Category: crafts

I bought even more diamond paintings from Michael’s

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, diamond paintingLeave a comment
Make Market Seasonal Diamond Paintings on Clearance
Make Market Diamond Paintings

So I got another $10 Michael’s rewards voucher and I went back to Michaels and got another Diamond painting, one that was in my wish list and you’ll see it on the second image on the far right and it is the one with the skull. I also picked up a few more of the summer Diamond paintings because they are on clearance.

At this point it looks like I’m a hoarder and I can’t help but laugh at myself because I just can’t stop myself. But if they keep sending me $10 vouchers, how can I not go back and buy more?

Everything that you see in these two pictures were on sale or on clearance or I bought them on sale and had a $10 voucher and got it for an extremely low price. Let me explain.

I was buying Diamond paintings on Amazon and on Temu and the ones that I was buying were okay, and I liked them, but my life partner told me instead of wasting your money on cheaper Diamond paintings, get some premium Diamond paintings and see how those are.

My birthday was on June 2nd and so I bought my diamond paintings on the app and there was a coupon for the Mushroom Diamond painting for 30% off. So instead of being $19.99, it was only $13.99, and the Rainbow Surfboards was on sale for $7.99 from $14.99. I didn’t need a coupon because it was already on sale.

After we left my birthday dinner at Golden Corral, we went to Michaels to pick up my diamond paintings and I got a birthday coupon in my email for 40% off and so I bought the Sunflower Bouquet Diamond painting. Its regular price is $29.99 and my 40% off coupon brought it down to $17.99. Those were the first three Diamond paintings that I got from Michaels.

Throughout the month of June I was working on the Rainbow Surfboards and the Sunflower Bouquet Diamond painting and I finished the Sunflower Bouquet Diamond painting in mid July. My life partner and I decided that I was going to send the Sunflower Bouquet diamond painting to a friend of ours who lives in Idaho and so I thought well, maybe I should get her something else because I really wanted that Diamond painting for myself. So I bought another Diamond painting for her and it’s the one that is the Lake Forest. That is the same size as the Sunflower Bouquet Diamond painting. The Lake Forest Diamond painting was regular $29.99 and I used a coupon for 40% off and so it went down to $17.99. I’d also bought the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (not pictured) and that was regular $19.99 and it brought it down to $11.99. I decided that I was just going to go ahead and send her the Sunflower Bouquet Diamond painting instead and so I went back onto the Michaels app and I couldn’t use the 40% off coupon again. It was a one-time thing per account, but I had another 30% off coupon so I bought it and it brought the price down from $29.99 to $20.99.

So a week later I got an email from Michael’s saying that I earned a $10 Michael’s rewards voucher and I decided that I wanted to get the Wheat Field by Vincent Van Gogh Diamond painting. That was a $19.99 Diamond painting and I used a 40% off coupon that brought it down to $11.99, and then I used my $10 voucher and that brought my total down to $2.15.

That same night after I bought that Diamond painting, I went back to the Michaels app and was looking around and all of their summer Diamond paintings had been $7 on clearance and all of a sudden they were $4.49, so I bought five of them. Then cut two 2 days ago. I got another $10 Michael’s rewards voucher so I went back to the app and purchased the Skull and that was regular $19.99 and I used a 35% off coupon and that brought the price down to $12.99. I used my $10 voucher and that brought the price down to $3.24.

When I went to pick up the Skull, I went in and I went all the way over to where they had the diamond paintings that were on clearance to see what else they had and I bought two more of the ones that are 11×14 and then I bought two boxes that have two Diamond paintings in each box that are 5×7.

And that brings us to where I am today.

I have been seeing a lot of videos on YouTube of people sharing their “stash” as they call it, of Diamond paintings. Their stash being Diamond paintings that they bought, but are still sitting in their box waiting to be made. One person had 73 Diamond paintings, and they aren’t cheap either. A lot of them are Diamond Art Club which cost $60 and up. Other people had more and I was thinking whoa, that’s crazy. And now look at me. I still have about eight or nine Diamond paintings from Amazon and I’m still working on the last Temu Diamond painting and now I have all of these Make Market Diamond paintings from Michaels. I thought my stash was huge until I saw that that one person has 73.

The thing about me is that I will be making these diamond paintings. They’re not going to be sitting in my room because I have been working on Diamond paintings every single day since I started in April. I have made three Diamond paintings that have the blue butterflies with the sunflowers and have given them all away. I have another one because I wanted to make that to sell in my Etsy shop, but I’m sure someone’s going to ask me to make that for them LOL. There are also some of the clearance Diamond paintings that I intend on giving to people so these are not all just going to be collecting dust. Some of them will be made by me and some of them will be given away and a lot of the ones from Amazon will be made and sealed and framed and put on Etsy. I don’t intend on letting any of these go to waste.

