I Got A Heat Press!!

Okay guys, I have big news! I got a heat press!!! I'm so excited! My mom and dad got it for me as a birthday/Christmas gift, and this has been such a game changer for me with shirt making! This is the one I got:

It came with attachments to also do hats, 2 sizes of plates, and 2 sizes of mugs. This thing is so awesome! Not only is it crazy faster than applying heat transfer vinyl with an iron, the quality of the finished product is miles better! What really surprised me though was the fact that you can re-press old projects that have maybe started to peel a bit and fix them! I've been playing with htv for about a year now, and I've loved working with it, but I've always been a little disappointed that it didn't seem to hold up very well in the wash. Well this has been the answer to that for sure. My new projects as well as old ones that I repaired are now holding up perfectly in the washing machine! And I have LOVED being able to rescue some ragged favorites that seemed destined for the trash. I had just assumed that once an item had gone through the laundry there would be no way to make the htv stick. Not that every single project I did with an iron started to peel, but well, a good percentage of them eventually did. So if I've made you a gift with htv in the past and it's starting to come off, bring it back and I'll fix it right up!

My nephew Levi's birthday party is this Saturday. He's going to be four, and he looooves superheros, Batman especially. I made him this t-shirt, as well as a pillow with Superman fabric on one side and Batman fabric on the other. I also added his name to the pillow in htv. The Batman decal below is actually a 3D rubber applique that I found at Walmart for $3.97. The instructions included were for a household iron, but I took a chance and applied it with the heat press, and it turned out amazing!

Lily wanted a superhero shirt for her birthday to wear to Levi's party. She originally wanted a Wonder Woman shirt, but then she saw a pink and black Batman shirt online and wanted it instead. So what's a mama with a brand new heat press supposed to do besides make them both? The Batman shirt she saw had a matching bow, so I made one to match each shirt. I even used the heat press for the bows! I don't know why the Wonder Woman set looks pink in the picture below, but as you can see in the shot with her wearing them they are red. Both shirts were the basic $2.97 boys tees from Walmart, and I had the ribbon and htv on hand, so this was a really inexpensive gift.

The gold HTV on this shirt was in an Expressions Vinyl grab bag that arrived on her birthday, and it was perfect for this project. I mentioned when I shared this picture on Instagram, isn't it neat how God loves on us in little ways as well as big ways?

Sawyer wants a superhero shirt too, but he keeps going back and forth on what kind, so I will be making one or two for him as well. 

I plan on offering some items in my shop soon too.

Heat press for the win!

My Craft Room Tanker Desk and One for Rachael

The tanker desk in my craft room is one of my favorite things ever. It came originally from my brother Cary and sister-in-law Rachael (who incidentally is Nick's sister). It was in their basement when they bought their house several years ago, and Cary didn't want it. It was in good shape, but it was old and kind of ugly, standard government gray, and it went into our garage for lack of a better place to put it. Nick told me that I could have it for a craft desk when I got a craft room, so this year for Mother's Day I told him I wanted him to paint it for me.

Guys! Isn't she gorgeous!! I love her so much! The thing is, every time Rachael came over and saw how amazing it turned out, she seemed a little wistful. Then Nick found a Craigslist ad offering free office furniture. We went to check it out, and we came home with FOUR tanker desks, a huge wooden desk, and a big kitchen table, all for free! 

One tanker desk is at home in the garage for Nick, two are eventually destined for my craft room, the wooden one will be my cutting table, and the kitchen table will eventually replace the one we have now (once we refinish it). But the fourth tanker desk - that one was for Rachael. It was her birthday last week, and we've been working on this thing for a couple of months now. We cleaned it up, fixed a few dings, painted it her favorite color and cut a pretty monogram for the big drawer. We even found the key buried in the mound of debris stuck behind one of the drawers when we brought it home. We delivered it to her last Friday and she loved it!

Here it is in her craft room. Now I can't wait to get the other two painted for my craft room!

Handmade Gifts

Guys, the craft room is coming together! I've still got a little organizing to do, but I'm getting there. So anyway, I wanted to show you some of the handmade gifts I've made and given over the last few months. Fair warning, a lot of these are quick cell phone pictures I grabbed on my way out the door rather than pretty staged shots, but I'm going on the theory that done is better than perfect.

Let's start with a few things I made for Christmas gifts.

I made paracord fishing flies for the dads and brothers in my life, and I really liked the way they turned out. They were quick and easy, and you can find the tutorial I followed here. I wrapped mine with fishing line instead of an interior filament of the paracord and sealed it with super glue, and I was really pleased with the way they looked. I made some from bright colors and some from muted shades, which made them good for different applications.

