Category Archives: vinyl

Decorating with Plates {and Vinyl}

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My sweet hubby bought me a new set of Pottery Barn everyday dinnerware for Christmas this year. Our dishes at the time were getting beat up and there was a few missing pieces. Well, they weren’t missing. They were thrown in the trash because they had been broken to pieces! Anyway, I really wanted some new ones.

I did still have all 12 of the dinner plates though. And I stacked them in the corner of the breakfast room hoping I could pass them down to someone. They have sat in that same corner from December 26 until today! Serious! Today I had an idea! I have this bare wall in my breakfast area {right above where these plates have been sitting} next to my my Ballard-inspired shelves. These plates were about to fill that empty space! I bought a large, vertical plate rack {I guess that’s what they are called} at Hobby Lobby and hung it on the wall.

I started by creating an image using Silhouette Studio and used the Silhouette to cut black vinyl. Once it was cut I used contact paper to remove the vinyl from the cutting mat.

Then I transferred it to the center of the plate and used my flat edge to smooth out the vinyl and contact paper. The vinyl stuck pretty easily to the plate. Sometimes getting the vinyl to stick to the surface rather than the contact paper is tricky.

Once the vinyl was stuck I slowly peeled away the contact paper.

And there is plate number 1!

I did the same thing with “est. 2004″ on a different plate. This would turn into plate number 3! What about plate number 2?

Well, this is the fun part where I get to use the remaining 10 plates! Plate number two will change for the holidays and seasons! I am creating an individual plate for each season/holiday. This way I can just switch it out when I need to!

I’m skipping St. Patty’s decor this year. By the time I get around to putting it all up it will be time for Spring/Easter. So I’m just going to go ahead and get out my bunnies and eggs!

Stay tuned. I’ll show you the different plates I design for the different holidays! P.S. Easter is not finished yet! I’m waiting on my bright spring vinyl to come in the mail! I’m also working on my Easter shelves which I’ll share soon!

Wicked Witch Pumpkin

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Don’t miss the bloggy birthday bash giveaways going on now to celebrate S&S first birthday!
Graphique
Vinyl Crafts
Flamingo Toes

Can you believe that Halloween is in less than a week?! In case you are looking for some last-minute Halloween decorating ideas I’m going to share with you my “Wicked Witch Pumpkin.”
If you’ve been here before, you know that I make weekly trips to the crafts stores to pick up some items to get my creative fix. Sometimes (often times) it’s more than once a week. Anyway, I was at Michael’s one morning and came home with these.

Two black pumpkins and some wired ribbon. What did I have in mind to do with these? I hadn’t the faintest idea, I just knew I “needed” them. Once I got them home and started pondering, I decided that I wanted to decorate the pumpkin with a witch silhouette. 

I stopped by Pinterest to see if I could find any ideas there. Of couse I did! I decided to add “wicked” to my witch pumpkin. This is the image I created with my Silhouette SD.

If you don’t have one of these machines, you gotta get one! It’s fabulous! The possibilities with it are endless!

I cut the design out on outdoor vinyl. Black was the only color I had on hand which obviously wasn’t going to show up on a black pumpkin. What did I do?

I spray painted the vinyl orange before sticking it on the pumpkin! But I wasn’t quite finished. 

I added the ribbon to the top along with a candy corn pick that I had on hand.

Perfect! I decided one black pumpkin was enough for my front porch. I’m still trying to decide what to do with the other one I bought. Maybe I’ll just wait ’til next year!

Monday Giveaway from Me!

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Happy Monday everyone! I’ve told you how much I dislike Mondays. They bring me back to the real world after fun weekends spent with family and friends. Blah! So I thought that this Monday needed a little something to get us all jump-started for the week. Something exciting. What could be more exciting than a giveaway?!

I’ve had several inquiries about my labeled canisters asking if I’d make them and sell them. Unfortunately, all but one of those readers, failed to leave me their email to reply. That makes me sad because I love responding to my readers and I would have loved to make them the labels! So, I have decided to set up a shop and sell these puppies {along with other items}. It might take me a week or so to get it all together and online, but I thought a great start would be to give one of my readers a set of three canister labels customized to your needs. 
Hip-hip-hooray!

