Christmas in August - Alphabet Birth Announcement - How to make yourself

Well it is Christmas in August here at Full of Great Ideas. Last Saturday my husband and I were sitting out back, after the kids were put to bed, enjoying a bottle glass of wine with a little music and for some reason our iPod was determined to play Christmas music. It seemed like every other song in the random shuffle was a Christmas one; so it made me think that maybe it was a sign that I needed to start thinking about it.

I know you think I am insane but hear me out. Don't you find you have great intentions on saving a few dollars by making your Christmas gifts? Then December rolls around and you haven't done the majority of what you wanted to. I have always left my Christmas craft way too late and ended up buying gifts or staying up late of Christmas Eve spray painting something. So, I am making a deal with myself that it is not going to happen this year!

This gift is something I am making for a friend of mine who is pregnant and due right before Christmas. I don't know if she is having a boy or a girl or what color their nursery will be. So I made a few colors and layouts so that when her little one makes his or her entrance into this world, all I have to do is change the name and birth information, send it to Costco for printing and her gift is done.

Here are the designs I made and will show you below how to make them yourself. So for around $10 (less if you have a frame already) you too can make these amazing gifts! They take 10 minutes to design and cost under $2 to print.

These can be made using many different programs but I like to use Microsoft Publisher since I know its ins and outs.

Start by creating a new file. I made mine as an 8x10 image, but you can do any size you want.


Insert a text box and type the complete alphabet in capital letters. If you forget the capitals, you can change the case using the icon that looks like this 'Aa' on the Home tab. At the end of each of my rows, I used a hard return (is that term still used or was the lost when we stopped using typewriters?) so each row can be manipulated individually.

Select the font (I used Penshurst) and font size you like.

Now to get the font to go the entire way across the page, you need to highlight one line of the letters and select character spacing.

 Select 'More Spacing'

I change the 'Tracking' so there is more space between the letters but you can also play around with the 'Shrink and Stretch'. Remember you can always undo changes so don't be afraid to try different things.

Once you get all the rows but the last to the width of the text box, insert another text box on the bottom right side. This is where I insert the "is for Christian".

If you want no background, you can skip ahead a bit, but if you want there to be a pattern or texture behind your letters, select insert picture.

I inserted a free scrapbook paper I downloaded off the internet (just google 'free digital scrapbook paper' and you will find hundreds).

 If the text box moves down because of the scrapbook paper, select 'wrap text' then 'none'

 If the scrapbook paper is in front of the text, select 'Send Backwards' and then 'Send to back'

I then played around with the color of the font. I made all the letters white except the initial and the 'is for Christian'.

I added a button that I downloaded with some free scrapbook paper and I was done with this one.

To save the file as a JPEG, select 'Save As' and then 'JPEG'

Now this is important! Be sure to change the resolution to 'High Quality'. This will allow you to get a nice crisp 8x10 photo printed.

Once I finished with my first file, I easily changed it to make a few different looks. I added another text box to the bottom with weight, date and time.

Then I thought I would do a couple with the name on the side of the page. To turn a text box on its side, use the green circle on the top of the box and drag it around. The image below is with Broadway font.

To add a line below the name, select 'Insert' and 'shape'

This is how you change the color and width of the line

With these templates you can quickly change the look by removing or changing the background, changing the font style and color, etc.

The possibilities are really endless. I think my favorite design is this one.

Here are the other ones I have done so far. Which do you like the best?

 

F-ing Retirement Gift (Part 2) - Monogrammed Marble Tiles

As I mentioned in my previous post, a friend of mine decided to take an early retirement. I struggled with a personal gift to make and came up with monogrammed wine glasses and coasters. See here for the wine glasses.

The coasters I made were so extremely simple, that they have been added to my Christmas to do list. I know it is only August, but I have started my Christmas craft gifts already. I will be posting a few of them very soon so all of you can benefit.

I purchases these amazingly beautiful, white Carrera marble 4x4 tiles at Habitat for Humanity for only $0.40 each months ago to make the runners bib coasters for my husband. I scooped up every single one that was not chipped and almost ran out the door screaming "start the car".