I also made several of these paracord lanyards that hang from the straps of waders and hold the tools used in fly fishing.

I made this shirt for my cousin. You can buy a similar one here if you don't want to DIY your own. (Not an affiliate link)

I made Taylor and her best friend Lexye each a Taco Bell Is Life pillow from hand dyed drop cloth.

These were various bracelets I made for moms, aunts, and sisters.

 (I might have kept this one for myself. Shhhh!)

This was the shirt I made Lily for Valentines Day. It was her very specific design.

This was the shirt I made for Levi, which matched the one I made for Sawyer, although Sawyer's said Heartbreaker.

 (No, I have no idea why he was wearing a helmet)

They also got matching Plex shirts.They're both big Yo Gabba Gabba fans.

Speaking of Yo Gabba Gabba, I made Sawyer this Brobee shirt. I passed this little green striped shirt at the thrift store 4 or 5 times before I bought it. I really liked the stripes, but I couldn't think what I wanted to do with it, and Sawyer has a ton of t-shirts. Then one day it just clicked what a perfect Brobee shirt it would make, so into my cart it went. It's one of his favorites.

These little Jesus Loves Me shirts for Lily and my niece Adelaide were made at the request of Adelaide's mom Rachael. You can buy a similar one here. (Not an affiliate link)

This was Lily's St. Patrick's Day shirt.

This little shirt was for my nephew Lawrence who looooves his little guitar!

My brother Cary is a huge duck hunter, so as part of his birthday gift Nick and I made him this duck hunting themed key fob. It was a metal tag from the Target Dollar Spot. I cut a stencil out of vinyl, and Nick sand blasted it. The quote on the back is a scripture reference. We also sand blasted his favorite sports logo into a metal tumbler, but I didn't get a picture of it. (I know, lame.)

This was Lily's shirt for Dr. Seuss Day at school.

This coral earrings and bracelet set was for my sister-in-law Leah's birthday.

Just before we moved into the new house we had the biggest blessing! A lovely lady from our church got some new furniture for her living room and gifted us her previous couch, chair, and recliner. They were in pristine condition - she just wanted some smaller pieces, and they were perfect for our living room! She is a pilot, and I made her this bracelet as a thank you.

This Minnie shirt was for my niece Adelaide's 2nd birthday.

I also found these sweet leggings and made shirts to match them.

 

For Mother's Day I made a few of these fun potholder purse organizers. The floral one came from Walmart and the quatrefoil one came from Target.

On Mother's Day our church gives a small gift to every woman and girl there. This year we gave these lovely fancy paper clips. My mom, Taylor, her friend Lexye, and I added the buttons to the clips, and I cut, punched, and stamped all the cards.

I added vinyl to these cups as thank you gifts for our realty team and they loved them! FYI, these are the Ozark Trail brand from Walmart. I have the same cup in the 30 ounce, and it is identical in looks and performance to Nick's 30 ounce Yeti tumbler for oh, 1/4 of the price. Seriously. Get one.

My friend Melissa's birthday was a few weeks ago, and I made her this sweet little cross stitch necklace. 

This wreath was for Lily's room. It has been on my to do list since I saw it on Capture the Details like six years ago, but I couldn't ever seem to find the fun fur yarn in this shade of green. Then when we were "in storage" as I refer to the time of our life when we were on the market and everything fun that I own was in a storage unit, I found a couple of skeins at a thrift store. I finally got to put it together a couple of weeks ago.  

These were gifts for Nick's grandmother for Mother's Day (the yellow set) and her birthday (the red white and blue set and the cards).

The cards are blank inside and were hand embroidered. I made them using this Amy Tangerine Stitched set I found at Tuesday Morning. They were actually pretty time consuming to make, but also kind of a soothing activity, and I hope she likes them.

   

These were the cards I made her to give her with the gifts, and I am SO excited with how they turned out. Okay, here's the deal. As I was going through all the mountains of stuff I was putting away in my craft room I came across a couple of sheets of 4x6 photo paper. I have tons of this stuff. Tons of it. But I never print my own pictures. I have a photo lab that I love, and I just couldn't begin to touch their quality on a home printer. But several people have given me boxes of the paper, and I was always at kind of a loss what to do with it. I was on the verge of tossing the couple of loose sheets in the trash when my eyes fell on the box housing my ridiculously large collection of embossing folders. I grabbed my Big Shot and some dies and cranked out the coolest paper elements ever! Okay, maybe not really, but I love, love, LOVE the way the photo paper looks with some embossing!

Anyway, that's some of what I've been up to. What have you been making?