Tuesday, December 27, 2016

We Do Disney Sign

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally share these We Do Disney signs that I created. I say signs, because I created one for me, one for my sister, and one for my parents. Yup, in this family we do Disney.


This sign is about 10" x 15". It's painted with red paint and the words are done in tan vinyl. This was the one I created for my parents.


I created two of this larger one (one for my sister's house and one for mine). It's a bit bigger at 12" x 24". I painted it in a simple grey and teal ombre. The vinyl words are white. I also added some light sanding to the edges of this one. I've never painted ombre before, and was really happy with how this turned out. I only used 2 colors of paint (the gray you see at the top and the teal you see at the very bottom). I just squirted both colors onto a plate and slowly mixed a little of the teal into the gray as I moved down the board. It ended up needing two coats of paint, so know when painting ombre you can do two coats. The colors of the top and bottom coats don't have to match up perfectly for you to get a great ombre effect.


Just a little bit about how I created these. I used my Silhouette Cameo and the Silhouette Studio to create my words. There are some really great "We Do Disney" signs out there, but I wanted ones that had words, movies, quotes that were especially meaningful to our family, so I listed out some of our favorite movies and quotes and created the file from there. Remember that your Cameo can cut any font that you have loaded on your computer. For this project I stuck with more whimsical fonts. I cut the entire file onto one large piece of vinyl. That way I only had to line everything up once.


One last note: I usually like to use my vinyl as a stencil that I peel off after painting. Because some of my fonts were so thin, I decided to paint my board and use the vinyl directly this time. Had I used it as a stencil, the edges of my letters would not have been nearly as straight, even, and pretty as the vinyl is.
If you have any questions about how I created these signs please don't hesitate to ask. Have a magical day!

Monday, December 19, 2016

Gift Card Box

Today I wanted to share how I created a rectangle gift card box with my We R Memory Keepers 123 Punch Board. I created a Christmas gift card box, but this will work for any occasion, just switch out the paper. Do bear with me as there are a lot of photos in this post, but I promise, once you make one it's really easy.



For a 3 1/2" x 2 1/4" x 1/2" gift box all you'll need is the We R Memory Keepers 123 Punch Board, some adhesive (I love Glue Dots® Ultra Thin and Repositionable for this task), and a 5 5/8" x 5 5/8" piece of patterned paper (I used Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith Christmas).


The standard directions for making a box with the punch board will give you a square box, so to make a rectangle we need to change up the directions just a bit.


Step 1: Line up your paper to the 2" mark, punch, and score along Box Score Line A and Box Score line B.


Step 2: Without rotating your paper move it to the 2 3/4" mark, punch, and score along Box Score Line A and Box Score line B.


Step 3: Rotate your paper 90 degrees counterclockwise. Line your first score line up with the Box Score Line A line, punch, and score your paper along Box Score Line B.


Step 4: Without rotating your paper line up your second score line with the Box Score Line A line, punch, and score along Box Score Line B.

Now you're going to rotate your paper 90 degrees counterclockwise and repeat steps 1-4.


 When you've completed steps 1-4 twice, you'll be all set to assemble your box. Just follow the directions on the punch board for assembly.


I like to use a Repositionable Glue Dot® to hold my gift card snugly in the box.


You have 2 options for closing up the box. If you want it to lie flat, you'll have to skip the corner slitter punch, and your top will have a bit of an envelope look to it. Just use adhesive to hold it shut. 


I chose to use the corner slitter punch on my longer sides, and ended up with a gabled box top instead. 


To make the box a little more festive, I used the 123 Punch Board to create a bow (this is the XS bow size).


I give out a lot of gift cards, so I love having the option of making a quick gift card box now, too. If you're looking for a few more ideas for gift card giving, check out my festive Gift Card Envelopes or for a unique twist these Gift Card Coin Envelopes. If you have any questions about the creation of this gift card box, don't hesitate to leave me a comment or email me!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Holiday Treat Containers

I have one last Christmas project to share on the SRM blog.



You can head on over to the SRM blog to check out all the details and see what surprise these have hiding inside.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Masculine Christmas Tags

I'm over on the SRM blog with some masculine Christmas tags.


Head on over to the SRM Blog to see all the details on how I created these.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Handmade Magnets

Hello! Christmas will soon be upon us, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite easy to make gifts: Handmade Magnets.


I've made a number of sets of these over the years and they are always a big hit. They're easy enough for kids to help make, easy to customize, and super useful. I mean, you can never have too many magnets.


These are made from 3/4" magnets. You can find an 18 pack of them for $1.99 at most big box stores.


I create and print out whatever words or pictures I want on white card stock. This year I used my Silhouette Cameo (and Silhouette Studio software) to do my designing, printing, and cutting, but in the past I've done my designing in Word and used a 3/4" circle punch to punch out the words.



Use some really strong clear glue (I like to use E6000 glue for this task) to attach a clear glass rock to the top of the magnet. This protects your design and has the added benefit of magnifying it a bit, too.







I like to package the up in groups of 3 in a little clear favor bag with a bit of matching ribbon. You can gift them just like this, or add them to a gift basket.



How are your handmade gifts coming along this year?

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Christmas Bible Journaling

I'm over on the SRM blog today sharing a bit of Christmas Bible Journaling and a trick for adding nice handwriting to your Bible when you don't have nice handwriting.


Head on over to the SRM blog to check out all the details.