And Onto 2016!

Wishing all of you A VERY Happy New year! I'm hoping that 2016 is a wonderful year of creativity and happiness for all!

I had a very busy 2015! I was lucky to do some serious traveling and saw all parts of the world.  Many of you know I did an Around the World trip in June and July....we traveled to 8 countries and went over 25,000 miles! It was definitely a dream of a lifetime....I doubt we'll ever be able to duplicate that unless we win the Powerball Lottery! HAHA! 

We did end the year with another incredible trip...we went to London, England for about 5 days and then to southern Germany for about 10 days or so. I was born in Germany to a German mother so going back always feels a bit like home.  I had a bucket list item to see Germany during the Christmas season....I had wanted to go to the Christkindl Markts which are common in Germany during the Lenten season.  And I was not disappointed!  We had a fabulous time flying into Frankfurt and touring Mainz (on the Rhein), Heidelberg, Karlsruhe (the city in which I was born and also on the Rhein River), Munich and Nürnberg. Nürnberg is the site of one of the oldest and most well known Christkindl Markets and it did not disappoint.  I had visited there as a teen with my parents and it had always been on my bucket list to return.  I got to check that off my list!

With all the travel and preparations for Christmas I got very behind on crafting! Yes, I've done some but just haven't made the time for sharing.

I hope to do a bit better blogging in 2016.  No promises but I do enjoy sharing so hope to be a bit more successful!

My very good friend, Cyndi, shared with me a project she recently completed for her grandchildren.  She had taken a 16 inch bamboo tray and purchased a 15 inch Lego baseplate which she glued inside the tray.  This makes a very nice little tray for Lego building...and since the tray has sides around it...maybe little pieces will not fall off the table as much.  I don't know about you but the placement of a Lego on the ground is directly proportional to where you will step in bare feet! LOL!

So I decided to CASE her design (Copy And Steal Everything) and make my own for my grandchildren.  The tray was purchased at Walmart and I got the baseplate on Amazon.  The plate was glued in with some E6000 adhesive (good. strong stuff).

I used my Silhouette to cut out a Lego logo as well as some Lego blocks in vinyl.  The logo was found online and the blocks were files purchased in the Silhouette online store.  The little Legos took a little while to create as there were each 4 layers of vinyl!  But it was fun to do and although not perfect...I think my grandchildren will enjoy.

So here are the pictures of the finished Lego tray:

 

Happy Crafting and Happy New Year!

And Even More Vinyl Fun!

Two of my very dearest friends hosted a couples shower for my son and his bride to be today.  They did such a nice job...the food was great...the company was wonderful...and my son and his fiance' received some very nice gifts for their home.  The wedding date is April 26 so we are getting close!

I decorated a couple of tumblers.  Everyone thought they were cute and great...well, except for my son.  I think he had the "uh, yeah, right" look on his face.  At least he had the good sense to NOT roll his eyes when I was looking his way.  :)  Just kidding...he knew it was all in good fun.

I used Aharoni and Blackjack fonts and some images from the Silhouette online store (the lips and mustache) and cut them in Oracal vinyl 651 which means they can go through the dishwasher if need be.  

Here is the couple with their cups:

D'Ann is quite happy with the cup and Jeremy has that look on his face I know so well.  I can "read his bubble"....and it says "Yeah, right!"  We shall see....

I also decorated a package with some lettering which says "to the Mr. and Mrs. To Be".  It's difficult to see in this photo but it's there, I promise you.  I thought I had taken a photograph of it on my table here at home before the shower  but nope...I forgot!  Anyway, it's fun to use your diecut machine to spiff up an otherwise routine package, isn't it?

Well, that's it for now, my friends.....maybe I will actually post a bit more this week!

Happy Crafting!

Germ Juice!

I had a few hand sanitizers left over from the shower favors I made so decided to make some Germ Juice for my grandchildren. 
My grandson, David, being all boy loves anything related to Batman.  I bought an image in the Silhouette online store and cut it out on some black vinyl and adhered it easily. 

His name and the words "Germ Juice" were done with the Aharoni font downloaded for free from the Internet and cut out with some red vinyl.
For my Minnie Mouse loving granddaughter, Taylor, I chose a Minnie Mouse head.  I found an image by googling "Minnie Mouse line drawing", imported it into my Designer Studio, traced it and cut it out!  Very easy process and I love that I was able to get something for free off the Internet.  And these are just for fun...not for sale so I appreciate I was able to get the image!