This hobby is definitely a huge addiction and I’m hoping that I resist the urge to buy anymore. But, I’m pretty satisfied with the amount of diamond paintings that I have and I don’t see any reason to go back to Michaels to get anymore unless I get another $10 voucher and the price of diamond painting is a couple bucks LOL. If that’s the case then I’ll be okay with getting more but I just don’t see myself needing to buy anymore. I still do have some in my wish list on the Michaels app, but they’re not urgent and they’re not on clearance so I don’t have to worry about them disappearing forever. There is one particular Diamond painting that is the big one that is the bookshelf and I do want to make that as a Christmas present from one of my aunts who actually has a library in her house. I think that would be a nice gift for her.

I really do like these diamond paintings from Michaels more than I like the diamond paintings from Amazon or Temu. The quality of the images is just superior to me. A lot of the ones that I’ve gotten from Amazon and Temu are okay, but the detail is lost in some of the diamond paintings. The ones from Michaels, you can see what everything is supposed to be and the details are just fantastic. Any diamond paintings that I had in my Amazon wishlist are gone. I no longer have any desire to buy those anymore. Also, the very fact that I have so many diamond paintings sitting in my bedroom that I won’t be needing to buy any more diamond paintings anytime soon for the foreseeable future. I probably have enough diamond paintings to keep me busy for the next year.

DO NOT DO THIS with your diamond painting

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, diamond paintingLeave a comment

So yesterday I was planning on making my Mushroom diamond painting from Make Market at Michael’s and also another diamond painting that I have from Temu, and I was low on the release papers and I remembered someone somewhere said instead of using those release papers from Amazon or wherever you get them, use parchment paper instead. Just buy a roll of parchment paper and you’ll be golden and it’ll save you a lot of money. Blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, that did not work out that way for me today.

I went to start working on my Mushroom diamond painting and I could not remove the parchment paper very easily. It was very difficult to come off. My life partner suggested I use the heat gun to make the glue or the parchment paper soft, and it kind of worked, but it was still a bitch to remove. I have some release papers, but I only had 10 and I needed at least 12 for the Mushroom diamond painting and also I needed some for the Starry Night with the Tardis from Temu. I didn’t have enough so I used the parchment paper and now I’m regretting it so much.

At this point I’m not going to follow any advice anymore because every time I’ve ever followed advice from somebody I don’t even know on the internet, it always ends up in disaster for me. Someone once told me to sharpen your Cricut blade to rub aluminum foil on it and I did and I went to use the Cricut blade and it wouldn’t even cut anything. It just destroyed the blade, and the blade ripped the paper instead of cutting it. I went to Michaels to buy another blade, thank you very much for costing me money, and I told the lady who worked there and she said I’ve never heard that before and I would not suggest doing that again.

I threw away the plastic that was on both diamond paintings, so those were gone because remember I took them off last night and crumbled them up and put them in the garbage. I found one in the garbage for the Tardis but I couldn’t find the one for the Mushroom. I was able to take off the parchment paper from both, but the one on the Tardis is okay to stay on there for now because it comes off easier since it’s already been removed. It’s not as stuck on as much as it was with the Mushroom. I guess there’s something about the glue that they used that’s different for each of them. So for now I’m just going to keep that one on the Tardis but use the release papers on the mushroom and I put the crumbled up plastic on the part of the Mushroom that doesn’t have release paper.

So before when I would make my diamond paintings I would put my grid on the diamond painting and then cut the release paper around the grid so that when I finished using the grid, the spots around the grid were still covered with the release paper. But since that happened I’m just going to remove the release paper sheet and then put my grid on the diamond painting and continue until the worked amount is the size of the release paper. Like this.

The release paper is about 4×6. So when I finished with that one release paper, I put that one sheet in one of the spots that was missing release paper. So tomorrow when I take another sheet off, I will put that where the other spot is and then just keep doing that until all of the spots are covered in release paper.

I bought more release paper on Amazon and it won’t be here until Wednesday, and I bought two packs, and each pack has 100. I’m sure that taking them off and putting them back on is probably going to be wear and tear on it so that’s why they sell so much in one pack, so I’m just going to do it like this from now on instead of cutting it.

