Father's Day Mod Podge Gift

Is your June as crazy as ours?  I think everyone has crazy Junes.  School ends, teacher's presents, Father's Day, graduations, weddings, a sister in law had a baby, vacations, ministry work, etc. 

My hubby sweetly helped me out by giving me a detailed list of some gift for Father's Day, but I also really wanted to do something from the boys that we could make.

The three picture DAD frames have been on blogs for a long time, but my husband doesn't know that.  I thought that would be a fun project, but I wanted it to be low cost, as we were buying other gifts.

I went to Hobby Lobby to price the three part frames, but they were more than I wanted to spend.  I knew I had long, thin canvases at home already, so I decided to try a Mod Podge project with supplies I already had at home.

First, I painted a canvas black and rubbed off all the paint with a paper towel.  This gives a canvas a "denim" and distressed look.  Then I painted a true, thick stripe of black around the edges of the canvas.

I took the boys' pictures with my camera.  They were holding letters I just cut quickly on my Silhouette.

I took the pictures and made them black and white on PicMonkey.  Then I printed them out on thin, letter paper.  Next time I would use cardstock, because the paint and thin paper made the pictures a greenish/black hue, but it wasn't enough of an error to start over.

I Mod Podged the top of the canvas with a thick layer of glue and then measured out how to evenly space my pictures I had printed straight off my computer.

I did a VERY thin layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper to keep it from curling.  (I actually just spread some of the Mod Podge that was already on the canvas over to the top of the pic).

I let it dry, and voila!  The glue is invisible, and the pictures are "floating" against the denim black canvas.  I am thinking this would be cute for his office at work.  It is very masculine and he loves reminders of the kids when he is working all day.

What are you making for Father's Day?

Monogrammed Trays

It is Teacher Appreciation Week.  The teachers love their posters I made from the class!  You can see those "super" posters here.

I also wanted to make a practical, cute and not too expensive gift for the teachers.  We are bringing them little things each day of the week.

I saw perfect, summer melamine trays at Bed, Bath and Beyond for 14.99.  I snatched 2 of them up and monogrammed them with a big, 'ol summery white letter (I used vinyl cut on my Silhouette machine).

Here is the tray before . . .

Here is the tray after . . .

My little kindgergartener melted my heart this morning by saying he wanted to buy his OWN gift for his teachers.  He gets a dollar a week for his allowance, so he came in grasping $3.00 from his piggy bank.  He decided to get them a "fancy coffee" from Starbucks, but I told him they are each more expensive than 1.50 (he has two teachers because they share a contract in his class).  He wouldn't hear of me chipping in to add to his 1.50 for the coffee (a tall caramel machiatto to be exact).  Each cost 3.55, so he paid for it all.  That made this mommy's day!  I'm so proud of his generous little heart.

If you need an easy gift for a sister or friend for Mother's Day, try monogramming a tray!  I want one too!

Silhouette Print and Cut tutorial: Airplane party lunch tags

I am the first of my hometown buddies to buy a Silhouette.  A few people own a Cricut, but I get questions about the Silhouette all the time.  What is it?  How is it different?  Do you like it?  What exactly does it do?

I thought it might be fun to take pictures of a print and cut session to show people an example of what the Silhouette does and looks like.  As many of you know, I am throwing my soon to be 3 year old an airplane party.  He walks around the house talking about airplanes all the time.  He is just a teensy bit excited!

I wanted to print and cut the "in flight" lunch box labels for the party, so I am designing, printing and cutting those today.  Join me!  You do not have to print designs for the Silhouette to cut.  You can just cut out shapes/outlines/letters, etc. (no printer involved), which is the first task I learned on the Silhouette.  You simply take the downloaded shape on your computer, size it the way you want, send it to the Silhouette, and it cuts the shape.  You can cut paper, cardstock, vinyl, fabric and more.

I have made vinyl letters for signs and paper letters for banners.  I have cut out shapes for Christmas decor.  I have cut out tags and various shapes for present cards, party tags, etc.  It is my favorite crafting tool.

I bought these DARLING aqua polka dot boxes from Polka Dot Market to hold each lunch for the party.  We are doing a vintage airplane feel for the party, so the "boxed" in-flight lunch was a cute play on that.  I will make little sandwiches, have a bag of chips and add clear cups of fruit. My colors are aqua and orange--so fun!

First, I open the Silhouette program on my computer.  Here I have my computer plugged into the Silhouette.  There are no cartridges to buy for the Silhouette.  Every cut, design, and project comes from your computer.

I had made some circular tags, but I am not over the moon about them.  I will create some new ones for this tutorial.

I first copy my downloaded "ticket" shape (I used these for the invites) onto my blank computer page and "ungroup" the shape.

I remove the airplane shape and delete the rest.  I can resize the airplane to fit into an outer label shape.

I pick a classic, scalloped square shape to be the outline of my labels.

I use the font tool to add the word "lunch" in an "Airplane" font I downloaded for free from Lovely Little Snippets.  I found the link on Pinterest.  I place the airplane and font inside the square and size them.

Cute!

At first I did everything in black because I was going to print the design on orange paper.  I did a print and didn't love it on the orange. 

I decided to do orange fill paint in each shape and print it on white cardstock.  (Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this, but just click on the shape you want to fill (select it) and then click on the paint can at the top.  Pick your color and you're done!).

On the Silhouette, you need to make sure you check the box "show the registration marks" to print.  This will help the machine to accurately cut the design you are printing.  Here is the screen BEFORE I checked the box.

I also took the one shape I designed and just hit "duplicate" until I filled my page. 

When you choose how the machine will cut your design, you want to select the inside shapes (ungroup the entire design and select each part).  Check "no cut" under the cutting style window.  Then just the outside label will be cut from the printed sheet.  The dark pink line is where the machine will cut.

I printed the sheet on my printer.  The scalloped lines are light since they will be cut.

I put it into my Silhouette and had it read the registration marks.  It got to work and cut out the labels.

I took each label and some teal ribbon I bought at Costco for the spring season.  I wrapped the ribbon around the box and then added my label. 

Perfect!  They are a cross between a suitcase and a boxed lunch--just the look I wanted.

Since I broke down all the steps, it sounds much more complicated than it actually is.  It just takes a few hours of playing with the Silhouette program to grasp how to use the different functions, and they have a great tech support you can call for help.

I'll show you more projects as I prepare for the party.  I still have so much to do, but I'm having so much fun!