Final Water Bottles and New Jar Jewelry

Hello Friends!

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend. All my plans worked out so I got to visit and spend time with people I love. Awesome!

I worked on these yesterday. I started them here but was out of printable vinyl so I couldn't complete them. I got my vinyl shipment yesterday so I got to finalize the design and finish them in the afternoon.

I print these labels on the highest level - photo - quality. They print out beautifully, even on my inkjet printer, and the ink is dry almost immediately. None of the ink lifts when I cut them so they work wonderfully for cutting on the Silhouette.

I completely disassembled (also known as peeling all vinyl off) and put these bottles back together; I wanted a less random pattern. I love the final, final product - so cute!

I also made these little lovelies. I found the small wooden shapes at Michael's, in the glassware section. The package was labeled 'jar jewelry'. I think that means they're supposed to be tied around mason jars but I painted them white, sanded them a bit, and monogrammed them with vinyl.

I'm thinking: cool key chains, backpack tags, purse tags, luggage tags or even pendants for necklaces. They come 10 to a package and they're so easy to make so they'd work perfectly as little gifts for people you love, large and small.

 

If you haven't got a Silhouette cutter, you can still use printable vinyl! All you need is a design and some scissors or a craft punch. Print your design on the vinyl, cut or punch out your design, peel the back from the vinyl and adhere it to your project.

 

You should try it - I think you'd be surprised how easy it is!

 

~ M ~

Kitchen Aid Mixer Update

Hello Friends!

Can you believe we're more than half way through summer already?! I hope yours is going well and that you're having all kinds of fun.

I had fun today...sprucing up my Kitchen Aid mixer. I love this mixer - so functional and sturdy and solid. I didn't think I could love it more until I got a look at a few pictures from Pinterest. That got me inspired!

Although I couldn't find the exact picture, I saw another mixer with cherries on it and - given my love of red and the general happy nature of cherries - that's the design I went with.

The cherries are made from printed vinyl and as I said yesterday, they're semi-permanent and water-resistant once applied (they can be peeled off if you work at it for awhile). I didn't follow a specific plan when I applied them, just turned the mixer around as I went to make sure they weren't too close together.

I printed and cut 26 cherry decals and ended up using 16 of them...so far. I needed to walk away before I added more; I was afraid I'd end up with wall-to-wall cherries.

Although it's done for now, I'm pretty sure I'll make a few more additions before I call it completely finished. I'm thinking something to do with polka dots...

I'm so happy I spruced up my mixer. It's such a small thing but certainly adds a pop of cheer to my kitchen décor.

~ M ~

Pillow Covers and Other Good Things

Hello Friends!

 

I can not believe how quickly time flies. The weekend was here and gone in a blink and somehow, Monday snuck by, too! Here's what I've been working on...

 

What is it, you say? It's a pillow! Okay, not exactly a pillow. It's the beginning of a pillow cover. In a nod to farm-style decorating (love!), I've designed a set of pillow covers; this is the first in the set. It's heat transfer vinyl (HTV), cut with the Silhouette, on linen-colored linen. The pillow will be 20" square when completed. I'll share a picture soon.

 

I'm working on another pillow, too - gingham, red, heart...what's not to like? This, too, is HTV, cut with the Silhouette, on red-and-white gingham. And this pillow, too, will be 20" when it's finished.

All of these items are for future projects: water bottles, kitchen canisters, candy jars - even a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I printed these labels and shapes on printable vinyl. Once applied, they're permanent and water-resistant so they can be used in several ways. I'll be showing you how in the days and weeks to come.

 

So many projects, so little concentration...I think I may have crafting ADD!! Do you think there is such a thing?

 

~ M ~

Pattern-On-Pattern Please!

Hello Friends!

 

 

In keeping with all of the monogram talk around here, lately, I have a fast and easy way to add a cute, quick, and custom touch to your home - and it just happens to be a monogram.

 

I cut this with my Silhouette but I would have been able to do it almost as easily without it - I'll tell you how in a minute. For this project, I entered a 'B' in the type design tool, enlarged it to the size I wanted, filled it with a houndstooth pattern and then sent it to cut. After that was done, I trimmed the backing paper down to fit inside the frame and taped the letter, with two-sided tape, to the backing paper, centering it first. I placed the paper down on the glass, put the backing on the frame and put it up on the mantel for a glamour shot!

Pattern-on-pattern design and decorating isn't for everyone - I know it feels way too busy to some people. I love it, but it SO has to be the right mix to work. These colors go well together - a classic combination - and neither one of the patterns is overbearing. This project took me no more than 5 minutes; you could make several of these monograms in an afternoon, hang them on the wall, and have a custom collection of artwork that not only adds a personal touch, but costs about $25 for everything.

 

Here's how to do it: Get paper: wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, book pages, cardstock. The Dollar Store has lots of wrapping paper for, you guessed it, $1 a roll. You could mix and match patterns, use the same backing for each one and change out the design for the monogram...get creative with yourself. Get frames: thrift stores, garage sales, rummage sales. They can be as little as $1-2 dollars at a thrift store. I suggest, for one wall, 5-7 frames. Get a can of spray paint: You'll need it to spray your frames all one color; I'd do all of mine in matte black. This helps the monogram - or artwork - stand out and become more of the focus. Cut your letters: print your letter in several different fonts and cut them out. Trace the letters on the back of the paper you want to cut - be sure to flip them before you cut - and cut them out. Cut your backing paper to fit your frames, assemble your custom monograms, and hang them on the wall. Pat yourself on the back!

 

 

The picture above is a cheat sheet for some fonts that I have on my machine. They have decorative characters and I can't begin to remember what each character is and in what font it lives. I printed these out, labeled them with the font name and then wrote, for each character, the associated key on the keyboard. Now I can put them in a binder and use them as quick reference for designing.