I’m going to be working on the Tardis during the day in the living room and then when I come into the bedroom at 5:00 p.m I’ll work on the Mushroom. So the Tardis one is still going to have the parchment paper on it and I’ll just cut that away until the release paper comes and just replace it. The Tardis one is much smaller than the mushroom one, which is too big to make in the living room on the couch. I can do that easier at my desk and there’s no point in me sitting in the living room doing nothing until 5:00 p.m., I might as well do something in the living room during the day so I’ll do the Tardis and the living room.

Hey, I have to keep busy. I’m disabled and this is the only thing that I’m able to do. Every now and then I have to stop because it starts hurting my back, but I’d rather be doing something than just sitting there watching TikTok all day long in the living room.

Just for reference, the mushroom Diamond painting canvas is 19″ wide x 23″ high, the actual image is 16″ x 20″, and the Starry Night Police Box (TARDIS) canvas is 19.5″ wide x 16″ high and the actual image is 17.5″ x 13.75″. So as you can see in this image, it’s easier to hold the Tardis in my lap on the couch and then use the desk to make the Mushroom. See, there is a method to my madness.

So I guess the moral of the story is don’t do everything someone tells you, whether you know them or not. Test it out for yourself and if it works then it works and if it doesn’t then it doesn’t. And if they say that the parchment paper works for them, ask them what brand because obviously that matters.

More diamond paintings

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, diamond paintingLeave a comment

I received a coupon from Michael’s that was for 40% off any one regular price item and I’ve been debating whether I should just go ahead and buy another Diamond painting or not, and the reason why is because I have 12 sitting here in my bedroom waiting to be made and I don’t want to have a horde of diamond paintings that might betake a very long time to get to, so I just didn’t want to buy any more, but at the same time I really wanted to buy more LOL.

So I was going through the Michaels app the last couple of days and one of the diamond paintings that I saw was “Wheat Field” which is a Vincent van Gogh painting. I really like Vincent van Gogh and I have the “Starry Night” by Make Market and I also have a Tardis with the Starry Night, actually I have two of them LOL. I wanted to get this one. I took the opportunity to use the 40% off coupon and it went down in price to about $12. I also just so happened to have received a $10 Voucher from Michael’s rewards, so I added the voucher and it went down to $2.15. so I thought you know what, I’m going to get this.

There were also some Diamond paintings that are on clearance for $7.99 that are normally $14.99. I really wanted to buy those, but like I said, I don’t want to have a horde of diamond paintings and those are still pricey even at $8 each, so I thought let me just wait a while.

So tonight I was looking at the Michaels app at the Diamond paintings because I wanted to add some of the ones that I really wanted to my wish list and I noticed that the clearance ones are no longer $7.99, they are now $4.49. What a bargain! I had to buy them. I bought five more Diamond paintings tonight LOL. So tomorrow I will be picking up six Diamond paintings from Michaels.

So there is “Girl with Bird”, “Pink Guitar”, “Colorful Street”, “Flamingo Float in Pool” and “Sun Fruits.”

I really wanted the Colorful Street and the Flamingo Float in Pool, but I didn’t really care for girl with bird or pink guitar at regular price or even at the previous clearance price, but at $4.49 I couldn’t resist. I could give those that I don’t really care about as a gift to someone who wants to get into Diamond painting. I actually know someone who wants to get into Diamond painting and this would probably be really good for them to do as a test to see if they like it. I did also like Sun Fruits.

There are some other ones that I really want to get and those are the “Skull”, the “Roses”, ” Hydrangea Square”, “Tropical Fruit” and “Books.” I really like the Books and Skull. Those are the ones that I was trying to add to my wish list when I saw those clearance ones had gone down in price.

There is a good chance that when I wake up tomorrow morning and I see my text messages saying that my order is ready to be picked up that one or two of them will be canceled because they were sold out. That happened the last time I bought some Diamond paintings late at night and then woke up in the morning and saw that something was canceled. I really hope that I am able to get everything that I paid for tonight, but if not, that’s okay.

After this, I’m going to try to chill my ass out because this is getting ridiculous. I have already finished making 10 Diamond paintings and I’m working on number 11. I have 12 sitting in my room and now I have six more on the way, give or take depending on whether they are going to be available for me or if I give some away. But at least I am working on them and I’m not just letting them collect dust.

I’ve seen some videos on YouTube and on tiktok where people are showing their Diamond painting stash and some of them have a very large stash. One had 73 and some have more than that. I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about getting that high, but you never know lol. Some of these people have in their stash several if not more than like 50 from Diamond Art Club, which is very extremely expensive. And I would imagine if I were to buy one from Diamond Art Club, it would take me months to finish because those are huge. I thought 3 weeks to make the sunflower bouquet was a long time, that is about half the size of a diamond art club painting. They are ridiculously huge LOL. They’re also like $75 and up.

