Chalkboard Pantry Doors

Have you ever finished a quick and easy project, and completely underestimated the significance it would have once it was finished?

Meet my 'updated' pantry doors.

I don't have a before photo (I know, bad blogger), but just imagine the doors all the same nice wooden color as it is below.

I wanted to utilize these doors to house my weekly menu plan and never-ending grocery list. But, I knew that I didn't want to paint over the doors with any sort of chalkboard paint that I couldn't eventually remove.

As luck would have it, while browsing the back-to-school clearance at Target, I found a role of chalkboard contact paper for 72 cents.  Yep, back up and rewind. You read that right:  72 cents.

I don't have a photo of the box to tell you what kind it is, but just search for chalkboard contact paper on amazon - lots of options pop up.

I left it blank for for quite a while (actually I wrote in 'Groceries' and 'Weekly Menu'), and then of course I decided I needed to spruce it up with my trusty Silhouette.  I think the words took like a quarter sheet of vinyl, which probably cost about another 72 cents.

I might be exaggerating just a little, but for a project that cost less than $1.50, it has been sorta life-changing.  Ok, maybe not life changing...but it has definitely increased my organization...and my sanity. ;)

Each week, I fill out my menu plan while consulting my trusty family's schedule on my Erin Condren planner.  (On a side note:  seriously, if you don't have one of these things, you are MISSING OUT. Love, love, love my EC Planner!!)

Now if i can just teach my four-year-old to read, and that way she'll stop asking me, "What are we having for dinner tonight?".  Ha-Mothers everywhere are laughing at me now.

As for my grocery list, I love having a running list right there in the busiest part of the kitchen, that way I (my hubby) have no excuse not to write something down when we run out of something. Then when I am headed to the grocery store, I can just snap a photo of the list with my phone and head out the door.

Wow - you can really tell the menu plan gets used the most - huh?

No matter how hard I tried - I couldn't get it 'clean'.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Oh and does anyone else notice my M&M stash on top of the pantry!?

That hallway on right heads straight to the garage - so I see my grocery list every time I walk out the door to leave.  

See - a small project can really make a big difference!  

Anyone out there have a similar experience?  

Now onto organizing the junk drawer... :)

Linking up to:  Sugar Bee Crafts: Take A Look Tuesday, A Bowl Full of Lemons: One Project At A Time, Wait Til Your Father Gets Home:  Creative Connection, Mama's Got It Together: Pin It Party.

Personalized Fleece Tie Blanket + 'Chemo Survival Kit'

Wow. It is March already. It's cliche, but time really does fly. Seems like you plan to do something (aka blog) and then life gets in the way and you don't get it done. And honestly, since this little blog of mine is just for fun, it isn't even in my top five in terms of priorities, so it most often gets shoved to the back burner. And that is completely fine. 

In January, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She's already a more than 30-year survivor of Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue.  Her prognosis is good, but if you are the praying type, prayers are MUCH appreciated. 

Me and my momma.  Isn't she beautiful?!

Most of you don't know me, but for those out there that do, you know that I am a 'do-er'. I never sit still and I am always multi-tasking.  Ask my hubby - I can't even watch TV without working on something else - which is why I can't keep up with what is going on in our favorite shows. I always have to keep busy, especially during times of stress. It is a control thing - when I am in 'control' of even the smallest things, I feel better. 

So, when my mom was diagnosed, I went into crazy 'do-er' mode, trying to help plan meals, rides, etc....anything I could do to make her life easier.  One of my good friends, Courtney, is also a breast cancer survivor, and I enlisted her help in thinking of all the things my mom might need as she started chemotherapy. She listed off some great ideas, but in the back of my mind, I just wanted to do something more, something personal.  

I really wanted to make her a blanket. Ever since I can remember, my mom has always been cold. It can be 90 degrees outside and my mom will want a blanket over her legs outside.  So, I thought she might enjoy a blanket she can take with her to chemo. 

Isn't it cute?  Definitely bright & cheery!

I just did the typical fleece tie blanket (if you don't know how - there are tons of tutorials online - just Google it). I've made literally dozens of these for my family and friends over the years.  

I like to make them really long (3 yards) so you have plenty of blanket at the bottom to tuck underneath your toes. :)

It is really long....it's folded several times in this photo.

It is bright and cheery, but also practical. But I still wanted it to be more.  

So...with my trusty Silhouette, I decided it would be neat to have the signatures of all of her immediate family members on the blanket so she would always have the six of us with her at all times during her treatment. 

I had each person sign a sheet of paper - my Dad, my brother, my hubby, and my daughter, who also signed my 18-month old son's name.  I scanned that sheet into the computer and traced it in the silhouette software. I thin printed it out on white heat transfer vinyl and adhered to the blanket. 

This is the result:

I put it at the top of the blanket so it would be closest to her heart. 

