Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Who Knew? (Deployement Project #5)


There are just some things in life that make you say, "who knew?"  One of the things I have realized this week, and this is probably going to be an obvious thing, is that frogs ribbet...A LOT!  Cameron has two fire belly frogs.  I swear they were quiet until hubby left.  Cameron said they made noise, but I never heard them.  Until a week ago - After hubby left and suddenly I am aware of every single noise that takes place between the hours of 9PM and 7AM. 

Every Noise


Frogs Included

Those darn frogs never shut up!  It wouldn't be so bad if it were a plesant ribbet with rainforest sounds in the background. But these frogs sound like little yappy dogs. 

You know the ones I'm talking about - - when you lived in your first apartment after you got married and still didn't have a job so you were home alone all day, but your neighbor works from some ungodly hour in the morning till dark and their little yappy dog is home alone all day - - -yapping.

Yup, now that you have that mental picture, imagine our house.   All night long..."meep,       meep, meep,       meep,     , meep,        meep, meep meep,              meep, meep, meep, meep,                  meep,      meep,       meep, meep,     meep, meep, meep,        meep, meep "

Did I mention ALL NIGHT LONG?



That's my first, Who Knew of the week. 

Here is my second....

Who knew you could put fabric through your printer?

I'm not sure if it is safe.  I'm not sure what damage I am doing to my printer.  I am not sure how long it will last.  BUT.... I do know that I love the results and I am having fun with it!!!  Your probably sitting there saying, "duh - - I knew you could do that."  Well, I had no clue, and if you knew, why didn't you tell me sooner?  Either that or you are saying, "man she is stupid, doesn't she know the damage she is doing to her (brand new) printer doing that?" - - Please if that is the case, TELL ME!!!

Check out these fabulous pillows I made today.


Seriously - - I am in love with them!




The bird pictures on them are digital copies of vintage advertising cards, that I printed onto linen.   If you look closely, you will see the the Arm and Hammer Baking Soda logo on them.  I found these images at The Graphics Fairy.  I don't know if you have ever checked her site out, but it is a treasure!!!  She shares at least one vintage image a day.  On Mondays, she hosts, "Brag Monday" and everyone links up with projects they have made using her images.  I am going to be part of the party this Monday.  If you haven't checked out her site, jump on over there (after your done here of course!).



Here is the original picture from Graphics Fairy


Here it is printed on linen.


I think it gives it a fantastic worn look.  Very charming and used all at the same time.  I have to give credit to my friend Melissa for the fabric these pillows are made with.  Shortly after we moved to Virginia, she sent me a little "care" package with all kinds of goodies in in.  This piece of fabric was one of the things in that pkg.  I think it turned out to be ther perfect frame for these pictures!!


 

*****  Added Information:  Well, I have gotten lots of comments and lots of questions on these pillows, so here is the quick lo-down on the pillows!

To run the fabric through my printer, I cut my fabric 10 1/2" x 13" (2" larger than my piece of cardstock).  then I carefully taped it around a piece of cardstock, wrapping the edges, making sure the corners don't get too thick.  This is the tricky part, but be patient.  Make sure all the edges are held down with tape so that the back of your piece of cardstock is smooth. 

Next you need to print your picture.  Most printers have a back panel where you can manually run cardstock or thick paper through it.  I had to work with mine for a little while, but if you have some patience and keep working at it, you should be able to send it through and just let it print.  For the settings on my printer, I just set it for standard cardstock and photo quality printing.

After it printed, I took all the tape off and then pulled some strings to make it "fringy."  Next I cut my pillow fabric to size and used a decorative stich to attach the fabric picture to the front.  Then finished my pillow by attaching a zipper and sewing the other three sides.

Now, here is the important part - - - - Are you reading this? 
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!

