Quick little felt heart ornaments

As you may recall, every year I buy a heart ornament for our Christmas tree, in memory of our first son.  Funnily enough, even with all the crafting I do, I struggle to recall one I MADE.  This year I got a little fabric heart, dotty material, with one big button sewn in the middle.  Well heck – I could make that easy.  I didn’t.  I made something else.  I have gotten a couple of packs of felt as a cover gift from CB, and it seemed the perfect thing to experiment with.  I have a dim memory of something I saw a couple of years back, can’t find it, but think I (more or less) know what to do.

1. Take a piece of felt.  Mine is pretty stiff.  The thin craft felt sheets may be too thin and floppy.  Cut it into two equal rectangles.  My hearts are quite small, as the cover-gift pieces are small, about 7 inch square.  That gave me two rectangles of 3.5 x 7 and I would say 4 or 4.5 inches would have been better.

2. Mark off lines.  I did 3/4 inch but 1 inch would be OK. 1/2 inch or less would be tricky when it comes to the cutting.  You will need to be REALLY careful about the placement of the hanger and the scissors.

3. Cut hangers.  I used thick baker’s twine and about 12 inches folded to 6 inches.  Depending on how long a hanger you want and you finish them you can get away with less.  Tap them to the felt with low tack/painter’s tape to hold them in place. Position them centred within the lines with the hanging loop as far from the edge as you like.  The loop-to-seam measurement is the length of the hanging loop. My loops are short, as we use hooks for the ornaments on our tree.

 

4.  Lay the other piece of felt over the top

I pinned them but you may not feel the need to

 

5. Sew a 1/4 seam along that edge, capturing the hanger.

6. Open out the piece, flipping it around so the two outsides are now INSIDE. I added a piece of tape, sticky side UP, and once again lined up the twine ends centred within the lines. The seam should be folded to about the mid-line, then the raw edge folded over to met the other raw edge.

 

I didn’t feel the need to pin this time, as I was able to see the lines and scoot the twine to position it centrally as I was sewing.

I took some better shots of this step dong the red ones. These only catch the hanger loop end but the folding to sew is clearer. Folding to the mid-line

Folding the raw edge over to meet

Matching the edges

You can see the heart shape better from this angle.  Sewing the other edge – even tho’ I used the green thread it just disappears in the bright red!  Sorry.

All you need to do now is cut along the lines to separate the ornaments! As long as you have been careful in catching the twine you shouldn’t cut thru it if you cut along the lines.

 

How you finish them off is up to you:

Sorry for the crappy photo.

You can do a lot MORE, depending on how fiddly you want to make the process.  Sew a button to the inside, add jingle bells or a button to the bottom, stick or sew small buttons or beads to the outside…but really, the simple version is cute enough.

A couple of things: If you only want the hanger  and not twine/yarn/ribbon thru the middle that is easier. Just sew the loop inside then fold and sew. BUT do keep in mind this really had to be stiff felt, and it is likely to get our of shape over time. See the left one below?  Just tugging on the hanger pulls it out of shape.   It’s catching both ends of the hanger that holds the heart shape.

I think these would be so cute in a thinner version as present adornments, don’t you?

Gosh, sorry for all the photos in poor light. But I hope the concept is clear enough for you to follow.  I think these would be perfect for a craft fair, for example.  With 2 minutes sewing and a little cutting you could have a pile of ornaments for pennies.  Perfect for kids with pocket-money to spend, even at 50p your could raise a lot for charity….

 

just a thought….

A commenter asks, I answer!

One of my frequent commenters, Paula, asked about the card with Post It note and tear-off calendar, commenting that she had just planned on making one of my CD calendars but was torn because she loved the Post it note idea.  As I was replying, the germ of an idea floated to the top of my brain.  I spent more time hunting around trying to find a clean, empty CD cover than I did making the project!

There are many ways to go with the idea and I’ll outline a few of them.  Basically, the key is a small extra piece of thick cardstock or thin chipboard scored to create a kink.

This is assuming your CD holder has edges all around both pieces.  I think some of the newer ones may have less to get in the way.

Mine is 5 1/4 x 3 1/2.  This is so it fits inside the CD case.  In order to add the pen holder, I poked a hole in the middle, just above the 3 x 3 Post it note square.  Using a crochet hook, I pulled the loom band thru to the back

and threaded a bit of chipboard the at the back, sticking it down.

I added a strip of double-sided tape to the top edge, but did NOT peel off the backing.  This way all the bits for the Calendar fit inside the CD cover.

