Re-Post from 7.09 - Freezer Paper Stencils Tutorial

I while ago on the old blog I wrote a tutorial for making freezer paper stencils on your die-cut machine.  I thought now would be a great time to bring it back out and show it to you again.

This is one of my all time favorite projects.  We did a Girls Camp craft that year using freezer paper stencils to put the girls names on their camp t-shirts.  I've used them quite a few times and every time I just love it!

This is a great project for kids to help out with.  You'll need to do the preparation and the ironing.  They can do the painting and even the removing of the stencil.  I imagine you'll need to do the cleaning up, too, if your kids are anything like mine.

Cutting and Using 

Freezer Paper Stencils

Freezer paper stencils are so fun and easy to use 

you’ll wonder why you didn’t try it sooner! 

1. Create your design.

Method A: If you want your letters to be the part that is painted, create a border around the letters of some kind. In this example, the word Samantha will be painted and anything outside the scalloped border. The white parts will be the paper stencil. For this method, you may want to choose either a stencil font or create bridges to connect the centers of your letters to the outside. Otherwise, you’ll have to save the centers of your letters and iron them on in place.

Method B: If you want the letters to be unpainted with a field of color, create a decorative border around the letters and a second border around the decorative one. In this example, the letters will not be painted, but the scalloped rectangle around it will. Optionally, anything outside the plain rectangle can also be painted. The white parts will be the freezer paper stencil.

2. Place your freezer paper shiny side up on your cutting mat. Cutter shown is the KNK Maxx, but any cutter will cut this material. It’s important that the shiny side is up because the shiny side won’t stick to your cutting mat very well and may shift during cutting.

3. Open your design in your software and “mirror” it so that it is backwards on your screen. This is so that when you cut it out it will be forwards when you iron the shiny side down on your material.

4. Cut your design.

5. Remove the paper from the cutting mats, saving the parts you plan to iron down to your material.

Method A: If you didn’t use a stencil font, be sure you save the centers of your letters so you can iron them down in place.

Method B: Be sure to save the dots of for each “i” or “j” and any punctuation so you can iron them down in place.

6. Iron all the relevant parts for your stencil down to your material. Grown-ups should do this part! Be sure you have the shiny side of the stencil down or you’ll iron it to your iron! Use an iron set to medium-high and press down for a few seconds without moving or rubbing.

7. Paint all the areas you want painted with fabric or other appropriate paint.

8. Kids will want to decorate the rest of their project, too!

9. Allow the paint to dry completely. If you try to remove the stencil before the paint is dry, you may blur your edges and they won’t be clean and crisp.

10. Carefully peel the freezer paper off your material. A pin or tweezers will help get any little bits left behind.

11. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions on both your garment and the paint for laundering.

12. Enjoy your new wearable art project!!!

Try combining these two methods in one project like the shirts below!

Here is an compact and easily downloadable version of this tutorial. Just click on the image to open it larger to read and/or save it. It's slightly abbreviated but the essentials are there.  You can pin this, too, for later!

We loved these shirts so much that the girls wore them all the time.  We recently passed them down to some friends with little girls about the same distance apart in age.  They wore them to Disneyland and got so many comments on how cute their shirts were!  I'm thinking I need to make a new batch!

Time to get crafty, people!

On the 9th Day of Christmas Creativity...

It's the 9th Day of Christmas Creativity, and that means it's Chris's turn to host.  It's also the 2nd Day of Christmas Vacation, an that means I'm slowly losing my sanity.  Just kidding!  I love having my kids home, when they aren't fighting or demanding to be entertained.  On the positive side, they got their own lunch today.  On the negative side, it was grapes, goldfish and rice krispie treats. Grapes are good for lunch, right?

I'm trying to get all my Christmas projects done and I have another one to share with you today. This one is surprisingly quick and easy, even though it involves spray paint.  Come to think of it, it involves three of my favorite things, spray paint, pretty paper, and Mod Podge.  I thought you might enjoy this one, too.

Shhh... don't tell, but I'm attempting to make sets of these to give as gifts.  If you get a set, please act surprised.

