Blog - TaylorMade

Preppy Blue Laundry Room

September 16, 2021 By Taylor Leave a Comment

It’s finally here… The Laundry Room Reveal! I wasn’t sure that calling it The Horse Laundry Room had a great ring to it but I settled on the Preppy Blue Laundry Room ;) When we moved into this house, the Laundry Room was downstairs in between the kitchen and garage, great place right? But big problem… this foodie family of five bought a house without a pantry haha! So when we put an offer on the house that was a big question mark. But I had faith that we could move the laundry area somewhere else and install a pantry where the laundry room was.

Here is the previous laundry room downstairs when we moved in. Some points of interest might be the overhead box light, the paint color itself and the fact that the door opens right in to where the washing machine is supposed to go. Im standing in the kitchen for this picture so this felt like an obvious pantry (more pics on that later!)

The next question was where to move the laundry room. Part of the (list of) reasons we moved was a lack of storage and this house has a ton! We have so many closets and each closet is so much bigger than the one we moved from. There was a huge 11′ x 10′ storage area off of the playroom upstairs and although my no storage soul LOVED it… we really have tons of closet space now! I just hoped this could be the spot. Meet the giant closet…

We had our contractor out and guess what!?… this could be the place! I started working on the design for our kitchen before this room (although we did start the laundry room first so the pantry would be in place) and I narrowed it down to green or cornflower blue for the kitchen. I decided the kitchen needed to be green but I couldn’t stop thinking about the blue. Blue makes sense in a laundry room right? Blue > water > washing > clean. Done.

I knew I wanted blue cabinets, gold hardware and white countertops. A buffalo check floor seemed perfect since I have always wanted one somewhere; so… all that was left was the wallpaper. I searched for something that would go with the floor and the blue and then I found THE wallpaper that made the whole room. We had already bought the paint and it somehow it magically was a perfect match… a true design miracle. Got it narrowed it down to these 4 blue colors (all Sherwin Williams) and settled on Regale Blue.

Then it was time to start… we have remodeled two kitchens, a pantry and now, this room and we always do the demo ourselves. 1. it saves a few thousand dollars (which means more wallpaper for me haha) and 2. it’s actually super fun haha! This time the kids got to help… a family affair. We removed the shelves, baseboards and carpet. The very next day the plumber came to add a water and gas line. Then was the electrician who added 4 canned lights vs the little single bulb in the middle of the room. He also added several plugs where the countertop was going and the correct type of plugs for the washer and dryer. Lastly the sheetrock crew came and patched everything up.

Next, the carpenters did their thing! They made a ton of progress everyday and honestly it went faster than I thought it would! Our contractor goes piece by piece and section by section and asks what kind of spacing we want which is amazing! Start to finish the crew took 6 weeks to do the entire laundry room!

For the flooring, I knew I wanted the buffalo check/plaid look and I couldn’t find actual tile that had a graphic pattern for that so we created one. I quickly realized that in order to create a pattern you must have the exact same tiles from the exact same brand. I was finding white, grey and black easily but they were different thicknesses, different finishes (some more matte, some more shiny) and different sizes. So, I walked in to a local flooring store that was brand new at the time and explained what I was trying to do… they opened a design book and flipped right to a page where they have white, grey and black tiles all in the same brand, size, texture and thickness!!

When you make your own buffalo check pattern its essentially a row of black and grey then a row of white and grey. So, you need to find your total area then your ratio will be 50% grey, 25% white and 25% black. The flooring crew laid it all out and then we went with a grey grout. I LOVE the way it turned out!

For the countertops… I knew I wanted to use this quartz.. this one was a runner up option for the kitchen in our last house and I just love it! The countertops are kind of hard to photograph but they are so sparkly and pretty!

After they were done it was time for the best part… the wallpaper! I can’t believe how much the blues matched and how much to tied the room together! This is probably my current favorite room in the house! If you have to do laundry daily you might as well feel happy about it right!? Horses to the rescue. I have to say one of my favorite parts is the multi basket shelf situation… I saw an inso pic on Pinterest and that was my one must have in here! The whole system runs so smoothly and is much improved from my old way (a volcano of laundry about to erupt on “the chair”).

I will link all the sources below an as usual email or DM me for any questions!

Sources:

Paint Color – Regale Blue Sherwin Williams
Tile – Casablanca by Roca Tile (Ordered through iTile TX) in 8″ solid
Countertops – Silestone Quartz in Stellar Snow
Wallpaper – Katie Kime Horse & Tassel
Hardware (Knobs)- Amazon
Hardware (Pulls) – Amazon
Big Steele Laundry Basket – The Container Store
Small Stackable Laundry Baskets – The Container Store
Doorknob – Amazon

Dining Room Reveal (with Photowall!)

January 10, 2021 By Taylor Leave a Comment

I’m so excited to share the first room in our new home that is complete(ish); welcome to the Dining Room Reveal! If you have been following along on my Instagram account (@taylormadecreates) then you know this past summer we bought a house straight out of 1990 and have been working hard to make it our own! My plan of attack was to tackle the easy rooms first that didn’t need as much help, so we started with the kids rooms, Craft Room and Dining Room. I knew I wanted wallpaper in this room so I was super excited when Photowall reached out to me for a partnership! (And it’s your lucky day because I have a coupon code to share at the end of the post!!!)