I’m just going to focus on my small diamond paintings that I bought from Amazon and my small Diamond paintings that I’m getting from Michaels and just keep it small and keep it cheap. I can’t afford to go too crazy with this new addiction.

Sunflower Bouquet Diamond Painting from Make Market

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I bought these 3 diamond paintings from Michael’s for my birthday. The Sunflower Bouquet diamond painting didn’t include the DMC color numbers in the chart on the sides of the canvas, but the Mushrooms and Rainbow Surfboards diamond painting did include that. Actually, the Mushrooms has it printed on the sides of the canvas, but not the rainbow surfboards because there were no sides because it came with a frame, instead it came with a long piece of paper with the color numbers, codes and DMC numbers.

I went online looking for the DMC color numbers for the Sunflower Bouquet and someone said that Make Market doesn’t include DMC numbers, but as I said, the mushrooms and rainbow surfboards have them included. Perhaps their old diamond paintings didn’t include them, but they are included now, or maybe vice versa. Who knows.

I contacted Michael’s a few days ago and they finally responded this morning with the chart, so I took a screenshot and here it is if you are looking for it.

I actually bought this ARTDOT color card for diamond paintings from Amazon and I held all of the diamond drills up to the diamond drills that are glued to the chart, and I was correct with all but 3. I was quite surprised how accurate it was when Michael’s sent me that email this morning and I went over the numbers I typed out and saw I was correct, besides the 3 that I got wrong.

I will benefit from this chart when I have diamond drills that fell out of the container and onto my desk, or when they fall onto the floor and don’t know where they go. Also, I have extra diamond drills from past diamond paintings that don’t actually match the other ones I have from other diamond paintings with the same DMC numbers. So this will help me determine the correct DMC numbers so I can relabel the containers. I believe there are 4 colors where I have 2 containers with the same number, but the colors are not the same shade. These came from either Amazon or Temu.

So I finished the Rainbow Surfboards diamond painting, and here it is on my bedroom wall with the frame. I actually love this frame and would like to buy more frames for the other diamond paintings that I have, rather than having them framed, which can become quite expensive.

I think these are an excellent way to decorate your walls. I don’t have much on my walls, so these diamond paintings will be very nice to look at.

I finished making this “Sunflower Bouquet” Diamond painting by Make Market from Michaels. It took me almost 3 weeks to make starting on June 19, 2025 and finishing on July 8, 2025. I took 2 pictures, one on my bed last night in very poor lighting with a flash, then again this morning on the sidewalk in the sun. I am very happy with this and I can’t wait to see it hanging in my bedroom. I bought a wooden magnetic frame on Amazon which will be here next week on July 16.

This is the picture I took in the sun.
This is the image in poor lighting with the flash in my bedroom.

A new craft to relax

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I don’t know exactly how long diamond painting has been a thing, but I’ve avoided it because holy cow, I have way too many crafts already that I just don’t really want MORE craft supplies taking up space in my bedroom. It’s already overwhelming with all the plastic lanyard, yarn, a huge box of plastic canvas, drawers and drawers of cardstock for my box cards and all of the many things I need to make the box cards look cool, like inks and rhinestones and whatever else lol. I have a lot of things taking up so much space in my room, I just didn’t want to add to it.

So I was watching TikTok and some videos about diamond painting started appearing on my FYP, and I sat there watching them the whole way through, because they were interesting to watch. But then more videos started appearing, and live creators were making these live on TikTok, and suddenly my FYP started changing to mostly diamond paintings. Oops.

Mysterious Starry Sky

Someone had a diamond painting with the Starry Sky painting with the TARDIS from Doctor Who, so that got me really interested, because I had assumed they only came in whatever you found at the craft store. I didn’t realize they had so many different images to choose from. So I bought this one from Amazon and made it, and this is what it looks like after I added all the diamond drills.

You tend to lose a lot of details when they are as small as this. This particular one is 12″ x 12″, which I discovered is actually the size of the actual canvas, and not the image. The actual image is more like 11.8″ x 11.8″. Which is fine because I think how it works is you buy the 12×12 frame and it has one of those borders that covers up the outside of the canvas, so you’ll see the actual image you made with the diamonds.

I bought this and another on Amazon and then I found some on Temu, because of course I did lol. I found another one similar to this, but much bigger. This is the image, but I won’t know how the end product looks until I make it.

