Halloween Mantel ... and More

I decorated the house up for Halloween this week, and as promised, here are pictures of my mantel. You can click on the pictures for a closer view.

I made the "Boo to You" plate, as well as the Chevron frame with button pumpkin (it was inspired by THIS post). I also made the Trick or Treat blocks that are in the top shelf of the left bookcase, and the painted jar that is in the middle shelf of the right bookcase.

I started doing some Glass Etching, and here is one of my first projects. It's not really Halloween, but it filled up some space that needed filling!

This year I decided to also decorate our dining room table:

I made the table runner out of the leftover fabric from the Chevron Frame project - I added some black velvet pom pom trim I found at Hobby Lobby. The runner and tablescape were inspired by THIS post. 

I can't wait to start decorating for Fall, as I found out I have lots more Fall decorations than I do Halloween ones. 

Some Recent Projects

Here are some of the things I've made in the last month or so:

Halloween Charger

Wood Sign I made for our dog's groomer

Wreath (inspired by wreath found HERE)

Christmas ornaments

Halloween glass jar

Drab to Fab - Part 2

I turned some more drab items to fab items. I am really enjoying looking at things and trying to figure out what I can do with them. Sometimes it's good to think outside the box!

Here are my latest DTF's:

Wood sign I found on clearance at a Cracker Barrel

With some scrapbook paper, vinyl and some ribbon and tulle, I turned it into this.

Sign I found for 50% off at Hobby Lobby (I snagged it for $2.99 including the stand!)

I painted it with black paint, then a couple layers of Chalkboard paint. 

I don't have a before of this one, but it started out like the wood sign I showed you in my first Drab to Fab post. My niece was here visiting this past weekend and wanted a "Love Lives Here" sign to go on her gallery wall. I love how this turned out:

I absolutely adore the font she picked out - I love it so much I may go back and re-do my sign with the same font (Passions ConflictROB).

Next time you're out shopping, go through those Clearance or Sale items - there might be something that could be fabulous in there! 

From Drab to Fab

While shopping at Ross the other day, I came across this sign in the Clearance Section:

I wasn't thrilled with the wording on it, but for $2.99 I went ahead and bought it.  I knew I could turn it into something nice using my Silhouette Cameo and some vinyl.

I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to put on my sign, so I searched around and came across Mandy's tutorial for a sign she did on her blog. I was going to make mine just like hers, but then changed my mind and decided just to put a simple saying on it. (I may still make one like hers for my nephew and his wife who just moved into their first home.)

I started by sanding all the paint off using my palm sander. Once it was paint free, I stained it with several coats of a natural wood stain and left it to dry overnight.

Next I had to decide what I wanted the sign to say and what font it should be in. I finally decided that I wanted it to say "Love Lives Here". I printed that out in brown vinyl using the font "Dancing Script." BTW, my board is 17 1/2 X 4.

I wanted to cut it as one long piece, but since it was 14 inches long, I couldn't use my cutting mat (Mandy was so nice and helped me figure out how to change my settings in the Silhouette - thanks again Mandy). Even though I slowed the speed way down, had my piece of vinyl underneath the rollers, and chose "load media" on my settings, the vinyl was still sliding around on me. I decided just to cut each word out individually and hope that I could get them on the board straight.

With the help of my trusty ruler and pencil, I marked where I wanted the words to go, then just erased the marks after I was done applying the vinyl.

Here is the finished sign hanging over my bakers rack:

For my first attempt, I think it turned out pretty good!

I still need to practice with printing out longer/larger pieces of vinyl without the cutting mat. If anyone has any suggestions/tips, I would love to hear them!

Now I'm off to Ross to buy up the rest of the boards they had :)

Don't Throw Out Those Jars!!

Especially if you have a Silhouette machine! Now that I have discovered the wonder that is my Silhouette Cameo, I have been going a little vinyl crazy.

I had stashed a bunch of jars thinking that someday they would come in handy for a craft project, and I was right. I made this the other day:

I just found a font I liked (Sunshine Poppy) and printed out the word "treats" and applied it to my jar. For the lid, I mod-podged some scrapbook paper to it and that was it (for a great tutorial on how to do that, go here.) It was so easy and quick. This would make a great last-minute gift idea for someone - after all, who doesn't love treats?? If you don't have scrapbook paper, you could also just spray paint the lid of your jar.

