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Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2011

Oh My Crafts Vinyl

I got an early Christmas present in the mail a few weeks ago...a big box of vinyl from Oh My Crafts! Even though we got a ton of packages in the mail in December, I was extra excited about getting this big box of goodies, and I was SUPER excited to open it up and start creating.

The first thing I noticed when I opened up my box of goodies was that the vinyl wasn't in rolls but big sheets.  I was really used to the rolls I've bought before from craft stores and Silhouette, so I was a little uncertain about the sheets...but they ended up being way better than I could have imagined! The best part about these sheets is that they load into my Silhouette 100 times easier than the rolls! I normally have to try and load a piece of roll vinyl at least three times before it goes in straight...and the first time I put a piece of Oh My Crafts vinyl in my machine it went in with no problems! The vinyl sheets are 12 X 24, so I do have to trim down the sheets because my Silhouette will only load a 9 inch wide sheet, but if you have the newer Cameo or the bigger Cricut you won't have to trim at all! Oh My Crafts also sell rolls of vinyl but I think I may be sold on sheets instead:)
Before Christmas I used my Oh My Crafts vinyl to make a ton of great gifts. These cute paint bucket tins were in the dollar section at Target. I added an initial with red vinyl and some pretty red and green ribbon. Then I filled them up with goodies and I ended up with the perfect teacher gift for Christmas! I ended up making 13 of these little cuties and only used about half a sheet of vinyl!
My box of goodies also included a Vinyl Squeegee Tool. I have always just used my ruler or scissors to smooth down my vinyl...and I am so glad I have this Squeegee now! I'm actually kind of mad at myself for not spending the $3 on one a long time ago! It made applying my vinyl so much easier!
After I finished up teacher gifts, I moved on to the kiddos' class party stuff! I used a piece of my black Oh My Crafts Vinyl to make lots and lots of little circles {aka snowman eyes and smiles}...
...to make these:

The last vinyl project I have to share with you is a really fun one that my boys love:) And yeah, if you are thinking it's kind of hard to come up with a vinyl project for boys you are right!

Henry and Grant both got bow and arrow sets for Christmas this year and a couple of the arrows have suction cups on them. In true boy fashion, they got a huge kick out of shooting them at the glass on our doors....so Jason grabbed a dry erase marker and drew a bulls-eye for them. But after a couple of hours and more than a few kiddos taking trips in and out the door, the dry erase marker had been smeared and wiped off. So I decided a nice vinyl bulls-eye would work perfectly!  
{Apparently my boys feel the need to run around without shoes or shirts on in the middle of December! It was in the 70's that day so I didn't worry about him too much.}
I used my Silhouette to cut out a couple of circle on some fun red glittery vinyl to make the bulls-eye. It's kind of hard to see up on the door, so I included this picture so you can see how pretty and sparkly it is!
I was very impressed with all of my Oh My Crafts vinyl and I can't for things to slow down a little here so I can create even more fun crafty things with my new stash of vinyl! If you are interested in trying out Oh My Crafts vinyl, now is a great time! They have some great deals going on right now and if you use the code OMCBLOG10 you can save 10% on your entire order!

*Thanks so much to the people at Oh My Crafts for providing me with a free sample of their vinyl. No other compensation was given and all opinions are mine!*

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Upcycled Wooden Nativity

I pinned this really adorable Wooden Nativity a few months ago. {The original idea came from Learning to Be Me and I have seen similar ideas a few other places online too}. When I first pinned it, I figured I would either get Jason to stop and pick up some lumber from the hardware store, or I would raid his pile of wood scraps to find what I needed. But one day I glanced out the back door and noticed this:
If you can't tell what this is, I'll enlighten you:) This is a cute wooden table set {there are two chairs in the set too} that my boys got second hand from my aunt. It survived in our playroom for a few years, and then got moved to the clubhouse a few years later. Needless to say the boys were kind of rough on the table and chairs...a few of the chair slats got broken, as did one of the legs to the table. This table was actually in the trash/burn pile until I decided it would be perfect for the adorable Wooden Nativity sets! The legs of the table were the perfect size for Mary and Joseph and the broken slats from the chairs were just right to make a few Baby Jesus figures.

