DIY Wooden Stained Sign

January 3, 2013 By 1 Comment

I am so excited to share this tutorial with you today because, well, it’s easy for one but it also turned out absolutely amazing!

For Christmas this year I knew I wanted to make at least SOME of my gifts, not like last year where I made them all, I needed to save my pregnant sanity by not cramming too many things in I couldn’t get done so I decided I’d make my mother-in-law, my Mom’s and my both my sister and my sister-in-law’s gifts, they all turned out AMAZING and this is something I made both my Mother-in-Law and my Mom.

diy wooden stained sign

Ok, let’s get to it!

:: What you’ll need :: 

  • wooden plank sign (my husband bought the raw wood and nailed together the plank for me but you can have the hardware store do this for you or whatever).
  • Stain
  • Vinyl
  • Two rags (one to wipe ON the stain and one to wipe off)

Step 1:

Construct sign if not already done, this is what ours looked like in it’s raw form.

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Step 2:

Create and cut vinyl design (or use pre made designs you can find at craft stores if you don’t have a Silhouette or other die-cutting machine). I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the vinyl for both the signs I made.

Line up and stick to your board in the exact placement you want the words to appear.

BE SURE to get out all air bubbles and that it’s stuck very well so the stain doesn’t bleed.

(I had left-over pink vinyl that I used for this, color doesn’t matter at all since you’ll just peel it off)

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Step 3:

Use rag to wipe stain all-over board covering letters and entire sign. I used a second rag to wipe off excess stain as I went since I didn’t want some places to be darker than others, this was by-far the easiest way I found to apply the stain, brushes aren’t made to apply stain.

sorry, I didn’t take a picture before I peeled off the vinyl 

Step 4: 

Once the stain is dry (if applied correctly, it should be dry within a few minutes), peel away the vinyl letters.

WAALAA!!

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This was LITERALLY one of the easiest projects I’ve ever done (except for a slight problem I had with the vinyl getting hung in my Silhouette while making the one on the left) and definitely one of my favorite things I’ve ever made too.

I’m totally going to be making myself one for our dining room, I just can’t get enough!

If you make one and blog about it, be sure to let me know, I’d love to see yours!

Filed Under: crafting, Crafts, Projects, Silhouette, tutorials 1 Comment

It’s Dino Party Time!

July 10, 2012 By 4 Comments

Have I mentioned lately that my little one will be TWO, t.w.o, years old in, oh, 21 days!?!?

Well, he is and I’m freaking out a little bit. This kid is growing up like crazy and after all of the changes I’ve seen in him from ONE to TWO years old, I look forward to and dread from TWO to THREE, it just means he’s growing up. No matter what I do, he’s growing up!

He has started telling me when he poops, TMI? He’ll walk up, hold his diaper and say “I poot” and 99% of the time he really has. If I was tweeting that I’d say #holycrapmykidisabigboyandcantellmewhenhepooped but I’m not tweeting that and I don’t believe in really long hashtags, lol.

Anyway, all of that aside, we’re having a dino party in a few weeks around these parts, because, well, homeboy is in love with dinosaurs! Trucks are a close second, but dinos, dinos are the best thing since cookies to Case.

In preparation (and a little late actually) for the party, I decided instead of designing the invitations this year that I’d make them by hand and use my Silhouette Cameo to help me cut out cute little dinosaurs!

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I just got blank cards & the stamp for the ‘you’re invited’ insides at Michaels and used Scrapbooking paper I already had, cut the background to size, the little strips & the dinosaurs all with my Cameo and glued it together. I love them! I’m a little short on them so I doubt everyone will get one because I have to keep one for his book but at least some people will know I’m super creative (not).

Hope everybody’s having a great week!

Filed Under: crafting, Crafts, life, Mommy talk, Silhouette 4 Comments

Spring Swap

May 18, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m putting off this week in Instagram until Sunday or so because I’m going to a wedding Saturday and plan to include some pics of that!

I am part of a Christian Ladies group on Facebook that has truly been a BLESSING to my life.

A way to ask for prayer when needed.

Connect with other shop owners & bloggers who are in my same faith.

A place for friends to “get together” from the comfort of our own homes.

Sweet Aleks from our group (she’s getting married next month y’all and I think she’s freakin’ out a little) arranged a Spring Swap. Now, I had never been involved in a Bloggers Swap before and I didn’t know what to expect.

I had a GREAT partner who sent me some ADORABLE goodies.

Made a new friend.

And got to create a few crafty things to send my lovely partner.

Ahhh, wonderful.

Side Note :: It was a suggestion that at least something be handmade that was in our goodies to one another. 

