Tutorial – Page 69 – Lori Whitlock

Nativity Christmas Ornament with Brandie

December 13, 2018December 12, 2018

Hi there crafty friends! One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making an ornament for my tree. I have a seven foot tree covered in handmade ornaments that I love. Making Christmas ornaments was something I did with my family growing up and I look forward to passing on this tradition with my own family.

This year I decided I wanted to make a nativity ornament. I used the Nativity Mary Joseph Jesus file. ( SVG, Silhouette) and the 3D Poinsettia file (SVG, Silhouette). I also used a DIY ornament, transparency film, pink and green cardstock, gold foil paper, snow filler, and ribbon.

Once I had the nativity image into design space I selected everything and welded the image together.

I then resized the nativity to fit over a 4.25 circle. I wanted the nativity image to fill a lot of the circle without Josephs head hitting the top of the circle.

While the images are stacked together I selected both images and sliced the images. Creating three separate images. I could have skipped this step and just fussy cut the corners off but doing it this way also helped me line up the nativity on the transparency film. I deleted the middle image and the one on the left.

I then added another circle. Duplicated the nativity and flipped the duplicated image horizontally. This way the gold foil paper will be on both sides of the transparency film.

I cut the nativity out of gold foil paper and the circle out of transparency film. I then glued the nativity to transparency film. On my first side I used wet glue. It worked but I could see the glue through the gold paper. I then used a tape runner to attach the second side. Which left no visible marks on the gold paper.

For the assembly I added a little iridescent snow to the bottom half of the ornament, then the nativity, a little more snow, and then closed the ornament together.

To decorate the top I cut two 3D poinsettias. The flowers have three concentric layers, two centers and two leaves. I gently pinched each petal and then stacked and glued the flowers together.

I tied a loop and bow with ribbon and attached the flowers and bow with hot glue.

This ornament looks beautiful hanging on the tree. It would also make a lovely gift.

I hope this ornament inspires you to make an ornament for your tree. Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!

Brandie

Silk Screened Nativity Banner Tutorial with Kathy

December 6, 2018December 3, 2018

Hi Everyone! The holidays are in full swing now and as I was starting to decorate, I thought it would be fun to create a Nativity Banner using the new Silk Screen Kit from Silhouette.

I started with some blank canvas banner pieces , the Full Nativity Child is Born 2 File (SVG, Silhouette) and the Silk Screen Starter Kit. I assembled the silk screen frame according to the directions included in the kit. Next I set up my design in Silhouette so that it could be used in the frame.

First I ungrouped the file so that I could resize and move around the individual pieces and delete those pieces I wasn’t including in the banner.

My banner pieces had a design area that was approximately 4.75″ square. I drew a square that size on my mat as a guide, to help me re-size each figure in the file so that it fit nicely into the design area.

Once they were all resized, I got ready to set them up to be cut. In the directions included with the Silk Screen Kit, it recommends that your design be able to fit into a 10.5″ x 7.5″ space so that it will fit inside the frame. I drew a rectangle that size on my mat as a guide, and added the shapes. Before grouping the shapes together, I mirrored each of the figures. You always want to mirror when using Heat Transfer Vinyl so that the design is going in the correct way when complete. I ended up with 4 separate files to be cut.

Now I was ready to cut the pieces from the heat transfer vinyl included in the kit. The directions with the kit recommend you center the design to be cut on the full piece of vinyl (the piece is 12″x15″.) I decided to use my 24″ cutting mat rather than just loading the vinyl directly into Silhouette. I set up my Silhouette to include the 12″x24″ mat and changed the page size to 12″ x 15″. I added one of my designs to the page, and centered it.

Once it was all set up I sent it to cut. The directions called for using a blade depth of 2, but after a few test cuts, I ended up using a depth of 6. I loaded my mat with the vinyl on it (shiny side down) and cut. Once cut, I weeded the actual design (not the extra pieces around the design). Once all were cut and weeded, I ironed each design sheet onto one of the silk screens provided in the kit according to directions, and peeled away the shiny cover layer. Be careful when doing this part. You want to make sure that the edges of each design are firmly ironed onto the screen to prevent any seepage. I found it best to wait for the ironed piece to be completely cool before trying to peel away the extra layer.

Now for the fun part! The actual silk screening! The first step is to prepare the design to be inserted in the Silk Screen Frame.

You want to cut a 2″ square from each corner of the design to make it easier to insert into the frame. Place the frame over the design (screen side down), making sure it’s centered. Pull up the sides outside the frame and insert the frame brackets to hold the screen in place. Do this for all 4 sides.

For most projects, you would then arrange the framed screen over your fabric, and continue. Since I had multiple designs going on different banner pieces, I centered the banner pieces around the designs on the back of the screen and taped them down.

