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Bin Labels HTV DIY – Organize your life!

Move Complete!

Have you moved lately? Well, we just moved from Michigan to Colorado! It is lots and lots of work. And requires a lot of good organization. All of which is made better by these adorable bin labels!


If you missed me, that is where I have been. Packing. Unpacking. Packing. Unpacking. Repeat.

Having grown up in Colorado, I am happy to be back and near family again.

Unfortunately, since Colorado is so awesome and everyone else wants to be here too, housing prices are much steeper here. Not just a little steeper. I’m talking 7 or 8 times steeper! For example, coming from our lovely 6 bedroom house on 4 acres in Michigan, we will have trouble finding a condo for the same price!

 

Getting Organized with Bin Labels

Downsizing was actually some amount of fun, until we got to our apartment and realized that getting rid of half our stuff wasn’t enough! So, that is what I have been doing the past month or so. Organizing. Getting rid of stuff. Organizing is the fun part though.

Knowing this, you can see where this project came from. It was born of necessity and the desire to have my children put their toys away so that I can preserve my sanity in our new 2 bedroom living space! Thus, the idea for our new bin labels was born. Well, it was actually in my head for quite a while. It was going to be one of my finishing touches on the playroom I was working on in Michigan. Take a look at how awesome it was!

Playroom in Michigan

Alas, it was time to move on. Hopefully someone else will move in and enjoy the fun colors and the animal alphabet that I left on the wall!

Do you also have seemingly hundreds of toys underfoot? Are you constantly frustrated with different types and sets of toys getting jumbled into one big mess? Do your kids need help knowing where everything ought to go? Then you need some of these bins and these adorable bin labels!

Take Stock of Your Items

First, you need to take stock of what you are trying to organize. For me, this meant categorizing the toys in my girls’ room and putting them in different bins. Undoubtedly, they have too many toys. However, once in bins and labeled with these cute bin labels, it looks much more manageable. Also, remember to try to match the number of categories to the number of bins you have available.

Here are the bin label categories I came up with for the toys we have:

  • DOCTOR
  • DRESS UP
  • CALICO CRITTERS
  • PLAYMOBIL
  • BOOKS ON TAPE
  • LEGO
  • MUSIC
  • CARS
  • DOLLS
  • BLOCKS
  • LITTLE PEOPLE
  • DISHES
  • FOOD
  • TOOLS

In addition, I added each of my daughter’s names so that they could have a bin of their own. Next, I looked for a simple, cute design for each category. The idea was to have a cohesive looking set of images that helped my not yet literate daughters identify each bin on their own.

Most of the images I found doing a quick google image search. Some I had to work more on to get what I wanted. The font I used is called “Mail Ray Stuff”. I really like how the images turned out. I am especially fond of the cute baby on the “LITTLE PEOPLE” bin.

 

Create your Bin Labels

Feel free to use my labels and images for your own personal use. However, I do not recommend using them for commercial uses as I am not positive on the copyrights of each one.

 

REMEMBER TO CUT THESE OUT IN REVERSE ON YOUR HTV!

 

 


 

REMEMBER TO CUT THESE OUT IN REVERSE ON YOUR HTV!

 

Quality Materials

Since this was my very first Heat Transfer Vinyl project, I wanted to use the good stuff. And, from what I hear, Siser Easy Weed is where it is at. I found a roll at my local Michaels and it was on a great sale to boot! All in all, I was very impressed by the stuff. Also, it is actually much easier to weed than Oracle vinyl that I am used to working with.

So, back to the project.

Decide how large you want things and cut it out! This is on you. Then cut out each label and weed out the extra. Your image is reversed, right?

Finally, the fun part – ironing the bin labels on and seeing the results. I followed the directions on the packaging of my HTV and used a grill mat to place over the images while ironing.

Results – Bin material matters too!

If you look at my results, you can see that some of my bins turned out spectacular. Unfortunately, some have nice imprints of the iron. This was largely due to the bins themselves. My nice large fabric IKEA ones look great. No iron imprints, just clean and crisp.

