A’hoy Mate!

Yo ho, yo ho a pirate’s life for me…

But back to reality. My goddaughter came to visit a few weekends ago, and her mom mentioned that they are going to a pirate-themed party.

SAY NO MORE.

Not only is Pirates of the Carribean pretty much one of my favorite drinking games movies, I just so happened to have this sweet pirate ship shape for my Cricut.

(Okay, so yes, technically you could say it was just a regular ship like the Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria…but I like to think it’s the Black Pearl.)

(And if you don’t mentally read “the Black Pearl” in a pirate voice…something is wrong with you.)

Use the outsides of the Cricut cutout for the stencil, and then use the Cricut shape for the notecard.

I had the Cricut set on 4.5 inches, and the onesie is size 6-12 months. This notecard is an A6 size.

Savvy?

If you want a full tutorial on painting baby onesies with stencils, here is a step-by-step overview.

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My Novel. On a Notecard.

I can’t stop making stationary lately.

I love paper. And I love mailing it.

The part I get most excited about, what I love the most, is imagining the person’s face when the card gets opened.

For me, the second I see an envelope in the mailbox which isn’t a bill and is clearly a card, I start picturing what’s inside. Love note? An invitation? Just someone saying hello?

I made this one about my novel.

And then I sent it to Texas.

The card is a bit of a font-a-thon, but I still like it.

And, surprisingly?  It doesn’t take that long for mail to get to Texas from Upstate NY.

Saltwater.

When you think about it, saltwater is pretty amazing. It literally keeps you afloat.

I’ve even read studies that say the reason you are sad when you leave the ocean isn’t because you are sad to leave the ocean, but because your body can feel the pull of the tides, and feels lost without it.

Which is why when I read this quote, I knew it was perfect. Just the most perfect way to describe saltwater.

So I put it on a notecard.

Here’s the front:

And here are the insides:

And then I gave them to a good friend.

The end.

Quick Gifts: DIY Printed Notecards

Yesterday I had one of those “crap I need to bring a gift” moments. You see, I was invited to a graduation party for the sister of a friend. So, I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, but my willingness to pay for this type of gift was about $10 or less. And the moment this “you need to bring a gift” realization hit me was the moment I was leaving the house. And since giving booze to teenagers is frowned upon, I couldn’t do my standard grab a bottle of wine out of the rack and call it a day moves.

Which is why it’s handy to have blank stationary in my craft kit and notecard design pdfs saved on my computer. Open one of the card designs, load notecards into the printer, and hit print. Quick, easy, DIY notecards.

I have a variety of designs that are my “go-tos” for gifts. The ones above are my ‘hello cards.’ Hola, bonjour, ciao bella.

I also have thank-you cards like this.

I really like the old-fashioned type key font on this one. And the accent letter.

For notecards I use 4.5 x 5 inch folded cards, but you could easily use flat cards or a larger size as well. I like the folded notecards because they strike me as more formal.

Quick, easy, inexpensive to make but impressive to give. Which is the way I like it.

What is your go-to gift when you’re in a rush?

More than sugar.

I love you more than sugar.

Which, is saying a lot for me. Because I really, really, really love sugar.

I also really enjoy envelope liners, like the pink stripe one on I put inside the love sugar DIY card. It really gives stationary something extra. Most people won’t notice envelope liners, but for the ones that do, I like to think they are a nice little surprise when you open the envelope.

Envelope liners are an easy DIY. Create a stencil from a piece of cardstock—for these A7 envelopes it’s sort of a trapezoid shape. You don’t need to line the whole envelope—the top flap and a bit into the bottom area. Trace your stencil onto patterned paper and then cut out the liner. Using thinner weight paper is best; I would avoid anything that is cardstock weight or heavier. When you glue in the liner, make sure you don’t glue over the envelope seal part. Lesson #567 that I learned the hard way…

And then you’re done! An easy DIY addition to a homemade card, or to store-bought cards as well.

DIY Roundup: Triple Crown Onesie and Notecard

Okay, I know the Triple Crown didn’t happen this year.

And yes, technically this baby onesie was a christening gift, so technically a more appropriate title would be something like gifts of the magi.

But after carefully considering the fact that earlier this year someone told me that he “couldn’t go out with me because I was too religious,” I’ve decided to go with Triple Crown.

