Star Wars Tic Tac Toe Drinking Game

I spent several days searching for images that I liked and thought were perfect for creating this game set.  (Believe it or not I did begin this project before the untimely death of the beloved Princess Leia.) I love the look of the double light saber for the board face and the mash up of the rebel and alliance symbols was perfect for the center space.

 

Then of course you have to have the original and iconic characters of Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker.  Although I did give thought to other characters like Storm Troopers vs. C3PO or something but I'm not familiar enough with the story lines for that.  I even gave thought to the different ships that are used by each side but I didn't think that would be as fun.  Or perhaps as recognizable as these two iconic characters.

 

 

I also settled on the round playing board because it is Star Wars and because some of the symbols and ships and such are round in nature.  I just thought it would work.  Plus it makes it stand out more since most of the game boards are square.

 

To make this set a glass cutting board that's about 7.75" in diameter and three sets of dessert glasses - all from Dollar Tree.  As always the vinyl design was cut from Oracle 651 vinyl.

Love You Onesie

My husband surprised me with a heat press for Christmas!!!  I've only been wanting one for over a year and dropped quite a few hints last year.  I guess it's best that he waited because we had a new sewing store come in to town and we were able to learn more about the difference in heat presses so we could make a more informed decision about which one to buy.

 

When all was said and done I had my eye on a digital clamshell press (I've seen this model go by different names when I looked it up on the net.  And we bought ours locally - for a little less - but this link will at least give you needed information.)  This model has a digital read out for the temperature and the press time, a 15 x 15 inch heated platen surface and an over the center pressure adjustment to allow for a smoother more evenly distributed pressure, etc.

 

 

Since I didn't realize I was getting this jewel for Christmas and since hubby wasn't sure what designs I'd be making there was no HTV in the house to play with.  Except, some of the inexpensive Cricut iron-on material I used for t-shirt I made my son over a year ago (which peeled up).  But since were playing with a first press we thought what the heck it's not like we'd be losing anything.

 

The vinyl was red and I thought it would be perfect for a Valentine's Day kinda project so I turned to the Silhouette Design Store and found this cute I Love You Teddy Bear file by Jamie Koay.  Not only is it perfect for Valentine's Day but it's also perfect for anytime so I did buy the commercial license because I see other onesie's in my future.  😉

Java Jingle

Didn't I say no more Christmas cards?  I mean, I guess this one could be a "winter" card.  After all who doesn't love a good cup of coffee - especially when it's cold outside.  This particular card would be perfect card slip a gift card in for Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or whatever local coffee shop is in your area.

The card is from the SVG Cuts file titled Christmas Cheer.  There are several shaped Christmas cards in this file and while I've made one or two, I can't wait to make some of the others. 

To create this card I decided to run the coffee sleeve shape through my paper crimper to give a bit of texture and 'realism' to the card.  I also used a soft, silver glitter paper for the snowflake to help it stand out a bit more.  I also cut an extra peppermint swirl to use on the inside of the card along with the sentiment.

Speaking of sentiments, this one is from the stamp set Winter Wonderland by My Craft Spot.  I just hate that they are no longer doing business.  But we still have a lot of other great stamp companies out there so that's a plus.

 

And now I'm off to enter my card into the Cut it Up Holiday Shape Cards Challenge (which ends at noon today - talk about last minute 😉 )

 

I hope that you've enjoyed today's card as much as I enjoyed piecing it together.  But seriously this is the last Christmas card - until next July....

 

 

Sippy Cups

My daughter loves wine.  So I thought I'd take a set of the stemless wine glasses from the Dollar Tree and 'dress them up' as part of a Christmas present.  And I gotta tell you that these wine glasses are a sturdier glass than I thought they'd be.  So much so that I had to go back for a couple more - just to have on hand.

 

For my daughter's set though I decided to put the phrases Mommy's sippy cup and Daddy's sippy cup on each of the glasses.  I've seen a lot of nice phrases being done in a thick script type font so I turned to dafont dot com in search of one that I liked.  After looking at several I settled on the Bromello script.  The beauty of this one is that it is free for personal and commercial use.

 

When my daughter opened her gift she was pretty pleased and was sure to let me know that I did well since the stemless wine glasses are her favorite. 

 

Go me!

Checking the List

Happy Friday everyone.  There are two crafting days left before Christmas (if you count today) and I am almost ready.  How about you?  Are you ready?

 

Last Friday I told you I was sharing my last Christmas card of the season but I was wrong.  I squeaked out one more Christmas card for today's Cardz TV Anything Goes Challenge #7.   For my card today I used the Just Elfing Around file from Marjorie Ann Designs. 

 

Instead of using all the traditional red, green and white colors for her outfit I decided to do something a bit different and I used shades of grey.  I thought the grey and white snowflake print along with the light green for the hat went well together and gave her a beautiful touch.

