Birthday Invitation Tutorial!

I'm so excited to have Imma's birthday invitations (almost) finished! I know I went to a lot of trouble to make my soon-to-be 6 year old invitations that she probably will never appreciate.  So far everyone that has seen them (my husband and one of my sisters) has said, "Uhm, why are you doing that? You can buy already made invitations."  I know--I get that--but I like to make stuff!  So I decided to make them myself.  It has been a very long process but that's probably because I am making so many.  If you are only making 20 or so, you could knock this out in about 2 hours.  It's taken me a little longer since I'm making a lot more. . . .
Here's a tutorial describing how I made these shabby chic/vintage Alice in Wonderland birthday invitations.

Alice in Wonderland birthday invitation

You will need the following:
scrapbooking paper or cardstock with whatever pattern or color(s) you prefer
scissors and a ruler or paper crafting cutting tool/board
a Cricut or other die-cut machine
Disney Classic Cricut Cartridge featuring Alice in Wonderland
Black card stock
White card stock
computer with printer
glue stick
whole punch, preferably the kind that makes a ribbon slot
ribbon
envelopes

Step 1: Measure the size of your envelopes.  You want to make sure that the invitation will fit inside of the envelope without having to cram it in.  Since you will be attaching a ribbon to the top of the invitation, you will need some extra room, especially if you are planning to seal and/or mail the invitation. I purchased 8.75" by 5.75" envelopes from The Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby.  I really like this brand because they are durable and elegant but they don't cost too much.  I got a package of  50 envelopes for $6.99.

Step 2: Measure and cut your paper.  You can do this with a ruler and scissors if that's what you have available. I have a paper-crafting cutting board made by Elmers and Xacto which I really like a lot.  The paper I had was 12" by 12".  I decided I could get two invitations out of each piece so I cut the width at 5.5".  I cut the height to 8.25" so there would be plenty of room in the envelope. I also stopped to make sure the first piece of paper would fit into the envelope before I cut them all.  Another tip, it's easier for me to cut all of the paper one way and then go back and cut all of it the other way so that I'm not constantly moving my straight each around on the board.

The first round of cuts!

Trimming all of the paper

Step 3: Die-cut your characters.  This actually took forever because I was making so many and because I bought card stock in 8.5" by 11" instead of 12" by 12".  My Cricut has issues recognizing other sizes of paper so I couldn't just tell it to fill the sheet or it would have been cutting off of the paper.  So I had to do a little more entering of information than I would have if I would have gotten larger paper. I purchased the Disney Classic Characters Cricut cartridge (say that 10 times fast!) on eBay for about $30 just to get the Alice and Mad Hatter. I love my Cricut and I've had it for about 6 years but I have never once attempted to actually layer a character the way they describe it on the cartridge. I prefer to use black and make the outline of the character.  It still adds the details of the face and other features, it's just not in all of those colors.  I know some of the newer Cricuts have better features and if you have one and can pull that off, go for it.  But I think the "shadow" character looks classy and I really like the way it turned out.

My Cricut, cutting away!

You still get all of the detail, just none of the color.

Step 4:  I actually asked my husband to do this part, which saved some time for me and gave him the opportunity to contribute.  You will need to type up and print off the message you are including in your invitation. Again, we used 8.5" by 11" card stock in white and just put 4 of the message on each sheet.  I asked him to put a double-border around each block so I could cut on one line and still have a border left. I also had to cut all of these apart, which took a while.  I did it by hand because I didn't trust the paper cutter to such delicate work!

Step 5:  Assembly! This part is pretty simple.  Just glue your message centered onto the paper you cut earlier in step one.  Add your die-cuts wherever you would like.  I actually discovered that you can flip the Cricut die-cuts over and you really can't tell which is the front and which is the back.  This was helpful since the Mad Hatter and Alice were originally facing the same direction and I didn't like that.

Step 6: Hole-punch the top of the card and slip the ribbon through.  I cut the ribbon about 8" so I could get it through with no problem and still be able to make the bow.  I did not glue the bow down but you could if you wanted to, just to make sure it doesn't spin.

Characters added, ribbon hole punched!

Finished Alice in Wonderland Birthday Invitation!

