My favorite product is the Silhouette brand Sewable Fabric Interfacing. I use it in every fabric project I make for their blog, plus a load of personal projects for myself. It’s a great time saver that adds a special personal touch to your sewing projects. I use it to personalize quilted pieces or cut super intricate designs. It’s also great for kids clothes and any type of sewn gift.

I chose a personalized stocking as the project to showcase the Sewable Interfacing because it’s been on my to do list for YEARS! I started three, one for each of us, but was only able to finish the one shown due to my sewing machine malfunctioning. I’m hoping to share the other two, that my family helped design, later in the month.

I wanted to show each of our very different personalities in a quilted sock form. Mine shows my love for shapes, polka dots, fabric with writing on it and the color gray. The Honeycomb Background design file would have taken forever to cut by hand, but with my Silhouette CAMEO it only took a few minutes.

I also love how it looks super complicated, but was super easy to put together!

I used the Stocking design file and enlarged it as big I could to fit on the 12″x24″ cutting mat. I cut just the basic stocking shape out of card stock. I then opened the Honeycomb Background file and tilted it slightly so the edge near the toe made it look like a sock with those different colored toe tips. I clicked on “Release Compound Path” so all of the honeycomb lines were separated. I deleted a few hexagons here and there so some would be solid. I used some awesome rainbow speckled denim and I wanted to showcase it here and there.

Once I was happy with the file, I grouped it back together. I prepped and cut it as a I usually do (my full tutorial on the Silhouette blog can be found here) and ironed it onto my already cut out stocking. I also cut out a basic stocking piece for the back. I then spray basted both pieces to separate cotton batting and quilted them up like I would any quilt. I cut the lining out of the cute black and gray polka dotted fabric and sewed all of them together, just like you would a zipper pouch!

After everything was sewn and turned inside out, I folded down the top cuff and added my name using the Lovely Day Font (found in the Silhouette Design Store) and some solid gray fabric to finish it off.

It took me about two hours total to finish this one stocking. Not Bad, right?!!

Now onto the GIVEAWAY!

On Silhouette’s behalf, I will be giving away one pack of Silhouette Brand Sewable Interfacing and one Fabric Blade. To enter you NEED to follow Silhouette America and myself on Instagram. To earn additional entries you can follow me on Bloglovin and/or leave a comment letting me know what kind of projects you’d like to see on here in 2015!

Rules, Guidelines & Disclaimers:

This giveaway is being hosted by me, Jessee M / Art School Dropout, as part of the Silhouette Design Team Blog Hop. There will be only one winner chosen by Rafflecopter. This giveaway is open to US/Canada Residents, 18 & older.  Void where prohibited. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Prizes will be fulfilled by Silhouette America. Winner cannot have won another Silhouette America giveaway in the past 90 days. Winners should expect their prize to arrive within 4-6 weeks. Only one entry per reader, period. Only the first comment posted will be counted. Giveaway starts at midnight December 1st, 2014 and will end at 11:59PM (EST) December 5th, 2014. Whew, I think that’s it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck to everyone who enters. Please head on over to Guiseppa Gubler’s blog to find out what she’s giving away. Then from there hop on over to the next one and the next. If all works out you should finish up right back here where you started. If you’d like to start at the begging then go check out the Blog Hop Giveaway post on the Silhouette America Blog.

Updated:

Here’s a list of ALL of the Silhouette Design Team Blog Hop Posts in case you think you may have missed one!…

These are the first of three projects that will help me decorate my main level powder room. I painted it almost four years ago when we first moved in, and I just started getting sick of it. Plus it never really had a consistent theme, and I feel like bathrooms should always have a theme (I know thats probably just me, and probably passed down from having themed bathrooms my entire childhood)

I can’t wait to share the reveal later this summer!

This pillow was made for the Silhouette America blog to showcase their Heat Transfer Material. Specifically the metallic color (which is super shiny). I was a bit behind on making this because of another project I was doing for them that just wouldn’t work for me (my fault, not theirs) So I felt it was only right to use a quote by my favorite author describing his love for deadlines…

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by” – Douglas Adams.

You can read more about this project over on the Silhouette blog.

There’s loads more information and photos on their blog.

It’s made out of adhesive cardstock, foil sticker sheets, chipboard and a clock mechanism. I’m not a fan of paper glue, but I am a fan of easy, and this thing was so easy!

It uses the free shape of the week and their Fabric Starter Kit. The process is super simple and yields great results. The coolest part is when people see them they think they are screen printed! Goal achieved.

You can read more about the entire process over on their blog here.

I think the only reason I haven’t purchased one yet is because I haven’t really purchased ANYTHING for myself lately. I kinda put myself on a personal spending freeze so I can save for upcoming trips and some new equipment.

