I've Been A Bad Blogger!

I can't believe I have neglected this thing for this long! Of course I have been busy with school after it started and this year seems to be the craziest for me. Maybe I am just getting too old for this rough schedule and never ending paperwork. I seem to get fatigued way too easily anymore and after a doctor visit last week I now know why....I have let my sugar levels get out of control! Bad okie, bad bad bad okie! I did so well for a number of years but I have gotten lazy and since the kids live here it's easier to just give in to bad eating habits. That has to change immediately if I don't want something worse to happen!

There has been a lot going on while there has been nothing going on...not sure how that works but it does! Shiane and Chuck broke up for a few weeks, long story short my daughter is nuts! Okay not really, but she got scared about commitment and all...not sure where she gets that from *okie bats her eyelashes and gives an innocent look* but now I think she has decided he is the one. Thank goodness because I don't know how much longer my nerves could have handled the stress.

I haven't been doing much crafting due to work and fatigue and I really need to get started on some stuff for the party and the craftshow. Yeah I am going to be stressed to the max for the next few months...without a doubt!

I will try to post more, even if it is about the crazy crap that goes on at my house. I don't want you guys thinking I have fallen off the face of the earth...just been hiding under a rock for a bit! HA HA HA

MY FAVORITE!!

Okay as you can tell I am a little obsessed with my heat press! This will be my last post about it. JUST KIDDING! I am sure there will be more!

Like I said earlier I had this design ready for when I needed to do t-shirts for football season but I didn't know at that time I was going to have a heat press and while I might have gone a little overboard right now I am LOVIN IT!

When Linda and I went to the vinyl shop last month I got the glitter HTV and it had a black background and I knew I could use it for my t-shirts, at least for the girls. I haven't found any guys who are willing to rock the glitter! Once I knew I was getting the heat press I thought I would try rhinestones as well so I was able to cut a template by doing a shadow layer and then choosing the "outline" option under the rhinestone feature in Make The Cut. I am so loving this design with all the bling! I will be making one like this for my daughter and also her sister-in-law. We are probably the only ones that will have one this fancy...just so we can make others jealous! HA HA HA

I had to do the same method of "inset" as I did in a post earlier this week. I put the glitter HTV down first and then went in with the other colors, making sure to use the original "transfer sheet" for the glitter layer over the color and transfer layer so it wouldn't stick. I did leave the nose plain because it was suppose to be orange and I thought it would look funny.

So last weekend I had a four day weekend and I think I was able to get a lot accomplished since I did the following:
- Learned to use the heat press
- Learned settings for my Pazzles on cutting various HTV
- Learned settings for my Pazzles for Sticky Flock
- Learned how to "inset" specialty HTV
- Learned how figure out circle sizes for rhinestones
- Learned how to apply rhinestones
- Made a chit load of t-shirts!

This weekend won't be filled with crafting and learning but we will be sporting our t-shirts at the first home game!

Layering Glitter or Foil HTV

Okay first off let me tell you that you shouldn't layer glitter or foil HTV. I have done  a lot of research and everything I have read say it will come apart in the wash. I am usually one to say "oh yeah? well I will try and see" but when this stuff is so expensive I just don't want to take the chance. I had layered regular HTV last year when making t-shirts and sweatshirts and didn't have much of a problem.

I knew that I needed to do what I called and "inset" for the colors and I wanted to show my friend Danita of Danita's Designs how I do it. Oh and if you got time go check out the birthday gifts she made her daugher, even a pair of Modge Podge Shoes!! I decided to make my daughter a t-shirt with the letters being a a tiger print and of course it was a cinch to do in Make The Cut so I could demonstrate to Danita how to work with multiple colors of the specialty HTV materials. I also posted a link for her to watch- HOW TO LAYER GLITTER HTV, this is a great video and they show you exactly how it works.

After getting my letters all done I added a very small shadow so the black would overlap the orange just a hair to avoid gaps.

