A Crafty Friday

When Jessica and Scott moved into their new home, she found several old windows stashed in the small storage shed outside. We spent this gray, rainy Friday afternoon personalizing the window as a birthday gift for Jessi’s cousin Sara.

After some Pinterest searches, she settled on a monogram from vinyl to decorate the window. Sara is getting married in June, so the monogram is the first initial of her fiancé's  last name, then she added both their first names.

I borrowed the Cricut Expressions from the library and cut the components for her. Originally we were going to use the vinyl adhered to the glass and call it good. I offered her the option of etching the monogram onto the glass, and due to the obvious antiquity of the window, we both decided that was the best option.

We used the vinyl I cut as a stencil for the etching cream. It took us about an hour to place and adhere the vinyl to the glass, then we each grabbed a paintbrush and started applying the etching cream. The window is so large, it was quite a feat to wash off the etching cream in my tiny kitchen sink, but with the two of us, we got it done.

I wish I could have taken photos during the process, but for most steps, two sets of hands were necessary. Here is a photo of the finished product:

 

It’s not a crisp photo, but you can see the ornamental handle at the bottom. It’s kind of scrolly and fancy. This house was built in the early 1900’s, so this window is over 100 years old. The glass is bubbly in a spot or two, and there’s a line across the window that at first I thought was a crack, but it’s actually inside the glass – just an imperfection.

Jessica has a few more of these windows, and I cannot wait to make one of these for Greg and I.

 

The Box I Built

What does a chop saw, a skilsaw, a drill press, and a nail gun all have in common? They’re all power tools I learned to use last weekend when I built this:

A few weeks ago I read about a challenge to build an old-fashioned toolbox on Funky Junk Interiors. The blog author had a guest post a tutorial with directions and possible dimensions. I showed it to Greg and he was more than happy to help me put this together.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any old wood to use, but there was some leftover pine from a couple of woodworking projects Greg’s been working on. He found enough pieces to put the toolbox together. I kind of pounded on them and sanded a bit of the paint off, and scratched it a little. The handle is just a plain wooden dowel.

So it took just about an hour for me to get through all of the measuring, cutting, sanding, and nailing. (Less time than it’s taking me to write this blog post…)

True confession: I’m pretty scared of power tools with sharp blades, so the chop saw was not my favorite thing. You know what I did like? The drill press and the nail gun! I did really well with the Forstner bit on the drill press, cutting out the circular hole for the handle. And that nail gun? Pow-er-ful! I coulda nailed stuff all day long!

So what will I do with my new creation? There are so many possibilities! I love it with the geraniums:

And we can use it for picnics for napkins and utensils:

Or use it to take a sweet little picnic out to the fire pit for a relaxing and romantic at-home date:

Anybody want one for Christmas? Cuz I wanna make some more!

Funtime with the Cricut

We recently celebrated Greg’s niece’s birthday and I wanted to give her a little something for her new apartment. I picked up a small, unscented candle and got out the Cricut to personalize it for her.

A capital “H” cut from black vinyl went on first:

Then I used some lime green, her favorite color, to cut “hannah”:

Using the transfer tape, I peeled the letters off the vinyl backing

 

and they were ready to position onto the candle. I centered the entire name over the capital “H”. Since the letters were on the transfer tape, I was able to reposition without too much trouble – you can see here I got the letters a little on a slant at first.

When the letters were positioned to my satisfaction, I rubbed over the lettering and then peeled off the transfer tape.

She seemed to really like it, especially with the lime green letters.

Yeah, I didn’t get the letters straight after all, but it’s still a fun little candle and a sweet gift that didn’t strain the budget at all.

While we had the vinyl out, I opened up the Cricut Expressions machine I had at home from the library. (I own a small, early version of the Cricut, but am able to check out the awesome Expression and a few cartridges at a time from the local library.) There was a spot on the dining room wall just begging for some kind of quote, and since Thanksgiving is coming up, I chose a line from a popular hymn, “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing”.

