It's A New Year, Supposedly

 I see I haven't posted in a long time. What have I been doing? Working. Nearly full time this year as there is a shortage of supply (substitute) teachers. I do very little knitting. In the last post I mentioned the Handicrafter Cotton yarn I bought; I'm still knitting dishcloths with it. Thought I might finish it off before the end of the year, but no. If I sit and watch TV  and knit for the evening, my hands are too sore the next day. I also still have the tiny newborn hats I'm working on. I haven't done any sewing, but I am getting things out today because 1) my mom mentioned she's been using the Boxerwears I had made for Dad as pajamas, so I want to make her some of the woman's version 2) I want to make some for myself 3) I saw some snowflake fabric in my stash 4) I'd love some more Sunset Loungers as one pair seems to be missing (did I leave them when I visited my mom?), and one pair has faded and one pair was not a great fabric choice and 4) Megan asked for another Lovesick Bra. Of course, that's what I'm going to work on first LOL.

I have been doing a lot of digital drawing on Procreate, check out my Instagram for that. I've gotten the Cricut out again. Thought I had shared the card Megan made me make for her gym teacher. Apparently not, so here it is:

It's Print Then Cut, layered onto a few layers; the Thank You is cut from the black, the green is the full card and the black is glued on the front (there was a cut line instead of a score line and I ended up with separate fronts and backs, didn't use the back). I wanted to cut a window in the front and glue the logo to the inside, but Megan said no. Next time, I think I would do the printing on the sticker paper I have, or maybe onto photo paper for a glossy look (I have TONS of 4x6 photo paper; I just got printable vinyl sticker paper and I'm not going to use that for it!). Her classmates thought she bought it from the school office, so that's a compliment!

I made this gorgeous wreath, from Sweet Red Poppy: 

I did not have to buy anything except the wreath frame. 

It lights up with little LED lights from Giant Tiger. They are battery operated and have a built in 6 hour timer. They were already in one of my house plants, so I didn't actually buy them for this project LOL. 

The wreath frame is a chipboard frame from the fake floral section of Dollarama. I had originally bought a gold tinsel wreath from there, but the family actually liked it and wouldn't let me dissect it!

The lights are pinned to the outer edge with T pins, and secured to the inner edge with ZOTS 3D Dots. 

I might have gotten carried away. The instructions tell you to duplicate the 4 snowflakes so you have 5", 4" and 3" snowflakes. The original wreath I was going to use was curved (domed?) so I worried that the snowflakes would be too big to follow the curve. I duplicated and shrunk them down to 2" snowflakes as well. I also was trying to use up paper, and conserve paper, and I moved things around a lot from mat to mat and in the end, there were so many snowflake parts that I had to figure out how they all went together. Luckily, each layer (of each design) is different, so it's not like the inner layer of the 5" snowflake is the same as the outer layer of the 4" snowflake. After matching everything up, I had a few extra layers of each size/design, so I cut some individual layers to make more complete snowflakes. In the end, I used 12 5", 8 4", 7 3" and 5 2". I had about 8-10 left. I cut lengths of yarn, glued it to a ribbon, and made a sort of garland to go across a window that has no curtain. I used the ZOTS to secure it, but alas, it kept falling down. I ended up laying the ribbon on my fireplace mantel, placing the mantel decorations over it to hold it down, and letting the snowflakes hang in front of the fireplace. It looks nice when the ceiling fan is on!

Then I had to make a card for my niece. I had been drawing these characters following Genevieve's Design Studio on YouTube. I made their accessories in Queen's University Tricolours (I found a website that gave the hexidecimal codes for the colours!). My niece goes to a private school. I looked up their colours and found out their mascot is a polar bear, so I used the polar bear I had already done. How awesome! Because you use layers for the different parts, I could easily change the sweater, hat and scarf!

I had only two pieces of white cardstock though. I went ahead and printed the card. 

It printed streaky! And the "white" cardstock didn't look all that white (card on the right). I checked the settings, I cleaned the nozzles, tried again...still streaky. I kept cleaning the nozzles and running the test print. It started to get worse! The cyan eventually completely disappeared! I did one more clean, it came back, I did a test print, it was almost perfect. Tried printing the card, not quite there. One more cleaning...but now I had to go to Wal-Mart, at like, 8:30pm in the drizzly rain, to get more white cardstock. Not a lot of options! Managed to find some though, and printed one more card. 

I managed to get a smudge on the front! I was NOT printing again though. I liked the card, but to me, it was lacking something. The dull cardstock soaks up the ink, and it loses some details. It's not smooth like a commercial card. I did find at Staples later they had "card" paper. I tried to stick my finger in the package, and it did feel smoother. However, it's 8.5"x11" paper, perforated to make two cards. This card I made, I used a free template from Genevieve's Design Studio (and her YouTube tutorial) to make a card closer in size to a "standard" commercial card. 

This also meant I had to make an envelope, and this size card needs a 12x12" piece of cardstock to make the envelope. I used my envelope making tool I bought from a friend that sells Stamping Up! stuff. I love it! I used it to create an envelope for the Gator card too. 

