Birthday invites

Made these invites for my kids birthday party. It was a quick job as I didn't have as much time as I would've wanted. Plus my kids didn't have too many demands!

The numbers are cut using Silhouette Portrait. The stars are from a Lawn fawn stamp set and the hippo is from MFT Happy hippos stamp set. Colored using copics. Added glitter using Wink of Stella pen.

Iron-on vinyl t-shirts

DH was participating in STP and we were going to welcome him in Portland at the finish line. I wanted to make t-shirts for all three of us. With some designing in Silhouette Studio, I came up with the above design. I used the Circuit iron-on vinyl since that was the one available in my color. Kids t-shirts are from Old Navy and mine from Jo-ann.
Here's a photo of my t-shirt

 I was very happy with the t-shirts! It did take a lot of ironing - simply followed the instructions on the package.

Pop-up card

I forget where I saw this kind of a card - I think it was either Lawn fawn blog or Jennifer McGuire's blog. I really liked the idea and the fact that I could make it without any additional dies etc. Oh yes now I remember it was the Lawn Fawn blog and they did use dies for it. However, with the die the complete card size is very small. Moreover with some calculations and a circle die (I used nestability die) it was fairly easy to make it.

For the base I used a 4" X 8.5" cardstock. Scored it in half along the long side - at 4.25".
For the pop-up panel, I used a 4" X 4.5" cardstock. Scored it along the long side at - 0.25", 2.25" and 4.25". Cut a circle in the center of this panel. Create your scene as you would like to. If you need to align the scenery on the base panel with this pop-up panel, like I did, then you need to stamp on the pop-up panel as well when you're stamping on the base panel. To attach the pop-up panel, lay it flat on the base panel - aligned at the center. Then using double sided tape adhere down the 0.25" border scored on both the sides.

Here's how the front looks:

Supplies: Lawn Fawn "Life is good" stamp set, distress inks, copic markers, nestability circle dies

Peasant dress for my little one

I had a yard if fabric lying around from some time back. It's a fabric I just love (unfortunately it is not enough to make any apparel for myself!) so I was looking around for some dress pattern for my little one that would not only not require more than a yard of fabric but also be simple enough. This pattern fit the bill! I used the measurements for 2/3 yr old for my 3.5 year old. She was very happy to have it!
The pockets were my own addition (so proud of that!). This was the first time I tried shirring. It took quite a bit of reading, watching YouTube and some accidents before I got it right. Other than that the pattern is very simple and only takes 2-3 hours. I would highly recommend trying it out!

Window scene

Lately there's been a surge of all kinds of shadow-type of cards. I forget which card gave me inspiration for this one but I just loved this idea! It was quite straight forward to make as well - even without any specialized dies. Just a circle die and paper trimmer is all you need.

I cut the card panel to 4" X 8.5". There's a front panel and an inside panel. The front panel is scored at 4.25". The inside panel is scored at 2.25", 4.25" and 6.5". Then cut a circle with the 4.25" scoring line as its vertical center. You can then decide how you want to create your scene.

The waves are create using scallop scissors. I colored the images using Zig Clean Color brush pens and the background is sponged using distress inks.

Here's the front of the card:

Supplies: Avery Elle Knotty stamp set, Lawn Fawn Critters of the sea stamp set, Neenah solar crest white cardstock, Distress inks, Versafine black onyx ink, Scallop scissors.

Pattern review: Simplicity Project Runway 2848

As I’ve already mentioned here I have hoarded this pattern for a long time. Like a really long time. Think years. There was a time when just like people get tempted by fabrics, I would get tempted by patterns. Ooh this dress would look so nice, let me buy this pattern. It’s only a $1. I’ll have the dress ready soon (yeah right!). Fast forward a few years. The dream did come true! I do have a dress made from that pattern and I love how it looks! You can see it in the picture below. No I did not stitch the shirt, that is ready made. Very happy that I could find just the right shirt for it.

The pattern was on the simpler side. Not too may pieces to sew. It has pockets too and there is a side zipper. What I realized is that I could have avoided the zipper (and all t he time it took) because I can basically pullover this dress. The fabric is a linen blend that I bought from a local store - Pacific Fabrics; so it’s a little on the stiffer side. When reading the pattern I felt that such a fabric would be better suited than a regular cotton and I’m glad I went with that. The dress hits about an inch above the knee. Overall quite satisfied with the pattern. Not as easy as the Burda one but still not bad.

Pattern review: Burda Style 6401

Here’s my dress:

The dress came out very much to my liking! Unfortunately I couldn’t get as good a photo of it. It was just what I wanted. The fabric was perfect – light and soft with a really nice print and color. The dress was simple, one-layered and hassle-free. Exactly the things I was looking for.

The fabric I used is Robert Kaufmann’s Millefiore Tomato. It’s slightly lighter than regular quilting weight cotton.

