Hey Cupcake!

Sunday night I saw the cutest little craft! To get the full details, check out the tutorial here.

Cupcake Take Along

I thought it was absolutely darling and decided to make one myself. I sat down for a few hours yesterday and created a suite of Silhouette cut files for each of the pieces. You can kind of see the cut pieces in this picture of what my table looked like last night. Did it feel a little tedious to create all of those files? Yes, but now that it's done I can make as many as I want in barely any time at all!

My Craft Table Last Night

I got most of it put together last night, but I'm still missing a few pieces. I ordered the tubes for the sprinkles (see the link above if you don't know what I'm talking about) and they should arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping to get it finished and share more details then. In the mean time, I have some dressies to sew before Thursday! Eek!

In Progress

PS. I am so grateful that I happened to have all of these papers and ribbons on hand. All I bought was the cake mix, icing, and the embellishment to the left of "Hey CUPCAKE!" Now I just need the tubes to arrive, and to track down some sugar hearts. That shouldn't be too hard this time of year. :)

If These Walls Could Talk

Happy Monday! Words are failing me this morning, so I will let the pictures do the talking. :)

I have here three vinyl lettering projects that I did last weekend. The first is a solution to a problem. I had a blank wall over the TV (boy, does that need to be replaced), and I've taken a liking to dictionary definitions vinyl wall decals. I found three that I kind of liked. (See them on Pinterest here.) I took pieces from them and the official dictionary definition, and pieced together one that I liked.

fam·i·ly noun,
A basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered a group, and usually residing in the same dwelling place · the result of two people falling in love · individuals who share a common ancestry through blood, adoption or marriage · a group of individuals united in common beliefs · the family of human beings.

My walls are so textured that it took a while to get it all up there, but I eventually managed it. I am very happy with how it turned out. One would think that a framed piece would work on any wall, but sometimes it is just too much. I have found vinyl lettering to be the answer in all three of the cases I have posted here.

"Relax" for the downstairs bathroom. (Inspired by this popular design.) The white pops against the blue very nicely and goes with all of the other white in the room.

The display on top of the new cube shelves in my bedroom needs a lot of work still, but we're not looking at that. We are checking out the lyrics above the shelves. There are two chess sets on the shelves, which inspired this wall quote, "Treat her like a Queen, She'll make you her King." I love these fonts. And it has been very pleasant to wake up to this reminder every morning. :)

I have so many projects buzzing around in my head. I'm glad that I got these three done. I hope that I can get the others done this week so that I can scratch them off my projects list. :)

Updates to "The Wall" with Cameo

Everyone remembers The Wall, right? It's probably been my biggest project to date. No, wait, that would be painting my bed frame. The gallery in my stair well is in the top five, at any rate.

Anyway, there were two things that I was never quite happy with. (There are three others, but I'm not getting to that right now.) On Wednesday, I fixed that.

First was the anniversary calendar. I still think it is a sweet project. I'm even thinking about selling them in my shop. Unfortunately, I was never happy with how the colors turned out. Instead of printing a new one, I cut one from a piece of black cardstock that had a silver foil flourish with my Cameo. I've always loved this piece of cardstock. I'm glad I found a good place for it. (By the way, the light gray lines are reflections from the railing in the loft. I couldn't get a good angle and avoid them.)

Before

After

The second thing was this piece of wall decor. I was never in love with the font, but since I was cutting it by hand, I needed something more forgiving. Now that my days of cutting things by hand are over, I was able to replace the text with a font I liked better.

Before

After

Just a few small improvements. Did I mention that I'm loving my Cameo? Now I need to paint the big 'N' silver, the two cherry frames black and their mats white. Before I get to that, though, I have a lot of vinyl to cut and get on the walls. I was counting last night; I have eight vinyl projects in the works! I am so glad that my latest order from Sign Warehouse came yesterday. One of the items was 100 yards of transfer tape. Now I can start getting things done!

Laundry Gets Some Love

Remember this post from a while ago when I stumbled upon the idea of adding vinyl decals to my washer and dryer? (I'm always looking for ways to brighten up the laundry room so that the task of washing, drying, folding and putting away clothes isn't so, um... cringe inducing.)

kevin {&} amanda

Sunday night I decided to take the plunge and do it. The hardest part was selecting an image! I put my Cameo and pink vinyl to work making several flower decals. Then I wiped down the fronts of my washer and dryer to ensure I had a clean surface to work with.

Applying the decals was just like applying a vinyl decal to any surface, using transfer tape. Applying the decals around the doors was a little more involved, though.

First, I placed the decal where I wanted using the transfer tape.

It looks great, but it needs a little work.

Second, I cut the vinyl along the seam using either a craft knife or small scissors.

Third, I cut the vinyl around the door frame using a craft knife. Tip: Don't throw out the parts you cut off! 

Here it is five flowers in. Looking pretty good, so far!

I added another smaller flower, and spread around the extra petals that were overlapping on the doors. I put the cut ones up against the door frame for that nice continuous look. Waste not!

It's a work in progress. I've ordered some light gray vinyl to work in a two-toned effect and add some more petals. It should be here tomorrow. I'm so excited! (Is it sad that I get excited over rolls of vinyl and transfer paper being delivered?)

For another look at how someone put their Silhouette Cameo to work to dress up their laundry room, check out this post at Sugar Bee Crafts. :)

Sugar Bee Crafts

Tune in tomorrow to see how a blank wall and a storage problem are helped by a trip to Ikea.

I Love It When A Tool Kit Comes Together

(Yes, that was an A-Team reference.)

I've been belly-aching to my poor, long-suffering husband about wanting a tool set to use with my new Silhouette Cameo. Today, I found one. The Cgull kit has all of the tools I'm looking for, and on ebay I can get one for ~$16! Eureka!

http://www.cgull.com/products/toolkit.html

Appliance Awesomeness

I was browsing the blogsphere for a Christmas card idea, actually, when I stumbled upon this.

kevin {&} amanda

Someone used their Silhouette Cameo to make vinyl decals for their washing machine. Can I just say that my mind has been blown by sheer awesomeness. One day I hope to be cool enough to think of doing something like this on my own. In the mean time, I really need to get some pink and black vinyl to dress up my laundry room appliances!

Anyone else dressed up their appliances lately? Are you scraping your jaw off the floor, too? Want to open a pool to bet how long it is going to take me to actually get around to doing this?

The First Cuts

My new Cameo arrived on Monday. Darin didn't want me to open it. Something about it being a Christmas present and I couldn't play with it until then? I don't know. Anyway, I've been experimenting with it and am pleased as pop (is my family the only one that uses that expression?) with it.  See, happiness ->  :)

Yesterday I used it to finish a project that I have been stewing over for a while. I saw this at Ikea and was totally inspired. I decided to do my own version for my little sister for Christmas.

Ikea OLUNDA

After figuring out how the Silhouette Studio software works (which you can download for free here, by the way), I put together this little number in barely anytime at all. A little cardstock; a sheet of patterned pink, scrapbook paper; a $6 scrapbook frame from Walmart; and I was in business. Not bad for a first project.

When I first conceived this idea two months ago, I was planning on doing a simpler design and cutting it by hand. I am so glad I waited! I was able to get so many intricate details with the Silhouette Cameo and it is so pretty! I especially love how the fairy's wings turned out. I really hope my sister likes it. :)