How to Make a Burlap Rose–Part 3

My Journey of trying to cut Burlap with a Pazzles Inspiration Electronic Die Cut Machine – PART 3

Part 1 - How to prepare your Burlap
Part 2 – How to Assemble the Rose.

Well, mud on my face, I was unsuccessful!  I was just told that sometimes a steel die just works….and I truly could have made 100 Roses by now, by not fiddling with this.

But just incase you want to give this a go, I will tell you what I did, and if you figure this out, please let me know!

I took prepared burlap (prepared burlap from now on will mean, I have dipped it in the 50% mod podge and water to stiffen it) and used painter’s tape to tape down to my mat.  I used the balsa wood setting with the blade at 6.  The burlap moved, Had to stop my machine.

I put the raw burlap on my mat and covered it with clear contact paper.  This cuts but you really can’t see the shape well. 

I put the prepared burlap on my mat and covered it with clear contact paper. This cut’s but slips

I tried it again, but sandwiched the prepared burlap between the contact paper. 

I sandwiched the prepared burlap between two sheets of freezer paper and fused it by ironing it.  This performs like the contact paper, except the paper get’s cut perfectly, so when you do a second pass it lifts up.  Contact paper is better.

Oh dear God, where was my mind?  I sandwiched the burlap between two sheets of red tape.  Worked!  but…..OF COURSE it leaves the burlap sticky on both sides….another No-GO and this brainy idea of mine, could have been a blooper!

It just dawned on me, while typing this, to fuse the freezer paper to the burlap and cover it with the red tape…Just measured the thickness it’s 1.69MM which is under the 2.0MM limit of the machine.

I am going to post this, as I need to have a rest from this project.  Have you ever worked on a problem so long that you just don’t want to do it any more?

Sorry folks….at this time, I would highly recommend using the BIGZ die.

 

How to make a Burlap Rose–Part 2

How to prepare burlap for die cutting – Part 1
My journey trying to cut burlap on my Pazzles - Part 3 

Please refer to Part 1, How to prepare your Burlap for Mechanical Die Cutting or Electronic Die Cutting.

Now that you have your burlap dipped in glue, dried and trimmed up, you are ready to cut!

What you will need:

• Sizzix Flower Layers #5
• Sizzix Big Shot
  • or other compatible manual die cut machine.  Product number is 113429 for a Big Shot

Notice I have laid my burlap covering the big flower.  I of course covered with another clear plate and ran this through.

Easy Peasy!

I slid the burlap over and cut the second one.  Of course if you want the little flower you could just cover your die and cut normally.  To make a Rose, you will need three each of this large flower.

I was not happy about all the burlap stuck on my new die!  I found that these lent free towels do a wonderful job of cleaning them up.

Hum…had to go make breakfast, took a shot of this…I think it should say Grease a Marie Callender’s Pie Tin, not a round cake pan…I’m Just Sayen…

The best way to learn how to do a rose is to watch Lorinda's Video.

I’m just going to give you photo’s so that if you are like me, you want to print it out and follow along…

WPC File Of Sizzix Die
Cut up WPC File
InVue PGV File
SVG File
JPG File

This should make since, after you watched Lorinda’s Video.  Should I say, I pray it makes since!

All the black lines are cut lines

• Flower #1
  • Cut between the petals, one time to the center.
  • Cut between the petals approximately 1/4 inch.
  • Cut the top of the petal off just to the right of your cut to the center of the flower and throw away.
• Flower #2 and saved piece.
  • Cut between the petals, one time to the center.
  • Cut one entire petal off and Save it.
  • Cut the top of the petal off, just to the right of your “V Cut” or maybe better said, just to the right of your center cuts, and throw away.
  • Cut between the petals approximately 1/4 inch.
  • From your saved petal, cut two petals, it will resemble a heart when done.
• Flower #3
  • Cut between the petals, one time to the center.
  • Cut two petals off. and Save it.
  • Cut the top of the petal off, just to the right of the above cut out and throw away.
  • Cut between the petals approximately 1/4 inch.
  • From your saved petal, cut 4 petals, it will look like two joined hearts

Flower # 1

Here is where the video is much better than the photos to learn.

Just notice this layer has 5 petals after you have hot glued it.

I took a skewer and rolled each petal under

Then place it on the table and slightly pushed the flower down in the middle to slightly shape it.

Flower #2

Do the same thing as you did to flower #1, EXCEPT turn it over and snip the bottom so you have a gaping hole in it.  Remember to save the heart for later.