I don't have any pics of the process...mostly because I was using power tools by myself and I figured operating a saw and my camera at the same time wasn't the best idea ever:)

After I broke off the other three table legs, I used the dimensions from my inspiration {6 inches for Joseph & 5 inches for Mary}, marked the wooden legs with a pencil, and then cut them to size. The Baby Jesus pieces were cut from the chair slats and I made them 2 1/2 inches tall. Joseph got a coat of tan spray paint, Mary got a lovely shade of blue, and I painted the Baby Jesus pieces white. Then I painted the heads an off white/yellowish color {just because that is what I had on hand}. 
After all the paint was dry, I borrowed Jason's superglue and attached the heads to each of the figures {Mary & Joseph's heads are 1 3/4 inch wooden balls and Baby Jesus' head is a 1 1/4 inch wooden ball that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.} I let the superglue dry for about 20 minutes, then I tied the three pieces together with some raffia. I'm planning on adding a little note with Merry Christmas and the year to the back of each set with vinyl and then giving them out as Christmas presents to a few family members. Not a bad gift considering it started out as a broken table!
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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Snowman Juice Boxes

Last week when I opened up Grant's backpack there was nice little note from his teacher. It had information about their class Christmas party, and at the bottom it had a little line that said "Can you please send..." You all know that I am kind of an over-achiever when it comes to school treats, so when I saw juice boxes on that little line I was kind of disappointed....until I remembered these cute Mummy and Turkey juice boxes that I had seen earlier in the year! I decided that I wasn't going to just send boring old juice boxes, I was going to rock the juice boxes for Grant's class! I did a little search on Pinterest and surprisingly there were very few {actually I don't think I found any} Christmas themed juice boxes...I'm guessing because most people do the milk and cookies thing! So I brainstormed a few ideas and decided on Snowman Juice Boxes!
 I started by wrapping the front and two sides of the juice box with white cardstock. I decided to leave the back of the juice box uncovered so it would be easy to remove the straw. I measured my juice box, cut the paper to size, applied a few lines of glue dot runner, and then folded the paper onto the juice box. 
 I used my Silhouette to cut out a ton of black circle onto some {Oh My Crafts} vinyl. If you don't have a craft cutter, you could use a circle punch or even a hole punch. I also cut out some cute snowman noses onto some orange paper...I would have used vinyl for that too but I didn't have any orange:) 
 I put the black vinyl circles on the front of the juice box for eyes and a smile and I added the orange noses with a little bit of glue. To finish them off I added a cute scarf to each juice box made out of ribbon and ric rac.
I'm hoping these Snowman Juice Boxes are a hit at Grant's class party tomorrow:)
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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Nativity Garden Flag

The busyness of the season has made our holiday decorating plans come to a stand still...especially outside. Other than taking down the fall decor and adding a few red and green things to our front doors, the outside of our house doesn't have a whole lot of Christmas cheer going on right now...no lights, no garland, basically no decorations at all.
Since Jason is the crazy brave one who climbs up on the roof every year to hang the lights {and there was no way I was going to try that while he was out of town for work}, I decided to remedy our lack of outside decorations as much as I could by making a new Christmas themed garden flag for our yard. It was SUPER simple to make, and the whole thing was basically free because I used fabric scraps from my stash:)
Burlap and Felt Nativity Garden Flag:
I started by digging out some red and white material, red burlap, and my bag o' felt scraps.
After a couple of google searches for inspiration,  I drew a little sketch of what I wanted the design to look like...can you tell I'm not an artist!?!
I used an old garden flag as a guide and cut a double layer of the red and white fabric {folded at the bottom to make the bottom edge finished}. I added a little extra length to the top to accommodate for the hanger.
I used my pinking shears to cut the fabric so it wouldn't fray and I wouldn't have to worry about finishing the edges. I sewed around the two sides and the top with my sewing machine. You could easily make this no sew by using a hot glue gun!
I folded over the extra fabric to make the hanger, and then sewed {or hot glue} it into place.
I cut a piece of the red burlap to fit on the front of the flag.
I cut all the shapes for the Nativity scene out of felt. I laid the design out on the red burlap to make sure everything looked good, then I picked it up piece by piece and attached them with spray adhesive. After everything was in place on the red burlap, I turned the burlap over and applied a good coat of spray adhesive to it and then placed it on the flag. I also sewed around the edges of the burlap to secure it {and again you could totally use hot glue if you don't want to sew}.
With all the Santas, reindeer, and snowmen out there it can sometimes be hard to decorate for Christmas with Christ in mind, so I'm glad we have this little addition to our decor to remind us why we really celebrate this season! I'm thinking this might make a really cute kiddos shirt too...what do you think?!?

