New Fused Glass Decals

They are in stock finally!  18 new cards of decals for fused glass art . . . or whatever type of glass you would like to decorate.  To the left is our new dance card featuring ballet, jazz, waltz, jitterbug, rope, hula, belly and pole dancing.  Too Fun!

 With the nick name Grandma Cat, a card featuring cats had to be designs.  I tried to create a versatile card with some of the basic cat silhouettes that you would expect as well as some humorous ones and some rather frightening felines.

For all of you dog lovers out there, I've put together a card with 25 recognizable dog silhouettes along with some fun phrases.  The curved 'My Best Friend' fits nicely over the dogs and can be positioned at the angle that looks the best on the piece it is being applied to.

 
We've got all the new decal designs listed on EBay, Artfire and our website www.captivedecals.com.  Of course, due to the fees EBay and Artfire charge, you'll find the best price on our website.  No matter where you choose to purchase our decals, shipping will be $1.75 anywhere in the USA for any number of decals you select.


I hope you have as much fun using these decals as we had designing them.  I would love to see what you decide to do with them.  Pictures are always welcome!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
                 &                                              &
   Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

Back to School 2012

Here we are one full year later.  Grandkids went back to school today.  They are very excited to meet their teachers and hope to see friends from last year.  Grandma Cat hopes to get back on track.  Haven't 'blogged' for a full year because the connection from the Captive Illusions domain name wouldn't connect to the blog, which made the blog next to impossible to find.  My daughter, De'Anna, visited from Colorado a couple of weeks ago and straightened everything out for me.  Let's hear it for daughters...Hip Hip Hooray!

I've been helping said daughter, De'Anna, build inventory for a craft fair she will be doing in October in Colorado.  I used Simplicity pattern 1957 (shown below) to make these sweet miniature aprons.  I intended to make them for decorative purposes like it shows on the pattern below; however, the aprons fit Barbie dolls perfectly.



I've made 36 of the full aprons and intend to make a dozen or so out of Christmas fabric.  If I do not run out of time, I'll make a couple dozen or so of the 1/2 aprons as well.  These are fun and quick.  The first apron took about 30 minutes, but after tweaking the pattern a bit, I can now make them in 10 minutes.  They are fully lined and didn't cost a thing as I've got drawers of scrap fabric that I've saved for quilting.

Time to get this blog posted, get shipping done, finish the laundry, make some zucchini bread before the grandkids get home from school, get some accounting done, make a grocery list.....and so on and so forth!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
              &                                  &
Grandma Cat's Attic            Crafty Family

40,000th eBay item sold . . .

Just sold our 40,000th item on eBay!

 Tiny frog decals!

The same customer also purchased these frogs:

De'Anna signed us as eBay sellers in September 2006 under the ID dream77catcher.  We started off selling fabric as fat quarters for quilters and machine embroidered items such as personalized Christmas stockings and baby blankets.

 



Later we added fabric by the yard, sewing patterns, more machine embroidered items, and ceramic decals.

Last summer De'Anna and her family moved from California to Colorado.  She took Amy (our professional Amaya embroidery machine) with her at which time we split up the business into two entities:  Captive Illusions and Captive Embroidery.

The price of fabric has skyrocketed over the past couple of years making it impossible to sell it on eBay and make a profit so we dropped the fabric line a couple of months ago.

We had so many requests for decals for fused glass art, that earlier this year we started designing our own line of fused glass decals.  My nephew, Greg Jr., a graphic artist, created dragons, bugs, trees, sea life, mythological creatures and lots of other wonderful designs.  Jr. also created our website Captive Decals.  De'Anna created Fashion Ladies, Flower Fairies, Celtic Knots, and Dragonflies designs.  My contribution was Paw Prints, Butterflies and His 'N Her designs.   We've done a printing of 18 themes and have hundreds more designs in the works.

Our goal is to have cards not only in the black enamel that we've started with, but in white enamel, gold and silver.  And eventually branch out into our own line of colored decals . . . beginning with fairies and tattoo art.  Here's a sneak preview of fused glass designs (these are not available for sale yet):

Over time we've branched out from eBay and listed on Etsy.com for awhile, and also on Artfire.com.  We've done the craft fair and boutique circuit.  We are trying to find our niche in the crafting world.

To all the friends and family that have helped us over the years, consider this a huge shout out THANK YOU! to each and every one of you.

To all the customers that represent the 40,000 items sold; please know that we wouldn't be anywhere without you.  We will continue to do our best to provide products and services that meet (and hopefully exceed) your expectations.  We are always available to answer questions or work with you on special or custom projects.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
              &                                  &
     Captive Decals                Crafty Family

Just having some decal fun . . .

I've had some requests to see our fused glass decals on non-fired items; so this morning I've been playing with some votive candles, soap and a page from a magazine.  Here are some of the results:

Dusty picked up 2 bars of white soap from the Dollar Store yesterday and this morning I cut out bits and pieces from our Sea Creature, Fish, and Sharks and Whales Cards.  I used small embroidery scissors to cut out the decals and tweezers to help handle the little pieces in the water and placement on the soaps.  Use your imagination to create scenes of your own.  You can put the decals any color soap.  One of the fun things about putting decals on soap is that as you use the soap, the decals stay intact while the bar of soap gets smaller and smaller.