I really do like this, and it is relaxing. However, it is frustrating because no matter how hard I try, I just cannot get the diamond drills in the actual spot they are meant to go on, so they start looking crooked and the diamond drills are all over the place and look like I just slapped it together in a hurry. I have a tool that I bought that has a thing that you can slide through between the diamond drills that’s supposed to keep adjusting them so they are straight, or more uniform, but that doesn’t actually work too well. You move them and they move right back.

I was watching another video on TikTok and this person had this stainless steel alignment ruler that you lay on the canvas and you put your diamond drills on, and it puts them in the exact place you need them to be, and they don’t move when you remove the stainless steel alignment ruler.

The entire left side of this new diamond painting called the Tree of Life that I started making that goes all the way to the top, I did that without the tool, because I saw the TikTok video after I did all that. So the right side that doesn’t go all the way to the top was made with the stainless steel alignment ruler which is to the right of that, if you can see it. If you are able to zoom in, you will notice a huge difference in how uniform they are in the new section with the metal tool as opposed to how wonky they are on the left side.

I couldn’t justify removing all those diamond drills on the left that I made before I got the new alignment ruler because to be honest, you won’t really notice it when the entire diamond painting is finished. You’ll probably only notice because I told you. The canvas of this diamond painting is going to be 35.4″ wide by 12″ high, but the actual painting will be determined when I finish because the Amazon listing did not specify the actual image size, only the canvas size. But this is what the image is on the listing.

BOHADIY DIY 5D Tree of Life Diamond Painting

So what I discovered is this is really relaxing because I am so focused on this and not on anything else. All my tics mostly disappear, and I lose myself in the art work. I can relax and just lose myself for a few hours or whatever amount of time I decide to spend before my neck or back starts to hurt. I usually have either music or a YouTube video playing on the TV that I’m kind of paying attention to, but not really lol.

And of course the tools they include in the painting kit are ok, but you really want to buy some other tools. For example, I’ve learned you want to buy the little release paper sheets to cover the sticky parts rather than have a long thin piece of plastic hanging off the canvas. It reveals small sections to work on so the sticky parts don’t start getting dust and hair on them before they get the diamond drills. You’ll want a new pen tool with the different attachments that screw on that give you the ability to pick up 1 diamond drill at a time, or 2, on one end, and then whatever amount up to 10 on the other end. I haven’t had so much luck with picking up too many because they are never close together when I pick them up, or the wax is stuck inside, so I only get half of what I was trying to pick up. It’s a learning process. It’s also relaxing to just do 1 at a time. It takes longer though lol.

This wonderful stainless steel alignment tool. Oh and they give you these little ziplock bags that are supposed to hold the diamond drills, but I’m told they will add a lot of static to the diamond drills. I bought a diamond painting storage container that has all these little boxes that are very similar to tic tac boxes. You add the diamond drills and add a sticker to the top with the DMC number on it, and it keeps them all together and safe in the organizer box.

ARTDOT Diamond Painting Storage Container

I had so many diamond drills leftover from the Mysterious Starry Sky painting with the TARDIS that I am just keeping them in their containers, so when I opened all the diamond drill bags for the Tree of Life I’m making now, I’ve pretty much used most of all the rest of the containers. I think I need to buy another box of these containers before I start making more paintings.

Oh and one thing that is really helpful is to have a light box under the painting, because it allows you to see everything much easier. Not just the numbers or letters or symbols, but you can also see the mistakes you’ve made so you can fix them. Amazon has this TOHETO A4 Light Board for Diamond Painting that is 14″ x 10″ for only $20. I have a Cricut Bright Pad that costs $70 on Amazon. I actually got this for free at Michaels when I got my first Cricut. It’s been collecting dust for more than 5 years. I haven’t had a reason to use this until now.

I’m sure there are more tools that I don’t know about yet, but I’ll continue researching products. This is a cool new craft that will actually add something nice to the walls of my bedroom when I finish.

Oh and yes, this has a lot of Amazon links and I have included my associates codes, but I assure you that this is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to talk about this new craft of mine and share the links for the products I have bought. I couldn’t include the Temu links because all of the products I have brought from Temu aren’t even available anymore.

Update: I’ve finished making the Rainbow Tree of Life diamond painting, and here it is.

Cricut Maker 3

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, CricutLeave a comment

I’ve had a Cricut Explore Air 2 for almost 6 years, and over the last few years it has been slowly wearing down from use. I don’t use it every day, but when it’s time to start making box cards for certain holidays, it’s turned on daily and for at least 4 hours straight.

