Family

Back in March, one of my friends put on a Quarter Auction (it's basically a raffle where you can get items from Direct Selling companies for a quarter or a little more!). While my friends and I were walking around, we saw those cute blocks above and everyone said how much they loved them and thought that I could make them myself.

So, when one of the girls who said she loved them got married, I knew the perfect gift. I went out in search of some blocks because I was too lazy to cut them myself :) and my first stop was Hobby Lobby. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't pass up their clearance section. And I'm so glad on that day, I didn't...because I hit the JACKPOT!!!

A clock, made out of dice blocks! They were all wrapped together, but I was pretty sure they'd come apart. I only needed 6, but I figured an extra few wouldn't hurt. And for $2.90, I couldn't pass them up. So, I took them home and started my project.

Each one got a nice sanding and a wipe down. And then I started to spray...I did 2 coats of brown.

And then I got to try something I've never used before...CRACKLE PAINT!! Way cool! I got a cream color and wound up doing 2 coats on each block. Before I was done with the last block, the first few had already started crackling.

You'll notice on the back of the blocks, there were already holes drilled in. How awesome is that??

The brown was coming through nicely. I'm not sure if I needed two coats of brown, but I wanted to make sure the red was completely covered. After I finished painting and letting them dry, I made vinyl letters on my cricut in brown and applied them to the blocks. Here's the final piece:

What do you think? How does it compare to the original? I loved how they turned out, and I hope that she did, too! :) Here's some more close up shots.

Amazing what you can turn those ugly clearance items into, isn't it??

Pinterest Craft

Are you on Pinterest? I am....I'm in LOVE. I resisted for awhile because I knew it would be a total time killer! But, in the long run, it saves me time because I'm not emailing myself pictures to keep! Quite a few of my friends are on there, too and so when I needed a housewarming gift for one of them, I started with her Pinterest site! :)

She had this cute little plate that I thought would be super simple...Here's a version that I had pinned from Little Birdie Secrets:

Instead of the Menu, her's said "Notes" at the top. So, since she pinned, it, I followed suit! I found a square plate at Wal Mart, got out my cricut and black vinyl and in a matter of 10 minutes, I was done! I like easy crafts like that!

On the back, I used a circle of velcro to attach a dry erase marker. I wanted to make it so it was hidden, but easily accessible.

tis the season

While I was looking for scraps to make my word blocks, I stumbled upon this lovely piece of wood. I sanded it down, painted it, and cut the vinyl out on my cricut. I used Vintage Cream felt and my Peace, Be Still snowflake die. And, adhered pinefeather buttons to the center.

Word Blocks

I'm pretty sure I shared some blocks on here last year that I did with black and white vinyl. This year, I decided to make a few more. I used some green and maroon paint I had on hand and painted a few scrap blocks left from a home project.

The Believe is one I did last year and still had sitting around :)

I promise that the love and joy are green! I couldn't get the true color to come out for me :(

Another sign

I did this one for the wedding reception we attended on Saturday. Wanna know what's crazy? They had the SAME sign leaning on an easel at the gift table! Granted, it wasn't in vinyl (it was painted) and it was green, but it was the same thing! Mine was loads better. ha!

Don't forget...the giveaway ends on Wednesday...get your entries in!

Creating with vinyl

I had my first experience using vinyl and my Cricut last week. Let me tell you, I was nervous! See, I've had ideas in my head for awhile of what I wanted to do for my sister's wedding. Of course, if you know me, I'm a procrastinator. I finally ordered the vinyl the week before the wedding. Thursday night, I was out trying to find something to put it on. And Friday I was finishing it up. But...I think it came out fabulously!!

For my vinyl, I used ebay seller, AdaboyArts. Awesome seller, btw! I had recently purchased Sure Cuts A Lot to use in conjunction with my cricut. This means that I don't have to purchase a ton of cartridges just so I can get different fonts. It works with all the fonts that I have on my computer already! (it will also do anything else, but I obviously only needed it for the fonts)

I was originally just looking for a plain board that I would paint and apply the vinyl lettering to. However, in my quest to find the perfect one, I found this awesome metal board with the scroll work already on it! They had two sizes (available at my Hobby Lobby) and I got the larger size. The best part was that I had a 40% off coupon, so it made it even cheaper! Score! :)

Thanks to Jan, I knew what all I needed to do apply the vinyl easily. She made an outstanding, easy to follow tutorial. Within no time, everything was done! (ok, I shouldn't say that...it took me a bit because I had to get everything to line up perfectly!)


I really liked how it turned out! And, I only needed a 12x12 piece of vinyl to cut this out. For reference, the letters are 5.0 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide.