Kimberly is Engaged!

About a month ago, Kimberly's boyfriend Chad asked us to help trick Kimberly so he could surprise her with a proposal. It was really sweet and she was super surprised! We were so glad to be a part of it. We had dinner plans together and secretly both of their families joined us. 

We had a wonderful time celebrating the happy couple!

When I knew that they were getting engaged I decided to get my craft on. Plus, it's summer and I have time to spare :) So I headed to Target and made this cute little box of bridal goodies. I got the box at Target and then used my Silhouette to cut a label for it to say "future Mrs. Hunter" ... it turned out awesome. 

Then I got 2 stemless wine glasses at Target also (their basic glassware is $1 each!) and etched them, one to say Mr. and one to say Mrs. We joked at dinner that in December when Chad graduates with his PhD I will have to make him one to say Dr. since it will be Dr & Mrs :) 

I also pulled out an extra one of these ring dishes that I made for gifts at Christmas and used the Silhouette to cut a silver ring to put in her ring dish!

And bought a bridal magazine and (not pictured) the diamond dazzle stick to polish her shiny rock!

Baby Shower for my Bestie

Christy and Jonathan are having a baby boy in July and we can't wait! Trey and I are very excited to be "aunt and uncle" and get to play with him, have lots of fun... and then hand him back to his parents at night :) 

We threw them a co-ed shower last weekend and it turned out great. Almost everyone invited was able to come and between this shower and one she had at work, they have been loaded up with almost everything they will need for the baby! 

Inspired by a diaper cake I saw on pinterest. The first "present" I ordered baby Connor was these adorable Chuck Taylors. In full disclosure, Christy was helping while we were prepping at her house for the shower, she started rolling diapers, then ended up assembling the entire cake! For her own shower! 

Cupcakes! Thankful that Jen Wilson came early to help me set up and decorate these! Otherwise we may have been eating cupcakes that were simply iced with a knife ;)

I ordered this print from etsy and had everyone sign one of the bubbles, it can then be framed for Connor's nursery

Also found on etsy, this candy guessing game. There were 270 M&Ms in the bottle, the winner guessed 281!

Made the banner myself with my awesome silhouette cameo, and Christy has been collecting her cards on the mantel for a while

One last "game" found on etsy, having guests write cute notes on the diapers

Then we had a competition, each person had to suck 2 ounces of beer out of the baby bottles, it is incredibly hard! 

And opening tons of presents:

The first baby :)

We didn't get a good picture together until after the shower when we were exhausted and gross!

Food & drinks!

Etched Glass DIY

I recently etched designs on to pint glasses and thought I would share my wisdom in doing it... a few mistakes I made that maybe you won't!

I bought Armour Etch from Michael's and used a foam paint brush to brush it on. 

I used pint glasses I found in Target for $1 each! 

And you need a stencil of some sort. I used my silhouette cameo to cut a dogfish and used the outside of the design as the stencil. Here's where lesson #1 comes in - leave a LOT of extra vinyl/sticker space on the outside to block runoff cream from the glass. 

Apply the vinyl/sticker to the glass wherever you want the design, make sure it is smooth and stuck down good. 

Use the foam paint brush to apply the etching cream nice and thick. 

Since the glasses are curved, it was going to run down the side in some manner, this is why you need a lot of extra vinyl around. The first time I attempted this I accidentally let it run off the sides while it was sitting there drying (that's what I get for doing too much at one time) and it also etched the glass in a different location... no good! 

The jar says to let the cream sit for 5 minutes, I let it sit for more like 10 minutes just to be safe. Then take it to the sink and use a wet washcloth to wipe off the excess cream. Then remove the sticker and voila! 

DIY Ring Dish

I was trying to come up with some cute gift ideas that I could use my silhouette cameo to make and came across this on pinterest. I figured that would be pretty easy!

So I ordered the "tasting bowls" by Libbey on Amazon prime and they were here in no time!

Then I had to get to designing in the silhouette studio. I went to dafont.com and downloaded KK monogram font for free to use. I designed them similarly to the post I got the idea from, but the curly monogram font didn't come out well when cut so small. Maybe I should have set it at a slower speed but the letters were so thin that they got picked up/torn, etc. So back to the drawing board I went. 

I did a couple of "plain" monograms, just the letters with cute fonts. Then I found a tutorial on pinterest for circle monograms using whatever font you want. I tried that, but with certain letters it just looked weird, so then I added my own circle around it (2 circles, one larger and one smaller). I was pretty satisfied with that so I cut the vinyl and put it in the dish using transfer paper!