I asked my daughter how many black t-shirts she thought she would wear and she was like "how many are you gonna make me?" so I guess I am safe making her as many as I want HA HA HA.

This was the project finished. It was hard to get a good picture of this one too but I think you can see the general idea. I think it would look totally awesome on white and I might do this one for me on a white hoodie!! 

Tomorrow's post will be the tiger design on how I originally planned it to be and is my "official" design for this year's football t-shirts!

More T-Shirts

During my trip to Walmart I found some t-shirts on clearance for $3 and I picked up a few in each size. I knew I would have to make some for my daughter, Goddaughters and their mother. What I don't use I will take back.

Once I knew the Spectrum Holographic would work okay I did my daughter and two of my Goddaughters t-shirts with that HTV. They loved them! I did this design a few weeks ago in anticipation of it being this year's pattern for our t-shirts. I really like it being the silhouette with this type of HTV. Sorry for the bad picture but it is really hard to get a decent picture of this stuff.

Here is a close up shot of the design and I think you might be able to see it a little better. You can see how shiny it is. This is one of the ones that the weeding wasn't perfect and as you can see the outside foil area didn't stick to the t-shirt.

I wanted to make my shirt and my friend Andrea's shirts a bit different from the girls so I used some Gold Holographic Foil HTV for our t-shirts. I really like how this one came out!

Tomorrow I will show you how I do fill in the areas with different colors.

Guess What I Got!

Well, well, well...is anyone still around?? I have been so busy with school starting that I haven't had time to blog and then during the holiday weekend I had a new toy to figure out! I have always said I have some very generous readers and I still stand by that since my new toy that was shipped to my house was a Heat Press! It was a "thank you, Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas" present.

Here is the heat press all unpacked and set up not long after it arrived on Friday evening. I sat and looked at it and thought "this is going to be difficult". And ya know what, IT WASN'T! I did find out I can't have it turned on and my AC unit in the living room on at the same time, breaker trips...yep...I need MORE POWER! A friend of mine on Facebook let me know hers does the same things so then I wasn't as worried. I just cut off the AC in the living room when I want to use it. Luckily the AC in the craftroom is on a circuit by it's self so I don't have to get too hot while using it.  

It came with a little manual and it seemed super simple and it was. The biggest thing is making sure you read the instructions for on the Heat Transfer Vinyl, that will from  now on only be referred to as HTV so I don't have to type as much, and see what settings you need to be using.

In my excitement of knowing I was going to get  a heat press I went to Signwarehouse.com and ordered some of the HTV they had on clearance. I also worked on some designs during the week so I could be ready to go when I got the heat press. I spent Friday trying to cut and weed some holographic HTV and I was so frustrated because I got nothing done! I was cutting away but the wedding was the problem. I kept having some of the "foil" left behind. I posted a picture on Facebook and a friend of mine send me messages and told me that I could still use it because the foil part didn't have the "carrier" and wouldn't stick. She was correct! When I applied it on the shirt the foil part didn't stick! I had already thrown away several cuts but at least I got it on clearance so I didn't feel too bad.

The rainbow holographic HTV weeded very nicely and I tried it first on an older tank top I had in my closet. During my trip to Walmart to pick up a few things I wore my tank top and a girl there asked me about it and I told her I made it. I have to deliver a t-shirt to her on Wednesday!



I have some others to show but I don't want to bore you all in one post so I will get a few other posts this week. I am still swamped with work right now so I won't be blogging regularly until things calm down.

Glass Cutting Boards - Weekend With My Cousin

Last month Linda and I made a trip to OKC and I was able to find some glass cutting boards at Dollar Tree. I have been looking for some for quite a while so I felt quite lucky to find as many as I did. My cousin Teresa had been wanting to do some and since she has a Cameo now we finally got together last weekend and get busy. We had to learn to use the Cameo first which since we used Make The Cut it did make it easier. I gave her some lessons on MTC and after she got home her teenage daughter learned to use it as well and I think they might be out of vinyl by now.