And in fact, with a small pen or pencil, that will fit in as well.  You can see I show this without the cover decorated, because if it was, you couldn’t see how nicely it fits inside! Once your recipient takes it out, they can assemble it

For this, I made a decorated block that fits behind the cover, then stuck the tear-off block to the front.  That way you can change the background as often as you like and so long as the placement is the same, you can just stick a new year’s one on in 2016!

Two additional points: first, there is no reason you can’t use any standard CD calendar blocks rather than a tear-off one.

As long as they aren’t on super thick paper they should still fit in the CD along with the Post-it note block, especially if you divide a block in 1/2 as I did.   Second, if they feel the footprint of the calendar is too big, your recipient can always stick it to the back leg of the stand.  Technically they wouldn’t really NEED the added piece, but it’s nice to offer the option

And finally, I’ve had the odd comment or two about my Doily calendar printables.  Some folk aren’t crazy about the grungy scratch marks thru the Month names.  I liked that, which is why I picked that font, but as it only took me like 15 minutes, I went ahead and did a font swap for the same one I used for the 2016 Calendar.

This one is sized for Project Life but I used it in the sample to make the tear off.  The little ones were too small to look right on the front of the CD

 

THIS one is the smaller card topper size tear-off. You can see the three methods I use for making a stack a tear-off: glue, brads, staple.

{sigh} now I have to go back and add the link to all the places where I have the OTHER doily version …

WOYWW 286 – Knockers!

Hello WOYWWwers.

What is on my desk, and has not been far from my desk for a week is a very special project.  Someone near and dear to me had a double mastectomy a few months back.  She jokingly sent me a link, after seeing knitting appear on my blog. So I made her a pair.

The first ones I made from the pattern at the US site, out of some spare 100% cotton yarn I had lying around – 100% soft cotton, no blends, not mercerized is a must.  The US pattern has a flat back – the light blue one, nearly done, is using the UK pattern from the UK site.  It is different, with a side hole for stuffing, and a concave back.  I’ll send both pairs off and let the recipient tell me which she prefers and then make those in her color choice.  The UK group has an active charity program where women can order (free) knockers.  Check out the slide show of recent ones on the site!  Not all flesh tones and boring, there are some wild ones there – one of the ladies suggested, like the mullet, knockers might be best “business in the front, party in the back!”  I like that. There are KK groups in many countries, if you fancy getting involved.  The UK group is fundraising so if you want to support their charity efforts, and goal to provide free knockers, from one woman to another, do so here. I find my knockers are not acceptable to the UK group because they don’t use their approved pattern, but I won’t let them go to waste!

You can see my little coaster/easel/calendar/post-it not holder thingie from yesterday there at the back and a couple of the tear-off calendars I made by converting some of my PL printables to print smaller.  But I am expecting a yarn order today and will share the colours selection to ask which colour is required and may cast on another knocker.  Then it has to be back to socks for a bit, and then finally maybe some paper play.

Looking forward to some holiday ideas this week on WOYWW – we will do a small Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday, sadly without DS, who has commitments up in Scotland – he is actually getting PAID to do those LoL castings you may have seen me post in previous weeks, and he has a few projects due in the lead up to Christmas break so coming home now is just not possible.  But we’ll Skype, I’m sure and that will have to do.

Happy WOYWW to all and Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it this week, wherever you may be.

Tear off calendars to print

I did make some tear offs this year, but they were pretty standard, boring ones.  I also mentioned how you can change print settings on your printer and convert PL 3×4 calendar cards into sheets you can cut and turn into tear offs.  As I was locating all my calendar stuff while creating the post from yesterday, I thought I might as well just convert the ones I had made, make the PDFs and add them here. This is a little misleading.  The Doily calendars, the Sunday to Saturday and Monday to Sunday versions, are HUGE (nearly 12 MB) if I do more than one complete calendar in the PDF.  So those two are ONE FULL CALENDAR  in each file.  They weigh in at almost 3 MB even so.

2015 Doily Calendar Tear Off – Sunday to Saturday

2015 Doily Calendar Tear Off – Monday to Sunday

These have a double set of lines around them.  You can make them bigger by cutting along the outer frame if you prefer.

Cut to the inner, pale grey line they are about 2 1/4 by just under 3 inches. All the others are this size as well. Cut to the OUTER black line they are just over 2 1/2 x 3 1/4.

For the other two you can change the settings to print just one year by printing just page 1 and page 2.  Printing all six pages will let you create FOUR full calendars.

 

Once you print and cut you can use any method to make them a tear off that you like.