Today's project is... Clothes Pin Gift Tags

Materials:
Wooden Clothes Pins
Spray Paint
Patterned Paper
Mod Podge
Permanent Marker

Directions:

1. Spray paint the wooden clothes pins.  I recommend using a quick drying paint.  I used a Krylon metallic silver.  Allow to dry completely, then turn over and spary the other side.

2. Cut strips of paper to fit the tops of the clothes pins.  Mod Podge them onto the clothes pins.  Allow to dry.  This step is optional!  You could just paint and write the names on them.

3. With the permanent marker, write To and From and names on the paper.  See one I left without paper.  I think it looks cool, too.

 4. Clip them onto the ribbon around a gift.

I hope you've enjoyed my little tutorial!  Here's another portable version for you.  Click it to open it large and then save it.

Be sure to check back tomorrow!  It's my last day to host the 12 Days of Christmas Creativity!

Oh and don't forget about my giveaways!. Be sure and enter by commenting on each day!

Here are the prizes:

1) Three Prizes: The whole set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags
2) $10 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs
3) $10 Michaels Gift Card
4) The December VDBC Grab Bag (or a $7 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs if you have already purchased it)

How can you win them? On the 12th Day (that will be the 23rd for our little blog-fest) I'll hold a drawing for each one of the prizes (that's four six drawings in one day... I think I can handle it!). All you have to do to enter is comment on my blog to enter. You can comment on my blog on each of the 12 days so you'll have up to 12 entries in the drawings! Each day I'll have a new thing I'll ask you to include in your comment so keep an eye out for that. It's as simple as that!

Today's comment requirement:

Leave a comment with your favorite Christmas-time activity to do with kids.  I need some ideas of what to do with these munchkins all week!

Be sure to include some way to contact you in case you win the drawing (for example, your VDBC forum name, your email address, etc.). If you don't, I might not be able to get your prize to you!

Time to get crafty, people!

On the 8th Day of Christmas Creativity...

'Twas the last Monday before Christmas
and all through the house
crazy people were running around saying,
"Only 6 days, till Christmas! What the CRAP?!?!"

Okay, maybe only one crazy person... named Jan.

It's the 8th Day of Christmas Creativity!  Today is Ileana's turn to host again.  I hope you've been enjoying her fun trivial questions!

For my part today, I've got a relatively quick and creative gift idea.  It looks pretty involved, but actually didn't take that much time at all!  I found a tutorial for it on Chic & Cheap Nursery.  I modified it a little bit for my kids to use as gifts for their teachers.

Crayon Monograms

I'm not doing a full blown tutorial here.  Mainly because I was really pressed for time to get these done for the last day of school before winter break.  I didn't take the time to take step-by-step pictures as I went a long.  Here's what I did in a nutshell:

1. I used a "floating frame" which is two panes of glass together with no back.
2. I printed out my letter as big as I could and taped it behind the glass.
3. I used super glue to glue the crayons on to the front of the glass, following the printed letter as best I could.
4. I cut the crayons using a sharp knife.  I held the knife over a candle before I cut the crayons.  I also rolled the crayon under the blade of the knife to cut through the paper before I cut all the way through. This resulted in a nice clean cut through the paper and the crayon.
5. I printed the sentiment on some nice cardstock, matted it, and the mounted it between the two panes of glass.

Done!  The whole project took me about 90 minutes. The frames were 11"x14".  I used a box of 96 crayons and got two monograms out of it by using the cut-in-half crayons on both projects.

Before you run off to try this, be sure to enter my 12 Day of Christmas Creativity drawings! In case you missed it yesterday, I've decided to give away more copies of my complete set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags. Be sure and enter by commenting on each day!

Here are the prizes:

1) Three Prizes: The whole set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags
2) $10 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs
3) $10 Michaels Gift Card
4) The December VDBC Grab Bag (or a $7 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs if you have already purchased it)

How can you win them? On the 12th Day (that will be the 23rd for our little blog-fest) I'll hold a drawing for each one of the prizes (that's four six drawings in one day... I think I can handle it!). All you have to do to enter is comment on my blog to enter. You can comment on my blog on each of the 12 days so you'll have up to 12 entries in the drawings! Each day I'll have a new thing I'll ask you to include in your comment so keep an eye out for that. It's as simple as that!

