Fields Of Heather

Quick Tip - How To Quickly Organize All Of Those Free SVGS

Quickly Sort SVGS From Bundles Using the Search Feature

At the top right in any windows folder, there is a search feature. Type .svg in the search box, and it will show you all of the svgs, You can select all the search results, move them to a new folder, and delete everything else.

When I first updated to Windows 11, the search feature stopped working for me. I would type svg, and see no results, even though I knew there were svgs in the subfolders. I used the suggestions on this site to troubleshoot the issue, and it now once again works great:

https://www.guidingtech.com/top-ways-to-fix-search-not-working-in-windows-11/

Quick Tips:

For Free Cloud Storage, Try Dropbox, One Drive And Or Google Drive
Folders By Theme - Christmas, Baby, Farm, Etc
I delete everything but the svg (many like to save the pngs too - they work great for print then cut)
Consider renaming files with designers name, and a C if it has a commercial use license
Download this extension to see thumbnail views of your svg files

Sort by File Type

Choose View, Sort By, and select type

Now you can easily select all the zip files, and unzip them.

Unzip Your Files

You can usually select all the zip files, right click and choose "extract all".

If that is not an option, you may need to download software to unzip files

winzip - Free trial (although it will continue to work after your trial is up, you will just get a nag screen every time you use it)
7zip - Completely Free!

What is the MACOSX Folder?
"The __MACOSX folder is created when a Mac user creates and archive (also called a zip file) using the Mac. If the Mac user sends the zip file to another Mac user, the folder will not appear - this is a hidden folder. "

In other words, delete it, it's not needed.

Delete the Extras
I delete almost everything, except the svgs. PNG files can be better for Print Then Cut Projects, so a lot of people prefer to save those as well as the SVGs.

View SVG Files as Thumbnails
By default, your svg files may look like html files. You can download a simple extension that will fix that, and then you can scroll through thumbnail previews of your svgs - making it much easier to sort them!

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/01/how-to-see-thumbnails-of-svg-files.html

Sort into folders by theme

Then just drag and drop your svgs from one folder to the next. I use my own made up folder system, and it's constantly evolving and changing. The general idea is

0 Holidays

2 Project Type

4 More complex project type, non cricut projects, etc

Then assorted random categories, mostly for vinyl svgs.

I like to use cloud storage like dropbox - because then I can access the files from any device, and they are backed up if my laptop crashes. Now that my collection is so large, I store them on a wifi enabled external hard drive, and on dropbox I keep a "Cut Now" file, of the projects I want to work on in the very near future.

Each of my folders looks a little different inside - some have a lot more files than others, and the more files, the more subfolders I add to organize them. For instance, my St Patricks Day Projects can all just be in one folder. But for Christmas, I have subfolders for cards, shadow boxes, luminaries, layered paper decorations, paper villages, wreaths...

Here's a more specific look at my Valentines Day Folder

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2023/01/organizing-my-valentine-svgs.html

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Facebook Page - For Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS

https://www.facebook.com/fieldsofheathercrafts/

Facebook Group- For Questions, Support, Sharing Projects,
and LOADS More Free SVGS in themed posts with links in the comments
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1121399284857845
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An Index Of All Of My Cricut Related Blog Posts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-index-of-cricut-resources-how-tos.html

Ring Display - A Dollar Tree Project

Quick Notes:

This frame is from a thrift store, you could use a Dollar Tree frame instead - just remove the glass.
Two Packs of Foam Culers
Material roughly 2x the length of the frame.

I changed the material I was using - the larger print did not work well in this smaller frame - I liked a smaller patterned fabric better, and it gave me a chance to display some of my vintage flour sack material.

I removed the plastic frame, snapped off the end and stuck it into two pieces to hold them together.

Tacky glue to hold the curlers in place.

I stuck the frame over the top to make sure they fit snugly.

Tucking the material in between was a little more tedious than I expected. I used a butter knife and worked one row at a time.. and then decided I did not like the fabric, so I pulled it out and redid it.

https://www.facebook.com/fieldsofheathercrafts

Personalizing Dollar Tree Night Lights - With Cricut

Cliff Notes:

Dollar Tree night lights
Remove the original design with acetone (nail polish - just make sure it's 100% acetone)
651 vinyl
Design to fit a 3.25 inch circle

These are very simple designs - but both are personal to our family. The cow is a design inside a lampshade in our guest room, where my grandson stays when visiting. This is now a little version he can have at his house. Since our last name is Truckenmiller, our boys are often called "Truck" by their friends and coworkers. I make "my daddy pours cement better than your Daddy" shirts for my grandson, this truck is the same one from his shirts...

