Instagram + Bottle Caps = GENIUS

Although I will admit that Instagram has lessened the amount of pictures I take with my "good" camera, I still can't say anything else bad about it.  I have captured some pretty great moment of my kids, that if I being honest probably would not have been captures otherwise.   I love all of my pics so much that I made a 2012 book of just Instagram pics through Shutterfly.  AND...because I loved how that tuned out SO MUCH... I made another one for 2013. 

But because a book just isn't quite enough for this proud mommy I decided to make Instagram bottle cap magnets using my CAMEO.  The pictures from Instagram have very low resolution, so anything printed larger than 1" just won't look that great.

BUT...

Bottle caps are just that...1"!!  Perfect for this!!

This project takes a little time, but is super easy and worth it!!  I picked a few of my favorite images from my phone and emailed them to myself.  There may be another way to do this, but this is how I did it.  After emailing them to myself and saving them to my computer I got started.

I made my workspace 8.5"x11" because I would be printing.  I clicked on the open folder icon to find my image.  Because you are working in Silhouette it will automatically open only Silhouette files.  You will need to change that to "All Files"

Once you have selected All Files you should be able to find you images.  Select one of the images and click OK.

Your will open in another window and be very large.  You will want to select the image and resize it to 1.15"x1.15".  The image will appear very small, but don't worry.  Right click on the image and select Copy. 

Move back over to your original, empty 8.5"x11" work space and click paste.  You will repeat the above steps until you have resized all of the images you want.  Quite a few images will fit on a page, so be thinking about friends and family you might need a quick gift for.

Once you have all the images you want select print and the page will look something like this.  No need to add registration marks because you will not be using the actual cutting machine for these.  Although I could have used the machine...I have a 1" circle punch and it is SO MUCH FASTER!! 

 This is what you will end up with...

I purchased epoxy 1" circles from Hobby Lobby.  The regular price is $2.99, but the "Spare Parts" go on sale 50% off almost every other week.  The package comes with 24 stickers, so you can make quite a few with only one package.  You will also need plain bottle caps (you can also buy these from Hobby Lobby, but I purchased in mass quantity from eBay), small round magnets and E6000 glue.

 

Place your epoxy sticker right over the image.  The image is slightly larger than the sticker...don't worry about that...just make sure the epoxy sticker is centered.  The bottle cap is just slightly smaller than an inch, so your image should push nice and tightly right in.  You will not need any glue to keep the image in the bottle cap.

Use your glue to adhere the small magnets to the back of the bottle cap.  Let them stand for 15-20 minutes and...

 

VOILA...

Although I am not a gigantic fan of stuff on my refrigerator I am also a mom of 3 kids.  There is always a masterpiece or something from the school that needs to be displayed.  I figure if I have to use magnets...why not at least have cute personalized ones?!

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A Definite Strike

For the second time Thomas asked to have a bowling birthday party.  We decided to keep the party itself pretty simple, but I couldn't resist making cute invitations.

I combined a couple images that I purchased from Silhouette to create this one larger image and added the details.  Invitations are definitely one of the funnest things to create on my CAMEO.

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{CARS} Birthday

Seriously I DO NOT post enough on this blog.  I take pictures of most of the projects I do, but never get around to blogging about it.  Which is sad...some of you might want to see the fun little projects I do. 

Anyway...

A while back (I won't even tell you what "a while back" actually means) I helped out my friend JoJo with the birthday party she threw for her twins Brayden and Caylee.

They LOVE the movie Cars, so it was only fitting that that would be the theme.  Since I love creating fun things on my CAMEO I offered to help her with all that I could.  We used Pinterest for inspiration and put our own spin on cute ideas.  I had so much fun and it wasn't even for one of my own kids!!


For each of the food items she was serving I made these cute place cards.  I downloaded images that I found online and added additional images that I purchased from Silhouette or created my own depending on what I thought would look cute.

These were by far my favorite...The Pit Crew Pass.  JoJo picked up lanyards at the party store to attach to these.  And of course to add an extra detail...I laminated them.

I purchased these cute little boxes from Silhouette, but added a window so you could see the oreo cookies (tires) inside.  She wanted them as "Thank you" gifts, so I created a personalized trophy tag.

I also created Route 66 signs, Stop signs and Rest Stop Signs (not shown) to hang around the house.  She also borrowed tires from a local store to stack at the front door and I created a sign that read "Brayden and Caylee's Casa De La Tires".  I wish I had remembered to take a picture of that because it was so cute!

It wasn't a party for my kids, but it was super fun to help out.

