die collection from Lifestyle Crafts and heart shaped crayons made with melted Crayola crayons.

Isn't that fun? I am always a fan of homemade Valentines for the kiddos classes every year. It's also a bit of a challenge to make valentines that are fun, colorful and easy on their sugar intake for the day.

I know this isn't a new idea by far… My neighbor made these heart shaped crayons several years ago after finding this fun idea in Family Fun magazine, but I thought it would be a perfect fit for the new Sweetheart Nesting Hearts from Lifestyle Crafts. Cutting the hearts was super simple using my Epic three in one tool from Lifestyle Crafts. The Epic tool cuts, embosses and can create beautiful letterpress projects as well.

But I am getting ahead of myself! Before we can make the cards we need to make the heart shaped crayons…

You will need to gather all the old crayons in the house… if your house is anything like mine, that won't be a problem. You can also purchase new crayons as well. I will have to admit, the new crayons were easier to remove the labels from. I used an X-ACTO knife to make a slit down the length of the crayon to easily remove the labels. The older crayons took a little more coaxing.

Once you've removed all of the labels, break the crayons into small pieces. The smaller the better…

I also found that separating them into color families made for the best looking crayons, but that is completely up to you!

You will need to use a heart shaped silicon baking mold to melt your crayons in. I found mine at Michaels in the baking section and it worked like a dream. The girls and I decided that we wanted our crayons to be a little glittery so we added about 1/2 a teaspoon of silver glitter to the bottom of the baking mold. Then we filled the baking mold with the crayons about 1/3 full. The mold I used was pretty deep so depending on what you use you will have to play around with this.

Place in your oven that has been pre-heated to 300 degrees and baked for 15 minutes. The crayons will become completely liquefied so be careful when you pull them out of the oven. Carefully place them on the counter to cool. You want to make sure that you don't move them around too much and mix the colors more than you want. Wait for about 20 minutes or until the crayon is solid again and then gently remove it from the mold and let cool completely.

I made 57 hearts with the Wilton Mini Heart Mold using approximately 200 crayons.

Now it's time to pull out your Epic Tool to make the heart shaped cards for you to place your new crayons on. I used two different dies from the new Sweetheart line for this project. The Nesting Heart and the Nesting Scallop Hearts work beautiful for this card.

I decided that since I wanted the focus to be on the crayons I used a basic white watercolor paper for the base of the card.

Once I cut out the heart shapes, I used my rolling alphabet stamp to create the fun saying on the card. "Valentine… you color my WORLD" I just LOVE that look!!

Of course I had to dress up the heart crayons with some Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I just wrapped the hearts randomly and tied with a bow or made little twine bundles for the decoration…

This is such a fun project to do with the kiddos. My girls and I had ball gabbing while we were prepping the crayons. After that it was a perfect opportunity to have a color class while we created our crayon concoctions. From start to finish this is an easy and elegant Valentine treat that your little ones {or big ones} will love to share with their friends this Valentine's Day!!

Come back tomorrow I have another fun Anthro inspired Valentine project made with my Sweetheart dies from Lifestyle Crafts!

Here are some more WhipperBerry Lifestyle Craft projects…