Stenciled Kitchen Towel ~ Perfect Wedding Gift!

Today was a fun and exciting new craft day for me! I tried out some freezer paper stenciling and some adhesive stencils. I used some of the goodies in my giveaway winnings from the o-so-fabulous Jill at Create-Craft-Love! Thanks Jill! :)

 

What I used:

• 5 pack kitchen towels from Wal-mart
• Cricut machine with the Jasmine cartridge (my new favorite cartridge!)
• Freezer Paper
• Martha Stewart adhesive stencils (in my "craft swag bag" from Jill!)
• Fabric paint (I have pictured Martha Stewart paints - also from Jill - which I was going to mix with fabric medium...but then remembered I have fabric paint, so I used that instead!)

First I cut out the letters for the monogram. The freezer paper goes on the mat shiny side down (the shiny side is the side that sticks to the fabric). The middle letter I cut at 3.5 and the outside letter at 2.75.

I cut out the letters on the freezer paper and ironed them right onto the towel. They weren't going anywhere!

Next, I started playing around with the adhesive stencils. I am shocked at how easy they were to use! I just peeled the stencil off the backing, stuck it on the towel, painted over it, and moved it to the next position.

 How fun! When you're done with the stencil, you just wash it off in the sink and stick it back where it came from to use it again.

Once the paint is dry you can peel off the freezer paper and iron over the painted design. But you can't iron right over the paint, so I put a t-shirt over top of the towel.

 

Ta-da! A perfect gift, especially when placed inside a beautifully etched 9x13!

(Oh and Lindsey, if you do happen to read my blog, which I don't think you do (but if you are that makes me feel special), yes this is for you! lol)

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Wedding & Baby Cards with Stretch your Imagination

I am borrowing some Cricut cartridges from a friend for this summer and I love the cartridge called "Stretch your Imagination." It does so many fun things! Since so many people are having wedding and babies right now, I made mostly wedding and baby cards - but this cartridge has a ton of fun cut-outs you can use - something for every holiday and season.

Image from EZScrap

I also really like that - with the same button - you can cut out a card, frames for the cards, the image itself, fun layers to go with the image, silhouettes, and even more!

Do you have a cricut? What's your favorite cartridge? I'd love to try out some more fun ones!

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Glass Etched Pyrex Dishes

I have finally tried out glass etching - and it is so much fun, and WAY easier than I expected. While I was in California, I missed two weddings - which was sad, but o well, it happens. Anyway, I made a glass etched dish for each couple to go along with our gift. At least this way, even though I missed the weddings I still felt like I was a part of a least something cool!

I used my cricut to cut out the letters. It took me forever to figure out how to work this, but place the vinyl front-side down to cut your letters. You have to do it backwards because you will etch on the bottom on the glass - not inside where food will go. Oh, and I used the Jasmine cartridge. (If you don't have a cricut you can print on the backside of your vinyl and then use an exacto knife to cut out the letters)

Frugal Crafty Tip: When I say vinyl I'm not actually using vinyl! It's contact paper (from the dollar store) and works exactly the same!

Next comes the hardest part - sticking the vinyl to the back of the dish. Make sure most of the bubbles are out and that it is mostly centered. It doesn't have to be perfect - you'll go crazy if you are aiming for perfectly centered! Mine looked like this:

Now for the fun and really easy part! Dab on the armor etch stuff (beware - this stuff smells) and continue to paint over the exposed areas, making sure every open space is covered. I did this for about 3 minutes (their website says you only need to do it for one minute though).

After you've had fun swirling that white goey stuff around, bring your dish over to the sink, rinse it off with warm water (I believe the warm water helps de-active it so it won't etch other areas of the dish). And get excited to do a little happy dance, peel off the vinyl, and Ta-Da! There you have it!

At this point I also cleaned the bottom of the glass with window cleaner and a paper towel, to make sure everything was off and that it looked pretty.

So, if you are having a wedding soon, and I'm invited - you just might get one of these!

