Dinosaur Shirts

I love it when I can do a familiar image in a fun and creative way.  For this project I used seven of the new Siser Easyweed colors, along with a couple of their classic colors to create this dinosaur shirt for a co-worker.  This project was really fun since I was able to be creative.  She had sent me a photo of a dinosaur image surrounded by a wreath of flowers and asked me it if was something I could create.

(Keep reading for a chance to WIN some of this vinyl for yourself!)

I found several different flower and leave designs in both Cricut Design space and on LoveSVG.com and I combined those images to create this one of a kind shirt for her!  

Here are the colors from Siser that I used.  First I placed the Bubblegum pink circle to allow me center the design placement of the shirt.  Next I placed the rings for the wreath in the Coffee color.  Then I placed the leaves in the Apple Green.  I wanted to make sure the Black dinosaur image was layered on next so that I could add the flowers and have some of them overlapping into the circle.  For the roses, I place Burgundy behind them to pop through the openings between the petals which were cut from the same Bubblegum pink as the center circle.  I used Lemon, Pale Blue, Royal Purple and Wisteria for some of the smaller flowers.

I love the way the shirt turned out!

I also did a dinosaur shirt for her son out of the Fluorescent Green StripFlock vinyl.  I am in love with the soft texture of the StripFlock!  

Here is a close up of the dinosaur so you can see the texture.  If you have not tried this product I highly recommend it.  

Remember at the beginning of this post I said that there would be a chance for you to win some of this vinyl?  If you click HERE you will go to a blog post I did a couple of days ago where I am having a contest.  There are still a few days to enter to win so hurry over there and enter now!


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Enjoy The Little Things

Sometimes you just need to make something to brighten your day.  For me, making gifts for other people helps to brighten my spirits and the bright neon flocked vinyl from Siser is perfect for this project.

I used a couple of images from Cricut Design Space and combined them to create this design.  This is a great way to create something uniquely yours.

Here is a close up of the vinyl . . . can you see the flocked texture?  It is so fuzzy.  I hope that the little boy that I am giving this to will enjoy that texture.

Would you like to WIN some FREE VINYL?

I am doing a contest right now in partnership with Siser.  Just click HERE to go to my other blog post that has the entry form.

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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
Crafty Chic's Blog on Facebook //  YouTube  // Instagram  //  Crafting Pixie

Siser Unicorn Project

Today is a REALLY special day.   One year ago today I decided to make my Facebook group Teach Me Cricut Design Space!  I wanted to help people that I saw struggling with the tools and functions in Design Space and create easy to follow tutorials and videos for them.  In just one year, this group as over 4,000 members!

So how are we going to celebrate?  How about with a fun new project and a contest for some vinyl from Siser North America!

Have you seen the new colors of Easyweed heat transfer vinyl from Siser North America?  I think that they are perfect for spring and this project features six of the new colors.

Below are the six colors that I used for this project.  I love the dark Charcoal color.  It is great color to use instead of black, since it has a softer look.  Grey is a great accent color to use with pastels.

Here is the image that I used.  This adorable little unicorn can be found at HelloSVG.com and you can download it by clicking HERE.

After I cut all of the pieces I pressed the yellow layer first since I wanted to position where the horn would be.  I pressed this layer for about 15 seconds and then let it cool and peeled of the carrier sheet.  Then I pressed the flowers to get the position and placement of those centered.  This helped me to line up and place the layer with the ears and eyes.  Last I did the pink inside of the ears.

I just love the way this turned out!  The pastel colors are perfect for this image.  I will give this to someone as a baby gift, but I also wanted to make something to go along with this outfit.

I decided to make a small sign that could be hung on the door or the wall in a baby's room.  I created this design by combining images from various Cricut images I found.  If you would like to use the project file you can access it by clicking HERE.

I pressed this design onto a small canvas that I found at the local dollar store.  There were actually two canvases in the package so it made for a very inexpensive project.  I might get some more of these canvases and put them on an easel or in a frame to display them.  For this project I added a ribbon to the back and just attached it with a strong packing tape.  Now this little sign can be hung on the wall or over a doorknob.

So would you like to win some Easyweed heat transfer vinyl from Siser North America so that you can start in on your spring crafting projects?  Just follow the directions in the entry form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When the contest is over, Siser will contact the winner and ship the prize to them.


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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
Crafty Chic's Blog on Facebook //  YouTube  // Instagram  //  Crafting Pixie

Beach Vibe Card

Do you ever need a really simple and quick card?  This one could not BE more simple!

I had a stack of cardstock with brightly colored tropical cardstock, and there was a white palm tree pattern along the bottom edge.  I knew that I would not want to use this specific sheet of cardstock in a scrapbook layout, since I would not want to cover up that beautiful palm tree design with photos.

I used my paper trimmer to cut the piece of cardstock exactly in half, and then I folded it over.  This allowed me to have two 6 x 6 square cards out of this one piece of cardstock.  Then I cut a square stamp frame out of white cardstock just slightly smaller . . . I think it was about 5.75 x 5.75 square.  This really helped to frame the palm trees on the card.

