Izbzee

another mini -

but it's much too large for the Halfling Hideaway house.  Drats!  At least it was easy to put together and I'll make another after the next couple of projects are out of the way.... 
There's even a fire in the stove -- a little bit of plastic upcycled for a flame colored using alcohol markers and the wood is from a branch that's been drying for a couple of years and was to be used for another project that I just never got around to.  I need to size the pattern down a bit more - probably 50% from the original.  This is at 75% of the original 1:12 size.  It's just a bit too tall even without the stand.  So maybe my next iteration will fit in the house and the straw stovepipe will still be a good fit into the chimney.  

I will keep this one as a reminder that it doesn't hurt to try something you've never done before and it can be a good experience.  The svg pattern is a bit pricey -- I'm not sure I can justify purchasing too many more, though if making miniatures does become a new hobby I'll be delving into more fully, a few more patterns that could be adapted might be a good investment.  And not having to cut a lot of pieces by hand and letting the machine do the cutting for me did help keep the arthritis flare at bay.  


No affiliate links are used:
Stove SVG pattern from:  Spellbound Miniatures
Cardstock:  49 And Market Black
Skycut and SCAL 6 Pro
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue
plastic scrap; transparency scrap
Alcohol markers
small branch
hot glue

April Teacher Appreciation

Sticky note holder for the gift this month.  Super quick to make and it was fun to find notepads in colors that nearly matched the colors used in the rainbow.  I found the notepads on Amazon - they're vintage colors and blend well with the Boho Rainbow with Positive Quotes from Creative Fabrica.  

I did remove the sentiment in the original png image and added something that we thought would work well for this month.  The font is also from Creative Fabrica which can be printed without the stroke added for an almost single line font look when done in SCAL6.  

I had purchased some mystery boxes filled with Bazzil cardstock a couple of years ago and wasn't quite sure what to do with several of the packs, however, this color works well with the image and has enough weight and strength to hold the sticky note pad.  

it's not been too quiet....

craft wise.  I'd say a little busy for the first week of January.  

This guy was finished up just before the first wave of snow started last evening (the 6th).  His first iteration began earlier in the week -- some tweaking and I kind of like the finished look.  


I combined 3 files from Simply Crafty SVGs to make him.  
Smiling Snowman (one of my favorite files -- especially for the hat shape)  I added panels to the hat to get the checkerboard effect I was looking for.  The hat band has some holographic embossed snowflakes -- they didn't quite turn out the way I'd hoped, but there is some sparkle up there.  The panels on the head are embossed with the swiss dots folder from Provo Craft.  I didn't ink these.  The scarf has an extra tail -- and the paper pattern is from Creative Fabrica.  

I used the 3D Round Ornament Gift Box for the body.  The head is glued to the top of the box for easy access to the large area where you could put a scarf, mitten/gloves or some candy.  The bottom of the ornament is flat -- so you could finish there, however, I opted to add a base using the Dog Dish file.  I think next time I make this, I'll add some panels to the inside of the larger piece and again to the outside for a bit more strength since I didn't add the band at the bottom of the outside part of the dish.  The base of the ornament is glued to the dog dish for more stability.  

I created the arms and mittens and hand cut those.  Panels for the body and the arms and mittens are done using the Swiss dots folder.  I used a small button for the chest, two small beads for the eyes and a glittered brad for the nose (after cutting off the prongs).  Hot glue keeps those in place  

Hope you'll find some creative time soon if you don't already have some inked in this coming week.  Enjoy the time and nurture your heart along the way.  

Thanks again, for dropping by!  

Spring Pitcher of flowers

Sandy's been a super support lately and I really appreciate her help with this project.  I'm sure at some point the pitcher design will be in her shop -- so stay tuned!

 

 

After perusing Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, I found an antique pitcher shape I really liked... however, there wasn't much in the design shops that I could find that looked close to the shape and would be simple to put together without using panels.  Sandy had already started something similar and she was gracious enough to send me a test version of a file.  

Needless to say, I fell in love with it and the shape was near spot on to what I had in mind.  This was created in Blender and Pepakura.  NitWit Collections Lilac Blossoms collection was a perfect fit for a Spring look.  I used SCAL5's option for print 2 cut and added the Lilac spray to the base of the pitcher cut.  

Assembly is easy for someone with a little experience.  The handle is 3 strips of paper glued together and shaped before the glue dries. It is attached to the back seam wall of the pitcher with some white washed brads I've had in my stash for years!  

Apply a coat of gloss Mod Podge to the outside for a nice finish and a little more strength.  If you plan to use live flowers, you do need to seal the interior of the pitcher BEFORE you assemble.  A tall pharmacy prescription bottle fits nicely inside and a 2 inch styro ball can be scrunched into the bottle to help with placement of your paper or silk floral pieces.  