 

 

My cheap polyester bins which came from who knows where, did not hold up well. Since I didn’t want to buy new bins, I just went with it. They still work. Some are just much prettier than others!

 

 

 

 

Now, sit back and admire your work. Wait, scratch that. Go get to organizing!

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Fourth of July – free name card SVG

Can you believe that June is almost gone? It has gone by very quickly for our family!

Fourth of July

Well, here I am always thinking about the next holiday and what SVG files I should create. Feeling patriotic? Great! I have just the thing for you. These little name cards would be great for labeling food at your great big 4th of July party!

4th of July Dip Name Card

Do you have any family recipes that only come out on the 4th of July? Our family has one that we like to call the “Fourth of July Dip”. Really, it is just a delicious 7-layer dip that covers a huge serving platter. I’m sure that the recipe is no secret. However, the dip is delicious and is rarely seen in our family except on the 4th of July.

4th of July Name Cards

So, what do you think of these cute little cards? I am partial to them. Since I like my projects to be as simple as possible, these cards only have 3 pieces – one for each color.

 

Free 4th of July SVG file download

And now, of course, the download. Please enjoy! As always, this is for your personal use only and I love to see pictures if you end up using it!

Note that the download will give you an SVG file which you can import into your software and ungroup to get each color separately.


 

 

Also, be sure to check out my fun STARS SVG file. Let me know how this one cuts if you try it out!

Stars

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Fourth of July!

 

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Father’s Day Cardmaking with your cutting Machine!

Well, Father’s Day is almost upon us again! Time goes by so fast it is hard to keep up with things!

Previous Father’s Day Card

Take a look at the card I made a couple years ago. My dad was always fixing my toys, working on a project, or just being a handy man. He even built me doll bunk beds one year!

So, this is the card I made for him several years ago.

 

Father's Day Card

Now, I made a new version! Complete with a the bones of the template in case you want to make your own with a different Father’s Day theme.

Father’s Day Fishing

While I do not fish and no one I know fishes, these fishing images were just too cute. Plus, Father’s Day makes me think of dads and fishing!

So, for all of you with fishermen in your lives, this card overlay svg file is for you. I haven’t had time to test cut it out, so let me know if you run into any snags.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Template

 

Well, what about your non-fisherman father?

I have you covered! If you can think of a hobby or theme that he likes, put it on his Father’s Day Card! Just download the empty template and start loading it up with files relating to your theme.

Go ahead, go crazy! Just find anything you can that is adorable and relates to your theme. Size it, spin it, and put in place. That is all there is to it.

As a tip, just make sure that your images touch the inner and outer borders and then “union” the paths. Look up tutorials on this if you don’t know how to, or let me know if you really get stuck.

 

Happy Father's Day Template


Happy Father's Day Template

SVG Download

Happy Father’s Day to all the great Father’s out there!

Download “Father's Day Fishing Overlay SVG”

Asset-1.svg – Downloaded 7098 times – 26 KB

And… be sure to check out my other SVG freebies!

 

 

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Hand Lettered Art on a Watercolor Background – Free Hand Lettered SVG file too!

DIY Hand Lettered Art Project

Welcome to my website and today’s journey through my hand lettered artwork project! Have you tried hand lettering? With all the amazing hand lettering on Pinterest and Instagram, I just couldn’t stay away. Such pretty lettering ought to be admired by imitation, in my opinion! 

Well, my hand lettering led to water brush pens and watercolors, which led in turn to watercolor doodles. Then, I saw this on Instagram. Watercolor hexagons! Perfect, I thought, I can usually make patterns and I love playing with the colors. Of course, I didn’t attempt the project free-handed, like the lady I saw as my inspiration. We’ll save that for a later date.

Instead, I drew nice little evenly spaced guidelines for myself. I used the materials listed below. These are Amazon affiliate links, but buy wherever you like! I generally buy new supplies at the craft stores with coupons. I love coupons.

Very, very relaxing, at least for me! Try to leave a little border between the hexagons. I found that it helped to put a dot where each corner ought to go and then connect the dots. You can also add a little extra color to the hexagon while it is still wet to get some fun variation!

