Revised Rudolph & More

I did not like the pipe cleaner antlers so I decided to make antlers on my Wishblade. Worked like a charm and no mess! I also taped the base to itself so I could just slide the candybars in/out.

I added a little holiday cheer to my kitchen:I added a personal touch to Glade holiday candles for ds' teachers:

Rudolph

I made these Reindeer candybar holders for my bunco group. I told them they could never throw them away, haha! I followed these directions: http://www.staceystamps.com/stacey_stamps/2009/11/rudolph-the-reindeer-candy-bar.html, between my friend Jenn and I, we had the punches to make it. Although the assembly took a while, they were a lot of fun to make. I decided to use pom-poms for the nose to add some more dimension. I wish there was something different to use for the antlers b/c the pipe cleaners shed everywhere! For the next ones I make (for my son's class), instead of taping the candybar in the holder, I'm going try to just wrap the sleeve tightly enough around the candybar so that the recipient can slide the candybar out and potentially reuse the reindeer sleeve to gift to someone else.

Baby Gift

I wanted to make something special for my new great nephew. I knew I was going to make a tag blankie but found a few other things I couldn't resist. His nursery is done in a cowboy theme so I tried to find cowboy related material. I had so much fun and am very excited for his mommy to receive the package this week!!

Tag/Lovey Blankie -- I made this one a little larger than usual it's almost 17" square. I posted the website with directions on an earlier post. The ribbon on the right in this pic is a pacifier holder. It was very easy and only took a minute to do. Directions here: http://angieasplund.blogspot.com/2009/01/soother-pacifier-clip-tutorial.html

Then I made a diaper/wipes holder. I had some trouble with the first one I made b/c the pattern I found online and used wasn't large enough to hold the wipes container and a couple of diapers (the wipes contianer on its own was a tight squeeze). So, I tweeked it a little and it now holds the wipes container and two size 5 diapers so it will hold several newborn diapers and can be used for a while. Directions here: http://boogaboobabies.com/download/Diaper_Wipe_Case.pdf
With flap open:

And these burp cloths only took a few minutes to whip up. The flannel is so soft! Directions here: http://chickpeastudio.typepad.com/chickpea_sewing_studio/diaper-burp-cloth-tutoria.html

I'm so thankful for these wonderful blogs with tutorials. I do a lot better when I see pictures of the steps. I hope my sweet Great Nephew enjoys his gifts!

Fun fun fun!

I finally broke down and bought my first font. I thought this one was perfect for monograms! I made this for a friend's birthday and she really liked it. The design looks crooked in the picture but it's not in person. I didn't think to get a picture of it until right before I gave it to her, luckily I had my camera in my purse. :)

More you-know-what

Played a little more with vinyl. This 6x6 tile will be an original b/c I will not weed this design at this small size again. What a booger! But worth it, I really like how it turned out.

I don't have the lights to go in this block yet but thought I'd share what I have thus far. I downloaded the "JOY" design from a Wishblade file website. It was actually a card and I changed the size to fit the block. And, added bling! Remember: it don't mean a thing if it ain't go that bling! :) I really like this and can't wait to see it glowing with lights.

Somebody Stop Me!

A naptime project...with vinyl! Woohoo! This was so much fun. The Wishblade will cut any true type font (TTF) so I found this free font online and went to town. The hard part is "weeding" the design, which I didn't realize my overhead light wasn't on until I was finished, so that may have had something to do with it. It was also difficult trying to center it on the tile, I had to remove/reapply about 3 times. It doesn't seem straight in the pic but it's the camera angle, it looks great in person. I'm sure there's a trick, that's my next google. I bought the tile from Lowe's, got the tumbled look so it's not a smooth finish. I inked around the edges with a dark chocolate ink and heat set it and glued dark brown felt to the back. The sides and backs of most tiles are not attractive so I think that helped make it prettier. I'm not going to seal this and see what happens, may need to do that on future projects, I'm still learning what the vinyl can tolerate on different surfaces.Anyway, LOVE how this turned out!! I'm almost finished with my next project: glass block, so stay tuned! :)

Train Bank

You guessed it...more vinyl! When I get on something, I stay there until I'm tired of it (so you'll definitely see more vinyl through Christmas since I plan on a lot of vinyl presents, hehe). This is a train bank I made for a friend of mine's son. He loves trains and I imagine has every Thomas the Train gift there is so I went for something unique. I hope to find a $2 bill to drop in it tomorrow before I give it to him.

I used a smooth-side Ball jar (can find at HL), brown vinyl with a train pattern I made myself, and PP covered chipboard for the bank top. I tried to cut a coin slot in the metal lid insert but it didn't work very well.