This is the first time I was using a Burda pattern and I’m a fan now! What I liked so much about this pattern company:

1. There is no wastage of paper. They try to optimize every inch of paper.
2. Instructions were so straightforward and intuitive. Most of the times, what I was thinking on how it should be done is how it would be done. With Simplicity and McCall I always notice that they do things in a more complicated fashion.

Starting with my last couple of dresses I’ve been paying more and more attention on doing things the right way no matter how many times I’ve to rip apart the seams. So I read the instructions carefully and do all the due diligence. I think that is also helping. Well also the fact that it is supposed to be an “easy” pattern

I’m also glad that I used my judgement with this dress. With my last one I realized that I didn’t need a zipper because I was able to pullover the dress without the zipper, So with this one, I decided to baste it without zipper and then try it on. Since I was able to pull this over as well, I skipper the zipper. This made it super easy from easy Also, I love pullover dresses so it made me like it all the more! The other thing I did was to use mny sewing machine to stitch the hem rather than doing it by hand. I feel it didn’t make any difference and saved me so much time!

This is not a fitted dress – so if you’re looking for something that fits your form this is not it. This is your dress for those days when you’re looking for something easy to get into, that is comfortable and (with the print I chose) very cheerful!

You can see from my description I’m one happy camper after making this dress

Mother’s day card

Another mother’s day card! Had so much fun making it! Love love love the multi-step stamping stamps from Altenew! I have used this peony bouquet for anything and everything! Cut out the sentiment using Portrait. Used distress inks for stamping.

Then covered the flowers in shimmer usking wink of stella pen. A closer look below.

Supplies: Altenew Peony bouquet stamp set, Distress Inks, Neenah solar white, Silhouette Portrait, WInk of Stella pen.

More foiling goodness

I’ve been having a lot of fun with stamp, copy and foil technique! Especially now that I have a template for the damask background, I can keep foiling away (as long as my foil doesn’t run out!).

I realized that so many times I draw my inspiration for colors and color combinations from the Indian sarees. Having done a few foiling with the dual-tone foil, I was thinking of what would be the appropriate color cardstock to use with gold foil. Then my mom’s saree came to my mind – it was brown with some gold design. I thought to myself how beautiful it would look to foil brown cardstock with gold foil (ironic since I never understand why my mom liked a brown colored saree ). That is how the background came into being.

The flower and leaf are stamped using distress inks and then outlined with stickles. I felt the shimmery background needed something equally glittery in the foreground. Vellum adds the softness to highlight the floral elements. I’m thankful for the vellum tape!

Supplies: Altenew peony bouquet stamp set, Impression obsession Damask background, Stampendous happy birthday, vellum, stickles, distress inks, Recollections cardstock, Mini minc machie, gold foil.

Foiling technique: Stamp, Copy and foil

I was watching one of the foiling videos on youtube when I had a lightbulb moment! I can create foiled backgrounds using stamp, copy and foil!

What does it mean?

1. Stamp your background stamp on a sheet of paper.
2. Use your printer to make a copy of this on a cardstock.
3. Foil the print on your cardstock!

Isn’t that simple? The best part if you can keep the stamped image as a template and any time you need a background foiled use that to make a copy. That way you don’t have to stamp again and again (not for the same stamp at least). That is what I did – stamped the background stamp on a full cardstock sheet. So now anytime I copy it, I can get two background panels out of it. I did the stamping with my Misti. While printing I chose to use 65 lb paper because that’s easier to use in a laser printer.

I had a lot of fun playing with this! Especially with that beautiful multicolor foil – with pink and gold! It looks so beautiful! I made another one here:

I created the sentiment in inkscape, saved it as an .emf file. Then opened it in Word and printed out multiple copies of it on vellum. The double benefit here is that since these are printed, I can even foil the sentiment on a different card if I want to.

Misti and the mini Minc are two fun tools that I love playing with!

Supplies: Impression obsession damask background stamp, Versafine onyx ink, printer, Heidi Swapp foil, Mini minc, vellum

Sending tons of love

I made this background as one of my first projects with Portrait 2. It looks much better IRL! Colored the hippo and hearts with copics and then added stickles to the hearts. Popped them up on foam stickers. Pretty simple!

Supplies: DCWV Glitzy stack, MFT Happy Hippos stamp set, Copics, Portrait 2, Stickles

More peony bouquet

After making the previous card, I wanted to do some more with Peony bouquet. I feel it’s a very versatile set. You can do whatever you want with it – do multi-step stamping or stamp the outlines and color them; color them with copics, pencils or zig clean color markers; emboss them; color with pastel colors or brights. The options are endless for the kind of result that you want. All these options is what made me want to do more with that stamp. Something different every time.