Dining Room Reveal with Black Floral Moody Wallpaper

It’s no secret how much I love wallpaper and at first glance I knew I was going to love Photowall because they have prints that I have never seen and designs that are super unique (which is also something I love). A lot of the wallpaper companies carry the same lines and designs but these were different (in a good way) so I was in! I was looking for something a little more formal and maybe even a tad moody in here. When we looked at the house I loved the molding treatment on the bottom half of the wall but everything else was pretty dated so I just had to spruce it up. Here is a “before” picture the day we looked at the house:

When we moved in we had the bottom half of the wall painted solid white… painting the molding the same color as the wall it is on makes it a little more modern in my opinion so we started there then I headed to Photowall to pick out the wallpaper for the top half of the wall. This room has 3 full walls then the 4th wall is just a few feet as it’s open to the entryway. We wanted to wallpaper all 4 walls and the way Photowall prints their wallpaper it made it perfect for this room… more on that later!

I spent a few days looking for the perfect wallpaper then I narrowed it down to three. Botanical Morning (left), Budgies Offwhite (Center) and Stunner Peachy (right). I loved all of them and honestly the two I didn’t choose felt a little more “me” but I wanted to choose something different and the black background with florals checked all the boxes! The flowers are a little unexpected the way they are all laid out and y’all know I love unexpected! The second picture down below is the wallpaper on the actual wall so it’s even better and more vibrant in person!

They always offer free shipping and it was super fast… but now to the best part! Photowall prints their wallpaper like no company I’ve ever worked with… when you choose your wallpaper you type in your wall’s width and height, so in my case I had the same height for all 4 walls (above molding to ceiling) but then I added the width of the 4 walls together. They then print it panel by panel, so for example we had 28 panels, which were all already the correct size! This is so smart because you don’t have to worry about measuring and accounting for the drop on the pattern or account for any waste. Each panel is clearly marked for you and you can just cut where the cut line is and line each panel up next to each other, one after another. Here is a picture of the top of a panel that is marked.

I had a few rooms that needed wallpapering so we hired an installer but the instructions and the way the panels are printed made it seem like I totally could have done it haha!

I really love the way it turned out! It’s a tad dramatic and still fun and eclectic and so perfect for the space. Speaking of perfect for the space… I’m very obsessed with the light fixture! I will link everything at the bottom of this post :)

And for making it to the bottom of the post you get a reward!!! I have a coupon code for 25% off any wallpaper, mural or print at Photowall! You can even print your own photo or artwork so the possibilities are endless! The discount code is taylormadecreates2021 and if valid on everything for 30 days! Special Thanks to Photowall for partnering with me on the Dining Room! Let me know if you have any questions (or need helping picking out your wallpaper ;)

Wallpaper: Botanical Morning from Photowall

Table: World Market

Rug: Amazon

Light: Lobster Plus

Candle Holder and Candles: DIY Inspired by Sugar and Cloth and Candles are from Amazon

10 Things you didn’t know about Cricut Design Space

April 17, 2019 By Taylor 2 Comments

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

One of the most common things I hear from people when they get a new Cricut Machine (besides “I haven’t taken it out of the box” haha :) is that they are scared of the Cricut Design Space software and that they won’t know how to use it. Well I hear ya, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! And I’m going to dive in and show you 10 things you didn’t know about Cricut Design Space….

1.Cricut Design Space is extremely user friendly! I am here to tell you guys… if you just turn it on and open Design Space you will be shocked at how easy it is! I used a Silhouette machine for years and the software has quite the learning curve, I was still learning the features years into owning that machine. I honestly felt very comfortable with Cricut Design Space within an hour or so. When you open Design Space, you will see tons of ready made projects, ideas and tutorials but don’t get overwhelmed (we will come back to that) but for now just press that plus sign on the left where it says “New Project”. This will be your blank canvas for all of your creating!

2. Cricut Design Space is a web based software! That means instead of having to download software that lives on your computer it looks just like any website you visit. The great news about this is that you can access it anywhere at anytime when you are online and you can switch between computers and devices. This also means they have an app for your phone or tablet and let me tell you I LOVE the app! I can create something while I’m waiting in car rider line then pickup right where I left off when I get back home. If you have the Cricut Maker you can connect from any device (like your phone or tablet) because the machine is bluetooth.

3. The Template Feature! This feature is so cool and I use it all the time! It is at the top left corner of Design Space. What does this feature do you ask? Well… Design Space has tons of “blank” items that they have measured for you so you can insert a template for lets say, a t-shirt or a hat onto your canvas and it takes most of the guess work out of measuring. These templates won’t be cut or printed but just are an invisible layer for you to place your project on to play with the spacing etc. Here is an example of their Tote Bag Template, super helpful!