Here are the goodies that Heather sent me…

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Gelly Rolls (because I told y’all about my love of pens, right?), a mini-journal, handmade CUTE bobby pins and crafting flowers.

I sent her a few things that I purchased and then I made these adorable coasters, I’ve been so excited to show them off and hopefully Heather will have some photos of the other stuff I sent on her blog…I totally forgot to take pics of my box before I mailed it back to her.

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I made these with tile from Lowes, vinyl, my Silhouette Cameo & a little mod podge. I love coasters, I’m getting ready to embark on making myself some new ones!

This swap was a ton of fun, seriously!

Heather sent my goodies in an Erin Condren box and I sent her loot back in the same box, pretty sure I won the recycler of the year award and the award for confusing my swap partner for that one!

Anytime anybody wants to involve me in a swap, I’m all for it! I would love to host one but don’t even see myself having time for that until like after Christmas (no joke) so doubt that’ll happen. LOL!

Aleks has a link-up going on over on her blog so we can all link up and be jealous of see each others’ stuff! Check it out, I’m sure it’ll be fun!

aleks handmade
Filed Under: blogging, crafting, Crafts, Projects 1 Comment

Etching Glass

March 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

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Hello neglected little blog of mine – I feel like a horrible blog mother, but, the good thing is that I’ve been a horrible blog mother because I’m a good person mother and business owner, lol.

I’ve been crafting a little too, which is great for this little blog, so yeah.

One of my good friends from High School is getting married in a few months and her bridal shower was today so, in true crafter fashion, I decided to make some high-end gifts for her! When I was getting married, I think I paid like $30 for glasses like this, seriously.

What you’ll need:

  • Vinyl
  • Cutting Machine: I used a Silhouette Cameo
  • Glass (any type of glass: mirrors, toasting flutes, wine glasses, etc)
  • Etching cream

Step 1:

Design your stencil & cut it out of your vinyl. Basically, in the Silhouette software, I designed a Mr & Mrs with little hearts and then put a box around them, this way when the letters are peeled away there’s an actual stencil. I hope that makes sense, lol. I am not good at Silhouette tutorials but it’s super easy if you’ve done vinyl before.

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Step 2:

Weed out letters and throw away (or keep if you wanted to apply to something else), apply transfer paper and apply to glass. **This is the point where you’d normally keep the letters and throw away the outline, you’re doing the opposite here.**

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Step 3:

Once applied to glass (make sure all of the bubbles are out, etc), apply etching cream to ONLY the part you want to be etched onto the glass. Remember, if there are bubbles or you get the cream outside of the vinyl stencil it will etch wherever it touches. I used a sponge, a small brush would be better but I didn’t have one.

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Step 4:

Wait. Follow the directions on the particular etching cream you’re using. Mine said to wait 15 minutes so I waited 17 minutes to be safe.

Step 5:

Rinse off cream.

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Optional Step 6:

I would recommend drying the glass, with the stencil still applied and re-do steps 3-5 just to make sure the etch is clean and precise. This is not a necessity but something I like to do.

Step 7:

Peel away stencil.

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YOU’RE done! Wash your glass (I’d recommend waiting a little bit, maybe 30 minutes just to be safe), dry and package however you need to!!!

Aren’t these adorable? I made both a Mr & Mrs but didn’t take pictures of both together (don’t ask why, I really don’t know but I have lost my camera charger so I’m a little distraught, anyway).

Filed Under: crafting, Silhouette, tutorials 2 Comments

A first for me!

February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

Just a little background on this project:

My grandmother has had this desk FOREVER (I think my Aunt says it was hers but Mom says it was hers, you know, that ol’ thing) and when she remarried and moved to a smaller home she didn’t have room for it so, since she’s knows I’m sentimental and won’t give things away, she gave it to me.

That’s been a few years ago; this thing has been sitting in our basement waiting anxiously to be re-finished and fixed and brought to the light airy living room!

Well, I FINALLY went downstairs the other day and tore the roll-top off of the desk (it was cracked and tied together with strings, no sense keeping it or trying to save it), went to the hardware store and bought the paint and primer and got crackin!

It’s been GORGEOUS here the past few days so I had time and weather on my side and got it primed on Monday and painted on Tuesday, yay!

I am SO PROUD of myself, seriously. I spray painted some bar stools a while back and they’re horrible looking, like bad bad bad so I was doubting my abilities and my husband was REALLY doubting me, so you know I did what anybody would do in that situation, I set out to proof myself and, more importantly, my husband TOTALLY WRONG.

Anyway, without further ado, my first EVER furniture re-finishing project.

