Etched Tumblers

My two year old grandson loves to watch the music video for "What does the fox say?".  It's so popular right now that I decided to etch a few plastic tumblers with this design.  I'll take them to the craft show in December.

The fox face is clip art and I used Antigoni Med font for the lettering.  The stencil was cut from Oracal 651 vinyl and I etched it with my blasting cabinet and glass beads.

A Quick Christmas Cake Carrier

I'll add a red and green tulle bow onto the carrying handle to dress it up a little bit more.  This came from the Dollar Tree so I'm thinking it's going to be a single use item, but it's cheaper than a holiday tin!

Motorcycle Frame For A Guy

This is my first floating frame vinyl project.  I used DomCasual ID font and a motorcycle clip art image found online.  This is a large frame--11" x 13".  It will make a nice gift for a guy who loves his bike.

I like that you can put your design on the bottom layer of glass and not have to reverse the images. It sure makes it simpler to assemble!

Labrador Silhouette Frame

The cat silhouette frame turned out so well that I made a frame with a Labrador dog too.  Using Make The Cut, I combined three clip art images found online.  I needed something more masculine for the craft show.  The only other masculine things I'll have are some mugs.

Cat Silhouette Frame

Of all things, a $39.00 night light that I saw in a catalog inspired this project.  The cat silhouette and tree branch are clip art images found online.  They were imported into Make The Cut software, resized and welded to create the silhouette.

The vinyl I used for the silhouette is matte finish and applied to the glass surface.  The background paper is by Pink Paisley.

I believe I'll put a soft, black bow centered on the top edge of the frame and leave the ribbon tails hanging down on either side.  That should finish this quick project up!

"Frozy Frame"

I've spent more time getting this frame done than any of my other vinyl projects.  The dimensions of the frame made it difficult for me to decide just what to do with it.  I thought the sentiment was cute and wracked my brain trying to come up with a layout for it.  This is why I don't design original pieces, it just takes me too long to put the pieces together. 

The icicles and snowflakes on the burlap background are cut from Mica Paper.  I etched snowflakes onto the surface of the glass with my blasting cabinet and added the sentiment on the inside of the glass.  The letters are cut from silver metallic vinyl with black shadows.

This photo was taken before I had completely assembled the frame.  The gold cords on the jingle bells were removed, of course!

Since the frame is stark white, I'll be adding a large bow around the outer edge.  It's still several weeks until the craft show so I'll wait to put bows on any of the items I'm taking so they won't get crushed.

Jingle Bell Frame

Some days everything you do just goes so smoothly, projects turn out just the way you want, everything cuts fine and your software never shuts down.  Then there are days like today.  ***sigh***

I decided since DH was out of the house, I'd make a shadow box frame with a vinyl saying and it is one of those days that nothing seemed to go right.  I fought with my vinyl lettering for about 2 hours before I realized  what was wrong and fixed the problem.

Silhouette America ran a sale on vinyl and I ordered eight rolls because of the price.  I hate that vinyl!  The backing won't stick to my cutting mat.  I still haven't found the right settings to get a kiss cut and it will not stick to my transfer paper well enough to pull the vinyl off the backing!  One positive thing about it is that it does weed quite easily as long as the shapes cut cleanly.

After working with the Silhouette vinyl for over an hour, I gave up and used my Oracal 651.  It cut like butter and went on easily.

The lettering didn't show up well in the photo so I added a black shadow to the silver lettering I like the way this frame turned out.  Hope someone likes it when I put it on display at the craft show too!

 The shadow was just what it needed for the silver to show up well.

Placing Designs On Charger Plates

After I posted the first few charger plates I'd made, I started getting questions on how I sized my designs for the center and how I was able to space the shapes on the outer edge.

The creator of Make The Cut software does a weekly webinar where he answers questions asked on the MTC forum.  Last year, one of the big questions was "how do I curve text to fit a circle".  Within his discussion and demonstration in the webinar was the suggestion to create a template for a charger plate.  That way you can see exactly what size your images need to be cut and where to place them on the plate.