4. Ready Made Projects!! This is something I had no idea even existed before I opened the software…. there are THOUSANDS of projects that are available in Cricut Design Space! Some are included with the Cricut subscription or you can pay as you go, but hundreds are free! The projects are so fail proof because they already have the files, patterns and tutorial loaded in the software so when you choose a project the whole thing pops up on your canvas with exact instructions, pictures and materials! You can also customize any of the projects. This project is for a mermaid tea towel but I think it would be so cute as a little girl’s tee so I could just adjust the dimensions and even the colors.

I used the Project Feature to make these DIY Scarf Tees a few weeks ago!

I also used the customize feature in projects for a balloon garland for my son’s Wild Animal Party. I found a project in Design Space that had the cut files for tropical leaves but one of the shapes didn’t work and I also didn’t need the stands to be cut for them so I just left those out.

5. The Image Feature! this is a feature in Design Space that is separate from the project feature. Where the project feature has multiple directions and steps and shows you from start to finish how to make a project… the Image feature is just that… tons and tons of images that you can add to any project! You can browse or use the search box which I love! The first photo below is what comes up when you click on the Image Tab and it is updated daily. The second photo shows what came up when I searched for “Unicorns”. You can find the search tab (along with sorted categories) in the top right hand corner.

When I was working on my son’s Wild Animal Party I used the search feature for finding a cut file for the shirt I made him.

6. Tons and tons of Fonts and Text! I like to consider myself a font snob but I was happily surprised when I found that Cricut Design Space has some great fonts! My friends at Pretty Providence actually just did a post about their favorite Cricut Fonts and how to group them for projects and it’s a great read! Below are a few of my go to fonts but like I said they have hundreds. Not only do they have cut fonts but also print fonts too which would be super fun for using the print and cut feature or using colorful pens and drawing straight on your scrapbook pages!

I also recently started playing around with the Text Curve feature! The feature is located in the top toolbar and this is also where to can play with the letter and line spacing.

Fonts are not only used for vinyl or paper, I love to use my rotary blade to cut fabric letters and sew them on to a project! I made this Custom Pillowcase Project using the font feature!

7. Make things super custom with the Upload Feature! This is also something I have been using a ton… this is where you can upload photos or SVG files you have created, bought or found outside of Cricut and import them into your design. The Design Space software is actually really great if you find an image you love, you import it and it helps turn it into a nice clean cut file. I like to use this feature for mixing Cricut fonts with hand lettering too!

8. Group your mats by color! This feature is SO cool… you can create a design or use one from Design Space and instead of having to split your design apart manually, it does it for you by color! Take this rainbow that I found under “images” for example… it knows the size of each color band and groups each color together and will guide you during the cutting process and tell you which color to insert into the machine next! Something else that just about blew my mind is called “color sync” and is located on the top right hand corner of Design Space. Let’s say you have a complex design with lots of colors but you only have 5 vinyl colors. You can group the different color segments together creating only 5 colors for your vinyl. Super smart!

9. Contour feature! This is also something I use a lot especially with the “images” tab and the “upload tab”. This feature allows you to hide or take away any portion of a design. All you have to do is make sure your design is ungrouped and then at the bottom right hand corner of Design Space choose “contour”. For example if I love this mermaid image but didn’t want the trident and starfish I can use this feature by choosing which motifs to make disappear.

10. Saving Projects Publicly! I love that you can save projects publicly so you can share them with your friends or on your blog. This feature is amazing because not only can you share them with others, but you can also browse the Cricut community for projects that others have shared! This is some wall art that I made for a bathroom stall at my son’s school and I shared it to Design Space!

Please let me know if you have any questions at all about Cricut Design Space! I think it’s super user friendly and the key is just diving right in… you can’t go wrong!

Wild Animal Party

April 3, 2019 By Taylor 2 Comments

My boys are at the stage where a party at home just isn’t as cool as it used to be, they love party places like the trampoline park or an indoor playground. There are definitely some good things about that, like leaving the mess for someone else am I right? But the party planner in me cringes at the thought of it because how will I have fun decor haha?! Thankfully, 8 and 9 year old boys don’t care about party decorations but I still really love a theme and I really enjoy decorating. So, when my son told me he wanted a Wild Animal Party at a play space I thought… challenge accepted!

Thankfully the place we booked did have private rooms, but I kid you not the employee on the phone told me I would have under five minutes to decorate! I mean… I am speedy but not that speedy. I decided I would just keep it suuuuper simple and have everything done ahead of time. If you follow me on IG (@taylormadecreates) then you know that includes my husband helping me carry a balloon garland into the building haha!

Speaking of balloon garlands, I get a ton of questions about them general. Apparently I can’t have an event without it involving balloons haha, so I am going to work on a FAQ balloon post that will be coming soon. But, this one was super simple! I ordered a pack of mixed animal print balloons from amazon and a pack of dark green and lime green balloons. I used balloon tape and my trusty balloon pump and just popped the balloons into the balloon tape. Then I used my

My son loves wild animals so last year I grabbed these animal cutouts at the target dollar section although I didn’t have a plan for them at the time. I haven’t seen them recently but I did find something super similar at Oriental Trading Co online. I used double sided tape and just taped them to the wall… remember I had 5 minutes :) I also used a disposable table cloth under a runner we already for the table.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to bring in a ton of decor, so I went ahead and got animal print gift bags… party utility part decor! I honestly never really use gift bags, I usually love to do something homemade for party favors, but my son really wanted gift bags… birthday boys can be so demanding ;) I used my Cricut to cut the boy’s names out on the bags.