Just a small note, it DOES have 3 draws but one of them had a missing handle so the hubs was gluing it back on and I never thought about it while taking the picture but I noticed it when I was making this before and after image…so just imagine that there’s a 3rd drawer in there.

beforeafterdesk

Filed Under: crafting 2 Comments

Easy Canvas Art

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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These bad boys are going to be part of my photo/tv wall when I’m done, at least I think they are, the blue one is a little too “glittery” for my taste but we’ll see if they fit when I’m done.

What you’ll need:

  • Blank Canvases (I got two 8×10′s for like $3 at Michael’s)
  • Paint (Acrylic works great)
  • Brush (duh)
  • Letters (can be cut of our construction paper or whatever type of paper you want)

Step 1: Place letters (or words) onto Canvas

I used my Silhouette to cut out the word “Family” (and “love”) with adhesive-backed cardstock. This worked GREAT because it was sticky enough to stay on the canvas and not move while I painted but not so sticky that it wouldn’t come off super easy (it wouldn’t still well to the canvas).

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Step 2: Paint over entire canvas and completely covering letters/words.

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Step 3: Remove letters CAREFULLY before paint is anywhere near dry.

I used a paring knife to get under each letter and peel them off. Make sure you do it while the paint is still wet so they’re not too stuck to the canvas. I ripped some of the adhesive backing off of my letters while peeling them off of my cutting mat so they didn’t stick like I wanted and I got some paint under the letters in spots, ugg…the “love” canvas was much better in that respect.

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Step 4: Let Dry..you’re done!

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Even though it’s FAR from perfect, I love the color of this family one, definitely going to be added to my photo wall!

Filed Under: crafting, Silhouette Leave a Comment

DIY Wooden Sign

January 31, 2012 By 5 Comments

Totally don’t have Project Life ready again this week, geez, I’m a slacker. I’m going on Wednesday to print the last 2 weeks of photos so I’ll probably do a PL life post a little later this week.

I’m in CRAZY-mode trying to get a few DIY projects done this week so my house looks awesome for a Pampered Chef party I’m having on Friday. Y’all are going to get to see ALL of the projects which include wood block photo wall on my TV wall, cord cover (also for my TV wall), a re-finished desk (if it turns out ok) and the project I’m showing you today, a sign I made to go above my TV. Oh, there is a panted canvas tutorial too. I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve been BUSY!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Silhouette Cameo? Well, I do! I have mainly been doing paper projects only because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before I started cutting my expensive vinyl, etc and I’m so glad I did that because I learned the right way to load my media and had to calibrate my machine so, now, it’s cutting like a dream!

It was time for my first vinyl project though…so….

What you’ll need:

  • Wooden board (any size/shape, whatever you want)
  • Paint & Brush
  • Vinyl
  • Hanger
  • Nails

Step 1: Paint your board.

I sent my hubby to our local building supply with a list of sizes of wood I needed for a few different projects and he was great because he got exactly what I wanted, I was so excited.

Anyway, I used a flat interior grayish (sort of bluish too) paint I got in the clearance section at Walmart for $2.50.

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Step 2: Cut your vinyl (or get your vinyl ready if you’re using pre-designed/purchased vinyl).

I cut the “Stansberry” from white vinyl and the “As for me and my house, we’ll serve the Lord” in green, both of which were included in the Vinyl Starters kit at Silhouette America.

Step 3: Apply your vinyl.

Obviously, make sure your board is completely dry, then apply your vinyl as instructed.

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you’re basically done…just got to attach hangers…

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Step 4: Attach Hangers to back.

I don’t know what “kind” I used or anything, they were just some I had on hand and some short nails (so not to go through the board).

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Step 5: Hang ‘er Up!

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You guys don’t even know how excited I am about this. My hubby is always doubting my ability to do anyting with a hammer and a nail so that fact that I attached the hangers myself amazed him! I think this looks like something you’d pay $50 for and I’m sure it is, it was a bit tedious when it came to applying the phrase because it was so small but nothing major. I will TOTALLY be making these for wedding/housewarming gifts…I love it!

 

Filed Under: crafting, Silhouette 5 Comments

Photo on Wood

January 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

My good friend Kati is working on getting things together to start her own business so she can stay-at-home with her little boy, something she’s been wanting to do for a while.

Anyway, we’ve been having “Pinterest Parties” for the past 2 months getting new ideas and brainstorming and letting our kids kill each other play. Last weekend I headed over to try a new technique, putting a photo onto wood. Now, I don’t mean Mod Podging it on there and that’s it or even a tissue paper technique, this was with Gel Medium and actually put the photo onto the wood, you remove the paper, it’s crazy.

