Getting Crafty: Baby Girl Subway Sign

Ahhh! I am so tired! Seriously, what is wrong with me?  I didn't go to bed until almost 4:00 am and then for some crazy reason I wake up at 8:00 am... no alarm, no bright sunlight, so husband nudging me telling me it's time to get up... My freakishly crazy mind just decided it was time to be awake.  Ugh!

Anyway. Due to my lack of sleep I for sure thought I was going to be pretty much worthless all day.  However, I did manage to create a really cute subway sign for my little girl's room.  I LOVE IT!  The colors totally go with the fabric I recently picked out for the "theme" of her bedroom (seriously though, why does there have to be a theme? Can't Thomas and I just pick out what we like and have it in there without there being some sort of theme? But that seems to be the big question.  Well right after if we have a name picked out, which I understand because I always ask that question too).  My biggest thing with her room is that I DO NOT want it to be ALL PINK!  I see way too many girl rooms that look like someone had a five course dinner of pepto bismol and then went in there and puked all over the walls.  (Just my opinion. No offense to anyone who likes the pepto puke look)

Don't get me wrong, I like pink, just not everywhere!  In fact, the main color of the subway sign is pink.  Only it's not that baby pink color you would think of when you think of a baby.  It's more of a rock and roll pink.  So I think I'm going to stop blabbing now and just get to the project!

So I totally forgot to take pictures when I first started... Then I forgot to take pictures on some of the steps throughout the project... So you are just going to have to use your fabulous imaginations! :)  

And I really can't take all the credit for this one, my dear friend Danna over at Sparkle and Posey had me over and helped me create this adorable sign for my little munchkin!

Materials:

12 x 12 piece of wood

12 x 12 piece of vinyl (doesn't matter what color because you are going to be painting over it anyway)

Scissors

Two coordinating colors of acrylic paint

A Cricut cutting machine

Word collage cartridge for Cricut cutting machine

Transfer paper

Paint brushes (I used the 97 cent foam brushes from Michael's)

Mod Podge

And Patience... Lots and lots of patience!

Step 1: 

Paint your piece of wood whatever color you want your words to be.  In my case I painted it gray.

Step 2:

While the paint is drying, put the Word Collage cartridge into the Cricut and select any of the 12 x 12 size word collage options.  I chose the baby themed one, but there are several to choose from.  I was also using a Gypsie attachment with the Cricut, but it's not necessary.

Place the vinyl on the cutting mat that came with the Cricut, set the speed to medium, the pressure to max and press "cut".  This is the part (well, the first part anyway) that made me want to pull my hair out.  Watching the Cricut cut things is way too stressful.  It gets all close to the edge and makes me think it's not going to work.  

Anyway!

Step 3:

After the Cricut gets done doing its thing, you are going to want to carefully... CAREFULLY... VERY CAREFULLY... peel away the outer portion of the vinyl sticker.

You are also going to want to get all those little circle shapes out from inside your o's, b's, e's, and whatnot. Seriously though, if you didn't believe me before, listen now WORK SLOWLY! If you mess this part up you have to start all over again.  I cut the excess vinyl off as I peeled it away.  This did make it easier to handle.  

Step 4:

After you have finally removed all of the extra vinyl, and you are done cursing yourself for starting this freaking project to begin with (I'm only kidding, it really was fun), peel the backing off of your transfer paper and stick the sticky side to the vinyl words that are left of the cutting mat.  Make sure they are stuck really well.  

Then peel the transfer paper off of the cutting mat and the words should now be sticking to it (sorry I don't have a picture of this part :\).  

Step 5:

Take the transfer paper with the words for your sign on them and center them on your painted (and hopefully dry by now) board.  If you are anything like me this will be the point where you need to start over completely because you messed up on the size of the vinyl and it doesn't actually fit onto your board... grrrrr... I'm going to say that this is the reason I don't have any pictures of this step. I was too busy doing everything over to think about taking pictures.

Make sure the words are stuck really well to your painted board and SLOWLY peel the transfer paper away.  At this point your words should be stuck to your board.  

Step 6:

Using the second color of paint you chose, paint the entire board.  Don't forget the sides. 

Then wait for it to dry and apply a second and third coat of paint depending on how dark you want it or how much of a pop you want it to have.

I got really impatient waiting for the paint to dry so I started using a blow dryer to try and speed up the process.  I think it actually worked!  Don't I look like I'm having a blast though?!?

Step 7:

Finally, after the paint is dry, VERY CAREFULLY!!! I seriously can't stress that enough... Very carefully peel off the vinyl letters to reveal the color you first painted the board at the beginning. (Again, I forgot to take pictures... I don't really have an excuse this time though other than the fact that I was stressing about messing this thing up)

Step 8:

Using a foam paintbrush again, I Mod Podged the entire thing to make sure the paint wouldn't peel off.

I also made sure to get the little corners that looked like they wanted to peel up first with lots of Mod Podge, and then go back over it to smooth it out.