I stamped the flowers and leaves with some masking on watercolor paper. Initially I tried to watercolor using zig clean color markers. So I would wet the area that I was going to color and then drop the color using the markers. The big flower in the center is colored using that. While now I like that look more than the other flowers, when I was coloring it, it didn’t feel so. Also, somehow that kind of coloring wasn’t much fun for me – maybe because I wasn’t liking the results so much. The rest of the flowers I colored in the traditional way where I would color the darkest areas first and then using a watercolor brush spread the color to the lighter areas. I did have a lot of fun doing that! For the leaves I just blended the light green and dark green.

The flowers are covered in glitter using the Wink of Stella pen. The sentiment was cut using Portrait 2 and then covered with Glossy accents. A close look at the glitter and the glossy sentiment. Loved everything about this card ad just perfect for my mom or mom-in-law! I do want to add “love you” above the MOM – probably a handwritten message and then it’s good for either Mother’s day or a birthday card!

Bleached look with distress inks

I saw this video from Jennifer McGuire where she used distress oxide inks and created the bleached look by drawing away some color using a water brush. Since I didn’t have distress oxide inks, I thought why not try it with regular distress inks as they too react with water. I first embossed the images in gold and then sponged with distress inks. Using a water brush I then brushed all the insides of the images, absorbing the color using a paper towel. The sentiment is embossed in black.

Supplies: Altenew Peony Bouquet, Hero Arts Birthday cling stamp, Gold embossing powder, neenah solar white cardstock, versafine black onyx ink, versamark embossing ink, Distress inks – Spiced Marmalade, Pickled raspberry and Dusty concord.

Leave your shoes at the door sign

Using this quote that I found online I created this design. The font for “Shoes and Worries” is “master of break”. The flowers and leaves are a free design that came with the silhouette portrait. The design is cut in vinyl. For the flowers and leaves, I got 12”X12” loose vinyl from Michaels. I used a clear grid transfer sheet to transfer the design. Overall it was quite simple! We hung it outside, next to the door, with a shoe rack below it.

Dining room vinyl wall art

For a long time our dining room wall was sans any decor because we had removed the old ones and hadn’t had the time to make anything new. I’d sold my Zing and was still waiting to get the Portrait. Once I had it, I ran into some hiccups. That meant a few calls to the customer support. The issue is still not resolved yet – the autoblade doesn’t work – but I can at least use it as a ratchet blade.

I’m so pleased with this vinyl art – not only did I cut it myself using a silhouette but I also designed it myself! Actually, I had full intention to buy a design so I started searching and I found this beautiful saying; but the design was very simple. Then I came across this etsy shop and they had such beautiful vinyl wall art. However,  they didn’t have a saying that I liked. So I thought why not try to create one on my own. With some dingbat searches and using the Silhouette Studio I was able to design this.

Cutting was another challenge because as you can see it’s much wider than what Portrait can cut. I searched for some instructions online to see how I could cut designs like these. The main take away was to cut the design into multiple parts using a knife and most importantly, use the shift key when using the knife so that you get a straight line. This is very important – I learnt it the hard way so learn it from me Following the instructions I cut the design horizontally into around 7-8” wide sections. Then cut out each section using the vinyl roll (and not the mat).

After cutting, putting it together on the wall took me around 2 hours or so because I had to make sure everything aligned well and that the wordings were straight. So glad that I got a clear grid transfer sheet. Can you believe it that grateful was cut right in the middle???? It was so difficult to align all those thin curves together! I’m glad it looks fine now! I bought my vinyl and transfer sheet from expressions vinyl.

Pattern: Simplicity 2591

I had bought this pattern a few years ago (yes… that’s right! I know hard to believe…). Finally I decided to make a dress using it.

Here’s my finished dress:

This dress went through a lot of trials (pun and no pun!) and tribulations. I tried it so many times in between and then had to make a lot of alterations. All because I didn’t read the size guide right. Looks like I needed the bust from one size and the waist and hips from another. Serves me right for not reading the pattern end to end! That’s when I decided to write this.

Because the bust size was bigger than what was right for me, the neck was wider than I wanted it to be. When I tried to make the neck smaller, the front and the back was messed up. With great difficult I saved this dress.

I love that fabric and that is why I was so mad at myself for not getting this right. Here are my thoughts after using this pattern:

1. Read the sizing guide to see whether you can use one size or if you are in between. Of course this had to be my first feedback to myself!
2. I felt the pattern was more intermediate than a beginner pattern. There were a few places where I wasn’t clear on the instructions. Once or twice I actually did the wrong thing, ripped the seam and started all over again.
3. I need to learn how to get the neck right. Since the neck is cut on a bias, I think it stretched while was stitching. It didn’t help a neck that was wider to begin with.
4. The zipper took me a few iterations to get it right. I got an invisible zipper because that’s what most of the readymade dresses have. The first zipper I stitched the pull came off and it’s hard to get it back in for an invisible zipper. So then I bought another zipper. Eventually after 2-3 tries I got it done and now it looks beautiful (invisible).
5. If you see behind the neck, you will find two seams on either side of the zipper. I had to put them in because otherwise the back wouldn’t sit flat on my back.