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A Little Mommy/Daughter Project

Way back in February Taylor got her ears pierced.  Up until right around August...she refused to change them.  The only time they would get changed was when one accidentally fell out and I had to pin her down to put a new pair in.

Finally one day I convinced her that she could do it herself.  I helped guide her hand and voila...she did it!!  This led to an earring change every 8-10 hours.  She was obsessed!!  We bought LOTS of earrings.  So many that I should be posting a DIY earring holder.  Soon...Soon...I will tackle that, but for now something else.

We went to a craft show on Saturday and a lady was selling really cute, inexpensive earrings.  Mostly dangle ones that were a little too big for Taylor, but after lots of looking we found a pair that were just right.  She was very excited!!  Snowflake earrings for the Christmas season!

Fast forward to yesterday morning when she wanted to put said earrings in and UH-OH....mom had accidentally thrown them in the garbage.  To avoid a complete meltdown I told her to browse through the ETSY app and we would see what was out there.  She found some she really liked, but I was not impressed with the cost. 

Enter BIG idea!!

We would make our own!!

Off to Michael's...$30 later...VOILA

This project actually could have been WAY cheaper had I planned ahead.  I only used one coupon and nothing was on sale, but seriously??  We've already made 13 pair...and still have tons of supplies left.  So losing those $3 earrings from the craft show turned out not to be such a bad thing.

Supplies used:
Buttons (backs removed and flattened down)
Stud Earrings
Fishhook Earrings
E6000 Glue

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Our Halloween DIY Costumes

The last four years my wonderful mother made the kids' Halloween costumes.  Although I am 99% positive she still would have made them this year I decided to try and tackle most of it on my own.

This years theme...Cat In The Hat!!

I purchased plain CHEAP t-shirts, puffy fabric paint and a black fabric marker at Hobby Lobby for my Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes.

As with most projects these days I found an image on the web and used it in my CAMEO software to make my stencils for the shirts.  Thankfully Thing 1 and Thing 2 logos are not perfect, so the puffy paint worked great.  After it had dried I went around it with my black fabric marker.

My only real expense with these two costumes was the wig.  I planned to spend the bulk of my money on these wigs...$20 each, but SO WORTH IT!!

My cute little Cat In The Hat costume was comprised of Carter's black turtleneck onesie and black leggings.  I loosely sewed on the felt belly, so if I wanted I could take it off and reuse the clothes.  My wonderful mom made the bow tie and hat headband.  Both made using felt. 

I whipped up a simple tutu and used leg warmers we already had to "girlie" up my Thing 2!!

Seriously super simple costumes this year!!

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We're Havin' A Party

We are so excited to be having a Halloween party this year.  I love Halloween and I love throwing parties...this isn't our first Halloween party, but it is the first time we are including both adults and kids...costumes required for both!!

My hubby and I have not decided what we are going to do, but I assure you it will be very creative.  I'll let you know when we decide.

Yesterday I worked on the invitations.  We wanted to delivery them before we head out of town on Thursday.

It should be NO surprise that I used my CAMEO to design, print and cut the invitations.  I am SO excited about how they turned out.

I decided to HAND write on each envelope...they turned out super cute, but I was happy to have only needed 9!

Did I mention I LOVE my CAMEO??  Well I do!!  I am now working on the invitations for my moms annual cookie party!  Early?  Yes!!  But it is part of my contribution to the planning!!

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Wine Bottle Re-Do

Well I can definitely say that I had multiple ideas for this project AND I still may do another one of said ideas.  For now though I wanted to share one of them.

I started saving wine bottles a few months ago.  Normally it would have taken a while to save up enough bottles, but with my sister visiting and a few neighborhood block parties it didn't take as long as expected.

I washed the bottles out and ran them under hot water to remove the original labels.  I thought I might need goo-gone, but surprisingly the labels came off VERY easy.  I turned them upside down and let them dry for quite a few days.  I did not want any moisture left in them...these would be decorations and then stored, so I wanted them dry.

I gave them a couple coats of black spray paint.  Note to self...the darker bottles take less paint because they are already pretty dark. 

I had planned on buying the Martha Stewart beverage labels, but wondered if I could find anything from Silhouette.   Of course I could!!  I might have gone a little overboard and purchased EVERY Halloween label that I found.  Ugh...this is the problem with having a membership...can't let any $$ go to waste.

I printed the labels on shipping label paper that I bought at Staples and cut them with my CAMEO.  You could probably print on regular paper and use spray adhesive, but frankly I think that stuff is messy and I wanted them to last forever!!

What do you think?

How cute are these?

I have them up on my mantel and will reveal the entire mantel in another post.  Seriously such a simple project.