The first problem I had was the doors stopped opening when I pressed the button, I’d have to press the button and then help the doors open, and then when I cut my cardstock, the lower door would lift which caused the cutting mat to lift up while cutting. I don’t think that affected its cutting function, but it was rather annoying. Then it started making a grinding sound. The final thing it started doing is cutting the paper all wrong. This is 1 leaf cut 4 times for 4 cards of the same design. You’ll notice the 2 on the top are thinner, which caused them to break when removing them from the cutting mat, and they wouldn’t be very stable if I had to use them in my box card. I wasted 3 sheets of paper trying to correct this, and it wasn’t just this leaf, it was other leaves and all the twigs.

So we went to Michaels to buy a new Cricut Explore 3, but they were out and the salesperson brought out a Cricut Maker 3. I decided a long time ago if I were to need to buy a replacement Cricut that I would buy the Maker, but I didn’t feel like I should because I couldn’t justify the extra cost. Well, I decided you know what, screw it, I’m getting the Cricut Maker 3.

I used to use chipboard to make the box cards sturdier because the 65lb cardstock is a little flimsy and can cause the cards to sag over time. I think that put a lot of strain on my Cricut and eventually it wouldn’t even cut the chipboard anymore. I discovered Michaels sold 110lb cardstock, and so I’ve been using that for the pieces that need to be harder like the actual box part of the card and the layers inside that need to stand up straight that hold all the elements. and I’ve been using the 65lb cardstock for the elements that will stack on each other to create the different things, like leaves and flowers.

I discovered the Cricut Maker 3 needs a special tool for cutting thicker material like leather, wood and chipboard. I went to Amazon and bought a Cricut Maker 3 knife blade and housing for such things, and now I know they have wood and I’m going to see what I can make with wood. I knew it could cut leather, and now that option is on the table.

The score tool on my Cricut Explore Air 2 stopped scoring cardstock years ago, and now I can use the Cricut score wheel tip and housing. Because the score tool stopped working, I’ve been cutting the score lines for everything that I buy from SVG Cuts and Simply Crafty SVG’s. They come with score lines that actually cut the lines into your projects, so it’ll be nice to see how well the score wheel works.

I haven’t really cut many things that are vinyl or iron on, and my Cricut Explore Air 2 was able to cut those, and I only cut them when I needed to, but not very often. Now they sell vinyl and iron on that will cut without the need for a cutting mat, which will be nice if I ever make those things. I would love to make my own T-shirt designs, but I haven’t had very much luck with the iron lol. I’ve burned 3 shirts. I need to buy the Cricut heat press because it has a timer and will fit on most or the entire iron on, but I can’t justify the cost.

Oh I bought the foil thing when it first came out and I didn’t have very much luck with that. But I think it’ll work better with the Cricut Maker 3. I’ll find out eventually.

I did use the new Cricut Maker 3 to finish making all the leaves and twigs for the card I was going to make for Christmas, and they cut them out normally, which was a huge relief. I have many more box card designs for Christmas to make and I think I’ll have an easier time making them. I’m going to use the new score tool. It’ll make it go so much faster.

More Norwegian Christmas Stockings

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment
House and Julefugler Christmas stockings from Arne and Carlos.

I have made another Norwegian Christmas stocking from Arne and Carlos. I don’t know why the second one with the birds is bigger because I used the same exact knitting needles and the same yarn and I did the toe the exact same way and both of the stockings have the same number of stitches, so I don’t know why that one is bigger than the other, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

In my previous post about the house stocking, I was saying that I did not like the toe nor did I like the heel, but it is growing on me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do the same toe but it is in the instructions and I don’t want to veer away from that. So I just did the same thing with the birds and I’m working on their latest stocking which is a mystery stocking that they’re doing every day for November, from November 1st until November 25th, 2024. They’re giving you six rows a day, and when the stocking is finished, they will add the full pattern to their blog for free, and then in December it will go into their shop and you will have to pay for it. Most of their stocking patterns are $7, so I assume it will also be $7.

You can find them at http://arnecarlos.com and also you can find their YouTube channel with lots of knitting instructions.

I did buy a bunch of stockings on their website when they were on sale for $2.80, so I bought pretty much every stocking pattern that they have. There was one stocking that I did not buy because it had cars on it and I just don’t see myself making that for anyone.

There is enough yarn from one skein of each color to make these two stockings, and there’s still enough that I’m working on making a third stocking. So these stockings are actually a lot cheaper than I thought they would be to make. I like the green color that I’ve chosen as opposed to a darker green because I just feel like this lighter green gives it more of a vintage look.

The yarn was $5 each skein, and so far I have enough for three stockings, so that’s about $5 a stocking. The first stocking took me I believe 3 days to make and the second stocking took me a little longer because I had other things that I had to take care of. The stocking that I’m making now is going to take longer because they’re only releasing six rows at a time every day this month, but otherwise I’m sure it would have only taken me a couple days to make.

