Supplies:

Champagne flutes (4 pack at Target for $9.99)
Gold Vinyl
Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait
Circle Confetti (Design ID #45405)
Cheers (Design ID #24001)
Weeding hook
Transfer paper or contact paper
Scissors

Directions:

Related articles

• 5 Champagne Cocktails for New Year’s Eve

The post DIY Gold Confetti Champagne Flutes appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

The supplies you need are very simple and very easy to customize – the shapes and the colors are all interchangeable, just pick what you want!

Supplies:
Glass Ornaments
Fine Glitter
Satin Angel wings
Coordinating 3/8″ Ribbon
Funnel (or a piping tip as I used)
Pledge Floor Care clean & shine or the cheap non-aerosal hair spray works in a pinch, too
Glue gun and glue sticks

Step 1) Remove the ornament tops and swish around a small amount of Pledge or hairspray. Dump any access liquid into your next ornament.

2) Place a funnel, or icing piping tip, into the top of your ornament and pour some glitter in. Start rolling the glitter around to cover all the sides, adding more glitter if needed.

Step 3) Place caps, carefully, back on to the ornaments.

Step 4) Hot glue angel wings to the back of the ornament and tie a coordinating ribbon through the loop for hanging (or use an ornament hook).

It was really THAT simple! Now you have a beautiful ornament to adorn your tree with the memory of loved ones or give ask gifts.

Of course, you could take it one step further and add some personalization – with paint, vinyl, or stickers.

The post DIY Angel Ornaments | Cricut Explore Giveaway appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Supplies:

Wide mouth mason jar (I use Ball Canning jars)
Vinyl decal or sticker
Mod Podge
Paint (I used black and white but you can use any two colors)
Glitter
Paint brushes
Painter’s tape
(optional) Acrylic sealer

Place your decal on the mason jar wherever it has the least about of raised lettering. I cut this snowflake out on scrap vinyl with my Silhouette CAMEO but you can use any shape, any color, or any sticker.

Next, apply a light layer of Mod Podge over your decal/sticker – this will ensure that instead paint that might get under the decal/sticker edge it is clear Mod Podge instead. Let dry 15 min or so.

Next, starting right under the rim, make 2 stripes with 1″ wide painter’s tape. Paint the exposed glass with one of your colors.

Let the first coat dry. Paint a 2nd coat of the same color and then before the 2nd coat dries pull off the painter’s tape.

Using a flat edge brush I hand painted the black stripes. I did this for two reasons: 1) I am very impatient and I did not want to wait for the white to completely dry before moving on and 2) Paint doesn’t necessarily want to stick to glass, especially acrylic paint, so I feared that covering up the white with painter’s tape to paint the black would result in the white paint pulling off of the glass. Hand painting 2 stripes is pretty simple, you an totally do it!!

Before the 2nd coat of your 2nd paint dries it’s time to pull up the decal or sticker you used. Using a snowflake might not have been the best way to go, it wasn’t easy pulling up all those points of the snowflake. I think a Christmas Tree or reindeer would have been a little easier. As you can see below I had a little issue in the lower left hand side of the snowflake – but no big deal I just used my painted brush and hand brushed in the parts that peeled away when I was removing the decal.

The only thing left is to brush Mod Podge all inside your jar and shake away with the glitter. Once you’ve got a good coat you an choose to spray acrylic sealer inside the jar, on top of the glitter, to help it from shedding.

To add some extra shimmer to all that glitter drop in an LED tea light, you can pick them up in almost every candle section these days. I would just hold back on placing a real open fame due to all the glitter and sealer.

The post DIY Stripes and Glitter Mason Jar appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

When I first saw this paper maché reindeer at Michael’s I picked it up not having any idea what I was going to do with it other than make it the centerpiece of our holiday decorations.  Add in a little cabana stripe ribbon from Nashville Wraps, vintage gold paint, red glitter, and some pom pom trim and I was in business!

I thought good ol’ Rudy could use a little extra glitter so I made a quick rosette out of ruby red glitter paper and attached a piece of wood bunting painted in the matching gold and adorned with a vinyl decal I made with my Silhouette CAMEO.

And what dapper man, or deer, doesn’t look better with a bowtie. I made this one out of wired glitter ribbon, a twist tie, and some hot glue.

Rudolph would just be any reindeer walking down the street if it weren’t for his red nose. Using a q-tip I applied Mod Podge in a deer nose shape and covered it with bright red glitter. A great tip with glitter is to use a dry paint or makeup brush to remove excess glitter from areas around the glittered spot.

The post Rudolph Wreath and 14 more Amazing Wreaths appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

The 9″ Portrait is great for using regular 8.5×11 sized paper (it’s perfect for Print & Cut which is one of my favorite features of the Silhouette), vinyl decals up to 9×36″, and anyone who may be crafting in a small space. I also think that this is a better machine to travel with, so if you do scrapbooking sessions away from home this would be great.

