Team Cups

I have shown some vinyl work that I have done on acrylic cups before, but I tried some on plastic cups today.  I had an ulterior motive because I have been wanting to make a really neat project with my houndstooth vinyl.  I saw a similar project on Pinterest, so it was time to try.

I used the Plantin cartridge.  The best part is that I got the cups at the Dollar Tree at 3 for $1!  That makes up for the little more expensive than I'd like houndstooth vinyl.  I love the BAMA, but you can do for your own team or whatever things you love.

Catching Up on Scrapbook Pages

Little by little I am catching up on my scrapbooking. I like to scrapbook each of my children's school years. I try to ask them questions and note their responses, and in most cases, they don't remember what they have told me from year to year. This is part of what makes looking back through them so fun! Now, I didn't say I was all the way caught up, only getting caught up! Over the Labor Day weekend, I finished two pages: one for my oldest's 1st day LAST year and one for my middle child's 1st day LAST year. I have designs for the others I need to do. I was hoping to get baby brother's from preschool last year completed to share, but that didn't happen. Hopefully I will get completed this week.

Here's the first one. I used a Fiskars ad as inspiration. It looks very similar to theirs, but I thought it was neat and cute. I did add the white stitch along the top and bottom of the patterned papers -- I like a stitched look!

The primary color papers of blue and red came from a paper pack I got at Wal-Mart. They have some pretty nice paper for $5 a pack. The patterned paper is from SU!. The apple was cut from the Cricut Lite Recess cartridge. By the way, I'm having an issue with this cartridge and my Gypsy. I cannot cut with the Gypsy and this cartridge, but I can cut with it straight from the Cricut. I will be calling Provocraft tomorrow! I love this cartridge, and really need to use my Gypsy with it. I cut the "back to school" using Plantin.

Here's the second page. For this one, my inspiration came from a Scrapbooks Etc. page.

I used the Recess cartridge for the "School" cut, Plantin for "kindergarten", and DoodleCharms for the bus. All this paper came from Wal-Mart too. Also, the "kindergarten" is done in red vinyl. It is just so much easier to cut out the vinyl and it's usually a cleaner cut. Then, I use my transfer tape to place on the page. It lines up very nicely.

I have about 7 more pages I need to do to get caught up, then do a better job staying on top of it this year. I did do a little clean-up today with my paper and scraps. I will share that soon. I am very pleased with my solid cardstock and scraps, but not 100% on how I want to do my patterned paper yet. Plus, I would like to maintain my SU! paper in a labeled something so I can sync it up with ribbon, etc. Still thinking on best way to do this with limited space. Always something to do!

Vinyl on Baskets and Trays

We found some really cute paper trays and plastic containers to use for organizing.  These are perfect to add vinyl on, so here's what we tried.

This is my "To Do's" bucket that I leave out on my counter.  It's a catch-all for everything I need to focus on that week...magazines, bills, forms, books, etc.  I'll tell you more about those cute little notebooks beside it in a later post, but you should know that I always have lots of notes in my "To Do's" bucket!  I used the Hoot 'N Holler and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges to cut the vinyl.

These are the paper trays, and I really like these!  Mine is the "Scraps" one.  It will go in my craft room and get lots of use.  The other one is for a friend who is a teacher.  I used the Car Decals cartridge to cut "SCRAPS" and Stone Script for "Mrs. Griffin" and the tiger paw.  I'm going to need to get several more of these trays for other projects!    

Vinyl on Cups and Water Bottles

Love using vinyl!!  There are so many things you can decorate with vinyl.  These pictures are just two of the projects we like to do. 

My older son loves water, and needed a water bottle for baseball season.  After we found the perfect bottle for him, we had to personalize.  I love finding deals, so I am always on the look-out for things to put vinyl on.  We found this water bottle at Dollar General for about $2.  Makes a great gift as well.

I enjoy decorating acrylic cups too.  There are so many possibilities.  I love my new black and white zebra print vinyl!  I have houndstooth as well, so many more projects with vinyl to come!!

And of course, my favorite picture with this project!!

I have a super cute box that I have made that will be so cute to partner up with an acrylic cup for a girly gift.  I will share that tomorrow!

Home Run! Goodie Bags

Lately, I have been enjoying putting together goodie bags for my kids and their various school and extra curricular activities.  Here is the latest one for my son's ball team.  It is for their end-of-season party.  Go Rangers! 

I had to make 11, so I mass produce in this case.  I usually do one trial run so I can work the kinks out.  But as usual, I always run across a way that I should have done it when I'm in the middle of "production".  I'll always try to include those tips along the way -- lessons learned!
Supplies
4x4 cello bags (I order from GTBags.com)
red, black, and white cardstock
patterned paper (I used a piece from an Assorted Pack at Hobby Lobby.  First time I bought this pack, and it's great!  It comes with 50 preselected sheets -- you don't know what you're gonna get -- for $7.99.  Paper packs were on sale for 50% off, so I got 50 sheets for $4!)
Cricut cartridge - Plantin Schoolbook
Stapler, scissors, adhesive, paper trimmer, pop dots
CANDY

1. Cut the Blast shape from Cricut cartridge.  I cut white shape at 1.35" and black one at 1.82" -- I have a Gypsy, so that's how I get those odd sizes.  If you don't have a Cricut or that cartridge, you can use any shape you want for the background of the baseball.
2. Stamp baseballs and cut out.  Apply pop dots to back.

3. Cut out 4 x 4.5 toppers from red cardstock.  Score the 4" length at 2" to make your topper fold. Fold the topper and go ahead and stamp "Home Run" on topper in upper right or lower right.  Lesson Learned -- waiting until after you've applied topper onto bag can make it difficult to stamp because of candy in bag!!
4. Fill your bags with candy.
5. Fold the red topper over bag and staple -- place the staple at location where patterned paper will cover.
6. Cut patterned paper at 4.5 x 1.  Adhere to red toppers.
7. Adhere the white and black blasts to one another and attach to topper.
8. Attach the baseball to blasts.

Have fun making your own goodie bags!