Cutting an Image With Vinyl to Create a Great Gift

My sister has lived in another state for most of our lives
so when it comes to gift giving it's a little difficult. I don't get to see her
daily or even weekly to pick up on little things she likes.  I don't know what color scheme her house is
since she has moved since our last visit. 
But what do know is that she LOVES her dog.  How could I incorporate her dog into a gift I
could make with my Cricut?  There are
tons of options.  I decided to go with an
image on vinyl on a pillow.

First, I snuck off to her Facebook to find a perfect picture
of the pup.  Now to get an image into a
vector file you can use on your Cricut, there are a few ways.  I decided to use an app called Imaengine that
is available for Apple products. 

You upload the picture and turned it into an ink file.  On the app, you can clean it up as much as you would like by changing the threshold, freckles, and other specs.  I love this app so I paid the fee to be able to download the images I create because why shouldn't I support the developer of such a cool app??  From there you can upload the image into Design Space and clean it up more if you would like to, but it is not needed at all.  My sisters' dog is black, so I used matte blank iron on vinyl (make sure to cut it as a mirror image).

Cricut SportFlex Iron On Vinyl, DIY Supplies, 11.8” x 24” HTV Roll - Black

 For the pillow covers,
I wanted something a little rustic so off to Amazon I went for something with a
burlap look to it.  These are what I settled
on.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C6MTY9F/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tlHome Brilliant 2 Pack Burlap Decorative Pillow Covers Lined Linen Cushion Sham for Living Room, 18x18 inches, Light Linen

 I was very pleasantly
surprised when they arrived.  They were
great quality and exactly the look I was going for.  They were also thick enough that I didn't
need to worry about the heat from my press ruining them when applying the vinyl.

She was absolutely thrilled when she received it and bonus,
it actually matched her house!!

How I Worked Around Our Small Bedroom

Our bedroom is small….like really small.  It's one of those rooms that only has one solid wall.  It has 3 doors and one window.  It makes it very hard for room setup options.  Now before we bought this place we splurged on a big old king sized bed (that I think we are still paying on) so downsizing the bed was not an option for me.  Basically, we have too much stuff and not enough room.   I tried a couple of room configurations that just wouldn't work because of one reason or another.  A big problem in a lot of these was not being able to pull the dresser drawers out far enough.  So off to IKEA we went. 

I was thinking outside of the box here.  My traditional husband however went right to the plain old dresser section.  He looked at me like I was crazy when I said we need something that could function like a dresser without being an actual dresser.  I wanted sliding doors of some sort to alleviate the pulling out space issue.  So, we stumbled upon this storage cabinet with glass sliding doors.  It was the perfect height.  I loved the look of it, but could it function as a dresser??  Now my husband does all the laundry (yes, I am spoiled in that aspect) and he does not fold any of his own clothes.  So, with glass doors, it would always look messy and I knew that would stress me out.  It's the one thing I despise about our house being entirely open concept is that there is nowhere to hide the mess.  By this point, the kids were tired, and I was overwhelmed so we left emptyhanded

That night I went home and looked around my room and just knew there had to be a better solution.  We scoured the internet for the perfect dresser and oh we found some that were way outside of our little budget.  I just kept going back to the same item I seen at IKEA.  Finally, I thought of a compromise.  I could simply frost the glass!  This would allow me the sliding doors that would work in our room, as well as my husband the freedom to not fold his clothes without stressing me out.  What a breakthrough.  Back to Ikea we went to but this unit.  While building it, I still had some concerns.  We had 8 drawers in our old dresser, and this only had 5 shelves.  Would it be large enough to fit our clothes?  Would the frost cover enough to not make me lose my mind?  The answer to the first question is a resounding yes.  It has more space than our dresser due to the height of the shelves.  I did 2 coats of frost in the worst conditions possible.  I will admit it did not frost as well as I had pictured in my head but that is totally an error on my part and could be corrected when the weather warms up.  It did cover enough for me to not be stressed out though.

We are one week in and so far, I am loving this upgraded dresser option which costs significantly less than a traditional dresser.

I need to find a better picture that doesn't make it appear as smeared as this. This is not what it looks like in person.