It might be cheesy - but I think my mom was pretty happy about it. 

In addition to the blanket, I made her a 'chemo survival kit', filled with items she might need during those visits.  I put these all in one of those awesome Thirty-One bags with all the pockets. 

• Chapstick
• Hard candy
• Cough drops
• Hand sanitizer
• Hand lotion
• Blank thank you notes
• Pen and paper
• Journal
• Photo of her family
• Bottled water
• Crackers

In the bag, she can also include a book and magazines, even her computer. 

No I am not endorsed by Thirty-One, I just really like their bags. :)

Any cancer survivors or caregivers out there?  What items were helpful to you during your treatment? Mom has just one chemo treatment down and many to go, so I'd love to hear what was important to you during that time!


Linking up to:  Sugar Bee Crafts: Take A Look Tuesday, A Bowl Full of Lemons: One Project At A Time, Skip to My Lou: Made By You Monday, Scattered Thoughts of A Crafty Mom:  Inspiration Monday, That's What Che Said: Monday Funday, Wait Til Your Father Gets Home: Creative Connection, Mama's Got It Together: Pin It Party.

Valentine LOVE Shirt

I love my Silhouette for many reasons, but one of the reasons I love it the most is being able to make something when I can't find exactly what I want in the store....which leads me to today's post.

My DIY Love Valentine shirt. 

I didn't like any of the Valentine's Day shirts for little girls at our local mass retailer.  But, they did have blank white shirts that would be perfectly paired with some red vinyl.  ;)

So, I literally took five minutes, a cute font and one of this week's free shapes from Miss Kate'sCuttables and came up with this:

Heat Transfer Vinyl is super easy to use.  Just make your design in Silhouette Studio. Be sure to place the heat transfer vinyl shiny side down on your cutting mat and then mirror your image before you print. Then weed the design once it is printed. 

Then center the design on the shirt, iron and you are done!  So simple!

And this 4-year-old LOVED IT!  :)

 Happy Valentine's Day!

DIY KC Royals Tshirt

Here in Kansas, we not only bleed K-State Purple, but also Royals Blue. We are big KC Royals fans...which is often tough because they haven't won the World Series since 1985...the year after I was born. Tough as sometimes is to be a Royals fan, we try to make it to the 'K' to watch at least one or two games a year. 

With the possibility of the Royals making it to the playoffs for the first time since 1985, the family and I bought tickets to today's game - the last home game of the season. 

Joe, Luke and I all had Royals shirts we could wear to the game, but Hannah did not, so I thought I would see if I could whip something up for her to wear to the game with my trusty Silhouette. 

I found a blank t-shirt at Wal-Mart on clearance for $2 (Score!!) that was the PERFECT Royals Blue. 

I googled and found a Royals logo, and then converted the JPEG into a PNG in Adobe Photoshop in order to input it into the Silhouette software.  I then opened it up and traced it in the Silhouette software.

It took a little while to erase some of the extra 'lines' that showed up and fill in a few spots with the pencil, but it was relatively easy overall.

When using Heat Transfer Vinyl, it is important that you 'mirror' your image (Right Click + Flip Horizontally).  Otherwise, when you place it against your shirt it will be the wrong direction. It will look backwards when it cuts put will read correctly when finished.

Learning from the first time I used HTV, I was sure to put the HTV shiny side down on my cutting mat. I used the existing HTV settings in the Silhouette software and let 'er rip.

Note:  When cutting small pieces of Vinyl (Adhesive or HTV), I normally use some painter's tape to keep it in place. it works like a charm and doesn't damage the vinyl.  

The HTV cut just perfectly and was really easy to weed with the little Silhouette tool that came with my vinyl starter kit. It's just my opinion, but HTV seems a lot easier to weed than regular adhesive vinyl.  

Here's how it looked all weeded and ready to place on the shirt. 

I just eye-balled it to center it on the t-shirt, laying it with the shiny side up. 

I used a regular iron to adhere the HTV to the shirt. That's one thing I love about the Silhouette - I don't need some fancy heat press to make personal t-shirts; I just use my regular iron and it works great! 

I use the iron on medium-high heat and place one of those 'flour sack towels' in between the vinyl and the t-shirt. I think I pressed it for about 60 seconds or maybe a little longer. Be sure to get all of the corners and intricate details of the design with the iron or it will start to peel on the edges (I know this from experience). 

And here is the happy little girl with her shirt!  She was so excited!

GO ROYALS!!

Linking up to:  Sugar Bee Craft's Take-A-Look Tuesday and A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project At A Time.

First Birthday Uno Shirt

I've talked a little about my love for my Silhouette Cameo in previous posts. Seriously, I love this thing more every time that I use it.  And just when I think I have found the latest and greatest thing I can do with it, I find a new project on a blog...or bring my own idea to life...and I come to love it even more. :)

My little man turned one this past month.  And I had so much fun (ie Pinterest) planning and creating for his big day! 

