Mickey Stache Bank

A good friend is leaving on a Disney cruise in a week.  She wanted her children to help save up for the trip and so a while ago she asked me to make a glass block bank.  She loved it so much she decided to make additional banks as her Fish Extender gifts.  She just posted a picture of her finished banks and they look so adorable!  (She applied the vinyl herself.)

I think this is my favorite use of that somewhat strange mustache fad going on right now.  :)

The wording on the bank says "Disney Stache."

Lunch Surprise

I knew the first day back to school after Christmas vacation and a cruise could be tough.  I thought I would cheer up their day with a surprise at lunch.  I decorated the insides of their lunch kits with my leftover vinyl decals, Disney stickers, and red tinsel.  (See?  It was good the Christmas boxes hadn't made it in to the attic yet.  ;) )

That was so fun I decided to decorate their water bottles next to bring in the pirate reference...

... and then I filled their lunches with some Mickey treats.  I included Mickey crackers and candy we had received on the boat.  I happened to have some Pixie Sticks and Smarties on hand so I made a fun little message for them.

These are the days where I feel like sneaking in to school to watch them discover their surprises.  :)

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!!

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!!! 

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.

Fun Teacher Gift

I sure love my 4 year old.  He is so sweet and fun, and he loves to give presents.  This year I suggested he make some magnets for his preschool teachers and he came up with the clever idea to make "magnet puzzles."  We decided to make Christmas trees.

We made a trip to Home Depot to pick up a sheet of one inch white ceramic tiles, and then (twist my arm) another trip to Hobby Lobby for some craft magnets.  Hobby Lobby is pretty much the best store in the world, or at least in my crafting world.  :)

We separated the tiles and washed them, then I let my son color them with special inks.  He colored one tile brown to be the tree trunk, one yellow to represent the star, and the rest in green to be the pine needles.  After the ink dried I gave him free reign to my assortment of scrapbooking gemstones.  He stuck several on the green tiles to be Christmas ornaments.  And finally I gave him some iridescent star stickers to use for the tree topper.  I finished up by gluing magnets to the back of the tiles so my little guy wouldn't glue his fingers together.

The next morning my son mixed up the tiles and we placed them in a gift bag.  He really enjoyed showing his bonding buddy how to put the puzzle together.  His teacher loved her set so much she asked if the magnets would be an easy craft for the entire class.

Although he landed on Christmas trees, I thought a snowman might make another cute magnet puzzle.  Any other clever ideas out there?

Halloween Custom Work

Here are more samples of customized costumes and trick-or-treat buckets.  First, a bucket for a police officer:

Next, a faux flight pin made out of gold vinyl and a bucket for a bomber pilot:

And finally, some work for an Air Force pilot.  First I added some lightening bolts to a toy motorcycle helmet.  And then I made a jet for the bucket.  The jet was definitely a challenge and I am quite happy how it turned out.

Halloween Pacifier

Isn't this a super cute idea?  You can update your boring binky through the year to match special holidays.  Or, you could choose a monogram or picture that suits your personality.  I just wish I knew that baby was going to be a frog, I would have suggested a little bug.  Wouldn't that have been cute?

Thomas Bucket for Halloween

This was a custom request for a cute 3 year old train engineer.  I have to admit I am proud of this one, it involved six layers of color piecing!

Space Decals for Halloween

A special little astronaut needed to get decked out for Halloween.  I was asked to personalize a plastic helmet and bucket for trick-or-treating.  Right now Michaels has $1 buckets in various Halloween colors in stock.  They are perfect for gathering sweets!

Here is the helmet.  I made a rocket for the top, and wrote "Commander " in a futuristic font.

And are a few shots of the bucket.  I think it came out so cute!  I created an Earth, Saturn, spinning galaxy, alien ship, and a few scattered stars.  The colors popped nicely on the black bucket.

Nursery Names

The name "Atticus" is cut using the font "Blackcherry Moon" with Traffic Blue vinyl.  The name "Abigail" is cut using the font "mtf whimsy" with Cyclamen Pink vinyl.

Birthday Party Invitation

A birthday party invitation for a special fireman fanatic!  The blue boxes are to protect the innocent...  ;)

The fire hydrant, hose, and flames were created by my cutter.  The water stickers I happened to have on hand, as well as some red glitter glue for the tips of the flames.

It's GREAT to be back!! Custom Work - Sports Projects

So the past few months have been challenging and bittersweet.  In January we discovered we are expecting our third baby... and then I quickly became ill.  My pregnancies are challenging and I feel like I have been living on the couch with an upset stomach for-ev-er.  Recently the bad nausea tapered off and I began to feel more like myself.  So I began to entertain job requests and am having so much fun 'playing' with vinyl again.

I was able to complete a special project for a sweet little baby.  Last month I met my new nephew Adam and oh is he just so adorable!!  His parents decided on a sports theme for his nursery and wanted his name above the crib.  I hunted for appropriate fonts and we landed on one named "Allstar."  It reminds me of collegiate sports.

I did not make the decals surrounding Adam's name.  Those were purchased months before his birth.  But I have designed sports decals for other projects.  Here is a picture from a fun project I completed about a year ago.  I decorated water bottles for some cute soccer players:

And this is a team banner I created for my son's first soccer team:

I have also designed football, baseball, and bowling decals.  I am also happy to create a custom design if you have a special project in mind.