Camping Buckets with LED Lights

I am a bit obsessed with lights, especially any type of LED
lighting.  It is a running joke in my
family that you could sell me anything if you throw some lights on it.  When I seen these camping buckets with LED
light, my heart exploded.  Camps and
lighting all in one!

These are probably one of the easiest camping decorations
you can get.  To start, you need a plain
white 5-gallon bucket with a lid. Around me, the best place to purchase these
are at Wal-Mart but you do have to buy the bucket and lid separately.

Again, I use my Cricut for the vinyl on it but you could
paint these as well.  Many people
personalize these buckets with their last name and place them in front of their
campers.  Because camping is such a hit
right now, there is no shortage of ideas for your buckets.  You can buy designs on Etsy or similar
sights, or simply create your own design. 

These are the lights that I chose to use.  They are sturdy and each light comes with its
own remote.  The colors are bright and
vibrant in the buckets and shine bright at night.  They are also submersible which means if you are
stuck with your bucket outside during a sudden downpour, that it will still
work!  Some people I have seen choose to
use double-sided sticky tape to stick their lights right in the middle of the
bucket.  I personally do not do this just
because I like the ease of just grabbing the light to be able to change the
battery and I just sit mine out on the lawn, so the light will not move around
anyway.

These buckets are a growing trend amongst people who enjoy
camping.  If that is you, I believe you
need one of these!

Kalahari on a Budget-Take 2

If you read my first Kalahari post, you will see that I
mentioned how much Kinley adores Kalahari. 
Naturally, when given a choice between a birthday party or a trip to
Kalahari, we all know what she chose……Kalahari.

• 

• 

This time around, there were not any Groupon deals available
so I knew I had to get a little more tactful in money saving search.  I had been following a group on Facebook that
books groups of rooms and then you can reserve a room in their block at a discounted
price.  There are only select dates
available but that is ok because Kinley was willing to go at any time. The room
was not quite as cheap as I managed to get it last time but not horrible.  The Nomad room with all the taxes and fees
included came to $202.  This one however
did not come with any freebies like we received last trip.

The amazing view from our balcony

At check in, our room was not ready, which we were prepared
for as we were early but we were able to access the water park.  We were supposed to receive our room number
by text by 4pm and our bracelets would unlock the door.  Easy enough.

This was Kinley's first trip during summer, which meant her
first experience with the outdoor water activities, and boy was she excited!  We also brought our go-pro this time, which
allows me to share some great waterslide videos with you. 

We opted out of the locker rental this time to save some
money and just brought the necessities with us. 
This saved us $25.  We also
remembered to bring our souvenir cup from our last trip, which allowed drinks
at a much-discounted rate.

We did receive a bonus, if you will this trip.  We never received the text with our room
number by 4pm like we had been told. 
Around 5pm, my husband finally went up to ask and it seemed they had
forgotten about us by mistake.  To make
up for it, they gifted him $50 in arcade tokens.  In no way should you ever expect that, but it
was a nice bonus for us on this trip and allowed Kinley to win more toys from
the crane machines she loves so well.

Here is a breakdown of our spending this trip.

• Room for 1 night $202
• Snacks from candy shop $6
• Late night pizza hubby had to have $17
• Dinner in waterpark $31
• Breakfast $14
• Lunch in waterpark $22

Grand total of $292, which actually brings us in $44 cheaper
than our last visit.

Until next time Kalahari!

Scarecrow Decorative Bottles

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

Fall is one of my absolute favorite times.  I love the weather, the colors, the smells, and the clothing required (in Michigan anyway).  I came across this cute little scarecrow craft that you could use to decorate your home or workplace.

The bottles you can get from anywhere that sells
bottles.  As long as they are in this
shape, this will work.  I am thinking of
experimenting with a mason jar and if I do, I will make sure to share.

I bought my scarecrow faces off Etsy and cut them from vinyl
with my Cricut machine.  You could paint
them if you do not have a die cut machine. 
I do not have the steadiest of hands so that does not always turn out
well for me.

I have done some sets with lights and some without.  I put the lights in first when using them.  I bought them from Amazon and they were a great deal.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HJ54Y3Q/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tiffanysthrif-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07HJ54Y3Q&linkId=a20952e4ea92f170caae6befd9fd8ff0

You will then fill them as much or little as desired with the straw material. 