Speaking of jars, I made this the other day for a friend of mine who is going to Disneyland in a couple of months:

I love how this turned out! I saw something similar to this on Pinterest. Most of the ones I saw they spray-painted Mickey black - I liked how he looked just as is (got him at Dollar Tree) so I just used my E-6000 glue and attached him to the lid of the jar. I found the cute jar at either Marshalls or Ross, can't remember which, for $3. The lid was brown, so I just spray-painted it black. 

The black vinyl was made using a font called "Minnie" (and yes, there is also a font called "Mickey".) I think my friend is going to go crazy over this!

I've done more projects with my Silhouette, including using heat transfer vinyl, so stay tuned!

Linked up with:

Vinyl Subway Art - A Silhouette Project

I am really loving playing around with my Silhouette Cameo. I made some Vinyl Subway Art for my nephew's two kids. I have seen this all over the place, and have always wanted to try it, so I decided to start small.

For his little boy, I made this for his cowboy-themed bedroom:

Up close shot:

I wanted to use fonts that looked cowboy or western. I went to fontspace.com and typed the word "cowboy" in the search box. It gave me all kinds of neat (free!) choices. Here are some of the ones I downloaded:

• Let Me Ride
• Western Swagger
• Westerner
• Helldorado
• HFF Young Wanna Plain
• Heffer
• HFF Quick Draw
• Cowboy Clips (for horsehoe)

In the Silhouette Studio program, I put in the measurements of my piece (10 X 10) and figured out where I wanted all the words to go. I cut each word out and used clear contact paper to transfer the vinyl onto my wood piece.  I then added 2 coats of Mod Podge on top to seal it. 

For his little girl, I took something her Mom put on Facebook the other day that she had said that I thought was so funny:

Too cute, right?

I used white vinyl, but I decided the white was too stark and plain, so I mixed up some brown and tan acrylic paint and lightly sponged it over the letters. You can see it better in this photo:

There, that's better!

Both of these projects started out as plain Canvas Panels that I found at Wal-mart for less than $5 each in the craft section.:

The other side looks like this:

You could use either side - I just chose to use the flat side (didn't have to do a hanger on the back this way).

I primed each panel first, then applied spray paint to each one. After the paint dried, I applied my vinyl, then my Mod Podge. So fast and easy!

One thing I have found out when printing words on vinyl in Silhouette is that you have to make sure you choose the "cut edge" option on the word before you cut it. If I don't do this, the vinyl seems to want to slide around on me and then not cut straight. 

To do this, simply click on the word and then click on the button at the top right that looks like a pair of scissors and then choose "cut edge."  I have also turned down the speed to about a "3" when I cut vinyl and that also seems to help make smoother cuts. 

I love how these came out. Think I will tackle a bigger subway art project next time. 

Finally, Silhouette

I got my Silhouette Cameo for Christmas two years ago, but I have only just started using it. Crazy, I know! I guess I was intimidated by it, so it was easier just to let it sit and gather dust rather than attempt to use it.

After seeing so many neat projects out there in blogland, I bit the bullet and decided to go for broke. Now I'm so glad I did, and I have lots more projects I want to make. Here are the projects I have done so far:

"Welcome" vinyl sign for our front door

Vinyl lettering for dog and cat food containers

Vinyl labels for my Flour, Sugar and Brown Sugar containers.

In addition, I used the Silhouette to cut out a stencil so that I could make this cute burlap garden flag:

Tutorial for this project can be found HERE.  I used white contact paper instead of the more expensive vinyl to cut out my stencil and it worked perfectly. 

Here are some things I learned along the way:

• Vinyl can be expensive - the best place to buy it is on the internet.  I ordered some from Amazon, but Expressions Vinyl has good deals too.
• In order to peel away your design, you will need some type of transfer tape. I used clear contact paper and it worked wonderfully, and is much less expensive than buying transfer tape from Silhouette or another source. I also saw suggestions on line that said you could use blue painters tape or even Press N Seal, but I have not tried either of those methods yet.
• You need to make sure that whatever medium you are using is securely underneath the rollers, or else it will not cut straight (ask me how I know this). If you are using the cutting mat, you shouldn't have this problem - it usually happens when you load the vinyl in without the mat.
• There are lots of great tutorials and videos out there to help with the learning curve for this machine. Silhouette has a blog with lots of projects, and Pinterest has lots of great info too. 

I plan on labeling lots more stuff in my home, as well as making subway art, using the heat transfer vinyl, and cutting fabric too. Stay tuned!