That Time I Made a Few Wedding Invitations

Besides being a mom to some awesome little kids, I’m a mom to some awesome big kids, too ❤️

One of those big kids is getting married next month. It’s a weird place to be. He’s my baby, but he’s not 😔

He was the first little one to call me mom. The first to hold my finger and smile up at me. The first to think I hung the moon.

I really like his soon to be wife. She just fits. So I was very honored to be able to make their invitations. It took some time, there were 150 of them, but every single one of them was made with love and wishes for an amazing future.

I was able to play with wax seals and had an absolute blast coming up with just the right color combinations for the wax.

This is the outside. The band holds everything together and simply slides off to open it.

Once opened, invitations, registry info, rsvp info, and map info can be found inside. And of course, a picture of the sweet couple.

I found the file in the Silhouette design store and cut out the envelope pieces and attached them.

Then I gathered the info, printed it, and cut it out. All of the cutting was done on my Silhouette Cameo. There’s NO way I would have been able to pull this off without that machine. It’s one of the best paper crafting tools I have 😀

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

That Time I Played With Paper Again ❤️

If you scroll through my last few years of blog posts, you’ll see they’re mostly dominated by topics like autism and service dogs; by foster care and adoption.

If you go back further, you’ll see paper projects, but it’s been a while.

But I got to play this week – yay!

I made a rose /vase box card. There are things I’m not happy with, but I’m rusty so we’re just going to go with it lol

I used this file from the Silhouette Design Store.

I cut out the pieces on my machine, and because I’m extra, I hand colored them with my markers and colored pencils.

The beginning of the flower buds

The finished flower buds

The leaves and stems still on the paper

I like to color things while they’re still on the cutting mat. I don’t have to be as precise, I don’t loose anything, and I have better control of the paper (small things are hard to hold).

The leaves off the cutting mat. You can see the difference between adding colors to the cardstock and leaving it as is.

The finished card.

I had fun playing with paper and colors again. I hope it happens again sooner rather than later, but there’s a lot of other things to focus on right now, so we’ll see ❤️

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXOXO

Paper Orchid Shadow Box – I got to play a little!

I used to play with paper and make things on an almost daily basis. But then our lives went down a different path and the time and the emotional availability wasn’t there. My creativity flows best when my mind and shoulders aren’t weighed down.

But every now and then, like a snow day :D, I get a chance to play. And that day was yesterday 🙂

I made the 3D Orchid Shadow Box, found here, in the Silhouette Store.

I really like how mine turned out, BUT it is modified from the original, and here’s why: I didn’t read the directions ahead of time. So, a caution to all you paper crafters out there – if there are directions somewhere, take a quick peek before you start, just to make sure ;D

Because I didn’t, my project couldn’t be displayed like the example. But it still works. So, if you want to make this project, too, here’s the blog with the directions lol.

I cut mine out of white card stock and colored the flower parts using copics and colored pencils. I was then able to nest all the boxes, instead of having two separate shadow boxes – this is an example of how mistakes can be springboards for other ideas 🙂

I also added a back, because I could lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

That Time I Made Some Box Cards…Again

I really do love box cards, probably because I love dimension. Creating something 3D out of paper always seems like magic to me, even though it’s not new.

So, here are a couple of box cards.

This one can be found in the Silhouette Design Store and was for someone in the hospital.

This one can be found at SVG Cuts. I made it for a friend of mine who unexpectedly lost her dog last week. I had NO idea she had a thing for hummingbirds, but she does, so this was a perfect fit.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

That Time My Friend’s Son Got Married and I Vinyled a Few Things

So. Yeah. Weddings and vinyl go together like peas and a trash can, right?

Well, maybe not all the time, but I have a heat press and every special occasion calls for vinyl 😉

For years I’ve loved the idea of personalized gifts for weddings. It’s usually a set of thank you cards I try to match to the invitation or announcement some how and a cute little bag to hold them.

But I’ve wanted to do more and I had a chance to this week 🙂

So, the gift contains a dozen thank you cards with envelopes in a box. There’s a little surprise under the cards 🙂

Personalized towels – there’s three. I pressed them first, trying to create crisper folds, but I think next time I may wash them first and just start from scratch. I used simple black HTV for the towels and the wreath file from the Silhouette Design Store.

And I made the box for the gifts to fit in using a file from SVG Cuts.

And everything together.

And laying on top inside the box is our card to them. I designed the card based on a beautiful die I saw a few months ago. The butterfly itself is a separate file I purchased from the Silhouette Design Store and incorporated into the card design.

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

Links to items used in the project:

Wreath file, Cube Box, Card Box, Butterfly

That Time My Father-in-law Turned 90

Yes, 90! Amazing! His mom lived until she was 102 or 103, so we’ll see what happens 🙂

But when someone turns 90, you gotta have something good because odds are they’ve seen almost everything.

So I put together a gift set for him 🙂

Here he is with his cake – isn’t he handsome? Sorry girls, he’s taken.

Here’s the packaged gift set

And unpacked with boxes and bags (I made those, too).

