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!

My Latest Obsession

I just realized that if I had waited until MONDAY to post my previous post, I would have had something for Smiling Sally's BLUE MONDAY!   That's what I get for jumping in and posting without my brain in gear!

My sweet hubby bought me a Cricut Create for Christmas.  He totally missed Walmart's Black Frday sale of the Cricut Expression that I really wanted, but...oh, well, it's the thought that counts, right?

However, when I opened the box, there was no cartridge inside!  Apparently, someone had stolen the cartridge.  So, off to Walmart I went.  They had one more Create in stock...and someone had stolen the cartridge out of that box, too!  Finally, Walmart's manager just gave me a cartridge.  The only problem was that it was a "Home Decor" cartridge.  Sure, it had lots of cute stuff on it, and I did play with it for quite a while, but that cartridge had NO FONTS!  It's kind of hard to personalize stuff without any fonts.

Given our financial situation, my hubby didn't see any need for spending money on either a cartridge or the Make The Cut program that I really wanted.  With Make The Cut, I wouldn't need any more cartridges!

So, my Cricut Create sat, mostly unused, until September, when my wonderful mom gave me birthday money!  WooHoo!!!  I promptly sat down and ordered MTC!

It is super simple to use, and I really like that I can take simple images and convert them into die cuts!

All I needed was something to cut...preferably vinyl.  I was out of money, so I asked a friend who owns a printing/sign business if I could buy some of her scrap vinyl.  She GAVE me a whole box full! WooHoo, again!

The very first thing I made was this 4" tile as a gift for my cousin and his wife who were both celebrating their birthdays.  I had planned on making a set of 4 coasters; but, I was running out of time, and this intricate design took quite a bit of time to weed out the unwanted vinyl.  I turned it into a wall decoration, instead.

This is not the finished version.  I had to stop at Walmart on the way to the party to get some ribbon and sticky-back felt to finish it off.  I used E6000 glue to glue a length of 1-1/4" wide sheer black ribbon to the back.  I glued ribbon all the way down the back of the tile for extra security.  I then cut a square of black felt and applied that to the back.  For what it's worth, I do NOT like the sticky-back felt...it's very hard to work with, IMHO!  I was pleased with how well it turned out, and my cousins were delighted.

Then, my hubby came up with a request.  He had just gotten back from a fishing trip to our trailer in Arkansas with his buddies.  His buddy, Daryl, had rotten fishing luck that weekend, and my hubby likes to "rub it in" a little.  He asked me to decorate a coffee cup for Daryl, who was a good enough sport to laugh about it!



 My daugher-in-law likes to decorate for Halloween, so I made her this tile and finished it with the ribbon in the same way that I finished my cousins' tile.

For a more serious gift, I bought this fall charger at Walmart and applied a vinyl monogram.  She said that this was just the kind of thing she likes!

Then, my hubby came back with another request.  Our business phone numbers changed a while back, but we had not yet changed the numbers on our work trucks.  The work trucks got new phone numbers, and then I made new vinyl signs to put in the back windows.  We figure that people might notice those signs better than they might notice the signs on the sides of the trucks.  Maybe my signs will help our business!

I'll be back later with some more pictures of my obsession craft projects! Have a great week!