Independence Day Plates using Vinyl {and a Silhouette America Promo Code!}

First I want to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to TWO of my younger sisters!  They were born on the same day, 3 years apart, and consider each other their best b-day present ever!  Happy Birthday, Amanda and Jennifer! I love you!

I recently contacted Silhouette America about becoming an affiliate with them.  I have had my Silhouette SD craft cutter for several years now and absolutely love it! I have made so many different things with it, from home décor to party decorations to kids’ school projects.  It is incredibly handy to have on hand. 

Silhouette made me a product affiliate.  This month they sent me a roll of their Strawberry colored premium vinyl to play around with and use to promote their products on my blog.  I have been racking my brain for awhile as to what I wanted to do with red vinyl.  Well, today I realized that the promo code they gave me for my readers to get 25% off their premium vinyl as well as a substantial discount on their craft cutters starts tomorrow!! 

So, this afternoon I realized I had to put the red vinyl to good use in a fast project!  Here is what I came up with!

I have this hutch from Ballard Designs that I absolutely love.  It’s a great place to keep bowls and platters and pitchers.  I try to change it up a little with the seasons and holidays.  I bought those blue plates at

My Mom’s Dresser

I have been wanting to do some blog posts but it just hasn’t been happening lately.  I feel like I am treading water these days and am constantly behind and trying to catch up.  My health isn’t great and I’ve been dragging lately energy-wise.  It stinks, but that is life for me, I guess.

Anyway, it is Saturday morning and I am in bed with my laptop and a headache.  So I thought maybe I could get a quick post up about my mom’s Christmas present.

You may remember THIS post where I asked for advice on what to do with this piece of antique furniture someone had put out for the trash.

Well, a few people threw some ideas out but I still didn’t really have a clue how to fix this thing.  I finally decided what I needed to do.  I wanted to leave some of that beautiful wood grain showing on the front but that door was sooooo thrashed and the top was bad too.  So, here is what I came up with:

The blue color does not read well in the photos but it was a really pretty greyish blue.  I created vinyl sticker stencils with my Silhouette for the door and the top.  I put them on and then painted over them and then removed them.  My parent’s last name starts with “E”, thus the monogram.

It took a lot of work to fix this thing.  I used regular wood filler to fill the corners on the top and all the places on the door.  On the door, the place where the hinges were attached were so worn down hinges couldn’t work there.  I tried filling those up with wood filler but when I went to sand it it all crumbled out.  SO I had to chip that out and then used an epoxy wood filler to fill those in.  After that I had to use a file to get them down to the right height for the hinges to fit in correctly.  Same with the little door pull hole. 

I sanded down the drawer fronts and top and then stained them.  After that I used a spray shellac to seal them and the inside of the dresser and drawers.  Remember, this had a very bad smell to it.  You can still smell it if you put your nose inside the drawers but the smell does not permeate the house, which is good.

I went for a chippy paint finish, done by chipping off paint with a putty knife.  Very easy was to distress.  I finished the piece with an antiquing glaze and a clear wax. 

Honestly, it think it looks AMAZING!  I wanted to keep it for me.  But my parents really like it, I think.  It looks great in their house. 

Here are some more pictures for you.

Had to cut a new shelf for this cubby. 

Lined the drawers with scrapbook paper.

What do you think?  I am amazed that something destined for the dump could look this good!

If you want to “pin” this I won’t be upset at all!

TIN STAR RE-DO {Craft}

Are you sick of my recipe posts yet?  I am!  It was time for me to get a craft done.  Here is a super easy, super fast re-do of an orange tin star I had laying around.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I simply spray painted the star white and added blue vinyl stars and red vinyl stripes.  I cut the stars with my Silhouette, but you could just use some cute stickers if you don’t have one.  I hand cut the stripes from a piece of red vinyl, but you could also just use some red tape which would be easier. 

Here is that hutch I was telling you about that my neighbor gave me.  Isn’t it cute?  I don’t have a lot of 4th of July decorations, but I am trying to get some things together to make it look cuter.  But this is how it is for now:

I want to paint this thing white and give it an old chippy finish.  Hopefully soon!!

LITTLE MAN STAMPED PAPER PLATES {Party}

I bought some white paper plates at the dollar store for my Little Man shower.  Today I saw much nicer plates at Wal-Mart for 97 cents.  So, I am MAD!  I can’t return them because I have already stamped mustaches onto the dinner plates and bowties onto the dessert plates.  I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

I traced a mustache onto a new foam sponge and then used an Xacto knife to cut around the shape.  Once I had cut down into the sponge around the mustache about 1/4”, I used some little trimming scissors to cut away the excess to create a raised stamp shape.

I mixed some of this black paste food coloring with a couple tablespoons or so of powdered sugar and a few drops of water.

I mixed mine on a dark brown plate since I was using black and didn’t want to risk dying one of my white plates.  I just experimented with the consistency until it seemed to work alright stamping it.  I originally tried to do just food coloring and water but it didn’t stick at all.  I also tried just some ink (not on this sponge) but it never got dry on the glossy surface of the plate.  The puddle of goo was about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch deep.

I simply pressed the sponge into the goo and then looked to make sure it all seemed well covered, then gently pressed it onto the plate.  Some of them turned out better than others.  But I think the effect if perfect!  Here is the bowtie.

Then I just set them aside to dry.  Once dry, I was able to stack them all up on each other again.  I am wondering how black people’s mouths are going to get from eating off these.  I will keep you posted on that!

SILHOUETTE CRAFT CUTTER TIP

So, I just figured out something new on my Silhouette program.  Did you know that you can save files to your library?  Maybe I am the only person who didn’t know this, but I didn’t!

I just realized that if you make an object, you can then go up to “FILE” and click “Save to Library” to save that image to your library!  For all this time I have been digging through my files to find the objects I have created in the past!  No More!!

Do you have any Silhouette tips you would like to share???