I'm trying to decide what I want to etch for myself now..the possibilities are endless and I'm so excited! :)

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Organizing my Coupons - insert style

I used to be pretty good at couponing. Now, well, not so much. It's a lot of work and I wasn't organized which wasn't helping. See previous coupon organization below:

Um, yikes. Since I was never able to find a coupon when I actually needed it I decided I needed to do something about it. And then about two months later, I finally did :)

It's quite simple. All you need is a crate, hanging file folders, sticky notes, and a sharpie.

When I get the Sunday paper, I take the coupon inserts out, write the date on them with a sharpie, label a new sticky note, put it on a folder and put the inserts in!

I keep the coupons in the inserts because then I know where to find them when a deal comes up! I check on my favorite couponing sites before I go on a trip, so that way when I go to a store I know exactly what's on sale and what coupons I'm going to use.

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Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day everyone (especially those of you who are fathers)! 

Love you dad :)  

 And one of the great things about being married - I now have two dads! Haha, that kinda sounds wrong doesn't it?! 

 

Anyway, I love both of you.

WHOA! Stop the presses. I have THREE dads. A Father even better than the two above - sorry guys, but you don't even get close. A Dad to everyone who needs a dad. A Dad with a perfect, unconditional love. Thank you Heavenly Father for always loving me and being the best Dad to me and everyone in the world. Happy Father's Day Dad :)

Hope you all have a fabulous father's day! 

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This Weekend's Garage Sale Finds

I had such a fun time checking out garage sales this weekend! Since I don't have summer school on Fridays I was able to get started Friday morning after my homebound tutoring session, which only lasted an hour since my student fell asleep - poor girl, am I really that boring?! :)

At one of the first sales I stopped at I found a ton of clothes. I didn't notice this until I got home, but I think we have more in common than the same size...ha! That's a LOT of pink :)

So, from left to right. Victoria's Secret bathing suit (NEW) - $1, gray Old Navy pants - $1, pink target jacket - $2, NEW with tags pink Express long sleeve shirt - $1, light pink Juicy Couture shirt - $1, pink Old Navy t-shirt - $1, Old Navy pink tank top with sequins NEW with tags - 50 cents, white with ruffles Old Navy tank - 50 cents, Jones New York pink sweater - $2, white target open cardigan NEW with tags- $2

And then I also found these picture frames. They're new and only were $2 each.

Saturday was another GREAT garage sale day. I went with my mother-in-law in Elmhurst area - there was three church sales going on and garage sales all over. We were doing great and found something at almost every place we went too!

Orange shirt - $1, Black express shirt NEW with tags (for $29.99) - $1, Limited dress pants - $5, Banana Republic brown sweater - $2, Banana Republic black beaded sweater- $2. Soooo I love Banana Republic and have a lot of their clothes...never actually bought anything from the store though. :)

 

And I'm quite excited about this one. I've never seen this model, and I guess it might be cool because it looks like it does a lot, but it's similar to one I had when I was little. We used it on apple and it peels off the skin in a long skinny strip and then the apple slices are curly - like a slinky! Have anyone else used this or something like it before?

 

And finally - this rechargeable vacuum - an Electrolux Pronto 2 in 1 for FIVE DOLLARS! I had used this before while babysitting and it was sweet because it's cordless and so small and lightweight. We have a vacuum, but I figure it's good to have a backup or just something to use in-between regular cleanings (ha - who am I kidding - I don't have regular vacuuming days). But for a quick deal it will be great. I didn't realize this was just a great deal, but then I checked online...they are selling for about $95!!

So, did you have good luck at any garage sales this week? I'd love to hear about it!

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We've been married a year!!!

Today is our one year wedding anniversary. It's so crazy to me to think that a year ago today was our wedding! I loved our wedding and love being married even more. My husband is the best! (Really, he is - sorry ladies, he's mine!!)

 

 We stopped to take a couple anniversary pictures on our way home from the Cheesecake Factory. Kevin took the day off work so we've just been hanging out together which is so nice.

