I have kept my machine busy this week, and I have lots more planned for next week! Here's a look at some of what worked, and what didn't work, for me this past week.
Free Dinosaur Egg Holder
https://crafthousesvg.com/collections/freebies?ref=6959505
I love this dinosaur egg holder. I made it in two sizes - the size it originally uploaded as perfectly holds a plastic egg. You can find the gold eggs at the Dollar Tree. My plan is to put white ceramic/plaster [not sure exactly what they are] eggs in them, and include stickers, including the names of each of our grandsons. I think they can dye the eggs with the stickers on, then peel the vinyl off and leave the design. I haven't tried all of that yet, but that's the idea.
https://crafthousesvg.com/collections/freebies?ref=6959505
I love this dinosaur egg holder. I made it in two sizes - the size it originally uploaded as perfectly holds a plastic egg. You can find the gold eggs at the Dollar Tree. My plan is to put white ceramic/plaster [not sure exactly what they are] eggs in them, and include stickers, including the names of each of our grandsons. I think they can dye the eggs with the stickers on, then peel the vinyl off and leave the design. I haven't tried all of that yet, but that's the idea.
The penguin egg holder from Digital Gems
This was a 24 hour freebie - it is no longer free.
https://bit.ly/3Iw8Sto
It cuts well and goes together really quick! I have a white ceramic egg inside of it at the moment.
This was a 24 hour freebie - it is no longer free.
https://bit.ly/3Iw8Sto
It cuts well and goes together really quick! I have a white ceramic egg inside of it at the moment.
I want to play around with this and turn it into a card. The egg holders are cute, but I don't have a lot of use for them... a few for Easter gifts, but I'd rather find a more practical use for them, since there are so many great designs!
I put my logo on that cup this week too - and it's currently one of my favorite things. :-) The cups come two to a pack from Sams Club, my daughter in law wanted the Leopard print, and I wanted the black one. They have a logo on them, a decorative H at the bottom, on the opposite side from my decal here. I love the H, because my name is Heather. :-)
My machine made a few ragged cuts today. I'm on my 3rd year with the original blade, it may be time I order some new ones
Easter Basket - Not A Free File
I have some free files I'll be trying next week too. I'm looking for a few options to package Peanut Butter Easter Eggs. This file is quick and easy, I'm likely to use this one a lot. It cost me around $3 - definitely not the cheapest option.
This is the "Bonus Basket" from the free paper crafting bundle from Creative Fabrica.
[It was a limited time freebie - no longer free]
[Bundle Expired]
I also worked on the Explosion flower box from this bundle this week, but the directions are really unclear for that one. I didn't even have the right number of pieces cut. I'm sure it's not that difficult to figure out, but I didn't want to take the time to figure it out this week - I'll probably work on that more closer to mothers day though! I didn't love the Unicorn file either. It's not a bad file - it just didn't work for what i wanted. I had hoped to cut it and send it to my niece to assemble, but the pieces are too tedious for her.
This is the butterfly mandala from the bundle above. Its cut from 12x12 paper and my machine made a mess of it. I could try it again with different paper, but I just wasn't that invested in this project.
This is the decal for that black cup that sits by my laptop. I like to put as much of my design on the transfer tape as possible, then transfer it all at once. This time, I used a lot of tape. :-) I have parchment paper on my desk, that's the white background. I transferred the silver part to the transfer tape as normal. Then I used painters tape to hold the rose gold vinyl in place, and applied the transfer tape over that, to transfer it all to the transfer tape. The vinyl doesn't stick to the parchment paper, so it all just lifted up as one design to be transferred to the cup.
Quick and simple labels for our trash cans.
Details below:
Details on the garbage can lids, from my facebook post:
On my desk tonight... simple vinyl stickers to label the trash cans. When applying simple vinyl stickers like this, first you transfer the cut & weeded vinyl to "transfer tape". Then you apply the design & transfer tape to your object, press firmly ["burnish" with a scraper or credit card] then slowly remove the transfer tape on the diagonal. Transfer tape can be used over & over & over again, so save the backing.
The font is The Skinny [free on Dafont], the images are icons from a Google image search. Vinyl is Frisco brand, transfer tape is "magic cover" from the shelf liner section of the dollar tree.
