The decorated cookie's Felt Flower Toppers

Meaghan from the decorated cookie & I are up to our blog swapping tricks - she's back with this super cute spring idea: Felt Flower Cupcake Toppers!!

Hi everybody! I'm back with some Spring treats. I used no needles or thread to make these felt flower cupcake toppers, but at least I'm inching closer to sewing and breaking out of my sugar mold (though not entirely) to try my hand at felt flower cupcake toppers.  These were inspired by this tutorial for paper flowers at Creature Comforts. And they are super easy to make.

how to make felt flower cupcake toppers

you will need:*

felt pieces in assorted colors

4-inch circle cookie cutter (optional)

scissors

pencil or fabric marker pen

fabric glue

toothpicks

green edible marker (optional)

wax paper (optional)

frosted cupcakes

*Find pieces of felt at the craft store, or, find higher quality felt at online shops such as Prairie Point Junction. You'll also find the green edible marker at the craft store (use any brand, this is only to color the toothpicks). Find the fabric marker pen and glue at the craft store or a fabric store. I used 4-inch toothpicks, found at the supermarket. These are longer than standard, but you may also use the standard size.

what to do:
Use the green marker to color the toothpicks green, if desired. Set aside on wax paper to dry.

Cut out a 4-inch circle from a piece of felt. You may trace a 4-inch circle cookie cutter with light pencil strokes or the fabric marker pen if you like, or, just wing it. Precision isn't necessary. For a larger topper, use a larger circle. Draw a spiral on the felt circle with the pencil or fabric pen and cut along the line with scissors.

Roll up the spiral starting from the outside and roll all the way to the center. Use fabric glue to secure the end. The end will sort of cup the bottom of the flower.

When dry, insert the toothpick into the flower. I didn't insert the toothpick through the felt. Rather, I inserted between the rolls. You may want to dab a bit of fabric glue on the tip of the toothpick. Insert into a cupcake.

That's it!

Thank you Cheryl and everyone for letting me visit today! Happy baking and happy Spring!

Meaghan (the decorated cookie)

Thanks Meaghan - pretty & tasty!!

Tutorial: DIY Custom Envelopes

Pretty stationary doesn't have to cost a fortune.  And making your own shouldn't take loads of time either.  Today's tutorial shows a few ways you can create beautiful, custom paper items without loads of work or cost.  Ok, let's get to it!

What You'll Need:
Scrapbook paper or plain envelopes
Gel Pens (CRI-Kits Pens are what I'm using)
Cricut, Silhouette or eclips cutting machine (or stencils if you don't have a cutter)
Tape/glue

We'll start with the basic pre-fab way.  Grab some plain envelopes.

If you have a cutting machine: stick them on your mat and select a design to go in the bottom left corner and line up the bottom of the design just above the bottom of the envelope.  Make it around 2"x2" so that it will be larger enough to add some style, but not too big to lose your address space.  Now remove your cutting blade and put in a gel pen + holder instead:

Begin your "cut" and draw your design.  I used some glitter pens to add some sparkle to my scroll design:

Carefully peel your envelope from the mat and it's ready to use:

If you don't have a cutting machine: select a stencil that will be around 2"x2" and use the gel pens to draw on the design.  Embellish with other pen colors by hand.

But maybe you want to get a bit fancier and have a patterned interior and embellishments in other places:

This method requires tools like Sure Cuts A Lot/Make The Cut software or use Silhouette Studio, but it means you can add all kinds of details and make your envelopes ANY size!

First decide on what design detail you want to add and select some pretty prints from scrapbook paper and place it on your mat.  I used Sure Cuts A Lot I grabbed this fabulous free svg file HERE for cutting out the envelope shape, but there are loads of other templates out there.  You can adjust the dimensions as needed.  Cut out your envelope, but reload the paper instead of removing the mat from your cutter.  Next select your design embellishments and place on your designs in your open envelope layout:

I added a flower at the back flap:

You can also add text for the ultra professional touch, if desired.  Resize your shapes to fit your envelope and make sure you select keep proportions:

Now, swap in your gel pen & holder in place of the cutting blade and delete the envelope outline (so you won't draw over what you've just cut).  If you want to use more than one color, add only shapes in one color first, then line up the second color shapes and delete the first ones (don't forget to swap your pens!).  After everything is drawn, carefully peel off your open envelope and fold the sides and bottom inward:

Secure them with tape or glue and then fold over the top flap and your custom envelopes are ready to use:

These would be great for parties, showers, weddings or creating a gift stationary set because it's so easy & a heck of a lot less than buying pricey boutique envelopes.  It's also ideal because you can do EXACTLY what you want.  Go colorful, use prints, create special sizes - totally make it your own. And using the pens in my machine mean the designs will come out beautiful, smooth & professional (which is good since I have NO drawing or penmanship skills!).