I use this template:

I made three different colored circles.  One for the outer edge, one for the ridge around the center space and then one for the center.

Once I get all the shapes where I want them on the template, I'm ready to cut.

Doing a cut preview means I can zoom in and be certain all the shapes will cut the way I want.  Sometimes I'll overlook welding letters in a script font and have tiny cuts that I don't want. By doing the preview I have a chance to make any changes I need.

The next step is to group all the shapes closer together on the mat and get ready to cut them.  I cut all these from a single color so I just put them close together to save vinyl.  Once I've finished cutting, I close the file without saving it and reopen it to see how it looked originally so I know where to place the shapes.

This is how I place my cut outs on the plates.  I lay a ruler across the center of the plate.  Then place a second one perpendicularly to the first.  I mark four places on the outer edge of the plate with blue painter's tape for reference.

*** I am known as the "Glue Booger Queen" to my crafting friends.  You can see why by looking at my rulers in the photo.  There's adhesive smeared all over them!***

I placed a piece of white cardstock underneath the rulers so you can see that I lined up the vertical one on the 6 1/2" line of the horizontal ruler.  My plates are 13" in diameter so that's the middle.

Once you get these four points marked, it's simple to place markers in between for spacing your cuts on the outside edge of the plate.

This may not be the most efficient way of doing the plates, but it's a method that works for me. 

Grandma's House Charger Plate

Cornerstone is the font I chose for this charger plate.  I love how easy it is in Make The Cut to create a shadow layer for text!  So much easier than struggling like I used to while using a Cricut and Design Studio software!

This is a design that I made myself...I know, don't faint!  I didn't copy it from something I saw online!

Green and Gold Charger Plate

Lobster 1.4 font was used for the center sentiment.  The wheat is from the Silhouette store, file #50134. I modified it slightly in my software so it would fit well on the outer border of the plate.

Snow Tree Charger Plate

This morning I saw another charger plate that had the snow tree in the center on it.  It's from the Silhouette store.  It cuts cleanly, but getting the tiny swirled branched onto the transfer tape and then onto the plate was a little tricky.  Even after washing the plates sometimes the vinyl just doesn't want to stick down.

I added a couple of extra birds to the design and then dotted the swirls on the outer rim with red Stickles.  We're not supposed to use Stickles on our Operation Write Home cards any longer so I need to use them up!

Snowman Charger Plate

I wish I could remember where I got the snowman and the words used on this plate.  It may have been a file that was shared on the Make The Cut forum last year.  The original design had more intricate snowflakes on it; I changed them to a simpler one that would cut faster and be easier to weed.

***Edited:  Thanks to Lillie Charleston, I now know that the file was placed on the MTC board last year by Brianna.**** 

Danita Kinney messaged me and gave me the source for the original snowman   http://oodlesofdoodles26.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html

Celebrate The Season Charger

Gold metallic vinyl was used to cut these shapes from the Silhouette store.

Merry Christmas Charger

A quick tip on how I space the designs on the outer rim of the plate.  Using two clear rulers, I find the center of the plate.  Then, it's just a matter of placing pieces of blue painters tape around the outside edge where I want the images to be placed.  You can step back and take a look to be sure they'll be where you want them.

 
Files used are from the Silhouette store.  I added some self-adhesive red gems to this.  After I got it all assembled, it looked as if it needed a little bling.

I was asked which files were used from Silhouette.  The candy shape is #34362, the swirl is the bow from a jingle bell file # 13733 and the words were created by Barbara Adkins using three free fonts and point editing.  It was shared in a Facebook group on October 2, 2013.

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  Well, that, and I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas--but that's another story. ***and now that stupid song will be in my head all day!  Sigh!****

When I saw the center design in the Silhouette store I knew it would fit just perfectly on one of the charger plates I'm doing for a craft show.

Peace Love Hope Charger Plate

 

Gold metallic vinyl.  The design is from the Silhouette store.

 

Season's Greeting Charger

Since not everyone celebrates Christmas, I decided to make this charger.  The round frame with trees and the sentiment are from the Silhouette store.

