Valentine's Day Apron by Craft Warehouse Guest Designer Jessi Buehrle

Hey everyone Jessi here from My Life in Arts n’ Crafts, which is where you can usually find me. I have the honor of guesting here on the Craft Warehouse Blog. I am beyond excited to share with you a few simple projects that you can make with just a few items.

You will need:

·      Several tea towels in your choice of colors I used the red and the white
·      Red (Maroon) Apron
·      Your Silhouette Cameo (most of our stores have upgraded to the new touch screen one which has amazing new features)
·      The Heat Transfer Starter Kit
Weeding tool (comes in the kit)
·      (Optional) Silhouette Spatula
·      Possibly some scissors
·      Iron
·      An Ironing board or a towel to protect your work surface

Let’s get started!

To get started open the software on your computer. You will need to find a design you like for your towel.

For my white towel I used the teal HTV (heat transfer vinyl). I wanted my design to be small enough to fit in to the portion of the towel, that when folded, would be visible.

I used “ Love is four-legged word - phrase by Kolette Hall”
Design ID #70554

You can ungroup the image to keep only the Love portion. Of course if you have another love or word you want in your jar then feel free to do that as well. I love having images I can get more use out of.

For the jar I used “3 mason jars by Lori Whitlock”
Design ID #27990

I chose this one because I liked the outline part of the jar. This is what I used for my design

I then layered the love over the jar and welded it together.
I used the hearts from the jar set and sized them smaller and tipped some of them. Remember odd numbers look better to the eye so I used 3.

For the apron I used typewriter by Hero Arts
Design ID #43203

I typed out LOVE in the font “Courier”

Being able to use any font from your own computer is amazing with the Silhouette software.
I sized the typewriter approximately 9 by 9.  I used a heart for the O in love and placed in inside what would be the paper from the typewriter.

***Reminder*** always flip (mirror) your image prior to cutting. With heat transfer you cut the material upside down.

Always do a test cut on the material with the machine to avoid ruining your HTV I found with my machine I needed to adjust the blade to a 3 for regular HTV and to a 4 for the flocked.


Iron your item that you will be applying the HTV to prior to actually applying the design. Follow the direction inside the booklet that comes with the kit for how to iron on the design.

And as simple as that you have a cute valentine apron and towel that is great for anyone!

 

Faux Moss Super Bowl Field Serving Tray

Create this Faux Football Field to really "WOW" Your Guest for the Super Bowl!

Supplies:

Metal tray
Faux Moss on a roll
White & brown 12x12 card stock paper
Darice White stickers
American Crafts Thicker Stickers
Beacon fabric glue
Tombow extreme adhesive
Toothpicks
White marker

Directions:

1. Cut moss to fit tray
2. Cut paper strips for the field lines .25"
3. Space lines about 3" apart leaving a larger space for the end zone.

4. Glue lines down with beacon fabric glue

5. Place Darice numbers close to each line, like shown in the photo.

 6.Glue down with Beacon Fabric glue.

7. Glue down thicker stickers in the end zone to spell out "Touch Down"

8. Create cupcake toppers by punching 2" oval circles.

9. Draw a football using white pen.

10. Make 3 strips of Tombow tape on the back then add toothpick and close up back with another oval paper.

11. Add to the top of your cupcakes and get ready to watch some Football!

Super Bowl Party Tray

There is still time to get in the game and create this one of a kind party tray for your Super Bowl guests this weekend!

Supplies:


    Metal Tray 13"x20.5" Retail 29.99 (FUM/363)
    2 Sheets of Football Field Paper By Reminisce
    2" Oval Circle Punch By Marvy
    White Artist Pen by Faber Caster
    Tombow Extreme Adhesive
    Paper Straws Blue Chevron
    Chalk Board Labels
    Brown Card Stock Paper
    Mason Jars

Directions:

1. Tape paper together to create a football field. Lay in tray and cut paper to size trimming the ends.

   
   2.  Punch out oval shapes using brown card stock paper. Using an artist pen draw lines on your football.

    3. On the back of your paper football place strip of tombow adhesive and place straw leaving 1" on the top of the straw so you can drink out of it.

  

 4. Place Chalk board labels to the front of each mason jar, add straws and you are done!
 

Trendy Bottle and Jar Home Decor

We have projects for every type of crafter in this special blog series. We will show you how we did it, and what you need to do it, all found on the shelves of your local family owned and operated Craft Warehouse stores.

Bottles and canning jars are not just for recycling, decorate the place!

In case you need a reason to open that bottle of
wine this project is both easy and dramatic.

Supplies:

Vinyl Letters
Montana Gold Label Spray Paint in your choice of color
Water Bottle with Wire Clamp Lid

Directions:

Before painting with Montana spray paint, apply a vinyl letter or icon on the bottle then paint. After
paint dries peel up the vinyl. It's as easy as that!