Want to win some gel pens for yourself so you can make some sweet customized stationary?  

Enter my giveaway for a set of CRI-Kits Gel Pens & holder!  The winner will get their choice of pens (metallic, glitter, pastel, whatever you fancy!) AND a holder compatible with their own machine.  The giveaway ends on Wednesday, so click HERE to enter now is closed!

~And ~

For a limited amount of time, Sew Can Do readers can use the purchase code "hedgehog1" to receive a 5% discount on all purchases through the CRI-Kits site.

I'd love to see what one-of-a-kind ideas you create!

Sharing these creations with my FAVE LINK PARTIES too so click HERE to check them out!

Springtime Craftastic Link Party

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!  With both Easter & my birthday mine was pretty busy, but I got some great new crafting goodies that I'm super excited to share with you soon.


Tomorrow I've got a fun tutorial to share for making designer-look envelopes, so be sure to stop by and check it out:)


It goes perfectly with my current GIVEAWAY for a CRI-Kits Pen & holder set.  Got a Cricut, Silhouette, eclips or Pazzles machine?  Like doing papercrafts?  Do any writing? This is the giveaway for you!  There are loads of ways to get extra entries too.  Enter HERE.  

Now let's see some of last week's party highlights.  From the Kids Can Craft Party, check out this genius idea - paper doll clothes using fabric scraps at Serving Pink Lemonade:

The Kids Can Craft Party is for projects kids can make.  It's always open and the projects do not have to be new (so if you've got a good one from last year, throw it up there!).  You can link up ANYTIME. Just click HERE to get to that party:)

And from the Craftastic Party -

Start your veggies early and "grow" these tasty carrots in cookie crumb dirt.  Our Dish shows how:

These cute bracelets were made from popsicle sticks!  Find out how at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom:

Look at this cute & cuddly baby swaddler by BluDor:

Now go ahead & link up your own creation and it might be chosen as a featured project for next week!  Here's how:

• As long as it's crafty and made by you it's Craftastic (no giveaways, Etsy shops,  other link parties or other people's work please).  Just add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog.  The code's on the sidebar ->
• Check out some of the other great links and share some crafty comment love.

I leave the party open until 11:59pmEST every Thursday, so there's plenty of time to add your newest creations.  

Guest Post: Fabric Maché Eggs by the decorated cookie!

Today's Easter goody is brought to us by the very talented Meaghan of the decorated cookie.  We did another of our holiday-themed sweet vs. sewn blog swaps, but this time we switched things up a bit.  Check out this awesome tutorial from Meaghan & find out more:

It's an all new season, so time again for a little blog swapping! While I'm stopping short of actually using needle and thread, I thought I would dabble a bit in Cheryl's medium (fabric) and step away from sugar (my medium at the decorated cookie).

This concept of papier mache-like Easter eggs from balloons isn't new, but I had a hard time finding instructions on making them with fabric, so I made my own. Still not perfect, but I can assure you these are better than my first two versions. You can leave them as-is or cut them open to make dioramas. While the fabric stiffener I used is non-toxic, I'm not so sure it's food safe, so I would use these as decorative pieces only.

how to make fabric Easter eggs


you will need:*

fabric

scissors

fabric stiffener

balloons

clothespins or other clips

string

wax paper

disposable bowl

plastic spoon

plastic gloves

paint brush (optional)

*I used Amy Butler's fabric, a great choice for the right thickness and pattern options. I used Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping liquid, found in craft or fabric stores. Hmmm, it looked a lot like white glue, so I'm wondering if you can substitute any white glue that dries clear. The clips are just to hold the balloons. I used chip bag clips. You can also use clothespins, binder clips, whatever.

step one: prepare your materials
Lay a piece of wax paper over your work surface. Blow up balloons just enough to create an egg shape and tie knots at the end. Cut your fabric into squares about 1 1/2 inches (I was not exact, and didn't measure). Cut out a bunch of these so you don't have to cut out more with gluey hands. In the plastic bowl, stir equal parts fabric stiffener and glue. You'll need a couple teaspoons of each per balloon, depending on the size of the balloon.Clip each balloon knot with a clip. This will help steady the balloon. Suspend the string somewhere free of kids, pets and other curious beings.

step two: cover with fabric
Wearing gloves, submerge a square of fabric in the glue mixture, slide the square through your fingers to remove the excess stiffener mixture, and place the square on the balloon. Repeat, overlapping the squares, until the entire balloon is covered. I used a paintbrush to help smooth the edges, but you can also use your fingers. Clip onto the string to dry overnight.

