Freezer Paper Stencil and the Laser

Back in April I think it was I posted some pictures of the Laser engraving machine that is residing at my house. Sadly I had only been doing the routine maintenance stuff and not really using it for crafty projects until recently.

Project 1 - the paper wreath. I found this tutorial here and decided it would be most helpful to laser cut the 64 leaves.

Project 2: Freezer Paper Stenciling. I have seen many tutorials recently on how to do it and while it looks cool, I was not prepared to cut out intricate details by hand. I'm a perfectionist and I knew I wouldn't be happy unless the stencils were perfect and I just don't think I could do it by hand. Inspiration struck and I spent the afternoon finding/prepping images to stencil and away I went.

Mr Robot there is actually silver, if you can't tell. I kept it pretty simple as this was my maiden voyage, but I'm so excited to do more!

I love it! I LOVE the laser too!

Here are some tutorials I have found useful in stenciling and painting fabric.
1. Lil Blue Boo - Freezer Paper Robot
2. Make and Takes - Fabric painting with Acrylic Paint

I learned some tricks I thought were neat, so if you need tips, let me know.

Advent Calendar Round 2

I am making advent calendars for the sisters I visit teach and I made a few changes that I felt it deserved another post.

Here is the finished product.
Modifications:
1. I wrapped two rows of matchboxes at a time. I like how you can see the pattern on the paper better, not to mention it was faster and I used about 1/2 the amount of paper.

2. My Mom found these awesome "ornaments" for mini-trees at hobby lobby. Snip, snip, and suddenly those balls are knobs for the drawers. Each package has 100 balls and Christmas decorations are 40-50% right now. We found them in silver, gold, iridescent, red, and pink.

3. Waste not, want not. I took the leftover wire from the balls and wrapped it around a pencil. Then I glued one end of spiral to my star and the other to the base.

Find the original tutorial over at Inspiring Creations

Craft Night

Dear Blog ... I haven't abandoned you. Here's proof.

Last night I had some friends over for a craft night. YAY! We made these super cute advent calendar Christmas trees from matchboxes.

Click HERE if you want to see the tutorial over at inspiring creations!

Here's Cedar's Tree

Kelli's Tree

Alex's Tree

Edna's Tree

Happy Tree Family

My tree isn't finished yet. It looks a whole lot like Edna's though. :)
Thanks for coming over girls, it was fun!