Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Giveaway for New Flower Garden and Vegetable Garden Digital Stamp Sets

Hi Everyone,  

Do you like the new Blog header I made?  Here are the 2 new Garden theme digital stamp sets  Flower Garden and Vegetable Garden !  Both are jumbo sized sets like our large Sewing Digital Stamps.  To be entered to win both these garden sets just leave a comment here and tell which is your favorite set?  A winner will be announced this Monday at our June Linky Party and DT Challenge.


Here are the preview sheets included with the Flower Garden digital stamp set.  The flowers are tall with an average size of 6.5" to 9" high so you can add them to scrapbook pages, pillows and wall art, but they can be reduced to tiny sizes to fit on charms and ATC cards


I love the vase which reminds me of an old carnival glass one I own with the fluted top.
Page 3 showing the rest of the designs and 2 fonts we included with this set.

I'm going to be setting up links to some of the popular Tutorials on the side of the Blog but you can access them here on our Pintrest Tutorial Board and DT Member Sheila Rumney has created some great beginner tutorials like How to Change the Color of a Digital Stamp.  

I also love how classy the designs look just in black like on the card that DT Member Vicki Chrisman made using the free font included.


I love how Vicki added the little pearls to accent her card




Here is our Vegetable Garden Digital Stamp set with 40 separate stamps!



You can see the size of many of the images if you click on the 2 preview sheets below.
Preview page 2


 I adore this sweet card DT Member Michele Kovack posted here on her blog using our Button Up Digital Stamp Set Download. She colored the flowers with her Copic Markers and added Glossy Accents to the vase. Tip: heat set your ink before using Copics if you print the stamps on a ink jet printer.  See Digital Printing Tips Here. 
 



 Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win these 2 jumbo sets!  Talking about comments, I want to apologize if you left a comment here on the blog during the last few months (Mar 25 - May 23/13) as I accidentally deleted them all!   You probably don’t realize how much I appreciate your support and feedback. It’s what keeps me motivated. So, I want to say thank you and give you a big hug for taking the time! I have to preview comments now to stop the spam ones.

Wishing you joy and creativity!  
Sandy


See Our  CraftyVintageGirl.com Store
 Our Online Shopatron Store  (sorry No digital downloads)
Visit us on Facebook with over 5500 Fans!  
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com 
Our Websitehttp://www.craftysecrets.com
    

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

 
 Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4


USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Free Summer Printable, Garden Drafts and Tutorial for Storybook Doll

Hi Everyone!

It's been so long since my last post  but we've started working a 4 day week and then Monday was a holiday here (Victoria Day) and then a flu bug hit.  I do have a great gift for you - our 2013 Summer Free Printable! Also, scroll down to see drafts of our Garden Stamps (almost done) our Coloring Contest Details and my Doll Pillow Tutorial for our Beauty and Beast Double Sided Doll.

With the 'Keep Calm' popularity I thought this would be a great freebie. It's large enough to print and frame as a little piece of wall art or add to a garden tote or apron.  Simply left click on the image with your mouse a couple of times until it gets as big as possible and right click on the image with your mouse to save it to a picture file.  Of course it's for personal use only but please feel free to share this link with your friends.

I would like to say our Garden Digital Art Stamp Sets are all ready - but they still need a few more images and words added.  Here's the DRAFTS so you can have a peek at all 4 sets. There will be 3 large downloadable sets for $9.95 each and a small adorable set for $3.95.

The first will be our Flower Garden Set. The flowers are tall so you can create wall art, scrapbook pages and decorate larger garden and home decor projects - but you can reduce the size or crop the flower heads to use on your handmade cards, gift tags, etc. I've always wanted a set like this so you can change the color of the images and you don't even need to color them. You can see DT Member Sheila Rumney's Tutorial on 'How to Change the Color of a Digital Image' here on her Blog.  Sheila Has some fantastic step by step Digital Tutorials and you can also visit our Tutorial Board on Pintrest with a bunch of links!

The Vegetable Garden Digital download is shaping up to be awesome with big etchings of vegetables and cool typography and garden tools.  We just need to finish working on the other designs and words. There will be a different seed package on both the Flower Garden and Vegetable Sets.

This set will be called Garden Memories but it still needs some garden journal words and images.  There will be a 12" long fence you can add to a scrapbook or journal page and more pretty images!
If you have any ideas for a sentiment or poem to go with this Flower Girl Digital Stamp Sets please leave a comment!  I made a HUGE mistake yesterday and accidentally deleted over 2 months worth of comments here on the blog! I need to start to check all the comments first to stop the spam from going on the blog. I really love your comments and feedback!!!


