"Wish Big" Birthday Ensemble

My baby sister just turned 21, and I'm so excited to show you the card and present I made for her.  I think this is my favorite card I've made to date!  I actually finished it a few weeks ago and I've just been enjoying looking at it on my shelf ever since...  I love the colors and the happy energy of it -- it totally matches my sister's personality.

 

I used kraft paper (surprise, surprise) as the base and embossed it with my Cuttlebug.  I cut a 4 1/2" wide scalloped circle and layered it with a plain circle and the "happy birthday" paper strip along the bottom.  The cake is made by cutting rectangles in various sizes with scallop borders cut to size (I set all that up in my Gypsy), then rounding the top corners and stacking, using foam adhesive to make it 3d.  I added a paper medallion -- don't you think the stripey paper makes it SO fun?!  The "wish BIG" stamp is from Stampin Up, and I added a touch of color with watercolor pencils.

For the banner at the top, I just used my hot glue gun to attach this mini-pompom trim.  I had a tiny strip of this yellow-with-black-dots paper leftover (it was the back side to one of the other papers), so I turned that into an extra layer for the banner just by snipping pieces off and then snipping tiny triangles out of each one.

I took an extra minute to add some of the same trim to the gift bag, plus I found a strip of a very similar paper (from a totally different paper line and manufacturer) in my scrap drawer, so I turned that into a little fringe.  So cute!

Materials: Patterned Paper -- Scribble Scrabble; Stamp -- Stampin' Up; Embossing -- Provo Craft Cuttlebug "Happy Birthday" folder; Die Cuts -- Cricut "George" (rectangles), "Plantin Schoolbook" (scalloped border on cake), and Mini-Monograms (scalloped circle, plain circle) cartridges.

Now on to the present. I saw a tutorial on how to make an infinity scarf out of an old t-shirt on our local lifestyle show Studio 5 and knew that was just Ange's style. It was very easy and quick to make. It actually took longer to make that flower clip than it did to make the scarf! I put the flower on a clip instead of sewing it on to make both pieces more versatile. It was also very inexpensive, since I just used t-shirts from my "I like these colors but not these shirts" stash. Isn't my sister gorgeous?!

Happy birthday, frister!

ScrapbookPal.com's Valentine's Blog Hop!

 Welcome to another fun blog hop with the ScrapbookPal.com Design Team!  This is the first stop on the hop, so you're in the right place! 

I just love Valentine's Day -- a chance to get out of the doldrums of winter with all sorts of love and warmth and fun -- so I'm very excited to share these adorable felt pillows with you.  I love the warmth of felt, and being able to cut it with the Cricut makes it possible to get very fancy with very little time and effort!

Without doubt, the most popular and most searched-for posts on my blog have had to do with cutting felt with the Cricut.  Can you cut felt with the Cricut, you ask?  You most certainly can!  I thought I would take the opportunity with the blog hop to get all my best tips and tricks on cutting felt with the Cricut into one post -- and if you're participating in the blog hop you'll even have the chance to win your own choice of Cricut cartridge!  (See details on that below.)

For these pillow covers, I first created envelope-style covers to fit cushions I already had on hand.  (That way after the holiday I can just tuck the covers away and not have to find storage space for more pillows than I already have.  You can find many tutorials for this technique online -- I'm no seamstress, but I'll include my basic instructions at the end of this post.)  Then I used my Cricut to cut the letters from the Country Life (LOVE), Opposites Attract (i), and Printing Press (u) cartridges, and hearts from Create-a-Critter.  Thanks to the iron-on stabilizer (see tips below) I was able to iron them right on to the pillow covers.

I added some fun embroidery just to give it a little more personality and tie the colors in the two pillows together.*

I also cut a scallop border to use as a template to cut the edge of the red pillow.  Plantin Schoolbook has a great one.  I just cut it to the height I wanted, then traced the scallops onto the back side of the felt with a pencil and cut along the lines.


