Our church had their first banquet to raise some capital for buying a building and the expenses in the coming months.

The banquet turned out great and I thought I would show you some of the things we did.  We made the table markers using my Cricut and various cartridges, easy peeazy!

This is the little gift “bags” we made for each woman that attended.  These are totally made out of card stock except for the tissue paper and the gift inside.

I thought I would show you a couple of tips that I discovered while making this “bag”.  This is going to be broken up into two post because of the length.

I used the little bag on the Tags, Bags, & More cart but on a 12 x 12 mat the largest I could get it to cut was about 5″.  Even when I tried to fool the machine using a 12 x 24 mat it still would not cut very large.

So to solve that issue we decided we would us a 12 x 24 mat and 12 x 24 card stock along with sizing it in Design Studio.  Well, that would have been fine if we hadn’t waited until the week before the banquet to figure out we needed it.  Needless to say we couldn’t get the cs ordered and shipped in time to use.

Using the 12 by 24 mat I positioned the bag to cut right on a fold line for the bag.  The bag is cut at 20.4″ by 11.5″.

Tip: By doing this you could cut the bag in half and assemble it using two pieces instead of one continuous piece.  Allowing you to use 12 x 12 cs instead of 12 x 24.

We used two 12 x 12 pieces of cream card stock.  I laid the first 12 x 12 cs on the end of the mat that I was going to feed through the Cricut first.

The second piece of 12 x 12 cs I overlapped it on the first by a 1/4″.  So, just to be clear the first piece of cs started at the 1″ mark and went to the 12″ mark.  The second piece of cs started at the 11.75″ mark and went to the 23.75″ mark.

This is the other end of the 12 x 24 mat.  You can see the second piece of the 12 x 12 cs is short by the 1/4″ I overlapped.

I pulled the cs down in this photo so you could see how it didn’t quite make it to the end.  When I got ready to cut it I lined everything up so it would cut straight.

Here is what the 12 x 24 mat looks like.  I took painter’s tape and placed a piece at each corner and one in the middle to hold the cs in place.  Since the cs is overlapping in the middle I wanted to be sure it would stay stuck in place.

I also took some re-positionable tape and ran it down the middle so when it cut the second 12 x 12 cs wouldn’t pop up.  I discovered after cutting about 20 of these that was not necessary.  My Cricut was cutting it without any problem.

We had about 60 of these babies to cut out so I was so excited when the Cricut cut them without any issues.

It cut through the two layers “like butter”.  I did monitor the blade to ensure no small pieces of paper was getting caught and ever so often I would make sure the housing was secure.  Also, each time I loaded the Cricut I had to tell it we were using a 24″ mat.

When you remove the two pieces you will have one that has 1/4″ lip on it that the original design did not have.  That is exactly what you need.  Tip: When we overlapped the cs it created a tab that we will fold to attach part 1 of the bag to part 2.

I cut this extra tab here off even with the top of the bag.

Cut this one off square with the bag.

Click on the picture to enlarge it, this is what the side should look like after you cut off the two ends I showed you above.

Once it is folded it will give us the tabs we need to create the bag.

We’ll pick up on this again in tomorrow’s post.  Thanks for stopping by and leave me comment or if you have a question you can contact me through the contact tab at the top of the post.

Hi everyone!  I know it has been a while since I did a post but man have I been busy.

Our church is having it’s first church wide banquet and we have been busy designing some thank you bags to give away at the banquet.

This is the table marker that will be on each table.  This is just a glimpse of what we did and I hope to have some additional pictures of the final product.

I want to give  a shout out to Leo over at SVGCuts.com.  Late one night this week (I mean around 10:30PM) I was having difficulty trying to get an image in Trace Bit in SCAL.  I couldn’t even get it to work right in Inkscape.  By chance I contacted SVGCuts.com via e-mail and Leo responded right back.  He gave me a different version of SCAL to see it would hold up better to what I was trying to do.  Then I finally told him I thought I was doing something wrong and explained to him what I was trying to do.  He e-mailed me back the next day and solved my issue.  Wow!  I was so impressed that he took the time and stayed with me until we figured it out.

During the process of designing and getting the Thank You bags built I learned a couple of tips that might make your life a little easier.  I’ll be sharing them over the next few post as I share some pictures and tutorials on how to make the Thank You bags.

All I can say, is my Cricut Expression and Design Studio save me a lot of time and cut like a work horse through 55 bags and all the embellishments.  Sweeeeeeet!

