The Music Made Me Do It... and More Experimentation

     Okay, so it took me a while to recover from Christmas.  With four kids, I think it's amazing that I made it through the holiday without any help (husband deployed, but returning soon) and with my sanity relatively intact.  Go, me!  *fist pump*  Everyone still has all their arms, legs, toes, and fingers... so I'll call it a victory.

     Cheerleading aside, I've been busy since my last post.

     When Kai was a baby, his all-time favorite song was Owl City's "Fireflies".  If you haven't heard it, you can hear it here.  I've had it on my playlist forever, and he still requests it every now and then.  The last time he did, I had an idea to put fireflies in his room.

     How to do it?  VINYL!  More specifically, glow-in-the-dark vinyl.

     And if Kai was going to have fireflies, it was only fair for Cam to have them too.  So I got to work painting up some (4) canvases.

 And then designed a file in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition for my fireflies.

Afterwards, I cut the fireflies out of glow-in-the-dark vinyl and enlisted the help of my kids to put them on the canvases.  They had a blast!

And then we lined them up to admire our work.

Next, we tested their glow-in-the-dark abilities.  Believe it or not, they glow BRIGHT!  I just couldn't get my iPhone to cooperate with a good pic.

Finally, we hung them up.  The boys love looking at the fireflies when they go to bed at night.

     After the firefly canvases, my latest project has been dyeing fabric.  I tried a few different experiments, and I think that the shibori dyeing technique is by far my favorite.  (All the way to the left.)

     These were done on cotton gauze with Dylon fabric dye.  I'm still experimenting with different techniques and would love to carry some hand-dyed baby blankets in the shop once I've tested a few different things out and see what I like best.

     Hope everyone is enjoying their new year!

Easy Gridwall Vinyl Organizer

     Like a lot of my crafting hobbies, my vinyl collection had gotten out of hand.  I was resorting to a Rubbermaid tub with the vinyl rolled up in giant rolls inside, but it looked like a Rubbermaid tub wrestling an octopus with all of the vinyl sticking up and fighting it's way out.

     It was time to get it under control.

     First, I looked at vinyl racks.  I LOVED them, but at $54 a pop for the small ones that wouldn't even hold a quarter of my vinyl, I had to pass.

     Next, I considered building my own.  I thought about a giant thread rack with dowels at an angle.  However, I don't have a drill press and with my OCD-like tendencies, I knew that any imperfection would drive me batty and I'd never finish it to my liking.

     Then.... pegboard.  This seemed to be my best option.  I could always paint it to pretty it up, but I like super-simple, non-busy things.  Right next to the pegboard was a gridwall.  BINGO!

     
     Before ordering, I measured my wall.  I had a 2' x 5' section that was just perfect for vinyl storage.  Luckily, gridwall comes in all kinds of sizes.  I knew that I wanted 3 baskets.  One to hold supplies, one for scraps, and one for my specialty vinyl.  So I ordered 3- 12" x 12" baskets.  (They narrow at the bottom, so a 12" x 12" piece will not lay flat in the bottom, but it still works for me.)  I also wanted to be able to hang up my tape that I would use to secure the rolls, so I got a 2" peg.  For my vinyl color chart and samples, I ordered an 8.5" x 11" acrylic literature holder.  Finally, of course the vinyl pegs... I purchased 90- 12" long pegs.

     I always order my vinyl in 12" long sections anyway, so this fit perfectly.

So the total of my order-

1- 2' x 5' gridwall
3- 12" x 12" x 4" baskets
6- wall brackets (only used 4 but keeping the others just in case I start getting more "heavy" rolls and need additional support)
90- 12" hooks
1- 8.5" x 11" acrylic literature holder
1- 2" hook (for my tape)

     I found this all at KC Store Fixtures.  After shipping and everything, my total was $121.08 shipped. (This included 12 additional tiny mounting brackets that I didn't even use that were $.15/ea., so I didn't list them above because they weren't necessary.)

     It was super-easy to install.  I was able to do it on my own with my handheld drill.  Make sure you mount it into the wall studs so it's nice and secure.

     After taking this picture, my order for my 12" x 10-yd rolls came in.  I was able to put them on the gridwall as well, just double up the hooks to help support the roll.

     I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  It makes the vinyl easily accessible without being "in-your-face".

Ornaments, Tiles, and Mailbox Beautification

     This week, I decided to try my hand at glittering ornaments for the kids.  Do you ever see those plain, empty plastic or glass ornaments at the craft store and wonder about who really buys them?  I used to.

     Now, I'm the person buying them... and I wish that I had done it earlier!

     Luckily, you can still find them at Michael's and Hobby Lobby right now for 50% off... so grab your car keys and get moving.

     I'll probably do a quick tutorial on these in the future because they really are fun and even a first-timer can totally blow this one out of the water.

Right after they dried and had the caps put back on.

When they were finished.

