Accentuate the Positive

Happy Thursday everyone!  I have to admit I love the snow and cold weather, but I am definitely ready for spring.

We recently started a new "project" at church called Accentuate the Positive.  It's just as it sounds; we've all agreed to try to eliminate all of the negative thoughts so we'll be more open to the positive.  I was asked to make a couple of banners for the sanctuary for the occasion so I thought I'd make a project out of the project.  I've done applique before with quilts, but I've never tried to cut fabric with my Cricut even though this is something I've been wanting to try for a while.

The first and one of the most important things to do before you start cutting fabric is to start with a new mat and a new cutting blade.  I have one mat and a cutting blade aside that's just for cutting fabric.  If you cut with a blade that you've used for cutting paper you run the risk of ruining your fabric with a cut that's not complete.  The same with the mat, if you've used the mat many times on other projects the sticky is liable to be disappearing.

Next iron the fabric you'll be using.  I do this after cutting the fabric down to the size I want to use.  I admit I'm a little lazy and hate to iron so if I don't have to iron the entire fabric I'm all for it.  Once the fabric has been pressed add the stabilizer onto the back side of the fabric.  I cut the stabilizer to the size of the fabric to avoid a huge mess on the ironing board.  Make sure the stabilizer is adhering well to all areas of the fabric, any loose stabilizer will again cause the fabric to not cut correctly.

Put the fabric onto your mat.  This is where I was worried because I had heard to do it both ways (stabilizer up or stabilizer side down on the mat).  I'll admit I only tried it with the stabilizer side down because I didn't want to have to bother with flipping all of my letters. (I will do anything to avoid making more work for myself).  You are now ready to cut.

Load the mat into your machine as you normally would.  I use a Gypsy so I load my mat through that.  Cut the letters/design as normal.

Once you've cut the letters out and removed them from the mat, remove the paper from the back of the  fabric/stabilizer, center the design on the main fabric and iron this down completely.  I used the heavy duty stabilizer in the red bag (heat n' bond).  I don't think the banners will be moved around a lot, but I didn't want the design coming off.  After I ironed the design on the fabric I sewed the words onto the fabric.

All the letters were cut from the Alphalicious cartridge at 5".  I welded all letters together using my Gypsy.  I did add the Disciples of Christ chalice, but it's a little different from the chalice on the Inspired Hearts cartridge so I had to use a design I found on the computer.

Once I had everything sewn onto the fabric I pressed it once again, the added a back as well as two sleeves (one on the top and one on the bottom) to slip curtain rods through.  This could possible be left off the bottom, but I thought that would add weight and help the banners to hang correctly.

The two finished banners!  Hope you find the inspiration to craft today, and remember to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

Daily Project: Go Panthers

It's time again for my daily project. This one is one that's been done for a week. I teach at a very small school system, and we've got an awesome group of boys playing basketball this year. We were runners-up in our District Tournament this year and we were asked to decorate our door. Me, I didn't want to decorate my entire door becuase of the amount of time it would take, and I don't have a full class of students willing to do it like other people. Sorry my little dig, but it couldn't be helped. On to being positive and my project. (just a quick note, there is not a panther on any cartridge!!! what an outrage!!!)

For my project this week I started with a small poster. I know you are out there cheering that it isn't a card! I used the cartridge Makin' the Grade for the "Go" and "Beat". They were welded using the gypsy (except for the "at", they wouldn't weld for some reason). These were cut out in black (one of our school colors) at 4.52x2.43.
I then searched frantically for a panther (nada) and then I thought about using an ant, but I didn't have that either. So I did the next best thing and improvised. I used the tiger from the Animal Kingdom cartridge cut out at 4.79x6.65 using the gypsy. Also using the gypsy, it has a hide feature so I was able to go through and hide all of the cuts for the stripes (since panthers don't have stripes!) I added a pink nose and used a Honey marker for the eyes. To make him show up a little better I used a glitter pen on the detail cuts.

I then added a cardinal from the cartridge 50 States. (Our next game was against the Clark Co. Cardinals of course). This was a little easier since I could actually find this bird. I cut the bird out on 3.18x4.53 in black, then used a red for the layer. to get the legs and beak I cut another full image in Honey and cut what I needed. The large "A"s were very simple, cut from Alphalicious at 3.13x5.0.
The fun part was the cheerleaders. The cheerleaders were cut from Everyday paper dolls at 5". Each layer was also cut at the same size. Since it has gotten close to impossible to find a good match for skin color the cheerleaders were cut out using a white paper that comes from StampTV and then colored using copic markers. The colors that were used were:

Skin color: E00, E11, E13, R20

Hair: 1. E25, E31, E50; 2. E35, E31, YR20

Uniform: C7, C6, YR14, YR15, YR16

the same colors used for the uniforms were also used for the pon poms and shoes. I outlined her lips using E04 (natural lipstick) and just grabed a blue and blue/green to do their eyes. .
As a final touch I used bitty sparkles to set off their ponytails. Since the cheerleaders didn't really show up very well (because of the light colors) I decided to take a black marker and trace around the edges. This really helped them to pop off the page.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my daily project for this round. I hope everyone has an awesome day and Happy Scrappin'

Emily

Exploring Cricut: Movie challenge

Welcome to the last challenge of February! This was a very tricky challenge for me and I flip-floped many times before settling on the project I submitted.

The challenge for this week was to create a layout, card, or other paper craft on the theme of show business. Wow! Diane is really making us think out of the box on this one. Considering everyone I've shown the project to has needed an explanation I guess I either went too far out of the box, or I wasn't successful in making a connection to the theme. I like to think I just went too far out of the box, but I'll let you decide. Explanation will be at the bottom. Now to the project. Once again I decided to do a card (I know you all are surprised).

Base is white daisy 5x7 (CTMH)
Cardstock: Twilight 5x7 (CTMH)
Arch: desert sand, white daisy, new england ivy (CTMH)Bloom Arch:4.65x4.53, flowers 3.48x4.53
You're Invited:White Daisy, Alphalicious 1"
Ranger Stickles: Pink

Sparkles (CTMH)

OK: Now for my explanation. I am a big Twilight fan so I decided to do my "show business" with that movie series. The inspiration for the card of course came from Edward and Bella's wedding from Breaking Dawn, the quote is from Edward's toast to Bella at their reception, and of course the color of cardstock for the background: Twilight. The last part was an afterthought after I determined the rest of the card. The only thing I can say in my defense is I couldn't help myself, I'm addicted to these characters! Go Team Edward!!!

Breaking Dawn: Twilight, Gypsy font 1"

Movie Night: Twilight, Gypsy font 1"

Turquois Stickles: Ranger

Exploring Cricut Daily Project: Happy Boo Day

This project was very simple to create. I started with a basic layout using Mischief pattern paper from Close to My Heart. One of my best friends little boy had a birthday in October so this was a page I intend to give her the next time we get together. It will either be for his birthday or for Halloween, she could use it for either.

Besides the Mischief pattern paper, I also used cardstock in black, red barn, sunset, and desert sand also from CTMH.

The title Happy Boo Day was cut using the Alphalicious cartridge and it was cut at 2 inches in Sunset.

After adding the title I then cut out the pumpkins from Stretch Your Imagination, also at 2 inches. I cut each image three times, 1 in sunset, 1 in sunny yellow blackout, and 1 in topiary also in blackout. I cut off what I didn't need and layered the rest. The yellow blackout was adhered to the back.