Crafting with Artesprix Sublimation Markers

 

This month at Designer Crafts Connection we are creating with Artesprix Sublimation Markers. I have seen the products demonstrated at shows but I have never worked with them before. I have to say they were fun and easy to use. 

I received a great selection of products to work with. I got to work with a variety of classic colors, pastels, and a woodsy set.  I also got two sets of tags and a set of small, zipper top bags to work with. 

Artesprix has lots of products to work with and a ton of tips on how to  use them on their website. 

I stamped my images using the Sublimation Ink Pad and colored in with markers from different sets. I wanted to see if I could "blend" colors with the markers, so I layered colors on the flower petals and the leaves. 

Here is the tag after sublimation and the design sheet I used. I was pretty surprised the original design didn't change that much during sublimation. I guess I assumed it would disappear since it was moving to the tag! Nope- it stayed put right where it was.

 Here's a close up of the flower. As you can see I was able to blend colors in the design- but I think I need a bit more practice to make it smoother. I was pretty happy with how this turned out though. 

My second project was a small take along craft bag for the princess. The transfer was not as crisp on this one- but that was probably my fault. I am pretty sure I shifted the bag during pressing. 

To create this design I used small stamps and colored the ink directly to the stamp itself. This was quite the time gobbler! 

My workspace during this process was a mess! 

Here is a look at my design before I pressed it. It is very random and eclectic and I think my princess with love it. She always brings art supplies when we head out somewhere- so this should be a handy place to store them for her. 

Be sure to check out the Designer Crafts Blog to see all the projects made. There are some great ones! 

 

 

DIY Christmas with Kunin Felt

 

It's Christmas time so that means new decorations to mix with the old. My sweet princess has a Candy Land themed tree here at our house. I used Kunin Felt to make a super cute Christmas garland for her tree. She loves the color combo of pink and aqua so those are the colors I concentrate on. For this project I added in some white as well. 

Kunin felts and fabrics are made in the U.S.A. of Eco-fi^® 100% polyester fiber, made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles.

 

I started with 3 colors of felt and an older Sizzix die. Like really older. As in for the old red Sizzix machine from the stone age! I love those dies and use them all the time.  Anyway,, Aqua, Pink, and White felt and lots and lots of circles!

I cut 20 circles of each size from each color of felt. Which got me 240 circles- so more than enough. I love that I can cut multiple layers at a time with these steel rule dies. It really makes projects like this go quicker. 

I mixed all the pieces up pretty well. I wanted a truly organic look and did not plan any pattern for the garland. I just grabbed from a pile as I sewed. There were 4 sizes of each color so it ended pretty easy to sew them randomly and still look great. 

 

Sewing it all together was pretty easy too. This is a great project for a beginner sewer. The machine does most of the work and all you have to do is feed the circles in. I had the speed set to pretty slow. I am really trying to spend more time enjoying the process instead of just rushing through. I used my Brother Sewing Machine - I love this thing. It is a workhorse!!

 

Ta-da! I used a medium stitch length for this garland and a cotton quilting thread on top and bottom. I cut the garland into manageable lengths and headed to the tree. 

It looks great with and without lights! I love it. I think I may need a to do a few more feet to get the coverage I want on the tree though. 

 

 

Be sure to check out all the fun projects made by the Designer Crafts Connection Designers.  We have such a talented crew and I am always blown away by their creativity! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upgrading a Halloween Towel with Grosgrain Ribbon

 

I love all things Halloween almost as much as I love ribbon. I have long had a love affair with ribbon and I am so happy to be creating this project with Gwen Studios Grosgrain ribbon. They were generous enough to send me some samples of their ribbon line and as soon as I saw this black grosgrain I knew I had to make something Halloween. 

I found this set of Halloween towels a couple of years ago and of course I had to buy them! Flamingos and Halloween? Yes, please! They were pretty plain though, so they were in dire need of an upgrade. I grabbed my ribbon from Gwen Studios and my glue gun and got started. 

These were not the best quality towels I have ever picked up, so the edges were not exactly what I would call square. Which was making the OCD in me nuts. So in order to get the ribbon loops even across the bottom, I taped the towel down on my mat to keep it in place. 

I cut 4" pieces of the 3/8" Black Grosgrain ribbon and pinned them in place.  I lined them up on the same line on my mat so they would be even across the bottom even though the towel was not.  I sewed them in place with two lines of straight stitching, about an 1/8" apart. 

