The Silhouette Mint is Giving Me Life! (Review)

I recently purchased s Silhouette Mint because I love stamping and I also make a lot of handmade cards. I have been wanting a custom stamp for a long time, but I hadn't gotten around to sending my design out to have it done. So before I ordered this, I read a ton of reviews because it's on the expensive end and it has a really specialized function, so I wanted to be certain. Also this would be my first Silhouette machine, I have a Cricut Explore that I love, so I was not sure what to expect. I can honestly say I'm very impressed! The machine is very compact and lightweight, it comes with 2 stamps/stamp kits, 4 ink colors, 1 month of Silhouette Studio, and a software CD.  I have a Mac and downloaded the software from the website.

The included stamps are 30mm x 30mm and 15mm x 60mm. I used the rectangle to make a stamp for my website. The directions are very easy to follow and I was creating my stamp in about 10 minutes. The design software is easy to navigate and reminds me of Cricut Design Space, so I was comfortable after a few minutes.  I printed my stamp and then removed it from the clear wrapping.

Each set comes with a wood block to mount your stamp to and labels you can stamp to identify your image.

I inked up my stamp and only had a little trouble because my letters are so small, I'm going to ink it again later to see if that helps even out the image. 

I'm very happy that I bought this and I would recommend getting a few more stamps when you have a chance as this only comes with two. Also there are additional ink colors available, I ordered magenta when I ordered my machine. Each stamp will imprint about 50 times before you have to re-ink it, so far I've stamped about 20 images and it still looks good.  If your craft budget allows, definitely get one, happy crafting.

My First Finished Quilt!

I am beyond excited!!! I finished my quilt, in less than a week. I was originally gave myself 6 weeks to finish two baby quilts, but to my delight, this one came together so quickly that I was able to surprise the recipient this morning. I have to thank an amazing person who helped me through this, she looked at my progress everyday and gave me tips to make things easier. Without her help, I would still be trying to figure out what to do with all of these squares.  This pattern is called The Hundred Hugs Quilt, and you can find it here.

Here is how the process went down. 

Charm squares. 

Beginning rows. 

Center is done. 

Border added. 

More squares. 

Finished top with the backing color. 

Batting and backing attached and quilted together! 

Binding half done. 

Completed quilt. 

Then as a way to say thanks for the quilting help, I made this card.

I also made a card to go along with the quilt!  

Embossed mustaches with a tag. 

Then wrapped it up. 

My husband delivered it today and I'm happy to report that the mom-to-be loved it! I hope this inspires you to share some handmade kindness of your own, happy crafting!  

Making my First Quilt

Hi everyone, I am continuing to work on my baby quilt(s) and decided to make them at the same time.  So since I do not know if boys or girls are expected, I tried to make these gender neutral.  I cut 275 2.5" charm squares for the centers of the tops, which require 100 squares each. Luckily I have a co-worker who is an amazing quilter, so she talked me through the beginning of this and was even kind enough to draw me a diagram for my first rows.  In addition to the fabric, she instructed me to buy starch, spray baste, and to start my rows by chain stitching. That last piece of advice was priceless, I was able to finish 4 rows last night.

Each row is 10 squares across. 

I could not believe how quickly this came together, especially since I once spent an entire Saturday sewing and it yielded 2 sad placemats.  My coworker told me if I just worked a little everyday and then on the weekends, I could finish both quilts in 6 weeks.  When she first said it I thought she was joking, but now that I've started, I think she's correct. She suggested I time myself for this one so that I will have an idea in the future how much time I would need to make one. As of this post, I am 4 hours in, including cutting the fabric. Oh yeah, this is my first quilt, but I'm hoping one day I can make a quilt with these squares.

How amazing is this? 

I'm also still working on my cowl, just had to get started on these quilts though, hopefully both quilts and the cowl will be finished by April! I will post my progress here, happy crafting!

Demystifying Quilting

So I just got word that some folks I know are expecting babies later this year and I have always wanted to make a quilt, and here's my chance, baby quilts! I'm excited about this because now I too can be one of those savvy crafters that buys the correct thread and modestly says "A quilt" when the cashier asks what I'm making. Hahaha! Seriuosly though I have wanted to make a quilt forever but it just always seemed like such an overwhelming task, like I could not make a quilt unless it was worthy of being entered into the county fair.  I'm saying that because I feel like quilters are almost a secret society, where you have to be grandfathered (grandmothered?) in, or at least have learned the skill when you were little. I am the first person in my family to attempt quilting and the only one that knows how to use a sewing machine, it's like being first generation, but with crafts.  The difficulty in jumping in solo is that all of the tribal knowledge and nuggets of wisdom are hidden from you. Who are you going to ask about the best way to cut strips? Unless you can find a sewing circle, you're going to use my good friends YouTube and Google! Because these exist, you are in luck and you can meander through just about any crafting task with these two resources, that's how I learned to knit, by watching YouTube! In fact all of my crafts started with YouTube, knitting, crochet, paper crafting, and coloring.  So as I start my first baby quilt, I will take you on the journey with me and share my experience and anything I might learn along the way! Here are the first 110 charm squares...I need 220.

Charms squares all day. 

Luckily these babies are due in the fall, so I have time to try, make mistakes and then try again. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting! Oh, I am still working on the Veritas Cowl and expect to have it done I another week or so.

Quick Quotes Powder Puff Chalking Inks Coloring Technique

Hi everyone, Gabriela here today to show you a fun way to use your Powder Puff Chalking Inks as markers and to demonstrate how I made the butterflies from this post. I decided to make a birthday card from the sentiments I had and a sheet of Farmhouse paper, I also used a butterfly from this month's Club Q, check out the video below:

 Quick Quotes Products Used:
Powder Puff Chalking Inks
Farmhouse 101
Quick Quotes Sentiment
March Club Q

Happy crafting!