Posting Under the Influence...

...of my first cold of the season!  UGH!

I guess the winter season has arrive early for me!  I'm sitting here with a bad cold that started yesterday with a nose running like an open faucet and sneezing my head off.  I took Loratadine yesterday and last night, so I managed to get the "faucet" turned off a little, but still feel pretty lousy.  I wish I could go back to bed, but my arthritis was hurting so much this morning that I just couldn't stay in bed any longer.

So...since I don't feel like doing much of anything, I decided that I might as well share some more of my vinyl crafts with you!

This is a floating frame that I made to donate to an auction at my grandchildren's school for their Fall Festival.
 

This tile is sooo ME!  I scraplifted this quote some time ago, thinking that I would turn it into an embroidery design for a sweatshirt, but when my hubby brought home a few tiles, I decided to use the design to decorate it!

I didn't want to hang the tile on a wall, so I used the easel back from an old picture and glued it to the back of the tile with some Liquid Nails, since I was out of E6000 glue.  It's not centered because I used a tape measure that had a messed up end. so I was measuring from 1" across to 13" instead of across to 12".  I was tired and not thinking straight, so when I marked the center point, I messed up and figured half of 13" instead of half of 12" and counted backwards 6-1/2" from 13"!  I must have really been tired because I never noticed how off-center it was!  Oh, well...it still works! LOL!

View from the side.

This is a name frame I made as a wedding gift for my hubby's great-nephew and his wife.  I got the frame at Walmart for $3.  I had intended to make it into a floating frame, but since the picture opening is hinged onto a permanent backing, I was afraid I'd mess it up if I took it off.  So...I had some 8-1/2" x 14" cardstock that I used to make the background.

First, I sprayed the cardstock with spray-on Kilz primer so that the cardstock wouldn't soak up my metallic copper spray paint (I chose the copper to coordinate with the copper color in the frame.  The next step can be skipped, but I think it gives the metallic copper a richer look.  After the primer dried, I spray painted the cardstock with satin black paint.  After that dried, I then sprayed on the metallic copper.  After it dried, I laid the glass from the frame on top of the cardstock and cut around it with my rotary cutter.

I used my Cricut to cut out their last name in black vinyl and applied to the cardstock.  I then used my Cricut to cut out their first names in a beige vinyl.  I flipped the design so that it would cut backwards.  I applied the backward-cut first names to the BACK of the glass, so that when the glass was in the frame, the names would be right-side out.  By doing the first names this way, the front of the glass will be easier to clean.

Since I already had everything but the frame, this wedding gift cost me a total of $3!  Not bad!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my projects!  I have another one in the works that I've been procrastinating on finishing because it involves layering two different colors, which I've never done before.  I'm a little nervous about how it will turn out, but I guess if it doesn't turn out well, I can always scrape off the vinyl and give it another whirl!

Have a GREAT weekend!

More Stuff That I've Made

Our youngest grandson just turned a year old, and I wanted to give him something that I think every little kid needs...a little red rocking chair. I found an unfinished one at a local furniture store (ON SALE!) and gave it a few coats of bright red paint. I was planning to paint his name and some kind of cute design on the back, but then I thought, "I want to do something DIFFERENT!"


So, I went out to my arts and crafts and sewing shed, and made these little padded sleeves for the back of his chair. I used my embroidery machine to embroider his "name train" on one and left the other one plain. Here is a close-up.

His mom, our teacher DiL, had her birthday a few days later, so I made this tote/purse for her. I was inspired by the cute totes at http://hello-refabulous.blogspot.com/ You should check it out; I think she is an amazing young woman. She has eight children, homeschools, and still manages to find time to create beautiful items! This is my first try at ever making a purse, but I think it came out pretty well. I had some wooden apple cutouts, so I drilled a couple of holes in one to turn it into a button and painted it. It's on the closure, which is backed with velcro.

Here's one of the inside pockets, and the lining coordinates with the school print on the outside.

In June, I had the opportunity to get together for a weekend with 6 of my online friends and the mother of one of them in Pigeon Forge, TN. We all chipped in and rented a big log cabin on the side of a mountain, and we had a blast! It was as if we have known each other all our lives!

I made a personalized drink huggy as a small gift for each one of them. They are really easy to make!

What do YOU like to do?