Okay, ready to get started?
How do you enter? 
*YOU MUST be a PUBLIC FOLLOWER of SCISSORS & SPATULAS to enter*
{Please and thank you}
*Remember to leave a separate comment for each!*
1. Leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower and tell me your favorite project on my blog. 
2. Like Scissors and Spatulas on Facebook.
3. Tell all your friends on Facebook about this giveaway 

4. Tell your friends on Twitter about this giveaway. Feel free to use one of these:
Don’t miss the custom vinyl giveaway @scissorspatulas http://bit.ly/pzdUw1
or
Head over to @scissorspatulas to enter the custom vinyl giveaway http://bit.ly/pzdUw1
5. If you have done all of the above, go ahead and take a free entry. Say anything you want! Tell me what your labels would say, what the weather is, what you are wearing. Anything!
I’ll pick a winner this Friday and announce it along with my Friday features. What are you waiting for? Enter! Good luck!

Our Day With Daddy and a Giveaway!

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Wow, what a weekend! We had so much fun celebrating Father’s Day with all the dads in our lives. 
But we were most excited to celebrate the #1 daddy with a special day of fishing on the lake. This was our first fishing trip with the boys so we got poles for everyone and I thought it would be fun to make daddy a tackle box.

I bought a plain ole tackle box from Wal-mart and Little Man #1 picked out orange paint {outdoor paint to withstand weathering}. I painted one hand of each boy and put one print on each side of the box. 

I used my brand new Silhouette SD {whoop whoop} to cut vinyl decals for the tackle box.

I was able to download both images from Silhouette’s online store. 
In the end we had a brand new tackle box for daddy! He loved it!
After a yummy breakfast we grabbed the boat and headed out to he lake.

And while fishing was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. . . 

we still only caught one fish! Oh well, better luck next time! 
We finished the day. . .
with some tubing! 
I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
And now for the giveaway. . .

I’m sure you all have heard of Thirty-One.

They carry bags of all kinds with beautiful fabrics and custom monogramming. They also have a new line for teens as well as one for kids so there is something for everyone!

My friend, consultant Elizabeth Coles, is going to give one of my readers a $25 gift certificate to Thirty-One!
Head over to the Thirty-One site and check out the new Spring/Summer catalog.


How do you enter? 
*YOU MUST be a PUBLIC FOLLOWER of SCISSORS & SPATULAS to enter*
  • For additional entries, do any {or all} of the following. And if you already do, that’s fine too! Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did or already do. {leave a separate comment for each task}

1. Like Thirty-One on Facebook.
2. Like Scissors and Spatulas on Facebook.
3. Mention this giveaway on Facebook.
4.  Tweet about this giveaway.
{ex: Don’t miss the Thirty-One $25 giveaway @scissorsandspatulas http://bit.ly/kVC76G }

The winner will be chosen at random Sunday evening {June 26} and announced next Monday. 

Good luck!

My New Kitchen Canisters

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{Sneak Peak}
If you are a regular reader of this blog you’ve probably seen these canisters in the background of many of my food-related posts. As you can see, one canister is missing. The largest of the three, which held flour, suddenly broke. The bottom just fell out last week while I was making cookies. ???? So I was on the hunt for some new canisters, which I wasn’t exactly happy about because I really liked these. 
Then I got happy again when I found these triplets at Wally World (Wal-Mart). And I was even happier that they were only $6.97 each! But they were kind of boring just like this and I needed to do something to jazz them up.

I thought about using chalkboard paint and doing something like Erin over at 3 Meadow Lake Cottage (her photo above). I even bought the paint. But then at the last minute, I changed my mind and decided to use black vinyl and my good ole friend the Cricut.

Here I’ve cut the vinyl and used contact paper to transfer it to my canister.
For a full tutorial on cutting and sticking vinyl, go here.

Peel away the contact  paper. . .

and viola! My sugar has a brand new home!

