Weekend Crafting Retreat

Weekend Crafting Retreat

This weekend, I left my kiddos and my husband (for the first time ever) and went out to a lodge on a beautiful lake and spent the weekend crafting and visiting with old and new friends.

Our 'crafting' and 'quilting' space. Click to view larger.

I worked on three different things over the weekend. I offered a craft for scrabble tiles, worked on t-shirts and the majority of my time was spent on decorations for my kiddo's birthdays.

Scrabble Tiles

These our my customized scrabble tiles:

Link to more information if you'd like to order wood, kits or a completed set...

I sell them completed for $2 a tile but I also offer them in kits for $1 a tile. Most people did the "Home" version, with states like Washington, Utah, Michigan and Missouri. The one below was a lady who wanted "Ocean" to match a theme in her home.

Birthdays

The majority of my time was spent on crafts for my kid's birthdays. My son wanted a theme related to his favorite Netflix show. My daughter wanted Fairies. While crafting, I did a lot of little things, like home made wands and cupcake toppers, along with birthday invitations but I did some bigger crafts that my daughter can use as bedroom decor as well. These are pictured below.

I used a gold gift bag from the dollar store to make the circles. The other half of the bag I used to make golden fairy silhouettes for cupcake toppers.

It was fun coming home and seeing their faces as I pulled things out one-by-one for their parties. I don't know if I can do it every year but it certainly was fun for this year!

I purchased the fairies from the Silhouette Store.

T-Shirts

Lara Allsopps shared these first two files with me. Aren't they amazing? I did the upside down shirt for my husband. The weeding was tedious but it was worth it to see how pleased he was to have it. If we decide to dress down for Halloween this next year, I think these would be fun matching couple shirts to wear.

I also made another one of my tribal shirts to thank and surprise (haha hopefully she's not reading this before she gets it) my sister-in-law who lives in the tri-cities.

You know that thought, "If I could just craft for hours", well it was a dream come true. It was a lot of fun, I got a lot done. I strengthened friendships and made many new ones. It was so good being home with my family but I would be excited and up for another one next year!

How to Cut and Apply Heat Transfer Vinyl

Design

Create your design in your studio software.

Once it is completed, you want to select your image and flip it horizontally.

You can print multiple designs at once, it's easier to weed if you draw a cut line between the images.

When you go to print (on a Silhouette) it worked well for me to:
Choose Heat Transfer Material-Smooth
Print with the blade at a 3 (I like it to be this high and I find it doesn't cut too deep),
Speed 10
Thickness 6

I haven't done glitter but online I saw that you want to choose:
Choose Heat Transfer Material-Smooth
Print with the blade at a 3-4,
Speed 5
Thickness 33

Place you vinyl down with the plastic side on the sticky part of your cutting mat, vinyl side up.

Cut.

Weed.

Iron:

Make sure there is no water in your iron to create steam. Heat your iron to 300-325 degrees, partway between the cotton and wool setting.

Lay a protector down on your surface. I used a large square trivet with a towel on top. place your fabric on top. If it's a humid day, you are going to want to iron any extra out of your material first.

Lay your vinyl face down on your fabric, using a measuring tape and or folding the fabric in the middle help with even placement.

Place your heat press transfer sheet (Teflon sheet or thin towel) over the top of the vinyl place on fabric.

Hold your iron down, pressing hard into the fabric on each section for 15-20 seconds. If you hear a crinkling of the plastic the vinyl is attach to, you know you are pressing for too long. You want to be able to pull up the plastic, without pulling the vinyl up. The vinyl should be adhering into the fibers of the fabric, which can be difficult to tell.

Care of heat transfer vinyl fabrics:

Don't wash within 24 hours
Wash cold inside out
Hang dry or tumble dry-low
A lot of sites say do not use fabric softeners as well
Do not iron or dry clean

Raising My Tribe, First HTV

My sister asked me to make shirts for her business. I was worried about experimenting with her materials so I decided to try out something for myself first. I had seen the phrase on a shirt and really loved it. I checked it out on the national data base to make sure it wasn't patent and drew a classic heart design. After watching some how-to youtube videos, I dived in. Blade on 3, speed 6, iron at 325 and a trial run through the wash, it was a success! I'm really pleased with how it turned out!