Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Hot Wheels Holder; Dollar Tree Updo

I love a good updo and this is one of my favorites! I bought a six car Hot Wheels holder from my local Dollar Tree and decided to personalize it for my nephew. He loves cars and they travel a lot so the case itself is perfect for him to carry on road trips and/or plane rides, but add personalization and WOW! Game Changer!


I use the BFC Celebrate font and I love it! The flame and tire images are from Cricut Design Space. I'm sharing the link to this and it will be editable so you can change the name to fit your needs.  Another thing I did was slice the hubcap from the tire. When working with vinyl, it's best to not stack layers.


If you cannot find this particular box, you can personalize any plastic container and resize as needed.

Check out the process video below:



Monday, July 29, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Recap


This is the last post of my Merry Christmas in July series. I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas to make for Christmas. I'm definitely going to make more of those dome treat holders and finish up the remaining Starbucks hot cups. These will make great gifts!


Here are all the projects. 







Be sure to go to my YouTube channel to watch the process videos on all of these!

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Beach Themed Cake Topper; Printable Cuttable Creatables

 

Do you need a beautiful beach themed cake topper?  Well, I did just that for my granddaughter’s upcoming birthday using the Beach Sea Shells Monogram Frame cut file from Printable Cuttable Creatables.

When making a cake topper, I believe the more layers the better which makes the offset function your best friend!  With this topper, I added an offset to the original image, an offset of the offset times two.  The default color for offsets is black in Cricut Design Space so when creating each offset, I changed the colors for each layer so I have a better idea of what the final project will look like.

Go the the Printable Cuttable Creatables blog to see my post with the instructions.

Once everything is cut, I always lay the pieces together before adding adhesive.  Take note of which pieces will have foam adhesive and which will be adhered directly on top of the previous layer.


I used a pick tool for the small pieces and my favorite tool (my fingers) for the larger ones when applying liquid adhesive.



I adhered the wreath details directly on the light gray offset & then that portion directly on the white offset.  I used foam adhesive to add height to the pink shell, two starfish and the banner.  


I ended up cutting two of the acetate pieces so the shaker area would have one for the front and then after adding foam adhesive & shaker bits in the middle, the second acetate piece acts like the “second piece of bread” of a sandwich.  This makes it so much easier to adhere to the base layer.


I also changed the banner to say Celebrate versus my granddaughter’s first name.  Here’s the final project!  



As you can tell, I added a lot of black & white pen marks to highlight different areas. So cute!

When purchasing cut files from Printable Cuttable Creatables, use the 3SONS15 discount code to receive 15% off your order!

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Final Day


Can you believe it? It's the final project for the Merry Christmas in July series?! I certainly had a lot of fun coming up with these projects especially when it's been triple digits outside. 

For the final project, I decided to create an advent calendar. I've always wanted to do one and creating this project in July will guarantee that it's ready by December 1st.

There are so many ways to create an advent calendar so I wasn't sure where to start. I knew I needed numbers, so off to the Cricut I go! I used the BFC Hello Babe font for the numbers and then did a query for Advent. The reason why I did the query was to look for shapes. I ungrouped the image and deleted the font they had so I could use the font I wanted.

After changing the fonts, colors and size, I realized it probably would have been easier just to add shapes to each number using colors that I wanted but that's ok. I got exactly what I wanted at the end.


Adding an offset to each shape, flattening them and printing on sticker paper makes it easier to adhere the numbers to each treat holder.

Here are close ups of the different style of holders that I made.

Just added stickers to these!

Old School sour cream holders!

Easy score & fold!

Used the Cricut for these!

Finally used this punch board!

Since they are all different sizes and styles, I decided I would put them in a large basket and the girls can pick the right date each day. And because we're a family that likes to make memories, some will have treats and some will have notes to start a holiday activity.


Check out the YouTube video to see how each type of treat holder was created. I'm super excited about how they turned out!

Friday, July 26, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Day Six


It only took me to Day Six to post a scrapbooking layout as part of my Merry Christmas in July series. I printed a photo of my granddaughters with Santa & Mrs. Claus in 2022. Used a sketch by Scrapping the Day Away and a variety of Christmas papers to create this layout. I love that you can use papers from different collections, and it still looks great together. I looked for papers that were a little more distressed and/or subtle since I didn't want it to be too cutesy.


The sketch:

The sketch is pretty basic but what really caught my eye is the bottom portion.  I like the six rectangles going across the bottom half of the page. What a great way to use multiple patterned papers! I cut these rectangles at 3.75x2.75". I used 6x6 papers and the Santa scrap piece, but using all scraps would be perfect for this!

How cute is Mr. & Mrs. Claus with the motorcycle? Originally, I was going to really focus on the motorcycle but then changed my mind. I mean, the motorcycle is not the focus, my cute granddaughters are!


I tried to emulate the photo background by adding die cut banners & punched snowflakes along with a Print/Cut title. I think the layout turned out so nice. I hope you agree! I love, love, love the black background and ask myself, why I don't use black as a background more often!