Now that you’ve picked your machine here are a few basic items that won’t come with your machine that you’re going to want straight out the gate when you machine arrives.

First up, paper crafting –

Adhesives are a bit of a personal preference but you’ll want something to help you attach small letters and cuts to your projects. Your basic adhesive runner will work for the larger pieces but you will drive yourself crazy trying to attach small letters without one of these handy “sticker machine” from Xyron. You can find them at the craft store where you can use you coupon. Now, if you want my opinion on adhesive runners I only use the big pink gun (Scotch ATG – Advanced Tape Glider) these days, make sure you use your best coupon on that one!

Now on to my recent favorite – vinyl decal making!

Once you’ve got the feel for the machine and you’ve made all the banners, birthday cards, and party supplies that you can handle it’s time to move on to Vinyl! With the right vinyl you can personalize just about ANYTHING you’d ever want to personalize.

My favorite, go-to vinyl is Oracal 651. It is a glossy finish with permanent adhesive. It’s great for anything that may get wet but not great if you’re going to want to remove it, like from your walls. It does come in matte finishes but only for black and white. There are MANY sources that will sell you Oracal 651 vinyl. From Amazon to Etsy and Ebay, a quick Google search will find you what you need.  If you want to make personalized t-shirt and apparel you are going to need Heat Transfer Vinyl, also sometimes called T-Shirt Vinyl. The best brand is Siser Easyweed. Again, it’s pretty simple to find.

The post Getting Started with Your Silhouette Part 1 appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Supplies:

Cookie sheet from the dollar store
Printable Magnet Paper – use the code BIRTHDAY to get 40% off until October 1, 2014
Printer
Silhouette Studio & cutting machine (CAMEO or Portrait)
Vinyl (optional, used for the haunted house)
MTF Sweet Halloween Dings font (free for personal use)

I absolutely fell in love with this font when I saw it on Under A Cherry Tree‘s Facebook feed. It takes an intermediate knowledge of Silhouette Studio to figure out how to release the compound paths of the dingbats and color in each piece. If you have interest in learning how to do that please let me know so I can create a step by step tutorial. Once I got the first one done though I was hooked and they got easier to make.

Once I had all of my characters and monsters colored in the way I wanted I arranged them on an 8.5″x11″ page with the registration marks turned on so that I could use the print and cut function. Then you just put the printable magnet paper in the printer just as if it was a sheet of cardstock. I didn’t have to make any adjustments. Once you’re finished printing your magnet paper let the ink dry for a minute and two and then secure it, magnet side down, to your cutting mat. You want to make sure it’s very secure to the mat so there is no shifting. I cut the printable magnet paper with my blade set to 5.

If you’d like more info on print and cut you can always refer back to this post on Print and Cut 101.

And just to add a little more fun to the storyboard I used some black chalkboard vinyl to cut out this haunted house (design from the Silhouette store) and stuck it onto the cookie sheet.

I had a lot of fun playing with the board before I gave it to my daughter to play with.

She made up a very cute story about trick or treating and monsters that drop from the sky – she went on for 10 minutes or so. Non. Stop.

Using the chalkboard vinyl just added another dimension to her creative play.

The post Magnetic Halloween Storyboard appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Step 1) Pick your design – this one is called Pumpkin Silhouette and I purchased it in the online store for $0.99 – you don’t need to worry about size yet. (I changed the color of the shape to better stand out in this tutorial, you do not have to fill in a color.)

Step 2) Draw a rectangle the height of the wording you’d like to put in the pumpkin and a width that overlaps the edges. I picked about 1.75 inches tall. (Again, I am using the green for the tutorial visual)

3) Select both images (the pumpkin and the rectangle) by holding the shift key and clicking on each one and then under the modify menu click on “Subtract.”

4) Remove the rectangle from your pumpkin. You discard the shape or you can use it as your guide to option step 5.

5) (optional, skip 8 if you do not want the extended lines) Create a long, skinny (maybe .25 inch high) rectangle that overlaps the edges of the pumpkin. Copy and paste that rectangle so you now have 2 identical shapes. Place each of the skinny rectangles on the open ends of your pumpkin pieces. To make sure everything is centered select all 3 images (holding the shift key) and then select Object>Align>Align Center.

6) Now that everything is centered you can weld the shapes together so everything cuts as one. With all 3 shapes selected in the Modify menu click on “Weld.”

7) Once you’ve selected Weld you will now have only 2 pieces to your pumpkin (and SS will color them all the same so you can see that it is no just one image).

The post How to Make a Split Pumpkin Monogram | September Silhouette Special appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Ok, so now that you have your machine and your printable white sticker paper we are ready to go!

