Grinch Vinyl Quote

About 3 years ago my friend Karen wanted a vinyl quote with the Grinch. I can't remember now what she was going to use it for, or maybe she just wanted it for herself, and while she was here visiting I made the file and we cut it out.

I ended up using it myself and putting it in a frame and using it for a gift. It was one of those that took me awhile to get the font and placement right but I really liked the end results and I need to make one for myself! I have some Christmas pictures I do put up at Christmas, most of Santa but I think this one would be a nice addition to what I already have.

To purchase just click the "Buy Now" button and follow the directions that are listed below the buy now button. 

Price: $2.00

Once you hit the "BUY NOW" it will take you to Paypal where you can pay for the item. Once purchase is complete Paypal will redirect you to "Return to Merchant" where you will given the link to download the file from Google Drive. 

Outdoor Grade Vinyl $6.99 12" x 30' Roll

As a lot of you know I love Signwarehouse and I have been using them for my vinyl and Heat Transfer Vinyl purchasing since 2008. They have absolutely wonderful customer service and their prices are usually pretty competitive with other's that sell the same product. 

What you may not know is that Signwarehouse has their own signature brands of vinyl and HTV, it is Endura and the ending of the name depends on the type of vinyl you are purchasing. The regular vinyl is EnduraGLOSS and is comparable to Oracle 651, the stuff that is permanent. 

Here are the specs of the EnduraGLOSS:

• High gloss finish rated for up to six years outdoors. *
• Soft calendared face film with great weeding and release characteristics.
• Pressure sensitive adhesive makes dry applications easier.
• 32 color palette includes most hues needed for standard signage.
• Made in the USA: Consistent quality roll after roll.
• Outstanding price – performance value.

The price of EnduraGLOSS generally is always less than the Oracale 651 but today Signwarehouse is offering their 12" x 30' rolls for $6.99!! That my friends is an amazing value!

If you are needing some great vinyl and are wanting to save some money I highly recommend checking out Signwarehouse's house brand vinyl EnduraGLOSS! And yes, I do use this myself!

PayPal Dispute Resolved!

As ya'll know I had offered a file for purchase of some Snowmen Ornaments and one person that purchased rescinded her payment saying she never got the file.

In her correspondence on PayPal she said she tried to email me several times but I never replied and then stated she didn't know how to contact me any other way than PayPal. First off she used my email to send the money through PayPal and she never emailed me about not getting the file. Also I had sent the file the day after she paid. At that time I was still was emailing the file because I didn't have a buy button on my website for my files, which I do now in the posts that have files for purchase.

I sent her several messages through PayPal and she never responded so I decided to escalate the situation to PayPal for review. Thank goodness for the snipping tool in Windows because I was able to send them a screenshot of where I sent her another email, forwarding the original email with the file attached.

This is not something I wanted to do and I know it was only $5, but it was my $5! Actually only $4.55 after PayPal fees. 

After review PayPal decided in my favor! YAY! I really wasn't sure what would happen since there were no tangible goods but I guess since I had kept the email in my "sent" folder and was able to provide that information it helped. 

I just don't know why people want to try and cheat others!

Flourish Santa Layered - FREE FILE

I was browsing Facebook a few days ago and a lady was asking how she could get layers in the flourish Santa that has been around for a few years and since I wasn't doing anything I told her I would break it apart for her. 

Well it took longer than I thought because I couldn't figure out the best way to have it layered so it would be easy to use with HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and then I decided the "knock out" method would be best so if one wanted to use glitter HTV and regular HTV for the image it could be done.

Here is a picture of the Santa with all the layers in place. I colored the beard grey for the picture so you could see it is a different layer than the hat and ball, which are not joined either so if you wanted to cut those out of different colors you could do that as well.

Here is a picuture of the layers apart. If you're new to this HTV thing you would press down your black and then just fill in the colors in any order you want. This keeps the image from being too thick and like I said if you want to use glitter HTV it is a lot easier this way. If color layers were solid those would have to go down first and it would be difficult to get the layers lined up.

I said I was starting to charge for my files but this one is free since it is not my original design.

Free SVG download - FLOURISH SANTA LAYERED

Lighted Glass Block - Family Theme

I had a request for a lighted glass block and they were not very specific about what they wanted and just told me "oh do what ever you think will be good". I just love it when people give me such great ideas *okie looks out with deadpan look on her face* when they want something made.

I wanted to avoid personalizing it because I'm getting really tired of doing all the initials, split letters and names so I opted for a nice quote on the block. By the way, the block is not green but the background was green and it is giving it a green effect. 

I used vinyl to cut out the background design and did the process of putting the whole layer of vinyl on the block and then weeded out from around the design. The reason I went this route is because it is easier for me to get the design centered. 