Check out our wedding slideshow below. My friend Charlee is singing! My favorite pictures are at the end, so if you don't want to watch the whole thing, at least skip to the middle-end :)

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Engagement Pictures - Lindsey and Ryan

(I'm still on vaca in California, but just couldn't wait to share these with you! And wanted to make sure you'd hear at least one post from me while I'm gone! Enjoy!!)

So I told you all that I took some pictures of my sister-in-law Lindsey and her fiance, Ryan the day after their engagement. (Remember I made that sweet cake for them) And I don't know if you want to see them...but I want to show them off, so here's a few :)

 

 

 

  Aren't they adorable?! I am so looking forward to their wedding - August of 2013 here we come!! :)

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California Day 1 - San Fran

CALIFORNIA - here we come!!!

We left this morning. Early this morning. Like 5:00 AM...which is 2:00 AM California time...YIKES!
And it was lil sis's first time flying! She did great - really didn't seem to care one way or the other! I just love flying, I mean seriously - look at this view!!!

We arrived in Sacramento this afternoon. My sissy Heather picked us up and we got to see her for like 30 minutes and then she was busy with church stuff the rest of the day... And they had a banquet for the parents...but sisters weren't invited. Tomorrow's her graduation and they we get her for the rest of the week! :)

So, my lil sis, Kayla, and I went with my grandparents to San Francisco for the night. It was a bit of a drive, about two hours, but not a bad one! Look at the flowers all along the highway!

San Francisco was awesome. I was seriously freaking out driving up those crazy steep hills (and I wasn't even driving - my Grandpa was)! Also the trolley cars - so cute! It took us a while to find it, but we finally saw the golden gate bridge. (I had to convince my grandparents and lil sis that it wasn't the gray one we crossed over on first!) It was really foggy but that only added to the beauty.

(This picture is unedited -beautiful isn't it?!)

I wasn't planning on blogging...but everyone went to sleep so early! So, who knows I might continue throughout this trip, or you might have to wait until next week to hear more about Cali, but no worries, either way - you'll hear about it! (Oh, and I've been using my new camera bag - had a little photo shoot of me modeling it - love my bag!)

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DIY Camera Bag - no sewing!

I have been wanting a camera bag/purse for about a year now, so I finally made my own DIY camera bag purse! I bought foam and fabric a year ago but didn't get any farther on the project. Finally, I decided to buy one last week, but when I went to check out, shipping bumped the price just over $100. While I was ready to pay $89, $102 just seemed a little steep!

So, I finally decided - why not, let's see what I can do! And I'm glad I did - I love how my camera bag turned out!

 

My quick and easy way involving very little measuring and NO SEWING! That's right, I used hot glue to "sew" the fabric. So, here's the materials I started with:

(note: I used 1 inch foam, but it probably doesn't need it to be quite that thick...however, I just wanted to make sure my camera would be extra safe!!)

I pretended like I was wrapping a present around the foam pieces and used hot glue to keep the fabric in place. I did one skinny long piece for the bottom of the purse, two long side pieces, two short side pieces, and one small middle piece.

I hot glued the long side pieces to the bottom pieces.

 

And I simply placed the short side pieces of foam on the sides of the piece. They stay in place just fine that way.

You can see I stuck a strip of velcro (soft side) on the middle of the long side sections. This is so I can adjust the middle piece - which has the hard velcro on the sides) to wherever I want. I could also add more of these if I ever saw the need for it, but for now I'm good.

And Ta-Da! Here's my camera placed safely in its new camera bag/purse! She loves it and is wondering why it took me to long to make her such a nice home! If you have ever thought about making your own camera bag - stop thinking and just do it! :) And use hot glue if you are not a sewing person. Honestly, once it's in the bag, you can't tell!

Seriously, this took me about an hour while watching TV. I don't know why I waited so long to do it - and am so glad I didn't spend $102 on one! I'm so happy with how it turned out.

And stay tuned - later this week I'll show you some engagement pictures I took with this baby (the camera, not the bag, in case there was any confusion there)!

UPDATE: Here I am in California modeling my new camera bag! Ready to get some good pictures this week! :)

  

And my sister was having fun snapping pictures...so here's a couple more un-posed ones!

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