Personalized Pumpkins

My kids have the traditional orange plastic pumpkins that I had when I was a kid, and that's how I like it. Don't get me wrong--I love the latest crop of fashionable buckets & pails, and whatnot-- but for me it's all about the tradition. The kids' pumpkins didn't present a problem for me until this year, since it's only my daughter's second Halloween and last year she was just over 1 month old! I was wondering how they weren't going to get the pumpkins mixed up. And then, I thought "DUH!"



So I cut their names out on the Cricut to personalize them! I wished I had black vinyl, but the chocolate brown worked fine...until I ran out of it after finishing Madelyn's pumpkin! So I resorted the the only other color I had, green. It worked out fine, but I may redo it in the future because it does bug me a little. Ok, a lot! ;)



Then I got crazy & tied lots of ribbons from my daughter's handle. Tried on my son's & it just looked too girly for me. He agreed! So, I'm happy with them because now they are "updated traditional!"

Personalizing with Vinyl

This "project" (if you can even call it that) literally took 10 minutes from start to finish! I used my Cricut machine to cut the vinyl.

I kept wanting to label my daughter's metal bin that holds her headbands, but wasn't sure what I wanted it to say. I didn't want to limit the use of it in the future, so I finally decided just to make a big "M" for her name. Then of course, I decided the other metal bucket in her room also needed an "M"! I love how they turned out & especially the font.

(BEFORE) Much cuter now, huh?

Crown Plate

Several months ago, we changed our front guest bathroom from pale green with a palm tree theme (yuk--So sick of that!) to a soft blue with chocolate brown. We still haven't gotten any chocolate brown towels, but we will get there! (we had a baby 7 months ago, I might add) There was also a little wall that had nothing on it that was bothering me, but I couldn't figure out what to hang there.

I finally decided upon 3 of my favorite things: A fleur de lis, a crown, and a cross. I already had the fleur de lis--it had been begging for a home for some time. I am still shopping around for the perfect cross, but in the meantime, I made this little crown plate.

I bought this 6" diameter plate at Hobby Lobby for $3. I had all the rest of the supplies on hand: patterned scrapbook paper, vinyl, Cricut die cut machine, paint, mod podge, & ribbon.



I chose a piece of scrapbook paper & cut out a circle the size of the inner plate. I then made small 1/2" cuts all around the circle so it would lie flat inside the circle & hug the round edge without puckering.


I looked everywhere for my brown Tim Holtz distressing ink, but ended up having to use acrylic paint to add a distressed border around the edge of the paper. It turned out just fine.


I then cut a crown out of vinyl with my Cricut. If you don't have a die cut machine, you could always cut out an image off the computer or use one at your local scrapbook store.
I stuck the vinyl crown to the paper, then mod podged the paper to the plate.
I threaded ribbon through the holes and ended up with a bow at the top.
Here is the little crown plate hanging in its new home! The cross will go to the lower right when I find it. (lighting is making the wall color look weird in this pic)

Here's another view of the bathroom (dying for chocolate brown towels!)
The supplies cost me around $5 total for this project.

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