My sweet friend Richella  over at Imparting Grace is hosting a great linky party called Home for the Holy Days! A great place to share the ways you and your family keep Christ the center of your Christmas. Go over and check it out and say a quick hello to the oh so sweet Richella:)
Imparting Grace
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Friday, December 2, 2011

Making a List...

I sat down earlier this week and made a list of all the craft/snack/decorating projects that I want to do before Christmas....my list has more than 25 things on it! That means I have to finish at least one project {maybe even 2} every day between now and the 25th for me to get everything crossed off my list! I don't think it's going to happen!

You would think with a list that long I would get busy trying to cross things off...NOPE! I did get our Advent Calendar on the wall. It looks really cute, but it is completely empty:) I also managed to get the boys' stockings hung even though we don't have a tree or even a plan to go get a tree yet! And instead of tackling my list, I worked on something that wasn't even on my list: my front porch that still had pumpkins and footballs all over it!

I took down all the pumpkins and the footballs and added some red and green in their place! I hung up a cute wooden sign that I bought at a craft fair. Then I whipped up a wreath with some red burlap and leftover Christmas fabric. It's not much, but at least it's not still fall decor!
Even though our front door looks SUPER cute now, my list is not any shorter! Plus there is still a ton of other decorating and light hanging to be done! Please tell my I'm not the only slacker who still has a ton of stuff to go to get ready for Christmas!
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Guest Posting at Serenity Now

Today I am SUPER excited to be over at Amanda's place {Serenity Now} sharing my tutorial for a Metal Tin Advent Calendar! This is the first day of Amanda's great new holiday series called A Season of Serenity (Now) at Home....and perfect timing for me to be sharing an Advent Calendar since tomorrow is December 1st! Click over, check out my tutorial, and leave some comment love please. And don't forget to check back with Amanda over the next few weeks to see some great giveaways and awesome guest posts as part of A Season of Serenity (Now) at Home!
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Mini Muffins Make Me Smile

And hopefully they will make you and the person you share these with smile too...because this SUPER cute decorated egg carton is filled with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!
 I pinned this cute egg carton idea from fiskar.com a few months ago. I was waiting for just the right time to make them, and staff appreciation at church turned out to be perfect time for me to whip up some mini muffins and try them out!
To make these, simply cut scrapbook paper to cover the top and front of your egg carton. The inspiration one only covered the top and left the egg carton writing visible on the front...but I wanted to cover most of the writing up for a cleaner look. The inspiration one also added some cute scrapbook paper and little note inside, but I figured the muffins were a good enough surprise inside without the little note:) I used spray adhesive to attach the paper, but a glue stick would work fine too.
Honestly, I was a little skeptical about the mini muffins fitting into the egg carton when I first got started, but as soon as they were cool I started sitting them in the egg carton and they fit perfectly!
Fill up your egg carton with yummy mini muffins, tie them up with some pretty ribbon or raffia, add a little note, and you have a perfectly cute and edible gift to show your thanks to someone!

Here's the recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins {from allrecipes.com} just in case any is interested:


Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
  2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
  3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Pilgrim and Indian Initial Tees

I have shared countless times about my slight obsession love of crafty kids' holiday shirts. I'm actually starting to think that maybe I should start a support group, but I might be the only crazy member! Anyway, with Thanksgiving only a week away, I decided to take advantage of our little sick day yesterday and get some sewing done on the boys' shirts for this year. I knew I wanted to attempt a cute turkey face shirt for Eli {I'll share his shirt later after I figure out how to add the eyes without making the turkey look crazy}, but I wasn't quite sure about what to do for Henry and Grant. I stumbled across a Pilgrim initial tee on Etsy earlier this week and as soon as I saw it I knew my boys were getting Pilgrim and Indian shirts this year:)
I won't bore you with all the details{and a million pictures} of how I made these shirts...you can go back and check out one of my other step by step tutorials if you like. But just so this isn't a single picture with a ton of rambling, I will share a quick rundown of how I made these.

