Amazing art form printable on many materials, using easily found elements. Unique results, simple supplies, no specific rules means I love Eco Printing!

I love it when I come across designers that push the boundaries of traditional stitching techniques...Charlotte Lancelot is a product designer that devises "Creative and playful concepts around the theme of durable development" The oversized embroidery rug shown above is handmade by Charlotte using strips of felt as thread and a felt canvas...

I love laminating! Seriously, I often wish that I had relationships with humans that were as satisfying as my relationship with my laminator. A couple of years ago all I wanted for Christmas was a personal laminator and a stack of laminating pouches. Santa heard my cosmic plea and I’ve been one crazy laminating mama ever since. In this post we’ll discuss some tips for great lamination. Just in case I don't mention it later, the best tip for perfect laminating is a perfect little helper! 1. Start with a great laminator... or not. I use a Scotch thermal laminator and really love it. It is simple to use and safe enough for my 3 year old to use. I also use lamination sheets from Scotch most of the time. Sometimes, while perusing the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart I’ll find another brand of lamination sheets marked down. I pick those up too. I never seem to notice the non-Scotch brand in the office supply aisle, but always see them in the clearance section. Weird. Don’t have a laminator? It is completely possible to JUST buy the lamination pouches and use them at home with an iron. I have an iron. Somewhere. I really only use it for craft projects so using it as a laminator only makes sense. To make this work: 1. Lay a double piece of newspaper on the ironing board (or if you are like me…whatever “ironing board” you have). You could also use cardboard instead of newspaper. 2. Lay the pouch down with your paper inside of it and then cover it with another double piece of newspaper. 3. Iron from the end that is already fused together out to the end that is open. This makes sure that you don’t accidentally iron air bubbles into the lamination. 4. You didn’t listen, did you? You ironed a bubble into your project! EEEEK! It’s okay. Slice the bubble open with a box cutter or craft knife and iron over it again. It won’t be perfect, but you won’t have to trash your project either. NOTE: The temperature on irons varies widely. I recommend starting at a medium heat. Turn it up if your lamination is cloudy. Turn it down if your lamination curls up or wrinkles wildly with this technique. 2. Prep Your Projects When prepping your projects to be laminated, cut them out first. With many laminators if you laminate an entire piece of paper and then cut smaller shapes out of it, the lamination curls up around the edges and your paper falls out. So if you have letters like this: Cut them out first. These pieces are from my "All That Jazz" bulletin board set. Click the pictures to check this board out. I like to leave a thin white border around most of my letters and posters, but it's not necessary. For me, it makes any letter work with any kind of background. I tend to use wrapping paper, fabric and other busy backgrounds so this little white border helps the letters pop. If you can, print onto thicker paper. Card stock, tag border, and cover stock are all names of thicker paper types that works well for posters and bulletin board elements. Thicker paper is also great if you are laminating worksheets that your students will complete with a dry erase marker and then erase. When using a home laminator with pouches place your items right up against the edge that is already sealed. This helps you get a nice smooth lamination because this is the end that you feed into the laminator first. It also can keep you from having to cut one whole side of your project if your pieces have a straight edge. Go crazy! It's super easy to laminate double sided pages with the lamination pouches. Just place them in how you would like for them to come out. Line them up with the bottom of the lamination sheet and send them through. If you do double pages, you may not need to do them on card stock. I like double up if it works with my project because that can sometimes eliminate the need for using a clipboard and that saves me transition time in class. 3. Just do it. Laminate. You know you want to. When you place the lamination pouch into the laminator, place the end that is already fused together in first. The laminator's rollers will pull it through. If you make a mistake and feed it in slightly crooked or accidentally send a potato chip or something in there with it, just push the power button and pull down the release lever. You can then pull the entire sheet out and try again. These pieces are from my Xylophone Composing Station. If your lamination comes out a little cloudy that usually means that your lamination wasn't heated all the way. Wait a few minutes or wait for that little light that says "Ready" to come on and send it back through. No need to pull it apart or anything. Just send it through in the same direction you did the first time. Isn't it beautiful? A nicely laminated, shiny, warm stack of classroom decor! *content sigh* 4. Cut it Out I'm sure that some of you will just laugh when I tell you about my crafting find a few weeks ago, but I had seriously never used one of these. This is a rotary cutter. It makes me almost as happy as freshly baked cookies. It is amazing! You roll instead of cut. I'm not quite as good at making straight cuts with it, but I love practicing! You could also use traditional paper cutters for straight pieces. When you cut your pieces out (if that is needed) leave a little bit of lamination around the edge of the page. 5. Troubleshooting Despite my best efforts, during the miles of paper that I have laminated sometimes things can go wrong. Here are some things that could happen and what you can do to fix them: Cloudy lamination after it has been sent through the laminator. SOLUTION: Wait for your laminator to warm up a bit longer and send it through again. If you are able to control the temperature of your laminator, turn it up. Bubbles in the lamination. This can happen for a couple of reasons. First, if you are trying to laminate something chunky, you may end up with bubbles around the piece that sticks up the most. SOLUTION: Don't do that! These little machines weren't made for that. You could try a heat gun or a really mean hair dryer, but I don't that would work. You could also get a bubble from misfeeding the lamination pouches into the laminator. SOLUTION: Pierce the bubble and send it back through. It won't be perfect, but "whimsical". (That's what I call all of my imperfect pieces.) You could also get a bubble for what may look like no reason at all. If that is the case, it could be that your laminator is too hot and is actually causing a gas to be released from the ink. Seriously. SOLUTION: Let the rest of your pages "cure" or dry overnight. This really doesn't happen too often with the home laminators, but it could easily happen with more commercial grade models. Peeling lamination. Cut a little too close? This can sometimes cause the lamination to peel back and kind of roll up. SOLUTION: Quit cutting so close! LOL. Okay...and you can use the newspaper and iron trick I told you about above. Wrinkles in the lamination. Yeah, this one is a little tougher. There are not many ways to save something that has been thermally laminated with wrinkles. Sometimes when you laminate thicker projects the part of the lamination film that doesn't cover the paper can wrinkle up just a little bit. It usually doesn't hurt the paper part so trimming it off solves this problem. If that isn't the case, read on! SOLUTION: Be sad. With resolve and optimism, print it and try again! I'm sorry that really is my best advice! If you are using a larger laminator in the teacher's workroom, these kind of wrinkles usually indicate that an adjustment with the rollers is needed. Now go on! Get out there and laminate something!