Santa Face Charger

 

This is done in silver metallic vinyl.  It appears white in the photo.  The Santa face and candy canes are from the Silhouette store.  This may be my favorite charger plate that I've done, so far!

Jingle Bell Charger Plate

The font I used is Laurenscript, the jingle bells are from the Silhouette store and the candy canes were found online.

Everything looks matte in the photo but the charger is metallic red and the jingle bells are cut from gold metallic vinyl.

Peppermint Charger Plate

Another of Kat Schriber's ideas for charger plates.  The peppermint designs are from the Silhouette store.  The snowflakes are from a Cricut cartridge. 

Peace On Earth Charger Plate

Kat Schriber was kind enough to post photos of the charger plates she'd made to give some of us on the Old Cricut Community page some inspiration.  I thought the gold design on a green plate was really nice and so I pretty much copied hers.

The center design is from the Silhouette store.  I just added some swirls from a couple of Cricut cartridges around the outer edge.

The gold vinyl cuts differently than solid color vinyl.  I had to adjust my blade depth, etc. to get a decent kiss cut.  The first time I cut it, my Cameo cut right through the backing too.  I tried to salvage the design but it has thin cuts and they got wrinkled--which did not make me happy!  I don't like to waste materials.

Craft Show Display

I've committed to do a craft show in December and have been working on embellishing charger plates and glass cutting boards.  DH made two of these racks today to display them on the table top.

 

The majority of the cutting boards are finished and packed away.  Now I just need to get busy and get the chargers completed.  The craft show will be here before I know it!

Hair Stylist Frame

I adapted an idea shared by Tammy Kersey on a Silhouette Facebook page to do this frame for my friend, Leonna, who's also my hairdresser. 

Matching colors is a challenge for me so I was totally surprised when I took the frame to her shop and the glitter paper in the background was a perfect match for her wall color.

The silhouette and the word "Stylist" was flipped and applied to the back of the glass.  I applied her name onto the surface.

A few words on wine...

I enjoy a good glass of wine.  When we travel, we often look for regional vineyards or wineries to stop in and do a tasting.  Over the past few years, my taste in wine had changed and improved.  I can now appreciate a rich, grapey red with a nice grilled steak that a few years ago I wouldn't even have tasted.

It took some time to educate my head as well as my palette and move past only enjoying an overly sweet wine. I enjoy wine so much that I started a "wine group" that meets once a month.  Planning the meetings, setting the table and finding a wine for us all to taste is something I also enjoy doing.

Over the past 3-4 years, our group has enjoyed $50 bottles as well as $4 bottles.  Price doesn't always mean that the wine is something that you're going to like!  And, a screw cap bottle or even a box wine can be even better than the bottles with "real" corks.

When choosing a wine for the group to sample, I often make the name on the label (along with the price tag) the criteria for what I choose.  The funnier the name, the more likely I am to give it a try.

 I found this on a recent trip and had to buy it because the label and description are so funny.

"Somewhere near the cool shadows of the laundry room.. Past the litter box and between the plastic yard toys. This is your time. Time to enjoy a moment to yourself. A moment without the madness. The dishes can wait. Dinner be darned."

It's bottled by Mad Housewife Wine Cellars in Manteca, CA.

Unfortunately, I chilled it when we got home and decided to "sample" it myself. LOL!  So, the group will miss out on this one.

As far as a rating, on a scale of one to five stars I'd give it a solid three.  It's not overly sweet, but it lacks a distinctive grape flavor.  It's slightly acidic and tastes good chilled right out of the fridge. This is one I call a "sippin' wine".  One you enjoy by the glass while relaxing on the patio.  It's definitely not one I'd pair with food.  I'd put it, in terms of sweetness between a moscato and a chardonnay.

I have eight more wines to sample from our last trip.  DH picked a few out that he knew he's going to enjoy.  His tastes run more to Cabernets, Shiraz and Merlots.  And, while I can drink a small glass of those, they tend to be too dry and oaked for my taste.