This picture shows the background design a little better. I really like doing the blocks where most of it is frosted and there is a delicate design of plain glass, it just looks fancy to me. If you click on the picture it will make it bigger and you can see the detail better. 

I used a string of 35 miniature lights for the inside and then to add just a little pizzazz I tied some black and silver glittery wired ribbon around the block and then just made a bow at the top.

If you would like to purchase this file you may do so and once purchased it is yours to do with what you wish, as long as you are not re-selling or sharing the file with others. The file has 3 layers, a layer with a square and the base design in it, another layer that is just the base design and then the top layer of the quote. If you going to use this for making a glass block you will need to measure your area and adjust the design accordingly. There is 4 squares that are registration marks to help you get the quote centered and once the quote is applied you remove the squares.

Price: 2.00 

Once you hit the "BUY NOW" it will take you to Paypal where you can pay for the item. Once purchase is complete Paypal will redirect you to "Return to Merchant" where you will given the link to download the file from Google Drive. 

I "heart" Guns & Coffee Decal

One of my daughter's friends loves coffee and she loves guns. She had posted on her Facebook page about how she would love to have a decal out of a picture she posted and I told her "I can make that happen".

I went to work in Make The Cut and was able to design this decal. There is a white base layer and then the top green layer in the design. Once I posted it on Facebook I had some requests about the file and I had to inform a few people that I no longer give my files away.

BUT....

If you would like to purchase this file you may do so and once purchased it is yours to do with what you wish, as long as you are not re-selling the file I have no problem if you make them and sell the decals.

Price: 2.00 

Once you hit the "BUY NOW" it will take you to Paypal where you can pay for the item. Once purchase is complete Paypal will redirect you to "Return to Merchant" where you will given the link to download the file from Google Drive. 

It's The End of an Era

Several times over the years I have thought about not sharing files but I would continue for one reason or another but as of now I will no longer be sharing files and most all links, hundreds of them actually, have been taken down.

I started sharing files back in 2008 when Design Studio was still used and I made files out of nothing but squares, circles, triangles and the letter "j" from George was a life saver. Once I started using Make The Cut the whole making file process was so much easier and user friendly and I would be so excited to share a design I was able to make. I truly enjoyed sharing, but now...it's almost a regret.

I know this might seem rash to stop sharing and taking down the links but after reports of people posting my files in various groups on Facebook or using my files for their own projects to make money I have decided that it is time to end my generosity. Rarely do I get donations for the files I make and many times there are hours and hours of work that go into just one "simple" file. To all those who have been generous and made a donation over the years I truly appreciate you! It has been very frustrating many times when I have had a file downloaded hundreds of times and maybe, maybe 3 people would even say thank you. 

I will continue to share my projects here and make blog posts of nonsense that goes on in my head and my life. If I can think of a way to share files to where others are not sharing my work as their own or making money off my generosity I will start sharing again.

If anyone chooses not to come back due to this announcement I completely understand. 

Red Santa Bags - I'm In Love!!!

So my friend Carmen sent me a package last week and I was so excited when I saw it was some red Santa bags! I loved the velvety feel of them but I wasn't sure how well they would hold HTV since it isn't a smooth surface but since a lot of folks have gone crazy over adding HTV to some little cheap elves I figured I would give it a shot and oh boy how glad I did! These bags are HUGE...they measure 27" wide x 36" tall so they will hold a lot of gifts from the fat man himself!

On the first red bag I did I just used the same design that I had used on the canvas bags I did. I had to change some of the colors out since I thought the white would show better on the red than the black. I also had to change the red berries to white berries. Where I had a red stamped circle I changed it to green and the black stamped image was changed to white. I was really pleased on how well it turned out.

Carmen had found an image and emailed it to me and I tweaked it a bit for what I needed and came up with this design. It seemed to waste quite a bit of  HTV but I think I have worked with it enough now and broke it apart to where I can get the cuts using the least amount of HTV *okie so hates wasting HTV* and making it a little more cost effective. That is one thing I love about Make The Cut, the ability to tear apart a whole image and use what you need, add what you want and then put it all back together how you think it works best for you. 

The little star looking designs are some Spectrum holographic HTV that I got a couple of years ago and I think it added a nice little touch but I am going to do a little tweaking with it as well. It really shines in person, so much more than what shows in the picture. 

Hopefully I can get some of these sold or I am going to have a closet full of stuff I can't use for myself! 

Organizing HTV - HTV Chart file available

So y'all know my issue about organization right? Well if you don't ya must be new around here because sometimes it borders on obsessive. I am constantly thinking and trying new ways of organizing different things in my craftroom *okie wishes the rest of her house had the same issue*. I ordered some more HTV, heat transfer vinyl in case someone doesn't know what that is, and I knew it was time to get it in a better method than just a corner in my craft closet where it was hard to get to and go through.