The first cutting board we did was the Chef Boyardee guy with "Bon Appetite". I did a trace and he seemed a little difficult to cut so I did a shadow on him and it helped. Of course it could be that we don't know how to use the Cameo very well. We had a make a call to Linda to get some pointers to even be able to load the dang mat!

I do have to say I like my mat guide on my Pazzles a lot better than the mat guide on the Cameo. I also learned that the clear transfer tape I use is a lot easier to use for placing things than the transfer paper I got at the vinyl shop last month.

The next design we did was a morning rooster. Even though we had to layer the vinyl backwards this was a lot easier to weed than the chef. We also learned that not all vinyl is created equal! We used some of my vinyl on this one and it worked better than the vinyl that came with my cousins Cameo. We found the rooster on an internet search and then I made the sunrise out of another file I had by tweaking it a bit. This one was our favorite.

Our last cutting boards were very simple and my cousin said she wanted a cupcake. She did an internet search and found htis one. I had to laugh because I told her "OMG! I did a file for that one earlier this summer!" This one was a breeze to cut and I think it would have been cute with some colors layered but by the time we got to this one it was getting late and she needed to head home.

Now that Teresa and I have figured out how to use the Cameo I think we will have some crafting weekends coming up!

Did Some Crafting! Double Wall Tumblers

I decided to take a break from all the work of the real world and do some crafting this weekend. I have been working on some designs for T-shirts so we can get geared up for football season. Luckily this year, thanks to a very generous fan of my work, I will have a heat press to make the T-shirts and it will make it go a lot faster!

Since I couldn't do T-shirts I decided to get some tumblers made instead. The was able to get a trace of some really cool tiger eyes and thought they might look good on some tumblers. I really like how they turned out. It's been awhile since I have done any layered vinyl and I had to remember to start with the top layer and work my way down. It just makes it easier. I did get four of these made. My daughter said she is going to try and sell them for me.

This was the second tumbler I did and I thought the tiger face trace I did would be great with holographic vinyl, and it is but let me tell you it was a P to the I to the T to the A! I have tried working with metallic vinyl before and evidently I forgot what it was like or I wouldn't have tried it this time. Lucky I had a big enough scrap to go back and cut a few of the pieces again. At the bottom the cup says "Tiger Pride". This one will be a one of a kind as far as the holographic design goes.

On the last tumbler I decided to try the tiger face again but this time with some glitter vinyl and put it on a shadow. I also made the Tiger Pride out of the Yearbook Solid font and curved the words on the side. There wasn't enough room at the top and bottom but when I get ready to use it on a T-shirt I will do the words at the top and bottom. I have some holographic HTV ordered from Signwarehouse.com that they have on CLEARANCE right now and I think it will look awesome on a T-shirt.

I still probably won't be posting much for awhile since I am super busy with school starting and having a lot of extra work to do. Hopefully I will be able to start crafting regularly again!  

Please Take Time To Vote

I have slacked on posting about voting for my friend Carmen because I didn't want people to think they had to vote but now I am asking PLEASE VOTE!!!

VOTE FOR CARMEN

Please read her story and see if you truly feel she deserves to win. I personally do feel she does but that is because I know what all she has gone through for caring for her mother and then with the other family health issues during the last year.

Glass Cutting Board With Vinyl

My friend Linda did a few glass cutting boards some time ago, a really cute WINE one was posted on her site, and I have wanted to do some ever since then. She was able to get some small one's at Dollar Tree but they have been sold out here locally. When we went to OKC last week I lucked into finding a few and  last night I decided to do a design and then once I got the design done I figured I might as well cut it and see how it looked.

I did this one for my Aunt Betty and hopefully she won't see this and I can surprise her with it! I got the idea for the design on the internet and tweaked it for my use. I didn't do a trace of the basic design but I did do a trace for the rooster, barn and sunrise.