(When you’re done laughing over the fact that someone would EVER describe me as “too religious,” continue reading.)

As per usual, I DIY’d the stencil for this bit of baby onesie glory on my Cricut. The crowns are from the wall art cartridge, sized at one point five inches. If you want full instructions for fabric paint projects and stencils, click here.

The fabric paint is a pink pearl, which means pink glitter. Because pink glitter totally screams “Jesus,” don’t you think?

Normally I feel super-guilty when I cut out stencils for DIY projects, because a) I drive a Prius and b) what do I do with all the insides?

I can’t throw them away because I’m a paper hoarder I might need them in the future…so now I have a drawer full of mismatched letters and cutouts in various shapes and sizes. I CAN QUIT ANYTIME. I SWEAR.

Luckily, this time I around I “got smart” as they say. Being that I needed a card for one of my fav coworkers, I used the crown center cut-outs as the decoration on the card. FREAKING BRILLIANT.

Not to mention eco-Prius-friendly. And efficient. It’s like craft multi-tasking.

Freaking brilliant.

Does anyone else have a favorite way to craft multi-task?

L<3VE Onesies

Whenever I’m frustrated with people, I think about my niece. She is honest, reliable, and will always voice what’s on her mind. When she’s upset, you just know. And I don’t have to play it cool around her. I can tell her that I’m totally obsessed and that is totally normal.

Yeah, she pretty much just chills on the corner of awesome and bombdiggity. And she’s not even 7 months old.

Which, also means that I still have at least 7 years of being able to DIY and craft amazingly fun things for her to wear. Like this.

And, she still has a few more years of being obnoxious where she can get away with doing things like this. Hands off the tresses girlfriend.

I DIY’d this onesie for Mother’s Day—it took about 30 minutes to complete, start to finish. The trickiest part is sewing on the letters…and remembering to trace your design in reverse. Must remember to trace in reverse…

If you want to make your own felt applique onesie, you can find detailed directions and photos here. Or, if you’re not in the mood to click over, here’s the brief recap.

1. Trace design onto Heat n’ Bond or similar two-sided iron-on transfer paper. Be sure to trace your design IN REVERSE.
2. Iron first side of paper onto felt.
3. Cut out design.
4. Peel off paper backing and iron onto clothing.
5. Stitch design down with sewing machine.
6. Impress your friends with your mad crafting skills.

And seriously, how cute is this baby?

Miss Ewes

OCCUPY CAKERYPAPERY’S CRAFT ROOM is closely approaching its second month.

Which leaves me two choices. I can either evict the squatters (multiple pieces of trim, old medicine cabinet, shop vac, extra tiles, joint compound, paint cans), or I can find a way to work around them.

Given my level of laziness (high) on a Thursday evening, I went with the second option. Don’t judge.

Besides, the Cricut doesn’t need much room, right?

I started out with these cutouts.

Have an idea where this is going?

And I ended up with this.

The ‘Miss Ewes’ card was for one of my coworkers, who is leaving to attend medical school.

And since she always talks about how much she wants original stationary, I made her some celery rose cards. In blue, since she’s becoming a doctor.

I make the celery cards a lot—they are ending up as one of my signature projects. I really enjoy the speed at which I can make these, and each set is different than the one before. You can read the instructions on how to make these here.

To make the ‘Miss Ewes’ card, I started with a pre-cut piece of cardstock from a 4 x 6 stack for the background. Sure, you can cut your own, but using pre-cut is much more efficient. The sheep cutouts & ewe font are in the Just Because Cricut cartridge. The ‘ewe’ was cut at 4 inches and the sheep at 3.5 and 4 inches. The tag cut is from Plantain Schoolbook, sized at 1.5 inches. Cut, glue, assemble.

And the occupy craft room protest rages on…

Wait, you made that? DIY Lace & Jersey Scarves

So a few days months ago, I pinned this cool jersey infinity scarf to my “DIY Wow List” pinboard. And like most things I pin (and by most things, I mean almost everything), the scarf pin just sort of…sat there.

Until one day I got motivated, went to Jo-Ann Fabrics, and purchased some jersey fabric. With a coupon, of course.