Still I like the dress

Harry Potter pencil case tutorial

I wanted to make a pencil case for a harry potter fan and came up with this using the tuts from here and here.

What you will need:

• Main fabric
• Inner fabric for lining
• Lightweight fusible interfacing
• Zipper 11”
• Thread and of course sewing machine!

I cut the following pieces

• Cut 5.5” X 9.5” in size
• 2 from the outer fabric
• 2 from the inner fabric
• 2 from the interfacing
• Cut 2” X 10” from outer fabric

Fold the long 2” X 10” piece on the short side. Iron. Fold each side again in half and iron. You will get a piece like above.

Fuse the fusible interfacing to the back side of the outer fabric. My outer and inner fabric are the same. You can see two of my pieces have interfacing and the other two don’t.

Stitch the zipper to the outer fabric and then the inner fabric. You can find more detailed photos here.

Looks like I forgot to take a photo of the next step. With the outer fabric right sides together stitch the bottom. Open the zipper partially. With the inner fabric right sides together, stitch the bottom leaving an opening to turn the bag inside out. Flatten the bag with inner fabric and outer fabric stacked one over the other and the zipper in the center. Put your loop in place. Stitch on both the sides. Using the zipper opening, turn the bag inside out. Now to make the box corners. Pinch the corners and sew a 2” inch line like below on each corner.

You will end up with this:

We still need to stitch the opening on the bottom of the inner lining. Do a slip stitch for that.

Turn the bag inside out!

More chevron background

Like I mentioned before, I cut a lot of chevron background from my Portrait ! Here’s another one. I love the simple look of this card! Cut the sentiment using Portrait as well. The stamp is colored with copics and then added some shimmer using Wink of Stella on the balloons and the bow. A closer look at the shimmer here:

Supplies: My Favorite Things Happy Hippo stamp set, Copics, Wink of Stella.

Anniversary wishes with Peony Bouquet

I’ve been having fun cutting the chevron background with Silhouette Portrait 2 (used this design). Here I used the inlaid die cutting technique. I cut the purple glitter paper in chevron and then the antique silver glitter paper also in chevron. In the purple background I fit in pieces from antique silver and vice versa. As a result I was able to get two backgrounds! When I finish the card with the other background will share that as well. It was a lot of fun – I created four card bases using this background!

The peony was stamped using versafine onyx black and colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. The leaves were stamped using the distress inks. The sentiment is stamped in black on vellum and then clear embossed.

If you look closely at the envelope (underneath the card), I stamped that too with peonies – in memento yellow ink. Looks really pretty!

Supplies: Altenew Peony bouquet stamps, My Sentiments Exactly Anniversary Innies and Outies stamp set, Misi stampipng tool.

First card using Silhouette Portrait 2

I’d been waiting for the black friday sale to get a silhouette portrait 2. I sold my KNK Zing sometime back and this was my replacement for it. Zing was a great machine but much more powerful (and hence complex) than my needs. It was also quite big (like other 12” cutters). I leaned towards the Portrait 2 for a couple of reasons:

1. I really like the variety of designs in Silhouette Design Store. It gives you a lot of options.
2. I do not cut anything that’s greater than or equal to 12” on all sides. I can still cut anything greater than 8” in the portrait as long as the other side is less than 8”. That fits the bill for all my projects.
3. The smaller size and the light weight of Portrait swayed me towards it. Smaller size definitely helps in saving space. light weight was probably more of a feel good factor because it’s not like I carry it around.
4. It has the same cutting capabilities as the Cameo – including the bluetooth. I believe the stipple feature is only for Cameo but I don’t care much for it. No longer I wanted to buy a machine thinking “oh what if I needed that feature once in 2 years”. I wanted to buy for my common scenarios.
5. Love the auto-blade feature!

While the price wasn’t that much discounted ($160 vs $200 regular price), I did get $125 credit for Silhouette Design Store and 150 free designs.

Now going back to the card, I really like the clean cuts from the Portrait. For the font I used “bauhaus 93”. It’s one of the fonts that comes pre-installed on Windows. I got the stars from one of the free designs and the chevron background is this design in the store. The glitter paper is from DCWV Glitzy stack. Love that paper! It has glitter but not the kind that rubs off and the paper is very smooth. I used 65lb paper for the background.

Portrait cut settings:

• For DCWV Glitzy cardstock, I used the built-in “Cardstock, Glitter” setting.
• For the 65lb cardstock, I used the built-in “Cardstock, Plain” setting.