Boy birthday gift

We've been invited to a boy 'military' themed party.  Lou is a thoughtful gift giver and always knows just want to give his buddies.  He suggested we find some dog tags and make him a shirt.  I couldn't find a '90s style army shirt, which is what I wanted, so I made one. I don't know what the real name for this style of shirt is, I'm sure there's a name. I used a cheap target shirt and cut heat transfer letters with the silhouette.  When Lou saw the shirt, he was a little disappointed.  He thought the army shirt would involve a bomb picture.

The dog tags were ordered from a great shop on Etsy, Way To Cool.  The guy has a vintage WWII dog tag machine and types these out at home.  I emailed him and he was able to get it done for me ASAP and I had it three days later. They are a steal too! (Shhh.... I would have paid double for sure!)  They are flipped upside down in this picture, but the quality is great.  Lou wants a set and I'll be sure to get them for his birthday.  I'm pretty excited to see the birthday boy open his gifts!

crafty ladies

A few of my favorite ladies got together at church for a 'bring your own project' night.  Serious amounts of crafting fun!  It was like pinterst exploded in the gym church. It was great!

 
I lugged my silhouette and iron and heat transfer vinyl in and set up shop.
I made shirts for the kid's teachers... and one for me.

I love how these shirts turned out!  I love the colors and how fun they are.

 
At home, I added a little something to an old hoodie too.  I can wear school related shirts and jeans on Fridays so I have altered a few items to work for Fridays. I feel funny wearing jeans to work, but I'll try to get over it. 

graduation leftover

I've been meaning to share this item from our preschool graduation because it's absolutely the most precious thing ever.  These paper chains are waiting to go on stage.  I couldn't find a picture of them onstage, but use your imagination.... Each class has a long paper chain being held up by three pained dowel rods.  Each teacher wrote a prayer for each child on a strip and a separate prayer on a separate strip for their family.  These were organized and grouped by child with a white link in between. 

We carried them in with the kids as they walked in for graduation and then they sat on stage behind the kids during most of the program.  After the program they were taken to the hallway so the families could take their child's links home.    I cut out the ribbon like room labels on my silhouette.

There are literally hundreds of prayers written out specifically for each little friend and their family. It made for a really cute onstage decoration, a neat way to minister to the attendees at our graduation (many were surprised to learn that each link held a handwritten prayer from the teachers- we love our kiddos!) and a sweet memento to take home and save forever. 

teacher thank you with thank you

 We really came up with a cute teacher thank you this spring.  It came together at the last minute, as all great gifts do!  It could have been done a little more economically had I shopped around for more inexpensive thankyous.  It was last minute as I said. 

 

 
We bundled up several packages of adorable thank you note cards, a sheet of stamps, and a cute little card I made through silhouette.
 

 

I borrowed the floral image that says many thanks from a google image search (I searched many thanks clip art).  In photoshop, I added the little saying "Many 'thank-yous' to you because we thank you for a great year!" In silhouette I cut it all out with the cute scalloped edge.
 

 
We do thank our teachers!  Lou wouldn't pose with his teacher on the first day of school this year but he was happy to by the end. She earned all the thank you we could have given her!

 

 
Heck, he'd hardly pose for me that first day of kindergarten.
 

 
Bee and her sweet teacher.  First day of second grade.
 

 
 

 
Last day.

new silhouette projects

Silhouette and I have been busy.  I just love using it.  Lou and I used up almost the last of the black heat transfer vinyl.  Gotta get more!  I ordered it from Pick Your Plum.  This dog image is one I found on google image and traced with the silhouette software.  Lou says it's Tippy. 

I used the regular vinyl from Joann's to make this M for Lou's Michigan baseball team.  If the boys have their own helmet, they don't have to share at baseball.  Our helmet looked just like the 'share' ones.  Not anymore.

We added his number.  Easy to tell when my little man is up at bat.  That, and I'm keeping the team's stats.  It's a fun job and I totally have follow the game.

While I had the yellow vinyl out... I wanted to add a little sunshine on a dreary weekend.   I couldn't find an image to trace for this so I just wrote the text out myself in the silhouette software with four different fonts and sort of arranged them in a fun way.  I wasn't sure how the vinyl would go onto a round object, but I used the transfer tape and only had to smooth out one little part of one letter. 

We picked up this bench a few summers ago for 3 dollars at a yard sale.  It holds the gloves and hats and scarves.  I've been wanting to add a little something to it for awhile.  I made stencils with some weird color vinyl I had on hand. I used some random old paint from my stash to roughly paint over the letters.  I love how the letters look.  You can't tell from this picture, but it turned out a little off center.  Every time I look at it I see how it's a tad crooked.  I tried to fix it by adding a little scroll-like doo-dad at the end, but it's not any better.  I'll have to scrape it off and start over.  Another day.