* Vinyl Letters $1.00 (reg. $2.49), Montana Gold Label Spray Paint $7.75 (reg $10.50), and Water Bottle with Wire Clamp Lid $3.00 (reg $3.99) until February 23rd, 2015

Heart Sachet or Pincusion

Create that one of a kind gift that will for sure make someone's day! Make them in bunches to give out as a friendly random act of kindness during the days that lead up to Valentine's Day!

Supplies:

    10” square of fabric
    10” square of fusible fleece, I like the Pellon brand the best
    Polyester fiber fill
    1½”-2” x 12” piece of ribbon or fabric

Directions:

1. Following the manufacturer’s directions, fuse the fleece to the wrong side of the fabric.

2. Quilt as desired. 

 3. Cut square in half on the diagonal.

 4. With wrong sides together, using a ¼” seam allowance, sew the 2 halves together leaving a 2” opening on the long side of the triangle.

 5. Clip the corners off close to your stitching and turn right side out, poking the points out with a pencil or bamboo skewer.  

  6. Fill with polyester fiber fill and lavender or your favorite potpourri for a sachet. Fill with cedar shavings, walnut shells or rice for a pincushion. Push the filling into the bottom corner but don’t put much filling in the 2 ends that you will be joining on the top. If you want some weight on the bottom, you can begin filling the heart with poly pellets.

7. By hand, stitch the opening closed. Bring the 2 ends up to meet in the middle. I hold mine together with binding clips. Clothespins or safety pins would work fine. Stitch together.

8.  Tie with fabric or ribbon to cover your overlapping ends.

Starting an Art Jornal by Dana Sanchez

 

Art journaling and mixed media are fun because everyone can do it.  No skill level is required.  Supplies are whatever you choose.  No measuring is needed if you don't want to.  Art journaling is your story.  It’s that memoir you always wanted to write.  It’s that list of goals you’d been meaning to make.  It’s favorite quotes.  It’s your story and no one else's.  

I highly recommend the Ranger Dylusions art journal.  I have purchased cheaper blank page journals. However, in my experience, they don't hold up to lots of liquid use and inks bleed through the pages.  I think anyone who buys this journal will love it. My local Craft Warehouse has a lovely stack of them - and they are just so tempting. I'm pretty sure I need to stock up for the next few years.  

For this spread, I sprayed one layer of  Vibrant Turquoise, moved it around with some sprays of water and a baby wipe (also known as an art wipe). Once I let the blue dry, I used the Dylusions Shattered Stencil with a few spritzes of the white color.  I couldn’t just have one color when I want to play with so many colors. Another benefit to these inks visiting their buddies is that they do blend beautifully. I would advise against too much fraternizing between the colors to avoid an over-abundance of dirty dark brown. 

One way to use these sprays is to layer elements on different pieces of paper. I sprayed yellow and pink on a separate piece of paper, dried it, then used Tim Holtz Distress paint with Tim Holtz Hearts stencils. Lastly, I randomly applied the Dylusions Checkered Dots all over the paper.  The Distress paint is slightly thicker to hold the shape of the stencils a little better.  It’s not perfect, but this is play time. This is learning what I like and what works for each piece I create. This is not a test.  This is art.

The yellow and pink make these amazing dawn colors.  Which helped me know what I wanted to make – a sky.

I enjoy mixed media because I get to use different kinds of supplies.  

Trying new things keeps my projects new and interesting to me.  I'm don't feel like I am really great with a paint brush, but I saw the Niiji water brushes and knew there were lots of things I could do with one.  I loaded it with a little of the Pink Bubble Gum Delusions Ink and water and used it to paint my word of the year.  

Have you tried any of the Wink of Stella brushes yet?  They come in different colors, and have this lovely bit sparkle to them.  They are filled with water based ink in a pen complete with a brush on the end.  If you like stamping, these would be so lovely to add a bit of extra sparkle just in areas you wanted.  I played with the pens a bit to get the feel of them. Once I felt comfortable with their application, I used them to highlight my word and a few other things --- it was really hard to put them down.  

I cut clouds out of the peachy dawn papers, and made a bird from a free pinterest download. The next step was creating a trial layout to get an idea where I was going.

Can you see the sparkle in this picture?  These pens are really easy to use.  The ink flows without much effort, and the delicate glide of the brush is sublime.  The pens are much easier to use than I expected. As a bonus, they didn’t pick up too much of the Dylusions which was an initial concern.

I used: GL Red 029, GL Pink 027, Gl White 000, GL Clear 999.  I like the basic black as well, especially for writing but I didn’t think this spread needed it.