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Fall Subway Art

Fall seems to have officially arrived in Denver.  It has been raining for the last four days straight.  From what everyone has told me...this is not normal.  I sure hope not because I hate strongly dislike the rain.  Let's be honest...I strongly dislike anything besides sun, but dry and cold is better than wet and cold!

Anyhoo...

I started decorating for fall last week.  I love when it's time to pull out the bins of Fall/Halloween decorations!!  Although I haven't put any Halloween decorations up yet...it's coming!!   I decided I needed to put a little more focus on the Fall decor because as my mom pointed out...you put up Fall then Halloween and then Fall AGAIN!!

One of the things I added to my collection this year was this cute Fall Subway Art.  I have made subway art in the past using Photoshop.  There is nothing wrong with using Photoshop and it's relatively easy, but this time I used my Cameo.  Besides the great fonts I had...I also had cute images to use.  The only downside to using my Cameo is unless you have one of your own...I can't share it with you. 

I used an old frame I had picked up at a garage sale and there is actually no back or glass.  I have the print attached to a piece of cardboard and it fits perfectly.  The lighting in this room is horrible, so I apologize for the not-so-great pic.

I am trying really hard to get better about creating little vignettes when decorating.  Less is more is NOT what I am going for.  I want more is MORE!!!

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Finding A Use For Broken Crayons

This was a project I did at the end of the school year, but with the move blogging about it was pushed to the back burner.

If you have kids then I can almost guarantee you crayons...and if you have crayons I can also guarantee you have broken crayons.  I tend to be pretty OCD when it comes to the crayons, markers and pencils in our house.  I like them to be put back in their boxes and it drives me nuts when the kids lose any.  But then after a while...one missing turns into two and so on so forth.  Then they break them and well you know the rest. 

Although the broken crayons drive me crazy I have never thrown them away.  We have made our own crayons using the old broken ones.  Super easy and the kids have fun with it!  In that post we used foil pans, but we also have silicone trays that have fun shapes.  Ours were not oven safe so we used the Arizona heat to melt them!!  A fun, summer project if you live where the temps are 100+!!

Anyhoo...

For this project I wanted to give Taylor's teacher something special and something she could keep in her classroom as long as she wanted.  I picked up a cheap wood frame from Michael's and began the worst part...removing the paper from all of the crayons.

Once I had my bucket full of paperless crayons I began placing them on the frame...gluing as I went.  I broke the crayons smaller if needed.

 

 

 

I made a super simple Alphabet print using scraps of scrapbook paper.

 

I stood it up a little too soon when I took this first pic of the finished product and a few of the crayons started to slide.  I quickly laid it down and after drying over night it was ready for display!

  

I absolutely loved how it turned out! I made great use of all those crummy broken crayons!  Because I had the crayons already my only cost was the frame of which I go on clearance for $5.00.  Cheap and original!  Best kind of gifts!

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Kids' Bathroom

Since my kids share a bathroom I have kept it neutral.  I had hoped in this house I would get one more bathroom, so the girls could have their own and Thomas would have his own.  No luck though!! 

Since this will not be our house for the long-term I decided to keep most of what was in their old bathroom and just try and add a few new pieces.  Just because it is the bathroom doesn't mean it doesn't need decor!!

Yellow and Blue were my colors and Rubber Duckies were the theme. 

I'm sorry, but Rubber Duckies will always be cute in my book.

I kept the hand towel, the shower curtain, the toothbrush holder and the soap dispenser (it quacks, so I had too)!!

I added the tissue holder and the cup.  I found them at Ross for $2.99 and $1.99.  Seriously?!  For glass bathroom decor...that's a steal!!

Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE my Cameo?!  Well...I do!  I an extra frame just calling for a picture...my first thought was a picture of MY kids in the bath...but I don't have any.  Well, I don't have any with all three of them.  So...my next thought was to look for a cute phrase!

Silhouette Online Shop to the rescue!!

I created this 8x10 print using my Cameo and...

VOILA!!

I was going to hang it above the toilet, but was afraid that any time my kids forgot to turn on the fan moisture might get into the frame.  Turns out...I like it better here anyway!

 
I did not paint that wall...it came like that, but actually matched, so no need to paint!

How cute is that tissue holder?  I needed a little more color!

Got Bows?!  Just a few of Taylor and Tatum's bows!  

If only it had better lighting!! 

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You Warm My Heart

Today's card was seriously the fastest card I have made in a while because I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Here is the CAS(E) this sketch challenge card:

And here is my card...

Who shall I send this too?!

Supplies:
Bazzill Cardstock
DCWV Patterned Paper
Image cut from Cameo
Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip Ink 
Taylored Expressions Sentiment


Happy Thursday!

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