The cutting board measures right under 8" in diameter so some of the pieces were a little small and hard to weed out. I honestly didn't even think about the little "legs" underneath and lucked out about sizing it correctly to apply it. One thing to remember is that you have to flip the image since the vinyl is applied to the underneath side of the glass.

I am not sure what other designs I want to do but I don't think they will be quite as detailed as this one, at least not for the small cutting boards!

Sorry For No Posts

I kinda feel behind in posting this past week.

On Monday I was running around OKC with my friend Linda. We went to Graphics Solution Group where she likes to get vinyl. I got some glitter iron-on vinyl for my football t-shirts for this year and picked up some transfer tape. Linda picked up some vinyl for making templates for her new hobby of glass etching with her sandblaster. For lunch we went to our favorite mexican place, Teds! After lunch we hit Tuesday Morning, thinking we were going to get some of that good priced cardstock only to find out it was in the multi-color packs and we didn't buy any. I did get some frames to alter for the Craft Show we will be doing in December. We also hit Hobby Lobby while we were there, neither of us getting too much. I know for sure she was wanting some vinyl but other than that I think she was just wanting to get out of the house for awhile. It sure was hot while we were in OKC and  my feet had started to swell by the end of the day.

          Left - Cankle                     Right - Ankle normally

Although I have been on vacation this week I did go to the school on Tuesday for enrollment and since the kids weren't coming in very fast I just typed up an information sheet for them to fill out and turn into the director. That evening I was feeling a bit off and my legs and ankles were swollen really bad, to the point I had CANKLES! I do not have cankles and for a fat person I actually have very nice ankles and thighs. When I started having a really hard heart beat I decided to go to the ER since I knew that was a sign of congestive heart failure. Luckily my heart did slow down and they did an x-ray of my chest, an EKG and some blood work. Luckily everything turned out okay and the doctor said I needed to cut back on the stress and I have to start taking a diuretic pill. My blood pressure was really high for me but it went back to normal not long after I was in the ER. I was feeling fine by the time I got back home.

My sister came on Wednesday to spend a few days with me. She usually tries to make it down for one visit in the summer and since the summer was almost over it was time for her to get her butt down here! LOL We had a great visit while she was here.

So now here it is Saturday and I only have today and tomorrow of time of left and I feel like I have gotten nothing accomplished! I plan on working on the house that Carmen and I started while she was here but so far that has been slow going. I did get some things put away that was scattered on my craft table so guess it's time to buckle down and do some crafting.

But first I think I need to schedule some posts of files I have done, if I can find them! With school starting I will be super busy and likely won't have time to make new files but then again that is one way I relax so maybe I will have to do that when I get home from work instead or working on paperwork!

Jessie and Bullseye

The things I do for my friends! My friend Carmen sent me a coloring page of Jessie and Bullseye and asked if I thought I could make a file for it. It wasn't a hard file to make, just time consuming. Once I got it done I asked her what she was going to do with it and she said "Oh I don't know. I didn't know you were going to do it" but she did assure me she would use it for something since I made it.

There are some small piece on this and I tried to join the like cuts, except for the white pieces and those are all joined. Of course you can go and split any of the images for easier cutting but for positioning I find it easier to do it that way until its time to cut.

I am off this morning to meet up with Linda and see what kind of trouble we can get into in the big city. Of course we don't really plan on getting in trouble...but with us, well one never knows!


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Laundry Dilemma, Wall Quote

First off, don't forget to VOTE FOR CARMEN today! And thank you to all of those who are voting and voting daily!

Now back to the laundry dilemma! Recently my washer acquired some issues that I didn't want to have to fix myself. While I was at work my daughter called a repairman and he told her it was going to be $40 for the lid switch, $40 for him to just look at the washing machine to see what the problem was with the drum and I would have to pay that whether he could fix it or not and then the bomb....we had to take the washing machine to him and he was backed up by a few days and didn't know when he would be able to get to it. I knew I would probably be looking at at least $150 to $200 to get the washing machine fixed, which is half the price of a brand new decent washing machine. I am not one of those who thinks they have to have a fancy washer, as long as it gets my clothes clean I could careless if it has digital controls, glass doors, etc.