These are what I started with. $1 each at the Dollar Tree.

I tried my daughters nail polish remover first, and although it's first ingredient is acetone, it was not 100% acetone, and it did not really work. This container (made to dip your fingers into to remove the polish) is 100% acetone, and it wiped the design right off. I was curious, so I tried VLR (the best for removing vinyl from fabric!) and it worked well too. But nail polish is cheaper!

I say it all the time - this fabric tape measure is my most used tool for cricut projects! (See what other tools I recommend here)

I don't know where I found that Hay There cow - I've had it for awhile.

The cement truck was a simple silhouette that I cleaned up in Design Space

How To Convert Simple Free Clipart To Designs You Can Cut

The font is Chuck Noon - one of my favorite non script fonts.

Cheat Sheets For My Favorite Fonts Here.

Because the discs are flat - this is a pretty easy transfer! I used Dollar Tree contact paper as my transfer tape.

How to Transfer A Vinyl Design Using Transfer Tape

They Hay There design, used inside of a lampshade in our guest room.

Adding Vinyl Designs To Lampshades, so the design appears when the light is turned on - https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/09/adding-vinyl-designs-to-lampshades.html

That's it! Cheap, quick, and simple!

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https://www.facebook.com/fieldsofheathercrafts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/03/cricut-dollar-tree.html

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Find More Cricut Project Tutorials Here:

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/04/cricut-step-by-step-project-tutorials.html

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Beginning My Cricut Journey - 2019

About Me & My Cricut

I use a Cricut Air 2. Here is is writing samples of free fonts that work as writing fonts.

Last summer (2017) our youngest son got married. His mother in law made all the decor for the wedding and the reception, and it was unbelievable. She's an artist, and she did a lot with paint and wood, but she also used somethingcalled a "cricut". I was fascinated by everything that magic machine could create, and that year, I decided to purchase my own cricut explore air 2. I

simply walked into Michaels and bought pretty much the first one I saw. That was not the wisest way to do this, I should have done some research first, but it ended up working out ok for me. I'm perfectly happy with the Explore Air 2. The Maker can cut material without it needing a stabilizer - but although I do quilt, I find a hand held rotary cutter so much faster, I can't see myself using the cricut for that - at least not right now. The maker can also cut very thin light wood, which is interesting, but it takes hours to cut most items, and isn't really a feature I'd use. I probably would have been perfectly happy with the cheaper Air 1 myself - as I never use the built in bluetooth option, I prefer the usb cord. If anything, I probably should have looked more at the Silhouette machines. I didn't even know silhouette existed when I bought my cricut - and I definitely did not realize that the cricut requires internet and is completely web based. Silhouette can be used with regular software and internet it not required. Since we live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no internet options... well, I should have done my research. I use my phone as a hotspot, which is what we do for internet here for everything else as well.

The thing about buying a cricut is that it does not come with an instruction book. It's a machine in a box with a sample project and instructions for that one, simple, project alone.

That's it.

So you join a few facebook groups with the name cricut in the title, where they all tell you to watch youtube videos.

I hate youtube videos. Seriously cannot sit through them. Especially if they have a logo, a theme song, and an introduction. You have WAY exceeded my attention span just with the "you can skip this advertisement in 4 seconds" - so I end up quickly trying to fast forward the video to find the answer to my question, and it does not work. I have never successfully followed a youtube tutorial. I know they are incredible resources for others - they are not a bad thing. They are just absolutely not for me.

So when I started figuring out this machine, mostly by trial and error, but also by watching what others did in facebook groups, and a lot of googling, I took pics step by step as I worked, and wrote down how I did each thing. I often have a blog post open as I create a cricut project, I type the tutorial as I do it, and try to be incredibly transparent about what went wrong along the way, so you can learn from my mistakes.

At the top of each post, I try to do a "Cliff Notes Version" with the important information, so if you are googling an answer you don't have to read the whole post for a quick answer. But then I continue with my step by step, including mistakes, for those who want, or enjoy, more details.

You can follow my blog, by going to the main page http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/ and entering your email on the top right. I've added this as someone requested, so I'm really not sure how annoying it is, or how well it works. Let me know!