After two coats of the Mod Podge I was finally done!  I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself.  I think it turned out pretty awesome! I can't wait to hang it in her room!  I can't wait to show you what her room is going to look like when it is all finished.  I'm pretty flipping excited about it!  But, it will have to wait.  Until then, here is the finished product.

And with that, I am going to bed.  Hopefully my body is done being nutso and will want to sleep longer than 4 hours tonight.  I don't think I can handle my 5th graders tomorrow if I don't get some sleep.  They will totally walk all over me and think they are running the classroom.  And let's face it, we can't have that! So... GOODNIGHT!

P.S. if there are lots of typos in this... well... I don't care!

Let's try this again... Shall we?

Yikes! It's been over a year since I posted anything on here.  I have a really good excuse though!  I have been busy! Lot's of new things going on.  I got a job teaching 5th grade (2nd grade part time next year), Thomas and I moved into a new house, we are having a baby in September... All kinds of new things!  I know I have said before that I would keep up with this blog, and I TOTALLY meant it!  We'll see what happens this time I guess.

As for right now though, it is currently 3:21 am and for some stupid reason I am still up.  I was so tired about 3 hours ago, but I didn't go to sleep when I had the chance and now I'm as awake as can be... I FREAKING HATE THAT!!!  Anyway, I'm going to try and go to bed now so I can wake up and hate myself by 3:00 pm for agreeing to do a 3 mile run/walk tomorrow.... today??? whatever... either way I am going to be really pissed off at myself tomorrow afternoon.  I'm just not sure what I'll be more mad about, the fact that I stayed up so late so I could mess around with a blog that I haven't touched in over a year or the fact that I am going to be walking 3 miles tomorrow.

Either way keep checking in.  I plan on having lots of fun and interesting posts in the near future!

I'm Baaack!!

So I know I have been pretty MIA for about the last 8 months, but hey.. I'm back now :) and I have recently given this blog a mini makeover (new header and title).  From now on I plan to dedicate this blog to sharing money saving tips, recipe and craft ideas, as well as a way to keep everyone up to date on what is going on in mine and Thomas' life.  The first post for the new blog should be going out tomorrow. A theme I have going for Monday's is Money saving Monday.  I am in no way shape of form promising that I will have a new money saving tip every Monday (you all know me... It's just not going to happen), but when I do have money saving tips of any kind, they will be posted on Mondays.  I will do my best to make them pretty frequent though. 
So, (hopefully) I will be posting my first post with the new theme tomorrow!
Until then,

Phone Calls From Basic Training!

So, a few days ago I got a phone call from Thomas.  Unfortunately he was only able to talk for a minute and 33 seconds.  It was really awesome to be able to talk to him, but it also really sucked to only get to talk to him for such a short amount of time.  Well, he called again today and I got to talk to him for 12 minutes!!! Even though 12 minutes really isn’t that long, it seemed like a lifetime after not talking to him for the last 2 weeks. 

He told me about everything that was going on in basic training… Well, at least everything he could in 12 minutes after asking how I was and how things are at home.  He sounds like he is doing great!  He said that his MTI (Military Training Instructor) is pretty badass and that he has gotten yelled at a lot!  In fact, he got yelled at while he was on the phone with me.  All of the sudden I heard someone yell, “GET OFF OF YOUR WALL LOCKER!” and then he told me he had just gotten yelled at for leaning on his wall locker.  OOPS!  That is probably more interesting to me than anyone else… Oh well. 

Hearing his voice and knowing that he is doing okay makes being away from him a lot easier.  The hardest part is not having that person to tell about your day every night before you go to bed.  Or not being able to call him when something funny happens or when I’m feeling sad. 

It’s really funny because I have had a few people tell me, “oh well the past 2 weeks have gone by fast right?  It seems like he just left a couple of days ago.”  Well, maybe to some people it seems to have gone by fast.  To me, these past 2 weeks have felt like 2 months.  It kind of sucks.  But if I get to talk to him every once in a while, hopefully that will make being apart a little easier.  The way I’m trying to look at it is, a 12-minute phone call is better than no phone call at all.  

First Taste of Life as an Air Force Wife

So I just got home from dropping Thomas off at the hotel in LA.  He leaves for Air Force Basic Military Training tomorrow.  Leaving him at the hotel was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life!  But at the same time I am very proud of him and I support his decision to join the Air Force 100 percent!  Just thinking about the fact that I won't get to talk to him or see him for the next 2 months really sucks!  I know that this is a part of being a military wife and I am going to have to get used to it, but I just didn't think that it was going to be this hard.  The good thing is that I have a great family (both mine and his) and great friends that I know are there for me when I need them. 

Tomorrow, Thomas' sister Jennie, and I are going to go down to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) to watch Thomas swear in.  I'm kind of torn on whether or not this is a good idea for me to go watch.  Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to get to see him swear in.  I think that is going to be really cool, but i just wonder if it is a good idea for me to see him again, but not actually get to talk to him.  I might break down again.  Oh well, I think it's worth the risk. Besides, even if I do break down at least I will get to see him one more time before he leaves, and that it definitely worth it!