Tips and Tricks for Cutting Felt with the Cricut
1. Only use wool felt. The cheap polyester stuff from the craft aisle that comes in sheets, or the stuff you buy on the bolt won't work. Wool felt is actually a blend of wool and rayon, and it is much stiffer and nicer than the polyester stuff.  The best source I've found for wool felt is www.woolfeltcentral.com.  They have over 70 colors, and the price is the best I've found.  I've also bought wool felt locally at a quilt shop.  Do not wash your felt before cutting -- it changes the texture.  This application is for things that aren't going to get a lot of wear and tear, because wool felt doesn't machine wash very well.  So you wouldn't want to cut felt pieces for a baby onesie unless you just love handwashing in cold water so so much.  And you happen to know that the baby in question will never spit up or have a blow-out... and let us know how that works out for ya... :)

2. Use a stabilizer, just as you would to cut out other fabrics. I use Heat-n-Bond Ultra Hold.  But please, for the love of all that is holy, peel the backing paper away before you load it onto your cutting mat. That backing paper sticks to the mat terribly and isn't needed during cutting. You'll save your mats and your sanity if you just take it off beforehand! (This works for other fabrics as well.) Seriously -- I have spent half an hour trying to scrape little scraps of backing paper off my mat.

3. Load the felt onto the mat adhesive-side down. That smooth surface created by the stabilizer (without the backing) adheres really well to the mat surface, and you won't get nearly as much fuzz on your mat.

4. I cut mine at blade depth 6, speed and pressure at max. You may need to adjust for your machine. Check your blade housing frequently to remove the felt-fluff buildup. You may need to use the multi-cut function to get a finished cut.  I've found that if I use the deep-cut housing I can do it in one pass, but I usually need two if I'm using the regular housing.

5. Make sure you run a lint roller over your mat after cutting so get any remaining fibers off.

6.  If you are ironing your felt pieces on to another fabric piece, make sure your iron heat isn't too high.  It will  adversely affect your felt.  It doesn't work super well to adhere felt to felt, so you might need a little fabric glue to tack down any rogue edges that won't stay down.

Now, on to the goodies!  We all know that ScrapbookPal.com is THE place for good deals and fast and FREE shipping on orders over $25.  Seriously, you can't beat that!  And with this weekend's blog hop you can also win a cartridge of your choice from any that ScrapbookPal.com has in stock!  All you need to do is visit the blog of each member of the Design Team, then finish up at the ScrapbookPal Blog, become a follower, and leave a comment that you've completed the hop.  Good stuff!  If this is your first stop, make sure you go back to the beginning and check out all the adorable V-day projects.

TomiAnn <--- You are here!  Now get hopping!
Tammy
Amy
Cheryl
Jamie
Crystal
Leah
ScrapbookPal


Thanks for stopping by, and happy hopping!


*If you'd like to try this style of embroidery, I highly recommend Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching book. 



Envelope Pillow Ideas
For these cute pillow covers, I first measured the pillows I was going to use as inserts, then cut squares of felt big enough to create the fronts and backs.  I added 1" to the measurement for the back square so that I could create an easy envelope covering, as shown here:

4.  Sew the two sides together.  Usually you'll want to do this with right sides together.  Because I was using felt and I wanted a different effect, I sewed them wrong sides together.

Hopefully that makes sense -- like I said, I'm not a seamstress at all and I was kinda making this up as I went along.  This technique worked well with felt especially because it doesn't fray.

My "grown-up" Christmas trees...

When I saw this tutorial on Shanty2Chic (via Infarrantly Creative), I knew I had to make my own ASAP.

See, I had these paper mache trees that I bought years ago from Oriental Trading.  I always intended to do something cute and whimsical with them, but they just sat, unloved and uncrafted, in their box in the top of the closet.  Until now!  I've been loving all the natural, vintage-y Christmas decorations out in blogland this year, so I decided I was going to make myself some Christmas trees just for me!  Pretty much all our Christmas decor is the fun, bright, whimsical variety, which I love, but you gotta switch things up sometimes, right?

