Personalized Onesie Using Cricut

We've had a lot of friends have babies in the past year. A lot.  So the crafter in me has been trying to keep-up by making personalized onesies as gifts!  It's simple to do with a Cricut machine and I love that they're inexpensive and personalized!

Creating Iron-on Letters with Cricut

Use Cricut brand iron-on paper, available in plain or glitter

High Blade Setting: Med Speed, Med Pressure, Blade @ 3

1.     Test what you want to cut on regular paper before raising the blade to make sure you have the correct sizing without wasting iron-on paper

2.     When ready to cut iron-on paper, place iron on paper on mat plastic cover side down.

3.  Press the ‘FLIP’ button and type the word you want to cut backwards, so you would type ‘DEBBIE’ in as ‘EIBBED’

4.     Make sure the blade is set on ‘3’ and cut

5.     If using a large sheet of iron-on, cut around the image you cut with a scissors

6.     Remove negative space so only what you want to keep remains on the sticky plastic cover

7.     Stick cut-out onto material and iron right over the plastic.

8.     Peel off the plastic, and the letters will be stuck to the fabric! If there are any loose corners, simply iron them back down.

Welcome Home!

This is such a simple and in-expensive way to add a little 'homy-ness' to your home!  I did this a while back and I just love it.  

On the door from our garage to our house I just used scrap booking stickers to write 'Welcome Home' on the door.  Painters tape helped me keep it straight, as always!  

It's nice to always be welcomed home.

'Go Hog Wild' Pig Birthday Card

There are many things I love about craft club: seeing the girls each month, hearing what's new with everyone, Kathee's homemade dinners, DESSERT, working on my to-do list, seeing what everyone creates, the list goes on and on.   In addition to lending each other stamps and tools, we also bring supplies we no longer use to set out for grabs, which is how I came to acquire a stack of cut-out pigs!

I came up with this card to use-up the pink paper pigs that says, "It's your birthday....GO HOG WILD!"

Here's the inside:

Valentines Day Shadowbox Craft

Sometimes when we have guests I like to organize a craft for everyone to do to pass the time. When my family visited for Valentine's day last year, we made heart shadowboxes in honor of valentine's day!

Here is my Mom and then pregnant sister-in-law in my craft room working on their shadowboxes. 

I purchased a 3-pack of shadowboxes at Michael's and set out heart punches and a variety of paper so everyone could choose their colors.

Folding the hearts in half makes them 3-D when in the shadowbox.

Here are the finished products on display.  It was a fun 'girl's day in'!

DIY Valentine's Day Chocolate Buffet

Last year my family visited for Valentine's Day so we set-up a Chocolate buffet! It was so easy to do, I just bought some fun chocolates (mostly from Trader Joe's) and set them out in martini glasses. 

 A chocolate buffet would also be fun for a movie viewing of 'Chocolat' or 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. So many excuses to eat more chocolate!

Wine Tags

We're always trying new wines and taking recommendations, but it's not always easy to remember why we bought a bottle or what we're suppose to serve it with. After labeling some bottles with post-its, I decided to make actual wine labels to keep myself organized and add a little flare to our wine rack.

The tags are easy and inexpensive to make.  All you need is black 'Chalkboard' paper tags, a white gel pen, and rubber bands.

Use the white gel pen to write whatever you like, then loop a rubber band through so they can easily slide on the neck of the bottle.  You can write on both sides of the tag to have more options to label the bottles.

Here is how the tags look in the wine rack in our new cupboards; subtle yet informative.

Most bottles are labeled with the food they should be paired with, but I labeled some 'Friday Night' or 'Tuesday Night' which is my code for 'cheap bottles' and 'nice bottles'.

When I decorate I always try to add small details that personalize our home and set it apart.  I think that these wine tags have been a great way to add some personalization to our new kitchen!

Tea Tag Card

Am I the only person who saves every tea tag with a fun saying? Or am I like everyone else who has no idea what to do with them?

It's either one or the other because I couldn't find any ideas to work through the jar of tea tags that were collecting in my craft room. It was to the point where I needed them out of my craft room but wasn't able to throw them out, so I put them all on a card.  Yes, it's a bit overkill, but I thought it was neat having so many inspirational sayings on one card. 

Merry Christmas!

Red and Green Christmas Appetizers

I don't think you can ever go too over the top, so if you're going to set out a spread of Christmas appetizers why not make the spread red and green themed?
Here are a few that look easy and delicious:
1. Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites
2.Spinach Roulade With Smoked Salmon
3. Marinated Cheese
4. Christmas Roll-ups

DIY Vacation Ornament

Since we got married we've always had a snowflake themed Christmas tree to go with our holiday decor.  While collecting snowflake ornaments I've also collected meaningful Christmas ornaments, including ones from our vacations.  When we were in Aruba last year I couldn't find any ornaments I liked so I decided to bring back some things to make my own.

While walking on the beach we collected a bag of sand and some shells.  When we were in town I bought a small turtle that said 'ARUBA' to put in the ornament as well. When we got home I picked-up some glass ornaments, stickers, and ribbon to make my own ornament.

I used a funnel to get the sand inside of the ornament and dropped in some shells.

Using scrap booking letter stickers I wrote 'Aruba 2015' on the outside of the ornament.  Tape worked well as a guideline.

I kept the box the glass ornament came in for storage, and to hold the extra glass ornaments until I get back from more trips!