Back at Easter, this pretty flower was the weekly free shape from silhouette.  I cut one and added it to our front door wreath.   Then I kept thinking about how pretty it would look with a whole wreath of them. 

And I couldn't do anything else until I did just that.  I ran that machine all afternoon while doing laundry and school plans and feeding children and then I declared family movie night and I assembled them.  I ended up buying two other 3d flowers through the silhouette online store and mixed those in too.  I used whatever random springish colored scrapbook paper I had on hand.   I wish it hadn't taken all day and run me through the better part of new sharp blade because I want to make one for my classroom and one for the kids teachers. 

This wasn't cut with my delightful machine, but it's getting in this post anyway.  It does feature some washi tape though.  It's a new to me craft item and I am loving it.  I also ordered it from Pick You Plum.  Have I mentioned I may have a slight problem with my level of admiration for that site?  Washi tape is making it's way into a lot of projects at this house these days!  Even Bee is in love with it.

that lovely cutter

I've been keeping that new cutter of mine busy.  Here are a few random projects. 

I cut out a bunch of robots for R day at school.  This is a purchased image from Silhouette.  I made my brother a car decal with it too in white vinyl.

I cut out a bunch of chalkboard vinyl (ordered from Pick Your Plum) and labeled everything.

I used my new birthday chalkboard markers (from Joanns) to write on them.  I ran out of chalkboard vinyl but will order more next time they offer it.  The labels are shapes I found online that I traced using the software, so they were free shapes.

These  t-shirts were made for Valentines day using some heat transfer vinyl (from Pick Your Plum).  There was a little learning curve but I love how they turned out.  Lou requested an arrow shooting a heart.  I couldn't find exactly what he wanted, but using the silhouette software, I was able to blend a few and move some parts around to get what he wanted. Bee's bird was an edited purchased picture.

 This heart shirt was for a buddy.  He requested a heart with an arrow.  We came up with a manly version.  This was a purchased image. 

Of course, Tippy and the cats got some fun labels on their food containers.  I told you I'm labeling everything.  These are all free images from found though google images usually with the addition of a little editing.

The vinyl I used here isn't special waterproof vinyl, but it's holding up great so far.

Love this one.  We traded 'water bottle customiation' for fresh eggs.  Birthday boy Lane plays ice hockey.

I used some vinyl as stencils to add our name to this old bench that sits by the front door.  I've been thinking about it for about two years.  We got it at a yard sale a few summers ago.  It holds all the winter gloves and hats. My lettering not centered well and drives me crazy when I look at it.

We added the children's teacher's names in their favorite colors to little notebooks we ordered for teacher appreciation week. The notebooks are from Pick Your Plum.  I'm sort of addicted to that site.

 
The pieces for this bulletin board in my classroom were all cut out with my silhouette too.

 
The images of the children were all free images I found though a google image search.  They were pieced together from different source.

I traced them using the silhouette software.  Most got a touch of editing, but nothing too hard.

 I laminated them and used tape to stick them up.  I'll use them for something again next year for sure.

I made another bunting for the area in the classroom behind the sink.  It reads, "He is risen."   I'm thinking of a spring saying next to carry us though the end of the year.

 
I cut out about a million paper hearts and filled up a bottle that we mailed to a buddy for Valentines day.  We added a few treats and several little notes.  I think it must have been fun to have received it in the mail.

Can I just say again, that my silhouette cameo has been one of the best presents ever!  They aren't even paying me to say that.  But, if they wanted to, I wouldn't complain.

valentines shirts and heat transfer vinyl

 Well, I've figured out how to email myself a picture from my phone, but I have no editing software or even to upload to the new laptop yet.  I stand by my original statement,  Windows 8 is weird.  I fumble from one screen to the next and don't know where I put things or what programs are open.  I think we're supposed to call them aps now.  I don't know.  I'm too old for this big of technology change. No really, I had a birthday yesterday. 

regardless, here are the kid' Valentines shirts.  These are the first projects with the heat transfer vinyl and my silhouette.  Also stand by that statement, Best Gift Ever.  

 Lou requested a bow and arrow with a heart.  After a little google image search and a little image editing, I ended up with this manly love day shirt.

 
The grey shirt is for a friend.  He requested a shirt with a heart. That's it.  His mom asked me to man it up a bit with an arrow.  The arrow heart was a free silhouette image.
 

 
Bee let me give her a few possibilities.  This bird is what she chose.  It's a silhouette image bird with a little heart wing cut out using a quick edit.   We added a heart on the sleeve with the wing cut out.

The heat transfer vinyl was easy to use and the results are really nice.  They look like we bought  them.  I'm beyond impressed.  I'll get a demo together soon, but really I learned from a youtube video.   Also figured out the print and cut feature too.  Best Gift Ever.
 
Here are a few past year's Valentines shirts:
 
2010 crocheted heart

 
2011 freezer paper painting\

 

We must have worn 2011 shirts in 2012.  I can't seem to remember or find another year's shirts.   hmmm.