For the tallest tree, I cut 2" wide lengths of linen (I think it was 45"), folded them in half, and pressed them.  Then I sewed a basting stitched down the non-folded edge, then gathered each strip, just a little.  Starting at the bottom of the cone, I hot-glued each strip around and around the tree.  I think the big tree took 3 strips.  The star on top is a kraft paper-mache ornament from the craft store.  I was going to do something fancy with it, but I decided it was very happy staying kraft paper.

For the middle tree, I used a border punch to create 1 1/2" strips of paper.  I cut V-shaped slits every few inches so that I could fit the paper to cone as I wrapped it around.  I crinkled up the paper before hot-gluing it on, just to give it more texture.  This one took about 1 1/4 pieces of kraft paper.  After the cone was covered, I hot glue pearl bead "ornaments" to the tree.

For the littlest tree, I used the same technique as the big tree, but instead of fabric I used one of those cheap bolts of lace from Joann's.  I think the whole bolt was a dollar at most, and I only used about half of it.

Now, my intention when I started was to use the little pot bases that came with the trees, but they just didn't have the elegant vintage touch I was looking for.  Luckily I had already scheduled a trip to Star Mill in American Fork.  It's an amazing antique/junk shop, and it is my new happy place.  I found this PERFECT spindle for $1.50, just begging to be turned into tree trunks.  Well, I've never been one to crush the life dreams of inanimate objects, so of course I had to take it home and cut it into three fun tree trunks, which I then hot-glued to the cones.

But then, alas, the trees were so top-heavy they could not stand on their own.  I thought about gluing them all down to a plank of wood, but I wanted to be able to arrange them independently.  I hunted around my craft room for ideas... CD's covered with kraft paper?  Too flat and too boring and not vintage enough.  Empty ribbon spools?  Too much work to unspool ribbon and find it a new home, and then still not super stable.  And so on... Finally, inspiration!  One of my little hobbies is designing and cutting snowflake ornaments out of wood with a laser cutter, and I happened to have a little stack of unpainted snowflakes that worked perfectly as bases for my trees.   

(Happy sigh...)  Don't you just love it when something you've envisioned turns out even better in real life?  These make me happy every time I go through my entryway!

I hope you are all having a delightful Christmas with your families and giving yourself time to create something beautiful!

 

P.S.  I'm entering this in the Kraft Journal's Holiday Challenge -- if you love kraft paper like I do, you should go check it out!

Our 'Muy Fabulosa' Wedding...

If you're a long-time follower, you may have noticed that my postings have not been what anyone would call frequent over the past couple of months... but there's a very good reason, I promise!  My wonderful little sister Emily got married last month, and I was working like a crazy person on all sorts of decorations and goodies for her big day.  It turned out so beautifully -- it was worth every minute!

In the beginning, Em & Luis had chosen to use a damask pattern as the theme for the wedding decor, with the colors black and white with a little red thrown in.  I used that inspiration to create their wedding invitation:

And this is how the wedding reception looked!  (Everyone say "Ooooooooh!" together now!)

We did the reception at Highland Gardens Reception Center in Highand, Utah, which was just gorgeous to start out with. Emily's new hubby Luis' family is from several Latin American countries, so we took a few of those traditions as a jumping off point for our decor.  My sister-in-law Caitlyn's mom Jeralee was the visionary behind all this, and I was so happy I could help make it all come to life.  My mom and Jeralee got these damask table toppers and borrowed all sorts of silver pitchers and containers from generous family and friends and filled them with roses to make these gorgeous centerpieces.

We made approximately a gazillion of those tissue paper pom-poms to hang around the reception area, which was truly a labor of love by several family members and friends who are NOT crafters but pitched in awesomely.