    Long story short, clean the inside of the ornaments with rubbing alcohol (swish and pour back in the bottle), then swirl floor polish (with Future Shine) around the inside.  Immediately after pouring the excess floor polish back into the polish bottle, add your extra fine glitter, plug the top of the ornament up with your thumb and shake to coat the inside.  Tap excess glitter back into container.  Finally, clean the outside of the ornament with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball and add vinyl embellishments.  :)

   SUPER easy, very rewarding.

     Along with the ornaments, I also made a few tiles to give out as "thank you"s to the receptionists and the nurse at my doctor's office.  They've been phenomenal whenever I've gone in there, both before and after Liam came.  I wanted to show them how much they were appreciated.

     I love that Rudolph file.  And glitter vinyl is becoming my favorite thing EVER.

     Also made a thermos for my dad.  (No worries, he doesn't read my blog.  Crafting is not his thing and I keep him posted about the family through my mom and Facebook.)  

     He wanted a Harley for the longest time and finally got one a few years ago.  I remembered growing up how he would always talk about owning one.  Now he's got one and he loves it.  Harley-anything goes over really well.  Dad has always been kind of hard to shop for, but this is right up his alley.

     Finally, today I finally decided that I didn't want to look at my horrible mailbox for one second longer.  I picked up some black glossy spray paint and got to work.

     My mailbox went from this:

   A sad, raggedy and generally ugly mailbox.

To this:

    *cue angels singing*

     I was so happy with how it turned out.  Honestly, just a little bit of paint and some sprucing up will really make something old, new again.  

Santa and Rudolph Canvases

     I made my first canvases this week!

     There's a blank wall in my entryway that I thought would look good with a little Christmas art.  When I saw the Santa file on my Silhouette group, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I went to Michael's and picked up some canvases (value bundle pack) to decorate, prepped them with some white acrylic paint, and then vinyled them.  Of course, Santa couldn't be alone, he had to have his buddy, Rudolph, with him.

     So happy with how they both turned out!  I may be slightly hooked on this "canvas" thing now.  :)

     The Santa artwork is originally from Pottery Barn and someone in the group was kind enough to share the file with us.  Rudolph, I created after seeing a beautiful wall hanging in the "Land of Nod" catalog.

     I had a few requests for a tutorial on how I made Rudolph, so I learned how to use iMovie... with the help of my 9 year-old son.  Guess I have finally crossed the threshold into "old fart" territory.

     Here's how I made Rudolph:

     Hope this helps give you all some tips and tricks!

William's Sonoma Knockoff- Christmas Glasses

     I LOVE, absolutely LOVE Williams Sonoma.  However, I rarely shop there because of the price.  Their stuff is fantastic and absolutely beautiful, but I just can't bring myself to shell out that kind of money when I still have kids in the house who would take those beautiful things and trash them completely within minutes.  :)

     Flipping through their most recent catalog, however, I saw a set of glasses that I loved.  They had beautiful pine trees etched into the side and just screamed "Christmas".  Price for a set of 4?  Hold on to your socks... $69.95.  WOW.

     I had a quick thought, though.  Those pretty glasses didn't look so hard to make.  I had all the stuff to recreate it.  Just had to do it.

     In the end, I'm thrilled with how they turned out.  The glass on the left is from Williams Sonoma and a set of four sell for $69.95.  The one on the right is my recreation, and a set of four cost me a measly $4.  SCORE!

     To recreate them.  I used 4 glasses that I picked up at the dollar store for $1 each.  I also had a free sample of Series 351 Metallized vinyl in silver from Oracal that I had received from their website.  (Sign up for an account and you can get 5 samples per month.  Great way to try out new vinyl.  I'm now dying to get more of this stuff.)

     To get the artwork, I uploaded the .jpg image of the Williams Sonoma glasses into the Silhouette software and used the trace feature to select and trace the trees.  I don't have a specific formula or set of rules for this, I just mess with it until it "feels" right.  Once I had a good trace, I deleted all of the super tiny dots that wouldn't be easy to vinyl on, enlarged the middle tree, and played with the sizing and placement of the other trees until I was satisfied.  I then replicated it to have four... one for each glass.

     After that, it was just a matter of sending it to the Silhouette to cut.  I used a blade setting of 2 and lowered the speed by one (down to 8, I believe... whatever is one less than the normal vinyl setting) because the cut is very detailed.

     When the Silhouette was finished cutting, I weeded out the part of the vinyl that I didn't want to adhere to the glass.  Applied transfer tape, and then transferred it to the glass.  Peeled back the tape... and had my new Christmas-y set of glasses!

     Sometimes it pays to be cheap.  ;)

Vinyl-Embellished Bento Lunch Boxes

     I love bento boxes!  I've had some in my Amazon wishlist for a really long time, but just recently, I was lucky enough to come across some of these great bento boxes at Tuesday Morning.  While the colors were bright, they were missing some pizazz... so I asked the kids what they wanted.