That's it!  It really wasn't that difficult and, in my opinion, it looks just as good, probably better, than most store bought cards. I have seen some really cute invitations on Etsy and I am considering listing these. I would be able to make them for just about any Disney character and a lot of generic themes. What do you think?  Should I add them to the store? Anyone considering taking on this project? Has anyone else ever made their own invitations? I hope you found this tutorial helpful!

Tutu Tamer Tutorial!

Nothing is more annoying than a staticy, frizzy tutu!  Fixing this problem is very simple, as you will see if you watch the short video below!  This is my first attempt at a video tutorial  Enjoy!

Here are the directions again:
You'll need a spray bottle
Fabric softener
A measuring spoon is helpful but not completely necessary if you are good at "eye-balling" it
A tutu! (www.etsy.com/shop/glittertulle)
Water

The ratio is about 2 tablespoons of water per quart, or 32 oz.  It does not have to be exact.  Mix the fabric softener with the water, shake it up, and lightly mist the tutu.  Pull down on the tulle and straighten as needed.  That's it!  Repeat as needed, usually around every two hours on a day where there is a lot of static in the air!

Thank you for watching and please pass this along to all of your tutu-wearing friends!

Organization--the Key to Sanity!

Now that Christmas is over, I have a little bit of free time on my hands.  I say a little bit because, as many of you know, having two little girls is very demanding!  With time off from work, lots of new supplies, and a disastrously unorganized house, I found there was only one thing to do--reorganize! Here are some things I do to keep myself organized.  I hope they help you to stay organized, too.  If you have a great organizational idea, please post it in the comments.  You can leave an anonymous comment on this blog if you don't want to bother to sign in.

My sweet husband got me a ribbon organizer for Christmas.  It isn't big enough to fit my thicker rolls of satin but it did fit some of the ribbon I use for hair accessories.  I was able to stack the satin ribbon on the shelf and on top without it being too cluttery.  He also got me another ribbon spool holder but it was missing some pieces so I am hoping to move some of these bigger rolls onto that once he can exchange it.

It also has drawers so I put some more ribbon in there.

When that wasn't quite enough room (I have a lot of ribbon!) I utilized the drawer in our faux fireplace.  I prefer plastic shoe boxes but I also don't like to waist perfectly good objects so my ribbon will stay in this cardboard shoe box for now. My little sister got me this cute pink sewing box for Christmas.  I love it!  It has plenty of room for everything I need without being too bulky or heavy.

I have a ton of tulle and my husband ordered me some more for Christmas, but it hasn't arrived yet.  Still, knowing it was coming motivated me to re-organize my spools of tulle.  I find there's plenty of room under the shelves in my towel closet so that's where I keep my tulle.  Plastic bins are awesome for this. I would love to organize it by color but I've not quite gotten around to that yet.

I also picked up this cute vertical hanging sweater organizer from Target this summer.  It was $2.50.  Obviously, I am using it horizontally. It's a little wobbly on it's own so I put shoe boxes in it to stabalize it.  I use a lot of tulle and when I cut too much I don't like to throw it out so I keep it in a section of the pink organizer.  I can use it to make my boas.  I also have a section for extra ribbon. I just got a sewing machine for Christmas and some material so I started a section for items relating to sewing. I am a little nervous about that! And the final section is for hair accessories.  I use crotchet elastic headbands for the waists of many of my tutu's too so I have a lot of those.

I use this handy carrier to take with me to craft fairs and other places where I might need to work on the road.  It's very handy and holds a lot.  You can also see that I store my tulle bolts back here.  I don't get bolts often because I really don't like cutting the tulle both ways but when I do use tulle on the bolt I never unravel the whole thing because it's such a pain.  This way I can store it more easily.

You may have noticed some cardboard pieces stuck in the corner in the broader picture as well.  That isn't trash, believe it or not.  That's what I use to cut my tulle.  I keep cardboard in different lengths so that when I go to cut it I can just grab the cardboard in the correct length.

I have a lot of in-stock tutus, rhinestone t-shirts and hair accessories.  I like to make sure they are kept clean and organized so I have clear plastic tubs with lids in my closet.  When I finish an item I put it in one of these until I sell it. Hopefully it doesn't stay here too long!