The Cricut Expression can cut 12 x 24” shapes, and I picked up a 24” mat at Hobby Lobby several weeks ago, so I was able to cut and transfer the entire quote with one piece of transfer tape.

The steps are the same as with the candle. The quote is cut and excess vinyl removed, then the transfer tape down over the top:

Here’s the spot on the wall. If you look closely you can see the laser level line so I get the words on the wall straight (yeah, I’m challenged that way…)

Aligning the text with the laser line, I rub the letters onto the wall, first with my hand, then I go over each letter with a wide craft stick.

Peel off the transfer tape,

And there it is – an appropriate sentiment for the Thanksgiving dining room:

The text is level, the wall hanging above it is not… I said I was challenged that way!

You’ll notice it’s missing an apostrophe in “Lord’s”. I did hand cut one from vinyl and just pop it up on the wall. There was no apostrophe on the cartridge I used to design the quote.

This vinyl is easily removable, though not intended to be reusable. If you order vinyl online, it’s pretty inexpensive, so changing quotes with the season would be very doable. I do like this one for the dining room, though, so it’ll probably stay awhile.

T-shirt crafting

Over the weekend while I was catching up on my blog-reading, I found these easy instructions on Homemaker for decorating t-shirts. It just so happened that Bradley had a plain shirt in his drawer, so yesterday while he napped, Grammy got busy.

I first measured the width of the front of the shirt, then cut the letters of his name out of vinyl using my Cricut. Design Studio made it possible to size the letters so they fit neatly across the entire front of the shirt.

To help with placing the letters, the center of the shirt was marked with a pin. While I just “eyeballed” the letter placement, the pin helped me keep things fairly well centered.

Once the letters were on the shirt, I did rub them pretty hard to make sure they were secure.

The countertop was protected by a plastic trash bag, the shirt in the middle, then I put straight chlorine bleach (Clorox) in a spray bottle and sprayed the entire shirt, front and back. I made sure to spray under the arms so the shirt bleached evenly.

The bleaching started immediately as I sprayed. As soon as the entire shirt was covered, I quickly removed the vinyl letters and tossed it (by itself) in the washer. I did wash it twice to get rid of the bleach smell.

Here’s the finished product. I think Mr. Bradley is pretty happy about his personalized addition to his wardrobe. His mommy loved it and told me, “You know we’ll have to make him one of these for every size he grows into?”. Shouldn’t be a problem.

 

*This technique can be used with lots of other things besides vinyl letters. Anything that can be laid on the shirt and sprayed with bleach will work – stencils, magnets, household tools. Use your imagination.

*One of the tips in the original post I read was to spray the bleach into the air and let it land on the shirt. That would work great for doing this craft outside, but I was hesitant to spray bleach around in the house. I will try it that way, though, once the weather warms up.

Fall Nesting Week

Okay, I couldn't stand it. The weather has been perfectly Autumnal and I needed to get some Fall decorations put up. But I'm not dragging out the totes until I have the den done and put back together. So... last night I did a little crafting and I have at least a temporary display of my favorite season: Remember the sneak peek I gave you of the little something I made for the guest room? I made another, this time for Fall. It's called a "ragamuffin" swag and if you want to know how to make your own, you can look here.

I had the fabric, jute, and some of the ribbon. Today I picked up the orange sheer ribbon and the tulle. I think the little bit of sparkle is a nice addition.

This is tied to the top part of the baker's rack which is currently sitting in the sunroom. I added the few mini-pumpkins picked from my garden last weekend and now I feel better. There is a little corner of Autumn to make me smile.

So if you haven't checked out Fall Nesting Week at the Inspired Room, go take a look at what others are doing to get ready for the best season of the year!

P.S. - I can't wait to show you the den - the new paint color is called "dipped chocolate", and I have to say it, it's yummy! :o)