Outfit Upcycle - Old Tunic to New Skirt

I've been hanging on to this old tunic because I have REALLY wanted to wear it, but, not as a tunic... I bought it shortly after I graduated from undergrad in early 2007.  It is too short to be a dress and too long to be a shirt.  I used to wear it with leggings or skinny jeans.  Now, I feel like the puffy cap sleeves are outdated and too young for me and the neckline is too low cut.  Also, the high waist directly under the bust makes it feel a little maternity to me.

Chuey had to get into this pic, he rarely missed a photo op.  I used my seam ripper to separate the top from the bottom, just above the ribbon waistband and pinned the lining and outer fabric together.  The side has a zipper that went from the the skirt to the top.  Instead of cutting the zipper, I left it alone on the skirt and used my seam ripper to separate it from the top and then tucked the extra between the skirt and lining sewed it into place with my sewing machine.

It was such a quick fix, I was disappointed I didn't do it sooner!  I wore it with my WHBM shirt tucked in and my coral jewelry that I picked up in Mexico and Colombia.  

I'm loving my new skirt!  

Wedding Place Cards

Wedding planning is wrapping up and I thought I'd share my new trick.  My caterer needed an indicator on my guest's place cards to know which meal they had chosen.  I played around with a few different things and found this FREE downloadable font.

The font is called Farm and Wild Animals.  I also downloaded a calligraphy font to address my envelopes!

Going Green!

For my birthday I got this cute hanging planter with my own herbs.  I am so excited to use this fresh basil, mint and oregano.  YUM!

A Message to My Soldier

My fiance is currently deployed in Afghanistan and I sent him a special sign using a State of Michigan map and my Cricut.  He loved it!

Craft Party!

Last week one of my friends invited me over for group craft night.  We headed to Michaels with our coupons, bought everything with glitter, opened a couple bottles of wine and got to work!

One of the girls had already gotten to work on table centerpieces earlier that day.  They turned out great, this picture doesn't do it justice.

We all bought materials for making a cool holiday wreath.  For me, I got a foam ring, gold ribbon, glitter garland, and 3 red glitter floral pieces.  I tacked the embellishments to the foam wth floral pins.  It was incredibly easy and quick and I loved the way it turned out!

Here is my friend's wreath made with yarn.

My wreath looks so festive on my front door with my Dollar Tree wreath hanger!

Happy Holidays!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Michigan.  So, to promote the Michigan Pink Ribbon License Plate, I got to work on my Cricut!

I cut the state of Michigan out of the 50 States Cartridge, on pink paper of course!  Then I pinned a pink ribbon to it for the Senators to wear in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Oh yeah, the Senator from the UP will get a UP cutout ;)  I'm counting on the cuteness of these to inspire some movement on this legislation!

Blessed are those who have not seen but still have believed.

I went to Medjugorje!  I was finally able to go and it was more amazing than I could have imagined.  If you haven't heard of Medjugorje, this website has a good history of the place.  I am so grateful for the experience and I truly feel as though I was called there.

{view from my balcony}

The entire time it seemed like people were experiencing miracles within their faith.  I heard the visionaries Vicka and Marija speak about their experiences and the messages from the Blessed Mother.  It was so inspiring and uplifting.

While I was there, I bought 11 religious medals to be blessed.  I intended to keep one and give away the other 10.  Each day in church, the priest blessed the religious items brought to mass.  Additionally, my group packed our rosaries, medals and other items each in our own plastic bag and then all together into a suitcase. The suitcase was then brought to the visionary Vicka's home to be present during her apparition.  During the apparition, the Blessed Mother blessed the people and religious items present.

My group got our bags back the next night after dinner.  I took mine up to my room and unpacked it, mostly to make sure everything was accounted for.  Incredibly, one of my medals was now gold!  When I bought them and when I packed them into the bag, they were all a silver color.  I was amazed and humbled that the Blessed Mother gave me a sign of her presence.

I took the medals into the next room, I held them up to the light, I took them out of their package.  I had to be sure I wasn't seeing things.  I couldn't sleep, I had to keep checking to make sure she didn't change it back as quickly as she turned it gold!  I had to take a picture of it to be sure I had proof that it was once gold if it did suddenly change.

Here they are.  The gold medal on the far left was once exactly the same as the rectangular medal two to the right of it.  I did a little searching online about other people who have had similar experiences and I was saddened to see many people express skepticism and disbelief.  None of these medals had been worn and they were all together inside a plastic bag.  I believe that this was a sign from Mary that she is with me and hears me and it has been 2 weeks and she hasn't changed it back yet! Phew! 

New Vinyl Project Preview

I just did this quote on a Michigan map that I had.  It was super easy.  More to come...

Personalized Floor Rug

I recently used my Cricut to make a personalized floor rug for my fiance in Afghanistan.  He sent me some pictures of his room and I saw that he had a bath towel duct taped to the floor...  I guess it worked. 

My original plan was to cut out a phase from contact paper and dab the rug with bleach to make my design.  When I got my contact paper onto the rug, I didn't think that it created a tight enough seal and I was worried that the bleach would bleed and I'd just end up with a fuzzy bleached blob. 

