April's Craft Blog

Have you ever wished you could add something more to your fabric scrapbook? Well with fabric ink now you can. This is what my book looked like before.

Following the same steps I did before for stamping fabric I was able to make my scrapbook look totally different. For this you want to be sure to set you iron on a lower setting and don’t leave it on to long. If you do leave it to long or have the iron to hot the fabric will start to pull off from the cover and bubble up. If it does just try to flatten it down with your hand or if it is to hot, use a bone folder or another flat object. But just look at how it can turn out. And remember less is more. I have found that this is true more often than not. Have a great crafting day.

Have you tried to stitch on card stock yet? It is fun and easy to do. You can do it on your sewing machine or if you don’t have one you can do it by hand. If you are going to do it by hand I would suggest you use a paper piercing tool first so that it is easier for you. I first glued the paper to my card then I used my sewing machine then I put the finishing touches on. As you can see I used the metallic charm idea for my thank you. Have a crafty day.

Ok, so it’s not really metal. But it sure looks like it! I know that you may have seen this in craft books and stuff but they don’t really to tell you how to get the best result.
What you will need is the embossing ink pad, metallic embossing powder of any color, heat gun, any stamp you would like, simple designs work best, card stock, and scissors. Now the card stock you use doesn’t need to be very big, just big enough to stamp your image and cut it out. Now when I work with powders I like to work over printer paper so that when I shake things off I can just pour the powder back into the container. That way nothing get wasted.
First you will press the card stock to the ink pad and be sure to cover it well. When the ink is wet pour the powder on top of it and sake off the extra.
Now use your heat gun to melt the powder. First it will look a bit strange then it will smooth out. When it smooths out work as fast as you can to get another layer of powder on it. Melt that down as well. You can repeat this step one or two times to get a really thick finish. I stop at three layers.
As soon as the last layer is done put the heat gun down and grab your stamp and as the melted powder is still hot push the stamp down. Don’t press all the way down as that will smudge it to much and you will see the card stock, you don’t want that. Once the stamp is down let go so you don’t move it and leave it for a few seconds, it doesn’t take long for the powder to set. Then lift it out, you will have to grab the card stock and hold it. Then all that is left is to cut it out and put it on what ever you would like.
I am sure they don’t put all of this in the books because they want to fit more in the book, but I feel it is more important that your crafts come out as beautiful as possible. Just look at how mine came out. Oh, try to find better scissors, my kids decided to hide mine from me.

Well I did some sewing an I learned just how bad I am at it. I hope that with time I can get better at sewing. That is my advice for the day, as yo gabba gabba says ‘keep trying, keep trying, don’t give up you’ll get it right.’

Ok here is how that blanket came out.  Not the best quilt job in the world but it is my first time doing it all by myself.  I am very proud of how it turned out.

Have you ever had to get a bag of those clear stones that come in several colors and had a ton left over? Well I have a solution for that.
You can use what ever kind of image you want that is the right size. You can even use stamped images or a picture or what ever would match the room you are going to put them in. Now find a magnet that would be well hiden behind the stone. You take the image cut it to the right size then you put a strong glue on the top of it and place the stone on top of it. Then you take the same glue and put it on the magnet and put the magnet on the back of the stone and image. Now let it set for about an hour or so before you use it. But once it is dry use it on what ever magnetic surface you want. Have a great crafty day!

I finished the blanket yesterday and I am pleased with how it came out. I think it came out great especially with it being the first quilt I ever finished on my own. I washed it today and will post pictures soon. I have a lot of new crafts ideas and will start on them shortly. Have a great crafty day.

I am almost done with the blanket I just have the binding left.  I can’t wait to show you all what it looks like.  Now I didn’t make the whole blanket, I got one of those panels from Hobby Lobby.  They are so nice, all you have to get after choosing your pattern is choose what you want for the back and get the batting and maybe some yarn if you want to do some ties on it like I did.  Then when you get it home all you have to do is tie it, do some quilt stitching if you so choose, and then bind it off.  I did all of the above, with the exception of the binding that I am trying to finish.  I hope to have it done today so that I can get back to posting regular crafts.

So, some thing you can do as you are waiting is organize your craft stuff.  If you need to down size, go through the things you don’t use and put them in a separate box.  When you are done finding the things you don’t need, such as paper you don’t really like, you can have a craft party at this party you can swap craft stuff or let others go crazy with crafting or you can sell it or give it away.  Every one has different tastes so a paper that you hate that came in that paper pack you got some one else may totally love it.  Then there is that stamp you got in that craft kit that your husband or friend got you that you never use, once again some one else may love it.  So do your self and your craft stuff a favor and get rid of stuff you don’t use and organize what you have.  Once you see all that is left you just might get inspired to finish that scrapbook that you started a year ago.  Have a great crafting day!

I haven’t done any crafts of late. I am working on a baby blanket for my sister who is about to pop. As soon as that is done I will post pics of it. Then I will get back to other crafts.

Have you ever received a clock that you liked every thing but the face of it and threw it out?  Or did you see one at the store on clearance that had a beautiful frame around it but the face was ugly?  Well now you can keep or get that clock.

Last year I got this clock and didn’t like the face at all.  After a little of playing around with it I was able to figure out how to pull it apart.  Taking the hands off was super easy, they just popped off.  So I took the face of it out and traced it on a piece of card stock.  Then I cut out the card stock.  Every year I make a point of getting a beautiful calender that fits me and my decor so I took last years calender and found a picture in it that I thought would look great in the clock frame.  I used the card stock to lay out the pictures just right.  The nice thing about  this is you could take off all of the clock workings and just use it as a frame or you can cut the hole in the center for the post for the hands.  If you actually want the numbers on it I would use the old face to measure where those should go.  Then you could use what ever you wanted to mark the numbers.  After I did all that I wanted I put it all back together.  Then I noticed that I put the picture in upside down.  Don’t make that mistake, before you put it together make sure every thing is right so you don’t have to take it apart again like I did.  But I did turn out in the end.  Well you can see that.