My biggest contribution was the white paper papel picado banners hanging above the tables.  They are traditionally cut by hand out of tissue paper, but I wanted to customize them, make them a little sturdier, and give them a cleaner, more modern feel to match the damask theme of the wedding, so I designed 8 custom banners and then cut each one with my Cricut (using SCAL).  I cut over 200 of these babies, so my Cricut was smokin' by the end.  Here's a closeup:

And, just because I can't help beating a dead horse, here's what the designs look like without background distraction...

I was also in charge of hair accessories for the bride and bridal party.  I made red satin flowers for all us bridesmaids and our sisters-in-law with this tutorial from Stuff & Bits.  This is my beautiful sister Amy and me:

And of course we couldn't leave the little girlies out!  I made these rolled rosette hair pretties for my daughter Eliza (on the left) and my niece Amelia out of the same fabric:

Here's a closer up picture of Eliza with my Dad where you can see the flowers better.  (This is when she found him and asked him to dance -- oh, the cuteness!):

But my favorite was this enormous flower I created for the bride herself, using a technique I actually figured out myself (I know, don't fall over dead...).

 

 As a fun little photo prop, I made this fun-shaped chalkboard.  They took some pictures with "Just Married" written on it, and then I changed it to "Thank You" so we could use those pictures to print custom thank you cards for them to send out.  (This is not the picture we'll use -- my amazing photographer brothers took "real" pictures for that...)

 

 Now, I didn't have anything to do with these next couple of photos, but I couldn't go without showing y'all the cakes.  This was their wedding cake, created by my aunt's sister Dorcas Woodward.  She cut out all of that intricate damask patter by hand out fondant.  That is love, people.  And isn't it amazing?

My sister Amy made this AWESOME sombrero grooms cake, also completely by hand:

I also made them a pretty sign-in scrapbook, but my pictures of that didn't turn out AT ALL, so I will have to steal it from them and show you another time.

Whew!  Just looking at these pictures makes me tired, but so very happy.  Thanks for letting me be part of the fun, Em and Luis!  Love you guys!

Porch Rocker Pillows

Two crafts that I have been trying to squeeze in for months:  Freezer paper stenciling and something out of burlap.  So when I got these two cool adirondack-style rockers for the front porch, it gave me the perfect opportunity!

I cut the stencils with my Cricut using Winter Woodland for the numbers and Home Decor for the bird and branch and used fabric paint to paint the cushions.  The stencils worked so slick; I think I may be hooked for life!  There are multitudes of online tutorials, but here is a helpful video specifically using the Cricut.  You can also do it with an exacto knife and marker, but the Cricut definitely made it easier.

 (Don't mind the empty plant pots -- that part I'm still trying to figure out...)

I love the texture of the burlap for these outdoor cushions.  It wouldn't be waterproof, but under my covered porch I'm not worried about the rain getting to it.  TFL!

I'm linking up to the Tea Rose Home linky party!

Vintage Button & Lace Necklace!

Sorry I've been MIA lately!  My little brother got married and we have been busy busy with family things and also with lots of fun crafts to go with it!  I have lots of fun things to show you, but I thought before I run out the door to the next thing I'd just show you this fun necklace I made for my new sister-in-law's vintage-themed hen party.  I was totally inspired to use my vintage buttons by the button headband tutorial at Little Miss Momma (I made one of those, too, but I'll have to show it to you later).

It was very easy to make and turned out just fabulous.  Here are the steps!

1.  Gather up your supplies: Vintage buttons (okay, they don't have to be vintage, but I used buttons from my stash that I found in the bottom of the sewing cabinet I inherited from my Grandma, which makes it extra special), a length of lace (I believe I had about 30" here), straight pins, and needle and thread.  I also made a fabric flower out of linen.


2.  Tie the two ends of the lace together, then put it on.  In front of a mirror, use the straight pins to mark where you're going to want your button clusters.

3.  Lay your necklace out and play with your buttons and bits and bobs until it's just how you like it.

4.  Sew buttons and such to lace.

All done!  I got compliments on it all night, too!

A little of this, a little of that...