DIY Holiday Glass Blocks

A couple of Christmases ago my sister-in-law painted glass blocks (she is a super talented artist) and filled them with Christmas lights. I don't have the talent to actually hand paint anything, but I do have a handy, dandy silhouette cameo! 

I got the glass blocks in the holiday section at Lowes. They were $8.50 each, are they out there anywhere for cheaper?! Then got to searching on pinterest for just the right design/saying. I went with "Ho Ho Ho" with a couple of snow flakes. I typed up the Ho Ho Ho and traced a snowflake image using the trace tool in silhouette studio.

I cut the vinyl, and laid the transfer tape over the ho ho ho, then lined up the snowflakes under there too, so that I could lay it all down at once.

UPDATE!
I didn't like how the snowflakes weren't very visible because of the white lights in the block, so I tried green lights in the block, still no good. I decided to change the snowflakes out for Christmas trees, added a bow to the top and it's much better now!

DIY Santa Ornament

I'm still a crafting machine over here with my silhouette cameo! We are attending a Christmas party where you are asked to bring an ornament for their tree, so instead of buying something typical from the store I scoured pinterest for something creative (but not too girly) that I could make using my silhouette cameo and the clear glass ornaments you can get at your craft store.

I found this cute Santa ornament but wasn't sure how long M&Ms can last (year after year?). Especially if you're like me and store your ornaments in your not-heat-controlled attic, that could get pretty messy. 

I decided to go with the shredded crinkle paper instead of M&Ms. 

I got glass ornaments, red shredded crinkle paper, green ribbon and used my silhouette cameo to cut black for the belt and gold for the buckle!

First, stuff as much red crinkle paper in to the ornament that you can fit. You will probably need to use a pen or something of the sort to shove the paper in the tiny opening at the top. Put the lid back on the ornament, you are done with that!

I cut the belt (a strip of black vinyl) and buckle (a "curved" square with another inside of it) with my silhouette cameo. I may add a green ribbon later, but figured it would blend in with the tree anyways! 

DIY Christmas Tree Sign

Like I said yesterday, I've been crafting up a storm with my silhouette cameo. I saw this pin and loved the black, white and glittery gold but am not really one to put up deer heads in my house, so I decided to take it in a different direction. 

I used a canvas panel, painters tape, black spray paint and glitter gold vinyl along with my silhouette cameo. 

Put the painters tape on the canvas in strips going all the way across (the parts that are white in this picture were covered in painters tape). 

Spray paint it lightly with black, making sure that it is all covered, but not too thick (it could bleed under the tape if you soak it with paint). Let the paint dry and peel up the tape, you will have a black and white striped canvas! 

Lastly, I designed the Christmas tree in my silhouette studio, cut it and used transfer tape to place it on the dry canvas. 

DIY Christmas Platter

I've been spending a lot of time with my silhouette cameo lately. I love that thing. pinterest + silhouette machine + holidays = 1 busy girl. 

The first craft I tackled was a Christmas platter that I found here. It really is pretty easy, if you have a silhouette machine (or one similar). You could of course make this for any time of year and use different colors of vinyl. 

You Need: 
A plain tray/platter
Green vinyl
Red vinyl

Measure the inside of the platter. The only one I could find (that didn't cost a ton) had the extra ring around the outer edge so I had to make sure to get all of the vinyl in the middle. 

Type the last name (or name you want to put on the platter) on the silhouette studio (my font for this was Andulus). Then in another font (I used Boys R Gross) type merry christmas.You can drag it over the first word to be sure how they line up/size correctly. Then of course cut and paste it in to a different file, so that you can print on two different colors. 

Print the background name in one color, and then using transfer paper center it in your tray. Then using transfer paper again, transfer the "merry christmas" that is printed in the 2nd color. 

And voila! 

State Silhouette Art DIY

I saw this post on Home Sweet Ruby and just had to do one myself! I changed it up a little bit and luckily didn't have to cut it by hand since I have my handy dandy silhouette cameo machine.

What You Need:
Backing card stock/scrap book paper
card stock/scrap book paper for your state
Pink or white paper for heart
frame
scissors or cutting machine 
glue stick


What You Do:
Cut card stock down to size of the frame (I used an old 8x10 frame we had lying around)

Cut state silhouette (If you don't have a cutting machine you can use Home Sweet Ruby's directions - basically print out the state to the size you want and use it to trace then cut by hand, If you do have a silhouette, I googled North Carolina state silhouette and found a pdf that I could download for the image then trace the outer edge only... I found mine here, this would work for either cutting by hand or silhouette) 

Cut a small heart and place over the city of your choice

Glue all pieces together and stick in a frame! 

This cost me all of $1.47 and I have cardstock to spare! Love it!