Stenciled Dog Bowls (Silhouette)

In my last post I mentioned that Tom gave me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas. On the weekend he asked me how I liked it. Umm, it's great. So far I've...installed the software on my computer. He was off to his parents' house for a visit and told me he expected something stencilled when he got back, young lady!

So I gave it a go. My first project? Stenciling the dogs' names onto their food bowls. Now I didn't really intend to stencil them, I actually was planning on using vinyl letters, but that comes later in the story.

Do you have a Cameo? I've been wanting one forever. I've done some stenciling by hand in the past year and I can tell you, cutting out those letters or images by hand is just no fun. And the Cameo lets you do more than make stencils of course - you can cut out paper, fabric, vinyl, even temporary tattoos.

Glamour shot:

And so I got started. Now keep in mind that this was the first time I've ever used a Silhouette machine so I wasn't going for anything complicated. Also keep in mind that I didn't get around to starting until 5pm on Sunday night. Am I a procrastinator? I'll let you know. ;-)

My machine came with sheets of different coloured plastic - what I thought was vinyl. Why else would they be different colours? I planned to cut out the letters of the dogs' names and stick them on to the sides of their bowls. I opened up the program and got to work deciding on the size and font. I even put the names really close to each other so that I wouldn't waste any material.

I fed the yellow plastic into the machine and pressed start. Oh my gosh, so exciting. I actually videotaped it cutting the letters. Is that too nerdy? When it was done I peeled off the first letter and that's when I realized that it was a clear stencil and the yellow was just the backing paper. Sad Barb.

But that's okay, I have lots of paint - I can just paint the names on! Tom chose (he was home by then) Annie Sloan chalk paint in Aubusson Blue.

Our dog bowls are more like buckets with lids. They are so great because not only are they tall so the dogs don't have to lean way over to eat, but you can fill the bucket part with food and it's a travel bowl for trips.

I applied the stencil to the side of the bowl (Yay for self adhesive!) and pressed painters tape around the edges to block any stray paint strokes. And since I'd put the two names so close together I had to block the other name.

It took two coats of paint and only about 20 minutes to dry completely. I did some touch ups with a plastic scraper and an artist's brush, and then sprayed the names with a few coats of matte acrylic coating to seal.

Tell me that isn't adorable. Maybe I'll add some girlie flowers.

We hung the "Sasha" picture we found at HomeGoods over Sasha's bowl. Everyone needs something pretty to look at when they're eating, right? And why not a picture of yourself? Though for a minute I thought it might look like a shrine or something equally morbid.

Over Chloe's bowl we hung her graduation certificate from obedience class - framed of course. Isn't she a smartypants? She graduated first in her class. (She was the only one in her class.) 

There you go, my first project. Not the toughest to do, but it was fun, and I learned a lot. I can't wait to try something more complicated - maybe even with real vinyl.

~~~~~

I'm linking up here this week!

Getting Back Into It

Many, many apologies for not posting this past week. I know you don't want to hear my excuses - everyone's busy, get on with it, girl - so I won't bore you with them. They mostly involve month-end paperwork and my work location moving (no more commute!), getting ready for vacation (and cleaning the house in anticipation of the dogsitter being here), and a personal project that may get very interesting. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Let me show you a bit of what I have been doing, because it's not like I've been sitting around eating Cheetos the whole time (not the whole time).

1. I used my Silhouette for the first time - did I mention that Tom gave me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas? - and added the dogs' names to their food bowls.

They were like, "You know we can't read right? And that we already know whose is whose?"

Just humour me, okay?

2. I took the Christmas wall hanging above the mantel from this:

To this:

It only took a few minutes and a couple of nails. The one on the bottom is a metal wall hanging that I bought the first week we moved into our current house. Tom wanted to buy it for me for Christmas that year but I was so excited that I rushed out and bought it myself. I love the contrast between the wood and the metal.

3. And we celebrated Sasha's birthday a little late. We had the family over for a belated Christmas dinner on her actual birthday (the 29th, also my birthday), so we didn't get to celebrate until after New Year's. I'm pretty sure she didn't mind.

As I mentioned before, it's full steam ahead on the kitchen update now, and we're taking off to Cuba again for a week. What have you been up to?

DIY Art from a Favourite T-shirt

How many of your gifts to other people were handmade? I'm guessing crafters/DIYers give more handmade gifts than other people. For me, it was probably about a 50/50 split.

One of my favourites this year was the framed t-shirt I made for Tom.

Some of his favourite shirts are from the Life is Good line. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but they make really fun, activity-oriented clothing and accessories. I have a few shirts myself, and Sasha has a "Life is Good" collar. 'Cause you know, for her, it really is.

About a year ago Tom temporarily switched deodorant brands and it made the armpits of his shirts hard and crunchy (how's that for TMI?) They didn't smell bad, it was just weird and uncomfortable to wear. Nothing would wash it out so the t-shirt had to be retired. But it was in good shape otherwise. And it was his favourite of the favourites - the first one he bought I think.

I decided to turn it into framed art so he could have it forever. I already had a frame but it didn't have a mat, so I made one from the solid mat in another frame that wasn't being used. The first thing I did was measure the width and height of the graphic so I knew how big to make the opening.

 I then added about an inch on each side and marked that on the mat. I also put it into the frame to make sure it would look balanced once it was all together. I don't know if you can see the tiny marks but they're there, one on each side.

Sasha chose that moment to walk into the room and put her face in a plate of glitter. Life is good. And sparkly. She distracted me so much that I forgot to take any more pictures until I was finished. But hopefully I can explain it well enough.

I used an X-acto knife and a ruler to join the marks and cut the matting to size. The frame is 8 x 10 so I cut the graphic out of the t-shirt in a rectangle measuring 9 x 11 - to give me extra material to wrap around behind. I took the filler board from the frame (the one between your picture and the backing board) and stretched the t-shirt tightly around it, making sure the graphic was centered, and secured each edge with packing tape.

I put the frame back together and it was finished. Oh yes, don't forget to give the glass a good cleaning on both sides if it's been handled a lot!

Cute, isn't it? Tom was so happy. And I marked on the tag that it was from the dogs so they got lots of hugs for being so clever.

Now he's not so worried that his favourite t-shirts will wear out because he knows they can live on forever on the walls.

~~~~~

I'm linking up to these parties this week!