Disney Glasses

I'm not the only Disney cruiser this season.  Four of my friends are also booked on Disney adventures, with one of my friends cruising over Christmas.  How fun!  This friend approached me to make some fun stocking stuffers for the adults in her party.  I loved her idea!  She found some wine goblets at the dollar store and asked for Mickey heads in black and colorful dots in red and yellow.  We decided to use more of my new polka dot vinyl.  We stuck them on the glasses and finished them off with ribbon tied around the stems.  Adorable!

So adorable in fact, that I decided to make some for the adults in my traveling party for our "Bon Voyage Breakfast."  And I made the red plastic cups above for my boys.  I figured it would be a safer option, I am sure my boys will be wild with excitement on our cruise morning.  :)

Countdown Blocks

I have been wanting to make countdown blocks forever!  But as usual, I craft for others before I craft for myself.  :)  I decided to make a set of countdown blocks for each of my boys' school teachers.  (Actually both of my boys participated, I insist on them helping pick out or make gifts for their teachers.)  Both teachers are expecting little bundles of joy before the end of the school year. 

The first teacher is expecting a girl and her classroom is decorated in pink, black, and zebra stripes.  I designed blocks to match:

The second teacher is expecting a boy, so I went with a bright color scheme:

My personal twist to the countdown blocks is to use chalkboard vinyl on the front.  I like the idea of being able to personalize and update the blocks to celebrate specific events.  Plus, you can choose to countdown weeks or days. 

Now I need to find the time to make my own set of blocks!  :)

Here We Go Again, Disney Countdown!

So as much as my wonderful hubby hated the price tag of our first Disney cruise, it didn't stop him from wanting to go on a second cruise.  Disney announced cruises leaving from Texas, and later a kids sail free promotion and BAM!  We were booked.  :)

I decided to make a simple countdown for my kids to enjoy.  I vinyled "Days 'till we set sail" in a Disney font on blue cruise paper.  I placed it in an acrylic frame.  On my next trip to Home Depot I collected several paint swatches in a bright rainbow of colors, and added Mickey heads with number cutouts. 

Let the countdown begin!! :)

Gobble Gobble!

I must be in the mood for turkey.  Usually I am all about the pumpkins this time of year but I am feeling very inspired by the feathery creatures right now.  I love this sign I made for myself.  I was walking in Hobby Lobby and came across a blank sign with a metal turkey.  I had no clue what I was going to do at the time but I really love how it came out.  And I really love my new green polka dotted vinyl!

I am also working on a turkey home decor project.  My Tom isn't finished yet, but I love how he is coming out so I'm posting a preview.  This fun bird will be the subject of my next crafting party!  :)

Halloween Buckets

Here are pictures from this year's batch of Halloween buckets.  :)

My eldest dressed up as Ash from the Pokemon series.  He decided he wanted a Pikachu on his bucket:

 Isn't he just so handsome??  Oh wait!  Off topic!  Sorry!  ;)

My kindergartener decided to be a ninja for Halloween.  He has been all about karate and ninjas this year.  But wasn't just any ninja, mind you.  He was a ninja with a mustache (snicker!).

I found a great free font with ninja silhouettes with letter cutouts online.  I simply spelled his name and had the most awesome of ninja accessories:

Finally, my toddler dressed as his idol, Mickey Mouse.  I wrote his named in a Disney cartoon font and added Mickey heads of various sizes in classic Mickey Mouse colors.

 I can't wait for next year's challenges!  :)  Happy Halloween!!

How Crazy Is Your Week?

A friend wanted a week-at-a-glance calendar to keep track of all her family's weekly activities.  Between three children in a combination of sports, scouts, study sessions, play dates, and church activities she was starting to feel overwhelmed.  Add to that her exercise classes, book club, and volunteer work, and her husband's (random) part time job and it was getting a little impossible to keep track of who was supposed to be where on what day.

I suggested a dry erase frame.  I have a 16x20 inch frame with a vinyl calendar grid.  Every family member has their own color, so I can easily see the week's events:

I also have an 11x14 inch frame in my kitchen for menu planning.  Whereas my calendar has no backing (the glass is glued to the frame), I chose to frame some colorful fabric.  I also added chipboard letters, buttons, and homemade fabric flowers to dress it up.  Unfortunately I just realized I do not have a final picture with my lettering, I added the days of the week in a dark turquoise color.

My friend opted for a cute idea she found online, and I absolutely adore it!  She picked out a frame with seven openings and asked for colorful paper and vinyled days of the week.  It came out super cute.  I think this idea would be equally cute for a menu board, or with each window having a name of a family member rather than a week day.  I have also seen seven windowed frame collages arranged as clusters rather than in a row so don't let this large frame scare you.  Here are the before and after pictures:

 

Wedding Tile

I made this as a gift for a very special young woman I had the privilege of teaching at church.  She has grown in to a strong, smart, incredible woman.  I am so happy she has found a wonderful man to love and cherish her!  I selected colors based on her reception colors of royal blue and silver.  I also know she loves so I added some pearls.  I wish them much love and joy as they begin their journey together!!

Olympic Fever!