I hope that this project inspired you to look at your patterned cardstock for other ways to use it or to frame up the images on that cardstock for a quick and easy card.

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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
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Tip for Cutting Scraps

Have you ever worked on a project where you just need to cut a couple of really small pieces, and they could be cut from scraps?  Here is a trick I use to save a little time.

Place the material you need for the first cut in the upper left corner as you normally would, and then place the material for the second cut in the lower right corner of the mat.

Load the mat as you normally would for the first cut . . . 

Then when you unload the mat, rotate it 180 degress and load it to cut the second material.

Then once you remove the excess material you can see you have two small cuts in the corners of the mat.  This also helps with the wear on your mat since you will be using a different section of the mat to cut on.  When you keep cutting in the same corner over and over again, that corner will become less sticky . . . but the opposite corner of the mat will still have lots of stick left to you.  So now you can get more use out of your mat!

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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
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Enjoy with Ikonart

**This post contains affiliate links.  By clicking on these links I make a small commission and you help to support my blog.  Thanks**

I am super excited to show you the Ikonart custom stencil kit.  This will allow you to print an image or phrase on ink jet printer film or laser printer film, then expose that print to light and turn it into a reusable stencil so you can create perfect images over and over again.

This is a Rae Dunn inspired font that I found on Dafont.  I wanted to use a really skinny font for this project since using those with vinyl can be so frustrating so if I could create a stencil of a thin font it would be a game changer.

Since the size of my stencil for the cut would be small, I decided that I would set up my page layout for a few designs so can I could make a few stencils at once.  I had this sheet set up for the word welcome, enjoy and I also did one that said love, but I smudged it with my finger so I cut that one out and I will redo it with the next stencil I make.

The words were printed on my ink jet printer on the clear ink jet film from Ikonart.  There is one side that is shiny and the other side is what you want to print on.

If you would like to make a similar project, the font that I used on the cup can be found on Dafont: The Skinny from Dafont

I wish I could show you the whole process, but the stencil material is light sensitive, and I did not want to take pictures or video of that process and risk ruining the stencils.  Once you expose the image to the light and wash the stencil, you will see how the image emerges.  I am not going to lie, it was kind of amazing to watch the image emerge from the stencil.

Here is my stencil after washing and drying.  You can see how the center of the letter o stays in place on the stencil.  There is actually a really thin film in this stencil material, so that the paint can push through  the open parts and you don't have to worry about the centers of any of your letters shifting or not being pressed down firm enough.

The other really nice feature of this stencil material is that it is very flexible.  I have used other stencil materials and they are firm and stiff so they were harder to wrap around a curved surface.  With the Iknoart stencils it wrapped around the curve of this mug perfectly!  I did still run my fingers across it to smooth it down, but I could really feel that it was going with the curve of the surface, which helps to make for a much cleaner stenciled image.

I put just a small drop of the mulit surface Folk Art paint from Plaid in the upper corner of this image and then used the squeegee to move the paint over the whole image.  The paint will go through the openings and when you remove the stencil you are left with a perfect stencil!

This turned out so cute!  If I wanted to make several of these for gifts then I could just keep using this same stencil over and over.  And that one little drop of paint I used could probably have covered 2 or 3 mugs.  There was a lot left on my squeegee when I was done.

If you are a fan of some of the companies out there that sell pre-made stencils, this system will allow you to start to create your own designs.

Head over to their site by clicking HERE and be sure to use my code ShawnMosch so that you can get 15% off of your order!

If you want to see what you get in the starter kit, you can see my unboxing video below

Also, check out Ikonart on Facebook and their Ikonart Crafters Facebook Group and tell them Shawn Mosch sent you!


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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
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Using Applique Patterns in Cricut Design Space

**This blog post contains affiliate links.  By clicking on these I make a small commission.  Thank you for supporting what I do.**

I often tell my followers and students that sometimes their ideas or questions will end up being my next blog post or tutorial.  That is exactly what inspired this blog post!

A fellow crafter wanted to use the image below that was created for making an applique.  Typically a quilter would cut each section of an image like this out of a different pattern/color of fabric.  It is like making a paint by numbers out of fabric.

Instead of cutting this all by hand, she wanted to use her Cricut Maker to cut the different sections/pieces.  The Cricut Maker has a rotary blade that you can buy to use with it, which is perfect for cutting fabric.

Since this file was so large, I focused just on one flower for my video tutorial, but once you see the process for creating the different colored layered sections for the flower, you will understand how to do this same process for the whole image.

What you will need to do is upload and clean up the image once for each color that you want to use.  Below is the video that I did of my doing this process for the flower.

                                      

Keep following me and join my Teach Me Cricut Design Space group on Facebook!

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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
Crafty Chic's Blog on Facebook //  YouTube  // Instagram  //  Crafting Pixie