 

2015 Funky Frame tear off

2015 Pixel Calendar tear off

I usually either add the glue along the top edge (PVA glue)

or staple them.  I would actually use two staples to keep them from shifting around, especially after a few months have been torn off.

 

I am making little cards that turn into calendar stands with Post-it notes. Annoyed because I know I have a box FULL of coasters and could I find them? Nope. It’s a basic easel card, mine is 4 x 12 to begin with, which fits my “coaster” (actually a mini book page)

The fact that I couldn’t find my damn coasters actually allowed a little innovation. Hands up if you DON’T have a bajillion loom bands under foot, all day, every day… well, I used one I spied laying on the floor to make a pen holder ring.  I just threaded the loom band on to the twine I was tying thru the holes

Threaded the twine thru and pulled so the loom band  was partway thru the hole before tying it off.

I suspect that the mini-book page (thicker than a coaster) and the pen addition make it a bit too thick to fit comfortably in an envelope, certainly not for mailing

But if you make a …what are they called? box-alope?  or put it in a larger envelope to hand deliver it, you will probably be OK.

If you look back to this post you can see the process so you can make ANY 3×4 calendar card printable (PDF) into a tear off-sized version.

You may not think they are worth the effort, but I think they look SO much nicer than the standard bag o’ tear-offs you can buy… up to you….

{wink}

A quick recap – all 2015 calendar printables and projects

NEW doily added at the bottom!

I was working on my menu item of 2015 calendars but thought it might be better? more useful? to do a compact post with a round-up of all my calendar printables and links to some of the projects using them (and others printables) for quick reference and no clutter.  Hope it is helpful!

Circular CD calendar printables:

Circular quotes – Link to post

 

 

Pretty circles – link to post

Other CD calendars:

Link to post

 

CD Calendar projects:

Crochet edge

Make a frame

Make a frame

Make any printable a calendar

Origami cube option

NEW: CD with tear off

and another version

The Crochet edge frame is here and the basics of making a frame for a CD calendar is here. And there is a post here for turning and Project life 3 x 4 sized calendar printable into a CD calendar. The origami cube links are below. Alternative cutting of the CD calendar printables is here.  A BEAUTIFUL one by one of my followers is here.

 

Project Life 3 x 4 Calendar cards:

German

Funky
2015 – Sun to Sat or Mon to Sun
Pixel
Chevron Spots
French or Spanish Or German

Look and the Make Any 3 x 4 PL calendar card into a CD calendar post above as well as the Origami Photo Cube posts. This post shows making the cube (using Gelli prints) but these show the calendar inserts being used: adapting for calendars, improvements, grid paper version.

 

Finally, the grid paper photo cube post includes tear-off calendar printables, seen above, and there is a post here that tells you how to set up your printing to make smaller tear-offs from 3×4 printables

And an easel card that includes a tear-off and Post-it notes and in that post a number of my 2015 PL cards resized and offered to download and make your own tear-offs without all the technical hassles

There is a 2016 Doily version already up, as a commenter said she always makes 2 year versions as gifts and asked me if I would make one, so I did.

2016 version

Some people weren’t so keen on the scratchy font for he 2015 Doily, so I went ahead and made a version that uses the same font a the 2016 version here.  I also made a little CD calendar in the post here.

Hopefully that is helpful, having them all in one place.

One of the first CD calendars, updated

I had a couple of comments on an old CD calendar post, first asking for help to download it, then asking for it to be updated. Obviously the OLD calendar wasn’t going to be very useful LOL! But the point is looking back at my stats, this one was one of the most popular.  I’ve not figured out why, but I have to say it is one of MY fave font combos.   I have learned so many tricks over the years to allow me to convert to the current year with not a ton of effort, so I went ahead and took an hour and did it.  Just the same as the original one, just 2015 version.

I have to say this one, of ALL the ones I ever made, makes me the craziest.  The font creator didn’t space the numbers right, or perhaps was going for a bouncy, funky look (the thing I love about the font, actually) but it defies perfect (or even CLOSE) horizontal alignment.  I just picked one of the longest lines in the middle, and lined everything up based on that, adjusting if something looked badly off to MY eye.

The 6-page PDF (two months per page) can be grabbed here – I’ll keep asking, although not many people do it, please share a link if you use the calendar.  YOUR project might inspire someone else, and I only need so many calendars so I don’t make samples using every one of them! I do know I need to copy over the samples and links for all the 2015 ones I’ve made , and might also delete the old, useless ones from the top menu, and focus more on the calendar projects rather than the printables.  It’s all about the time… I’ve always fancied making one of these by cutting out the CD sized bit, making it a tear-off calendar and adding photos all around the edge.  I might actually do it this year…

 

Scandi-style PL filler and journaling cards

I just popped off and the number verification has returned for Blogger so I am going to add these, cause I did promise to do so, then carry on with my WOYWW comments.  With luck I can get thru most of my unvisited blogs today, if I am careful and Blogger play fair.