Be sure to watch the process video on my YT channel for all the fun details!

The dies were purchased from Tall Mouse at the Stamp/Scrapbook Expo. I don't know if they are the manufacturers or just sellers, but this is probably one of my best buys. They are fabulous!

6x6 paper pad is Heidi Swapp and the Santa paper is Theresa Collins. The papers I show at the beginning of the video are from My Minds Eye.


TGIF; Thankful Friday #328


Hello and happy Thankful Friday! This week really flew by which is always a great thing! I had a lot of fun doing my Merry Christmas in July series and also managed to finished a DT project for Printable Cuttable Creatables and make a really cool box card for my sister.

I know this should probably be in next week's Thankful Friday, but this week, I'm thankful for our Road Trip to Tucson today. We're heading out to visit my sister and mom. Even though most people leave AZ in the summer, we're heading to the heat!

I'm excited to see them! 


What are you thankful for this week?


Thursday, July 25, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Day Five


There are so many Christmas projects to make in only seven days! I chose the seven that I thought would be easy to work with in July. Now this is completely different and I absolutely love it! Are you one of those people who wrap with so much detail that it's hard to unwrap the gift because you don't want to mess up the wrapping? I'm not. LOL

I do like to make my own gift tags (Check out my 12 Days of Christmas Tags Series HERE) and I'm going on my sixth or seventh year of doing them, but I thought I'd try something different for this Merry Christmas in July series which sorta coordinates with customized gift tags.


Customized ribbon! I'm going to use infusible ink from my stash which I rarely use and a roll of red velvet-like ribbon. I thought of all sorts of seasonal phrases but then I thought, if I use them, no one would know that I actually made the ribbons...so I decided to really customize them by putting each of my granddaughters’ names on them.

The key is to use polyester ribbons in order to use the infusible inks. Because the ribbon was 2.5”, I made the height of the names 1.5” and this roll was 9 feet so I used 3’ for each girl.


I wish I would have used a lighter ribbon but I used what I had. I also wished I was one of those people who knows how to tie a beautiful bow. But these will do!


What do you think? Pretty awesome, right? Check out the YT video to see how these were done. If you don't have infusible ink, you could also use HTV for the same effect.



Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Day Four


Day Four and I'm back to using my Cricut! I've seen these dome treat holders for awhile but never tried to make one. Oh, I don't know what I was waiting for, these things are ADORABLE and really easy to put together.



The file I used is from Printable Cuttable Creatables Polar Bear Dome Candy Holder. There are so many others that I will be using later, but I started with this one. I want you to really take notice of the size. I honestly had no idea that he was so big and I just LOVE it! Plenty of room to stuff with candy and other treats. And if  you didn't know it already, you use half of an acrylic ornament for one candy holder.

I love that there are two options to attach the wheel in the back (watch the YT process video to learn more about this) and how easy it is to put together. I used Beary Art glue for my adhesive. 

My advice...watch this video or any other process video on how to put these together. It is not hard at all, but following directions probably has something to do with it.



I use two shades of green for the scarf and spritz them both with a glitter spray. It gives it a snowy affect and I love it! I used foam adhesive to add the scarf to give it a little dimension.


Be sure to check it out and then try one on your own. I'm so glad I decided to make this in July because I plan on making one of these for all the kiddos on my Christmas list this year!
 

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Day Three


It's Day Three of the Merry Christmas in July series. The first two projects used the Cricut so I wanted to do something different for this one.


Have you ever heard of One Sheet Wonder when making cards? Basically, you cut a 12x12 sheet of paper in specific ways and use those pieces to create cards. I thought it would be fun to do something like this to prepare to send in December.

The first thing I did was do a search for One Sheet Wonder and I found lots of different websites/blogs for examples and instructions. I decided to use cuts from Jumping into Stamping blog because she used a 6x6 piece of paper.




Then I went through my 6x6 pads of Christmas paper and selected a patterned paper to use. Grabbed some matching cardstock & cardbases and then followed the instructions.

The reindeer, sentiment, and bird stamps are from Hero Arts. I used alcohol markers to color them and a white pen to add highlights.

Be sure to watch the process video as I fumble my way through making these.


Don't forget that there are four more days of this Merry Christmas in July week series to watch!


Monday, July 22, 2024

Merry Christmas in July; Day Two


Day Two of the Merry Christmas in July series is another Cricut project. I purchased some night lights from my local dollar store to decorate "one day". Well, today's the day!

I used Mod Podge to adhere two layers of red glitter to the back of the clear panel making sure to let each layer dry before adding the next. I don't often use glitter and every time I do, I remind myself why I don't. It gets everywhere! Be sure to put a coat of Mod Podge as the final layer of the glitter.

I have a glitter tray that I purchased from Queen & Company and it helps keep most glitter tamed.
 

Because of the dark red background, I had to add a white base under the camera lens and change my red letters to white.

Isn't it so cute?


Be sure to check out the series on my YouTube channel for SEVEN process videos on seven Christmas projects.


Merry Christmas in July!