Okay, here's my tutorial on how I made a pillow doll with our Beauty and Beast Printable Download. I was embarrassed with my coloring because I just used chalk, so it's not beautifully colored with art pens or paints but it was easy and do-able if your worried about coloring. Here are the 2 pages with images to start.  

We are going to have a COLORING CONTEST if you are interested.  You only need to color the dolls, you don't need to make them. The winning artwork will be turned into fabric on Sponflower and winner's will receive the fabric to make their doll and a $25.00 Gift Certificate.  Deadline mid June.


If it this was a PNG digital stamp and you wanted to change the color, here is Sheila's PNG Tutorial - but these are JPG files so I'm going to show you how to change a JPG color using Photoshop Elements. I changed the color of words before using the free Paint program and it works great with continuous lines, but these have a bunch of little lines so they need to be done differently.


Open up your first page in Photoshop Elements and pick the color you want to make your stamp using the slider on the color palette. If you can't see the palette, click on the drop down window menu on the right.


Select the Magic Wand tool on the left while holding down the shift key and click on the black dog with the magic wand tool. Make sure to un-check the “Contiguous” box above as shown in the screen shot below, top right, is NOT checked. You should have 'marching ants' moving around all the black lines now.


Click the EDIT button on top — and the 'Fill Selection' from the drop down menu and then the 'Fill Layer' window will open. Use: Foreground Color, Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%. Then click on OK and you will see the black turn to brown (or whatever color you've picked).


You could use iron-on transfer paper to add the images to fabric but there is an easy way to cheat and use Freezer Paper (the stuff you buy at the grocery store).  It's waxy on 1 side and when you iron the waxy side to some scrap fabric and it will make it stiff enough to feed through your printer - so you can have printable fabric sheets! Not washable unless you have a laser printer


I cheated and bought 50 sheets of Freezer Paper on amazon.com.  I used my paper trimmer to slice off the extra fabric so I had both 'Beauty and the Beast on two 8.5 x 11" sheets.


I have an inkjet printer so I let my sheets sit for a day before coloring them but if you are in a hurry just use a heat tool or hair dryer.  If you plan to use liquid pens or paints you should do a test first, or you can spray your fabric with Krylon Matt Sealer to seal the printer ink. Laser printers have permanent ink.  NOTE:  Later I sprayed my colored sheets with Krylon Matt Sealer, first with a very light coat and when dry a second good coat to seal everything.


I used Chalks with a sponge and a Dove Blender Pen to color the little stuff.  Blender Pens have a mix of water and glycerin and you just wipe the pen tip on scrap paper until it runs clear before picking up a different color.

I had a doctors appt and was too chicken to use my new machine and mess up, so Cindy (our graphic designer and talented quilter) was a sweetie and sewed the 2 pieces I cut with a seam allowance inside out. Later, I turned it right side out and stuffed it with filling using a chopstick to push stuffing into the arms and legs. I found a new pillow at the thrift store with super soft great stuffing for $1.00 and used it. Later hand stitched head closed.


Here my finished 'Beast' doggie with buttons on his shoes, shirt and lapel. I threaded the buttons but used a glue gun to attach them. My doll is more for show but sew button on if a young child is playing with the doll. 


Here is my finished 'Beauty' side and check out her voluptuous figure! I've since pushed the stuffing around so the Beast has the tummy now.  I made her a little hair bow and rosette to wear and used a wire clipper to clip some pins down a bit and glued them on for earrings, shoe buttons and her purse clasp.


The best part is the doll is double sided and it was fun to add the embellishments.


The other $2.95 Double Sided Storybook Dolls include Puss and Boots,   Jack and Jill,  and  Goldilocks and Baby Bear.

Until next time,

Wishing you joy and creativity!  
Sandy

See Our  CraftyVintageGirl.com Store
 Our Online Shopatron Store  (sorry No digital downloads)
Visit us on Facebook with over 5500 Fans!  
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com 
Our Websitehttp://www.craftysecrets.com
    

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

 
 Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4


USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

New Printable Storybook Dolls, Garden Stamps Coming, Lucky Linky Party Ladies!

Hi Everyone,

Please accept my apologizes for not posting results yesterday for our May Linky Party.  I wanted to get our Storybook Printable Dolls finished and show you a sample but my sample is delayed because we are up to our necks in some amazing GARDEN theme Digital Stamps and color Printables!