So, I used a sponge paint brush to dab white paint over my stencil.  It took a couple of coats.  He just got it in the mail and LOVED it!

Monogram Binder

I recently updated an old three ring binder for my pro bono materials.  I used my Cricut Winter Wonderland font and dollar store contact paper.

I hope my pro bono work is as impressive as my new binder!

Inlaid Wood Cricut Cards

I just made some new cards using the Boho Graphics Cartridge.  I am really excited about the way they turned out and am already thinking up some new ideas. 

I got these rolls of drawer liner at the dollar store and thought I could use them to create a really cool inlaid wood look.

I used the owl image from the free trial of the Boho Graphics and a rectangle from the Cricut Craft Room Basics that was just slightly smaller than my card.  I cut it out on both the darker and the lighter wood grain liner.

I set my needle at 3 and my pressure and speed low and slow.  Even though these images were fairly intricate, I had no problem at all getting a nice, easy clean cut.

The best part was no GLUE!  Since the material is meant to stick to the bottom of drawers and shelves, I could just stick it right to my card, no gluing involved.  This project was incredibly easy and, in my opinion, makes a big impact. 



I used the same technique with some different images and different patterned liners.

Trail Mix Container

After I used up the oatmeal in this big cardboard tube, I repurposed it to keep trail mix.  I got a 9 foot roll of drawer liner from Family Dollar for $3 and covered the tube with it.  It is a little thinner than vinyl, but it is a much better bargain and there are some really fun patterns like faux wood I used.

I used the Cricut Circus Font for the wording and the Winter Wonderland Cart for the trees. 

Cricut Dominoes

I recently made a few full sets of dominoes using only the Cricut Craft Room Basics.  I'll admit, it took a while to set it up in the craft room, but once that was finished, it's been one of my simplest and easiest projects!

I only used two shapes, the rectangle and circle.  These shapes were duplicated multiple times to create the domino tiles.

A full set of dominoes fits on one cutting mat!

Cricut Cards

Over the weekend, my cousin Erika and I went cricut crazy!  Here are some cards we made.

I can't wait to send them out!

Door Monogram

Here's my newest Cricut project!  I'm loving monograms right now, so I decided to add my initial to my bedroom door to fancy it up a little. 

Here is my bedroom door before.

I chose the font from my Winter Wonderland Cartridge in 7 1/2 inch and printed it on sticky vinyl. 

Since this design was fairly intricate and I wanted to be sure it was level on the door, I used transfer paper to remove it from its backing.  I made sure to line up the bottom of the design with the red line on the transfer paper.  

To be sure that my initial wasn't crooked on the door.  I used my level on the transfer paper lines to position it correctly.

Make sure the vinyl is stuck to the door and carefully peel off the transfer paper.

Finished!

Beer Mug Etching

Recently I worked on some gifts I'm planning and got started on a really easy and cheap beer mug project.  I picked up a couple of glass mugs from the Dollar Tree.

Mustaches are having a moment right now so I decided that I was going to add a mustache to the front of the glass using my Cricut Lite Billionaire Cartridge. 

 I cut the mustache out of sticky vinyl putting all of my settings at 3 - 3 speed, 3 pressure, and 3 knife.  With these settings, the Cricut will cut only the vinyl and leave the backing uncut.  Peel off the design and you'll  be left with the negative cutout to use as the etching stencil.

 



Plus the cutout is really fun to play with!

 

 

Creepy!  haha The next step is adding your vinyl to the glass.  I lined my up with the top of the mug.  Make sure that the edges around the design are pressed down without any bubbles to be sure that you get a nice clean design with the etching cream.

 

 

I used Armour Etch to etch the design onto the glass.

 

 

Layer it on really thick.  I put the etching cream onto the glass using paint sponges that I got at the Dollar Tree.  They come in a package of 10 for $1.  I'm sure they could be rinsed and reused, but I just end up tossing them after I'm done since they are so cheap.

 

 

Rinse it off after 10 minutes and remove the vinyl stencil.  Use a little glass cleaner to shine it up.

 

 

Here's a close up.  I hope they like them!

 

 

 

 

 

A Step Closer

Last week I heard from the Rachael Ray show again and over the weekend I took a major step closer to POSSIBLY making the show!  Now waiting and crossing fingers that I'll be able to show off my Double Duty Tip!

Uh oh - Don't Drink That!

Here's my newest project I created using my Cricut and come etching cream!

This truly was a necessary project.  A while ago when I had first moved into my house.  My mom stopped over while I was still at work.  She couldn't find any of my light switches and got a little stressed out but was relieved to see a bottle of wine corked on my sink and took a BIG gulp!

Yup, it wasn't wine.  It was a bottle full of DISH SOAP!  Oops.  So, to hopefully prevent anyone else from making that mistake, I made a stencil with my Cricut machine on sticky vinyl.  I stuck it on my wine bottle and spread on a thick layer of Armor Etching cream. 

The instructions say to leave it on for 5 minutes, but I kept it on there for 10 just to be sure there weren't any flaws.  I was really happy with the finished project.  Here it is!

I hope no one drinks any more soap around here!