Did you know that only one shop has a design for 3D lilac flowers? And that site requires a paid membership to access.  Budget being what it is, I looked for something that I could use - and found the Filler Flower at Maison Gregoria's Etsy shop to be a great fit.  Lots of tiny flowers, all cut on the Skycut using sketchbook paper.  Assembly is a bit tedious since each bloom is on it's own wire.  But it's worth the time and effort.  Once everything is wired and bundled into groups, it was time to use the eBrush for a little color.  Tombow markers in three shades of purple (623, 620, 636) were used to add some texture and depth to the shapes.  Even bundled the color went on fairly evenly.  PLUS:  it didn't take but a minute for the bundles to dry with the layered colors and you're ready to start putting your arrangement together.  

Add some additional greenery from the Poinsettia Wreath file (also from Maison Gregoria on CreativeFabrica.com) which I downsized a bit and also cut using the Skycut.  Wired and ready for use.  I used some chalk for a little extra color and used my exacto knife and a pair of craft tweezers to add the veins to the greenery.  While most of it is too tiny to see in the images, it was worth the time and effort to make it happen.  




The pitcher and floral arrangement stands about 8.5 inches tall and would be perfect for a side table, tablescape tray or open tiered tray or riser decor.  

 

Thanks for dropping by today.  Hope your day is filled with beautiful things!  Wishing you a creative day!  

 

busy, busy, busy

but I can't share  most of it yet!  LOL  

That's really the most difficult part about writing and creating for others.  

What I can share are a couple of quick cards.  One of the big bonuses of using SCAL 5 Pro is being able to import files created in Make The Cut (MTC) and cutting them with the Skycut.  Easy, easy!  

I found a fun Concertina card on Pinterest and it was the inspiration for this card:

We had so much fun looking through the photos to find the perfect shots to celebrate her 14th.  Designer paper is from FSJ, vinyl from Expressions Vinyl in rose gold and used SCAL5 Pro to fill each of those photo squares perfectly and do the print + cut spot on!  

We made cooling scarves for the homeless and we'll be making a few more in the next week or so.  Some of those pieces of fabric in the stash are coming in handy and it felt really good to get the sewing machine out and stitch for a few hours.  

Learning lots of new things about pop ups, construction and mechanisms.  Hoping to play with those a little more in the days to come.  Excited about the prospects of fulfilling a dream and lifelong goal.  

It's been a productive week...

or at least a productive couple of days!  Birthdays for this month are creeping up and so it was a mad dash to get a few done. A mix of digital and hybrid.  Love all the fun that can be created using the SCAL 5 Pro software and a few fun files and dies from favorite vendors.  

Using the Gradient feature in SCAL 5 Pro, you can create a full rainbow of color and fill the text with lots of fun!  Moving the individual sliders you can play with the color movement as well until you're satisfied with the shift. 

Purely digital and so much fun.  

Let the Skycut plotter/cutter do the cutting of a chunky font and you create the background on the card base using distress inks and blending tools.  Embellish with a single cupcake (digi is from Creative Fabrica) colored with pencils are markers of your choice.  Add a little glaze to the cherry for some shine.  

Digi image from Creative Fabrica (watercolor collection).  Print 2 cut using SCAL5 Pro to set up.  Once the image is printed, use a Spellbinders' border die.  Round the corners of the back edge and add a bit of additional color to the edge with a strip of paper in a complimentary color.  

 

 Hoping you will be able to spend some time in your creative space this week.  Enjoy every moment of it.  Happy Crafting!  

Twinchie Paper Quilt

this project was created for The Artistry.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  The pictures don't do it justice and with all the stormy weather we had last week, even studio lights didn't help as much as I would have liked.  That being said, I hope you'll stop by and take a peek at the process shared in this article.  

And look for the bonus tip at the end of the article for the glass heart embellishment.  

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you'll find some creative time in your near future! 

building the stash, again

It's that time of the year again to start replenishing the stash of cards.  It's been fun to look around and find some great ideas.  This idea, however, came in the mail.  I loved it and decided to try my hand at it as well... AND .... test the pen tool and foil quill in the #skycut.  It was nice to see how nicely both of these attempts turned out.  

 

The image above was done using the pen tool and a Sharpie ultra fine pen.  There are 3 layers of cardstock on the left half of the card and two layers on the right side.  The difference in the heights of the material were handled nicely by the machine and there were no problems with the pen dragging or having trouble.  

The foil quill adapter was a perfect fit and after allowing the tip to heat, the results were perfect.  Yep, if you see the typo, I did too!  LOL  but too late.  At any rate the OOPS has been corrected for the next try.  And I now have a full sheet of suggested "holey" sentiments for this card  

Distress Ink was blended on a scrap piece of card that is sandwiched between the card front and the card base.  Whether you choose to use the card front in a vertical or horizontal position is your choice.  The options are endless.  

New adventures...

