Before I get into the fun stuff with my new sewing machine, I would like to say a fond farewell to my Brother SE-400. It gave me many good years of sewing and I'm sad to see it go, I just don't use the embroidery like I thought I would and I needed a machine that can handle thicker layers since I'm getting more into bag making.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
My New Sewing Machine! Janome HD5000BE
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Corjl Update
Since my last post I have decided to cancel my membership with Corjl and find something else to do with my collection of digital items. I'm not sure if the market is oversaturated or if my SEO needs work (or both) but not only did I not sell anything, my items didn't get any traffic. So I'm going to turn my focus to other projects for the time being.
I recently got a new sewing machine so I think I may do a review. This is going to be a short post, but I am planning on being more active in the coming year, and hopefully have more physical products listed on my Etsy shop.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Making Invitatons with Corjl
-This is not a sponsored post.
I am a collector, I'm not sure if a lot other crafty people are, but as someone with (undiagnosed) ADHD I think it's one of my quirks. I like to collect craft supplies and that includes clip art. I have folders upon folders of clip art and I had really, nothing to do with them, well, now I do. I've started working with Corjl, and if you've ever purchased an editable item on Etsy you've probably seen listings with it before. I had used it a few times to make my kids their party invites and I didn't have any issues with the process.
Right now (as of November 2022) They are offering a 2 week free trial if you want to make some designs and give it a whirl. I have my designs tied to my Etsy store, but you can also use Shopify. When you sign up you are given access to a digital folder with lots of resources for your store listings, as well as logos.
I am going to give a very simple overview of how it works. When you open your seller account you can choose to start a new design. Once you choose your size parameters you can start the design process. Upload your images (make sure you have the proper licenses) and you can drag and drop your images into the artboard and make it look how you want. You can go to the fonts tab and choose the fonts they have available or you can subscribe to their Creative Fabrica font package. If you already have a CF subscription, you can't link them, I tried.
After your design is how you want it you need to download a copy to use in your listings. Once you do this you need to create a listing in Corjl to match up to the listing in your Shop. OH! one thing I forgot to mention was you get a DEMO of your product! Your customer can try it out and see if it works for them before purchasing, and then they can purchase right from the demo. Your demo link is on the Listing page for that particular item. I recommend trying everything out first before you publish your listing on your shop. You also attach your etsy (or shopify) listing number, to the listing in Corjl. It sounds like a lot, but honestly it's not too bad once you get used to the interface.
That's the jist of it, honestly there's a bit more to cover but if you have a ton of graphics like I do and have no idea what to do with them, this is a good way to use them and make passive income. If you give Corjl a try, let me know what you think!
Here are some birthday invites I made up using the graphics I hoard and Corjl.
Monday, January 17, 2022
Mini Faux Leather Zip Pouch Tutorial
For these pouches I have made them in mini sizes but if you want to size them up for a larger pouch the steps are the same.
All you need is
1 piece of faux leather (mine is 4"x6")
The best patterns for this are ones that have allover or multidirectional patterns, if not your pattern will end upside down on one side.
1 craft zipper
Wonder Clips (you really don't even need them)
That is it
Step 1:
With your faux leather pretty side up, put your zipper tape face down and sew together using your zipper foot.
Step 3:
Fold the other raw edge up to your zipper tape and repeat step 1
Step 4:
Open your zipper to turn the project right side out, topstitch down.
Step 6:
Trim excess zipper from both sides, if you want to and have a lighter on hand you can quickly seal the edges where you cut the zipper tape.
Step 7:
Turn project right side out through the zipper and poke out your corners.
You are done!
So simple, so cute! I love to play around with different leather/zipper combinations.Happy Sewing!
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Resin is not for me
No pictures in this post because I'm annoyed. I found something in the craft world that I absolutely hate working with. RESIN. I only worked with UV resin and only one brand, but from what I experienced, I can confidently say, I won't work with resin ever again.
It smells, it's messy, it's STICKY and just not my favorite thing. This is something I have zero patience for. I'm so impressed by the people who make it look easy because, crafty people...it is not.
My first attempt was keychains. Those weren't too bad, I used glitter with them and only did one side. My UV light wasn't adequate so I ended up upgrading but that was another issue. I had also tried badge reels but I couldn't get them to lay flat after curing and they were a mess. I guess my feeling is I have so many other projects that I have going at once and this one in particular was causing me stress and anxitey and frankly wasn't worth my time anymore. I would sit in my craft room for hours wanting to create something but had a block about it because the resin was sitting there taunting me.
Recently I have been doing a lot of cleaning out of my supplies and decided that they ( and 11 garbage bags of yarn) needed to go. As of now July 2021, there is a lot of supplies available. Contact me through my Facebook page if you are interested. Once they are gone I will update the post. I normally will take longer to see if something is for me or not, but after the last two attempts and getting frustrated I just decided it's best to walk away from it.
I will still be doing work with vinyl, still be sewing, knitting and crocheting. But as far as making keychains or anything with Resin, if you have something I've made that's going to be it. Mercifully, for my wallet, this is one hobby I won't be going any further into.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Digital Art and Procreate
To overly simplify it, procreate is a digital medium to create pretty much anything you want. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks so I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it can do. But I have watched a few tutorials and videos on YouTube and am excited to dive in further. These are two of the projects I've made so far with very limited drawing experience. I would highly recommend this app if you are thinking of trying digital art.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Bye Bye Printful
My issue was, and maybe it was just because of the kind of Etsy store I have, is that it didn't really fit in what I was looking for. My profit margin just wasn't there and I know I'm not alone. If you start off with a shirt that costs $13 and add in shipping, that shirt is costing you at minimum $17, say you are selling the shirt for $22-$25, your profit is less than $10 per shirt. Where as I can get a blank shirt from All Day Shirts for less than $2 each, cut out my own design from my vinyl stash for less than $1 and all of the profit is mine.
I don't sell a lot of shirts or physical products anymore anyway so losing the POD (Print on Demand) part of my Etsy won't hurt my sales much. In fact, my plan is to take the designs that I did have on Printful, redo and revamp some of them so they are SVG's and sell those. That way I can share my designs with other crafters and not have any of the overhead once the design is complete.
Monday, January 11, 2021
Blog Redesign!
It's been a long time, but I finally redesigned the blog! I have wanted to do it for years, but like anything that is for myself I was being too picky and indecisive so I just put it off. And finally after the dumpster fire of a year that was 2020, I decided that I wouldn't put it off any longer and did the redesign for this year.
I used elements I downloaded from Creative Fabrica for the font and the graphic elements. I ended up making some adjustments but overall I'm really happy with the new, simple, elegant look. I will be uploading new designs to the shop soon, but my design time has been cut down with having the kids home doing virtual school.
Monday, July 20, 2020
Creative Fabrica
But this post has some cool stuff in it. because recently I have discovered Creative Fabrica! This amaaazing website has literally tens of THOUSANDS of Fonts, Graphics and Craft files for you to choose from.

Friday, May 1, 2020
DIY Masks!