Today's comment requirement:

Leave a comment with either an idea for a teacher gift to make or a last minute gift to make.

Be sure to include some way to contact you in case you win the drawing (for example, your VDBC forum name, your email address, etc.). If you don't, I might not be able to get your prize to you!

Time to get crafty, people!

On the 6th Day of Christmas Creativity...

It's the 6th day, all right, I checked.  Half-way through?  Really?  Sure is going by fast, isn't it? Today it's Chris's turn to host the 12 Days of Christmas Creativity.  Tomorrow it will be my turn to host, so be sure to come back for a freebie!

Today I've got a project to share with you.  I know, normally I post projects on Wednesdays but I didn't get this one done in time for Wednesday.  I didn't think you'd mind too much. I've got a tutorial for it, too!

Today's project is... All-Occasion Countdown Blocks!

I've seen a lot of countdown blocks for Christmas and I think they are awesome!  I wanted to make some, but I didn't want to just limit them to Christmas.  After all that work, why put them away for most of the year!  These are All-Occasion Countdown Blocks.  I made them black and white so there wouldn't be any particular event or holiday associated with the color scheme.  I added the words "Day's until..." on the base block.  Then I glued a small $1 drawer pull from the hardware store next to it.  A tag with the word Christmas is hung it from the drawer pull!  Easy and cute.  Plus it uses Mod Podge which I'm slightly addicted to.

I'm seeing countdowns to birthdays, summer vacation, other holidays, visits from Grandma, etc. in our future!

All-Occasion Countdown Blocks

Materials:
2 - 2" Wooden Cubes
1 - 2"x4"x1" Wooden Block
Paint
Mod Podge
Patterned Paper
Die cut letters and numbers or stickers

Directions:
1. First, paint your blocks.  If you want, you can just paint the outside edges of the cubes.  The paper is going to cover the rest, so you can save some paint.  The base piece will need to be painted all over.

2. Cut squares of paper to fit just inside each side of your cubes.
3. Mod Podge the paper on to each side.

4. Glue the numbers onto the cubes.  Here's how you'll want each cube to be set up:
One cube will have the following numbers on it:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The other cube will have these numbers on it:
0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
Note: Make sure your number 6 can double as a 9 when it's turned upside down.

5. Glue your letters on the front side of the base.
6. Finish off all the blocks with a thin coat of Mod Podge.

7. Glue a small drawer pull on next to the letters on the base.

8. Create tags to hang off the drawer pull for your favorite holidays, events, birthdays, etc.

One of these days I'll get a cutting file finished up for the whole set and post it in the store. Wait... Did someone say EIGHT days until Christmas?  Aaaaaaaahhhh!  Must get back to work now!

Here's a portable version of this tutorial for you.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Don't go yet!  There's still a chance to win free stuff!  I've decided to give away more copies of my complete set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags. Be sure and enter by commenting on each day!

Here are the prizes:

1) Three Prizes: The whole set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags
2) $10 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs
3) $10 Michaels Gift Card
4) The December VDBC Grab Bag (or a $7 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs if you have already purchased it)

How can you win them? On the 12th Day (that will be the 23rd for our little blog-fest) I'll hold a drawing for each one of the prizes (that's four six drawings in one day... I think I can handle it!). All you have to do to enter is comment on my blog to enter. You can comment on my blog on each of the 12 days so you'll have up to 12 entries in the drawings! Each day I'll have a new thing I'll ask you to include in your comment so keep an eye out for that. It's as simple as that!

Today's comment requirement:

Leave a comment with an idea of how to countdown to Christmas Day! It can be something you do each year or just something you've seen.

Be sure to include some way to contact you in case you win the drawing (for example, your VDBC forum name, your email address, etc.). If you don't, I might not be able to get your prize to you!

Check back tomorrow to see what we have in store for you on the 7th day.  I'm hosting and it will be right here!  And yes, you'll definitely be able to download some swans a-swimming!