 

I hope to post tomorrow - check in if you find a quiet spot in your 4th of July celebration. Enjoy the day!

 

~ M ~

Pretty Patriotic

Hello Friends!

 

In honor of the 4th of July: touches of red, white, and blue. Everything here is easy to find and, of course, inexpensive: the cans are from my pantry, the washi sheets (adhesive-backed washi paper) and candy dishes are from Target, and the spoons are from the Dollar Store.

 

 

 

The cans - one beans and one roasted almonds - were both covered with a houndstooth pattern washi sheet, cut to size. The sheets are much trickier to handle than washi tape but the fact that they are adjustable makes all the difference in the world. If you're in a hurry, work with washi tape, not the sheets. I had little bits of it stuck everywhere when I was done!

 

I painted the almond can, the smaller one, with a few coats of white spray paint before covering it; the larger one I left with the original (tin?) finish. If you look closely, you can see the difference in the appearance between the two. I actually like both...no preference on this one!

 

Even though these projects are really inexpensive, they do add small touches of color, and a little bit of 4th of July, to your holiday table or  holiday mantel. Holiday decorating doesn't have to be difficult...sometimes the little touches create great impact and with very little effort.

 

 

Most of the designs I've posted in the last few weeks are small enough, and easy enough, for anyone to do. Just take your time, do a little planning ahead, and accept that at least one thing will not work out! That frees you from the pressure of 'perfection' and allows you to actually enjoy the process. That's a really good thing.

Stay tuned.

 

~ M ~

Water Slide Decals: Getting Better All the Time

Hello Friends!

 

What's new with everyone? I'm so glad Monday is here - I'm feeling particularly productive today. It's probably because I cleaned my studio this morning. It looked like a tornado had been through here over the weekend.

 

I found some cool jars - basically mason jars without any branding - at the dollar store and knew they'd make perfect soap dispensers. Not exactly original, but I dislike the plastic bottle of hand soap sitting on my counter as much as the next girl does.

 

I found the dispenser tops at Michael's about a week ago. I bought two (less than $5 each), one for each plastic dispenser at home. They came with a mason jar lid insert so you don't have to drill a hole through the insert yourself.

 

The jars came with gold-colored inserts and bands; the inserts for the dispensers were silver so I decided a little white spray paint was in order to take care of the unmatched pieces. After they were painted, I put them on the jars and I had 'mason' jar soap dispensers - done and done! Except...I decided I'd like the dispensers to be labeled. So I got busy, designed quick and simple labels and printed them on water slide decal paper. I applied the decals to the jars this morning and now...the soap dispensers are done.

 

I've been semi-obsessed with monograms lately, too. I was mixing different patterns and colors and thought, as long as I was making decals for the Dollar Store jars, I'd practice with color at the same time. I was really pleasantly surprised - I love how the decal worked on this plate. I don't love the design, or even the colors of the design, but I love how easy it was to apply and how well it works if you don't fuss with the decal too much!

 

 

Like with most things that I want to be good at, I find that the more I practice at crafting anything, the better I get, the more comfortable I get, the quicker I get, and the more satisfied I become. If you're interested in pursuing something creative, take your time, be easy on yourself, and don't quit. It's worth it.

 

And the files (you thought I forgot)! I only have files for Silhouette peeps but the cake plate bunting, the Freedom banner and the cupcake picks are here:

 

Freedom Banner 1

Freedom Banner 2

Cake Bunting

Cupcake Picks

Stay tuned

~ M ~

Stars, Stripes, and Freedom

Hello Friends!

 

 

Wow, have I been busy! Lots of catching up to do here at Paisley Press so I'm just jumping in. Organization, design, redesign and more red, white and blue coming your way.

 

Remember this? I took care of that mess in no time; the picture above is the after. I'm much happier with this clean and easy-to-access storage 'system'. Organization, although tedious at times, is always so worth it in the end! Don't you think so?

In that same post, I created my first project with adhesive vinyl: two acrylic mugs. The more I looked at them, the more I thought they needed to be redone. So I stripped the vinyl off the mugs and created a few new designs.

After the designs are cut, the excess vinyl in the design needs to be removed before the vinyl is transferred. I, however, removed the actual monogram itself. Whaaaaat? Epic fail! Needless to say, I recut the design and left the monogram intact while removing all of the extraneous bits.

Once all of the extra vinyl was removed, I used clear contact paper to transfer the vinyl to the mugs. Using white cardstock in the mugs to take these pictures shows the completed designs much better than trying to photograph them empty. So much happier with the new looks! 

 

Now it's time to bring on the 4th of July! I designed new cupcake flags, bunting tags and a Freedom banner that are all starred and striped to celebrate the holiday in style.

The bunting tags are just separate cardstock shapes that I cut out and then attached to the cake plate with two-sided tape. They aren't perfectly spaced or perfectly even but I love the way they dress up the plate. I covered the edges with plain white ribbon to give the bunting a finished look.

The cupcake picks are the same as the bunting - just longer and two-sided so they're patriotic from every angle. Again, so easy to make, just cut and glue and these picks are ready for dressing up any cupcake that comes their way.

The Freedom garland was created using the same stars-and-stripes pattern as the bunting and picks - they're all coordinated for decorating ease. Using my go-to baker's twine and glittered red clothespins are just the finishing touches needed to put this little garland over the top.

 

Don't be too disappointed but I don't have files to share today! I have a few issues with my file sharing platform so I'll get those straightened out and make the files available as soon as possible. I'm even going to work on it tomorrow - hopefully I can resolve it quickly!

 

Stay tuned.

 

~ M ~