I didn’t do a tutorial for it but to find the one we used, go here. Basically, you just apply a THICK layer of Gel Medium, print a photo on regular paper that you want to use (I flipped my photo horizontally in Photoshop before I printed because it’ll flip when you put it onto the wood), place the photo (cut it out of the paper) on the gel medium covered wood and let dry (about 5-8 hours). Then, take a wet rag and GENTLY rub away the paper and waalaa, there’s your image, ON the wood! The tutorial stated to use a laser printer and I definitely say that probably would work better but I used ink and it worked just fine, I mean it’s a little rough and scrubbed too hard in some places but overall, it looks great.

I made this one of the hubs to take to work, what do ya think?

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Filed Under: crafting, pinterest 1 Comment

Newest Project

January 23, 2012 By 3 Comments

Hi!

How was everybody’s weekend? Mine was great, a little busy but good and I didn’t work ALL weekend and it felt great to take that break, I think now that I’m getting better at balancing everything and now that my son is going to bed by 8:00 or 9:00 every night I’m going to have to start some steady “office hours” where I’m “closed” on the weekends, I think it does a body/mind good!

Anyway, I’m working on a new project (now, I DID work on this over the weekend) and I’m so excited about it!

I ordered an Erin Condren life planner a while back and it’s awesome BUT it’s just not what I need. I like to look at a whole month at once and write EVERYTHING in the month view, I really could care less about the weekly views because I’m super visual and that doesn’t do much for me. On my EC planner, the monthly boxes are super small, I think probably 1x.75 (inches) in measurement and I have REALLY big handwriting so that’s just not working for me.

So, I decided to just design my own planner. I have only made it as far as the monthly pages so far but it’s going GREAT! I plan to have “notes” pages, my blog schedule and link-up schedule pages, healthy living pages and financial pages and even some Project Management pages, meal planning and others. Yay!!!

I started out trying to design this is a 8.5 x 5.5 size but I would have had to cut every.single.page and printing front and back was proving to be a bit of a problem because it was “off” by the slightest little bit no matter what settings I used and I didn’t want to design it for just “my” equipment so now I’m going with a full 8.5 x 11 page which is probably going to work best for me anyway because the monthly view slots are SUPER large and just what I need.

I plan to carry this around with me because I need it sometimes when I’m out and about and I carry an extra-large purse so it’s not really a problem (I mean, I already carry diapers and wipes and an extra outfit and sometimes my DSLR so what’s one more thing, right?). Anywho, since I’m wanting to cart it around, I didn’t want a regular binder because the spine is too large and the whole thing’s just too big to carry around, I mean, could you see me dragging that out at a lunch date? geez. haha! So, I ordered one of these bad boys! I could have made this, wouldn’t have been a problem but #1, I don’t have a laminator so I would have had to buy one or brought it to a local print shop to do, either way, that would have been a cost plus buying the paper and rings and such AND #2, I believe in supporting other small businesses so when I get the chance I try to order from them. This lady has so many cute things but I fell in LOVE with this owl binder, I can’t wait to get it!!!

Once I get the planner print-ables done I plan to share it with you guys for FREE! Now, I do only plan to keep it as a free download for a few days before I begin to sell it but it won’t be super expensive either way.

Here’s a quick little preview of what’s to come!

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Filed Under: crafting, design, organization, personal 3 Comments

Yo, look what I did!

January 18, 2012 By 1 Comment

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I’ve been trying hard to use my Silhouette Cameo with PAPER so that when I’m ready to cut some vinyl and heat transfer stuff I don’t screw it up.

So, I found a little tutorial somewhere (honest to goodness, I don’t remember where) showing that they “customized” their Silhouette’s control panel with paper and changed it out.

At first, I was a little confused, did they design that themselves? Did they glue it on each time? Use adhesive backed paper?

Well, let me tell ya, it was so easy I could just squeal!

So, the disc that came with my Cameo (and yours too) came with pre-loaded images in the store and one of those is the control panel pattern. Yeah, seriously, it’s that easy.

I just stuck some scrap paper on my cutting mat and cut the shape but you could definitely do a print and cut with this and even change it out with each season (I SO plan to do that with Valentines, Easter, July 4th, Christmas, etc).

AND…not only is it super easy because it’s a dern pre-loaded shape…the protector pops off of your control panel and you just put the paper behind it and pop it back on (it’s like one of those flimsy plastic things)!!!

Oh my golly! No glue, totally changeable and probably TOTALLY obvious to anybody who’s ever owned a Silhouette but, to me, it was like a bulb went off and I’m even more in love with the machine than I was the day I got it!

Have any of y’all done this? What other projects have you done that are super simple and easy and crazy cute like this with your Silhouette? Come on, help a newbie out!

Filed Under: crafting, Silhouette 1 Comment
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