And individual pieces

He used to love to garden and liked his flowers. So we went with this card 🙂

And a sweet sentiment for him put on a mug – although I’m not entirely happy with how this came out. It was my first time using oracal 651. It just means I need to play more. Yay!

And something fun to wear like a big hug from us 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Links to some items used in the gift set:

Springtime Box Cards  Kit, Age is merely

Valentine For the Hubby

I got his wrapped up about an hour before he got home. I wish I’d had time to make a box or bag for him, but I didn’t.

Here’s what you need to know about the love of my life.

He comes across as intimidating. I have NO idea why, but he does until you take the time to get to know my quiet wonderful man.

Something else you need to know. I think he likes it and kind of plays on it sometimes, especially as our kids have gotten old enough to date.

He also likes to laugh.

So the gifts were made with theses things in mind. And they were well received 🙂

thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

 

Links to files used in the projects

Corset, Pattern1, Pattern 2, I Don’t Like Morning People

It Worked!

In my last blog post, I shared the need I have to vinyl all the things right now.

I’m still at it 😉

I’ve been trying to figure out placements and sizes of things on shirts. Specifically, a V-neck shirt for me.

I’m still working on that 😉 Although there are great guides out there, I’m not standard issue. I’m fun size 😉 but due to medical issues I’m like an extra value fun size.

So today, instead of working on the V-neck (because I don’t have anymore and we had a “winter event” that closed things down) I moved on to round neck and a saying that I’ve LOVED for quite a while.

This is the first “grown up” shirt I’ve been happy with. I think the size and placement finally came together for me. The fun part of this shirt for me, was doing three colors of vinyl and doing some layering. And it worked 😀

I’m not a baseball fan, but I am a Royals fan. And for someone who’s not a sports nut, I’ve learned a thing or two from this team.

Things in our lives aren’t always easy, but here’s the great thing – we can choose to sit in the dug out or to pick up a bat and swing for the fences.

I’ve found I’m not very good at sitting in the dug out.

Link to saying: https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/185137

If You’re Learning To:

What I’m figuring out through lots of trial and error, is that even with guides, placement and size can be affected by body shape and size. Traditional placement of things on a medium V-neck shirt I’m doing for myself don’t work. They’re too low. I’m learning it’s okay to tweak those guides. And because I’m learning this, I placed the saying on this shirt a little higher than suggested, but it works with my body and I’m happy with it. It could be my new favorite shirt…until tomorrow when I make another one 😉

I Want To Vinyl All the Things

My husband bought me a heat press for Christmas and now it seems nothing is safe from me and the HTV 🙂

So tonight, I did a shirt and beanie for my youngest. For the most part, I like how they turned out, but I do think the words on the beanie would have looked better in white. But I was too worried about not being able to see the white as well.

Dang. May have to play some more 😉

I also wasn’t sure if the knit beanie would be okay in the heat press. I’m kind of going with the idea that if something doesn’t melt in the heat press, it’s fair game for HTV.

The knit beanie didn’t melt 😀

Here’s how they turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

File for the shirt: I still live…

A Christmas Surprise REVEALED!

So, I’ve done this thing for my kiddos where I’ve hand made stockings for them.

One of my 18yo daughters came to us a little later in her life, and I wanted to make sure she had a handmade stocking, too.

Unfortunately, life isn’t as simple as it once seemed. My body can no longer do the same things it used to, so it took me longer to get this done. I also had to think outside the box.

I can no longer do the needlework, but I can make my Silhouette Cameo sing and boy did it. Here’s the “symphony” we created together.

There’s a pattern for the stocking. I had my Cameo cut it out for me.

I pulled different files from the Silhouette Design store and created the scene which I cut out of HTV. It’s kind of hard to see it in this picture, but the HTV is glittery 🙂

This was my first HTV project, so I was a little nervous about applying the vinyl to the stocking front. But I watched a lot of videos and did my research. I even cut out test pieces and applied them before I tried this. Luckily, it worked 🙂

The next step was sewing the stocking pieces together so it actually held things. I was nervous, but I managed to get through it and the sewn part turned out better than I thought it would. But I didn’t have very high expectations of myself, so that made it easier 😉

Let me just stop here and say, I am not a seamstress. My husband has actually used the words, “I rue the day I bought you that thing.” (Meaning the sewing machine).

After creating the stocking I hand stitched the bling around the top and closed up that top seam (I left it until last to make sure I had enough space for her name. Math and numbers aren’t my strong suit). Last, I added a few sparkly things to the snowflakes and parts of the scene.

She saw it for the first time this morning. The look on her face was worth all the recuts and all the extra rolls of HTV I had to buy because I kept messing up.

She was truly surprised and really liked it.

To me, that’s the best part of Christmas. Giving of yourself and seeing someone’s joy later. And that giving can come in many forms, not just a glittery stocking. AND, even better, it’s something we can do all year.

So Merry Christmas my friends. May you feel the love of those around you and give it freely to those whose paths you cross.

Xoxo

Links to project pieces:

Stocking pattern (there are directions, but I did my own thing.)

Church, Snowflake scroll, Saying