 

For the bells on the toes of her shoes I opted for green gems and then finished off the card with a Grinch Green colored skittle from DoubleClick Connections.

 

The stamped sentiment on my card is from the Merry Everything stamp set from Cardz TV Stamps.

 

And now that you have seen my take on this week's challenge, be sure to create your own project, link up and play along with us.  Remember Anything Goes!

Baby on Board

My youngest daughter gave birth to her first child five months ago.  She and her boyfriend are both surfers so when I saw this Baby on Board design over at Apex Cuttables I immediately knew it would be perfect for making a car decal.

 

Using my Oracle 651 glossy I cut this decal at 6 inches long.  Before applying to the back window I made sure to clean it really well and then stuck it on.  I've used this vinyl for my car decals and have ones that have been on my car for three years now without any sign of color fading or vinyl cracking.

 

Needless to say my daughter loved her new decal.

Christmas Story Mugs

I have another set of coffee mugs I'd like to share with you today.  These I made after finding a picture during a google search. 

 

Unlike most of you I have not seen The Christmas Story.  At least not all the way through from beginning to end.  I've seen a couple of scenes like the one where he gets his tongue stuck to the flag pole and the one where Christmas dinner is ruined because the dogs get to it.  But I think those are the only ones I've seen.

 

Still I know that this is a Christmas classic and this phrase is somewhat iconic.  So I thought why not make a set of these mugs to give as a gift.....

Red Truck Ornament

Five more days until Christmas.  Four for crafting, and I am feeling the pinch.  I don't have all my presents made or purchased.  It's just been a crazy, busy, chaotic past few months.  But I'm getting there.

 

Today I'd like to share a Christmas ornament I made.  It seems that the latest trend is the vintage red truck - AND - YES - I jumped on the bandwagon.  I saw this Christmas Truck file over at Apex Cuttables and just had to sit down and play with it.

 

This ornament I did differently than all my others.  I didn't think that the glitter technique was right for showing off this fun, memory making truck.  So instead, I decided to fill the ornament with miniature Styrofoam balls, or foam pebbles.  This is the same 2 inch, flat disc ornament that I have used for the majority of my ornament making this year.  I find that they are much easier to work with than the round ball shapes.

 

If you haven't finished your gift making yet, these would make great little gifts to give to friends, family, teachers or other service providers you frequent.  Just add their family name and year on the reverse side of the ornament and it's personalized and ready to go. 
 

Quidditch Tic Tac Drink

You may or may not have noticed by now but Dollar Tree has become one of my best friends.  Well, today's project is yet another creation using Dollar Tree items and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  I spent a couple months trying to find these dessert glasses and finally scored several sets with the help of my daughter.

 

Using three sets of the desert glasses and one square cutting board I made my first ever tic-tac-toe drinking game.  Now I've seen these all over with regular shot glasses marked with x's and o's but why not add some fun to it and create a themed game board?  So I decided to make my first set a Quidditch theme board.

 

For the glasses I chose to use a Golden Snitch and a set of the goal rings as my x's and o's.   To create the game board I chose to use an elder wand that I placed in the proper design and then welded the wands together to create one cut rather than having layers.  For the center of the board I used the harry potter hair and glasses clip art.

 

All designs were cut from Oracle 651 glossy vinyl and then adhered to the glasses and board.  Note that when cutting the file for the game board to reverse the image since the design is applied from the underside of the glass.

 

As for the rules of the game, I admit I had to 'look them up':

 

The players take turns placing shot glasses on the board until one of them gets three in a row, column or diagonal - just like traditional tic-tac-toe. The loser must drink all of his shots on the board. If the board fills up with shot glasses and neither player wins, then it is a tie (also known as a "cat" game). In this case, both players down one of their shots.  REMEMBER to play responsibly.

 

I think I might try a Star Wars theme for my next board.  Maybe a Superhero one even.  Hmmmmmm, decisions, decisions.

Just Chillin'

It's Friday!  And now only eight days until Christmas.  YIKES!!

 

Today I want to share with you what will most likely be my last Christmas card for the season.  (And we all know what season comes next.  That's right......Valentine's. 😍 )

 

For today's card I used the Holiday Penguins from Marjorie Ann Designs.  These little guys are always so cute and they're easy to piece together.  For this little guy I opted for a pre-embossed paper for the hat and stocking.  Then for the stocking I chose a glitter paper to a bit more texture.

 

The stamped sentiment on my card is from the Just Chillin' stamp set by Cardz TV Stamps.

Meowy Christmas

Happy Thursday everyone!  If you're doing the Christmas countdown there's only 10 days left!  Are you ready?  I am but I'm still crafting too.  There are just too many great designs screaming to be made into gifts.  For example this Meow Christmas file from Apex Cuttable Designs screamed at me to be made into coffee mugs for my son and his girlfriend.