Placing the screen on a protective surface (to prevent a big mess!) I added a line of ink along one side of one of the designs. Using the squeegee provided in the kit, I scraped the ink over the design. You may need to repeat this process to make sure it’s all “filled” in. I did this for each design on the frame, and then repeated the process for the other figures/banner pieces. Once they were done, I let them dry overnight, and heat set them with my iron, using a piece of fabric in between to protect my iron.

All that was left was to stitch the banner pieces together! I used some gold twine and stitched it down with gold thread using a zig zag stitch. You could also attach the banner pieces to the twine using small clothespins! Here are some close-ups…

If you decide to try out the new silk screen kit with one of Lori’s designs be sure to take Lori on social media! We’d love to see what you’ve created. That’s it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek.

BLOG * INSTAGRAM

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

November 29, 2018November 26, 2018

Anita here with a fun tutorial to make this gift set. I love to quilt and embroider as much as I love to paper craft and I was thrilled to recently discover that Lori Whitlock has embroidery files that she has designed, many of which mirror her paper craft SVG files. You can find her gorgeous embroidery files at Embroidery Online. I will give you all the links in the post .

I bought shrink film from Amazon and used Lori’s Print & Cut Stamps Christmas Cookies which you can find here in her store . I resized the image of the gingerbread man so that it would come out the size that I wanted. I then printed the image onto the shrink film through my laser printer. Just let it dry for a few minutes before coloring it.

I then used my Copic markers to color the shrink film. I knew that the colors would deepen once I shrunk the image so chose my colors with that in mind. I used R37, E11, G14, G07, E99 for the gingerbread man and Y08, E99, R37, G07 for the Gingerbread house. Be sure to punch a hole in your shrink film before you put it in the oven and remember that the hole shrinks also. The directions say to bake the film on parchment at 300 degrees for 2-3 minutes but I found that my heat gun worked much better as I could control the plastic as it shrank. Below is the before picture.

Here is the photo of the shrink plastic after it was done.

I went to Embroidery online and bought the bundle which had all the Christmas embroidery files that I wanted to use for this project. It is called Christmas Time by Lori Whitlock. You can buy the collection or the individual embroidery files. I embroidered the phrase It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas on a piece cotton. I then finished the edges and glued it to the front of my tote. I also embroidered my daughter-in-law’s name on the top of the apron as this set is for her. She is an amazing baker.

I then strung my two adorable gingerbread embellishments on some yummy twine, added a bell and glued that down as well.

I really love to match things and have been so excited to make this project. Here is a close up of all the goodies that I put inside the basket.

The last thing that I did was made a card that used the SVG cut file which matched the embroidery. I used Lori’s new Christmas collection called Celebrate Christmas. The cut file can be found here in Lori’s store and here in the Silhouette store and is called Look a lot Like Christmas Phrase.
That’s it for me. Hope that you have a wonderful holiday season.

Hugs,

Anita

New Product Feature: 3D Gingerbread House

November 28, 2018November 27, 2018

Have you seen the new 3D Gingerbread House (SVG, Silhouette) it’s perfect for the holidays, and there are no burnt or broken pieces and no calories!

The house has great big windows all around, so it would be perfect to add a tea light for a warm glow!

The 3D Gingerbread House also comes with files to make trees and a gingerbread boy and girl so you can make your own little gingerbread scene!

I have a video tutorial for this file here on my YouTube Channel.

It would be such a fun project to make with the kids! If you do make one, be sure to tag Lori Whitlock on Social Media, we would love to see your creations!

Have a great day!

Pop-up Card Tutorial with Ashley

November 22, 2018November 21, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is filled with great food, friends, family, pie, etc. And if you like shopping this weekend, I hope that you get all the deals you are looking for. I think there are many crafting deals that can be enjoyed right from your home and your favorite internet browser.

I am helping plan a Christmas Party for our church congregation. We wanted each family to have a special invite. So I searched for a pop-up card that I could make many. I found this great Tree Pop-up (Silhouette, SVG shop).

I decided to do a little editing. Before I un-grouped the card, I resized it just a little so that the outside of the card would fit onto a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.

Then I did a little point editing. To add points to a design, double click on the shape, and click where you want to add a point. For this project, I chose the point to be a corner, then I manipulated the curves to the shape that I was going for.

At our Christmas Party, we will have a program about some of the symbols of Christmas. I wanted to incorporate that into the card. I used images from Lori’s Dingbat Christmas font (Silhouette, SVG Shop). Since these shapes will just be an outline in the card, I deleted any extra pieces by un-grouping, releasing compound path, and deleting any of the inner pieces.

With all the symbol images placed, I added text. Since my text isn’t too near the cuts, I decided not to do print and cut, so that I could get 2 cards for every piece of cardstock. I saved just the text in the correct format as a PDF and took it to the copy store to print. After printed, I cut 100 cards (well the Cameo did the cutting).