Midwest Greenworks

Table Hot Plate

This is my first attempt at a Hot plate for your kitchen table. I picked up the tile which is 8x10 in size from my local Habitat for Humanity Re-store. It cost me .40 cents. I used vinyl to cut out the lettering and then I tried to use glass etching cream, which worked, sort of. The lettering turned white, however it was not enough to make the letters highly visible. So I then colored the etched area with my black pan pastel. Here is the real trick to make this work as a hot plate. You can't use standard acrylic spray to coat the tile as a hot pan will melt the acrylic. So I used Engine emamel. Its alittle more expensive @ $5.00 can but so much better than the cheap $2.00 cans. It coats better and its heat tested to 500 degrees. I sprayed 2 coats just to be sure. You need to be careful when spraying though as to not use to much or you can cause the pan pastel to run. Moderation is best, besides your coating it twice so in the end it will all be covered adquately.

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First try at using T-Shir tVinyl

I wanted to make t-shirts for my two nieces who's birthdays are at the end of this month. They both are in gymnastics and I thought that a gymnastics shirt would be great for both of them. I bought a sample pack from Nick at http://www.craftvinyl.com/. The pack comes with 9 (4x9) pieces in 9 diffrent colors. Included is the teflon sheet you need to use with heat vinyl. Nick includes fabulous directions with the vinyl and all I had to do was follow those and her is my first shirt:

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Whew what a week.

I didn't complete any projects this week but almost. I added some new crafting site favorites for you to check out. I order a sampler pack of t-shirt vinyl from http://www.craftvinyl.com/. I placed the order late last Friday and recieved it today. Nick at craftvinyl so rocks. I couldn't believe how fast I got my order and he put these really awesome directions on how to use the t-shirt vinyl in with my order. I am definetly going to order from here again. I also order some quilling supplies today around 10am. I couldn't believe my eyes when I checked my email at 11:00am, they had already shipped my order...all I can say is WOW.

I also sold 10 of my cards today to the Mitchell Park Domes gift shop today. I'm so excited to see how well they sell. They are so confident that they are going to sell that they are paying me outright for them rather than on consignment. I'm very excited. I'm hoping this weekend to replenish the card supply, get some coasters done and I need to make two t-shirts with my new vinyl for my nieces who's birthdays are comming up. I'm feeling ambitious this weekend. :)

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Etched ceramic tile coaster

I've seen variations of tile coasters all over the internet so I decided to give them a try. First I tried vinyl but couldn't seem to find anything that I could use to coat it with that wouldn't make the vinyl peel up. I saw some that had been etched with etching cream and thought that was a great idea. Only problem is I only had white tiles. So I thought I maybe I could color the etching cream with alcohol inks and it would then stain the tile while it etched. Well this does not work. It etched the tile but since its white on white you could not see it unless you tilted it sideways and looked for it. So I had to figure a way to color the etched portion of the tile but not the rest of the tile. Well as you can see its not perfect but I wasn't really going for perfect, I was going for the process that would work. I figured it out and now I can work on perfect. I did put one coat of all purpose enamel on to make sure the color can't be washed off.

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Etched Glass Candle Holders

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Tuesday Cards

I made three cards tonight because last night I was so tired after work that I didn't make one yesterday. My boss bought two of them on Monday so I was starting to get behind. So today I had to make three to make up for my lack of enthusiasm yesterday.

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Stamped Card

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10 Cards in 2 days

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More Cards

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Vinyled Candle holder

I found these glass candle holders at Hobby Lobby. They only had 5 left and they were clearanced at $1.20 a piece. OMG, how could I pass that up. I bought all 5 of them and even took the holder they had them in. I was going to etch the 1st one but had a bit of trouble placing the vinyl down so I decided that it was just easier to vinyl it instead. I had to put the vinyl on transfer tape and then tape that down to my desk. I then flipped the glass upside down and ever so carefully lined it up with the vinyl and set it down. I pretty much had just one chance to get this thing on their straight. I'm sure it wasn't skill but rather first timers luck I got it on their perfect the 1st time. I'm going to glass etch my next one.

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