I know I said I loved my old canisters, but I love these even more! 
{Notice gallon-size canisters are a lot bigger than my old ones. Guess I need to buy more sugar and coffee just to fill them!}
Shall we add up the cost? 
I spent just under $21.00 for the canisters. The vinyl I already had, but if you want to include it, it was $7.99 for the roll and I used about 1/4 of the roll. So I think it’s fair to say 
$25.00 for these beauties!
I love decorating on a budget!

Renewing an Awkward Space in an Awkward Place

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My Little Nook Makeover
Do you have one of these? Since moving into this house 4 years ago I’ve struggled with decorating this little wall nook. I’ve changed it several times. From flowers to candles to photo frames, this space has been changed so many times but each time there has been one thing in common. I never really loved it.  It’s just an awkward space in an awkward place. But, I’m happy to announce that I re-decorated (AGAIN)  and this time I like it! I really, really like it!

First I cleared the area for a fresh start. This makes it easier to see the space and envision what I want to do.

Then I chose frames to fit and fill the space. I love these black square frames. Very inexpensive at Garden Ridge.

These are nice frames, but kind of plain so I added some ribbon to jazz them up a bit.
Click here for the tutorial on making these frames.

Next, I used my Cricut to cut vinyl letters to stick above the frames.  For a tutorial on how to cut and stick the vinyl, click here.

I started with “family” but after placing the word I felt like there was too much wall space leftover. So I cut more letters  using  a different font to create “Our family est. 2004.”

So the wall was finished, now I needed to work on the shelf.

I started with my monogrammed apothecary jar (which I made in my fabulous MOPS group) and a framed 5×7 photo of hubby and I with Little Man #2 in the belly. 
Liked it, but didn’t love it.  So. . . .

I added our wedding photo (circa 2004) and changed the preggy photo frame to match the other (a little wider than the first so it fills in a little more space).  Finished! 
I have to say that, for the first time in four years, I really love this awkward little space! 

My First (but not last) Vinyl Wall Lettering

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I cut my first vinyl lettering using my Cricut!
It was my first, surely not my last. In fact, I’m afraid in a few months my home might look like the Cricut threw up! But it’s fun and I have so many empty spots on my wall!

I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, I love my Cricut! I opened the box just a couple weeks ago and I think I’m addicted. A “Cricut Crazy!” There are so many things you can do with this thing! I’ve noticed (a lot) recently that many stores are carrying these vinyl quotes. I’ve picked up several and even thought about buying them, but never could find quite what I was looking for. But now that I have my machine, I can “write” whatever I want and make it as big or small as I want.

Here is how. . .
Materials you will need are:
1.  Vinyl – You can find vinyl like this at craft stores such as Hobby Lobby or Michaels but the colors are limited. You can also buy it in bulk on line and there are many more color choices.
2.  Transfer tape or contact paper. I used contact paper (because it is less expensive) which worked just fine. People swear by the transfer tape though. Maybe one day I’ll try it.
3. Craft stick.

I started with the word “family” using the  Opposites Attract cartridge. 
To create the letters: 
1. Cut the vinyl to fit the cutting mat.
2. Securely place the vinyl on the mat. Do NOT remove adhesive backing.
3. Load in the machine.
4. Type the letters to cut.
5. Be sure the settings are appropriate for cutting vinyl.
6. Press the cut button and let the machine do the work!
(It’s that easy)
Once the machine has finished cutting, unload the mat and and peel back the vinyl starting at one corner. Your letters will remain on the sticky mat.
1. Cut a piece of contact paper (or transfer tape) that is larger than the area of the cut letters.
2. Remove adhesive backing of contact paper and carefully place the sheet sticky side down on top of the letters.
3. Use the craft stick edge to smooth contact paper over letters pressing firmly over each letter.
4. Slowly peel the contact paper off mat. The vinyl letters should stick and the adhesive backing should remain on your sticky mat.
1. Place the sheet of contact paper on designated wall area. A penciled line on the wall can help ensure letters are straight.  Remove air bubbles under the sheet with the craft stick pressing firmly over letters to make sure they stick to the wall.
2. Slowly peel contact paper off the wall. Letters should remain on the wall as the contact paper is removed. If they do not, reapply the letter and contact paper and smooth over again with a craft stick and try again.
Finished product. . .

I love this thing!