They loved them and, even better....I think they will use them!

Happy Crafting!

Baby Shower Fun!

....or as my granddaughter, Taylor, calls it:  "Baby 'Shadow'"!  I love children learning language...love the little things they say!

My friend, Christine, and I threw a baby shower/shadow yesterday for our good friend Cyndi and her daughter, Brooke, who just gave birth to a little boy.  Little Logan decided to be born at the end of December joining his grandmother on her birthday but was not due to be born until early February!  Yep, he gave his parents another tax deduction for 2013...and came about 6 weeks ahead of schedule!  He spent a week in NICU (and even was tended by Christine's sister, Teresa who is a NICU RN) but went home 2 weeks ago and is doing beautifully.

And actually as this was a second baby we called it a "Baby Sprinkle"...much more casual and smaller than a Baby Shower.

I got into my crafting mode and made a few things for the shower.  I had the best time doing it...and am feeling more and more confident working with vinyl.

The first thing I did was to get a bucket at Dollar Tree and put Logan's name and a little train on it.

  This was a great find at the Dollar Tree (oh, yeah...it really was just $1!) and with a few cents worth of vinyl...well, it made a great little thing to stash more stuff in.
I used it with some tissue to hold the party favors.  No mints for us.  This is flu season...we went with personalized hand sanitizers!  ;)

Here are the hand sanitizers...and they were a hit!

The font I used (which I cut out with my Silhouette Cameo) is Oh! Photo Shoot which can be downloaded for free.  The date was something else but now I don't really remember...  HAHA!  No memory for me!
And the feet and onesie were from files purchased in the Silhouette store.
Again, the hand sanitizers which were 10 ozs each were purchased at the Dollar Tree.  And for a few cents worth of vinyl...well, a great little treat, I think!
And I learned some tips while doing these.  The first 3 I did took me over an hour...but then I learned some tricks.  The most difficult things were A. removing the old label and B. getting the design to lift up on the transfer tape.  To deal with Difficult Thing A I learned that if I heated the label with my heat gun for a few seconds the label peeled easily and with virtually NO residue!  Yay, heat gun! And no, I did not burn anything up!
To deal with Difficult Thing B I realized that if you remove the backing from the vinyl as opposed to lifting with the transfer tape it was much easier.  I know that makes no sense unless you've worked with vinyl...but it is true. Turn you design over and roll back the vinyl backing.  Easy peasy.  I was able to do the next 15 bottles in under an hour! :)

I loved them.

I also made a diaper cycle as a table decoration. It's made with diapers, receiving blankets, socks, a washcloth, a bib, a baby bottle (for the headlight)  and a linking ring.  Very quick and much faster than a diaper cake.  I found the instructions HERE.

I had sent a photo to my daughter who said it looked much cuter in real life than in the photo...so trust me...it was very cute!

I should have taken a photo without the teddy bear on it...but maybe you get the idea.  It was very fast and cute....and obviously is usable once the mommy takes it apart!

And here is the cake we had made.  It was yummy.  

The Sprinkle was a success and I'm happy I got to be a part of it!  Can't wait to see little Logan in person!

Happy Crafting!

More Adventures in Vinyl!

Courtesy of Sonny Franks at Sign Creations I got my hands on some vinyl that looks like etched glass when it's applied.  Way cool.  I do have some etching cream and want to try out the whole real etched glass thing but I thought this would be fun to try as well.  It is so fun!!!

This is really popular among the vinyl enthusiasts right now.  Split letters.  You take the letter you want (the fancy S is from the font REGAL which can be downloaded free from some of the font sites), "split" it in your software of choice (I use Designer Studio for the Silhouette), create some little rectangles, "weld" it all together...add your name and anything else you want and cut it out.  It's really not difficult but gives a really cool look.

I got this cutting board at the Dollar Tree for...yep $1.  I doubt it will last forever but I think it still makes a very nice little gift.  I want to do one for my son and his bride when they get married in April. 

Happy Crafting!

Santa Will Be Here Soon!

...am I ready for Santa?  Heck, no!  I can't believe Christmas is just a few days away.
Christmas Cards...yeah, I made and sent a few but I still need to get my main card done.  Uh, probably going to be a New Year's card instead!  ...maybe...maybe not....

Presents wrapped?  Uh...no. 

Cookies baked?   Uh...no. 