I have my heat press on an old microwave cart, and when I say old I mean I have had this thing so long that I can't even remember when I got it, and have been meaning to see if I could put my HTV on the cart with the heat press since that just seemed to make sense! Luckily I have saved my cardboard tubes over the years *okie has no idea why she would even save the dang thangs* and they came in handy for putting on the cart and separating my HTV. Some of the HTV sticks out, which I don't like but it will do for now since it's so much easier to see what I have and to grab and use. I am planning on finding another place for the books and stuff that are in the area where the doors are so I can keep items or projects that I will be pressing. The little shelf above the HTV has some bags I will be pressing and also a template for tshirt sleeves. I also was able to put my sticky flock and some of my rhinestone template material on the cart. It's the flat sheets sitting on top of the tubes. Those items had been rolled up and I will have an easier time using them and not dealing with getting it to lay flat when I am ready to use them. 

During a moment of "why didn't I think of that sooner" I made up a chart of heat press settings for various HTV I have and after printing I laminated it. I keep it under my heat press and can grab it quickly instead of having to sit down at the computer and look up the settings each time I am ready to heat press something. I do have this, well not this particular one because I took off the EnduraTex holographic HTV items since those particular ones are no longer available, in a PDF file if you would like to download and print your own. I made it a PDF file since some people don't have access to MSWord. 

Just click the link to download the file : 

HTV Heat Press Settings

Snowman Ornaments with Hats and Gingerbread Bonus!

Last year after Christmas when I was in Houston I hit up a few Hobby Lobby's and bought a few packages of the 3.25" clear ornaments, there is 4 in a package, that everyone had been using to decorate so I could do some of the glitter ornaments that is all the rage. I really hadn't decided exactly what to do and I have done a few that are personalized. I had gotten some brown fine glitter a few weeks ago thinking I could do some Gingerbread ornaments and I also wanted to try my hand at some snowmen ornaments.  

I  made a file for a Gingerbread face about a week ago and loved it and after that I decided to make some for snowmen but that wasn't good enough and I thought "They need hats!". After two days of designing and tweaking *okie thinks she really needs to get a degree in engineering or something to make this whole process go faster* I was able to get the files done.

I have already posted some pictures in a group on Facebook and got an overwhelming response about how much people loved the ornaments. For once I was pleased with my results, so many times I don't like what I make but ya know they say we are our own worst critics.

Since the hangers are covered by the hats I included a hole in the top of the hats so ribbon can be tied to the hanger and then threaded through the top of the hat. After I got the faces on I thought they looked a little plain so I decided to try some alcohol ink to put a blush on the cheeks and it worked! Just don't be heavy handed with the alcohol ink and if you have some alcohol blending solution it makes it easier to correct any mistakes, or an alcohol blender pen will help with any touch ups a well. I used one of those little triangle make up sponges and just a dot or two of ink and then pounced on paper before pouncing on the cheek area.

 

Decorating the hats was a lot of fun because there are so many options. The file does include a cut for a paper ban but I used ribbon instead. I also included some holly leaves in the file but for mine I used the Martha Stewart holly leaf punch and tree branch punch. The red "berries" are some hot fix embellishments, I believe from Imaginisce. On the lady hat I also added some hot fix rhinestones. The little silver embellishments are ribbon slides. I added some Sobo glue at the bottom edge of the hat so they would stay in place on the ornaments. Guys I can't tell you enough about how awesome this glue is for things that are hard to adhere!

 

Now about the Gingerbread bonus! 

The brown glitter is some that I found at Hobby Lobby, not in the scrapbook department though. I am going to replace their mouths with some white vinyl so they show up better because with the brown glitter they are just too hard to see since they are so thin. 

The girl Gingerbread man *okie thinks that just doesn't even sound right* I added some eye lashes so she would look more womanly, or girly, whichever you prefer. The ribbon is attached with Sobo glue but I think some redline tape would work just as well. 

Putting on the squiggle outline can be a little tricky because of the spherical design of ornaments and I did have to trim a few areas because there are wrinkles after applying. While I feel like I am an adequate designer, I am not a genius in this area and wasn't able to make the file to avoid this. But hey, it's a free bonus!!

If you would like to purchase this file you may do so and once purchased it is yours to do with what you wish, as long as you are not re-selling or sharing the file.

Price: 5.00 

Once you hit the "BUY NOW" it will take you to Paypal where you can pay for the item. Once purchase is complete Paypal will redirect you to "Return to Merchant" where you will given the link to download the files from Google Drive. 

4 files are included in this purchase.

• 2 PDF files - 1 with basic instructions for the SVG files and the other that is a picture tutorial of how to assemble the hats.
• 2 SVG files - 1 file of Snowman faces, along with the Gingerbread faces bonus. The other file is for the hats.