Speaking of birthday boys and their requests, my son really wanted a “wildcat” shirt. So I… you guessed it… used my Cricut to make him a birthday shirt. I found a cougar silhouette online and used metallic silver heat transfer vinyl on a yellow shirt. When we got to the party space and they told me we were assigned to the “yellow room” and I felt like the design gods were really helping me out haha. Unrelated… I bought this yellow shirt in a pack on Amazon and my boys have loved all of these shirts!

Last but certainly not least is this amazing cake. My mom is a very talented baker and I am definitely not, so early on I started asking my mom to make my kids cakes and now it is a big tradition at our house! My kids turn their orders in weeks in advance and she has even been known to “practice” to perfect her designs! This year we told her the theme and she came up with quite the masterpiece! Can you even handle the cheetah icing?!

She made a triple layered zebra chocolate and vanilla cake with salted caramel buttercream cheetah icing! It really stole the show.

Overall, it was a great party. I survived the five minute party prep, and somehow managed to include a balloon garland and gift bags haha! I know our boy had a great time and that is really all that matters ;)

Sources:

Custom Pillowcase Tutorial

March 7, 2019 By Taylor Leave a Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

A few weeks ago my sister asked me to make my niece a custom nap mat that needed to be the size of a pillowcase. I knew just what to do! I used to make these Custom Pillowcases by hand (!) but with my new obsession over my Cricut Maker and the rotary blade attachment I whipped this one up in under an hour! This would make a great gift for a kid birthday or a new mom to be… I also think adults would love one too. I mean, who doesn’t love something with their name on it?!

Here’s what you need:

a pillowcase (source for this one HERE)
fabric scraps (size will depend on the size of your pillow but I made sure mine were at least 6″ x 6″)
double sided interfacing
Cricut Maker
Cricut Rotary Blade
Cricut EasyPress 2
Sewing Machine

Choose some fabric scraps or pieces for the letters in the name and then you will want to decide on how tall the letters will be. I made my letters about 5.5″ tall so I just made sure all of my scraps were around 6″ x 6″.

Next, we need to iron the scraps. This is one thing that I love about the Easypress 2, it is a little larger/more square than an iron but just as easy and actually much quicker! You can read my honest review about the Cricut Easypress 2 HERE.

Then press a piece of fusible interfacing to the back of the fabric scraps. I like Wonder Under by Pellon. Be sure that the interfacing is a tad smaller than the fabric so interfacing doesn’t adhere to your EasyPress Mat. You will press it on for about 30 seconds and once it is cool, peel the back side of the interfacing off. You will know you did it right if the back now looks shiny.

Now here comes the fun part! We are going to cut the letters out using the Cricut Maker and the Rotary Blade attachment. I love using the Snap Mat Feature in the Cricut Design Space for this… if you haven’t used this feature yet you HAVE to try it, its pretty life changing!

Start out by placing as many fabric scraps (right sides up) as you can on your Fabric Cutting Mat and leave just a little room around the scraps.

When you open the app on your phone you can start by writing out the letters you are going to use for your pillowcase. My niece is named Collin so I plugged those letters in individually. Add each letter one at a time so you can move them freely in the next step.

Place your fabric mat with the scraps on it, on a flat surface. When you have the letters written out in your canvas choose “make it” in the bottom right hand corner and on that next screen that is when you will see the option for “Snap Mat”. Choose the Snap Mat and you will see a square that is shaped like your mat and your camera will open. Line your Cricut cutting mat up with the mat guidelines. The app will pick up the image and that will become your new background on your working canvas.

What is so cool about this is now you can place your letters EXACTLY where you want to on the fabric… you can line a pattern up perfectly or do fussy cut letters or quilt blocks, the options are endless! I was using pretty large letters so I had to split my fabric and letters into two groups. See how I was able to get a little part of everything on the blue floral fabric by moving the “C” around?! So cool!

Load your fabric into your Cricut Maker. Use the Rotary Blade and cut your letters out. Look at those sharp lines!!! Seriously so satisfying every time haha!

Find the center of your pillowcase and place your letters where you would like them. A trick I learned to mark the center of the pillowcase easily is to fold it in half then in half again and press that corner for a few seconds and it leaves a perfect little centered crease.

Once the letters are in place it is time to press them on to the pillowcase. The interfacing is already adhered to the back of our letters and the back of the interfacing is already pulled off (remember we did that before cutting the letters on the Cricut Machine). It’s always a good idea to preheat the surface a little before pressing anything on to it. I used the Jumbo EasyPress 2 for this part.

After pressing, your letters should be very secure at this point but after a few washes they would come right off so we are going to sew around the edge of each letter.