Decoupage on furniture??? Where have you been all my life? Am I the last one to know about decoupage paper? Come see how it all turns out. I'm in LOVE

Spin Art Are you searching for a colorful and engaging activity that can be enjoyed by kids of all ages? Look no further than spin art! This exciting craft involves using a salad spinner and some paint to create stunning and one-of-a-kind designs that are sure to impress. In this post, we'll guide you through

Are you ready to take your crafting to the next level? Learn how easy it is to print and cut using your Silhouette Cutting Machine in this step by step tutorial.

The tank was forced gently placed on Maia and it fits super well. And the back's not too shabby either. Because Millie asked so nicely about the way I did the binding, here's my compendium of different methods of knit binding. And why I don't like them. Except my own way, which I love. Method One: Single fold binding Binding is folded in half: On fold, sewn to the right side of the garment: End result flipped up: NB: You can topstitch seam allowance back down to the main fabric for a nicer finish, I didn't because I'm in a ridiculous hurry. Why I don't like it: If you're binding a neckline or something super curvy you have to cut the binding much shorter and make it stretch evenly to fit. Too. Many. Pins.Method Two: Double fold binding Binding folded in half and then into quarters: Folded to hide raw edges and the bottom fold extend a little bit further down from the top fold: Binding encloses raw edge like a sandwich: Stitched close to the bottom edge (thereby catching the hidden folded edge on the inside that extends slightly further) The right side: The wrong side: Why I don't like it: You have too be oh-so-slow and careful to make sure you are catching the hidden bottom edge in a non-ugly fashionMethod Three: Enclose and trim (the Ottobre method) Binding folded up about a third of the way to give stitch guide: Placed to the right side of garment and stitched along press line: Binding pulled up and over the raw edges into the inside of the garment and pressed down: Stitched on the right side of the garment just below the bottom edge of the binding: Turned to the wrong side: The excess binding trimmed up to the stitch line: The end result: Why I don't like it: It's honestly not that bad, but I don't love the trimmed raw edge. That's the kind of thing that shops cover up with a coverstitch.Method Four: Fold and Flip (the Kitschy Coo method) As per Method One, fold binding in half but put it to the wrong side of the garment: Once stitched, flip the binding to the right side: Fold it over so that it encloses the seam allowance. Roll it a tiny bit so the edge of the binding is still visible from the wrong side (otherwise known as Don't Drag the Wrong Side of the Garment Up and Over So Everyone Can See It). You should be able to feel the seam allowance hiding inside. Stitch the binding down close to the edge from the right side: Pardon the skipped stitches, my machine was being an a**hole. The wrong side looks nice too (and see what I mean about a tiny bit of the binding still visible from the inside): A better picture of both sides when machines are being cooperative: Why this method is awesome: Good looking from both sides, and you don't need to cut the binding smaller than the neckline and stretch it to fit. Hope this helps those of you getting your summer knits out! Pin It Tweet