Time to get crafty, people!

Project Wednesday: Frame-able Cards

Yes! I'm still here! Like I mentioned last week... it's run-around-like-a-chicken-with-your-head-cut-off-season. Also known as the Christmas Season. Soooo.... much to get done. My goal this week is to get all my projects finished up before Friday so my wonderful hubby and mail them out to the four corners of the earth. I think for the past few years he has had to ship things out overnight. A pricey procrastinator... that's me! So, all regularly scheduled blog posts may or may not happen for the rest of the month. Just letting you know up front!

Today I have a really cute project for you! I'm excited to share it. It's also my opportunity to guest-post on the Card-A-Day Blog. Be sure to hop over there to see what this month's challenge is. You could win something fabulous! Plus, it's just an all around great place to get some inspiration.

Today's project is... Frame-able Cards

I love making handmade cards. One year I made dozens of different designs and mailed them to all my friends and family. Then I cried when I mailed them, knowing that 99% of them would be thrown out and the other 1% would probably end up with the dust bunnies under someone's sofa. As I was contemplating the card I had planned to make today, I decided I couldn't allow this to happen to this one! Why not make it a jumbo card that could be framed as a piece of holiday decor?

I started by creating this cute digital stamp of my daughter Samantha. {Sadly I realized as I was coloring it that I'd left off her trademark freckles but oh well, what's done is done.} I love this sweet pose and serene expression. It needed a little something Christmasy so I added the present on her lap. As I was drawing it, the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music kept running through my head. And... suddenly... a sentiment was born! This is an awesome grandparent card, in my opinion... who wouldn't love to hear that they are one of your favorite things!

After I colored it with my Copic Markers. {Don't look that close, I'm not that great at it.} I framed it out with some pretty Christmas scrapbook paper. The finished size is 8"x10" so it would fit nicely in a frame! I didn't make it into a traditional card, I'll just write a note on the back {or more likely have my girls write a note}. I love the idea of making something to display and keep rather than something I know will likely be tossed away.

Since I don't think I'll be getting another Freebie up this Friday, I thought I'd share this Digi Stamp with you! I hope you will get some use out of it. This design includes the stamp with and without the sentiment, plus a separate stamp of the little present so you can layer it. There are also cutting lines for the girl and the present so you can do a print and cut on your digital die-cut machine!

Boring but Important Legal Stuff: My terms of use are included in each zipped download. If you have any questions about how you may use this file, please read it. By clicking to download the file, you are agreeing to abide by the terms. If you'd like to share it, please don't. Rather, send your friends a link to this blog post. Once it's no longer available as a freebie, you might be tempted to share it with someone. Please don't! 'Nuf said!

This design will only be up for a limited time, so be sure to grab it while you are here! Click to download your favorite file type:

SORRY!  This download has expired.  Look for it soon in the Sam & Hailey Designs Store!

Time to get crafty, people!

Project Wednesday: Subway Art on a Shutter

Every once in a while I venture out of my hermit-like existence.  I like home.  I'm the epitome of the term Homebody.  When I do make it out, it's usually to go shopping.  I try to go with a purpose when I do shop.  Sometimes, like last week, I just feel like wandering the aisles.  Lucky for me, I did this at the local thrift instead of Walmart or Target.  Also, lucky for me, they happened to have some interesting things.  Like this sort-of-old shutter.  It was marked $4.  It really must have been my lucky day because all yellow tags were half of.  Score!  A $2 shutter!

My dear husband, if he were reading this, would roll his eyes and say... "Oh great, how I'm going to have an old shutter hanging around the garage."  Well... to him I say... Ha!  I actually did something with it!  "It's a miracle", he says... I know him as well as he knows me.

I decided that I would take one of the designs I made for the November VDBC Grab Bag and make a Subway Art piece for Thanksgiving decor.  SO, without further ado...

Today's project is... Subway Art on a Shutter

Here's my fabulous find from the thrift.  The paint job on the shutter was more bad-paint-job than vintage-paint-job.  So, I skipped the vintage look and went for sleek shiny painted look.  Either way works for me!  Just call me eclectic... really... do... I prefer it to scatterbrained or cluttered.