First, you can either import your own images to print or you can open the Silhouette Store inside Silhouette Studio and purchase a print and cut image. If you bring your own images in you will have to trace them so they are ready to cut. However, if you buy the print and cut files from the store they are ready to go.

This is how you filter and search for Print and Cut images. They will all have a small blue “P” in the corner of the image.

Second, turn the registration marks on. Turning the registration marks on will show you the workable surface you have left on your sticker paper. Those registration marks help the machine line up your sticker paper and guide it to where to cut. I like to load my workable surface up with as many designs or stickers as I am going to need. There is really no going back to reuse your sticker paper, so make it count!

Third, don’t forget you can zoom in to get a better feel for the sizing and design on your print and cut labels. You are free to use ANY fonts you have uploaded on to your computer!

Fourth, You MUST make sure that any of the text you added is not selected to cut. The best way to do this is to go to the Cut Style Window and make sure that ONLY the edges of your designs are going to cut. If you find any text or other graphics with a red line around them that you don’t want cut, just select the text/image and then click “No Cut.”

Fifth, once you are set with your label designs go ahead and send it to the printer. It will print out the needed registration marks. This photo got a little washed out but you can see the registration marks.

Sixth, line up the corner of your sticker paper with the upper left hand corner of your cutting mat. Make sure that the filled in square is in the upper left hand corner. It will not work if you position it anywhere else. Pick the cut settings for the “Printable Sticker Paper” and let ‘er rip. I mean cut. Once you’ve taken off all the “extra” sticker paper, or weeded the design, you should be left with this – a sheet of personalized labels!!

However, if you don’t pay attention to what your blade is set at this is what you will be left with. They can still be used it’s just a tad bit tougher to get the backing of the labels.

Seventh, and final, step – start labeling anything that will sit still.

Make sure no one takes your books!

Or your composition book!

These labels are great to create an organized art or homework station; just stick them on some mason jars!

We even now have a place to store all of our sight word flashcards.

The post Print and Cut 101: Back to School Labels appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Supplies:

Then I filled the other words. I won’t lie, this part was the hardest because I had chosen this pallet type sign and had to work with the gaps. I wasn’t able to put the words exactly where I would have liked.

Once you’ve placed all your vinyl on the sign, and given them a good rub down, comes the most important part: slather that baby in Mod Podge! I like to use a cheap foam brush when applying Mod Podge and for this project I just used a medium layer so it would dry quickly.

Give the Mod Podge about 20 minutes to dry and then go ahead and paint your entire sign. I kept it to one coat because that’s the look I was going for but you can put as many coats on as you need to achieve your desired look.

Here’s a close up.

I like to pull my vinyl stencil up before the paint is fully dry because I find you have less instances of the paint peeling. As you can see, using the Mod Podge really sealed the stencil to the sign and the final result is as crisp as you can get it!

I added a couple little vinyl fish on top the finished sign to fill in some of the empty space I wasn’t happy with. Here is the sign hanging up in the lake house of our lovely weekend hosts. Once day we hope to own a lake house, too, but for now we love be invited down to the lake!

And just because I love this photo I look, my little one thinks that Like is Better at the Lake, too!

The post Typography Signs 201 + Silhouette Promotion appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.

Supplies:

The first thing you’ll have to do is carefully tear the back page off the catalog. The bottom half of the back page is a fabulous print, which can be trimmed down to 5×7.

Prep your canvas by finding the exact center. I wanted my print to look framed in gold so I marked off my 5×7 print and then added a 1 inch border all the way around. Using painter’s tape I taped off a centered 7×9 box and painted the inside gold. As you can see I didn’t care too much about how the inside of the square looked as it will be covered with the print.

Once the gold was dry and I peeled up the painter’s tape I measured out 2 inch stripes and taped the areas that I wanted to stay white. I then painted the rest of the canvas pink. As you can see below it is almost impossible not to get bleed when working with the canvas. But it’s not a big deal, you’ll just have to go back with white paint and touch everything up. I find that the best way to clean everything up is with that nice straight edge brush that I showed in the supplies photo. You can get right up to the edge rather easily.

Once you’ve got everything cleaned up and it’s completely dry you can attach your print with Mod Podge. I put 1 medium layer of Mod Podge on the back of the print and centered it on the gold square. After 30 minutes I applied a light coating of Mod Podge over the entire print and gold “frame” area. Let dry and repeat if you’d like. You are ready to hang it up!

I am so excited about my new artwork. It is going to fit into my Flamingo/Cabana Stripe/Beachy guest room perfectly! Now to just hang up everything else, upholster the cornice board, sew some pillows, and accessorize the room. Maybe it will be ready for a reveal by Thanksgiving!  

The post Upcycled Lilly Pulitzer Art appeared first on Shes {kinda} Crafty.