Sew 1/4″ around the edge of each letter, don’t worry about it being perfect!

And in under an hour we have an amazing Custom Pillowcase/nap mat cover that is totally machine washable!

DIY Scarf Tees with the Cricut EasyPress 2

March 6, 2019 By Taylor 1 Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I have been wanting to jump on the neck scarf trend forever but honestly I just don’t know that I’m a neck scarf girl. When I saw this project for Scarf Tees in the Cricut Design Space I pushed it right to the top of my to-make list!

I have been DIYing custom shirts forever with an iron, which is doable but not very effective so, last year I purchased a heatpress machine. I have really liked it but I will say it is very bulky and in a small craft space might not work. When Cricut came out with the Cricut EasyPress 2 I was super curious and last month I finally got my hands on not 1 but 2 of them!

My first question was what does the EasyPress do that my heatpress machine or iron can’t? After playing with them for a few weeks now, my best way to describe it is that they combined the best features of each a heatpress and an iron and packaged it in one machine! The EasyPress has the heat capabilities and speed of a heatpress but the convenience of an iron.

The EasyPress has an edge to edge heat plate that will get up to 400 degrees with totally even heating. This is the problem with making custom tees with an iron… the heat source is usually in the middle of the iron so you are not getting a consistent temperature and you end up with peeling vinyl. I had a learning curve with my heatpress and it is also pretty big. I have to store it on the floor in my craft room and it takes up a lot of real estate. If you don’t have a big workspace the EasyPress would be perfect for you because I can actually store it right on my shelf. It is also portable, which would be so fun for showers or girls nights where there is crafting involved!

Cricut has an interactive online guide HERE that takes all of the guesswork out of it. On the guide, you enter the of type of material you are working with and what medium it is going on and it tells you the temperature and time needed. Then you set your machine and the cute little bug light will turn green when it is ready. I also love that after 10 minutes of idle time it will start to beep and then it will turn off for safety! If you are still working when you hear the beep you can just press any button and it stays on.

The EasyPress comes in 3 different sizes which is convenient for different types of projects. I have the petite and the jumbo (this is the jumbo pictured above). The jumbo is 12″x10″ and I love it! I have made shirts, pillows, bags etc. with this one. There is a mid-size that is 9″x9″ and the petite is 6″x7″. The petite one os perfect for, you guessed it… small projects; fabric scraps, onesies, hats, shoes, small quilt pieces etc.

Speaking of projects… lets gets started on the cute DIY Scarf Tees…

You will need:

Cricut Machine
Cricut EasyPress 2 and Pressing Mat
Blank T-shirt (I love this brand)
Cricut Heatpress Vinyl in Neon Blue, Red, Blush and Lilac
House that Lars Built Design File in the Cricut Design Space

The two shirt files that I used are part of a shirt collection from House that Lars Built. There are quite a few more so be sure to browse around! You can find the ones I used HERE and HERE.

Once you open your file in the Cricut Design Space software, you can customize it. You can change colors, size, layout etc. I was making one of these for my daughter so I made her design a little smaller.

I always cut my vinyl beforehand to make sure I don’t waste any vinyl. When you choose “make it” on the software it will show you exactly where the design is on the cutting mat and you can move it around and that is how you will know what size to cut your vinyl and you where to place it.

With heatpress or iron-on vinyl there is a shiny side and a matte side. The shiny side is the “top” and that will be the side with the carrier sheet to help you later when you press it with the EasyPress. You always cut heatpress vinyl with the shiny side down to protect that carrier sheet and keep it intact. After you cut your vinyl to the correct size, place it shiny side down on your cutting mat. Now we are ready to cut our design! Remember we placed the “top” or the shiny side down so we want to make sure to mirror our image.

After your design is cut you will weed it. This means removing all of the negative parts of the design. You will do these same steps with each design.

Don’t let a design with multiple colors scare you! You take the same steps, just cut each color one by one and weed each layer.

Then you place the design with the carrier sheet (sticky side down!) on your shirt right where you want the design to live forever :)

Now it’s time to press the design with the EasyPress! I looked up the settings on the EasyPress Guide for the vinyl I was using and for this specific shirt so I set my settings to 315 degrees for 30 seconds based on their recommendation. It also told me to preheat my shirt for 5 seconds before pressing the design on.

For a design with multiple colors, you do the exact same thing… just start with the bottom color and work your way up. I started with the blush vinyl, then did the blue then lastly, the red.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how these turned out! Bee and I love coordinating outfits and I am so excited to wear these!

Overall I’m super impressed with the Cricut EasyPress 2, I can tell that I will be using it a ton in the near future! Please let me know if you have any other questions about this machine that I didn’t answer! Happy Crafting!