I first painted the side I plan to apply my vinyl to.  About 30 seconds into the paint job, the nozzle miraculously stuck open.  This might be a bad thing, but I used it to my advantage and painted the whole thing in one gulp {so to speak}.  It sure saved me from getting "spray paint finger" for which I am grateful.  Luckily, I was able to turn it off when I was done.

In all, it took two cans of paint to cover both sides of the shutter.  I think it turned out quite nice! Since I wasn't planning to actually use this as a shutter, I didn't bother taking any of the hardware off.  I just painted the whole thing.  Remember, deep down, I'm lazy.

After allowing the paint to completely dry, I applied some nifty vinyl decals to it.  I cut them from my Subway Art- Thanksgiving design.  This is only available as part of the November VDBC Grab Bag in case you were wondering.

Pin It

I took each part of the design, sized it up, and moved it around so it would fit my shutter slats.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  Now the only question is... where to display it?  It's in my entry way at the moment. I like it!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Make Your Own... Wednesday? - Bakers Twine - Take 2

You know how when you burn a piece of toast and you can't get that smell out of your house, your hair, your nose.  Yeah, that's me today.  Oh the horror of burnt toast!

So, as you will probably be able to tell, I've become obsessed with the idea of making my own homemade Baker's Twine.  Even to the point that I'm skipping today's Project Wednesday to talk about it again.

What's the big deal, you ask?  You've got me but I laid in bed last night thinking... there's got to be a better way than the marker method.  It looks okay, but it's not the real thing by any stretch of the imagination.

And then it hit me.

Didn't the girls get to make their own jump ropes at the pumpkin farm the other day?  See... look I have proof below...

I started thinking about how it was made and wondering if I could do it myself without their fancy spinny thing.  

The process was this: the three strands of rope were put in the ends of a device that twisted each individual strand when a person turned a crank.  Then after it was twisted for a while they slid up a metal thingy {technical term} that each strand was threaded through.  This allowed the three strands to twist together.  

Hmm... twist together.. twist together.  That got me thinking!

Could I do this with embroidery floss?  Sure I could try twisting a few strands of embroidery floss together but what would hold them together?  Once I let go, they would just unravel.  The secret, I soon discovered, is in the twisting of each individual strand first!  That farmer dude was a genious, I tell you!

Here's how I did it.

Today you are going to learn {AGAIN} to Make Your Own... Baker's Twine... Take 2!

All you need is two or more colors of embroidery floss and some masking tape.  Sooooo easy!  I used three Christmas colors because I have Christmas projects on the brain today.

I'm going to give you the play by play first, then everything will be packaged up in a nice little tutorial for you to download.  I'm just so excited about this!  Maybe you will be, too!

Oh, and please excuse the messy work table.  Creativity happens here, people!  It's going to get messy!

1. Cut equal lengths of embroidery floss and secure the ends together.  Tape them to your table.

 2. Twist each individual strand until is twists back on itself.  Secure each strand to the table while you work on the next.  I honestly think I could have gotten away with less twisting.  Would have made the twisting together go a little more smoothly.  Will have to work on it more.

 3.  Once all your strands are twisted, gather the ends together and gently pull them out straight, allowing them to twist together.  Don't pull to hard or you'll end up pulling it out from the tape on the table.  That's very annoying when that happens.  Even if it does, it should still work out okay.  Just pull from both ends.

 4.  Run your fingers up and down the twisted strands to even out the twist.  You may have to pull on one color individuall to get it to all even out.  Sometimes the ends aren't as pretty as the middle,  just clip off the part you don't like.

 5.  Secure the ends.  I tied mine with knots.

That's it!  It worked like a charm and actually looks like the real thing.  If you want it to be a little skinnier like real Baker's Twine, just divide the embroidery floss down to less strands.  That's the beauty of using embroidery floss for this. You can make it as thick as you want!

Here is an compact and easily downloadable version of this tutorial.  Just click on the image to open it larger to read and/or save it.

Time to get crafty, people!

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