 

 Next up was a cute spider web in the corner. I used my glue gun to adhere the pieces of ribbon here and added some fray check to the ends of the ribbon. 

To finish up I made small bows with the same black grosgrain and used my hot glue gun to adhere them to the towel. I love how it came out! 

Super cute and super easy. My kind of project. I can't wait to start decorating for Halloween. 

 

Halloween Fun with Dreaming Tree

 

I was recently given the chance to work with cut files from The Dreaming Tree and I had quite a bit of fun with them. These Halloween party favors are so fun! The team over at DCC Designer Crafts Connection had a great time making some amazing projects using The Dreaming Tree files. 

Be sure to hop over to the DCC Blog and check out the amazing projects that we all made. 

 

I have never worked with files from The Dreaming Tree before so I was excited to check them out. I liked almost everything about the files. They were well put together, sized correctly so assembly was a breeze, and wonderful instructions. Each project comes with a sheet showing all the components/layers of the project along with their cut size. This was pretty cool. 

 

 I started by cutting all the pieces for my projects and sorting them on the corresponding menu sheet. It was pretty handy being able to check off the pieces to make sure I had them all cut. 

I inked each layer and glued pieces together where needed. I recently ordered these mini bottles of glue from Scrapbook.com when they were on sale. I loved the small size and tiny tip for gluing itty bitty pieces together. I also added foam tape to all the layers where called for.  

I love how these turned out! The pumpkin favor is my favorite of the ones I assembled.  I loved the look of the Candy Corn Witch too, but it didn't hold a lot, so that was a drawback.

 I know a certain princess that is going to be getting these for her class party this year! Super cute!

I loved this one too, but I kept trying to pick it up by the hat part, which would just pull the top off. I am certain that 2nd graders will do the same thing! Plus they only held a few pieces of candy, and I like to add small toys in her treat boxes, so I think the pumpkin bag is going to be my pick.

Here's a look at my new studio helper. So far she isn't much help but she sure is cute! Her name is Aoiff (pronounced EE-fa), she is 9 months old, and she came to us in April as a foster. Her adoption was recently finalized so I can finally share photos of her. She is such a cutie! She has been so much fun to see settle in. She and Fiona are getting along beautifully.

If you are a fan of cut files, be sure to check out Dreaming Tree. 

They have some beautiful files and lots of freebies! 

The one thing I did not like is that each layer came in an individual file. So for each project I had to open multiple files in Silhouette Studio. I then cut and pasted each layer into the same file so it would be easier for me to work with. 

 

 

Since I was cutting multiple projects at once I moved all the cuts of each color onto one mat in Silhouette Studio. This really saved a lot of paper and reduced my overall cutting time significantly. I had a really great time with these projects and I have a few more to do. 

 

Don't forget to hop over to the Designer Crafts blog to see all of the projects. They are beautiful! 

Fairy Mini Album

 

How cute is this little Fairy Album?!?!?!  I have had this base album for quite some time, it's from Graphic 45. It's TINY! Like the cover is only 4x5 tiny! I've been trying to decide what to do with it and I decided I would use it to make a photo album for my princess. She is currently with us for 2 weeks for Mimi's Summer Camp 2021. We are having a great time!

 

Over at Designer Crafts Connection we all received an amazing assortment of of product from Gwen Studios ribbons. Y'all know I am a ribbon crazy crafter and I was so excited to get that box! Their products are available at Wal-Mart so be sure to check them out next time you are there. 

 

I pulled a variety of ribbons from the assortment and cut multiple pieces from each roll to 6 inches long. Trim the ends of the ribbons- I alternated between a notch and straight cut on a slant. Seal the ribbon ends to prevent fraying if that bothers you. 

Layer the ribbons, alternating styles, widths, and textures. I like to just put the in a pile where the cross somewhere near the middle. I - LOVE- pom pom trim! I always add a piece or two at the top of the pile.

 

Cut a narrow piece of ribbon about 10" long and tie all the ribbons together tightly. I like the knot to the back of the pile, but the front is good too. 

I used a low temp glue gun to adhere the ribbon bundle to the spine of the mini album. It's placed a little off center towards the top of the album  so the bottom of the bundle sits just about even with the bottom of the album. 

This is one of my very favorite ways to dress up the spine of a mini album. There are so many possibilities with this technique. I hope you give it a try! 

Be sure to hop over to the Designer Crafts Connection blog and check out 

all the amazing projects that were made for the hop.