However I must dream about these things. When I was going through the Silhouette Design store looking for files for an upcoming project I saw a 3D paper succulent cut file and my absolute first thought was Concrete Geometric’s planters. I mean it only took seconds to think of how to make a paper version.

I used my Silhouette Portrait and cut files from the Silhouette Design Store to make this. It seriously only took me about 5 minutes total. I’m not even familiar with folding or manipulating paper!!

• For the succulent I used thick textured cardstock and the 3D succulent plant cut file (which I reduced 75% in size).
• For the faux concrete planter I used Silhouette brand chipboard and the 3D Pentagon cut file (which I reduced to fit on an 8.5″x12″ piece of chipboard since I have the Portrait)
• I used super fast drying Tacky Glue for all the seams and for attaching all of the leaves. There may have been a better glue to use, but I’m still learning. I think it worked out pretty nice though since it has handled being dropped a few times by a toddler.

I absolutely adore how the little faux plant came out. I was planning on placing it on one of the shelves in my living room, but CT claimed it as her own and it’s now living in her bedroom. Which basically means I really need to get the real thing!!!!

The top two photos were used with permission from Concrete Geometric, and I asked the owner permission to write about this post beforehand!

About a month ago Silhouette America (the company that makes that awesome little machine I use) put out a call for their 2014/2015 Design Team. The whole thing sounded like a lot of fun, and would force me to think outside of my little Art School Dropout world. I sent in my application and crossed my fingers and toes…

…which apparently worked, because I am proud to announce that I am now part of Silhouette America’s 2014 – 2015 Design Team!!

Now you may ask, what exactly does this mean? Well, it means I will be contributing project ideas and tutorials on their blog (and sometimes my own) using my Portrait and a huge array of Silhouette products. I’ve already started brainstorming, and I’m even prepping for my first project.

I am seriously SO excited to be included in this awesome team (I’ve been visiting all of the other girls blogs too) and can’t wait to show you whats coming!!!

We didn’t have any wiring where I wanted it to go above the morning room table, but we did have a hanging lamp a few feet away that I didn’t like anymore, so he just pulled the wiring to to the new spot and put a plate over the old spot. The only issue with the way we did this was the old lamp was on a switch in the kitchen, not the morning room. It’s on one of those plates with numerous switches. Those are confusing as it is, and having a lamp that’s in the next area over doesn’t help. Oh and it’s also the switch directly next to the disposal one, so that makes for some interesting reactions when you hit the wrong switch.

I’ve never switched the wrong one because I hate the sound the disposal makes, but other people have! It’s happened a few times when silverware had accidentally fallen in the disposal, and since they weren’t expecting to hit the disposal switch, no one checked first. My poor silverware.

My original idea was to just put a random sticker on the switch plate for my husband to know which one is which. Though I then figured that would still be confusing for others, and what if someone was getting something out of the disposal while someone else wanted to turn the light on?!?!

All of this led to a super simple solution…

A decal in the shape of the lamp. I cut it out using my Silhouette, but with patience and time it could have been cut out by hand! I used a vinyl sheet I found in the scrapbooking section of Joann’s that cost me $1.50 and since it was super tiny, I still have a load of vinyl leftover for other projects.

The disposal hasn’t accidentally go on since putting it up, and we had a bunch of people in our kitchen over the past few weeks. They all understood what the decal meant, plus they loved how clean it looked.

I have never really liked decals before, but now I have the urge to put them on everything!! For instance I now have a man/woman logo on the basement bathroom door, that way no one walks into the utility room or workroom accidentally. The bathroom is clearly marked!

My mom did most of the work putting this whole thing together. From the food, to the candy bar, to the hot chocolate favors to the games and more. She went all out!!! The only thing I had a hand in was the little tags on everything, the food signs, the macarons and the photo booth and props. All but the last pieces were all her idea too! It was a lot of fun to help put together and I am so happy we were able to have it in our home! I also can’t wait to meet my newest niece sometime soon!! She’ll get a cute nickname unlike her dad, we’ll call her “Little R”.

Now be prepared for a bunch of photos, mostly up close, because that’s just my style!

(please note this awesome cake wrecks where Harris Teeter spelled my sisters name wrong and wrote “It’s a GIR!”)

Oh and the above picture is my other adorable little sister and her best friend!

My camera battery died halfway through the day and I had to borrow my sisters, so the photos are all weird and different. I also messed up on photos of the adorable banner I made and the gorgeous mobile/centerpiece my mom made using tissue paper, paper lanterns, tulle and other paper goods! It was so pretty we decided to hang it in CT’s playroom afterwards.

This was the first time my mom and I have collaborated on anything, it was a fun and surprising experience!

This was the third event we’ve had at our house in the last month, and the second to last. I’m super happy to have everyone over, but I won’t lie, it will be soo nice when I can get back to normal! I miss making a huge crafty mess!!!