Adding a Hand Lettered Word, Saying, or Sentiment

I don’t know if it is a craze right now or not, but hand lettering is highly addicting! For my piece of craft room artwork, I thought “Create” would be an apt word to add. I used my Pentel water brush again to letter this on another piece of watercolor paper with the plan to cut it out and put it on top of my hexagon masterpiece.

create watercolor

As a sidenote, I have also been playing with brush markers for hand lettering practice. Take a look at my Instagram feed if you want to see what I have been up to in my spare time.  Here are the pens I have been playing with (there are many more that I want to try as well!):

Hand Lettering Tools I have been playing with lately

 

After it dried, I cut the watercolor paper down a bit and stuck it on my PixScan mat for my Silhouette Cameo to cut out.

create watercolor on pixscan mat

After several tries, it finally registered and cut. While it went through and cut smoothly, it was off a bit. I took it off and played around with it a bit on top of the hexagons.

create watercolor

It would have been okay, but I didn’t really like the look of it on top of the hexagons anyhow. So, I scrapped it, and kept just the outline.

When in doubt, use Glitter!

Glitter to the rescue! I found this lovely piece of VERY THICK glitter paper in a nice dark gray. It looked like it would go well, so I set about to cut out my lettering. Does anyone know if this particular glitter cardstock is thicker than normal?

 

I have not previously cut out glitter cardstock. Looking in the materials list on my silhouette, I found and choose the “glitter cardstock” settings. After running the file through the cutter, I pulled it out. Sadly, it was not cut all the way through.glitter in my blade

So, I stuck it back in the Silhouette Cameo for another double-cut run through. Took it out, and it was still not cut through. This time I checked my blade to find it filled with glitter.

finally it cut through!

After cleaning it out, I upped the blade depth a bit and stuck it back in. Almost this time! Cleaned out the blade again. Fourth time was a charm and it looked great!

create cut in glitter cardstock

Persistence paid off and I was very thankful that it stayed aligned despite its many trips in and out of the machine. I then did a quick offset and cut a second one out of another piece of white cardstock. Isn’t it pretty?

Look at how pretty it looks on top of the hexagons! I am thrilled that the 4 times through the Silhouette Cameo paid off. Just in case you didn’t put this together, that is 8 cutting passes since it was set to double cut!

Now, it just needed a little extra depth. For this, I turn once again to my large supply of cork scraps. Use anything with a bit of thickness, I just have a lot of cork scraps lying around from making coasters!

In fact, if you need some coasters, please head over to my Etsy shop and take a look. I welcome custom orders if there is something in particular you are looking for!

[etsy-include=KabramKrafts;21231028]

Also, check out the other pictures I made for my playroom using this same technique.

Except, this time, I just sprayed the cork on both sides with spray adhesive. That seemed to do the trick nicely! Also, I didn’t get any photos of this, but I adhered the glitter cardstock to the offset white cardstock cut.

Almost Done! Now just position your lovely hand lettering on your lovely hand painted background

Beautiful! All set to frame.

A nice little glamour shot of my framed artwork next to my Silhouette Cameo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, if you were waiting for this, I’m sorry for the long post. Here is the FREE HAND LETTERED CUTTING FILE! Just click the link below and the free SVG file should download.

 

 

 

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Mother’s Day Card Making with the Silhouette Cameo

Happy Mothers Day

Mother’s Day!

Hello to all you of you mothers out there! This image of a mother and baby is beautiful, don’t you think. I really want to make it into a cutting file, of course, but haven’t captured it well enough in my attempts yet. I will share my results though if I do succeed!

Good news if you create your own cards – there is still time to get that Mother’s Day card out of your head and onto the paper for your own mother. Especially if she lives nearby!

Also, though a bit more somber, I wanted to acknowledge all the bereaved mothers out there too. There are many women who are mothers, but do not have a child to hold. This day may hold its own meaning for them as well. Please think of them this week and don’t be afraid to say something to acknowledge them and their pain. At least, this is what I have learned from an article I read recently shared by a friend who knows this pain!

