believe blocks

Back in June Beth made these cute blocks for Father's Day. This week at craft night we decided to make them for Halloween and Christmas. These blocks were super simple and are a great present! Think initials, sport's teams, or quotes (short of course).

Here are the supplies you will need (I'm horrible at tutorials so let me know if I've forgot something girls!):

• 3.5x3.5 wooden blocks (these are made from 4x4 posts which are in actual size 3.5x3.5)
• 3x3 paper squares (I just cut mine with a paper trimmer). You will need 6 per block.
• Mod Podge
• embellishments (You can either make these with the Cricut or use pre-made ones)
• letters (these can be made with the Cricut also or stamps or chipboard). I used chipboard cutouts and painted them with glitter paint. I think it is going to become a new obsession.
• paint
• distressing ink or paint

Sand your blocks down and brush off. Apply paint to the corners (basically where your paper squares will not cover). Mod Podge your paper squares on to your blocks. To seal paper put another coat of Mod Podge on. Then simply decorate with embellishments and words/phrases/letters. You want to let these dry for a few days. I roughed mine up with distressing ink and sanded them down really good.

a is for applique addict

Are y'all getting the drift that we are all addicted to all things appliqued?

More Appliques

So I am NOT good at the tutorial thing, so I will follow Beth and just post pictures of the final products! Ignore the poor quality of my pictures taken late at night with HORRIBLE lighting! :)

The turkey eyes are buttons, and the gobbler is a hot pink bead.

(I added this ruffle to make this boy shirt look a little less boyish.)

So I am NOT good at the tutorial thing, so I will follow Beth and just post pictures of the final products!

Applique Fun

Maribeth enlightened us on the appliqueing process. Now we can make cute, inexpensive shirts to match our childrens' clothing. Yay! Here are some of the shirts that I have made. All of these were cut with the Cricut. I cut like a 5 year old, so cutting by hand is not an option for me.




Thanks for taking the time to type out the tutorial, Jen:)

cricut made applique

During the month of August, we got together several times to applique some t-shirts. Hopefully, some of the other gals will post their cute projects too (hint, hint).

To make this one, I used:
cricut cutting machine
doodlecharms cartridge
three 4 x 6 pieces of fabric
heat and bond fusible webbing
an iron
scissors
embroidery thread and needle
patience.

To cut the applique, I practiced the size and layout of the design by cutting it on to scrapbook paper first. I HIGHLY recommend doing that. There's nothing worse than wasting your pretty fabric. Well, maybe famine or pestilence. But wasting fabric is definitely right after that.

Anyhooo - After I found the size and placement that I liked best, I took my fabric square and backed it with Heat N Bond.

FYI: To back your fabric, follow the directions on the back of the Heat N Bond package. Or just have Maribeth do it for you. Like I did.

After Maribeth prepped the fabric for me, I placed it on the Cricut cutting mat and chose my design.
I cut the design three times on three different pieces of fabric so that I could layer the fabric.

I removed the paper backing from the newly cut design and carefully ironed one piece at a time to my t-shirt.

Next, I chose my embroidery floss colors and began stitching.
I used a running stitch to outline the ice cream and a chain stitch to add some interest to the cone.

Check out these embroidery stitch videos for more info. They helped me a lot.

If my tutorial is super confusing to you (which is highly likely), keep in mind that there are ten million tutorials for making appliques out in bloggy land. I like this one at Sew Mama Sew.

I loved appliqueing so much that I decided to get brave and make a monkey as well. I didn't use the Cricut for this one - I just traced it onto the paper part of the Heat N Bond and cut it out with nice, sharp scissors.

Father's Day Idea

I copied this idea...

http://www.alphamom.com/holiday/2009/05/handamde_mothers_day_photo_cube.php

...and made these photo cubes for my dad and father-in-law for Father's Day.

I chose to paint mine black.

I like my modge podge shiny so I always put on several thick coats. That is why the flash looks funny in this picture.

One tip: the tutorial says to use a 4x4. I went to Home Depot and asked the guy there to cut two pieces of 4x4. He told me that a 4x4 is actually not 4 inches, it is a little over 3 1/2. So if you make it, tell the wood cutting person at Home Depot that you want a perfect cube.

This was super cheap. You have to buy the whole 4x4, but it was only $5.96 (now I have like 6 feet of 4x4 for some other random project I have yet to come up with). Definitely a recession-proof Father's Day gift.

Closet Organizers

Ten weeks after having Meyers, I am finally feeling crafty. A baby sleeping through the night can do wonders for you! This is hardly crafty at all, but I was feeling left out since I haven't posted. So here are my closet dividers.

I wanted to organize Meyers closet since I have been buying her a lot of dresses lately (thank you Jennifer T). Some of them are way too big, but I still want them in her closet. I made 3, 6, 9, and 12 month dividers. I haven't gotten around to the bigger sizes yet.

No tutorial because this is so easy my ten week old could do it! I just used cardstock, scrapbook paper, and number stickers. I also used a hole-punching tool. You really need a long punch with a 1/4 of an inch hole. The Martha one that I used did not have a big enough hole. That is why only the 3 month one is punched. After all your paper is punched and stuck together, punch a hole and cut a slit. I had to play around with this some to make sure it fit between the wires on my shelves.





And they could be much cuter. I kind of got in a hurry. I may change them later.