Monoprinting is a lovely technique that allows printmakers to be spontaneous, painterly and experimental. This simple monoprint project produces beautiful delicate prints using a piece of scrim and an etching press. Begin with a piece of perpex, a plastic inking plate or a sheet of drypoint plastic. use masking tape to tape off a rectangle on your perspex. … Continue reading "Monoprinting with Scrim"

ixxi is a modular hanging system that joins cards together in a pattern to create wall art. The Dutch company lets you enlarge a single image, create a

Read about my life-changing project to write the companies whose products I love. I received loads of free stuff that helped me afford to give my children the Christmas they always wanted.

Don't let people tell you that a china cabinet makeover isn't in style in 2022 and beyond. Hands down, a painted china cabinet is one of the most fun pieces of furniture to refinish because

Hi! Ann Lauer here for a Technique Tuesday post using my new Cat-I-Tude fabric collection. I love to make bargello quilts. They have so much movement in the design, and on top of that, they're fun to piece. Today I'm going to show you the technique I use to assemble this type of quilt. It make assembly easier and more accurate. "Dinner in Style" bargello placemat pattern When I make bargello quilts, I like to use Creative Grid Flannel in my quilt sandwich. This 2" cotton grid fabric has “surface tension” built in to keep your pre-cut fabric pieces in place when doing your quilt layouts. In our case, we'll be layering batting over it, and it will hold the batting in place. The grid lines help to ensure that the strips are laid straight and that the stitch lines are straight as well. Here's how I do it, using my Dinner in Style placemat set pattern as an example: Step 1: Choose your backing fabric. I chose Aristocats on black. This is a nice backing fabric because the placemats can even be turned over with this fun fabric on the back. Step 2: Position the backing fabric right side down, Creative Grid Flannel wrong side up and the batting on top. I prefer to use a thin batting such as Hobbs Thermore, which is bonded on both sides so it's easy to sew on. I like the combined weight of flannel and the thin Hobbs Thermore batting in table top projects. Note: The lines on the flannel are dark and you don’t want them to show through the lightest fabric that you are using. Therefore, I layer it wrong side up and place it under the batting. You can see the lines through the batting well enough to keep the segments straight as you sew. There are other grid products available and if you use one that isn’t printed too darkly, you may want to layer it on top of the batting. Notice how you can see the lines showing through batting when you layer the batting piece on top of the Creative Grid Flannel. Step 3: Following your quilt pattern, cut your fabric strips and sew into a tube. Press all your seams in one direction. Step 4: Use the grid to lay the first segment along a left hand vertical line and the top of the segment along a top horizontal line. Follow the instructions and as you stitch each segment, open it up and check to be sure that the cut edge is staying parallel to a vertical grid line and that the seams within the segments are staying parallel with the horizontal grid lines. Directions are included in my pattern on how to correct any areas that begin to bow. By using this technique, all of the stitching will be straight and the bargello will be stabilized which will make it easy to fuse the cats onto the placemats. Step 5: Here's a view of the first five segments laid on the backing/grid/batting sandwich. These strips are tubes that have been opened on the designated seam so they lay flat. Step 6: When all the strips have been stitched in place, you will have made one large quilt-as-you-go section that you will cut into fourths to yield four placemats. Each placemat will be somewhat different, but they all go together beautifully. Here is what the finished and bound placemats look like, complete with fussy-cut cat appliques: Click here to see Ann's entire Cat-I-Tude fabric collection. Missed our original post with Ann's interview about Cat-I-Tude? Click here to find it. Click here to find the Dinner in Style kit and pattern. Click here to find Creative Grid Flannel. Love It? Share It!

I love using loofah sponges and I want mine to last. If you take steps to maintain, and sanitize loofah sponges, they will last a long time.

A few weeks ago our little daredevil had her first x-ray due to a little jumping on the bed incident. Yup 1 little monkey jumping on the bed, she fell off and bumped her head… broke her clavicle. Well ever since, she has been fascinated with the bones inside her body so there couldn’t be […]

People make little comments here or there all the time about organization to me. I laugh. Out loud. Because anyone who really knows me and has...