I also have a closet in another section of the house where I keep all of the items that I only use occasionally  like yarn, scrapbooking paper, etc. I use plastic pull-out drawers for most of these items.  I find it makes it easier for me to get what I need without having to dig for too long.  Labels would probably be helpful as well but I like to move things around and I would constantly be re-labeling!

Again, I hope you have gotten some ideas from seeing how I store my "stuff."  I'd love to hear any of your great storage ideas!

We are also putting together our very first tutorial on how to keep your tutu from frizzing up!  Stay tuned for that--I'm a little nervous about getting in front of the camera but I think it'll be helpful!

Let's make a Tutu: a Tutu-Tutorial with Pictures!

In my opinion, the best thing about Christmas is watching your loved ones' faces light up as they open the "perfect" gift. For me, those perfect gifts have often been hand-made. My Grandma Imogene used to make me beautiful gifts for Christmas this year. So, you still have some time to make your little princess a beautiful hand-made tutu. Let's get started! You will need: app. 4 feet of ribbon (I prefer satin ribbon in 5/8 inch but just about any ribbon will do.) Length is app. because it will depend on the child's waist exactly how much ribbon you will need. app. 25 yards of tulle in any color(s) fabric tape measure (optional) caredboard (optional) scissors about 30-45 minutes. That's it! Step 1: Measure the child's waist. You can do this with the tape measure, or just use the ribbon. If you choose to use the ribbon, make a knot on each end where the two sides come together. So, you will have some ribbon (at least a foot) then a knot where you begin measuring, the length of the child's waist, and then another knot, followed by the rest of the length of the ribbon (again, I try to leave about a foot.) !

Step 2: Measure from the child's waist to where you would like for the bottom of the tutu to fall. This is actually optional. If you know you want a short tutu, then you'll just need to calculate for a 6 inch tutu. If you want it a little longer, 9 or 12 inches will work. I don't make any children's tutus over 24 inches and when I do, they are generally floor length on most 5T size children. Measuring is helpful but not essential. Step 3: Once you know how long, in inches, you want the tutu to be remember that you will want to double that number because your tutu needs to be at least 2 layers. So, if you want a 6 inch tutu, you will want to measure your tulle at 12 inches. Here's a tip: It is much faster to wrap the tulle around a pre-measured length of careboard and cut it that way. So, you would pre-measure 6 inches of cardboard, cut the cardboard to 6 inches, then wrap the tulle around the cardboard and then cut one end of the tulle. This will leave you with 12 inch lengths of tulle, which is exactly what you need to make a 6 inch tutu. Whether you choose to use the caredboard or not, measure and cut app. 60 lengths of tulle to the length you have decided upon. Step 4: Using a simple slip knot, tie the tulle around the ribbon. Fold the tulle in half. Make an opening at the fold (the half-way point of the tulle), place the fold behind the ribbon, and take both loose ends and slip them through the loop,around the ribbon. Pull tight. Now, the tulle is securely fastened to the ribbon and the ends are even.

Step 5: Slide the slip-knot completely down to the knot on one end of the ribbon. Step 6: Repeat until the ribbon is covered from one knot to the other. The amount of tulle it takes to cover the ribbon will depend upon a number of things: how long the ribbon is, how thick you want the tulle, how tightly you tie the tulle. Continue to add tulle until the tutu looks the way you had envisioned it.

Step 7: Use the ribbon you left on each end of the knot to tie a bow around your child's waist. As my two year old would say, "All done!"

Just a couple more tips: When I tie the ribbon on, I actually hold the loose end of the ribbon behind my knee because I can pull the knots in the tulle tighter that way. I also go back through and put a quick stitch in each knot of tulle to ensure it's not going to come off. Finally, I seal the ribbon with a candle to ensure that it won't fray. I hope you learned a lot from this first tutorial! Please message me or comment if you have any questions. You can buy these supplies from any craft store or even Wal-Mart. I also sell Tutu kits at my etsy store (www.etsy.com/shop/glittertulle). If this is just not up your alley or it seems too complicated, feel free to order one of my tutus and just tell people you made it--your secret is safe with me