Hi everyone!  I hope you have been enjoying the Homemade Flower Series.  Here is Video 4, so enjoy and be sure and try some of these flowers.  Once you made one you’ll be hooked.

I needed to make another Jumbo Clothes Pen for work.  The new employee was a man so I wanted to be sure and not make it girly.

The pen is red and I actually got the paper at M’s at $.59.  Since we use these for messages I thought the finger point to the end that would hold the message was appropriate.

I had a Texas stamp so I cut that out and used glossy accents to give it a little body and then added a red star approximately where our office is located.

Some ivory twill ribbon and believe it or not that is the tab from a soda can that I took my Copic marker to and made it red.

I think the tab from the soda can makes a great buckle and since Copics color everything you can have them in whatever color you need.

Look pretty manly to me.

I found the Jumbo Clothes Pens at M’s in their $10 for $10 spot.  If you want to see the other pens I did you can see them here.  These can be dressed up so cute for a little of nothing.  What a great way to use your scraps and who doesn’t need a message holder.  I could see letting the kids make there own and standing them up to hold messages.

I thought I would try something new.  Sometimes doing the same thing over and over again doesn’t seem to feel like I’m being very creative.

I found these beautiful transfers at my local M’s and lucky for me I already had several T-Shirts put them on.

They run around $3.99 and I actually had a 50% off coupon so I got $2.00 off of one of the transfers.  I hate it when I have 50% coupon off and everything I need (or want) is on sale.

This is the last transfer I have to put on another T-shirt; however, I didn’t have a good color for it (bonus… I need to buy a new T-Shirt).  I’m going to see if I can find an aqua or light turquoise and see how that will look with this particular transfer.

The keys to these transfers are patience, a good hot iron (no steam) and something that is thin enough to use for a pressing cloth.  Ok, so not to creative on my part…….hey, I had to line them up and get them straight!

I’ve got a lot to show you this week so come on back by and see what I’ve been up to.

Now for something new!  I needed to be creative today and I found these Jumbo clothespins in the 10 for $10 spot at M’s.

I bought 3 (sorry I had already started on the 3rd one when I thought, ” I need to take a picture of this”). The 3rd one had a design of various fruits.   I work in an office with several ladies and we needed someway to keep our phone messages straight. I know what you are thinking but it doesn’t cross their minds to get notifications by e-mail, they are still writing down who called on “while you were out” pads.

I think these were cute like they were but as most of you know I can’t leave well enough alone.  So I dug into my stash of scrap paper and dressed these items up.

Quick and easy and I used “left overs”.  Can you guess which one is mine?  Yep, that would be the hounds tooth model.

I laid the clothespin down on the paper and traced around the outline.  I cut two (one for each side) and then glued them on with Glossy Accent.  I then took a Emory-board and filed off any over hang. I did ink the edges to give them a finished look and cut out a couple of labels and stamped on them.  A few homemade flowers, ribbon and butterfly and you’ve got yourself a cute note holder.  A very inexpensive and dressed up Jumbo Clothespin.

You know those clear Plexiglas file holders that hang outside the rooms at a Dr’s office?  That is what is hanging outside of our offices.  I think these Jumbo Clothespins, all dressed up, will look very cute.  Each one has it’s own distinct personality.

Have fun making these for your friends, they can either stand up and hold the note or clip on something and hold the note.  They are also a good way to use up your scraps.

I finished up this little sundress for my sweet Granddaughter.

This is one of those where you just sew one seam and then hem it.

Instead of just hemming it I decided to pleat the extra material up which adds a little weight to the bottom of the dress and makes it stay down and stand out a little.

Some hot pink ribbon that can be tied in bows and she is all set.

It is a real joy to be able to do things for your grandkids.  I know she doesn’t understand things that are done for her now but hopefully, Mom will have great stories to tell her when she gets older.

I love all the little butterflies, dragon flies and lady bugs on the dress, and the writing on it says girl bugs.  Cute, cute, cute!!!

Daughter #2 found this at Barnes and Nobles and of course you know it caught my eye because of the hounds-tooth that is pictured on the cover.

She wants to do a  wall in her office and sent this home with me to learn the little tricks before we start doing this on a wall.

I have these old outside pillows that has faded so last year I bought some new outdoor fabric and recovered them.

They were a nice bright lime green and matched my outdoor umbrella.  But as you know Texas heat and sun will cause anything to fade.