Because of this project that I’ve chosen to do at this very moment in time, I decided that I was going to also resume knitting my socks. I started making this pair of socks, I don’t even know how many years ago, and I didn’t finish it because the other two pairs of socks that I had made had holes in the bottoms and I started thinking what a waste of time that was making socks for them just to get holes in them. I told my aunt that and she said you know you can fix those and they are really easy to fix, so I thought well if I can fix them then I guess it’s not a waste of time. So I decided to continue making the socks. And since I finished making this pair, I started making the next design which I’ve already started and you can see in the left side of the image.

The sock yarn is called Premier sock yarn. It is really thin and they have so many different designs and I bought 8 different designs, and so far have made 3 pairs of socks. The top left, middle left and bottom middle are the ones I’ve made. Now I am making the top middle.

I decided that I will make the socks, but I won’t wear them unless it is a special occasion. This sock yarn cost me $8 a pair to make. They are $3.99 for just 1 skein which only makes 1 sock. That is a very good reason to only wear them on special occasions, because they are so expensive.

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with the stockings, but I’m sure I will figure it out. I think it would be nice to just hang them by the fireplace this Christmas just as decoration.

Norwegian Christmas Stockings

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment
HJEM TIL JUL
Christmas Stocking 2021

I learned how to knit when I turned 18 years old and it didn’t really go that far because I just couldn’t get the hang of it, but I never gave up on it. Several years ago I started watching knitting YouTube tutorials and I found these guys named Arne and Carlos and they are in Norway. They had a video tutorial to make a Christmas stocking and at the time the stocking pattern was free on their website and I downloaded the image which is a graph and I watched the video instructions for the toe and the heel and how to do everything else. I loved the pattern so much and the next year I decided I wanted to make another stocking and they put them on their website for sale. I ended up buying the one that they had which is a 2019 stocking.

NISSE Christmas Stocking
TOMTE Christmas Stocking

That first stocking, their instructions for the toe were different and I don’t think that I was able to understand it. So for some reason I did that one and that one was clearly the wrong choice because it looks terrible LOL. I also used knitting needles that were too big and the stocking was humongous. A newborn baby could have probably fit inside there. The second stocking was the 2019 stocking and I made the correct toe on this one.

So I was thinking I wanted to make another stocking and I went to their website and they had a bunch more stockings, and so I bought the one that I posted the image of above and it only took me a couple of days to make. I had a little trouble with the heel because it was an afterthought heel and I apparently did not know about lifelines using floss and I completely messed up trying to put the knitting needles in there, but now I know for the next time.

I paid $7 for this pattern a few days ago and then I went to get some yarn and that was another $15. After I finished this stocking tonight, I went back to their website to see if I wanted any of their other patterns because I finished this one so fast. I thought I might as well make another one and they’re on sale for $2.80 right now. So I bought all of the rest of the patterns that they have except for the one that has pictures of cars on it. I now have 10 stocking patterns from them.

Their website is https://www.arnecarlos.com/home/. They have a YouTube channel @arnecarlos with lots of knitting tutorials.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that they have some really good patterns that you can buy and they’re really not that hard to make. And like I said, I made this stocking in like 2 or 3 days. I barely used any of the green and I still have enough yarn to make maybe two or three more stockings. I think this is a really good buy. I’m going to start making another stocking using the same colors since I still have so much yarn left over.

Cricut Blades on Temu

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I’ve had my Cricut Explore Air 2 for nearly 5 years. This March will be 5 years. I have mostly made nothing but box cards for all of the holidays and birthdays. I also cut boxes and packaging for my Etsy shop products.

A friend got me hooked on Temu, but I’m only buying stuff for my crafts for the box cards and I also buy some of the galaxy projectors for gifts lol.

I came across these Cricut blades and was curious, because I didn’t realize there was more than 1 blade. I mean, I have the Cricut deep cut blade with the housing and I have the Cricut premium fine tip German carbide blade and the regular Cricut fine tip blade. I normally only use the Circuit premium German carbide blade because I want to make sure all my paper cuts are clean, but sometimes they do have issues.

So the difference between the blades is the angle. The yellow cuts thinner material, but red cuts regular and the blue is similar to the deep cut blade, but without requiring the housing.

I cut 65lb cardstock, but I do occasionally buy 65lb cardstock that seems thinner, and my regular blade destroys that paper sometimes. The edges are awful and sometimes it will have a little bit of cardstock balled up and stuck to the blade which ruins the rest of the sheet. That always happens to the 65lb white cardstock that comes in a pack of 100. The same cardstock that comes on a pack of 25 cuts better for some reason. Same brand, same weight, but for some reason the more you buy in a pack, the thinner the cardstock.