We had 23 entries for the Linky Party, not as many as I hoped but some fantastic samples and all the ladies won a $6.00 gift certificate and this month's random.org winner is #7  Cammie Murphree!  We can only do 1 coupon per person but you can enter extra samples (limit 5 now) and increase odds of getting the jackpot.  We need more entries to keep this going but I can tell our traffic has gone way down lately.  Gee - it's probably because I'm bad at posting but I get so caught up working on designs.
 I'm super excited to show you our new collection of Storybook Double Sided Dolls!  UPDATE: They are now added to our www.craftyvintagegirl.com online store and are $2.95 per set.  There are 4 to choose from and at 300 dpi they print about 10"H x 7"W, but you can increase the size if you want them larger.  

We are going to be having a coloring contest with the winning artwork part of our NEW Products sold as FABRIC on  Spoonflower.com ! Scroll down to see info and I will come back and update the details and date here.  UPDATE: I've Added the Links!   Okay - I'm totally in love our Beauty and the 'Beast' Dolls and this cute puppy with his little tongue sticking out, but I'm partially to doggies.
Here's the Puss and Boots Set and it looks like Puss has his tongue out as well.  The dolls would make great double sided cards, cute puppets, iron-ons for the front and back of T-shirts, stuffed pillows and fun coloring pages for kids of all ages! I didn't remember the story of Puss and Boots very well but our graphic designer Cindy googled it and filled me in.
 Here is Goldilocks and Baby Bear. I love all the details like her pendant, lace outfit and Mary Jane shoes. They would be cute with some paper piecing but I really think they would make the most adorable double sided stuffed pillows or puppets and you could add some 3D elements, like flowers on her hat, a bow tie for Baby Bear, etc.
 The Jack and Jill set is pretty cute but I'm going to have Cindy add their names across their hats before we upload them to the store. Update: DONE.  If you wanted to add other names you can erase them using all kinds of image editing software such as 'Paint' which many PC computers have pre-installed, or download paint.net for free.

Click on the image below to read more about our upcoming Coloring Contest and the winning artwork will be part of our NEW PRODUCTS in FABRIC, DECALS, WALLPAPER and more at Spoonflower.com    Below is what they would look like if you sew them right together but you can also leave space. 

If you want to print the dolls on fabric there are a couple of options. Keep in mind that inkjet printers don't print washable ink on fabric, you need a laser printer. You can have laser copies made at a copy center. You could also use inkjet iron-on transfer sheets.  I'm going to cheat and use freezer paper (iron waxy side to blank fabric to make it stiff enough to print on) and print the images on fabric and then spray it with Krylon Mat Sealer before and after I color it.  I will post details and photos but you can read about my freezer paper image transfer HERE when I made a skirt for my dress form.

  
UPDATE:  I came back to add a couple of photos of the sample I'm making and I will post a full tutorial sometime this week. I'm using freezer paper to easily transfer my image onto scrap fabric so it will be an inexpensive gift idea I'm  also going to experiment with coloring the designs printed on my inkjet printer  (which most of us have).

You can buy freezer paper at many grocery stores but I cheated and bought a pack of 50 pre-cut sheets at amazon.com to save time.  TIP:  Cut fabric a bit larger than sheet and iron the 'WAXY SIDE' to blank fabric.

 
 My niece and nephew are already smitten with the designs and each want to color the characters and have me make them a puppet or pillow doll. I'm going make a stuffed doll first. When you iron the waxy side of freezer paper to a printable friendly fabric it will make it stiff enough to feed through most printers.   I also begrudgingly bought a silicon mat from amazon (sorry, can't link to the pink one) but have to admit I'm so happy with it!  I don't need to drag out the iron board or towels ever again!  Plus, I can bake on it.


I had Cindy, our graphic designer) change the color of the B&W files to brown in Photoshop. Huh- don't you wish you had a Cindy, but there are all sorts of free programs that will change an image to sepia for free  (check your photo editing program) and I will post a more in depth tutorial this week.  I just wanted you to see how cute the images look on fabric.   I wonder if we should offer them in brown for people who want to click and print?


I have to share a cute photo with you.  We bought a little fairy skirt with wings at Ross Dress for Less for my neice's last birthday and the sunshine inspired her to get in  full 'fairy gear' the other day.  Gee... now I want to do a fairy doll!
 



 We should have some NEW Garden goodies to add later this week and all I can say is - it's all looking amazing!

Wishing you joy and creativity! Sandy

See Our  CraftyVintageGirl.com Store
 Our Online Shopatron Store  (sorry No digital downloads)
Visit us on Facebook with over 5500 Fans!  
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com 
Our Websitehttp://www.craftysecrets.com
    

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

 
 Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4


USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230