 

Is this not one of the most adorable things you've seen?  I mean it's perfect for a cat lover! 

 

So here's what I did.  I started with a stoneware mug from the Dollar Tree.  Then I cut my design from Oracle 651 vinyl (I buy mine from the Vinyl Spectrum) and adhered it to the mug.  Yep, it was that simple.  Now the thing is these mugs have to be hand washed because the heat from a dishwasher could cause the vinyl to lift and or wrinkle/shrink.

 

I can't wait to give them these mugs.  I know that they are going to love them.  In the meantime, I have more Christmas gifts to get made so be sure to stop back by and see what I'm crafting up.

Joker Tissue Box Cover

Today I'm sharing another of my plastic canvas creations.  I've been having a lot of fun making the various DC Comic character tissue box covers and this one was no exception. 

 

After making a couple of the 'heroes' I decided it was time to add a villain or two into the mix and thought the Joker would be a great start.

 

Like my other hero tissue box covers, this pattern is from the DC Comics Super Heroes pattern leaflet - #1779.  It was published back in 1997 so it's out of print, and like all other plastic canvas patterns and kits I've drooled over lately can be costly for that reason. 

 

While plastic canvas is not as popular a craft like it used to be I still enjoy it.  And I could kick myself in the tail end every time I think about the multitude of patterns and things I got rid of over the years.   Oh well, live and learn, right? 

Santa's Tie

I have a fun card I'd like to share with you today.  When I saw this design - Santa Claus Tie - over at Apex Cuttable Designs I knew it would be perfect for a card and I was right. 

 

I decided to cut my tie using a sheet from the DCWV Holiday Glitzy Glitter mat stack.  The white piece of the tie I ran through my embossing machine to add even more texture.  I had thought about adding glitter or flocking to the white but then thought that might detract from the red glitter of the tie and stuck to the embossing as an accent.  After piecing the tie together I added it to a pre-embossed card blank, also from DCWV.

 

The stamped sentiment is from the Naughty or Nice stamp set by My Craft Spot.  Sadly, they are no longer doing business.

 

And now this card is on its way to my I Run 4 Buddy.  I know he's going to love it.

Christmas Owl

Today begins challenge #6 for the Cardz TV Anything Goes Design Team.  That means you can make anything and play along with us.  The challenge goes for two weeks, closing at noon on December 22nd.  Up for grabs is a set of Cardz TV Stamps and a set of Cardz TV Die Cuts.

 

For my project I made this cute Christmas owl card.  I had a couple of these foiled snowflake card blanks left in my stash and thought it'd be fun to combine this owl with the blank.  The owl is from the Happy Owlidays file from Marjorie Ann Designs.  This particular owl was supposed to be holding a candy cane but I didn't like the way mine looked so I swapped it out with this fun gift bag "sticker" in my stash.

 

The stamped sentiment is from the Merry Everything stamp set from Cardz TV Stamps.  And now that you've seen my project for this challenge be sure to check out the other amazing designs our team has created for you.  Then create your own project, link up and play along with us. 

 

I can't wait to see what you create.

Nightmare Before Coffee

Okay so sometimes I can be a real "geek".  This past year I've developed a love for both Harry Potter and Nightmare Before Christmas.  Not that everything around me has to be decorated in one or the other but I have found it very fun to craft items with these themes. 

 

Today I decided to create my own Nightmare Before Coffee mugs and to do so all I did was find some great fonts.  Both the verbiage and the Jack Skellington face are fonts that I found on dafont dot com.  The face is called Jack Skellingtonbats and the verbiage is called Burton's Nightmare.

 

After installing the fonts just open your software, type everything out and cut away.  It's just that easy!

Coffee Mugs - Pokemon Style

 

Have I told you yet that I have gone from a cutting board craze to a mug craze?  ::::SIGH:::: It's true.  My vinyl addiction just continues to grow as I go from one item to the next, and right now it's mugs.

 

Dollar Tree has all sorts of great stoneware mugs available in different colors and after being inspired by a post in one of my Facebook groups I jumped on the Pokémon band wagon.  Of course it doesn't hurt that several of my children grew up with and still play Pokémon games.

 

After finding all the colors available I sat down and began creating the files I needed for these faces.  Some of them weren't so bad and others gave me a bit of a fit.  Oh, and one I didn't have to create (Ghastly) because it was shared with me after I had shared some of mine.  Gotta love teamwork - especially in the crafting community.

 

 

I used Oracle 651 on all of my mugs.  This is the same vinyl that I used for all of the decals I've made and had on my car for years.  Someone asked me the other day about layering anything else over the vinyl and I told her no - I never had.  The trick though (okay not really a trick) is to hand wash the items.  I even washed one of the Squirtle mugs with a scrubber and the vinyl didn't peel.  Now I don't advise using a scrubber but I wanted to see what would happen since I've only used wash cloths.  So I can safely say that as long as you gently hand wash you won't have a problem.