For my girl friend, I decided to do something a little different then a standard set of 4 coasters with 'F's (her last name initial) on them. Instead I made one for each of the members of her family. So when they all are having a glass of wine with 'F's etched on them, they can use their individual coaster with their initial on it so they can keep track of their glasses.

I always wash the tiles before I do anything with them because when you first get them they are almost chalky. So after a good washing and letting the completely dry, I added vinyl cut with my Cricut. I tested out a few different fonts, sizes and ended up liking how these lower case letters looked. The font is a free one called Bell MT and each letter (except the 'r') was approximately 1.5 inches wide and high.

I then added four no slip stoppers (you can get these at the dollar store) to the back of each of the coasters. I have used the felt pads on the back before and I found out the hard way they slide really easily off a table. So these no slip ones are much better.

This next step is completely optional. I sealed the fronts of the tiles with a mat spray finish. I did this so that the tiles would not stain, but if you don't seal them, the tiles nicely absorb liquid when the glasses sweat. So it is completely up to you.

 

 Aren't they cute! So a set of 4 costs under $3.00 ($1.60 for the coaster, $1 for the no slip pads, few cents for vinyl) and a set of 6 isn't much more!

Are you ready for Christmas ideas yet? I will be sharing some very soon so don't be shocked.

Have a great day,
Stephanie

F-ing Retirement Gift - Monogrammed Wine Glasses

Oh, my title just makes me laugh. You will see where it comes from as the post goes on. Nothing bad I promise.

A couple of months ago one of my biggest supporters for my blog decided to take a very early retirement. Kim is one of the nicest and funniest people you could ever know. Other than parents, I have not have not known anyone else to retire, so when it came to gift ideas I was stumped. As I always say, I knew I wanted her gift to be personal and something she could use but I had already made her the name art and the monogrammed tile, so I had to come up with something completely new.

After heading over to the amazingly inspiring Pottery Barn site, I decided on making monogrammed stemless wine glasses and marble tile coasters (I will share this simple gift idea tomorrow).

Source Pottery Barn

The Pottery Barn glasses are over $50 for 6, and I created mine for under $20 for 8. I purchased eight reasonably priced stemless wine glasses from a local home store so they can be for everyday use and no one has to worry about them breaking.

I tested out a few different initials on a old pickle jar just to ensure I had the right sizing and to see which design I liked the best. I knew I was saving all those jars for a reason. Hopefully now my husband can't say anything about the stash again. Are you the same... you look at jars and think "Oh I know there is something I can do with that in the future" and it hurts you to throw them in the recycling bin?

So here are the two 'F' designs I tried. Both fonts are Brock Script but one has a circle around it:

I liked them both, but I found the large circle to be a little heavy for wine glasses. I also find that with the etching cream, large surfaces don't seem to be consistently etched. It is hard to explain, but it looks like some of the areas are more etched. So I went with the scrolly F.  Do you see where the F-ing wine glass title came from.

I used vinyl cut with my Cricut to create the template to etch. If you don't have a machine to cut vinyl, you can do this with stickers or hand cut contact paper. I have in the past printed text and traced it with an exacto knife over contact paper to make my own.

If you can't get the vinyl to lay completely flat, use the technique described on my post for the NFL Beer Steins here.

I find it easiest to lay all the glasses out on a dish towel. This prevents the glasses from rolling around and the etching cream from running down.

Using a sponge brush, I apply the etching cream. I use a lot of etching cream! I really believe for this more is better. Be very, very careful not to get any one the outside of the stencil because it will start to etch immediately.

I leave the etching cream on for 20-25 minutes. I honestly do not know how long it is suppose to stay on because here in Canada, the back of the bottle with the instructions is covered by a million warning messages in two languages. It is funny.

For all of you who are cheap frugal like me, this is important to read: As recommended by a fellow blogger, I carefully remove the etching cream with my sponge brush and scrape it right back into the etching cream bottle! Yes, you heard that right...I reuse the etching cream!!!! I have been reusing this cream for months and have not seen a difference in the end result.

I then rinse the etching cream under water and remove the vinyl.

Once they were all washed and dried off, this is what they looked like:

Cute huh! I think this is going to be my 'go to gift' for Christmas this year!

