Red Hearty Happy Anniversary

So I got creative block and got to trawling Etsy one night, well lets be honest one day & night and got inspired by loads of graphic letterpress cards.  I had wanted to make a Clean & Simple card for my BIL & SIL for their anniversary and this is what I came up with.

I don't know if it completely works.  What do you think?  I like all the components and I really liked it when I sent it.  I think I'm just second guessing myself now.

Anyway at least I used some dies that I have had for a few years and have never used! Oopsie!

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Archiver's open stock linen texture, The Paper Source

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories - Spellbinders Heart Dies, Cuttlebug Male & Female dies, Ribbon, Heart brad.

Rainbow Butterflies

Isn't it amazing how sometimes the simplest cards to make are the most striking cards to view.  I decided that as this was a get well card I wanted it to be cheerful.  What is more cheerful than a rainbow after the rain and better analogy.  So basically I cut out 12 in strips with the butterfly punch in each color of the rainbow.  I then cut them to length for the card.  Next I sent the strips through my sticker maker.  I did then send them through my die cutting machine with an embossing pad to ensure all the glue was adhered. 

With the excess strips I cut out some of the individual butterflies and then adhered them to each color for some movement.

All that was left was to stamp the greeting with my Big Juicy rainbow inkpad.  The sentiment is Inkadinkado.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah

Paper - The Paper Source

Punch - Martha Stewart

Stamp - Inkadinkado

Ink - Big Juicy

Accessories - sticker maker

"Fezzes are Cool" - how to make your own Fez

Subtitle - "how to make your own fez". - it's handmade not blocked nor perfect.

Our household is a big Dr Who house - now we are are bit subtle about our Dr Who love.  No conventions or outward appearances but if you know us you know we love the Doctor in all his incarnations.  That said it came as no surprise when my eldest gets a prom invite for a masquerade and promptly says - I want a fez.  Simple right?  Well you would think so, especially with all the steampunk related sites around.  It seems that Fez's aren't that well documented in the How To Category unless you want to find a bucket to fit your head and put a tassel in it.  I knew I wanted something a little more durable than that and I believe I have come upon the answer to all those steampunkers who need a fez.

First I measured my son's head - yeah it IS big 22.5 inches  (that's the easy bit)  Then I took some scrap cheap cardstock and fashioned a conical cylinder (is there such a thing?) with it and put it around his head for a fit.  From pictures on the web I knew it wasn't a cylinder, though was only a slight slant. Had to decide how tall the fez was going to be at this point, and truthfully mine is probably a tad on the tall side. If I did another I would probably shorten it by an inch. I took it down to 21 inches circumference by trial and error.  Lots of cutting and trimming and I had my cardstock pattern to cut my fabric. 

I had bought a yard of red felt from the fabric department of Hobby Lobby (very wide) and some medium stiffness Double Sided Fusible Package Interfacing. I needed the stiffness to keep the fez upright but I did want some flexibility so it would survive more than one event.

I did the math (thank you internet) for the radius of a 21inch circle for the top and drew out a circle with the string method.

I cut out 2 felt circles and 1 Interface circle.  I then cut out 2 felt sides and 1 Interface side - I had to piece this together for about an inch.

I then attempted to iron the felt to the interfacing.  It did work a little bit but it isn't a super sticky hold and don't panic when the felt pills up a bit.  Just peel it off and keep going.

Now I got my sewing machine out.  I did a short wide zigzag stitch and attached the circle to the top (21 in) of the side.  There really is no good way to pin it and use a sewing machine.  After I had gone all the way around AND liked how the top looked, I then sewed the side seam together. I won't lie at this point I was praying it was going going to turn out ok.  I went up and down the side seam a couple of passes.  Then I bound the bottom of the side sandwich of 2 felt and 1 Interface together so you couldn't see the white.  Again with the good ol trusty zig zag stitch.

Now the tassel.  I couldn't buy one that would work so I used black crochet thread.  It took a lot of looping for the length.  Then a few knots to ensure it was stable.  I then cut the ends to make them fringe and passed the knotted thread to the top and started binding the tassel to the knot.  This took fabric glue and some patience to get a nice neat appearance.  I did pass the thread through the knot a couple of times in the process to secure it and keep it tidy. Once I had finished I sent the thread with a lot of effort and brute force up through the middle of the tassel to so I had a length to tie onto the hat.  I used a hole punch from my craft stash to create the hole.  I knotted it and glued the knot to stablelize it.

I know this was wordy but I hope it helps anyone out there trying to make their own Fez.  It survived the prom with just about every attendee having a "fez" picture in great shape.  I have a feeling this will become his staple accessory for many, many social functions in the years to come.

Ingredients
Inspiration - Doctor Who
Pattern- Internet, and Trial & error
Cardstock - cheap but sturdy to stand up to make the cone
Pencil - to draw and make the pattern
Felt -
InterfaceThread
Sewing Machine with a zig zag stitch
Crochet thread
Large blunt needle
Hole punch
Glue

Yeah, that didn't work

So the concept was to use my fabby new Hero Arts stamps to make some thank you notes that needed to be sent out already.  The  plan was to use purple for the typewriter, gold for the paper and an orange for the background, stamping in black.  This should work, Right?

So I stamp my typewriter black on purple and all is well... maybe I just should have left it at that but no I didn't.  I decided to put crystal effects on typewriter to make it glossy.  It curled when dry.  I stamped the "thank you" on gold and tried to make it look like paper. Hmm the paper is too big for the typewriter.  Lastly I put my orange paper through my die cutting machine and the embossing folder must have thought it was a die cutting folder...

You know I'm going with it.  I'm not perfect and I am proud!  Who wants to be card making elite?  I just want to get my cards done and sent out on time! LOL! and hopefully they are cute, and no one has ever made a prettier, cuttier, more scrumtious card right?!

Oh well back to the drawing board time!

Ingredients
Card Size - 4.25 x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific
Paper - The Paper Source
Stamps - Hero Arts
Ink - Memento
Accessories - Crystal Effects