Southern Scraps

  Are you in love with the monogram trend? Do you love it on your clothes and accessories or just in home decor? I'm more drawn to home decor. I decided that I wanted a monogrammed plate to add to our home decor and knew I could do this quickly and easily with my Silhouette and some vinyl. (Thank goodness it's quick and easy, I haven't had time for much else craft wise lately).   I picked up an oval shaped platter from the thrift store. You can see it in it's "before" state below.   With just a little cleaning and some vinyl decals, I now have a fabulous decor piece. I first measured length and width of the area I would be working in so I'd know how big to size my overall design in Silhouette. Sorry, I don't have screen shots but here's the basic workflow. I chose some swirls out of " Swirls set of 7 ". I ungrouped them so I had just the one I wanted and then copied it and reversed the copy. I took the ellipse to...

  Monograms become more and more popular every day. I tend to prefer the kind I can make for my home rather than the kind to wear. Here are one dozen diy monogram projects.

Still need a last minute gift? Need it to be budget friendly? Run to the Dollar Tree. For a dollar, grab a plastic bucket/basket. I bought the ones I used back in the summer, but I've seen them in other colors. I bet they have red right now. Design a monogram in your Silhouette SD/ Cameo, etc or other digital cutting machine. I made mine by drawing a circle and the filling it with my initials. Once I had the letters the way I wanted them, I erased the circle. I cut the monogram from vinyl and applied to the basket.   Don't have a cutting machine? Design a monogram in Word  and trace it on vinyl. Or print one and apply it using this method.   I'm using mine in the place of "stockings" this year and the basket itself is a gift since it has been personalized for the recipient. (You could put their name instead of initials.) Fill it with their favorite things and wrap in a basket bag tied off with curly ribbon and you've got a fun gift! Or ...

Are you down to wire now? Do you need a quick gift idea? Combine two hot trends right- chevron and monograms- and you will have a cute quick gift. I've had these tumblers in my craft/ gift closet for a while now. They are designed to insert photos into the tumbler.  They started out as pictured below. Cute polka dots, but not really what I wanted. I also have not learned photoshop very well and did not know if I could manipulate a photo template to add photos. So... instead I printed out some fun chevron prints on an 8.5 x 11 in piece of cardstock. I took the existing paper in the tumbler and used it as a template to cut my cardstock. Then I inserted my new fresh pattern into the tumblers. You can print free chevron papers here. (The site I originally used has a bad link.) I designed my monograms in Silhouette using this tutorial , except I stopped when it came to point editing. Basically, what I did was draw a circle to place my letters in and then deleted t...