Oh My Crafts Vinyl

I got an early Christmas present in the mail a few weeks ago...a big box of vinyl from Oh My Crafts! Even though we got a ton of packages in the mail in December, I was extra excited about getting this big box of goodies, and I was SUPER excited to open it up and start creating.

The first thing I noticed when I opened up my box of goodies was that the vinyl wasn't in rolls but big sheets.  I was really used to the rolls I've bought before from craft stores and Silhouette, so I was a little uncertain about the sheets...but they ended up being way better than I could have imagined! The best part about these sheets is that they load into my Silhouette 100 times easier than the rolls! I normally have to try and load a piece of roll vinyl at least three times before it goes in straight...and the first time I put a piece of Oh My Crafts vinyl in my machine it went in with no problems! The vinyl sheets are 12 X 24, so I do have to trim down the sheets because my Silhouette will only load a 9 inch wide sheet, but if you have the newer Cameo or the bigger Cricut you won't have to trim at all! Oh My Crafts also sell rolls of vinyl but I think I may be sold on sheets instead:)

Before Christmas I used my Oh My Crafts vinyl to make a ton of great gifts. These cute paint bucket tins were in the dollar section at Target. I added an initial with red vinyl and some pretty red and green ribbon. Then I filled them up with goodies and I ended up with the perfect teacher gift for Christmas! I ended up making 13 of these little cuties and only used about half a sheet of vinyl!

My box of goodies also included a Vinyl Squeegee Tool. I have always just used my ruler or scissors to smooth down my vinyl...and I am so glad I have this Squeegee now! I'm actually kind of mad at myself for not spending the $3 on one a long time ago! It made applying my vinyl so much easier!

After I finished up teacher gifts, I moved on to the kiddos' class party stuff! I used a piece of my black Oh My Crafts Vinyl to make lots and lots of little circles {aka snowman eyes and smiles}...

...to make these:

The last vinyl project I have to share with you is a really fun one that my boys love:) And yeah, if you are thinking it's kind of hard to come up with a vinyl project for boys you are right!

Henry and Grant both got bow and arrow sets for Christmas this year and a couple of the arrows have suction cups on them. In true boy fashion, they got a huge kick out of shooting them at the glass on our doors....so Jason grabbed a dry erase marker and drew a bulls-eye for them. But after a couple of hours and more than a few kiddos taking trips in and out the door, the dry erase marker had been smeared and wiped off. So I decided a nice vinyl bulls-eye would work perfectly!  

{Apparently my boys feel the need to run around without shoes or shirts on in the middle of December! It was in the 70's that day so I didn't worry about him too much.}

I used my Silhouette to cut out a couple of circle on some fun red glittery vinyl to make the bulls-eye. It's kind of hard to see up on the door, so I included this picture so you can see how pretty and sparkly it is!

I was very impressed with all of my Oh My Crafts vinyl and I can't for things to slow down a little here so I can create even more fun crafty things with my new stash of vinyl! If you are interested in trying out Oh My Crafts vinyl, now is a great time! They have some great deals going on right now and if you use the code OMCBLOG10 you can save 10% on your entire order!

*Thanks so much to the people at Oh My Crafts for providing me with a free sample of their vinyl. No other compensation was given and all opinions are mine!*

A Few Days Late

I realize that we are 4 days past Christmas, but I haven't said it to all of you yet: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 We have been way too busy!

{shopping, wrapping, and assembling presents}

The boys got way too many toys!

{The playroom looks like Toys R Us exploded in there}

We have eaten way too much junk food!

{cookies and candy and chex mix. Oh My}

And we still have six more days until school starts and we can get back into our normal routine!

For now we are baking more cookies, jumping in the new trampoline, playing with lots of toys {including my new toy: an iPhone}, working on the Airstream, watching Home Alone on the dvr, and getting a new puppy. I'll be back tomorrow with a review of some awesome vinyl that I got to sample thanks to Oh My Crafts!

 

Upcycled Wooden Nativity

I pinned this really adorable Wooden Nativity a few months ago. {The original idea came from Learning to Be Me and I have seen similar ideas a few other places online too}. When I first pinned it, I figured I would either get Jason to stop and pick up some lumber from the hardware store, or I would raid his pile of wood scraps to find what I needed. But one day I glanced out the back door and noticed this:

If you can't tell what this is, I'll enlighten you:) This is a cute wooden table set {there are two chairs in the set too} that my boys got second hand from my aunt. It survived in our playroom for a few years, and then got moved to the clubhouse a few years later. Needless to say the boys were kind of rough on the table and chairs...a few of the chair slats got broken, as did one of the legs to the table. This table was actually in the trash/burn pile until I decided it would be perfect for the adorable Wooden Nativity sets! The legs of the table were the perfect size for Mary and Joseph and the broken slats from the chairs were just right to make a few Baby Jesus figures.

I don't have any pics of the process...mostly because I was using power tools by myself and I figured operating a saw and my camera at the same time wasn't the best idea ever:)

After I broke off the other three table legs, I used the dimensions from my inspiration {6 inches for Joseph & 5 inches for Mary}, marked the wooden legs with a pencil, and then cut them to size. The Baby Jesus pieces were cut from the chair slats and I made them 2 1/2 inches tall. Joseph got a coat of tan spray paint, Mary got a lovely shade of blue, and I painted the Baby Jesus pieces white. Then I painted the heads an off white/yellowish color {just because that is what I had on hand}. 

After all the paint was dry, I borrowed Jason's superglue and attached the heads to each of the figures {Mary & Joseph's heads are 1 3/4 inch wooden balls and Baby Jesus' head is a 1 1/4 inch wooden ball that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.} I let the superglue dry for about 20 minutes, then I tied the three pieces together with some raffia. I'm planning on adding a little note with Merry Christmas and the year to the back of each set with vinyl and then giving them out as Christmas presents to a few family members. Not a bad gift considering it started out as a broken table!