**Print out each kiddos initial {mirrored} and attach it to orange and white gingham.**
**Cut out the letters and attach them to some orange felt.**
**Sew the letters to the felt with a zig-zag stitch and then cut around each letter leaving an orange border.**
**Use spray adhesive to hold the letter to the shirt, then stitch around the letter to attach it.**
**Make the pilgrim hat and indian headband out of scraps of felt. **
**Use spray adhesive to hold them in place and then sew them onto the shirts.** 

Really the hardest parts of this project are deciding which font to use for the letters and getting the proportions of the hat right so that it looks like a Pilgrim's hat and not a crazy top hat:) For those of you that don't sew, you could also make this no sew with some ultra hold iron on adhesive! Except for the new white long sleeve shirts, I used all materials that were in my craft stash making these shirts cost around $5 each. Not too bad for two SUPER cute Thanksgiving shirts!
Weekend Bloggy Reading
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Friday, November 11, 2011

Friday Flashback: Craft Edition

**This is a re-post from last year. I have been looking for some great Thanksgiving shirt inspiration for this year, so I figured I would share one of my Thanksgiving shirts for last year in case anyone wants to attempt it for their kiddo!**

I have seen a ton of cute turkey shirts for Thanksgiving floating around the internet lately. I had intentions of making my boys a cute turkey shirt, but was really wishing I could make something a little different and a little more fun instead.

The Shirt of Plenty is what I ended up with after a TON of inspiration {and a template} from Family Fun magazine.
This is the original craft shared in the November issue of Family Fun...SUPER cute Thanksgiving themed felt food. I simply decided to turn my felt food into a shirt instead of making a toy:)
The first step in making this SUPER cute shirt is to print the templates and cut them out. Sometimes the template calls for two of each shape, but you usually only need one.
Use spray adhesive and stick the cut out shapes to different colors of felt. You can mix and match however you want, or follow the suggestions on the templates.
Then add iron-on adhesive to the backside of the felt following the directions on the package.
Cut out the shapes following the template, then remove the paper and the iron-on adhesive backing.
Lay out your design on the shirt and decide where you want each piece to be. Iron the pieces onto the shirt following the directions on your package of iron on adhesive.
The finally step to making The Shirt of Plenty is the most tedious and time consuming....but it also makes a big difference in the appearance of the shirt. Using coordinating colors of embroidery thread, go around the edges of each piece of felt with a running stitch. Make sure to tie off each end of the embroidery thread well, so that the felt pieces stay securely attached.
And that is how you make a SUPER cute Thanksgiving shirt!
Now if I can only find the time {and energy} to make two more:)
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Monday, November 7, 2011

Thankful Photo Decor

I finally got around to changing out the three frames in my kitchen that I use for holiday decorations. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that the same finger-painted Christmas pictures stayed in the frames for a year or two before I changed it out a few weeks before Christmas last year for THIS. Then I put THIS Easter decor in the frames and it stayed there until now....yep, I had Easter decor in my house all the way through October. But I am making up for it now with this cute Thankful Photo Decor.
 I started out by opening up a file in Photoshop Elements. I made my page 8x10 so that it would fit in the frame {and also so I could print it out as at a photo center if I wanted to}. I chose the picture of each kid that I wanted to use and placed it on the right side of the 8 X10 page. Then I added in the words "I am thankful for:" using a mix of fun fonts that I downloaded from kevinandamanda.com
 I printed out the page at home {because I really didn't want to go to the store}, and I was pretty impressed with the quality of the picture that printed from my HP home printer.
 I test fit each page into the frame to make sure it fit well, then I gave the kiddos a Sharpie and a few instructions.
****
Henry made a list along with a few numbered pictures....very analytic! You can tell he is the oldest for sure!
Grant was thankful for two things: his frend and toys....typical 6 year old boy I guess:)
Jason helped Eli who is apparently most thankful for pizza...I guess that explains why he wants to eat it 6 times a week!
I love seeing their cute faces along with the things that they are thankful for, but the best part of this project is that when Thanksgiving is over I will have something great to add to their memory books!
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