Printing on Fabric Hint

Do you want to print on fabric, but do not have any fabric sheets available.  Today I found a way, very easy and economical. 

Note: I will not take any responsibility for printer problems, if you try this hint.

Take a A4 sheet of card stock and press double-sided tape around the entire edge.  This acts as a stabiliser for the printer and gives weight to the fabric.

Cut your calico (fabric) to the same size.  Press it onto the card stock, ensuring you smooth out all bubbles, and snip off any threads from the sides.

Take it to your ink-jet printer, and if possible feed it through the back, so that it goes straight through the printer.  ( I am using a Canon MX340 printer).  I selected "high" print quality to ensure that I got the darkest print possible.

Slowly remove the printed fabric from the cardboard, try not to pull too quickly, else you will have loose threads

The same card stock, with the double-sided tape can be used at least three times successfully before being replaced.

These printed sheets are going to be made into bags. It is a good idea to heat set the ink by ironing on the reverse side before sewing up.

I used the Tagxedo site to create these graphics

What would you print onto fabric, using this tip?

Judy



Coasters Make Over

These coasters were dull and boring, so while I had the ModPodge out, they had a makeover.

I purchased the coaster graphics from Sunflower Friends - Sondra has the most amazing printables, and I purchase a lot of graphics from her.

A new look for my coasters... printed graphics on cardboard, cut out and ModPodge to the coasters.  I put three coats of ModPodge on top, so that they would take the wear.

A quick look at another couple of recycled business card tags - these were quick and easy using Theodora Cleave hand painted wooden buttons

I need to purchase more Christmas Stamps, as I think they need just a little extra on the tag. Maybe a background? I think I need to play with them a little more as I am not quite happy with the final result.

Till next time

Judy

Recycled Business Cards

Do you have old business cards laying around, maybe from a previous job, or just ones you have collected over the years?

Here is something that you may like to do with them? Make them into Christmas Tags

This is what I did -

Get your business cards, they must be blank on the reverse side.

Age them, using your preferred method.  I used Parisian Essence (a Browning Essence in Australia), Vanilla and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Allow them to dry.

I used a corner punch to round the corners, in the above photo. This is not necessary as I made them without this step and they look great.

Glue your aged business cards to the felt with ModPodge (ensure the printed side is face down).  You can fit 8 business cards on one sheet of felt, however to be really economical you can use up your smaller scraps of felt for this project.  Leave a little space between each card, so that you can cut around them.

Allow to dry.  You may need to place a weight on top of them, while they are drying.  A couple of heavy books will do the trick.  This ensures that they dry flat.

Use pinking shears to cut around each card, ensuring you leave a little bit of the felt showing.

Now comes the fun bit, glue on your decoration, in my case a Santa bottletop.  Use a strong glue like E6000 or Tiger glue.  Both of these are quite expensive in Australia, and I have found a really good glue from my local $2.00 shop.  It is called Silicon Glue by Craftworks. It did literally cost only $2.00 and it "Bonds metal, wood, fabric, card & glass" and "Glues like hot glue".

I am impressed with it, although this is the first time I have used it, so I will be interested to see long term results. It took a little longer to bond, but the adhesive is very strong when set.

Punch your tag hole in the top - use a strong metal punch, so that you can cleanly get through both the felt and card.

Stamp your greeting, I only had one stamp that would fit "Merry Christmas", although I like the finished result.  You could use rub-ons, stencils, write a message..

All that is left is to add a lovely Bakers Twine hanger to your tag, and you are finished.

I have about another 200 of these business cards, so I am sure you will see more projects with them being used in the future.

Imagine family gift cards, with a photo of the recipient in the bottle cap, and maybe birthday wishes?

You could glue pretty scrapbook paper to the back, or even newspaper or magazine pages?

Quick and Easy Project, and certainly one that you could do with your children.

Judy



Cute finds

It is interesting what you can find to assist you in your craft ...

Patterned paper-clips from the "junky" shop - what can they be used for:
Book marks, tag holders, card making, I am sure there will be a lot of uses, I bought them because they were cute and CHEAP ($1.47 a jar)

Then there were the pins that attached the tags on some new work clothes, a great alternative to rusty safety pins to attach rusty bells etc on my Santa's.  Best price, Free!

Will show photos when I use them.

I have had a request for a tutorial for the little tissue cover, I will do one, but I must admit upfront, it is not my pattern, verbal instructions were given to me .. so I hope I do not break any copyright laws by passing it on.

Does anyone know the legalities of this?

Judy

Party Hat

Making a party hat during school holidays. 

Materials required:
Plastic disposable plate, headband, pipecleaners, lots of glitter and feathers and one talented niece.

Judy

Personalised Subway Art Printables

Before I start this post, I must say, how invaluable the Internet is for making it easy to be creative.
I have found two sites that allow you to type in any words and they create the most wonderful jumbled up "works of art".  The possibilities are endless.

First I tried Wordle - entered in words to assist my niece with a printable to help celebrate her Grandmothers birthday.  You can print from this site, however cannot save the results.

Then I discovered Tagedo - this one has a variety of shapes etc you can choose, you can also save the results as a jpg or png and then use these files in any of your crafts.

Just for fun, I entered in my online store address and was astounded with the results, of course I chose a CAT layout to reflect my store name 

This is the result -

How fantastic does this look?  I have printed it out and will purchase/find a frame and hang it in my craft studio.  I have not done that yet, as I was so excited with this find, I wanted to share it with you.

Just for fun, this is the same link, however in a map of Australia...

I just played around with all the different settings. There are so many different options, shapes, colours, etc. Warning, it is very addicting, Save your artwork as a jpg and you are ready to start creating all kinds of things.