I came across several tutorials from Karen at The Graphics Fairy that are full of great information about transferring images onto various surfaces. I’m looking forward to trying some! 12 Easy Image Transfer Techniques Best Products for Image and Photo Transfers Image Transfer on Fabric – Easy!

Hi Everyone, Well, my first day of spring break was completely unproductive. But it felt GOOD to be unproductive! haha! Thank you so much for all of your positive feedback and comments on my finished project. I really appreciate them. I am very excited by how Finding my Marbles turned...

Stain Removing Cheat Sheets - taking the guess work out for you!

This splat art is a fun way to help kids explore science through art. Take the splat painting outside for even more creative possibilities.

So the weather is starting to get cold and it’s time to bring out the hot packs in my house! I have several hot packs in various shapes and sizes for warming me up or soothing sore muscles over the winter. I also love to gift hot/cold packs. It is just something everyone can use! […]

Download the FREE Ombre Puff Quilt Pattern here! If you've been around for any amount of time, you might've seen my Puff Quilt that my grandmother made for me. I love this thing SO much. She used various scrap fabrics and clothing to create this very dense, yet very snuggly quilt. . . . When I look at this quilt, I see something new each time. Recycled tablecloths from the 80s, pieces of my grandfathers button-down shirts, left-over fabrics from previous quilt projects. The list goes on. Some fabrics are used multiple times within the quilt, while other fabrics are only represented once. I love looking over all of the puffs and finding all of the similarities and differences between the squares. . . . My Granny made this for me when I was 7 years old. I absolutely LOVE that she created a tag for this quilt. I also love that she referred to the quilt as a

Stain Removing Cheat Sheets - taking the guess work out for you!

If you think I have the answers here, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm far from having any answers.

Download the FREE Ombre Puff Quilt Pattern here! If you've been around for any amount of time, you might've seen my Puff Quilt that my grandmother made for me. I love this thing SO much. She used various scrap fabrics and clothing to create this very dense, yet very snuggly quilt. . . . When I look at this quilt, I see something new each time. Recycled tablecloths from the 80s, pieces of my grandfathers button-down shirts, left-over fabrics from previous quilt projects. The list goes on. Some fabrics are used multiple times within the quilt, while other fabrics are only represented once. I love looking over all of the puffs and finding all of the similarities and differences between the squares. . . . My Granny made this for me when I was 7 years old. I absolutely LOVE that she created a tag for this quilt. I also love that she referred to the quilt as a

Drawing in Procreate has become one of my favorite ways to create artwork. In this Procreate tutorial, I'll share my top tip for making perfectly symmetrical illustrations in Procreate.

If you've wondered why people say "I love your work" but never buy, this article uncovers the answers and solutions to help you sell more handmade products.

How to Get Stunning Results With Underglaze Transfers Media & Techniques % %

7 Things You Didn't Know About Raw Milk | I love raw milk straight from the farm. It's a blank canvas, full of health benefits... and even mysteries! Like: Why does cream rise to the top? What do fin whales have to do with it? What's going on in your everyday glass of milk? Mysteries revealed here! | TraditionalCookingSchool.com

Simple, detailed instructions for how to make a tulle canopy in 6 easy steps. Hang your stylish DIY tulle canopy over your kid's bed or in a reading nook!

Diy IKEA Hacks that will save you tons of money... These budget DIY projects from IKEA will give you all the home decor inspiration you need!

Coloring affirmations helped pass time, helped to relax me, and kept me focused on mindfulness during the pregnancy. This is one way I prepared for birth.

Got an old crib lying around that you don't use anymore? Don't get rid of it just yet! Check out these creative ways to repurpose an old crib first!

The Women’s Cowl Neck Sweatshirt Free Pattern was published in the Sewing Rabbit. It is for a Beautiful and super easy top for women designed to fall above the hips. The free pattern is available for download in Sizes XS thru XXL. The perfect sweater / sweatshirt to throw on every day of the week! Appropriate for Spring, Fall or Winter ­you will love having this cover up to keep you cozy all day long. Wear it to look stylish while exercising, picking your kids up from school, while running errands, or to the movies! A fabulous staple for everyone’s closet. You’ll … Read More

Once we had made the tapa cloth and the koka dye, we had a bit of instruction on Tongan design, then three of us from the group gave a basic bookbinding demo. Next, we were shown some printmaking t…

Many legit websites give away free stuff. Here's how it works and where you can get free stuff online.

Everything you need to know to start creating and selling printables online. I made over $5,000 selling my printables on Etsy and share how I did it.