Isn't he cute?!

I hope to detail his party in a future post, but for now I wanted to share the fun shirt I made for his first birthday photos! 

I had seen a post on Pinterest (of course) of a little boy eating his first birthday smash cake in a shirt that said 'Uno' on it. I thought it was adorable and immediately pinned it, knowing that I wanted to make one for Luke.  Though instead of using it during a smash cake session, I thought it would be neat to give him a deck of Uno cards to play with. 

I found a black shirt at Walmart (Garanimals brand I think - only $3 bucks) and ordered some heat transfer vinyl in red. It was my first time using the stripflock HTV (and actually only the second time using HTV. The first was for another First Birthday shirt - see photo above). Super easy to use - I am just not sure I love the texture of it. I'll probably stick with regular HTV next time. 

I found a good tutorial here. One thing to note, remember to load your HTV SHINY SIDE DOWN.  She mentions it several times...but did I remember? NO. Had to cut it a second time.  Man, I hate wasting vinyl! 

Anywho, it cut perfectly and ironed on perfectly and I ended up with this:

(My photography is awful and this looks kinda wonky. The photo doesn't do it justice...it really is super cute!)

And here are some shots from his session with our amazing photographer Kayla at Capture! 

I just love my silly little guy! 


Linking up to:  Sugar Bee Craft's Take-A-Look Tuesday and A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project At A Time.

IKEA Recycling Bins (& Silhouette Vinyl Labels)

Earlier this spring, the hubs and I drove to Denver for a little mini-vacation to celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary.  Plans included a Rockies Game, Zac Brown Band at Red Rocks (bucket list item), sampling local brews, visiting some family and friends...and a trip to IKEA! 

(Us at a Red Rocks. It was rainy and freezing outside!)

I'd dreamed of amazing trips to IKEA ever since I started following the blog I Heart Organizing three years ago. We made a quick stop back in January 2012 while watching our K-State Wildcats play in the Cotton Bowl down in Dallas, TX. I bought a few things but we couldn't fit much in my little Chevy Malibu car. 

Flash forward to 2013 and our trip to Denver in my Acadia...an SUV that could hold plenty of purchases...

(I could have fit a lot more in the car!)

I didn't go CRAZY, but I did purchase a few things to help us get organized at the new house. One of the things I was most excited about getting was the Sortera Recycling Boxes. I'm having trouble finding them on their website - I think they may have been discontinued. :(

Here in rural Kansas we just have monthly recycling drop-off, so we have to keep a month's worth built up in our garage. I put them to use right away, and they worked great to keep everything organized and sorted, but they needed a little something to make sure they stayed organized and served their purpose.

Insert my silhouette.  :)   

I used some pretty green vinyl that came with my Silhouette Cameo Vinyl Starter Kit.  I used a recycling symbol I had used on a previous design project and quickly whipped up this:

Labels always make things better!  See! Even the garage can be beautiful! :)

Personalized Wedding Tile

I've had my Silhouette Cameo since before Christmastime...Black Friday to be exact. I have to admit I didn't even use it for about three months. THREE MONTHS.  Some of my Silhouette Group friends on Facebook would cringe upon hearing that.  

The machine was supposed to be able to do all these cool things, but I was just too nervous - it was kind of intimidating. When I finally got up the courage to use it, I cut a few things and then let it sit there collecting dust for a little while again. However, since May, I have used it for quite a few things (both personal and gifts) and finally feel like I am getting the hang of it. 

Last month I made this tile for my in-laws for their wedding anniversary.

I thought it was nice and classy, and the perfect way to branch out from really only using the Cameo to cut cardstock.  

Well, the in-laws LOVED it.  And they couldn't believe that I had made it myself. And on top of that, they wanted me to make one for a gift for a wedding they are attending in September. I happily agreed, as I would love to someday have a small side business and make personalized gifts like this. Gotta start somewhere, right?

So, here's what I came up with for the future bride and groom.

I learned something new after attempting to cut the image on the above left.  I either cannot figure out how to cut such intricate details with the Cameo or my machine cannot cut them at all.  That is still up in the air. My guess is user error.  ;)

Let's just say the vinyl was pulled off the tile as quickly as it was put on there.  Weeding the vinyl was awful and there were a ton of air bubbles. It was a hot mess. So I scrapped it.  I hate wasting vinyl, so I better learn all the tricks to this machine quickly.

After a little research online, I applied an offset and re-cut.  This time it came out much better.

Sorry - I didn't get a photo of the cut vinyl pre-transfer tape. 

A little more intricate and detailed than the one for my in-laws. I love the Regal font because it comes with all of those flourishes around the letter.

 

These tiles can be found at any local hardware/building supply store, and make a nice, personalized gift for any couple. 

So, there ya go. My first 'job' making something on the Cameo!  What do ya think?