I also use HP matte presentation paper 32lb for printing my graphics because the white 65lb 8.5×11 cardstock doesn’t print very well. Well, I usually have to print on custom and set it on copy paper 32lb, but have to cut it twice. So yesterday I cut it on regular light cardstock+ with the yellow blade and the paper cut beautifully. I did the same with the thinner 65lb paper that comes in a pack of 100.

The red blade would work with the regular 65lb cardstock that comes in packs of 25. Also the 8.5×11 65lb cardstock. But I’ll continue using my German carbide blade, but if I need another blade, I have plenty of the red ones now.

The other materials I cut are the glitter cardstock and chipboard. I cut those on the custom setting and my blades don’t last that long when I cut the chipboard. Sometimes it will ball up the chipboard and ruin the rest of the sheet. I’ve used my deep cut blade for the chipboard, but that doesn’t cut great either. So yesterday I cut the chipboard with the blue blade and it cut beautifully with no issues. So I’ll dedicate the blue to that.

I paid $5.19 for this pack of 40 blades on Temu. It says there are 20 red blades, 10 yellow and 10 blue. This was probably the best purchase for my Cricut ever, because I always want my paper to cut nice and smoothly and not waste anything. It really sucks to make a box card and envelope and see a lot of mistakes in the paper. 1 Cricut fine tip replacement blade is $13 at Michaels, which is more than double what I paid for this pack of 40 blades with 3 different angles.

Of course you want to use Cricut only products, especially when your Cricut is in warranty. Mine is 5 years old, and I haven’t had a warranty for a very long time. But I’m not worried about anything happening because the blades are the same size as the fine tip blade.

This new information is going to make my life so much easier when I cut my projects. I only wish I knew about this a long time ago.

i-Loom App Gone, But I Saved Patterns

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts11 Comments

If you bought one of these brilliant friendship bracelet gadgets, then you are disappointed that they have removed access to your entire library of patterns in their app. How much money did you spend on these patterns just to have them all disappear? Or how many Loomies did you earn from making bracelets to buy new patterns just to lose them when they removed access to the app?

I got a notification that they were going to remove access, but somehow I had an idea this would happen, so I opened my Friendship Bracelet Design program and copied all of my patterns, just in case.

This is the starter pack that came with the i-Loom. I had bought many other packs, like Awesome Animals, Ice Cream Party, Midnight Sky, Tote Case, and Tropical Twist. I have many more patterns on top of that that aren’t in packs that I bought separately. Chain Reaction, Easter Basket, I heart you, Lucky Clover, Retro Hive, Secret Garden, Summer Daze, and Watermelon. There were a few that I found a video of on YouTube and copied the pattern as they were making it on the video like Dear Santa, Rockin Rudolph, and Santa Hat. I also have from the pack Rainbow Pop patterns 1-4. To be honest, I don’t know how I got those lol. But I have them and I don’t know the individual pattern names so that’s why I just named them 1-4. There are two more patterns in the set that I don’t have.

So anyway, what I’m getting at is if you want any of these patterns, let me know. I can share the image of the pattern itself with you. I don’t know if this company is even in business anymore, but I do know that they still have social media and they still have an Amazon store, so I’m not positive if I’m even going to get into trouble for sharing these with you, but since we no longer have access to their app or to the patterns that we paid for, there’s absolutely no reason people shouldn’t have access to these patterns again. Especially if you really wanted these patterns.

So, message me here or on Threads. I cannot guarantee that I will get the message on this blog because I don’t always get emails or any notifications of messages. I am Xanapus on Threads. I will most definitely get your message there.

These are the i-Loom patterns that I saved.

Update: I am working on a new way of finding out the exact DMC color numbers for some of the packs that came with an image for the pack that shows all 6 patterns. When I find out the exact DMC number, I’ll change the pattern to those exact colors and I’ll include a DMC list of colors to buy. Otherwise, I chose the colors I thought were the exact colors when I transferred the patterns from the i-Loom to the Friendship Bracelet Designer.

I didn’t transfer them in the sense that there was a physical transfer, I basically looked at the pattern row by row in the i-Loom App and added the colors and changed the arrows in FBD to match the pattern exactly.

Finding out the DMC colors actually also helps me so I can buy embroidery floss if the exact colors that were meant for the patterns.

If you are ok with these as is and just want the patterns that I have, that’s fine, otherwise I’ll update this again when I’m finished and delete all of this current update.