As you may have noticed, I changed the title of my blog!  It used to be "I Love Pretty Paper," and while that is still most assuredly true, I decided that it just didn't tell the whole story anymore.  I have been discovering and loving a whole lot of other kinds of projects, too, and I'm excited to share all kinds of new things with you.  Also, now I have three kids and a lot more other "stuff" on my plate, my crafting time seems to get smaller and smaller.  I know you all feel the same squeeze that I do, too!  So this new title seemed especially appropriate -- aren't we all trying to just squeeze in as much as we can?

This project highlights things that I really love:  pretty paper (of course!), a fabulous flower accessory, and getting a lot of bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time possible!  This is a gift I made for my sister's birthday.  I LOVE how this card turned out -- it's the perfect design for using up scraps of coordinating papers, and it was so quick to put together.  I designed it on my Cricut Gypsy, and because the pieces are so small, I designed it to cut out enough for four cards.  It took almost no time to put the four cards together, and now I have extras in my stash.  Yay!

I made the lace flower accessory based on the tutorial HERE at Aly&Ash, found via UCreate.  Have you checked out UCreate?  It is a fantastic site for crafters -- she sifts through all the fun projects and tutorials in blogland and shows off the cutest stuff.  Following a blog like this one is a great way to make the most of the time you have!  I added some tulle to the bottom and top layers of my flower, just to boost the glam appeal for my super-fabulous sister.  I added an alligator clip and a pin-back, so that she can wear it any which way. I love it!

I hope you are all having a terrific day, and that you find some time to squeeze in a little creativity yourself!

Cricut Chirp! (More on cutting felt with the Cricut...)

Exciting day for me!  I was spotlighted in the Cricut Chirp, a newsletter for Cricut owners.  After doing more experimenting with cutting felt, I put together some pictures and more tips for cutting felt and submitted it.  Since this answers a few questions I've gotten since my first post about cutting felt, I thought I'd post the little segment here, too.  Fun stuff!

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Tomi Ann Hill
About: I'm a 31-year-old mother of three and a certified Cricut addict. I've been papercrafting for about 13 years, but it's only been a passion since I first got my hands on a Cricut nearly four years ago. Now I can't get enough, and I've expanded from papercrafting to using my Cricut for all sort of fabric crafting as well!
Tomi Ann's Project: Fabulous Felt Clippies
Cartridges Used:
- Home Decor
- Mini Monograms
- Plantin SchoolBook

Instructions: I am willing to admit that I have an addiction to cute little accessories for my little girl, and a whole new world has opened up to me now that I learned how to use my Cricut to cut felt for creating little clippies!

Here are my best tips for cutting felt:

1. Only use wool felt. The cheap polyester stuff from the craft aisle, or that you buy on the bolt won't work. Wool felt is actually a blend of wool and rayon, and it is much stiffer and nicer than the polyester stuff.  The best source I've found for wool felt is www.woolfeltcentral.com.  They have over 70 colors, and the price is the best I've found.  I've also bought wool felt locally at a quilt shop.

2. Use a stabilizer, just as you would to cut out other fabrics. But peel the backing paper away before you load it onto your cutting mat. That backing paper sticks to the mat terribly and isn't needed during cutting. You'll save your mats and your sanity if you just take it off beforehand! (This works for other fabrics as well.)

3. Load the felt onto the mat adhesive-side down.

4. I cut mine at blade depth 6, speed and pressure at max. You may need to adjust for your machine. Check your blade housing frequently to remove the felt-fluff buildup. You may need to use the multi-cut function to get a finished cut.

5. Make sure you run a lint roller over your mat after cutting so get any remaining fibers off. For the projects pictured here, I used wool felt in a variety of colors and cut it using the Plantin Schoolbook (for the flowers), Mini-Monograms (for the scallop circle), and Home Decor (birdie) cartridges. I also used buttons, beads, and big brads for extra embellishment. I mounted the finished shapes to alligator clips, snap clips, or pin backs. Voila! Fabulous custom accessories, made in minutes with my Cricut!