I started looking at the local Facebook garage sale sites hoping to find a decent washer for a decent price. The other day I came across a lady selling a washer and dryer. I quickly asked if she would sell them separately and waited for a reply. An hour after I asked if they would sell the washer and dryer separate some lady posted she wanted both. She kept telling them she wanted them. When the seller finally posted she would sell them separately and wanted $50 each, the other lady again said she wanted BOTH and would be coming from an hour away. Chuck quickly took the seats out the van and we headed over to get the washer. 

So for the price of the lid switch and gas to get the old washer repaired I got a newer washer!

I have been wanting to do something with vinyl in my washing area but never have done it, one thing is that I could never decide for sure what I wanted *okie has such a terrible time with commitment*. Yesterday I started looking up wall quotes for laundry rooms and came across quite a few I liked. 

These were the first two designs I did and was trying to decide which one I liked better. I loved the sarcasm in the first one but liked the elegant look of the second one. 

I kept looking at some others and came across another quote and that is the one I decided to go with for my laundry area. My friend Amy P. said she thought this one sounded more like me except I needed to put in "Do it your damn self" and my BFF Karen was quick to agree. And to tell the truth, they are probably right about that sounded like me HA HA HA. 


I wasn't going to share the files, simply because I have been feeling a little put out about sharing lately, ya know people wanting you to design things for them and some almost demanding. But then I decided I should go ahead and share them anyway because someone might like to use them and I won't ever use the other two, at least I don't think I would use them but who knows...I might just go on a vinyl my laundry area craze, yeah okay, not likely!

FILE DOWNLOAD

Candy Crush Saga

I know there are a lot of people that play Candy Crush and there was even someone on the Make The Cut forum that asked if anyone had made files of the game. Well I was playing around and thought I would try and I kept failing miserably! I just couldn't get a clean trace of the images and I am not a guru that can do the node mode thing in Make The Cut *okie thinks she should watch some video tutorials but that would require time and concentration*.

Yesterday I decided to try again and by using the texturize path I was able to adjust some things and get a decent image of the logo and the candy logo. I found a black and white image of the girl so she was a cinch to do, even though she is a little freaky looking. I have actually decided that the man on the Candy Crush game is the Anti-Christ and the little girl is his demon bride. Okay, so I might get a little frustrated with this game from time to time. 

I am not sure what anyone will do with these files but here they are just the same.

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MTC - Candy Crush Saga

If You Love Me....

or even like me, or heck even if you can't stand me...then at least show my friend Carmen a little love. I know some of you know who Carmen is and some of ya'll have probably read posts where I refer to Carmen and right now I would appreciate you voting for her.

I entered Carmen in a Caregiver Cruise Giveaway and this is what I said...

My dear friend Carmen has to be one of the most caring people I know. Her mother, who is 75 years old, lost her eyesight approximately 4 years ago and Carmen went to Illinois and moved her mother to Houston. She has been her mother's caregiver day and night since that time. Her mother also has diabetes and Carmen has to keep a vigilant eye on her mother's medications and diet. Rarely does Carmen have time for herself.

During the last year not only did she have to add to her load of caring for her mother she also had to nurse her husband back to health after he had an emergency quadruple bypass. This was during the middle of her treks back and forth from Houston to Illinois as she was caring for her brother who suddenly fell ill. Carmen and her mother had to make the trip several times during the last year staying for weeks at a time. Carmen saw her brother through finding his diagnosis; follow up appointments, going to treatments, having his leg amputated, seeing he got on disability and then his follow-up after surgery. She was away from her husband and children for months, missing them dearly, while caring for brother and keeping her mother at her side. Her brother is now doing better and she doesn't have to make the long journey north but she continue to remain her mother's caregiver 24/7 365. I feel if anyone deserves a little time away to enjoy themselves it is my most awesome friend Carmen who does so much for others and does so without complaint.

