Baby Shower Gift

So, many of you have heard me talking about SVG's right? And how I use my Cricut to cut these types of files instead of purchasing lots of Cricut Cartridges. I've even designed a few of my own SVG files. But there are a ton of shops online now that sell these SVG cutting files. One fun place is called SVG Cuts. They have some adorable files and cute 3-D projects. Like these 3-D letters! So if you start seeing an abundance of 3-D letters from me, here's where I got them!

For a Baby Shower Gift I made some 3-D letters in the baby's name to go with the pink/brown color scheme of the baby's room. Hope you like!

To package it all up nice and pretty I made a box for it with another svg file from SVG Cuts called Big Boutique Boxes.  I used my shredder to make some paper filler and had the kiddos help me crumple it all up! Lol!

Well thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think!

Oh, and don't forget to check back next Friday for my 1st Design Team Project for SVG Attic!! Plus, go check out my bio on their website! CLICK HERE!! It's all so very exciting!

Guest Designer at Paper Dolls! and a Giveaway!

Thanks for coming to visit!

If you just came from the Paper Dolls then keep reading for all the details about my guest designer project.

If not, GO visit them right away, then come back! Lol!

So anyways,

I feel especially honored to be one of the first guest designers on The Paper Dolls blog! Tamara and Thienly are seriously amazing and uber talented women! I have stalked admired their blogs and creative projects for quite some time now. Seeing as how they ARE the "paper" dolls, I didn't even want to try to compete with their paper crafting skills so I went another direction with this challenge. The point is to show people ways they can use SVG's right.

Many people don't realize that you can actually cut fabric on your Cricut machine. I'm gonna show you how to do it! Bear in mind, it can be a little frustrating, and the settings that I use may or may not work for your type of fabric, but if you really want to do it, it's worth the adjustments and test cuts to get it right.

I wanted a way to "Thank" these dolls for letting me be a part of their new adventure, and also help them get the word out about their new blog. So I decided to make iron-on fabric appliques for t-shirts and I'm sending each "doll" a shirt of their own! When they wear it they will be getting free advertisement for their blog and at the same time showing off all the fun things you can make with your die-cutting machine.

**Here's the fun part, there is a shirt in it for one of you lucky followers as well!! (I'll explain at the bottom of this post)**

Now let's get down to business!

How to Cut Fabric with Your Cricut:

You will need:
Light cotton fabric
Heat n Bond - iron on adhesive ( I used a no sew, ultra hold type)
    (available at Joann's or local fabric store)
Brand NEW Cricut cutting blade
Iron
SVG's, cut files, or Cricut Cartridges

Okay, got my fabric. Check.

Got the Heat n Bond. Check.

Super Cute SVG files. Check.

STEP 1: Cut a piece of Heat n Bond to your desired size. I cut it into a
12 x 12 square to fit onto my Cricut mat.

STEP 2:  Read the Heat n Bond directions and apply (with an iron) to the wrong side of your fabric as instructed.

STEP 3: Then cut your fabric out around the square. (Ironing the Heat n Bond on first helps eliminate the amount of fraying you will have along your fabric edge.)

STEP 4: Replace the blade in your Cricut cutting machine with a NEW blade.That's very important! Adjust your settings. (For my fabric weight and Heat n Bond thickness I had to use a blade depth of 5 and pressure at MAX.

STEP 5: Load your fabric onto the cutting mat, fabric side up, and Press firmly to adhere. (Helps if you have a fairly new mat also.)

STEP 6: Load the mat into the machine and press cut. It really is THAT easy!

(If this is your first try I would recommend doing a small test cut first, checking to make sure it cut all the way through your fabric before cutting out a whole bunch of stuff.)

When it's done cutting, take out the mat and carefully lift off the pieces. I LOVE my little hook tool that came with my Cricut tool set, so I use that for just about everything. (It's even better than the spatula!)

I pulled the fabric pieces right off the Heat n Bond backing, so I had to later go back and remove all that paper backing from my Cricut mat.

I FILLED up my mat with cuts and after about the 3rd fabric my blade was already dulling. I continued using it however, and just had to snip away a few spots that didn't cut all the way out. You can see them in between the doll's dresses.

Although you could really go through blades quick doing this, I actually got a LOT of stuff cut out with one blade, and it will still be plenty sharp enough for cutting paper.  See all the cuts I got....

You could really have a lot of fun with this stuff! Now all you do is figure out where you want to apply your applique and iron it on. (Again, refer to your Heat n Bond instructions for this part.)

Here's just a few of the designs I came up with, but the  possibilities are endless!

I even made these cute fabric flowers to go on the shirts with some leftover fabric!

Looks cute on bags too!

Like my shirt?!! Now here's the cool part! You could win a Paper Dolls shirt of your own!!! All you have to do is become a follower of my blog, and leave me a sweet little comment on this post telling me you did!  I also have a facebook page, and if you come "like" me over there too you will get an extra entry for the drawing (just leave me another comment telling me you did)! See how much I like comments! Lol!

I will pick a winner (at random) next Sunday before "the dolls" kick off their next challenge, so you have to either come back to see who I announce the winner is, or leave me a way to contact you.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you like what you see, and let me know if you have ANY questions!! Hugs!

Oh, and did I mention how much I "heart" paper dolls?!!!!!!!  :-)

Cookie Gifts

Seems like when you don't have any money, the best gifts to give are edible treats! People still know that you care and that you took the time for them, and they remember how amazing your treats tasted!

Well, a bunch of events just happened and I just didn't have the funds to splurge for gifts. It was Mother's Day, and my friends birthday (on mother's day), and my sister graduated from High School, and of course Teacher Appreciation week, plus a baby shower I offered to help with. I decided to make them all some yummy decorated sugar cookies! These literally take 6-8 hours of active working time if you make this big of a batch, with this many colors of icing, and so so many tiny shapes!! I hope they all know how much I care about them, even if I couldn't get them some amazing gifts that they so deserve.

Since my last post was about Teacher Appreciation week, I'll start with these.

But I should be honest.... these didn't actually make it to the teachers. We kinda ate them instead. I had every intention of making some new ones to give them, until my family got sick and I don't feel right about giving away our sick germs along with some cookies. 

And now, in true Anna Dawn fashion, I'll bombard you with a million unnecessary pictures! Enjoy!

These little lambs were for the baby shower. I made 58 of them!! I forgot to take pictures of them displayed all cute at the shower, and I also decorated some with little dots that was probably the cutest design of them all but didn't take pictures of that either... oh well.

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I love comments so don't be shy!! Plus when you leave some love, I visit you and return the comment love! Same with followers! I've been getting a lot of new ones lately and it's GREAT!  Love you all!