I also made some stickers, but still only had the printable sticker paper. They looked good though. I printed them, then put clear vinyl (Dollarama "book cover" vinyl) on, then cut.

 OMG. I hadn't created a white background behind the first few polar bears, and didn't realize how jagged the edges were. It took about an hour to cut the first one! I paused it a few times to clean the blade, then I just raised the blade up so it wasn't cutting. I wanted to just give up on the bears and have the other items, with white borders, cut out. I had flattened the whole page though. Eventually I did stop it, cancelled the cut, and went back to the canvas. It allowed me to "Unflatten" the page, and I was able to delete the two stickers it had mangled. But then, when I went to make it, set it all up, loaded the mat...it never moved on to the start option! I gave up and hand cut them. 

I used the polar bear to seal the envelope, and the Nya one for the front (I also glued on a gem). I included the other stickers in the card. 

My sticker vinyl came and I got to work. I had made a sticker sheet in Procreate using my artworks, back in the summer...but now that I had the proper stuff, those old artworks just weren't exciting me. I got to work making new stickers. 

It's Koala Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper, Glossy. It's about $20Cdn, for 20 sheets, with free Prime shipping. So about $1 a sheet, not including tax. Seems like a lot, but I got 14 stickers on one page, and if I had some smaller art ready to go, I could have filled in a few spots. 

I LOVE it. The colours are so rich and glossy! It cut so smooth! I didn't flatten this time, but did attach. Some had white borders and I carefully checked them when I imported. I used bleed on, and printed on "premium photo paper, glossy" setting. To cut, I used "Printable Vinyl" as the material, and the default pressure, and it made perfect "kiss cut" stickers!

When I did the alteration to the polar bear, I forgot to do the outline changes on a new layer. And then I forgot to re-adjust the outline back to the red. He's still cute!

I had a bit of space left, so I did this photo I had altered from a cottage vacation, and the cartoon of my SIL, I had made it following an Art with Flo tutorial (I'm pretty sure). I've got some more designs in the works. 

I hadn't really intended to write all this. I was just stopping by to write about the yarn donation I made to a local lady that makes "nests" for a wildlife refuge! 

A great way to get rid of some variegated leftovers, and other small balls that won't play nicely with other yarns when I make the blankets for seniors! I gave away 1053gr! So I have to add that to my totals. Also, in November, I was contacted by a woman who I had made Christmas stockings for. She had another baby and wanted a new stocking. She was really understanding when I said I couldn't do it for this Christmas, so I'll be making it for 2022. I rarely even go to my FB "Business" page, but FB sent me an email of the message, thankfully. I've got to buy yarn for that. Oh, hope I didn't give away any of the small amounts I used for the design! I had kept all that stuff separate, but I kind of forgot about it over the past two years and integrated the yarns back into the stash. New year, new challenges!

Yarn In:  3109gr

Yarn Out:  1053gr + 4586gr =  5369gr

Balance: 2530 gr more OUT than in

Cost:   $44.66, 365 days, $0.12/day

My last post said $0.05/day. Not sure how...that should have been $0.15/day!

Happy Heart Day

 I don't think I've ever decorated for Valentine's Day before. I keep my snowmen and snowflake stuff up, but I don't think I have anything else. So, since I have the Cricut now, I decided it was time! I wanted to do a layered heart. Should be simple to find a SVG, right?

Nope. Well, yes, there are some out there. They either cost money, or the website caused my virus protection to stop me, or the link was dead or just not what I wanted. 

I finally found this one:  https://linkedgovinyl.com/product/3d-layered-heart-graphic-free-3d-svg/  but of course, I couldn't make it with just four layers! I took the third layer, duplicated it, then created an outset. Then I had to enlarge the bottom layer too, increasing it by the same number of outsets (Inkscape).

I thought I had deleted tiny cutouts, but due to the smaller size (8.5"x11"), I could have simplified it a b it more.

Here are all the layers. Adding the extra layer just filled it in a bit. It would have been fine without it, but I'm of the mindset, the more layers, the better LOL.

I did have some issues cutting this. I used the intricate cut setting. I don't know if the blade had some residue, or is getting worn, or if it was the red paper (different colours cut differently). I had to use my little swivel blade to cut parts out by hand.

I found some red ribbon in my sewing desk, and along with some painter's tape, I have a new front door decoration! Simple and sweet, just like me.

Figure Skater 3D Layered Project

 I can't believe I haven't posted this! I made it early in the Christmas season because I knew I had to get it done before my surgery. Then I put it in the drawer to hide it and didn't get it assembled right away. 

It's a free design from the incredibly talented Gjoa at Special Heart Studio. She is so generous with her talent! If you haven't subscribed to her website to access her free designs, DO IT NOW. https://specialheartstudio.com/ 

Isn't she gorgeous? Megan's dress this year (and last) is red, but I didn't want to do the skater in red. So I chose a dark red for one of the inner layers. 

There's a total of 6 layers. It's not too time consuming to make but has high impact!

For the silver layer, I used the silver "vinyl film" from Dollarama and stuck it to white cardstock, then cut it out. Such an easy and cheap way to get fabulous options other than plain cardstock. 

I was worried the skater wouldn't stand out with the top ring being black as well. Not an issue though.