What do you think? Would you like this as a gift?

Has anyone else made etched gifts?

Stephanie

Teacher Gifts - Free printable quotes and personalized bookplate stickers

I know a post about teacher gifts is a few weeks late for all of you, but some of my children's teachers visit my blog, so I could not post their gifts until after they are given out on the last day of school. I hope some of you will remember these ideas (when in doubt ... Pin it) and use them next year when you are struggling, like I always do, for an idea for a teacher.

My children are both in French Immersion, so I have 4 teachers to purchase gifts for - two French and two English.  To make my gift giving even more difficult, my son is two years younger than my daughter and he always gets the same teachers she had. Therefore, I can't reuse previous ideas because all his teachers have received them in the past.

This year I wanted to make something practical that the teachers will use and thought I would make them personalized bookplates. You know, stickers the teachers can put in their books to identify it belongs to them.

I purchase two sizes of Avery Labels (one with 6 stickers per sheet #5264 and the other with 30 stickers per sheet #5160) and downloaded free templates from the Avery site.

Source Avery - Linked to template downloads

Source Avery - Linked to template downloads

After I downloaded a few different templates, I merged (just by copying and pasting) the designs my kids liked onto one page so I could print a few different designs at once. I also used some free JPEG images and other designs (i.e. digital scrapbook paper) to make my own creations.

My kids wanted some of the bookplates to say "This book belongs to" and others to say "From the library of". We translated the phrases (hopefully correctly) into French for those two teachers.


Tip: I had to print a few test pages before I managed to get this to print properly. The oddest thing happened every time I printed the sheets, the ink would smudge. I was stumped. How can a laser print smudge? Then I realized there is an option in your printer setup for paper type of LABELS. This somehow prints differently and they came out perfectly! So look for the paper type option and see if label is in there before you waste a few sheets of labels.

I printed 6 sheets per teacher of 6 stickers per page design.

 

I selected my two favorite designs for the smaller stickers. I printed 3 sheets per teacher of the 30 stickers per page.

I removed the outer border of the sticker pages and cut the sheets into smaller sizes so they looked like individual stickers.

Using my a cheap food saver I purchased at the local thrift store for $6 (for another craft) I made a custom sheet holder for the stickers so the teachers can put them in their supplies binders.  I sealed two seams (one across the middle horizontally and one about a third from the edge vertically) in a plastic sheet protector and opened up the bottom half with small sharp scissors.

If you decide to try this, be sure to try it out with extra plastic sheet protectors. I melted some completely through, so remember only to hold it down for a second or two. Also don't try it with your good food saver/sealer. I do not want to be responsible for you destroying it!

I had intended to include a book store gift card along with this gift but I didn't want to drive across town and spend another $80 ($20 per teacher). I had hoped to only spend $10 more per teacher...but that didn't seem like enough on a gift card to buy much.

So, I thought I would make the teachers a small frame with a quote that reminded us of them that they can hang in their classrooms.

I designed each of these 5x7 quotes with free digital scrapbook paper you can find online. I searched for teachers quotes and selected four that seemed to best fit the teachers. Here they are:

 

In case you are interested in using these, I have included the images below that you can save and use for yourself. I would love some feedback in the comments if you download these. Let me know which you prefer and if you would like them in different colors. I can always change them and post the revised images.

Note: I have not put my logo or the teacher's names on these examples so you should be able to right click on the image and open in a new window(to open it in full size) and then right click on it again to save it. These were uploaded in a resolution large enough to print as 5x7s. As with everything I create and offer to you for free, I just ask that you please do not sell these...but feel free to use them for your own personal use! Remember I love your feedback so leave me a comment :)

Each teachers gift cost me around $12.  Here is the breakdown of pricing:

• I spent around $40 on the label stickers to make the teacher's personalized bookplate stickers, but I have enough left over to do another year or two worth of gifts or I might just make some for my kids or for friend's birthdays.
• The framed quotes cost me approximately $7 each.

I hope this helps some of you with your teacher gift struggles next year!

How are your summers going? Anyone have suggestions on entertaining two busy kids while you try to work from home?

Stephanie