Cricut Maker Review

February 12, 2019 By Taylor Leave a Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I’m so excited to finally share the newest addition to my craftroom… the Cricut Maker! If you follow me on Instagram (@taylormadecreates) then you know how excited I was when the Cricut shipment showed up at my door a few weeks ago! I have been playing around with this machine for about three weeks so I could give an honest Cricut Maker review and have all of the answers to all of the questions ;)

What is the Cricut Maker? It’s a personal cutting machine that can cut a variety of materials such as paper, vinyl, iron on, fabric, leather, felt, chipboard, thin metal etc. Cricut is the brand and the Maker is the model that I received. I have had my eye on the Maker for a while now… literally since they released it haha! In my very early crafting days I had a Cricut but their first model was based on cartridges, so you had to buy a separate cartridge for every font and theme and it only cut paper. A few years later I switched to the other brand, Silhouette and I had that Silhouette machine for years. There was nothing wrong with it, I loved it and used it a lot. BUT… then Cricut came out with their new model, “The Maker” and it cut fabric in a way that would change lives haha! I knew I had to get my hands on one.

The Maker can cut fabric in a way that no other machine can! My other machine could cut fabric but only if you lined the fabric with interfacing. This is because the other machine has one type of blade for all materials so it uses a sharp knife type blade and if you try to cut fabric it will shred. The Maker uses an actual rotary blade that looks like a mini rotary cutter so it is super precise. To be honest I never really cut a lot of fabric with my old machine because it wasn’t a super clean cut even with the interfacing. The Maker can literally cut over a hundred different types of fabric! Felt, silk, jersey, denim, quilting cotton, rayon, tulle, velvet, lycra, canvas… you name it and it can cut it! Below is a screen shot of just a small list of the fabric options the machine pulls up. I couldn’t even sleep the night I got my machine because my head was so full of ideas haha! The only limit is the mat size… they carry a 12×12″ or a 12×24″ but it is perfect for small/medium sized projects like bags, children’s clothing, quilt blocks, zipper pouches, appliqué for clothing etc.

Another huge difference for me is that the Cricut Maker has an intuitive system that scans the material and the tool you are using to determine the settings and pressure needed. From start to finish this makes a single job so much easier. The software is also very easy to use, I felt super comfortable with it within a few days. Cricut software is web based so you do need to be online to use it, the Silhouette software is a downloadable software so it is more in depth. There are pros and cons to both, the Silhouette software is capable of a little more but that also makes it more complicated. I am pretty technically inclined so I like the ability to do a little more, for me this is literally the only “con” in a Cricut/Silhouette Comparison. As far as cutting, on my Silhouette machine, I would set the material, change the dial on the blade (which isn’t something you have to do on the Cricut) and then I would have to do a little trial and error. I would still end up with mistakes pretty often and have to redo things. I have used this machine almost daily for three weeks now and it seems to always know the correct setting. Another game changer that might seem silly but I am LOVING is the little side guide tabs that the Maker has. You can feed the mat right into them so there is no guesswork. The Silhouette machine only has rollers so you can’t always line it up perfectly.

The Cricut Maker has a new “Adaptive Tool System” which is what I think makes the Maker the most unique. It basically means they carry different types of blade tools for different types of projects. Older Cricut models and the Silhouette use a technology that moved the mat in and out and the blade goes side to side but with the new Adaptive Tool System the actual tool in the cartridge can stop and start and go up and down also. It also has 10x the force which is how it can cut balsa wood, mat board and leather. Cricut offers 6 different cutting tools that you can switch out (with more on the way) and 5 different mats that you can use for different materials.

Another huge “pro” for me is the fact that… wait for it… the Maker has bluetooth built into it so it can connect to your machine from across the room!!! SAY WHAT?! As you can see when I discovered this I was super excited. My old machine needed to be plugged in directly to my computer. I don’t have a lot of desk space next to my computer and cutting machines require a lot of room on both sides so the mat can move freely. So, I would usually have to push my computer out a little so the cord could reach and then I would always do all of my cutting on the floor. I have 3 kids and 3 dogs so you can imagine how clean my tile floors are haha! Now I just connect via Bluetooth (super simple to setup in your computers settings) and I can cut on my big center table! Guys…. I am living for this feature! You obviously do have to plug the power cord into an electrical outlet but it is super long and now I have so much freedom. Speaking of Bluetooth, and because the Software is web based the software is available in app format for your phone or tablet. This is also super cool because you can be on your phone and create a little project for example, in the car rider line :) Then when you get home you can connect to your Maker and cut away!

When I was playing around with the app (I downloaded it on both my iPad and my iPhone to see if there were any differences and there really aren’t) I found a really cool feature called “Snap Mat”. It allows you to apply your material to your mat (fabric, vinyl, paper etc…) then snap a picture of the mat within the app and it pulls the image of your material into the Cricut Design Space. The picture of your material now becomes the background of your project on the app. Then you can place a shape or text box and move it around right on top of the scrap material. This is the perfect way to use little pieces of paper or vinyl that aren’t a nice even, square size. It would also be great for creating fussy cut quilt blocks. It works with any material and is so satisfying!

I rarely used the Silhouette store but The Cricut Design store has really impressed me. They have a section called “projects” that include all designs, patterns and instructions to show you from start to finish how to complete a project and list all materials needed etc. Then there is a section called “images” with thousands of designs and pictures. There are also over 50 free projects to get you started and then you have the option to pay for the subscription too. I have added a ton of projects to the “my favorites” section of theDesign Store and even added a few to my immediate to do list haha! I always used my old machine for vinyl projects but I was shocked at how many sewing projects (with patterns) are available. This machine is truly a crafters and a sewists dream!

