Fun Find Friday: Silhouette Inspirations

I received a Silhouette SD for my birthday this year from Brian and the boys. I have been wanting one for a couple of years and finally found a cheap enough deal on overstock.com to justify getting it. A Silhouette is basically a printer, but instead of using ink, it has a razor to cut images. You can feed a bunch of different materials into the machine creating all kinds of cool crafts and personalized items, like vinyl, cardstock, fabric, and even temporary tattoo paper.

I have found so many fabulous ways to use my silhouette on pinterest, here are a couple of my favorites (that I am not planning to give as gifts in the near future):

Monogrammed Cooler - The font may be a little too fancy for our family, but I love the idea of adding a little bling and making an ice chest more personalized without whipping out the sharpie

Fall Wreath - While it would take forever to hand cut each individual leaf, the silhouette could spit those puppies out in a couple of seconds

Mobile - May need to find a pregnant friend to make this for!

Fabric Artwork - They hand drew and cut the birds and leaves; I am not an artist, so I would use the fabric interfacing feature cut and modgepodge

Mailbox Decor - We have neighborhood mailboxes, so I couldn't make this for us, but how gorgeous!

Pinwheel - the silhouette also cuts foldables for 3-dimensional projects!

Monogrammed Sign - I think we need this in our entrance

Fun Find Friday: Why Didn't I Think of That!?!

All of these pinterest finds fall into the ridiculous category of smart ideas that leave you wondering how you didn't come up with something so simple yourself. As always, websites can be found by clicking the underlined link.

Lose Something - pantyhose rubberbanded to the vacuum


Sunblocker - unhook the last ring from your curtain rod and hang it on the bracket. We did this in Deacon's room and you wouldn't believe how much darker it is a naptime!

Free Bag Clips - Cut off the ends of those cheap pant coathangers that you usually throw away

Lost Camera - On the first image for your new card take a picture of your contact information so that camera can be returned. This guy had a fun way of passing his message along, click the link to see the full image

Livestock Tank Swimming Pool - how awesome!

Cupcake Lids - Keep flies out of drinks at picnics, even cuter if you can match the party theme

Baby Food Jar - When painting a room pour some excess paint into baby food jar for quick, easy touch-ups. Website has lots of other great ideas.

Power Outage - Going out of town? What if the power goes out? How will you know if the food refreezes before your return? This is a genius idea! Freeze a jar of water on its side. Stand it back up. If the power goes out, the water will melt and freeze to the bottom of the jar.

Bucket Filling - For buckets that won't fit in the sink, use dust pan

Pinterest Projects

You know how they say you marry your parent? Sometimes Brian scares me by how much he has in common with my dad. Mostly he reminds me of the positive attributes. Growing up my dad could fix anything, and if he couldn't he would at least give it a good try until my mom forced him to bring in a professional. He built the house I grew up in, could fix the car issues, and still believes that WD-40 can solve any problem. The smell will still bring me back to my childhood.

That's the best quality in Brian too; I love being married to a handy fella. He can fix broken appliances and build all the crazy projects I dream up. As you can imagine, he is just THRILLED that I found pinterest...hehe

The great thing is that he can't say "that won't work" because I can pull up the instructions along with photographic proof!

I started working on him slowly and just showed him a couple of my favorites. What's the point in overwhelming him with the 600+ pins I have made??

First up, rain gutter book shelves!! All the supplies (10 ft gutter, brackets, and 4 endcaps) cost somewhere around $15!

We were going to go with white gutters, but once we saw the brown ones we decided those would match better.

Step by step instructions here.

The other project we completed was hanging storage bins in our garage. We already had the bins, so we only had to purchase wood. It only cost about $10 and took Brian 20 minutes to do.

We are planning to buy more lumber to build a few more rows.

You can see the how-to here.