For a price chart comparison of my favorite vinyl brands, go here: https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/09/cricut-which-vinyl-do-i-need-where-do-i.html
For a more detailed step by step how to transfer vinyl, go here: https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/11/cricut-for-newbies-lesson-2-vinyl-on.html
Experimenting with "water proofing" stickers
This was an experiment from a couple of weeks ago.
I made two of these bottles, to bottle feed a baby goat we have here. (Her mom is old and just not producing quite enough milk0
I placed half of a self sealing laminating pouch over one, and left the other plain.
A few days in, the one without the laminate was left outside in the snow overnight, and the colors ran a little. Not severely, but enough that I didn't try it in the dishwasher.
Surprisingly, just being hand washed each day, the bottle was fine. I didn't expect it to do as well as it did!
The laminated bottle [shown above] has held up through multiple runs through the dishwasher.
My next trial will be with a clear coat spray..
My current favorite sticker paper is from JANDJ Packaging
These are the laminate pouches I tried:
First week of the HTV test.
I applied three brands of vinyl to a scrap piece of fabric, and have been tossing it into every load of laundry. This is around 3 washes, so no surprise that it still looks great. The "Testing" at the bottom is from last year, when I first tried the Transwonder htv.
All of these were applied just with an iron - I only ever use a regular iron, it works well for me.
A Price Comparison Chart, Per a Sq Foot, for my favorite vinyls
[My current favorite htv is the Caregy brand]
Using A Plain Old Thrift Store Iron To Apply HTV:
This was another experiment.
My husband, an avid geocacher, loves this shirt. He wore it every week for the last year or so, so it had been washed.. well, a LOT. Definitely more than 50 times. The vinyl was wearing off. Not peeling, the adhesive was still on the shirt, but the vinyl was wearing off of the adhesive.
So I used VLR and removed it. Even after washing, it left a mark. It's not really a mark though, it's more that the shirt has faded and pilled around the vinyl. I applied new vinyl [transwonder brand] and it applied beautifully. This is not the first time I have applied vinyl to an old shirt - and I always use fabric softener here, it's never made a difference for me.
Using VLR To Remove Vinyl
Thank You Notes
I've been on a mission to build up a "card stash" here, and Thank You notes are what I tend to need the most. I didn't get very far this week, but I did try two files. Both are nice files, but I lost the center of the a and the o in the Get Slivered one.
I LOVE this free file from Craft with Sarah, I plan to make a lot more of these in assorted colors.
The Files:
And find more free svgs for thank you notes here:
Early this year, after our pipes froze and flooded our laundry room for about the 4th time, we decided it was time to redo the room. We moved the washer and dryer to a different wall, rerouting the plumbing to fix the issue with the pipes. While doing that, we gutted the room, ripped down built in cabinets, and built a better craft corner for me. New desk, new craft armoire, and all new storage and organization. I'm still figuring out what works in this new space. This week I got my cardstock organized, using envelope style file folders [closed sides, no tabs on top] as dividers. I hot glued scraps of paper across the top to designate the dividers color, and the folders hold my paper scraps. This is all stored in a drawer in the bottom of the armoire that holds my cricut machine.
The armoire was a thrift store find.. It appears to be an old office armoire, possibly out of a hotel room.
I was SO excited about this glue gun. It's cordless! With a super fine tip. A big upgrade from my dollar store glue gun. But then I plugged it in, and the glue just poured out, leaking constantly.
BUT - IT WAS MY MISTAKE!
Remember I just created a new craft space? In the process, my glue sticks were all thrown together. Did you know that if you use low temp glue sticks in a high temp glue gun, it will leak like this? I know now. I purchased the right glue sticks, and although it does still leak a little, now it's more like a drop or two an hour instead of a constant stream.
I bought the glue gun on Amazon
Machine & Software Updates
For weeks I've been recommending you all switch back to the "Classic" Canvas to bypass the majority of the errors caused by these updated. Currently however, I'm finding that the NEW canvas is working better than classic.
Some of the other issues in the recent updates include the button flashing even after a project is completed (you have to turn the machine off to make it stop).
And the "Native" Folder is back. This happened before, in a previous update, where using Design Space creates a "Native" folder on my desktop. The most recent update appears to have brought that back. :-(
I know many of you are still having problems with the software, and I wish I had better answers.
Clearing the Cache often helps. Here's the step by step how to from Cricut:
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On My Desk For Next Week:
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