     Kai, of course, chose Batman; and Cameron chose Pokemon.  I'll admit that the Batman one was much, MUCH easier to accomplish.  The Batman logo was in the Silhouette store and after I downloaded a free Batman font from dafont.com, all I had to do was add Kai's name, cut and vinyl.

     With Cameron's, well... it was just a nightmare from the get-go.  I couldn't find any Pokemon files that I wanted and he was very specific about wanting Zekerom on his lunchbox.  I was able to find a pretty clear image of the dragon/bumble bee guy, trace it, and then start cutting and layering the vinyl.  It took a total of 5 colors to complete him.  A base layer of black, then light gray and dark gray for the body, blue tip on the horn, and a teeny tiny red eye.

     For the Pokemon logo, I was able to trace and cut with no problem.  Cameron's name, however, took a bit more work.  I won't go too into detail, but I noticed that the Pokemon font didn't have the vowels overlapping and cutting into the other letters like the logo did.  With my crafting OCD, this was unacceptable and I spent a good hour to an hour and a half playing in the Silhouette software to cut chunks out of the letters surrounding the vowels and crowding the letters to look more "authentic".  Finally, I was able to put everything on there and proudly show my project to the children.

     The kids, of course, nodded and said, "Nice, Mom.  Thanks."  Hmm.. not exactly the whooping and screaming reception I was hoping for, but I was happy with how they turned out anyway.

Halloween Pics and Angry Bird Cups

   
     I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!  We had another fun year and it was Liam's first Halloween, so he was able to continue our family tradition of wearing the infant lobster costume.

     Usually the lobster costume brings on the baby screams, but Liam had shots that day, so I think he was just happy to stay warm and wrapped up.  Poor little guy never made a single discontented peep.

     This year, aside from Liam the Lobster, we had Cameron as Lord Voldemort, Kai was vampire Spiderman, and Scarlett was... of course... a princess.

     And here is Kai in all of his decked out "vampire Spiderman" glory.  Yes, we actually trick-or-treated this way, which brought on a lot of weird looks and people cracking up.

     That's my boy!

     While the boys were at school, I used my Silhouette to make the Angry Bird cups that I've been wanting to make for the kids.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the right color orange for the yellow bird, so I had to wait on that, but here's how they turned out.

     All of the files, with the exception of the black Angry Bird, were shared files that were shared on the Silhouette group that I'm a part of.  The black Angry Bird was my first attempt at creating my own layered vinyl file and I'm super happy with how it turned out.  The kids were thrilled with their cups.  We're big "Angry Birds" fans here.  :)

Vinyl and the Giant Pot

     I've had an idea for awhile now about some onesies that I wanted to start carrying in the shop, so over the past few weeks, I was able to start ordering the supplies to start getting the project underway.  Heat transfer vinyl came in first, and while looking through a Silhouette group, I discovered permanent vinyl as well... which led to an order of a variety pack of that... as well as a heat press to top the whole thing off.

     Thank goodness I have an understanding husband.  My crafting addiction not only makes me pick up new hobbies left and right, but to dive in headfirst.  I do not know the meaning of dipping my toes in the water.

     So anyway, my heat press came in last week!  I was so excited (and, frankly, a little intimidated) to get started.  Usually, it takes me awhile to let the idea of using new equipment, but with this, I just went for it.  So glad I did.

     I started off by using the Silhouette to cut some heat transfer material, then booted up the heat press and knocked out some onesies with the artwork I had chosen.

The kiwi bird shirt, I kept for Liam and used it as a tester.

That poor shirt endured more wash and abuse in the past few days than you would believe.  However, I wanted to test the limit of the heat transfer material and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the durability!

     After trying out the heat transfer material, I wanted to give the permanent vinyl a shot.  My first project was a travel mug for Cam's swim coach.  Cam's coach has been a phenomenal teacher and really made a difference in his self-esteem.  He went from not being able to swim at all, to being ready to go on the swim team!  Unfortunately, his teacher is leaving soon, so we wanted to show our appreciation with a gift he could remember Cam by.

Front of travel mug (with white paper so you can see the design better).

Back of mug.

     He seemed really happy when Cam gave it to him, so I'm happy that it was well-received!  Cam took his swim test and passed with flying colors.  So proud of him!

     After using and abusing the kiwi bird shirt, I felt ready to knock out the onesies for the shop.

    Please excuse the horrible lighting, it was 11 o'clock at night and I was wiped out.  They look a LOT better when you can actually see them....

     ...and even better when being worn.  ;)

     I fell in love with the brown sugar glider onesie and decided to keep it for Liam.  I think he liked it too... at least he didn't scream like he did with the Dr. Seuss hat.

     To finish up the week, I took the kids to the new TJMaxx store that just opened up.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot there, but we did discover the biggest pot I have ever seen in my life.

     As any good mom would do, I stuck my kids inside, pretended to make "children soup" and snapped some pictures.

     Of course, Cam was too "cool" to get into the pot; however, the little guys had a BLAST!