Father's Day Gifts

I spent the entire morning making Father's Day gifts. Well, actually, only one thing was a gift for my husband and the other two things were more of a tribute to him.

This is the basket of goodies I made for the hubby. I bought a black metal bin on clearance at Target and put socks, underwear, K-cups, Clif Bars and razor blade refills (those darn things are so expensive!) in it. On the bin itself I cut the vinyl word "Daddy" on my Silhouette (shape "Daddy title" from the online store) and adhered it to the bin. THAT was the easy gift!! I think he'll love it!

A few days ago I saw a post on the Silhouette blog for the cutest darn heat transfer t-shirt for a daughter to wear to honor her daddy on Father's Day. Being that I have two daughters I thought this was a super idea...hence the tribute project. This was not as easy as I thought it would be. First of all, I was using dark printable heat transfer and the tutorial is for light -- two TOTALLY different things. I know...strange. One you mirror image and the other you don't. I didn't actually screw that part up but I did have to think about it a little harder! Second, intricate designs are NOT compatible with dark printable heat transfer. Well, maybe for some people they are, but I am not one of those people! So I modified my image somewhat. If you are looking to do the same type of project, follow the tutorial but DON'T mirror the image. Aside from that, I pretty much did the same thing for my t-shirts. The design is from the Silhouette online store - "dad heart frame" - and I cut away the more intricate part of the design and this was the end result.

The kids love them and I think he will be so happy when he sees the girls in their shirts!

Happy Father's Day! :)

Stick Figures Welcome Sign

Today is my last weekday before I have to go back to work...boo! I made it very productive though. I finally cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer...there were some pretty gross things in there...yuck! But it's all nice and clean and organized now  :)  I also made another of the danishes, this time with raspberries. I had to have a small taste and it is really yummy (maybe even better than the blueberry)! I am now in the process of making a batch of Andes Creme de Menthe cookies too...I found a bag of the chips in the fridge so I figured, what the heck?

The crafting project is what I'm highlighting here. I have Christmas and Valentines and Easter and 4th of July and Halloween and Fall hangings for my front door. Well what about for the rest of the year? I was inspired by the little stick figures that everyone has on the back of their SUVs or minivans -- not me because I have neither of those vehicles! But I think they're cute and thought they would make a really cool front door plaque. Soooo I bought a cheap wooden plaque from Michaels for $2.99 and acrylic paint for $1. I put 2-3 coats of paint on the plaque.

So now for the stick figures. The Silhouette online store has stick figures! Whoo hoo! People, pets, babies, all kinds of stuff. So I bought the ones I wanted (99 cents each...can't beat that) and cut them out of white vinyl from Expressions Vinyl, along with a welcome sign.

I loaded the vinyl into my Silhouette and customized my cut settings as you see below in the photo.

After I cut out my designs I needed to weed out the parts that I did not use. I did this using the weeding tool.

Next I applied the transfer tape to my design using the scraping tool.

I then carefully lifted the design off the backing.

Next is to decide where to put the design on the plaque. After placing it where I wanted it, I used the scraper tool to adhere it as best I could.

Then I VERY carefully peeled up the transfer paper, pulling the design onto the plaque with the scraper tool as I went along.

Since I am hanging it on my front door I needed to add a ribbon to hang it with. I had some leftover hardware from IKEA and used some bronze ric rack ribbon to adhere to the plaque.

Cute, huh? But it needed something. So I painted part of the edges white, added some rhinestone stickers and wa-la...perfection!

I sprayed it with Krylon's Preserve It and hung it on the front door. I didn't include a picture of it on the door because the whole front of our house is getting prepped for paint and it, along with the front door, are not picture-worthy at this time! :-)

Vinyl Wall Art

I've had these pictures in these frames for years. In our old house they went along hallways. Here in this house, because it is much smaller, I made a photo collage wall. But all that was there were the photos...which is nice...but I felt it needed something more. Enter my Silhouette Cameo. I love that this machine can do so many different things. You've seen posts of the shirts I've made, the ornaments, the menu board, the gift boxes...there are so many amazing things you can do. I can't wait to help my kids make valentines for their classmates! Anyway, back to the photo wall. I decided to cut out my own vinyl wall art. Purchasing it is , a) expensive, b) you're limited to whatever THEY have come up with, and c) impersonal. I browsed the Silhouette online store and found a couple of things that I thought would work great. What I really wanted to do was a family definition. So I made my own. It was beautiful. One problem...it was very intricate with small words. I have satin paint on orange-peel textured walls. That and intricately detailed vinyl art DO NOT MIX! It's unfortunate because it was really cute. So I cut the shapes, "moments" and "phrase: families are forever". I love how they look with the photos on the wall.

New Silhouette Cameo!

I am sooooo excited! My new Silhouette Cameo came Saturday! Whoo hoo! How nice does it look sitting on my desk??

So what did I make this weekend? I have been dying to try the vinyl and now that I have a big enough cutting area I cut out this 12x18 "families are forever" phrase for my picture wall. Doesn't it look great??

Ahhhh...the possibilities are endless! :-) I also made a chalkboard paint coffee mug for my husband. I started with a dollar store mug, brown chalk paint, and a sponge brush.

I painted 3 coats of paint onto the mug, leaving the top white so his mouth wouldn't touch the chalk part of the cup. It wasn't the straightest paint line though so I needed something else. Back to my Cameo...I opened the  "retro car" design, resized it, duplicated it, traced only the outline, and cut it out using black vinyl. I then adhered the vinyl to the mug and this is the final result...

One problem...he didn't use it this morning! When I asked why he said it looked so nice he didn't want to mess it up! I have to give him a tutorial later tonight on how you can erase it. It IS OK to get it wet, although I don't plan on putting it in the dishwasher!