Decorations up?  Yep...sparse but they are there!

But I am excited because I do love this season....and I will be spending it with the grand angels.  We will spend the night at their house so that we can be sure to see all the Santa fun-ness! ;)

I can't believe it's been about 3 weeks since I've posted but I was gone a whole week on a Caribbean cruise.  See?

Here is our ship and I circled our cabin because I wanted you to know exactly where we were. 
Because that's important.  HAHA.  My friend is actually a cruise consultant/booking person and so I really did this for her as I wanted her to know exactly how it looked.  By the way...her name is Jan Pepe and she is the most thorough travel person we have ever used.  She works tirelessly to find the best rates and answers all questions and more!  She will give great service....I promise.  If you need a cruise or vacation booking person her email address is janp@mei-travel.com or you can check her out HERE.
Anyway, back to my ship and cabin:

 She got us a great deal on a balcony cabin which was not much more than an inside cabin.  That's how good she is!  LOL...that and thank you, AARP discounts.  LOL!!!

So we were gone which coupled with the Christmas season being shorter this year (due to Thanksgiving being so LATE!) has just put me so behind on just about every aspect of my life! LOL!!!  But it's ok!!!

I've been doing more little things with vinyl. I made this chopping board for my fellow wine drinking partner, Christine.

 That's Christine up top there....We celebrated her birthday. 
I did this on my Silhouette.  I found the jpeg on line of the wine openers and then just found a font I liked.  I think it was a very fun gift and she seemed to like it.

 

I also made her this wine tumbler.  You know, on the inside it looks like a wine glass but it's plastic and no spill.  Kind of like a sippy cup for an adult! LOL!

We have special names for each other and hers in "Chore Chick".  Long story....another day maybe.  I am "Crispy Chick" because I am known to burn things when I emboss.  Watch out if you see me with a heat gun!  Protect your carpets!

Well, that's it for today....I think I'll go make a few more cards to send on Monday!

Happy Crafting!

'Tis the Season to Be Busy!

I am sure everyone feels the way I do!  This starts the "oh my gosh, I'm so busy I don't have enough time!"  I know I have the same 24 hours a day that everyone else has but some people definitely seem to manage it better than others.  Me?  I am great at wasting time and then wondering why I am running around like crazy! LOL!

I did get my house decorated.  We bought a new tree this year....I had a 9.5 foot tree that just seemed to grow each year and got more and more difficult for my old man husband and me to put up!  So we gave it to my daughter and put up a pencil tree in our living room.  It looked so dinky for the past two years that I got it in my mind to get a new one this year.  It's smaller... 7.5 feet but wider at the base.  And it's one of that has a bit of snow and berries on it...as well as little "ice" chips and is just so darned pretty I can barely stand it.  And the piece de resistance is a rotating stand.  Too cool.  My tree does a pretty pirouette on its stand.

I haven't had much time for crafting but life is great! :)  I did play around with some additional vinyl this evening because I had a little time.
I made this little snowman ornament which is filled with that plastic snow stuff.  I just pulled the circles into my Silhouette software and cut it.  I didn't have any orange vinyl so I just cut and colored some white with Copics and a bit of Wink of Stella glitter.

I see that I have a top hat file that I may still cut out.  But how easy this was to make...
I also did another block or two.  Here's one I did tonight:

This was from a file in the Silhouette Online store...I just moved things around a bit.

And lastly I saw this great idea on a site devoted to Silhouette cutting machines.  I have always had this dilemma about what fonts to use and what fonts cut well, etc.  I do profess I am a font lover...and addict like many of you out there! LOL!  Anyway I saw an idea to cut some of the favorite fonts in vinyl and attach them to the cover of the Silhouette. 

Like this...

It gives a great visual of how the fonts look cut....so I think this is a nice beginning!

And that's it for today!!!

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully I can get more crafting done!

I hope you do, too!

More Fun with Vinyl!

Here's hoping that all of you celebrating Thanksgiving today have a wonderful day!  And best wishes to  those of you celebrating the start of Hanukkah!

We had our big family dinner on Sunday so my husband and I will be off to celebrate with friends today.  We all have so much to be grateful for!

Anyway, on to crafting.

I bought these small flat glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby a month or so ago (and will make a note to myself to buy lots more next year as these flat babies get sold out early!).  They work well for the vinyl newbie (me!) as you don't have such a curved surface to work on. 