And then the fabric just sort of…sat there. It had the best intentions of becoming a scarf…but just had trouble getting started. (and by trouble, I mean the fabric sat inside its plastic force field of a shopping bag for a few months…)

Until I was having baker’s block. Which was good for the scarves (and my diet).

And that’s how I ended up with this super-cool lace and jersey infinity scarf.

Infinity scarves are meant to be looped around a few times–they are really just one big circle, but it sounds way cooler to call it an infinity scarf. When you wear it, it looks like this. Please withhold judgement on the photo. I would so fail at MySpace due to my inability to take cute mirror cell phone photo pics…

I also made a regular (non-infinity) scarf with a double layer of lace. Which looks like this.

Like I said, I was having baker’s block.

There are many benefits to sewing with jersey, but the main one for this project is that jersey does not need to be hemmed on all sides. Which makes sewing an infinity scarf easy.

If you can sew in a straight line, you can victoriously complete this project.

To make one scarf, you need approximately 1/4 yard of jersey fabric, and then a piece of lace. The length of the lace depends on how much of your scarf you want to be lace–for the infinity scarf above, the lace section is about 1/2 yard. Once you have the jersey, trim the edges to be neat, straight, and clean–and the jersey piece needs to be the same width as the height of the lace. Else, you will have either excess jersey or excess lace hanging off the edge. I didn’t trim the length of the jersey, just went with the standard fabric width.

The photo above shows what I mean by needing the width of the jersey to be the height of the lace. Make sense?

Then, you  just need to pin the lace to the jersey on one side, stitch, pin the other edges together, and stitch. Then, you’re done with the infinity scarf. Two seams, easy breezy!

Make sure you don’t turn your loop when you pin/sew the second seam, else you’ll end up with a Mobius scarf. Which, is also cool. If you don’t know what a Mobius is…you probably didn’t topology in college. 

The blue scarf was also easy–I stitched two pieces of 9 inch wide jersey together along the long edges, to give the scarf a bit more weight. Jersey fabric really doesn’t have a wrong side, but if it did, you want to sew your pieces wrong side together and then turn right side out.

Pin a layer of lace to one end and stitch across the top of the lace and down the edge. Pin a second layer over the first, and stitch down. Repeat for the other edge and you’re done.

Happy stitching!

Hand-Painted Onesies: Gifting on a Budget Part 2

My life is full of babies. No, not any baby of mine thank goodness…but I lead a baby-filled life. They are EVERYWHERE lately.

So I’m back to DIY-ing onesies. For other people’s babies.

These suckers beautiful items I made with fabric paint instead of felt–which is MUCH EASIER AND FASTER. Want to see my hand-crafted onesies with felt appliques? Check them out here. 

If you’ve never used fabric paint before, don’t be scared off. It’s easy to use and can be found at pretty much any craft store. Fabric paint comes in a lot of different colors and varieties–I bought pink”pearl” and silver “metallic.”

You’ll also need some paintbrushes. I like the foam-top kind, it makes distributing the paint easier than a traditional brush.

I made these stencils on the Cricut (yet another amazing use of the Cricut) but if you want to make your own sans Cricut/die-cutter, just be sure to make them out of cardstock. This way you have a good, clean edge when you paint. Alternatively, if you’d like to be even more lazy efficient than using a die-cutter like the Cricut, craft stores sell a variety of reuseable plastic stencils.

Place a piece of cardboard underneath the area to be painted and then tape the stencil on top. Then you’re ready to paint. I’m definitely not a pro at this–I use one hand to press the stencil down and then the other to paint. Which generally results in getting paint ALL OVER the not-brush hand. And in my case, a BRAND NEW MANICURE. You get three guesses as to what fabric paint doesn’t wash off of…and the first two don’t count.

One tip I can offer is to brush the paint in from the stencil edges–it helps keep the edges of the design crisper. And I should let you know that “pearl” apparently is code for with sparkley glitter and “metallic” just means…shiny.

I actually really enjoy the glitter-pearl paint. It has a nice sparkle but the glitter doesn’t rub off, so you don’t end up looking like you had a run in with Tinkerbell.

After you let the paint dry for a minute or two, remove the stencil and you’re done!

Hand-crafted, hand-painted onesie glory.