Overall I am SO impressed with the Cricut Maker! I have used it almost daily since receiving it and have some big plans coming in the near future! Can’t wait to see what else this machine can do :)

Shiplap Wall Tutorial

January 13, 2019 By Taylor Leave a Comment

First post of 2019! I finally got around to organizing my shiplap photos to share our Shiplap Wall Tutorial! You all probably have a shiplap wall in your house at this point haha, but for those who don’t, This is for you :) This treatment is so pretty and looks so put together but it’s actually really easy!

We have 10 foot ceilings and this wall is about 16.5′ wide so that is the area we are working with here. We went to Home Depot and got the super thin 3/16th” plywood (which my husband said is sometimes called paneling). We did the math and with our area we purchased 6 sheets and that worked out perfectly for us. A sheet of plywood is 8′ x 4′ so, we had it cut into 8″ strips (longways) because that way you don’t have any waste and you get 6 long boards out of one sheet. Don’t forget that hardware stores will cut your boards for you! We could have done it at home very but it’s free and why not just have it done before you even get home, right?! We found a super nice Home Depot employee and on their fancy machine it took him 10 minutes!

So, like I said with our 6 sheets of plywood that we had cut into 8″ strips that left us with 36 boards. You will have to do the math depending on your wall size but it should be pretty easy to figure out… each board ends up measuring 96″ x 8″. We started our boards at the top because if we had to cut anything to fit later on in the project it would be the part that is hidden by the couch. We used a nail gun and used two nails on the right, two in the center of the board and two on the left side.

I wanted it to look a random but that also took a little planning. I wanted to make sure that no seams ended up right over each other but also not “perfectly” bricked either.

Please excuse the terrible, badly lit cell phone pictures on this project. We had to work on this after Bryan got home from work and after the kids were fed and bathed. Get it in where you can fit it in right? Here are a few pictures I shared on Instagram stories. We used the “nickel method”. When we started a new board we each held up a nickel on both ends of the board then butted the new board up against the nickels. We did that on the horizontal gaps but not the vertical gaps.

Once we got going, we got into a grove and it came together quickly! We did have that corner angle and two electrical outlets that we had to cut around.

Then it was time to paint. I don’t love painting but painting one wall is doable for me haha! We had to stop for a few days in between for kids activities and Bryan actually loved the raw wood, I on the other hand could not wait to paint it white! I used Sherwin Williams Pure White.

These boards were super thirsty so I had to do 3ish coats.

Because of the “nickel” gap in between the boards the paint started filling in the spaces in some spots. I used business cards to go between each space and clean the paint up.

Finally after 3+ coats it started coming together! Before the shiplap was installed I always has a gallery wall over the couch but wood isn’t nearly as forgiving with holes like sheetrock is and I move pictures around a lot. So, I decided we needed some picture rails over the couch so we could move things around easier.

I drew the rails out and this is what Bryan came up with. We used 1″x4″ boards which are 8 feet long. He stripped down a little ledge into a 1″x1″ for the front of the rails. It looks like 2 rails but there are actually 4 rails that are just hung right next to each other. Again, our wall is a little over 16 feet wide so the two 8 feet rails fit almost just right. There is about two inches on each side of the rails.

Overall I LOVE how it turned out! It took a few days but the work was easy once we got going. It actually makes the room look so much bigger too, maybe with the help of the picture rails. We have a pretty small living room (or cozy as I like to call it :) so we have to utilize all the space.

Let me know if I left anything out or if you have any other questions about doing a Shiplap Wall. I will link sources down at the bottom :)

Sources:

Couch – Ashley Furniture – Loric Smoke Sectional

Rug – Rugs USA

End table – Tutorial HERE

Small Lamp – Target

Floor Lamp – World Market

Big watercolor art – Emily Jeffords for Minted

Letteroard – Letterfolk

You are loved sign – Bonnie Christine

Rainbow wall hanging – my mom made it and its so beautiful!

Frida Kahlo Costume

October 29, 2018 By Taylor Leave a Comment

Presenting Little Miss Frida! I don’t want to play favorites but this Frida Kahlo Costume might be my new favorite to date! The dress, the headpiece, the braids…. I can’t handle it!

This costume could be as intricate or as last minute as you want; you can’t do Frida wrong! Here is how I made mine: I used a few basics from Primary; the Cardi Sweater in Cherry, the Reversible Sundress in Cobalt and Pool and the Jersey Slim Tee in Black. You for sure want the red sweater, but the color options for the dress and shirt are endless!

These were my inspiration photos. I love the photo of Frida on the left and I really love the Frida Barbie’s outfit so that is what I based this costume on. I’d say Bee nailed it right?!

I started with the shirt and found a few pieces of trim at Joann and sewed the trim on the black tee. You could definitely use fabric glue or wonder under. I also got a little piece of gold rope for her bolo necklace.