Or, much easier if you like facebook, you can like my Crafting With Fields Of Heather facebook page. Check out the photo albums there, I have been sorting the blog post headers into themed albums, to make it easier to find the resources you may be looking for.

I hope my tutorials and cheat sheets save you some time - learning this machine can be intimidating! But it's SO much fun, it's worth it, I promise.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/fieldsofheathercrafts/posts/

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-index-of-cricut-resources-how-tos.html

Skipping The Egg, Milk & Cheese Run - 15 Practical Things To Do Before The Storm Comes

Because we live in a rural area, with a lot of trees, winter storms frequently leave us without electricity. And when our power goes out, we are not at the top of the priority list. Which is as it should be - get the power lines fixed for the hospitals and nursing homes first - most of our neighbors are Amish or have generators, we can all wait. Over the years, I've learned a few tricks to make weathering the storm a bit easier.

15 Things To Do Before The Power Goes Out:

Fill extra containers with water - drink pitchers in the kitchen, 5 gallon buckets in the bathrooms. I'm generally adverse to plastic water bottles, but I will usually buy a case to keep on hand - great for brushing our teeth, etc.
Charge all of the cell phone battery packs, and keep cell phones plugged in as much as possible while we still have power. (Tip - Watch TJ Maxx for the battery packs, sometimes they are really cheap there!)
Use plastic window insulation kits - to cut down on drafts before we lose heat. (Ideally I do this in December, but often I don't get to it until I'm worried about the temps dropping really low, in January or February.)
Turn the temp up a few degrees - so if we lose heat, the house is already warm (we typically keep the house fairly cool)
Bring a cooler into the laundry room - to store frequently used items & keep from opening the refrigerator door if the power is out.
Make sure the grill is close to the front door (protected on the porch) and that we have propane. We also have a camp stove (the portable kind made for camping trips) that I like to keep handy and prepped - we can use that in the kitchen if it's too blustery to be outside.
Cook up a few quick foods that we can eat cold, or heat up easily on the grill or over a campfire. (Suggestions below) If you live in town a campfire in your yard is probably not normal - but here it's very normal, and as long as the snow is not too deep or too windy, it's another method for cooking food.
Before bed, open up all the closets & cabinets that hold pipes - Under the kitchen sink, the bathroom closet, etc.
Check all of the oil lamps, make sure the wicks are trimmed and they have plenty of oil. We lose power frequently enough that I started collecting pretty, and unique, oil lamps at thrift stores and flea markets, and incorporating them into our decor.
Place flashlights and lighters (for the oil lamps) in the nightstands, and in the living room side table. I usually pick up a pack of cigarette lighters and stash them around the house.
Check your battery supply. What batteries do your flashlights use? Do you have extras? Battery operated candles - do you have extra batteries for those as well?
Battery operated candles are fantastic for "nightlights" around the house when the power is out.
Make sure all of the laundry is caught up. We'll go through a lot of extra towels when things thaw out and the dogs are wet and the washer throws water on the floor because the drain wasn't completely thawed when I tried to use it when the power comes back.. If I think of it a week before a storm, I like to wash the throw blankets in the wash so they are all fresh and fluffy and smell good. My washer is also the first thing to freeze and the last thing we thaw - so having the laundry caught up helps.
Fill the extra gas cans in the garage. We've never actually needed extra gas during a storm - but in theory, if the power was out long enough, we could use the cars for heat and to power the cell phones back up.... This is one of those things that I just think needs done, for no real logical reason.
Stock up on books & games. As avid readers, this might just be an excuse.. but we download extra ebooks before the storm, and I keep a stack of "real" books on hand in case we need to save power. We also have a bookshelf full of board games and packs of playing cards - our family plays a lot of cards and games normally, but it's nice to have everything handy when we're stuck inside with "nothing to do". (Suggestions for our favorites, below)

My storm prep shopping list:

Peanut butter
Batteries
Lighters & matches
Clorox wipes (for quick clean up - when you have a well pump, if there is no power, you have no water)
A case of water

Food Prep

When you are eating cake and playing cards around an oil lamp, not having power doesn't seem all that terrible...