The days have been a bit on the dreary side with recent storms -- rain and snow seem to be the forecast for the time being.  Not much in the way of sunshine.... BUT...  Sometimes you just need to break away from what you've been doing and try something new or go back to something old and do a "refresh."  The next few posts will be just about that!  I've had so much fun in the last couple of weeks, that it's hard not to explore things I've been wanting to do for a long time, but didn't have enough hours in the day.... or night.

I was gifted an IkonStencilArt kit just before Christmas and thought I might be able to create a few stencils for use in other projects and learn more about the silkscreen process.  It has been a lot of fun.  I've tried several different mediums some with success, others not so much... it has been an interesting journey and I'm not done yet, that's for sure.  Lots of ideas formulating and I'm looking forward to some serious "makes" in the future.  

The project showcased in this post is for a two step stencil.  

You'll need:
eCal3/SCAL5
Printer (laser or inkjet) - this project used an inkjet printer
Printer acetate for your printer
Silkscreen material
Blacklight kit (IkonStencilArt)
Desired medium (chalk paste, acrylic paint, speedball silkscreen print ink)
Foam brush
Fonts 

*some links used in this post are affiliate links.  

I'm using my eCal3 software to create the artwork.  You can use other editing programs (PaintShop, PrintShop, etc.) including Word or Pages (though I don't see as much flexibility as might be needed for a more advanced design in Word or Pages).  

Open eCal
From the library, select a horizontal rectangle and size to 4x6 inches - in the color palette, make the background white and select none for the stroke.
Type Hello in caps using the font Smart Choices Sans Regular from CreativeFabrica.   In the color palette, select Black for the fill color and non for the stroke.  Arrange the word in the center of the rectangle both vertically and horizontally.  You can group the two layers together if designed.  Move to the upper left corner of the mat.  

From the library select another horizontal rectangle and size to 4 x 6 inches - return to the color palette and make the background white and select none for the strock. 
Type Sunshine using the script font: Sign a Day Regular also from CreativeFabrica.  Move the font and center over the Hello.  You may need to stretch is a bit.  Then move the font back down to the second rectangle. Center both horizontally and vertically.  Make sure the font fill is set to black and the stroke to none.  

Reverse both images so the writing is backwards.  You will print the images in this way on the printer transfer acetate.  This way the printer ink lays against the silkscreen material when being exposed for a much sharper image.  

Printer settings are really important.  So make sure you have the correct printer setup settings in the eCal program.  I use a Canon Pixma printer with a rear feed.  I have a special setting for printing the acetate -- following the suggestions by the manufacturer.  I chose to print the entire sheet, not just a portion, so after printing, cut the the images into the desired sizes.  Again, the rectangles were 4 x 6 inches.  I filled the remainder of the sheet with smaller images and words to be used at a later time.  

Following the manufacturer's directions expose the stencil material, wash, dry and post expose.  You can watch a video of this process here.  

Yep, these are used and the acrylic paint does leave them stained.  I got a little anxious and wanted to use them and forgot to take a pic in their new and fresh state!  

For this project, I chose to test on yellow cardstock from Bazill.  I tried chalk paste, but still got some bleeding using the black paste.  
1.  Place the HELLO stencil centered over the yellow cardstock.  Apply the chalk paste (Bright White was used in this sample).  Wash the stencil while the paste is drying.  It doesn't take long to do either. 
2.  When the white has dried, center the Sunshine stencil over the Hello as desired.  Black chalk paste was applied.  In this sample the black paste bled under the stencil -- which has been a consistent problem with this particular brand. (I'll be testing another brand later this week as I'm not happy at all with the results.)

This test was made using acrylic paint (yes, it will stain your stencil) and you need to wash the stencil quickly or slip into a basin with water prior to washing out.  I used a foam brush to move the paint across the stencil.  The results were near perfect.  

These stencils can be used over and over and you can get some pretty fine lines and small lettering.  

I'm very excited about the possibilities.  I see lots of potential use for these stencils and a few others in the works.   

Hoping you have some creative time calendared in over the next few days.  Enjoy the time you spend nurturing your creative soul.  Happy Crafting!  

 

shaking it up

I really do enjoy making shaker cards.  This kit from Queen & Co was perfect earlier this year when the pandemic was still "new" and everyone was trying to carve out their new normal. It still is - especially when you have a day that's not going quite as you would have hoped.  

I don't know about you, but there have been a few days recently that have been far from perfect or even close!  I do hope the recipient of this card will be smiling when the card is pulled from the envelope.  

All the papers are from AC cardstock and a Recollections stack of patterned paper.  I decided that setting the papers up in perfect alignment wasn't going to work... so each of the layers is slightly off kilter.  I think it works perfectly.  The sentiment was also included in the kit.  I used some sprinkles from another kit to fill the shaker.   

There are a few more to put together this evening... so best be getting to that.  Looking forward to a little more time at the craft table this evening.  Happy Crafting, Everyone!  Hoping you have some creative time set aside this week.  Be safe, stay well!  Craft a lot!