 

Snip Snip!

Remember to roll your petals down.

On the back side of flower #2, put some hot glue all round the gaping hole. 

It was so dern hard to put the glue on, keep it hot, snap a photo with the other hand and NOT show you those ugly nails….

Sit the second flower down into flower #1, off sitting the petals.  I take a skewer and push all around to make sure its down nice and tight.

Ah, reward……..it’s starting to come together!  WhoooHoooo!

hum…wine must have gotten to me…and you…it’s really not blurry…it’s the wine…..

Do the same thing to flower #3, as you did flower #2.  Notice it only has three petals.

Take your saved piece and cut 4 petals…  Save it and flip flower #3 over put hot glue all around the outside and press it into your budding rose….offsetting the petals.

Who’s fingers are those anyways?

Ok, now it get’s a bit hard to explain.  Take the saved piece that has 4 petals.  Roll it tightly up and release it.  This softens the burlap and breaks it down a bit.

Put Hot glue on the edge and roll it up again.  You are making the inner petal.

Take your last saved piece that looks like a heart, soften it a bit and glue it to the outside of the other inner petal.

Here is something I do that’s a bit different.  I take that inner piece, and place it in the flower we have built so far.  In my opinion the inner petal is standing up to high

So, I cut the tip off.  I sit it back in the flower and it looked great, so next I filled up the gaping hole with hot glue well, not full, but was generous.

Place the inner petal into the center…..hold it for a bit till the glue hardens.  It will release from how you rolled it…that’s ok.

YOU did it!  Whew!

After I did two of them, I no longer have to look at my notes!  It’s really quite simple, and comes together quickly…not counting prepping the burlap that is!

Ok, next blog post will be how to cut burlap on an electronic die cut machine, God willing!

How to make a Burlap Rose–Part 1

How to prepare burlap for die cutting
How to Die Cut Burlap – Part 2 
My Journey trying to cut burlap on my Pazzles – Part 3

I think, I am late in the game of Burlap!  Funny, loosely woven burlap has traditionally been used for sacks.  I am going to guess that not many years ago, my ancestors used burlap for clothing, or at least that was the stories told along with no shoes to walk in the snow to school.

If you follow my blog, you know that I am a CASE’D crafter!  “Copy and Share Everything”  My burlap flower was inspired by Lorinda’s video.  My Burlap Rose just made this weeks favorite on Splitcoaststampers for the week ending July 20, 2014. 

So, enough rambling, I will grab another cup of coffee and tell you what I learned!

Lorinda’s video will teach you how to create the rose.  If you have never cut burlap before, you are going to be in for a surprise…not a good surprise, but a surprise…the dern stuff is so crooked on the edges…it’s impossible to cut straight.  Take a look at this and come right back.  I will go get another cup of coffee.

Ok, now that you have an idea how to cut the burlap these are the tools you will need.

• Sizzix’s Flower Layers #5
  • Sizzix is out of stock, however I did find mine on ebay.
• Burlap
  • Wallmart, Joannes, Michaels sells this at about 2.99 to 1.99 a yard.  A yard will make a lot of flowers!    You will need three 3.25” Square’s. If you only want to make a few 1/8 of a yard will do.  You can click on the photo and it will take you to this calculator.

 

• Mod Podge
  • Any kind will do…Elmer’s would do.  I even used Liquitex Matte Gell.  What ever you choose to use mix it 1:1 with water. I used a plastic shoe box to mix and dip in.
• Clothes Pins
• Clothes Hanger
• Sicissors
• Pokie tool thing (this is what I use, you can use a paper clip opened up or a needle)  hum, pokie tool thing?  I guess it’s a dentist probe…not liking the sound of that, I will keep it at Pokie tool thing.

Ok now that you have gathered all your things, it’s time to cut your burlap.  Make sure you take a peek at this, if you have never cut burlap before.

Since you are going to be cutting the large image three times, no need to waste your burlap.  I pulled a thread every 3.25 or 3.5 inches across the short side of the fabric. 

Once you have your strips it’s time to mix up your glue.  You don’t have to be exact…just eyeball it and mix it with 50% water in your plastic shoe box.

Take your strips and dip them in their…oh WAIT…..I had to do this outside, close to my garbage can because it’s going to drip like crazy. 

Really wishing I had a clothes line at this point…Now, the card I posted above, I did that bunch of burlap by dipping into the glue and squeezing it out and then hanging it…oh my gosh….yes, it worked, yes, it dried faster, yes, I used way less glue but holy heck Batman, I had to iron it, and iron it again with steam…it was 106 that day and I swore I would NEVER do that again!  Glue is cheep…Air Conditioning not so…

Notice how straight my burlap is….  no ironing this way!

