silhouette cameo made felt coasters (ways to rid yourself of 30 yards of felt #8??)

the most attractive feature of the silhouette cameo is its' ability to cut multiple media types.   if you happen to be a regular reader, it is probably unsurprising to you that i've been most curious to try cutting felt with the machine.  while the company does not claim the ability to do so, they encourage users to experiment.   

and while blogs all over will tell you that the silhouette doesn't do a perfect job, it does do a decent one.  i was able to produce these coasters with only a few annoying complications.  

my coaster design is based on a little sketch i once made years ago, and it was relatively easy to conjure up using the silhouette software.  my love affair with felt coasters began when i discovered verso design years ago.  my last attempt with hand-cut and sewn ones left me wanting, so i was pleased when these came out as i imagined.   

lessons learned:  

1. using the double cut feature is essential. the blade needs to be set at 10, material thickness set at 33 and the speed at 1.  

2. steam-a-seam 2 works, particularly useful in this case when i was planning on fusing multiple layers of felt together anyway (i have 3 layers here-- two solid round ones under the flower pattern).  however, make sure you fuse the felt well to the steam-a-seam 2 before placing it on your cutting mat. i noticed that otherwise it can be really difficult to peel the piece off without destroying it and leaving the sticky residue stuck to the mat.  if you're planning on cutting a lot of felt, you will need a lot of time. and patience.  

i thought i had taken more pictures of the process but apparently i didn't... so pretend this picture is more relevant than it actually is. 

if you aren't familiar, steam-a-seam 2 is a fusible web. it comes in sheets with paper backing on each side.  you remove one side of the paper backing, iron it onto the felt/fabric, and then remove the other side -- and that's the side that goes face down on the cutting mat.   if you're fusing felt, be wary of the low melting point, and always have a piece of cotton fabric between the felt and iron so the felt doesn't wind up stuck all over the metal.  

i didn't properly test cutting with regular interfacing fused onto the felt since it wasn't useful for this project-- but i'll probably test it out in the future.  

3. perfect cuts will be rare if impossible.  i had to do a lot snipping with scissors on my own.  see how the top corner of the flower isn't cut that cleanly?

if you can believe it, i'm actually running low on some of my favorite felt colors (remember this post?). i'm rather tempted to go buy more...

silhouette cameo project 1: thank you cards

i set up my silhouette almost immediately after receiving it.  i was very anxious, as you can imagine, to test it out.  after some preliminary test cuts using the included designs (the machine comes with 50 free), it was enough to tide me over until i was able to hit paper source for some proper paper.  

i was happy to discover the included silhouette design software actually has a lot of nifty features and is pretty easy to use.  i was also pleased to find out that all my computer fonts are usable in the program, and i happily produced my "first" project: thank you cards.

2014.

twenty-two hours into 2014 and we were met with a downpour of bad luck.  flight cancellations, delays, lost baggage, car problems, and bad colds have left me so grumpy most days that it's hard to remember what a pleasant holiday season i had.   

it was nearly two weeks of great times with delicious food, family + friends in texas and in new york.  

and... look what i got for christmas. 

hooray!

marimekko christmas stockings

when bffbf announced that he wanted christmas stockings this year, my mind immediately began whirling. 

I LOVE CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS!!!

i have a sad childhood story that i won't bother boring you with, but the consequence of this trauma has been an unhealthy obsession with stockings and the tiny surprises inside.

in previous years i made felt stockings to gift, sell, and use, but i failed to move them to san diego with me.  so i got busy and extracted my three file boxes of fabric from the armoire.  after many minutes of obsessing, i found myself with a large pile of fabric, paired by type and style.

after some consideration, i reluctantly put back a couple before presenting the options to bffbf.  clearly, i could not be left to make such an important decision alone.

i had many non-traditional color schemes and patterns in the mix, and i hoped in vain that he would favor those.  but, as i suspected, bffbf voted for the traditional red and green, and with some negotiation, chose two marimekko patterns (i personally was rooting for gray and orange).