You cannot wash these!  It will wash your entire picture clear off your fabric and you will have worked in vain! - - No, I did not wash my pillows - - I actually thought ahead and made an extra sample just to run through the washing machine!  But I am just warning you - - my fabric came out whiter than white.  Now, I am willing to bet that if I were putting new ink into my printer and the ink cartrage spontaiously combusted and I got it all over my favorite shirt - - it would not wash out!  But since I intentionally put the ink on fabric - - it most definately washes completely out!!!

Hope this extra info helps!!!

15 comments:

Ells said...

Looks great, my creative friend! And they go perfectly with your lighter and brighter theme. :) Fantastic!

Hey, the baby shower for our prophetic, pregnant friend is this weekend (8th) and I sure do wish you were around so I could commission another sweet pair of booties! On second thought, you'd probably be giving them as your own gift! Guess she'll have to settle for something from T@rget anyway... :) Miss you.

Kristi H. said...

You are so brilliant, Amy!!! I never, never, never would have thought to do that! But you, you my friend, are SO smart and creative--of course you thought of it! :)

Those little vintage birds are so sweet, and the fabric M sent is perfect for them. The blue in it goes so well with the rest of your blues in the room. I bet they look fabulous along with your pretty curtain panels. I'm visualizing your family room in my head right now and I LOVE IT!

Olivia @ Swan White Curtain said...

Aw, I used to have fire belly toads! I always thought they sounded like mini monkeys. :o)

Mar gar et said...

Holy toledo! Never knew you could put fabric into a printer-now I'm eyeing mine in all kinds of things are popping into my head mad scientist style. Good thing we're not that close in proximity (from your IKEA reference I know where you are-and I used to live out there, too 20 yrs ago-now I'm more West); we'd be tearing up lots of things in search of creativity unleashed! ~Crazy laugh~

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! FYI, you can also cut fabric with a Cricut...if you have one.

Karen The Graphics Fairy said...

Gorgeous pillows!!! I had no idea you could just put regular fabric in your printer! I love the fabric you used on the pillows, it compliments the birds perfectly. Great job! Thanks so much for playing along for "Brag Monday".

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

These look great! If you can put fabric through a regular printer with no problems, that could save a lot of transfer paper!

PetraB said...

Thank you for sharing this! I had no idea that you can put fabric directly through the printer. This is just brilliant and I love the cushions. Petra.

SharDon Exclusives said...

I love images printed on fabric. Your pillows are delightful and so spring like. It will be spring soon ya' know...I pray SOON!
Sharon

Unknown said...

these pillows came out beautiful. My daughter had a pet frog named Tom and she loved him so much. He lived on our balcony when we lived in Hong Kong. Whenever we would put the stereo on Tom would come by the window and look as if he was listening to the music. She took him everywhere with her. So cute, children introduce us to so many wonderful things.Karen

Unknown said...

Swoon! Those are adorable! I have heard you can iron fabric onto freezer paper and zip it through your printer. Pillows are awesome!

LeAnne said...

How beautiful! Graphics Fairy is one of my absolute favorite blogs....and this is why! Did you mount the fabric somehow (or did I miss that in your post) to run it through the printer?

Jann said...

Wonderful pillows--you are so creative! I've been hesitant to try my hand at transferring images to fabric, but will have to take the plunge after seeing what you have done--maybe I'll start with something small--thank you for the inspiration!

Unknown said...

When I saw the Arm and Hammer birds on the Graphics Fairy recently I *knew* that they were destined for a special project... now I know just what to do with them! Thanks so much! If you have a chance, I'd love to hear any details about how you ran the linen through your printer. Did you prep it in any way first? I'm so excited to try this!

Loved reading your blog... our oldest son is in the Army and we are a homeschooling family too!

Anonymous said...

Found your blog via Graphics fairy- was just going to sneak in for a peek but had to tell you how much I love your bird and nest pillows! I have a picture of each in my inspirations file as I think these would be just perfect for my sunroom I am wanting to fix up this spring!

blessings
mary

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