I pour my glue back into the glue container and use it again .

Ok this next step you can do or not…I prep my burlap before I need it, and it would not surprise me if I had a bit of OCD going on.  I trim up my edges.  This makes the next step way easier, if you are concerned with saving burlap, because you can see the edges clearly.

Ah, come on now, aren’t you impressed with how that burlap feels?  Wait until you cut it girlfriend!

That’s all for today folks!  Get your burlap ready and I will see you on the next blog post – Topic – Cutting stiffened burlap on a big shot.  Oh and after that, God Willing, how to cut burlap on an electronic die cutter….

….pssssst….if you took the time to read this and I took the time to write this, please leave me a comment!  It’s the only way I know, if anyone reads them.  It encourages me to write again.  Let me know if you enjoy/or not, my postings.

Poke out the Owls Eyes? NOT!

I have been missing in action!  Good News!  I am now retired, which should give me more time to craft and blog!  Todays blog is about a problem I had….it was solved so simply….

Here was my problem. I downloaded this Free to Craft Room Members, darling Owl, in the Pazzles Craft Room.

Then, I took all the pieces I wanted to make a 1 layer Owl.

I wanted to use only one color. The white parts, I wanted to weed out, so that the cup color would show through.

This part was simple enough….

 

2

Until I looked at WireFrame View.

From Menu Bar Select:

View | Wireframe

Notice how I had a hard time lining up all the cuts?

Hint, look at the ears for example…well, I knew that would be a mess when it cut…

Look at the eyes, I did NOT want three cuts…

So off to welding I went

3

From Menu Bar Select:

Tools | Welding

Well, it fixed the extra lines around the ears and other places…

But the eyes! YOUR KIDDING ME!

I Lost my wings! LOL In more ways than one! LOL

That just WOULD NOT work!

Thank goodness for UnDO!

I took his eyes out and welded them separately…

I was ready to poke his eyes out…

Really needed this Owl…

4

So, I sent the file to Klo and she demonstrated how to fix this

Happy Dance!

5

She really is the MASTER of KISS (Keep it Simple Sweetie)

6

Select the owl

7

Choose W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G.

Otherwise known as

What You See Is What You Get

(That is for those that are my age)

Or from Menu Bar Select:

Shape | WYSiWYG Cutting Transformation

Your mouse pointer will turn into a little "clog"

Click on the Owl

8

Well, I have no idea…but, this is just me, High must be better, so I choose High…

Have no idea what the bottom check mark is for, however Klo did not choose it, so neither did I

9

Hum, for a week, many hours I fiddled with this owl….Klo showed me how to make the dern COMPUTER do the work, instead of me…

I swear, the computer only took a minute to do, what I could not do in oddles of hours!

10

Then two of these birds showed up.

11

This is what they look like in WireView

That’s that "W" Icon at the bottom of your screen, or

From Menu Bar Select:

View | Wireframe

Yep, I was SOOOOOOOOOOOO Happy to delete the one on the left, with glee!

12

I gathered up all the feathers and grouped them

Hold down your shift key and select each feather one at a time…

Drawing a box around them did not work for me . . because the outside of the owl got in the way..

13

Then after you have all of them selected move them somewhere outside of the owl

14

While they are still selected, choose

Shape | Group

Now that is out of the way, time to put the name of the person receiving the cup!

15

Choose Type

15

I choose a Pazzles font.

You don't have to…

But, I wanted simple and easy. Pazzle fonts cut WAY easier and I wanted something quick and easy as I was worn out working on his eyes!

Not wanting to poke his eyes out any more…

14

Sized the name to fit into the Owl

Selected the Owl

Control G to group

Or from Menu Bar Select:

Shape | Group

15

Size the Image

Select the image

Right click

Choose Height

Or….

Just select the image and type an H

16

For my water cups, I know the image can't be higher than 4" and I know the width can't be more than 3.5

So, I type in a 4 and choose apply

Perfect. This made my Width go to 3.157 :)

15

Ready to Cut!

Oh, I have a yellow stick up on my monitor that says "Do not cut until you check these things"

1 - Check Wireframe - Make sure those are the lines you want to cut…see, this is where I got caught in step number 2 (thank you post-it note) Did not waste any vinyl on a bad cut.