When I started uploading I thought THIS is what I would be sharing.

But a funny thing happened.  I was looking at it and thought how time consuming it would be to change the colours for the red ones so they were shades of blue, and change that lonely blue one to match the red and do two sets.  So I had a play with the HUE adjust – the problem with that is it is really hard to get JUST the right colour.  It’s a trade-off – do all the colours at once with a slider, or group and colour change each cross-hatch?  Easy answer, don’tcha think?

The blue is not so icy but nice, I think. Get the RED version here and the BLUE version here. Interestingly, the HUE adjust really bumped up the file size.  The red one, no adjustment, is only 545 kb and the blue one, with the adjustment is 1.1 mb.  I find that interesting. Also not the RED one has the simple snowflakes changed to red – they were not as complex so I did them x by x.

I think really only the top right one is a filler card only – the rest have a bit of space for journaling, some more than others.  Hopefully they will be useful.  and although these are sized for Project Life, can you visualize how easy it would be to turn them into gift tags or place cards? For place cards I’d use them as is, but for tags, I might cut them in half – the patterns are symmetrical so easy to do. what about card toppers?

Have fun!

WOYWW 285 – got it figured out, I think

Hello there WOYWWers! I managed to get the number right this week LOL!

I’m not showing my desk, but my desktop.  I shared a little Scandinavian style box the other day and made mention of the process.  A mate commented that she has no idea what I was talking about so I thought, as I was working on the Project Life printables I mentioned, I would capture the screen so I could explain.

First, this is a file of red and white cross-stitch design from a free to use vector site. Doesn’t look like that, does it?

The program I use delineates a selected object with blue squares surrounding it – 4 or 6 depending on the size. That should give you some idea of how many “objects” make up this vector graphic! Each “stitch” is made up of two objects, grouped to create a stitch.  See what it looks like with all the objects grouped into a single image?

In order to use it in any meaningful way, I edit and group the individual tiny objects into motifs, then resize them. Like so:

It’s a little time-consuming and repetitive but if you pop back tomorrow I should have a sheet of 5 Project Life journaling and/or filler cards ready for download.  They might work for a card topper too, but you’ll have see what you think.

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One last bit on the word verification issue:

Right, so yesterday I finished up my return visits and a few new visits, and I didn’t have word verification pop up even once.  So one of two things happened –  EITHER Blogger backed off the aggressive word verification trigger of just a few comments OR it was maybe me typing a wrong number (no matter how careful I was trying to be, it could have happened) that triggered it and this time (10 blogs) I made no mistakes.  I may never know..

ARRGGHH! First blog after Julia’s and it kicked me to Word Verification. I kid you not, 10 tries and it finally posted so now I have to wait 24 hours to comment again with number verification only.  

HA HA! Going back to an old, unsupported browser brought back number verification!  YAY!

And kicked back after a handful of blogs but check this out – on the blog that thwarted me?  Check out the proof!  As you can see it ISN’T ME – I typed in the right numbers and yet….

Clear as a bell, that s 672, no question.  I typed in 672, as you can see.  I didn’t trust myself, it kept kicking me to Word Verification when I was SURE I was typing it right.  So I just did screen grabs of every verification I did… see what I got when I clicked PUBLISH?

I call that UNFAIR.

Once more, have a great WOYWW day!

I have to giggle cause it wasn’t till I was scheduling the post I realized today is MY BIRTHDAY.  DOH!

Just a bit of fun – a Christmas place card?

I was playing around with something I got that I thought might be useful for a printable, a Scandinavian-style needlepoint-esque  design.  OMG! each tiny stitch is made up of two crossed lines and each like is an “object” so editing, grouping and resizing the original to get something useful was CRAZY.  I thought I would experiment with another thing I have been considering, a foldable box. This is the result!

 

That is not to print, it’s just the image so you can see what this PDF contains.  Initially I thought another Advent calendar, using the box with a number on to hold little treats, but I am not sure I would print, cut, and fold 25 of these so I wonder how many of you would either! But After I did make one I thought it could be quite cute as a table place-card.  I added the little rectangles so you can do what I did and label them with stickers or die cut letters or stamps OR you can stick them over printed names and run a sheet of them thru your printer for a quicker way to add a name.