Two tips for this (and any layered projects). One--be mindful of how you set the layers down after taking them off the mat. Even make a sticky note, indicating if you've put them right side up. I had to do some turning and flipping to make sure I had the layers correct.

Second tip applies to any layered project. Parchment paper! I learned about using it for layering vinyl and thought "will it work for paper?" Yes, it does! I expose the adhesive on a small section of foam dots, put the parchment paper under the layer, and secure those few dots. Then I lift up the layer and peel the backing off a few more dots. Using the parchment paper means I don't have to worry if one gets stuck because I took the backing off. It's an extra piece of security. I also stand directly over the project to get the best view. And slow down! The first project I made, I went too fast. I wasn't rushing, but I just didn't realize how slow I should go. 

I'm hoping Gjoa will make a male version. I could probably alter the file....but it's her design and I don't want to muck about with it. 

January Birthdays

 It's not easy having a January birthday. The 1st was my Dad, the 4th is my MIL, and tomorrow is mine. The combination of post-Christmas letdown, the dreary weather, I knew I wanted to make a cheery card for my MIL. 

I went to Bird's Cards, to her Card Cover collection and chose the first collection. I used the flowers one, but did it vertical instead of horizontal. I had intended for the fill of the flowers to be the sparkly layer, but goofed. It's the sparkly "Vinyl Film" from Dollarama. I had issues with it not sticking to my map (ran out of painter's tape), and it lifted right away so I had to cut a second one. I was able to use the first one on the envelope though. I stuck the vinyl film to cardstock before cutting.

I cut two circles slightly smaller than the circle cut out, so I could give some height to her name. However, I forgot to use foam tabs between any of the three card layers, so I only needed one circle, with foam tabs under it, and then I think I used foam tabs between that circle and the largest name layer.

Colour is a bit off in this one. I did the text, then a slightly bigger offset, then the large offset, all in Inkscape. First time using this font and I wasn't sure how it would cut since it's thin. Decided to draw the top layer onto the offset. That worked very well. Used Crayola Supertip marker and an adapter from Springbok Craft Supply. 

For the inside I had it write this message. I started with a Crayola but it quickly became obvious it was too thick, so switched to the Staedtler Triplus pens. I was able to use the part that got written on first, when I did the liner for the envelope.

I used a different font, and created this Mum and the offset in Inkscape. I realized after I made the card that no one from this house calls her Eileen LOL. But it's a nice touch--hard to find a personalized card but Mum cards are easy. I used the piece of sparkly vinyl film/cardstock that I had messed up, for the Mum layer.

The inside is the first attempt at the card base when I tried the Crayola marker. I know it doesn't match the outside, but so what. It matches the card.

It might be hard to see in this photo, but there are 11 little nicks that the Cricut cut into the offset. When making it, it looked solid, but I didn't check to see if there were any nodes that had gotten left. Sure enough, there were actually quite a few extra nodes. 

She really liked the card and appreciated the effort. While I can do the designing with my foot elevated, the time it took to get my desk cleared off, get set up, cut it all, assemble, etc, was too much. I really need to cut back on what I'm doing since I'm pretty much making dinner every day now. 

Personalized Layered Letter

 It's hard coming up with gifts for my niece. Now 14. she is blessed with not needing anything. We used to give her a lot of Canadian themed items, but now that's she's living up here for school, that's not quite as cool. I had tried to make a layered N for her in the summer, but for some reason, the N file in the Zengo font didn't work the same as the other letters I've done. 

That swirl in the upper left wouldn't offset like the other swirls. 

So I went to my fonts in Inkscape, and found a pretty bold one (it might have been Baskerville, as you can see, the outline is very similar to the Zengo outline). I wanted as much space to play with as possible. Then I found the Jokerman font and used that to spell Nya. I liked this font because it had little cut outs in the letters that would create cool outsets in Inkscape. I placed each letter individually in the mid section of the N.

You could use another font and create your own cutouts within the letters, or use a thinner, swirlier, font and have the layers show on the edges only

The top layer is lime green, then orange, then black. Something I didn't pay attention to was how thick the lime green was on the legs of the N. I liked how it, and the orange, created parallel lines, but the lime green was a smidge too small for the micro adhesive foam dots, so it had to be glued on. 

And it was not the easiest thing to line up, with those long skinny wobbly legs. I would consider adding horizontal pieces to brace the two legs together, or making it a smidge thicker.

The bubble layers were fun to do. I was designing this without looking at my cardstock selection. I knew I had a fair selection of colours, but when it comes down to actually putting them together, that's another story!

I made the little easel from Special Heart Studio. It's great to include, in case the receiver doesn't want to hang the letter on a wall, or in a frame. 

I wish I had gotten better pictures, but it was a very overcast day, I was in a bit of a rush, and I was on crutches, with no weight bearing on my foot. So, not the easiest scenarios for getting pictures! I look forward to making more designs like this. I haven't seen anything available like this out there, as it would be impractical to do it unless on a custom basis. And if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know I like custom work! Got an unusual name and want a personalized gift? Not every letter and name combo would be practical for something like this, but it's fun to try new things!