I belong to a Silhouette Cameo group on Facebook and the things that people do with vinyl are just amazing...so many people do the most wonderful things with layering.  I'll get there.  Of course, first I need 483 different colors!  So I will need to start a new collection.

I made these very simple and festive ornaments for the little people in my life.  I love those little people.  They make me so darned happy.  Of course some of these are for my grandchildren but some of my friends have grandchildren and I adore their little people, too.

These were cut with the Oh Photo Shoot font downloaded for free from somewhere.  ;)  I also cut some 1/3 inch circles and slapped them on randomly....and on the back I put the year.

Oh so simple and fast.  And fun.

I simply tied some ribbon around the tops....

Here is a close up of one:

I think they will be cute hanging on a tree, don't you?

Again...Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Happy Hanukkah and Happy Crafting!

Vinyl Ventures

I have stayed away from venturing into vinyl with my crafting. Why? Because I thought it would be difficult and too much trouble.  Last year I made a few ornaments with vinyl but didn't know what the heck I was doing and had no idea what transfer tape was (!) so did it a really difficult way and said..."uh...this is NOT for me!".

Fast forward to Pinterest viewing and lots of videos showing how easy it is to work with.  I also found, through some recommendations, a great source for vinyl which is Expressions Vinyl with great prices, lightning fast shipping and good customer service.  So I placed an order and have been slowly venturing into the world of vinyl.

Here is my first project and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.  The Santa as well as the "Believe" phrase are from the Silhouette store....you just basically cut them out with a die cut machine...mine is the Silhouette Cameo, of course, and then slap it on your surface.  My surface of choice was a glass block from Hobby Lobby.  When finished... you stuff it with lights, tie a bow around and call it FINISHED!  And it does have the wow factor, in my opinion.

:)

I'm happy.

Look how pretty the phrase cut out:

I'm going to give one to my daughter and one to my future daughter in law when they come for our family Thanksgiving meal on Sunday.  I know they will love them!

Happy Crafting!

The Mailboxes and Cricut Challenge 30: Once Upon a Princess

My very good friend Christine told another friend of mine (Cyndi) and me a story about mailboxes that her father, Larry,  had for all his grandchildren.  Many years ago when the oldest grandchild was quite small he had a decorative mailbox in his house.  The grandchild would come in and look at it. One day he put a quarter in it and when the child opened it she was very surprised and excited!  This started the GREAT MAILBOX IDEA!  He began to put money in the mailbox for when the child visited.  As he had more grandchildren he got more mailboxes so that all the grandchildren now have their own mailboxes.  He even has extra boxes for when the children's friends visit.

Cyndi and I thought this was a great idea and decided to incorporate this for our own grandchildren.  I bought a couple of little mailboxes at Joann's and cut some simple shapes out on the Cricut with vinyl.  

When David arrives at my house he makes a beeline for his mailbox!  I love it.  I think I'm training him well.  When he gets to be a teenager and Omie  is not the most important person in his life I will put big bucks in which will keep him coming back! (I hope!)  

Here are the mailboxes...I just finally did one for Taylor yesterday:

I didn't spend a tremendous amount of time on these...they need to withstand little hands and hopefully will for a long time.  OH...and I used the Cricut cartridge Once Upon a Princess which is the first time I've used this cartridge so this counts towards my personal challenge of using every one of my Cricut cartridges!  Although I'm loving my Silhouette Cameo...I still have a soft spot for my Cricut and have no plans to break up with him anytime soon!

So what do I put in the mailboxes?  Stickers, Matchbox cars, candy....that sort of thing.  I am saving the money for when they get older!

And here's a video of David from the other day heading straight for his mailbox when he visited Omie's house on Monday:

Vinyl...I have not worked with it much but boy oh boy did I do it the hard way the first time!  I didn't know about transfer tape and just peeled and stuck with my fingers! LOL!  What a mess!  And I would think...how on earth do people get those wonderful sayings onto walls?!  And then I learned about transfer tape!  I did Taylor's mailbox yesterday in about half an hour and that included finding the designs on the Gypsy and setting that up!  Yay for transfer tape!  

I'm working on a two page layout that just is not coming together.  Does that happen to you?  The idea in the head does not compute to the paper! LOL!  Hopefully I'll get it done today.

But for now...I need to fill the mailboxes as my little kiddos will be here shortly!

Thank you, LARRY BARRY,  for the fabulous idea!

Happy Crafting!