Then decorate them however you would like.  I chose to do burlap around the top of both with different types of ribbon wrapped around.  Some I made "hair" hang down and others I gave bow ties.  This is where you can completely personalize them.  The ones with the lights I just tucked them in the burlap with the on and off switch easily available.

I made them in sets of a boy and a girl but you could even create little families with different size bottles.  I plan to bring mine to work to bring the fall spirit to my desk.

How to Break In

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

Everyone wants to be a professional crafter, right? Unfortunately, most crafts do not profit enough money to quit your day job. Although it can be a profitable side business if you work it right. Now I am just in the beginning stages of this process so I am learning right along with you all.

I started crafting not to make money, but because it is a passion of mine. I love all kinds of arts and crafts and always have. However, with some family illnesses that have come up, medical bills have started to surpass the income that I need to pay them. So I thought, eh let's try this. My husband has always been into fishing so I made a vinyl decal for his truck. He liked it so much that he posted on a sportsman forum and other people wanted to order one as well. Of course, most forums do not want random people advertising and selling items on their forums without permission. After chatting with the forum owner, he let us know that he was in need of a person or company to provide his forum decals and after hearing our story, agreed that we could get the job!

Here came the fun part. While I had the idea, I had no idea how to actually make this work. Tons of research went into this as I was just starting, I didn't want to invest a lot of money without knowing if this thing would flop or not. I went with a free storefront on www.freewebstore.com. The reason I made this choice is A)the unknowns mentioned above and B) I didn't need people to be able to find my store by an internet search as the forum would link to the store right on it. Of course I had to create the designs and keep them as simple as possible as we had to be prepared for mass production if this took off. The most time consuming part was building the store. I clearly had no idea how much work this would be.

While it has not been a get rich quick project, it has not been a flop either and each day I am learning as I go. I am tweaking the store each day, switching up products and vendors. So far this has been my favorite transfer tape by far. It's not what I use for my own crafts at home because I can work with less tacky transfer tape. However, I fully believe when you are sending out a finished decal product and expecting the customer to be able to apply it, you need to use high quality transfer tape.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017Y20RI6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tiffanysthrif-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B017Y20RI6&linkId=b386da4d5a0af050662caf303db353fb

For the vinyl, I only use Oracle 651. I prefer the matte for the black and white as it is easier to weed, in my opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GPQ9TS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tiffanysthrif-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B071GPQ9TS&linkId=499bd82a603c7b174ad060bfd5bd159b

Here is a sample of a decal available on this forum.

Side Hustle Shuffle

I like to think of myself as the queen of side hustles.  I have always been a hard, dedicated worker who will do anything to make ends meet.  This started back in my teens, as I was a teen mom and gave birth to my first daughter at the age of 17.  I had already been working at McDonald's throughout high school.  It was a job I actually thoroughly enjoyed but I was at the ceiling paygrade wise and the next step up required open availability which I could not do with a baby.  I soon realized that I needed to do more.  I took a part time job at a daycare as well, as it offered discounted rates for childcare.  Then I added one to two nights a week working coat check at a local bar.  So now I was at 3 jobs with a baby.  Eventually I added college into the mix and earned my associates degree.  With this, I was able to earn a better paying job....for a while anyway.  One job, one income, is just not enough to raise a child on.  Through out the years, here are a few of the side gigs I have worked to help make ends meet.

• Line dance instructor 1 to 2 times per week for many years
• Zumba instructor.  I taught Zumba at my daughters dance studio in exchange for her dance class tuition.
• Beachbody coach.  This one didn't work well for me as most of my circle of friends could not afford the products.
• Paparazzi consultant.  This was an ok gig if you could direct people to purchase from your online shop.
• Legging consultant. I sold for many vendors and again this is only profitable if you can direct people to you sites. Keeping inventory is not very profitable. I did do a couple vendor shows with this.
• Shipt shopper. I loved this one and am not sure why anyone would not want to do it if given the opportunity. It is very flexible.
• Crafts. This is my passion but you can't make enough to get a large profit margin. 
• Blogging. My newest trial. This blog here. To be continued on this gig

As much as I love the company I work for, I want to be my own boss and make my own hours.  I am always game for any opportunity that may give me a chance.  never be afraid to try something new.  Think outside of the box on how to get what you need or where you want to be.  If you never take a chance, you will never see a change.