it's a good thing that i've been saving remnants of red on red marimekko samovaari fabric for you know, like, 5 years.  the marimekko karmiini fabric also wound up being quite fitting in stocking form.

here they are, hung by our white tinsel tree.  are stockings part of your christmas tradition?  what does yours look like? would it be crazy if i made different stockings every year?

oh christmas tree

over a week after thanksgiving, and i still haven't fully recovered from all the fooding.  oddly, i was more conservative in my pigging out than usual, but i still feel as if i've accumulated an extra layer of fat that i'm not entirely sure i'll be able to shed!

we hosted thanksgiving this year, and it began days earlier with a beautiful brine and ended with a heavy chocolate peanut butter tart.  

because we were a bit too eager to get the christmas season started, we jumped the gun this year and wound up decorating for christmas the weekend before thanksgiving... even though i've previously sworn i'd never do that.  judge me if you will.

we found this fun little pop up tree from target that took less than five minutes to assemble.

whimsical and fun, it fits nicely in our living room next to the fireplace that we've chosen to block with a tv.  i dislike fireplaces. like a lot. judge me if you will (again).

with the addition of a poinsettia and white lights bordering the room,  it may be slightly untraditional but still quite festive!

how are you planning on decorating for christmas this year?

christmas tree lighting at the old globe

this past weekend we embraced the holiday season by attending the christmas tree lighting at balboa park. i discovered this yearly event by accident while purchasing tickets for the grinch later this season. since tickets were free, there seemed little reason not to go.

i had heard that balboa park is quite beautiful at night, and it really is.  i have previously only visited during the day, and at most twice.

the line to pick up our tickets was amazingly long, but we still got in a good twenty minutes before the program began.  we wandered around before the program began taking a few pictures, and taking advantage of the free popcorn.

the event itself was pretty short, a little cheesy, but still festive and fun. the performance included christmas songs by members of the grinch cast, and fake snow accompanying the tree lighting.  it was definitely catered more to children, and it is likely that we were the only adults there that didn't have any in tow.  



it was a refreshing way to kick off the holidays, and made me all the more excited for the rest of the season!   what kind of holiday festivities are you participating in this year?

dritz plier kit review

i frequently find myself attaching snaps to my craft projects.  even with practice, i found the old fashioned method of using a hammer and a spool a thread a little too unreliable results wise.  so then i turned to this plastic contraption, which i quickly realized wasn't better at all... and in fact was possibly worse.

one day i was at joann's clutching a 50% off coupon with nothing to buy until i stumbled upon this plier kit.  at half off,  i decided it would be interesting to give it a try.  the tool also can double as an eyelet attacher, and it came with a handful of eyelets and snaps.

that was over a year ago.  

the other day i decided it'd be wise to get a head start on christmas gifts, so i made a couple baby bibs and tested out the plier applicator... jaw... thing. 

doesn't it look like some sort of robot dinosaur? 

the directions from dritz are on the back of the package, and as usual i found the instructions rather lack luster.   i figured out that the rubber pieces included in the kit were supposed to go over the metal pieces  as you see above.  the idea is simple enough-- each snap is comprised of 4 pieces, and the tool is used to clamp together each half of the snap (so 2 + 2).  

i immediately liked how the rubber kept the pieces from moving around, so they'd be perfectly aligned. this can be a little trickier when done the most basic way with a spool of thread and hammer.

however, when i squeezed the clamp together, i realized the fundamental flaw with the applicator--the pressure is difficult to make even on all sides, so you run the risk of one side of the pieces not being fully attached to each other.  i wound up doing some extra hammering to secure them tightly.  i tested a handful of these snaps, and the results were unimpressive- about half were ruined.  

overall, i was pretty unimpressed. i may give it a couple more tries in the future or just go back to the most basic method.