Phew... is it over yet??

This was my first VINYL holiday season... and it was BUSY! Most people are like me and think of their best ideas last minute... for example, my quantity of 30 signs in less than 3 days for my young women at church that I love to death! I think overall last month, that I made over 200 vinly signs... the majority of them were gifts and it was a LOT of work... but I sure had a LOT of fun doing it! :) Here are some fun things I did this Christmas. :)

The Reason for the Season

A week ago, last Sunday... I was feeling a little bit (OK, a lot) overwhelmed with 30 vinyl orders to do last week! Then with our church youth girls Christmas activity last Wednesday... I woke up last Monday (2 DAYS BEFORE THE ACTIVITY) with a "BRILLIANT IDEA" to make each girl (there are 30 girls) a plaque that went along with the theme of our activity... "Christ is the Reason for the Season." Oh boy... 60 orders to do this week! :-/ (30 of which had to be done in 48 hours!)
One of the people who had placed orders with me was one of my girls, Katie from church... she offered to help me... and I said the biggest help would be to watch DJ while I cut, routered and sanded wood! Since she is home schooled... this fit perfectly into her schedule! YEAY! I was able to cut, sand, router 65 pieces of wood for various projects...
Tuesday, I painted & varnished them...

then attached a white tile to the black Christ plaques... while another friend from church watched DJ most of the that day. THANKS LADIES! :)
Come Tuesday night after the church women's Christmas Dinner... I finished the first Christ plaque... and hated it! :( Being 11pm at night, I was exhausted and went to be sad!

I woke up the next morning... WEDNESDAY, the day of our activity... still not liking the design I made, and said... SELF, the activity is tonight, you do NOT have time to re-cut 30 vinyl designs, re-paint the wood (because after ripping the tile off, there would be residue and we didn't paint under the tile because we were putting a TILE ON IT! ...simply no time!!! I proceeded to complete about 10 of them with hope that it would grow on me... I sent a picture of this to a few people... all being very nice and saying it looked nice... but none said they LOVED it... and I certainly knew I didn't LOVE it.

Thank heaven DJ slept in until 9am that morning... I quickly began ripping the tiles off all those blocks with a screw driver...

Re-painting (2 coats), re-varnishing, re-designing and cutting a new vinyl design... (times 30). I had the infamous Madi T come over after school that day, along with one of my leaders to help tie bows on them while I applied the vinyl... this might not be the most amazing design ever... but I liked it a LOT more than the first attempt! :) And we got them done with a few hours to spare before the activity! YEAY!

I couldn't have done it with out your help Madi and Angela! THANK YOU! :)

Sometimes... simple is better!

Indiana Jones and Disney Land

I sold a vinyl sign to a nice lady back in California... and she asked me if I do custom work. Of course I said yes! :) Her family loves Disneyland... and asked me to do a quote from Indiana Jones. I thought it was clever and was excited to do the sign for her. Then I had to laugh when Don, my husband told me (a Disneyland Buff for sure) "This isn't a quote from Indiana Jones... it's on a plaque outside the ride for a 3rd party advertisement." (baffled at how in the World did Don know this, we Googled it... and sure enough...
here's the sign with the AT&T logo on it! teehee

It's still a great quote! :)

Vinyl Wall Art

I have recently done two wall vinyl designs... I can't say I came up with the Laundry Room one... I totally copied that one from a friend... but LOVE it! :) I did one for a friend here in my town... she says it helps her to be happier while doing the dreaded laundry for a household of 6! teehee
My mom liked it and came up with her own quote for her craft room in her home... darling!

Thanks Madi T... GO COUGS!

One of my girls from church has helped me a LOT with our recent church activities... which since they involve ME, they involve VINYL! :) Madi T... has been a HUGE help... this Little Miss Smarty Pants helped me to learn more about my vinyl software... which has SIMPLIFIED My Vinyl Life tremendously! THANKS MADI! To thank her, I told her that I'd make her a sign... and she could design it...
since she plans to attend BYU next year... this is what she came up with! ...DARLING! :)
This was the night she came to pick it up with Katie V! ...I LOVE that Katie and my little DJ have matching jeans on! :)
CUTE Picture! BEAUTIFUL GIRLS!

Name Plaques!

These are becoming very popular! :) I love doing them, they are fairly simple... and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when I hear the kids say, "It matches my room!" (as if it magically happened without any hint from a mom or friend! teehee) Here are a few that I did recently... one with the soccerball on it was my first time doing a 2-layer (2-color) design... and it was FUN! :) The Gabby name plaque says "daughter of God" accross the front of it... she was one of my girls at church that moved away... we'll miss you Gabby!!!

Keeping busy this week!

I've made many of these 'Family Established' signs... and they've all been in black... a very popular color. I was asked this week to make one out of brown... and I chose a color very dark... "bittersweet chocolate" is the name of the brown paint color... but I think it looks great! :) I also made a few name plaques for a few girls... colors to match their bedrooms... then a glass block celebrating Grandmas!