Just cut the template out, noting the score lines you can’t see cause of the pattern

Score and fold and cut the slit for the flap

Then assemble.  Line up the longer inner flap with the opposite edge (it’ll make sense when you do it.  One had to be shorter to fit an A4 sheet) and stick together

If you print it on US letter paper you may miss out one of the end-lines but I don’t have US letter paper to test – if you do, comment and tell me what happens!

It is more stable if you stick the overlapped flaps seen above to the inside of the wrap-around piece

 

for a final box that will stand up. The place card part can get stuck to the blank area like so:

I thought it made a cute decoration and you can tuck a little treat inside. That blank area on the flap?

 

If you DID want to make a bunch of them and adapt then into some sort of advent calendar you could add a number there and maybe just pile them all up, higgelty piggelty and make the kids really HUNT for the right number LOL!

I’ll possible eventually get around to a PL style printable using these patterns but I need to decide on the text for them or if they should be just journaling cards, or a mixture of both.

Watch this space.

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I can see number verification has returned so it seems it is 24 hours between the shift to Word Verification and a return to number.  I can work with that.  Still one more thing to test …

Oh and another proud Mom moment – DS once again did a live cast of a few NUEL games with a different co-caster.  No ties this time, smart casual, and he did more analysis/colour commentary than play-by-play.

 

They were both quite good and it was fun to see him doing what he loves.

More Advent stuff – printables and an idea!

Still dithering about the Advent calendar.  One thing that kept me very busy yesterday was designing my own cones, to supplement the ones I linked to originally.  I wanted them to be a little bigger around the base than the elves and a bit taller and slimmer (who doesn’t wish for that? LOL!) for a reason.  My first ones were too squat and stumpy

but I finally got what I wanted

I also wanted the cutting and sticking to be kid-friendly, which I think it is.  Once cut you need only add a bit of double-sided tape to the flap and score and crease it

For folding, I find it is easiest to almost fold the cone, without actually creasing it, matching up the edges and sticking

You can then gently roll it into shape.  I added a little star just to make the gripping of the top easier

Now for the tip.  I was making a cuppa and what drew my eye was the milk bottle top.  I don’t know about where you live but where *I* live the bottles are recyclable but not the lids.  They are the PERFECT size and make a nice little cup (and far easier than the paper one from the other day – really, making 4 or 5 of them, sure, fine, but 24?? No.

And the 2″ circle punch fits inside with a bit of a push to get past the ridges (which is good, they won’t fall out that way)

 

Just stick them to your base and place the cones over them.

The printable PDF has a total of 12 different patterns.  If you really want to make a full-month calendar, print it more than one, print it once then mix in the three major characters from the original and as many elves as you need to fill in.

The bottle lids are a bit too wide for the elves, but you could  stick them inside the elves, or just stick the circles to the base, for a little more variation.  I haven’t provided the circles for “treats” cause you will have your own ideas of hat your kids will like, and I’ve not added numbers, so you can mix and match as you like.  A number sticker, a stamp, a die cut  or punched circle will all work.

 

Now, if you aren’t keen on printing them print one page and use it as a template to cut the cones from cardstock and let the kids decorate them instead! I rather fancied making a Vintage one, all lace and gold and pearls and pretty bits, and may still do. Could be pretty but a big task – I’ll speak to that another day…

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More on the ongoing Google word verification issue.  I was testing a theory and I think I have more info, almost enough to tailor my WOYWW commenting so I can carry on without having to log in to Google to do it. I checked today to find that number verification was back, but I wasn’t fooled.  What I thought last time was that after commenting on a number of blogs, the word verification popped up. I thought I had typed the number in right, but word verification came with a message saying I had typed it WRONG. So today I was very very careful to check that I was typing the right thing.  All went well for about the first 5 blog comments.  On comment 6 I noticed that the number was cut off.  I typed what I saw and SURPRISE! Word verification, cause I “typed it wrong.” Now every blog is WV again.

So what I have gleaned is that I can comment on up to 5 blogs. If I see the number cut off in any way, I should step away from the keyboard.  I’d like one more test to see if indeed the number being cut off is the key – if I refresh the choice, will it stay cut off or give me a new one?  And I don’t know if giving it an hour or two will keep number verification or if I have to wait a day (-ish – might be 24 hours from my last comment not 00:00:01.)  I think it  means I can comment on a few Blogger blogs each day till I get thru all my visits.  Not giving up, I’ll work it out. And yes, I know I am being pedantic.  Sorry.  Feel free to skip these bits….