I also used a Uniball Signo White pen.  This is The White Pen - the pen on every art journalers must have list.  Opaque,  it glides onto a dry surface and it will write over matte or glossy gel medium or Mod Podge. There are other pens available, however I've only found them online.  Those other pens don’t matter though.  Craft Warehouse has the Signo - and that is all you need.   If you come to Vancouver I can even show you exactly where in the store.  I don’t work at Craft Warehouse, but I like to visit these pens often and invite a couple to come home with me.

My word for  year is Fearless, because I am going to live and create Fearlessly. Do you have a word for 2015? I’m learning to avoid comparing  myself to others and put myself out there.  I am so honored to share my art journal with you here on the Craft Warehouse blog.  You can see more of  my play with these products on at my blog, Dapoppins.com.    That’s my story for 2015.    What is yours? 

Design Team Member Dana Sanchez

Welcome back to our Designer Spotlight where we feature local artists like NW mixed media artist Dana Sanchez! We love Dana's style and her art completely wowed us when we saw it! We knew we wanted her to share some of her knowledge with our customers and are pleased to have her designing for our store! Here is a little bit about what inspires Dana to create...





How long have you been crafting?
 
 As a mom of four and creative person I've been scrapbooking since 1998 when I decided to personalize my son's baby book.  I searched for weeks for post-bound book that I could add my own pages to.  Baby books are filled with questions to answer and pages for specific photos. This felt so confining to me.  I wanted to be able to add my son's story and all the things that were important to me, plus, I didn't want to be confronted with the guilt of leaving spaces empty.  As three more children were added to the mix, they each needed a personalized baby book, by the time I had my daughter,  I'd moved on to the 8 ½ x 11 albums and started working with 12x12 and I had more than enough of a “stash” to start making a family album.



What inspires you to be creative?

There are so many things that inspire me to be creative.  First it was this need to “remember and save” the memories.  I've read articles on how sometimes it is important for mom's to come out from behind the camera,” But I have to say, with four children born one right after the other, their days pass in a blur.  I cherish every photograph I ever took and wish I had taken more -with a better camera.

These days, as I become more comfortable in my creative skin, I find everything inspires me.  My Faith, my family, bright colors, Pinterest, illustration, new technique videos- my ten-year-old daughter is an amazing illustrator. The scraps and comics she just leaves laying around the house often inspire me and I've created a couple of mixed-media canvases with them.

I have to be careful, I see a different style, or something with bright colors, or something wonderfully altered, and I'm just, “Oooh shiny!  I want to make that!”

 What Craft Warehouse products do you love to use?

There are just not a lot of local art resource options and Craft Warehouse is my go-to spot.  I love walking into that store.  They have lovely home decorating displays to explore, (which often inspire the mixed-media craving in me)  but the big draw for me is the scrapbook and Arts section.  Pretty much everything on the left side of our Vancouver store!  Craft Warehouse carries Tim Holtz, Thickers, Pima flowers and Petaloo, Teresa Collins, and We R Memory Keepers to name a few.  I  love the Tim Holtz Ideology line, and I think both boxes of the Tim Holtz tissue papers that I use in my collaged-mixed-media were purchased from Craft Warehouse when I found them on sale. 

Plus, there is a great selection of wood that can be altered for projects.  My absolute favorite surface right now for mixed media and collage is this 12 x 12 that set in a little box frame.  I can't find it anywhere else, it's a locally made product and only Craft Warehouse has it.

How can you encourage others reading this column?

When I started my first scrapbooks and my first mixed media project I kept telling myself that it was for me, and nobody else.  I am the audience I'm making this for me and I'm the only one who needs to be satisfied.  I would encourage others to make art for themselves, as a way to tell and express their own personal story.   Stories are everywhere around us, in our families, our history, in our day.  Knowing where you come from helps you know where you are going. The story is everything.   Even if we don't have time for eloquent journaling or finding the perfect quote, the story is in the photo.  Once you have your story, don't compare yourself to anyone else. It's your personal story!

I am just a home crafter who has never even taken a class because of time restraints and financial reasons . I've learned as I go, and I love learning new things.  Anyone can do this.  Everyone should do this.

Creating with myself as my audience helped build confidence to start creating for others.  When one of my boys took special mini book I had made him to show and tell while simultaneously reading through it so much it became dog eared- It's hard to describe how pleased that made me.  Or when I made my eleven year old laugh with a story/mini-album I had made for him.  Or that time I made my husband cry...

I am more than just someone who plays with paper- I have lot's of stories to tell, share, and give away.  My Grandma always wanted to write a book, my mom says someday she still might write her book, but I have two shelves of albums stuffed with already written stories to share with my family and cherish the rest of my life.

There are so many ways to ease into this paper-love hobby, so many ways it can go, that there is no reason anyone can't do it and feel like they have accomplished something wonderful.

Visit Dana on her blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, and Pinterest to be even more inspired!