Personalized Christmas Ornaments

Many years ago I was an avid fan of the Soap Opera show, Days of Our Lives.  One of my favorite traditions the show had was personalized ornaments for each member of the Horton family.  I loved that idea and about 5 years ago I purchased 4 big round Christmas ornaments for the purpose of decorating them with our family names.  Unfortunately, they sat in the box for the last 5 years....until NOW! 

Previously, I didn't know what would be the best method of decorating them as I cannot paint and my handwriting abilities are pathetic, to the point that I have the handwriting (aka scribbling) of a doctor!  Now, with my computer and my Cricut, I can decorate the ornaments very easily.  I have seen many other blogs where they used clear Christmas ornaments and then placed glitter inside them, I want to try that too but for now, I needed to finally decorate my ornaments purchased over 5 years ago!

My project was very simple but really made some simple solid color ornaments stand out into a personalized, meaningful gift that is now displayed on our Christmas tree.  I used vinyl  in a ChopinScript font found online for free.  I then found several different snowflakes online from other very talented Bloggers and added 3 to 4 snowflakes around each ornament.


Below is my finished ornaments for my two sons, myself and husband!

Coffee Time

A few months back I designed a Coffee Sign for my kitchen and loved how it turned out!  I then went back and made a really wide coffee sign on painted wood and placed it above our double doors in the kitchen leading out to our deck.  I did blog about that sign on a different post as that was my first sign on a 6 foot wide board!  Now, I have additional orders for my original coffee sign so I went back and placed the sign on a oval plate that can be displayed on a plate holder and also a 8 x 12 inch tile. I used outdoor vinyl for the plate and tile only because I felt the glossy brown would look better and in case the plate would be subjected to frequent washing. 

The first 2 pictures are the signs in my kitchen.  The sign above the doorway reads "Good coffee is a pleasure Good friends are a treasure".  The last 2 pictures are the signs designed for a plate and rectangular tile. 

Vinyl Coffee Mugs

No excuses for my lack of posting...well I can list many but I won't!  This weekend my goal is to finish up all of my half-finished projects and orders from customers and to post more on my blog!  : )

In this project I was given the opportunity to design 5 coffee mugs to be used as a special gift as a token of appreciation for 5 individuals judging a high school competition.  This was a unique opportunity for me as the High School Music Festival was held in my hometown (current population is less then 200 people).  The fact that I haven't lived in my hometown for over 14 years doesn't stop others from remembering who I am, the bonuses and sometimes "cons" of living in such a small town! ha ha! However, in the last few months I have completed several projects for the church and now the school so I am very happy about that - a definite bonus of a small town for me!

The school wanted a design with very specific words on the mug.  Because of the amount of words I needed to separate them out and place them on the front and back of the cup.  Leaving me with the side of the cup for a musical image.  Finding the right image was easy and finding the coffee mugs was easy; however, placing the vinyl onto a curved coffee mug while making sure the letters remained straight was not so easy. 

The coffee mugs I purchased are curved like any other mug but they are also curved up and down so I had 2 variables to deal with while ensuring the lettering stayed straight on the mug.  Not an easy task!  I learned the value of patience with this project as each line and sometimes sections of the line had to be placed on the cup individually to avoid any possibility of curving the first part and the last part of the words.  Many, many times did I have to measure and remeasure to ensure the words were level and centered.  By the 5th mug, I had a system in place and was able to complete the mug in a much faster time then the first couple.  Had I not needed to complete the coffee mugs in such a short time-frame then I would have been able to adjust my design prior to cutting it to assist with the curvature of the cup; however, I didn't have a lot of time to play with and now I have the added benefit of knowing how to do things the "hard way" first and will know what not to do for the next time I have a project like this!  I should also note, that I used outdoor vinyl on the coffee mugs to better withstand washing the coffee mug and it also provided that high-gloss vinyl finish! 

Once I finished my design on the coffee mugs, I gave them to another crafty individual who restores old barn windows and loves to use dried flowers in many of her crafts.  This friend of mine then decorated the mugs, she placed chocolates in the mugs for the males and then made a dried flower arrangement for the females.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the final product but do have pictures of what the coffee mugs looked like with my designs...