Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

After sharing the  washer jewelry projects  collection last week, I had an idea I had to try. I've inked on spray paint a few times before, but I've never started washer necklaces on spray paint. I figured it would make the ink pop and provide a contrast if I let it peek through the ink. Since this was a bit of an experiment, I went through my stash of washers and picked out some dinged ones, and then I used a piece of sandpaper to scuff them up to get the spray paint to stick better. I used an all-purpose spray paint and gave them a couple of quick coats and let it dry overnight. The next day, I put down a silicone craft mat and grabbed my inks. I also got out my rubbing alcohol, a couple of paintbrushes, and a hand bulb blower . Since this was a new way to ink washers, I started inking without taking pictures. I covered the whole washer in purple ink and then came back with more ink and rubbing alcohol to get the ink to move around and create patterns. Unfortunately, the...

Over the years, the blog has featured many projects decorating washers with paper and alcohol ink to create necklaces and bracelets. Check out the collection of washer projects here: Washer Craft Projects .

When I saw these nifty thumb book page holders available to print, they looked like a simple and useful project.  I used some black PLA on our printer with standard settings (.2 resolution, 20% infil). The first one came out a bit stringy, but otherwise perfect. It printed in about 30 minutes, so I printed a second one. Now I have two of these lovely book page holders!  

I've made a few of these metal sign s using Dollar Tree blanks, so when I was at Dollar Tree last and saw another shape I hadn't tried, I grabbed this floral sign blank and brought it home. As I was going through the freebies in the Silhouette store, I found the perfect option, a floral welcome sign. All of our snow melted this week, so it feels like spring is coming, and it felt like the perfect time to make a springy welcome sign. I sized my design to fit and set it to standard vinyl cutting settings. I then decided to set it to a double pass because I've had issues with vinyl not cutting cleanly in the past. I loaded a sheet of bright blue permanent vinyl onto a craft mat and into my old Silhouette . It seemed like all was running fine. But, when it finished cutting, I discovered that it cut through the paper backing. I tried to see if I could salvage it, but the pieces that were part of the design were falling through, and I had to scrap the whole thing. I cut it aga...