Hand Lettered

On a lighter note, here is the pretty little watercolor lettering page I started this process with. Just recently I have started playing with watercolors. I just started, so don’t judge too harshly, but I am having a lot of fun! And, I am also having fun with hand lettering.

More particularly, I have discovered the water brush pen! It is a pen. It is a brush. It is full of water. Awesome.

If you want to play with one, these are the two I have currently. I think I like the Pentel one better, but I’m not sure.

  1. Pentel Medium Brush Pen 
  2. Ranger Ink Water Brush Pen Fine Detail
  3. A lot of other ones online look great, but I just got the ones I could find in the craft stores immediately. No patience here!

Simply moisten some water color ink, dip your water brush pen in and have fun.

Mom Mother Mother’s Day on the Screen

Next, I traced my lettering in Adobe Illustrator. In the past, I have used Inkscape forthis and it works well too (and is free!). There are plenty of tutorials on this around, but I may add my own at some point as well. Here is what I ended up with in Silhouette Studio at the end of the day.

Once I cut it out, I realized that the “HAPPY” and “DAY” parts of my lettering were too tiny for me to hassle with. So, I opted to just hand-letter those words in on my final cards.

Mother’s Day Card Construction Time!

Then, construct your card. Many of you, I’m sure, have more card making experience than I. However, a few layers, a little texture from my embossing folders, and these sentiments made for a pretty nice looking card.

I also cut out a few of the butterflies that came with the Silhouette Cameo (I think).

Thought I wanted this in silver, but I changed my mind. Sharpie to the rescue!
Thought I wanted this in silver, but I changed my mind. Sharpie to the rescue!

Here is my finished product and the cutting file for the sentiments too!

I made two cards. One for me to send, and one for my husband. Who knows if my mother-in-law would get one otherwise? Plus, she loves butterflies.

 

Mothers Day Card on Green

 

Mothers Day Card on Purple

If you need ideas for the card base, take a look at this card. She makes absolutely gorgeous free cutting files! Or, take a look at the pretty floral cards I made a while back. You will need to scroll to the end of this post.

And, what you might have been waiting for all along, the promised Mother’s Day cutting file!



 

And, what would a post be without a nice little picture for Pinterest?

 

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Mommy Duck and Ducklings Card


Ducklings! 

A mommy duck and ducklings just screams Spring! I am so glad that Spring has arrived and the flowers and birds have come to stay a while.

We had a little yellow duckling once. Sadly, it was a part of our failed run with guinea hens and a duck. Apparently, we have a hungry m
ink nearby good enough to weasel in almost anywhere.

Find the FREE SVG File in THIS POST

Happily, this little SVG cutting file is much more cheerful in nature. The bow, the ducklings, the flowers, it is hard to pass up.

 

Pretty Little Cards

Well, I have finally gotten around to actually cutting out this little file from a while back. Take a look at the original post for this cut file if you would like the free svg file download.

ducklings cutout

You can see the cute little results. You can also see my first experiment with watercolor for a background. While it looks nice enough, I think I have significant room for improvement!

two duckling cutouts

Sentiment?

As of today, they are ready to go on cards but haven’t been assembled yet.

ducklings in hand

 

What sentiment would you attach to these? Is there something nice and springy? Or perhaps a simple “hello”? I may try to incorporate it into a Mother’s Day card.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful Spring!

~Kristin

 

Ducklings

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Earth Day – Download your free earth day SVG file now!

Earth Day!

Does anyone here do anything for earth day? Sadly, I really don’t. However, it was a great way to come up with new ideas for SVG files. This is just a quick trace of a nice looking silhouette of the globe. It would look great on a travel scrapbook page or perhaps on an Earth Day t-shirt!

Earth Day SVG Download in BLue


In case you are interested, this is the original clip art file! I didn’t change it much. First, I did a quick trace in Adobe Illustrator. Second, I simplified it and smoothed the corners just a tad. Lastly, I widened the top line a bit to make the finished product a bit more sturdy!