I have a sports nut.  He loves pretty much every sport.  He loves to compete.  He races home from the bus every day, he just doesn't know that no one is racing with him.  :)  My son is also extremely patriotic.  He asks for the Star Spangled Banner as one of his nightly bedtime songs.  I knew the Olympics would be a huge hit with him, and a great way to show American pride and learn more about other countries around the world.

To celebrate the the Olympic event I hung a huge world map in our hallway.  And then I spiced up our experience with some vinyl.  I cut colored rings to recreate the Olympic rings on my wall.  Next I cut two large circles out of dry erase vinyl.  On those I added lettering so that we could keep track of the USA medal count (gold, silver, and bronze) and the list of the top five medalling countries.

 

Pokemon Party!

 So my latest vinyl adventure was a birthday celebration for my awesome son.  His newest passion is the Pokemon empire.  I'm talking about a complete, total obsession with the cartoons, books, figurines, and playing cards.  When deciding on a theme for his party at home, it was an easy choice.  But I couldn't find anything in the stores!  After a lucky paper plates find, I was completely stuck.  I hit the wall so I turned on my creative juices and my Cricut!

I purchased a bright yellow tablecloth.  I hunted online for free Pikachu coloring pages, and turned those pages in to cutting files.  I cut a black outline of the creature and some red facial highlights, then applied them to the tablecloth.  It wasn't easy, the tablecloth was a bit slippery.  But the end product totally rocked!  And my son absolutely loved it!!

I also decided to create a simple game of pin the tail on Pikachu.  I spent less than a dollar for a sheet of white poster board.  This time I cut a black under layer, a yellow body, and red facial highlights.  I applied all pieces except for Pikachu's tail.  I cut several yellow tails out of vinyl to use for the game.

The game was hilarious fun!  We loved blindfolding the boys and making them insanely dizzy.  In the end both of the older boys did get fairly close, but we also had some stray tails end up on the stairs and a neighboring chest.

Now I am excited to start working on an adorable two year old's Mickey Mouse birthday!!! 

Texas Star Baby Album

I don't usually highlight my passion for scrapbooking.  But last week I made a baby scrapbook for a dear friend expecting the arrive of a little boy in two weeks.  I went with a cowboy theme to match her nursery, and I absolutely love how it came out!  So please excuse a little bit of paper bragging.  :)

The little boy's name will be Clayton Levi.  Her baby shower thus had a blue jean cowboy theme.  When I found the blue jean album at the store I knew I just HAD to make a batching album. While we were hunting for decor ideas, I noticed my friend had saved a few links for creating rope names on Pinterest. That was my inspiration for the cover.

This is the first page.  I decided on the title "Wanted" because my friend has struggled with infertility and because she had to fight daddy for a long time for her name choice.  :)

I really love the top left page, which is meant for her ultrasound pictures.  The lettering reads, "It's a cowBOY!!"  The bottom pages have an over sized sheriff star.  I tried to incorporate stars on several pages.

I really love these next pages, these two pages will help her record memories from Clayton's baby blessing.  The pendant on the left page was made from scraps from the large blue jean and burlap pendant banner I made for the baby shower.  Maybe I will throw in a picture of the banner at the end, after all I did use vinyl to create it.  :)

The next four pages highlight Clayton's new family.  The left page will display pictures of mom and dad, and the right page will show off Clayton's cute cowgirl sister.

The final pages are unthemed pages.  I didn't know what memories my friend would want to capture (firsts? a page for each month?).  I didn't want to push her in any particular direction.

And now as promised, here are a few pictures of the large banner I made for the baby shower.  Unfortunately I don't have a great shot of it at the party.  These are a few close up shots I took from home.  The triangles are cut from denim cotton and beige burlap.  The letters and sheriff stars are vinyl.  The pendants were strung on twine and strips of red bandanna fabric were tied between the pendants for an extra pop of color.

Happy trails!!  :)

One more Disney Post

Forgive me for throwing my fabulous vacation in the mix again, but I have a few more vinyled items I can show for inspiration.

The first things I can show you are handmade T-shirts and pillowcases.  I wanted my kids to help make some fun items for their trip.  We bought colorful T-shirts and covered them in various sizes of Mickey heads.  Then we sprayed them with bleach and let them sit in the sun.  Once the shirts were dry we washed them and peeled off the vinyl to reveal a custom faded/bleached shirt with dark Mickey heads.  Here is a shot of my boys spraying their shirts:

Unfortunately I do not have a close up shot of the finished product.  My boys wore their shirts to our character breakfast, and if you look really close you can at least get a feel for how the shirts turned out.

We repeated the process for two pillowcases as well.  I did decide to add an initial so my boys would be able to identify their own personal pillowcase.  Once we boarded our ship we turned the pillowcases in to the 'front desk' of the ship with a Sharpie marker.  They were returned to our cabin three days later with signatures from all the main Disney characters!  It was a fantastic souvenir!

The last items I created were luggage tags.  I found colorful leather luggage tags at Michaels for $1 each.  The tags had a pocket for a picture.  I selected appropriate scrapbook paper as the picture, and added a few accents on the plastic window to add even more cute factor.  I used some stickers and Mickey heads cut from vinyl.  This was a useful touch for our trip since we had multiple matching bags.  I will likely recycle some of these tags for my boys' backpacks this school year.