 

step three: finish things up
The next day, cut off the balloon knot and let the balloon shrivel up inside the egg. If you're really attuned to detail (I'm not), you can glue another fabric square on top to cover the hole. Or, starting at the hole, use your scissors to cut out a section of egg to make a diorama.

 Thank you Cheryl and all your readers for letting me visit! Happy Easter everyone!!
Meaghan

And thanks to Meaghan for the awesome idea & tutorial!!

Review & Giveaway: CRI-Kits Gel Pens!

I have to say I'm super excited to share today's post with you.  I was asked to review and create a few projects with CRI-Kits gel pens.  I had a blast working with them and now you can too!   These pens are meant to be used in a cutting machine like a Cricut, Silhouette, Pazzles or Sizzix eclips, so instead of cutting your paper, you are drawing the images.  Pop them in your cutter to draw detailed designs, add extra embellishments or perfectly scripted text.   And even if you don't have one of these machines, the pens are still excellent to use by hand.  There are tons of crafting possibilities for using them.  So here are a few of my project ideas & how the pens work.

There's a special holder that uses a rare earth magnet to hold the pens firmly in place.  Super easy to load:

Simply swap it in where your blade housing normally is and presto!  You're ready to draw.

The pens have a nice consistent flow - no worries about ink blobs or smearing.  And they dry lickety-split, so as soon as you're done drawing, the ink is dry!

There are several inks available too - Regular & Neon, Glitter, Pastel, Metallic and Swirl, so there are lots of looks you can create.  Swapping the pen colors is easy too thanks to the groove in the holder.  When you've got limited crafting time (like me) the less time required to set things up, the better.

But what can you make, you ask?  Let's have a look - 

I'd seen cute butterfly specimen cutouts before, but by adding a little detail from CRI-Kits metallic pens, this one stands out from the crowd:

I used different colors from the metallic set to add the delicate embellishments.  

The trick is to do the cutting step first and then hitting "load paper" to set things back to get the right spot to draw on.

It is perfect for creating unique cards & scrapbook pages.  I used my Sure Cuts A Lot software to mix several free svg files & fonts I already had to make this one-of-a-kind card with the Regular & Neons:

When you have horrible handwriting & no drawing skills like me, writing things on by hand always seems to wreck all the pretty crafting work already done.  But using the CRI-Kits pens means I can "write" in any font I want, so things look perfect every time.

And this means that personalized stationary is all within reach too.  I created this envelope with the Glitter pens, SCAL & scrapbook paper, so it could be pretty on the inside & out:

I really love how much detail the pens can do - even when the shapes are very small.  Cutting blades can struggle when things are tiny or very fine, but not the pens:

The pens do great on all sorts of paper, but aren't meant for slick surfaces like vinyl or vellum (but there are some new CRI-Kits products that will coming soon).  I used some card stock & attached it to flat magnet paper to make these little magnets for the fridge too:

  

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that when I bought my Cricut Expression last year I purchased a set of these pens, but didn't really do much with them.  Now I've got loads of ideas and wonder how I crafted so long without them!

CRI-Kits will be giving away a pen kit & holder to one lucky Sew Can Do reader!  The winner will get to select their choice of pen kit compatible with their machine.  

And here's a special offer for everyone!!

For a limited amount of time, Sew Can Do readers can use the purchase code "hedgehog1" to receive a 5% discount on all purchases through the CRI-Kits site

Here's how to enter:

• Visit the CRI-Kits site and check out the pens.  Then comment below on which set you'd like if you won

For additional entries (leave a separate comment for each one):

• Become a follower of Sew Can Do
• Become a fan of Sew Can Do on Facebook
• Become a fan of CRI-Kits on Facebook
• Mention & link to this post on Facebook

The giveaway will be open through 11:59pm ESTApril 27th is closed.  The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on May 2nd at the Craftastic Monday party.  Good Luck Everyone!