Peanut Butter is the perfect storm food. Peanut butter on crackers, PB&J sandwiches..
Eggs - hard boiled... and quiche can be served hot or cold. Don't think of a quiche as "fancy" - load it with maple sausage, mushrooms, onion & cheese.. or make one with salsa & diced chicken.. the combinations are endless. It's a farm staple when the hens are all laying, here. Hard boiled eggs can be made into deviled eggs, or into egg salad. Clafoutis is another favorite here- a crustless custard made with eggs, yogurt, and fruit.
Baked goods. If you have time, this is a great time to bake a couple of loaves of bread, a cake, and some cookies. When you are eating cake and playing cards around an oil lamp, not having power doesn't seem all that terrible... If you don't bake, pick up a few extra treats when grocery shopping. Consider stocking up on your families favorite candies, and put them in the back of the pantry in a box saved storms.
Soup. I usually fill a crock pot with soup before a storm. It will keep warm in the crock pot for awhile if the power goes out, but it is also easy to warm up on the grill or over a campfire. And it's a no fuss meal when we come in from the last minute farm chores before the storm hits, even if the power is still on.
Think about picking up a cheap french press coffee maker and learning how to use it. You can heat hot water on the grill, and still have coffee!

Some Of Our Favorite Card Games:

Misc:

https://amzn.to/3nr8Juu

In our car we have an adapter originally meant to run laptop computers from a cigarette lighter. Mine is a lot older, but it's the same concept. This will run a crock pot. So if you want to leave your car running for awhile, you could, theoretically, warm up a meal. That is not why I bought ours - I bought it way back when it was actually handy to charge my laptop on trips.. and then I discovered that I could take meals, like bbq, to the kids sports practices with the crockpot keeping everything warm while I was driving.

These are another item that I love - oil filled electric radiators. We have them in the bedrooms here, because our furnace struggles to adequately heat a couple of the rooms in this old house. Because they are oil filled, they stay warm for awhile after the power goes out.

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Free Templates & Tutorials For Making Rolled & Other Small Paper Flowers

Where To Find Free SVGS For Making Rolled & Other Small Paper Flowers

Cliff Notes:

Often smaller paper flowers make great centers for larger ones!
Although it's much faster and easier to cut the large petal flowers by hand, the cricut is great for cutting the more detailed centers!
Free Templates & Tutorials For Large Paper Flowers
Fee Templates & Tutorials for Rolled & Other Small Paper Flowers
Free Templates & Tutorials For Paper Leaves
How to convert simple free clipart to cut in design space

https://ginaccreates.com/free-svg-cut-file-paper-flower-centers/

Centers From Deaney Weaney Blooms

http://melstampz.blogspot.com/2011/10/6-petal-ornate-flower-template.html
These smaller paper flowers are some of my favorites to use as centers in large paper flowers.

Giant paper flower Center Variations:

https://www.abbikirstencollections.com/2017/03/center-variations-diy-giant-paper-flowers.html

Here's a tutorial for those who like youtube tutorials -

(this one is not too annoying at all - no sound needed, and it gets right to the point)

Step By Step How I Made Mine

For the White ones:

The template for the flower can be found here:

https://anyonecancraft.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/petal-design-3.pdf

I cut one using the cricut, then found it was really just much quicker to cut the petals by hand. You can cut 3 sheets of paper at once by hand. I did not use the largest petal in this template, I started with the second petal, and I cut 6 of each size.4

For the centers I really love the cricut.

To make the center:

To make the centers, I created a rectangle 11.5 x5.5 . Then I created a score line, leaving space at the top and bottom of the rectangle. Change the score line to cut, and duplicate until you have a row of single cut lines. I like to cut this out on metallic papers. Then fold in half long ways, but offset. glue along the solid edge. Then you can either wrap this around a half of a styrofoam ball, or just wrap it together... I've done it both ways. For these, I just wrapped them tightly without the styrofoam.

Here's a tutorial for those that can stand youtube tutorials -

(this one is not too annoying at all - no sound needed, and it gets right to the point)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/504121752028841674/

For the Pink One

I used this template: https://anyonecancraft.wordpress.com/large-flower-petals/

First template on the page. Again, skip the largest, and cut 6 of each of the other sizes.

I followed the tutorial here, with the slits in the bottoms of the petals -

http://ashandcrafts.com/paper-flower-backdrop/ (below the video are step by step how to photos)

For the center, I used this:

Cut 4 of them, at 5x5

Then I used the rolled rose template here:

https://www.birdscards.com/rolled-flower-3-rolled-roses/

and placed that in the center of the 4 black spriggy things.

The gold center in the blue flower is a variation on the black center in the flowers above. To get that swirl, simply fold "offset" - so that an inch or so is not double. Then wrap around half of a Styrofoam ball. Templates for the Daisy and fringed black flowers are below.

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