I can't tell you how much I would appreciate you guys showing her a little love and giving her your vote. You can vote once a day.

VOTE BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW AND FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS...

VOTE FOR CARMEN IN THE CAREGIVER CRUISE GIVEAWAY

Princess Tiana Ballgown

After Helen sent me 3 different pictures I told her I needed something like a high resolution coloring page and she found one.

It took me about 5 hours to get this one done. Not that the trace was bad but I looked at the some of the smaller items, stamens on the flowers to be exact, and thought they would be very hard to get a clean cut so I worked on getting rid of them.

I am not sure how well this thing will cut and since I have cut some very detailed images before I know you better be dedicated and really want this dang thing to take the time to do it.



FILE DOWNLOAD

Princess Tiana and Frog

When I sent the first Tiana I did to Helen she didn't seem to impressed and I thought I would do another one. I found this one of Tiana and the frog and I thought it was cute so I did this one. I soon found out that Helen was wanting a full version of Tiana, which I did do and will share tomorrow.

I still say this file is cute, maybe I just like the expression on the frog's face.



FILE DOWNLOAD

Princess Tiana Anyone?

My friend Helen asked if I could do a file of Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, at least I think that was the movie. By the time this one came out my daughter was past the Disney phase so it was one that I haven't seen. I use to could sing every song with Beauty and the Beast when she was a toddler so I guess that should count for something.

Anyway this was the first file I made for Helen. She liked it but she wanted something else and sent me some pictures and I did LOL for realz since it would have required me being a MTC genius to get a good trace. However...I will have two more files this week of Tiana.

But for today here is this file...

FILE DOWNLOAD

No Layout Today

Sorry Dude and Dudette but I have no layout file today. After posting them non-stop for the last week or so I am fresh out of ideas. Okay that's not true but it sounded good. The truth is...my friend Carmen is here and I haven't been messing around with any layouts. We are suppose to be working on a awesome project but so far we have not made one cut. We are hoping that changes today.

I don't know how many of you have seen this awesome house from SVGcuts.com, it's called Maple Manor, and for whatever reason we thought we would like to make one!

Neither of us are too much into the Halloween scene, although we do think this house rocks so ours will be a different theme. Wish us luck that we can settle down long enough to actually start doing some cutting today. We only have today and tomorrow to get it done since she is going back home on Monday.

Peach Festival - Layout

My friend Linda and I decided to spend a day at a craft show and then go over to a little town about 15 miles from here for the infamous Peach Festival. We were quite excited about the festival since neither of us have been. Our excitement quickly turned to disappointment as we didn't find one peach at the festival! Luckily we did stop at a fruit stand before the festival and Linda did get some peaches there.

There were a few vendors and Linda did get to hold a gun, which was rather frightening. Linda started feeling shaky and was able to get a chicken tamale. I don't like tamales, they look like they would be mushy in my mouth *okie cringes at the thought* so I opted to wait. There were a few other food vendors but all their lines were extremely long. 

Since I knew I would take my camera I designed a layout before hand. I know now that I will only need like one page to scrap this since there wasn't much to take pictures of, at least not that we saw. Even though the event was probably not layout worthy I thought I would post the file anyway.

Cuts in this file -
Title
Borders
Ric-Rac
Tag
Peaches
Branch and Blooms



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First Tooth - Layout

This is actually a layout I designed quite sometime ago when I was first learning how to color layer and such in Make The Cut. That is when I realized how great it was to have the colors and start bringing your designs to life.

This file does include cuts for a "boy" layout as well and in the MTC file they are on the second page. For the SVG File all the cuts are on one page.

Cuts include:
Title
Baby Tooth Girl
Baby Tooth Boy
Smiley Tooth
Borders

FILE DOWNLOAD