Wonder Woman Tissue Box Cover

All right now.  Who doesn't love a little bit of Wonder Woman in their life?  I remember watching this TV show when  was younger and I have to admit that I don't recall missing a single episode.  For me Wonder Woman was just as awesome as watching the Bionic Woman or Six Million Dollar Man. 

 

Yep, I was that girl! 

 

While on vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday I knew that I would have plenty of time for crafting. So this year I decided to use that time for catching up on some of the plastic canvas projects I've been wanting to do.  And this year I settled on creating some of the DC Comic Marvel Heroes.

 

This particular pattern is from the DC Comics Super Heroes pattern leaflet - #1779.  It was published by Leisure Arts back in 1997 so you can only imagine some of the prices I saw for this pattern book while I was meandering through Ebay one day.  Some of the prices were as high as $40, and that's BEFORE shipping.  Fortunately I found it for less than half that price.

 

And so this is one of several TBC that I made over the holiday week.  Stay tuned as I have a couple others to share with you.

Elf Surveillance Cam

 

Happy Saturday everyone.  I am delighted to be your guest designer at Jaded Blossom Stamps today. Christmas is my favorite time of year to craft for and the past several months have been full of inspiration and fun.  In fact, one of today's projects that I have for you is based off a project from one of my FB groups.

 

As I'm sure many of you have noticed the Santa and Elf Cams have been a HUGE hit this year.  Another big hit again this year are the elves from Dollar Tree.  Last year I missed that craze but this year I jumped on the bandwagon. 

 

So for my first project, I made a couple of these fun Elf Cam gift sets using the elves and tins from the Dollar Tree.  My ornaments were made using the floor wax and glitter method.  If you've never made glitter ornaments before you can view a tutorial at the Ornament Girl here.

 

I also wanted to create a "report card" to go along with the set because after all what's the point of the Cam if the elf isn't going to report back to Santa?  For the report card I used the Elf Shoe Frame from the Silhouette store and stamps from the Elf Report Card by Jaded Blossom Stamps.

 

 

For my second project, I decided to combine my love for papercrafting with my love for plastic canvas.  I've had this kit of Toymaker Elves sitting in my stash for a while, and so I decided to take it with me on vacation and stitch these guys together.  I love how they turned out especially once I filled them with some peppermint bark.  The stamps that I used for these are the Winter Candies candy stamps from Jaded Blossom Stamps.

 

I hope that you've enjoyed the projects that I created to share with you today.  Thanks for stopping by, and many thanks to the wonderful team at Jaded Blossom for allowing me this opportunity to be a guest designer for all of you.

 

Have a safe and blessed and Christmas holiday season.

 

Harry Potter Book Ornaments

I wanted to try something a little different while making some new ornaments for our Christmas tree.  This year I decided to try these Harry Potter book ornaments.  They were very easy to make and Hobby Lobby had the needed ornament ball. 

 

 

 

Instead of using a red ribbon like was done in the tutorial I went with a color coordinating ribbon.  Sadly all I had in my stash were the thin ribbons, but that's okay since these are for me.

 

Now I just need to get my tree up since I'm behind the eight ball on that one.  Tradition has always been my birthday or Thanksgiving and I missed both of them this year.  But I will get it done this weekend.  😊

 

 

Grinchy Mugs

From lights to cutting boards and now mugs.  Not sure what I'm going to do when I run out of fun things to put vinyl on.  Of course I'm saving for a good heat press, but until then....

 

I have a couple more fun mugs to share with you.  This time they're Christmas mugs.  I found this wonderfully fun Christmas Grinch Hand file over at Cuttable Designs and thought it would work great on these mugs.  Now this file was originally created to have a monogram in the center of the ornament but I wanted a solid bulb so I released the compound path and filled it in.

 

I love how the colors of the vinyl pop against the white mug.  Someone is sure to love these fun mugs.

And now I'm off to enter this card into the following challenge:

Hiding in my Craft Room - Any Holiday - Ends December 3rd

Ginger Cookies

Today I have a quick and easy Christmas card to share with you.  This one features one of the adorable gingers you'll find in the Baking Fun Gingers set from Marjorie Ann Designs.  These little guys are always so much fun to piece together and those cute little faces are sure to bring a smile to everyone.

I know it doesn't show up very well in the picture, but I decided to keep this card plain and simple by using a pre-embossed card blank.  Sometimes cards are just better that way and it keeps the design from getting lost with all the background fanfare.

The stamped sentiment is from the Gingerbread Christmas stamp set by Cardz TV Stamps.

And now I'm off to enter this card into the following challenge:

Hiding in my Craft Room - Any Holiday - Ends December 3rd