I really liked the blue dress with the little white flowers on it so I cut some tiny white flowers out of heat transfer vinyl and pressed it on to the dress. Then I added a little trim to the bottom. Again, I sewed it on but fabric glue would work here as well!

Lastly, is my favorite part… the headpiece. I bought some fake flowers from the dollar store and hot glued them to a solid black headband. I did a “faux crown braid”, not really sure what it’s called, I think I just made that term up. Good thing I’m not a beauty blogger because I barely know what I’m talking about haha! I think I’ll stick to crafts and costumes :)

Don’t forget Frida’s signature thick brow. I used dark brown (almost black) eyeshadow and a q-tip to create the heavy eyebrow look. I also added a little pinky-orange lipstick which was Bee’s favorite part of this modeling session ha!

This whole costume took me around an hour or so to pull together! I did do a little sewing because sewing is easy for me and I have everything set up but this could easily be a no-sew costume.

Special thanks from me and my little Frida Girl to Primary.com for the clothes! Let me know if you have an questions and Happy Halloween!

Kid’s Animal Room

October 24, 2018 By Taylor 3 Comments

You guys… this animal might be my favorite room makeover yet! If you remember a few months ago (on Instagram) I mentioned I was going to split the boys apart this school year. They are very close but I wanted them to have their own space and we had the room. Their previous room (HERE) is now just my oldest son’s room and my middle got to move into his own room. His one request… “I want an animal room.” He is 7 which is still little but I didn’t want it to look to juvenile or like a nursery. This room is an actual bedroom but up until now we had been using it as the playroom (link is HERE if you want to check that out!). I had already painted the chalkboard wall a few years ago but being the only wall that the bed would fit on, I didn’t like the idea of chalkdust on the bedding all the time. Neat freak problems. That and the idea of painting over the chalkboard didn’t sound fun so that is how the animal “wallpaper” idea came to life :)

We have a local vinyl store in the area so I went and got 2 sheets of every single color they carried which ended up being around 30 different colors, so 60ish 12×12″ sheets. Then, in my Silhouette software I created 6 different pages of animal silhouettes. I just google searched random animals and used the trace feature until the page was full. I did that until I had 6 pages of different types of animals in different sizes. I had the kids help me think of both common and obscure animals. Then, making sure we didn’t have two colors of the same animal sheet, I fed them all through and cut them out making approximately seven billion stickers… kidding. But there were A LOT! Fun Fact: because I only had 2 sheets of each color and made sure not to cut the same page in the same color… no two animals on the wall are alike!

When I started placing the animals on the wall I made sure to spread out the big animals so I started with those and filled in with little animals as I went. I also ended up cutting some of the vinyl stickers in half on the edges of the walls and door (both horizontally and vertically) to make it look more wallpaper-like. Once I finished the big animals that needed 2 hands the kids pitched in and helped. Who doesn’t want to spend a Friday night applying 800 stickers to a wall am I right haha?? But honestly it was very easy and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out… and I love that it was all under $30!

I knew the wall would be the bright focal point of the room so I didn’t want to go too crazy with the accessories, I tried to stay as neutral as I could :). I DIYed the “mexican pancho” pillows from an old costume we had lying around and I found the Otami pillow on amazon. I will link all sources at the bottom of this post.

I’m really in love with this bed too! It has a vintage feel but it’s brand new (from Walmart of all places). It was super affordable but it’s very sturdy and seems really well built… I highly recommend it!

This room has a funny layout because of where the bathroom door is on the wall so I was left with one more skinny area and a huge open wall. Besides animals my son’s other loves are legos and art. He is very creative so I thought a long skinny desk with a pegboard wall would be a great use of space.

My father in law cut, sanded and finished the wooden top piece of the desk for us. Then I just got two little end cabinets and the board is just siting on top of them. He also framed out the pegboard and painted it white for us. I got most of the pegboard accessories from Amazon and Ikea. The desk is a huge hit, in fact all three kids love it and they are often all in there coloring or drawing together! I should have bought 3 stools instead of 2 haha.

I needed something on the left of the pegboard wall so I drew my son’s favorite animals (inspired by some prints I had seen on instagram) on my iPad Pro, sent them to a local print shop and had them printed in poster size.

The last little area was all I had left for a small dresser so I was so happy to find one that fit the dimensions I needed! I’m telling you, this room design is weird. It had to be shallow enough to fit behind the closet door but short enough to fit under the window sill… tough job! I also left the Ikea book rails up from the playroom days because I still love them!

I found this rug at Target and although it’s a little grown up for a boy’s room I thought it went really well in here. One good thing is it camouflages stains well haha!

Of everything I spent time on in this room, these lights right here are my son’s favorite part of the room! We leave them plugged in but they have a remote, so you can dim them or turn on timers etc! They really are so pretty… I guess the saying is right, it is the little things. Speaking of… I love his personal touch that he left on the door :)

Needless to say, he is LOVING his new room. I secretly think it’s the coziest room in the house (honestly this “cheap” foam mattress we got him is heaven). I will link all the sources below but let me know if you have any questions about where I found something :)