Halloween Fun (Part1)

I must admit, this weeks post is all about me having fun and playing with some of my favourite dies namely Circles (of course!) and On the Edge. A little while back I created projects for Mollie Makes magazine which I would seriously advise you to check out as it has some of the most fresh and inspirational projects around. 

The projects were Halloween 'Stuffies' which were a change from the norm and lots of fun to design and make. The designs translate to the world of paper crafting too, so here goes....

The dies used are the Framelits Circles Set (657551)  the On the Edge Brackets Die and the Bigz Flower Layers & Leaves die. The papers I used were from the BoBunny Double dot Natural Necessities 6 x 6 pad.

I cut a rectangle of brown card measuring 10 x 3.5cm in half using the On the edge die and attached one piece to the top of a 10 x 15cm rectangle of green card. I used Distress inks to help define the edges on all the cuts (Walnut Stain and Old Paper). I trimmed the other to size to use as eyebrows and die cut a number of circles from which to create the eyes.

After assembling the eyes I attached them to the face using PVA before mounting the eyebrows using 3D foam pads. Next, I die cut a flower to use as teeth and attached it to the face along with and extra rectangle of green card which becomes the chin. Once assembled, I used my trusty Corner Chomper to round off the corners. Frankenstein's Monster would not be complete without a couple of bolts which I made from offset rectangles of card.

Once I had attached the bolts I created base card from ivory cardstock (16 x 11cm) before rounding off the corners and attaching the assembled head with 3D foam pads. Next week I will be doing more of the same including a Wolf man, Mummy and Vampire.

Check out the Stuffies made for Mollie Makes using many of the same techniques but in textiles

Making a personalised Toddler Union Jack T Shirt

Hello, I am back after a bit of a rest!
I am so happy to be able to share here how to easily and cheaply personalize a blank T-shirt.

For this project I used the following:
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix Bigz XL Alphabet Die - Block Talk - 658563
Sizzix Bigz Die w/Bonus Textured Impressions - Union Jack - 658296

Basic Grey Hello Luscious Fabric, Jelly Rolls
Heat & Bond Ultra Hold Iron On adhesive

In this case I wanted to do one for my nephew. He is a lovely one year old boy but as he lives in Vancouver, Canada, we dont see him often enough. As I want him to remember his aunt an oncle living in the UK, I thought a T-shirt with the Union Jack die could be a good idea. I selected the materials I wanted to use, I thought it would be nice to have some soft colours with small patterns perfect for die cutting.

I hate waste, so I cut small (approx. 6" by 6") pieces of the material and iron them onto the exposed side of the Heat & Bond Ultra which is the best option of a fusible interfacing that I have found for die cutting.
As I am not the world best sewer so I I decided to use the Ultra instead of the Lite version of the Heat & Bond because I knew I would not enjoy the sewing afterwards. Hopefully, the Ultra version should  withstand machine washing, something essential for a toddler!

Once the Heat and Bond has cooled down completely - very important - I die cut the Union Jack motive placing the fabric side down.

I placed the cut outs on the front of the T-Shirt. I like to make sure the colours and patterns work well.

I remove the backing - from the Heat and Bond, place the cross first as centred as possible on the front and then I  iron it on following the instructions from the adhesive manufacturer.

I then die cut a scrap piece of coloured card using the Union Jack to use as a template. I tested its resistance to heat before hand! The template is essential to position the small pieces in the right place.

Then I iron them all in place through the template, so nothing moves.

And voila, there you have it! The fabric pieces are perfectly attached to the T shirt. If you are a good sewer, unlike me, and you would like to sew the pieces I would then recommend to use the Heat & Bond Lite version instead.

Then I proceed to cut the letters to really personalised the back of the T-Shirt. I used the fantastic Block Talk Bigz XL die. It is fantastic for fabric die cutting as well as for tradicional paper crafting.

I laid the letters on and iron them out.  And that was it.

All in all, it didn't take long to make at all once I knew what I wanted to do and what dies with which materials. So know I can repeat this project changing the patterns and colours to suit my nieces tastes.