I’ve decided I will use the stencil on these pillows and see what I need to learn. Luckily, all I have to do is rip out one seam and I have the pillow case ready to get stenciled.

I took a plastic garbage bag and slide it into the pillow case so when I stenciled with paint it would not bleed through to the other side.

I chose this stencil and a chose a clay acrylic paint to compliment the other colors that I have outdoors.

I love the Ranger’s craft mat because you don’t have to worry about anything sticking to it and clean up is easy just a wet wipe and your are done.

To have acrylic paint stay on material you need to add some textile medium to the acrylic paint.  You can find textile medium at your local craft store and it is usually in the same area as the acrylic paint.

I marked off the registry points by putting down some blue painters tape and then drawing the triangles on the tape.  That way when I’m done all I have to do is pull the tape up and there will be no marks left.

I applied the paint with a foam brush and I really didn’t like the way it came out.  For one thing the paint seeped underneath the stencil.  That made the shapes come out ragged at times.

You can see in this photo I had to doctor some of the shapes up and I can make it look better by using a black pen and outlining the shapes.

Also, I think this is too many on the pillow case.  So, not to be out done I flipped the pillow case over and tried it a different way.

I figured out how many would work on this side of the pillow and decided this is one of those cases where less it more.  This is a 16″ pillow and the first side I did 5 shapes across the pillow.  This side I will do 4.

Again, I used tape on the pillow case and marked the registry points, then I took my YR19 Copic marker and drew the shapes in with the Copic marker.  Now a word of caution, these markers will bleed so you need to outline in very short strokes.  The longer the Copic marker stays on the material the more it will bleed.

One of the ways to help stop the bleeding is to heat the fabric, that will make the alcohol ink dry quicker as it hits the material.

Mixed up the paint and textile medium and got a baby wipe out to dab my stencil brush on.  This will take off any excess paint and make the stencil brush a little dry when you first start applying the paint.  That is important to keep it from seeping under the stencil.

I left the stencil in place and using the technique of dipping the stencil brush in the paint, dabbing it one time on the wipe, then very carefully following the outline of the stencil.

Once the outline is done then I dipped my stencil brush in the paint and filled in the center of the shape without dabbing it on the wipe.  You also need to keep in mind that as fabric gets wet it expands, so the stencil helps keep everything in line and proportion.

This process worked a lot better than the other side.  The shapes came out better and it was less messy.

I think they turned out great.  I took a black pen and outlined each shape.

Here they are out on the bench in front of the curtains that we pull together when we use the hot tub.  You can see they work great with our brick.

It will be interesting to see how these hold up in the sun, but at least I get another year out of them.

This is what your Advent Calendar from Kaiser Craft should look like now that is is assembled.  Now they won’t line up perfectly but that is all right, you are going to be painting and decorating so the little imperfections will not be noticed.

I’m choosing to spray paint my base (white) and then I’ll do the rest of the decorating in paper, embellishments and tin.

The next thing to address is the 25 little boxes that you have to assemble.  After making several of these I finally got a technique down on assembling them.

First, I bend the box on all the pre-scored line.  Now the only reason I numbered these little flaps is so I could use the numbers in my instructions.  There is no need for you to number them.  After you make a couple of these boxes you will find it is pretty simple and you may find another way that works for you to assemble them.

This is the adhesive I used on these boxes.  I needed a line of glue to hold the edges of the chipboard together and I also wanted something that would dry quickly.  If you have a glue that fits that bill then by all means try it and don’t go out and try to buy new glue.

I ran a bead of glue down the edges of each side of the flap as I assemble the  flaps together, and then held it in place until the glue started drying.

As you can see I actually start with flap #3 and adhere that to flap #4 first.

I adhere flap #1 to flap #4.  If you look closely you can see the thin bead of quick dry glue on the edge of the flap.

At this point I place the box with flap #4 on the table and run a bead of glue down flap #1′s and flap #3′s side.  Then I close flap #2 on both flap #1 and flap #3 at the same time.

Here ya go!  Now when you get ready to decorate the pattern paper will run down the side of the little box and you will a great little box for the trinkets.

I have two advent calendars to make so I ended up making 50 of those little boxes.  I’ve got them made but I haven’t started decorating them at this point.  I guess I need to get on the ball so I’ll have them done by Christmas.

When I get them done I’ll post again so you can see them.  I may have to make another trip down to Waxahacie, Texas to get a refresher on how they decorated theirs.  I may have to take my camera so I can get a picture to remember all the different things they did.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and leave me a comment.