I used a skull off the Guys N Gals Card and a spider web off the Creepy Crawlies card to create two fun votive candles for Halloween.

The couple dancing under the chandelier from the Guys N Gals Card or the Dragonfly from the Dragonfly Card could be used as wedding favors.

For patio parties and picnics 2 strips of ants from the Creepy Crawlies Card fits perfectly around a votive candle.  I used a strip of grass and a weeping willow tree from the Tree Card and a tiny fairy from the Flower Fairy Card for fun outdoor votives.  Try putting decals on insect repelling citronella candles to dress them up for your next bar-b-que.

For something a bit nautical I've used a ship and lighthouse from the Sea Creatures Card and made an ocean scene with seaweed, coral and an Angler fish from the Fish Card.




Scrapbook Makers!  Our decals work great on scrapbook paper.  All my scrapbook supplies are on vacation somewhere (haven't come across them since we moved to Idaho last summer) so I cut a page out of a magazine.  I used a tree from the Tree Card to place on the picture of the planter.  Looks like it belongs there, doesn't it?  I was careful to wipe away most of the water before I put the decal on the page to prevent the page from warping.

The last thing I did this morning with the fused glass decals was to put some on small porcelain blanks.  These will need to be fired later to set the decals.  I've used decals from the Butterfly, Flower Fairy and Creepy Crawlies Cards for these.



I had fun and hope that I've given you lots of ideas for projects of your own.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
         
     Captive Decals               Crafty Family

Last Week of School - Monday

This is the first day of the last week of school for Trinity (First Grade) and Sonny and Skyler (Kindergarten).  We have so many projects to do this week along with keeping up with the housework, eBay, Artfire, and now that the weather has finally turned nice, yard work that we will be running around like a chicken and her little chicks.  Our after school project today is to create little 'graduation' gifts for all the kids in Trinity, Sonny and Skyler's classes.  Each class has between 20 and 25 children so we'll be making 72 gifts which should give us a few extras.  First off, I bought some cute decks of cards from Oriental Trading shaped like graduations caps.  They are on sale for $1.50 for 12 decks of cards.  I bought 6 dozen - a set in red, blue, green, yellow, purple and orange for $9.00 which is 12 1/2 cents per deck of cards!

The decks measure a scant 3" X 3".  I have labels that measure 1" X 3" that I'll set up with sayings:

Happy Graduation!  Hope you have a fun summer!  From Skyler
Congrats Graduate!  Have fun in first grade!  From Sonny
Have a great summer!  Hope to see you next year!  From Trinity

The kids will put a label on the back of each deck of cards and then decorate the label with stickers.

I'll post a picture or two when the project is finished.

To go with the decks of cards the kids will be making Smartie Airplanes.

I'll blog about that those tomorrow!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
     Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

From THIS to THAT with Adobe Photoshop

I like to play.  When I can play at work, I'm happy.  This morning, I'm taking a bit of time before the grandkids get up to work/play.  I'm working on the Victorian theme for the next fused glass decal printing.  I found this cute little girl standing on a chair from VintageFeedsacks.  It looks like the little girl is reprimanding someone or something.

 I decided to solve the mystery.  I opened the file in Adobe Photoshop and enlarged the canvas to make room for the mystery guest.  I moved the girl and the chair to the right with cut and paste.  I opened my file of Captive Decals 5" X 7" Rodents and Reptiles and copied a mouse that would be cute in the picture.  Normally, I do not think mice are cute.  I then pasted him on the floor next to the chair.

Unfortunately, it looks like the little girl is looking beyond the mouse.  I did not want to put him further away from the chair as the finished decal would have too much blank area.  So, I outlined the girl from the waste up, opened a new Adobe Photoshop file, pasted her upper body in the new file, rotated her 30 degrees clockwise, then copied and pasted her back into the original file.  I had to do a bit of fill in on her lower arm and a gap at her waist, but the results were worth it.

Mystery solved just in the nick of time as Skyler woke up; which means his twin brother and older sister will be waking up soon.  And they will be asking for pancakes.  I've got pancake shapes of a butterfly, rubber duck and Mickey Mouse.  The grandkids love 'em.  Gotta go.  Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals            Crafty Family

Next 18 Fused Glass Decal Themes

Each time I have a printing done of fused glass decals I arrange 18 themes to be printed on a 24" X 35" sheet which is then cut into 5" X 7" cards.  I think I've got my next 18 themes decided.  Believe me, it was not easy to narrow it down from the hundreds of ideas I've received from customers, family and friends.  (Please, keep the ideas coming!)  They are:  Art Deco, Birds, Butterflies (traditional), Cats, Celestial, Dogs, Dragonflies (traditional), Fairies/Sprites/Mermaids, Halloween, Irreverent (naughty things like 'the bird' and swear words), People, Skulls, Southwestern, Sports, Universal Symbols (hazardous, infinity), Tribal Art, Victorian and Zodiac.  Each theme usually has at least 12 different designs.  So, 12 designs X 18 themes is 216 new designs for fused glass art.  Wanna see a sneak preview?  Here ya go:

Victorian

Halloween

Art Deco

People

The themes and/or designs might (and probably will) change a bit before they are actually sent to the printer as my mind is always racing with ideas and designs that need to be tweaked.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning exhausted because I have designed decals in my sleep all night long!  If you've got an idea for something you would like to see designed, let me know and I'll give it a whirl!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                 Crafty Family