Printing Pictures on Fabric: From Failure to Success

 There are so many tutorials for printing on fabric. I have wanted to try it for so long and I figured my Grandma's 80TH birthday celebration was as good a time as any to try it out. I wanted to get her something meaningful and I figured pictures of her wedding day turned into a pillow might just be the right place to start.

 I have to tell you I tried this so many times before I got it to work. I mostly used the tutorial from here. But after putting fabric and wax paper through my printer 5 or 6 times and continually failing I decided I needed a new plan. After all Einstein's  definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Time I listened. So, this is my journey from failure to success.

First off, you need,  high quality cotton, ink jet printer 9mine is an hp deskjet D2445- nothing special), a picture from your computer and matches/candle

Matches and a candle? Weird right ? This is why:

I cut out my piece of fabric and tried to get rid of any frayed ends, but as the fabric went through the computer ironed on to a piece of wax paper, the ends would still fray and the wax paper ended up separating from the fabric. I was determined to make this work however so I decided to try something drastic.

I lit a candle and carefully singed all the edges of my piece of fabric. this effectively kept all the edges from fraying and allowed the fabric to go through my computer without the wax paper and without any further problems. I was so excited! After i had the image printed on fabric, I ironed it, picture side down to heat set it a little. I don't how good that will work, but that is what I did.

This is my piece of fabric with the burnt edges and a picture of my grandparents wedding day successfully printed. In my photoshop elements program I added the lettering on the pillow.

I think this one below is what it looked like before I burned the edges.

This was their honeymoon car.

I then cut out another piece of fabric for the back of the pillow with this pint:

Pinned it together with the backs of the fabric turned out, sewed it leaving a little hole for stuffing batting in. Turned it right side out, stuffed it and hand stitched the rest of it closed.

It turned out like this:

It is a bit faded, but it was the look I was going for. I wanted a vintage feel. For the car pillow, I wish I would have put the lettering above the car instead of below so it would show up better, but hey, live and learn, right?

Right before my Grandma got married, she had a doctor's appointment to get medication for strep throat and my Grandpa had a college final. Not the typical way you would think tho spend the morning of your wedding. They met up to walk to the wedding together and they had to cross a busy street. My Grandpa yelled, C'mon Joan!" and he darted out into traffic to cross. My Grandma remained in the side walk with her feet firmly planted, not about to run into on-coming traffic. My Grandpa was sure this was a sign that meant she wouldn't follow where he lead. But she made it abundantly clear that she would follow him anywhere, except into on-coming traffic. The result of their happy marriage was, six daughters, 21 grandchildren and 30 great grandchildren and counting.

I hope that this works for you! It really is a fun gift to give.

Happy Crafting!

XOXO,

 Amy

Personalized Candles- The Feautured Craft on Honeybear Lane

I did another craft tutorial for kids on Honeybear Lane. I got the idea from dear old Robyn Sullivan. I would love it if you could stop by and comment or "like" it so Heidi thinks I am worth keeping me around. Click here to check it out.

 It is such a fun simple craft! Visit Honeybear Lane and check it out!

Kids Craft: DIY Piggy Banks!

*** Note*** This was the guest post I did for Honeybear Lane lat month. I didn't change it because . . . because I am feeling a little bit lazy if you want to know the truth . . . 

Hello Honeybear Lane readers!

I am so happy that Heidi is letting me join you again. I am Amy, from Amy's Craft Bucket. 

I love my kids. I love crafts. I especially love making crafts with my kids. I hope you'll stop by and discover fun ways to keep little hands busy.

SO here we go:

I have had a long love affair with the dollar store. Rows and rows of discounted items that can be easily transformed into treasure really makes me excited. Well guess what, my children how just recently discovered their own love for the dollar store. My number three child is always asking me what kind of chores he can do to earn a dollar.  I love it! As far as I'm concerned its a win win situation for me. 

But where do you put your hard earned dollars? You make a cute "piggy" bank of course. Alright, so this isn't a piggy. I can't pull one over on you. So you wanna know

Alright, so this isn't a piggy. I can't pull one over on you. So you wanna know what it really is? This little bank happens to be made out of one of my old Slim Fast cans. But you can use any can you have on hand.

 You will need:
*1 Slim Fast or other can
*1 piece of scrap book paper
*scissors
*paint brush
*mod pogde or other glue
*a little hot glue helps but is optional
*twine or ribbon for embellishment
*Exacto knife to slice hole in top of lid

Start by carefully stripping the can down to it's naked self and slice a coin drop into the lid (you do the slicing not your child, please:)).

 Use the Slim Fast wrapper to measure a out how much scrapbook paper you will need to cover the can.

 12x12 wasn't quite big enough to fit around my can so I ended up cutting another little strip of paper to fill the gap that was left to close.

 I let my kids use a paint brush to smooth on some mod podge around the can and wrap the scrap book paper around it. I think I used a little hot glue to secure the ends just so we wouldn't have to wait so long for the glue to dry.

 Then we glued on the extra strip of paper that we measured out.

 So far it looks like this:

 This is the my other hard little worker and her bank:

 To finish off our little bank we tied a piece of twine around it, which I hot glued to the back of the can so that it wouldn't get lost. We also cut out a circle tag with each child's name on it in order to stake clain to what was rightfully theirs:)

We are currently in the process of making a very manly Captain America bank for my son. I would love to show you how it looks. I will feature it on my blog in the near future. I would be honored to have you stop by Amy's Craft Bucket. Let me know you came by!

Thanks for having me Heidi!

Until the next time Honeybear Lane!

Happy Crafting!

XOXO,

Amy