 

Earth Day Clipart

 

 

 

What have you made recently? Show me your projects, I love to see them!!

 

Earth Day SVG Download by Kabram Krafts

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HOPE – free svg file download – hope for the future!

Hope.

I ALWAYS NEED HOPE!

Hope is what I feel as though I need lately. Sometimes life is heavy whether you have good reasons or not. As Easter approaches, it reminds me that there is a lot to appreciate and a wonderful source for true joy and true hope. However, it can often be hard to internalize it!

While I was going to create a lovely lettering file to give you a very nice free svg file download, I found one lovelier than I could make already in existence!


While I’m not sure where this was originally posted, everywhere I found it credited it to José. This is the location I got the image I used to create this SVG from.

Well, I HOPE you enjoy this free svg file download. It is a beautiful hand lettered expression and I would love to see it framed on my wall in the near future! Hoping all is well for you and yours, enjoy this free svg file download. Alright, I am done with the hope puns. For now.

And, while you are here, stop by and get this adorable free duckling svg file. This one also need a frame. It most definitely needs a frame.

These ducklings are Ready for Spring. Are you??

 

 

 

 

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Etsy Shop – Now LIVE!

Forgive the exclamations in this post. I have launched my etsy shop – finally – and am SUPER duper dee dooo excited!!

Etsy Shop Now Live

Click Here to see my shop front

For now, I have lots of travertine stone coasters stocked in my new etsy shop. However, I plan to add more items as soon as I can write them up. Please take a look and admire the wondrous beauty that is travertine tile! Lemonade, sadly, not included.

These coasters look nice sitting on the table, on the shelf, or in the kitchen. Simply take a look at my etsy store for all your coaster needs. Plus, they are made from natural travertine tile and will protect your furniture well.

Now go take a look at my new Etsy Shop!

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DIY Pillowcases!

DIY Pillowcase Fun

This DIY Pillowcase project was relatively simple and a great project for the licensed fabrics that we ended up with on our last outing to the craft store. Do you bring your husband along when you go to the craft store? Well, I end up bringing him because we are often out of town together when I have the opportunity to go.

Shopping with the whole Family

What happens when you bring your whole family to the craft store? This happens:

craft store receipt

As you can see, we ended up with lot of licensed character fabrics. While the Star Wars fabric is still waiting to be made into pillows for the man cave, the girls’ Dory and Frozen fabrics made it into these cute DIY pillowcases. (Do you like my awesome table? It is a giant 4 foot by 8 foot piece of melamine board!)

Since I am a beginner at sewing, I followed this lovely tutorial on My Childhood Treasures Blog. While she said it only took her about 10 minutes for each pillow once the fabric was cut, mine took at least 30 minutes each. So, your timing may vary depending on your ability, but mine still came out quite adorable.

how to make a pillowcase
Tutorial at My Childhood Treasures

In this DIY pillowcase, the cuff is sewn on all at once while the body of the pillowcase is rolled up inside. Although envisioning how all the layers work is a little tricky, the sewing itself was straightforward. For my first ever pillow cases, I was very pleased with how they turned out.

Cutting the Fabric

Also, I used my new rotary cutting tools for this DIY pillowcase project. While I got them to cut squares from my rolls of cork, they made cutting the fabric out for this project super simple! If you give a girl several 60% off coupons, she will use them. So, while I recommend you get them with coupons from one of your local craft stores, here are the tools I used on Amazon. Actually, looking at the current prices on Amazon, I see that they really aren’t that much more than getting them 60% off at the craft store. While I love the craft stores, I do feel like they mark things up significantly!!

What do you think? Do you have different methods? How about customizing them with names or applique? For a long time now I have wanted to use the Silhouette Cameo for doing applique. However, I am intimidated by the sewing half!

My adorable girls enjoying the results. No hesitation here…

Story: “If you bring your family to the craft store, they will want to buy some fabric.”

Moral of the Story: “Don’t bring your family unless you are prepared to make pillows.”