2 - Do I need to weld? Yeppers. I am an expert on welding now, I welded this Owl every way you can imagine.

Welding did not work in this situation.

WYSIWYG is a better choice in this situation.

16

3 - Any Sharp Points? If so, I round them up. In this event they were all good. I turn on Construction Points and make sure I don't have millions of nodes. If I do I remove them.

That’s the C Icon right next to the W icon on the bottom of your screen

Ok, right here, let's talk about this. Construction points, are those little white boxes all over the place.

For right now, I want to tell you, I about ruined my pazzles when I first got it. Turned it on copied clip art off the internet and sent it to cut. Machine started up and just cut in one place…

Wonder it did not blow up

Years later (a few weeks ago) I decided that since I was retiring, that was one thing, I wanted to learn how to do well. Operate my Pazzles and my Software. Well, it would not cut good. I opened a new mat and prepared it. (had to review the video on http://www.pazzles.net/wordpress/videos/fundamentals)

I put in a brand new blade (again referring to videos above)

I updated my machine and my software and tried again (yeppers videos for that to)

Double checked my blade length and pressure…

Nothing worked….

Then I seen this video and thought, what the heck

http://www.pazzles.net/wordpress/2013/06/25/maintain-your-creative-cutter-for-best-performance

My gosh! My machine worked perfectly! When I cleaned the blade..I was shocked…there was paper shoved up in that hole! I mean, it was packed in that hole! Under the rollers I had had enough paper to make a card…well not really, but WOW!

While I was removing this dirt, grime, paper, glue from my machine that was HARDLY USED, I thought back, about cutting that thing that made my machine cut in one place….I bet, I did that when I first got it..I just bet that is when it happened…I am sure that the few times I used it I messed it up…you see, I just have a habit of jumping in and read later.

Really did not like the machine, no really. Liked it WAY better than the cricut, like way better. But, would rather, get out my punches and dies than to mess with the time it took me to cut one thing. Because it would usually mean I would have to fiddle with it and cut it over and over, just to get the paper up, cut crisp lines and then, usually have to finish the cut with scissors.

And NOW! It cuts like butter! Who would have thought? Eh?

Love it so much, ordered the VUE!

Sorry rambling..

17

4 - Paper size - Yep, this will save your vinyl or paper…

Verify that you have the correct paper size prior to cutting

I like to work, without the page showing or the Mat.

Here is where you turn them on or off from showing up on your screen

View | Page

Photo to the right shows the page turned on.

As you can see, I don't even have my image on the paper….

I only need a 4.5 square piece of outdoor vinyl for this cut

18

Ok, now let's check to see if the page size is correct

Setting | Page

Nope

I am not using my 12 X 24 mat, so I fixed that

I like to see my cutting mat, so I checked that.

19

This defiantly will cut on a 4.5 X 4.5 square piece of outdoor vinyl.

I purposely placed in in the lower left hand corner, because I alternate where I cut on my mat, so it lasts longer…

When I place my vinyl on the sheet, I made sure I put the paper side down to the mat and the vinyl side up.

Make sure NO bubbles exist. I use a credit card sort of thing and smooth out the vinyl making sure all winkles, bubbles are gone.

Make sure the vinyl piece is stuck down real good. If it is not stuck down real good, I use painters tape around the edges so it won't slip.

20

Last but not least TEST!

I added guide lines, since I was using a scrap, to made sure I knew where the vinyl was on the sheet

To add guidelines, you just double click on the ruler when they appear, you just select it and move it to where you want it to go

Then add your test circle

Draw | Circle

20

Choose Cut Project

21

This setting works for me and my machine and the vinyl I use.

(now I don't know how to make that picture show a 1 1/2 blade, so I added it in the description)

Select just the circle

Choose cut project

Here is what you are checking for:

Did it cut the circle correctly?

When you cut vinyl, you cut ONLY the vinyl. Lift up the corner and verify that the paper is NOT cut! You should not see a circle on the back side of the "vinyl" (Vinyl is on the top, and a paper is on the bottom closest to the mat)

I repeat this process until I find the correct setting. Now, I only do it once, because I know my vinyl is the same and it works every time so far. When I find the correct setting, I choose "Add Media" and I add it, so next time I do Vinyl (outdoor) I know to set my blade at 1.5 with this "saved setting"

That’s all there is to it.

There are lots of video's on how to weed vinyl and use transfer tape to place your "sticker" on the cup, or where ever you choose.

Please take the time and leave me a comment!  I love  your comments and read each and every one of them!

Love my Pazzles!