Have fun
Judy

BonBons for a Cause

A friend, Sonia, came to visit yesterday and she bought a fabulous idea for table decorations for the annual pink ribbon dinner.  Lovely fabric bon bons which we can fill with a lot of different goodies.  Sonia has made a tissue cover to go with the bon bons.

The bon bon is a "Hatched & Patched" Christmas Bon Bon pattern.  This is my attempt, only the fabric is a little too light to photograph well.

This is the start, only about another 20 to go ....but luckily Sonia is helping and we have until early October to have them all completed.  Do you have any suggestions to what we can put in them?

Judy

Breast Cancer Drain Bags

I have completed 4 breast cancer drain bags today, so only 2 more to make for my monthly quota.  We have started making a little tissue pack to put inside the bag as a gift, which is a little extra to show we care.  This was at the suggestion of a friend, Sonia, and the feedback we are getting is really positive.  It does not take much to help out.  If you want to help your local hospital, check out this link for more information on how to make the bags.

I have a chicken theme happening here.... this one is from leftover blocks...

Another from a chicken print fabric ... it really is a good way to use up fabric, and only takes approx 1 hour to make a bag.  Go on, make some for your local hospital, it will make you feel good, and help someone else in need.

Judy

Zippered Bag and Card Holder

Continuing with the theme of "being prepared" with handmade gifts this year.  I made a pencil case for my nephew with a zip.  I still dislike working with zips, however I figure if I keep practising it may become easier.

Lined inside with green checked fabric.

Another design was tried for the loyalty / business card holder... being from a large family I did not want to make everyones holder the same, so I am trying different designs.  The plastic tie in this photo looks quite bright, although it does tie in nicely with my new business cards.

Tomorrow I am sewing more Breast Cancer Drain Bags.  I donate 6 bags each month, and with the help of family and friends I have been able to honour this commitment.  However, I handed over the last lot of bags I had made today, so that they can be donated to the Wagga hospital tomorrow, so it is back to the sewing machine to make more.

Until next time

Judy

Criss Cross Coasters

I am always looking for something new to add to my gift baskets at Christmas and I came across this tutorial from All Sorts blog from way back in 2006.  Yes I know, sometimes I am really behind the times!
Criss Cross Coasters, using a charm pack .. each coaster takes 6 x 5" squares - or you could make them any size you like.  This is my first set.

They are really sweet and very easy to make.  I suggest using a "walking foot" on your sewing machine, if you have one, it makes it easier to sew through the thicknesses.  I am going to try them in Christmas fabric next.  However in the meantime, I used a twist on the pattern, and folded the fabric into triangles and used the same principle to sew.  An entirely different look.

Two lovely sets of coasters to put away for gifts.

Judy

Cards with Button Embellishments

Examples of baby cards and a Christmas card using buttons from my store, created by my sister Sue

Merry Christmas card using a Theodore Cleave hand painted wooden button

Baby girl cards, using BG2143 -  Baby Girl flatbacks, BG301 - Baby Value Pack and DD1201-42 - Paper Tags with Aluminium rims

I am so lucky to be part of a large talented family, who all enjoy a variety of crafts which also include cooking and gardening.

Judy

Quilt and Owls

My sister Ann has been busy again and has sent me photos of her latest quilt.  It was a "Natalie Ross in Stitches" pattern called "Lullaby in the night sky".  Pattern was bought in my store Cat 'n Cart Crafts .

The colours are bright and cheerful and would look lovely in any child's room.  She also made some of my little owls, and it looks like she could not stop at one ... they are so easy.

Enjoy your day

Judy

Craft with Children

I had a wonderful weekend with the unexpected arrival of my brother and his family.  The children always like to come and play in my craft studio and be creative.
The first question asked was " Is the Craft Shop open? "  What this relates to is, are we able to make something?
Saturday morning the craft shop opened at 10:00 am and Thomas (6) was the first arrival.  He wanted to make an owl (see previous post here) and a bag.

He chose his fabric, pinned and cut out ... a study in concentration with the "big" scissors

All the children were able to operate the foot pedal of the sewing machine, while I steered.  It gave them an opportunity to control the speed, and use the machine without being in any danger.

Thomas sewed around his owl, turned right side out, stitched the running stitch for closure, after spooning in the pellets.  I controlled the hot glue gun for the eyes... and a cute little owl was made

Next the fabric was chosen for the bag, great Australian print, and we sewed again... drawstring was added, and he had a great little bag for all his treasures.

His hour was up, so the next to visit was Matilda (4) - she wanted to made a dog, cat and a owl ... wow, in 1 hour?  We compromised to begin with to make a cat, I can draw that ... she wanted pink ... fabric selected, sewing done, whiskers chosen... how cute is this cat?

We also had time to made a gingerbread man, with a stitched heart.  I put the needle in the fabric and she pulled it through.  All colour selections were made by her and she also did most of the stuffing. 

Next came Olivia (9), I had to have a coffee break, so I tempted her with a hot chocolate before we begun.

She had brought up a large pine cone, that she thought would make a owl, how right she was.  She went foraging in my craft supplies, found some small polystyrene balls for the eyes, used a black marker to colour in the pupil.  Cut out felt for the beak and tongue (cheeky).  It needed to be put on a stand.  One of my rusty bed springs was ideal, wound with some greenery, then glued onto a mdf board with was covered with fabric.  It is so cute, I am not sure if the photos do it justice, but it is wonderful.  The only assistance I had with this owl was to hot glue it onto the board, the rest was all created by Olivia.

She wanted to continue with the bird theme, so the crafts supplies were raided again, and this bright bird was the result, she even had to add some food 

I love working with the children as much as they love playing, the colour combinations and ideas that they have are so unique, so it was not just my nieces and nephew that had a great time, I did too...

Until next time

Judy