Old Candle Jars Repurposed

I love re-purposing things! I love making old food containers into pots for my plants, love making old wood into new signs, and most recently, old candle jars into bathroom storage. I had a couple of the three wick candles from Bath and Body Works, that I had used up, and instead of throwing out the jars, I decided to reuse them. I cleaned out the old wax from them - this is is wonderful tutorial on how.

They make amazing jars for bathroom storage, and this really is not a new idea. So, that's what I did with mine. One for cotton balls, and another for makeup circles. I kind of wanted to use the makeup circle one for cotton swabs, but I had purchased a set, that included a container for swabs. I may have to toss that one out, just so that I can use these candle jars instead!

They are beautiful by themselves, and even more gorgeous with some vinyl put onto them! I used a couple phrases that I had purchased from the Silhouette Design Store, and I am very pleased with them, they turned out awesome! I am getting better at putting vinyl on things, as I find little tricks to make thing easier.

I used Oracal 651, which is the waterproof, outdoor vinyl. Sadly, these also took the last of my second favorite metallic silver. (My most favorite is the gold metallic vinyl, that I used or my coasters). I have already ordered much more of it, now that I know it's one of my most used. I love the metallics! My most recent order was pretty much all of the metallic colors. And several feet of just plain white.

I really wanted "inspirational" phrases for my bathroom, because the bathroom is where I visit first thing in the morning, and some days, I just really need to hear something positive. These work well for that purpose, I think!

Decorating Tiles With the Silhouette

Recently, I decided that I wanted to really make my apartment a little more like a home. We have been here almost a full year, and we have basically nothing on our walls, except for some spray painted letters. My apartment just doesn't feel lived in. So, I made the decision to really invest in some pieces to make it a little more home-y.

First on my list of things to have: coasters! Since I prefer to do it myself when I can, I went to our local Home Depot and picked up some of the cheapest kitchen floor tiles that I could find. I got four small 3x3 glossy ceramic tiles, priced at only .13 cents each. Then, purchased a design from the Silhouette store and used my machine to cut it out on permanent vinyl. I sized each design at two and a half inches, and adhered them to each tile. Lastly, I cut out little square pieces of white felt and glued them to the back corners, so they don't clink against each other, and scratch surfaces up.

They turned out great! While I had a couple issues - one has an air bubble that I can't get out, and another coaster is missing the dot for the "i". All things considered, they look fabulous. They look very formal, very wedding-like. With the white and the metallic vinyl, I couldn't have asked for a better combination. (Not to mention, these would probably make great wedding gifts!)

Next project, I wanted a tile just for a simple display. Again, a single, super cheap tile from Home Depot, and a small easel, made for a wonderful foundation to put a phrase on. The easel, I think they are most common for displaying plates, and I found mine at Gordman's. However, I did notice them to be slightly cheaper at Hobby Lobby with a coupon.

I added a different phrase, again purchased from the Silhouette Design Store, cut out in permanent vinyl. My tile was 12x12, and the phrase probably would have looked a lot better larger, but this was as big as my machine could cut. We do what we can, with what we have, right?

A good start to making a bare apartment a nice place to live, I think! It's been FAR to long since I made an attempt at decorating the place I call home.

Monogramming with the Silhouette

For Christmas, I received a fabulous gift - a Silhouette Portrait! It is just like the Cameo, just a couple inches smaller. I have been playing with cutting paper over the past few weeks, and finally received some vinyl to experiment with. However, recently, I have really taken a liking to monogramming. I purchased an app called Monogram It! for my Android phone (apparently, it's also for iPhone, too), and I started off monogramming my phone wallpaper, but that was not good enough. I wanted to do more! So what was my first vinyl project? A monogrammed ring dish!

The dish is a small porcelain "dip bowl" that was only $2 from Target. I used the app to create a monogram, emailed the image to myself, then traced it into the Silhouette Studio software to cut my vinyl. Once cut, It took me a few tries to get it just right into the dish, and even now it doesn't seem perfectly centered. But, after several attempts, I got frustrated and just decided it was good enough. Haha! It is just for us, so I figure it doesn't need to be perfect.

My husband takes his wedding ring off when he washes his hands, or showers, so I thought the ring dish would be a really cute place for him (and me!) to put our rings when we need to take them off. (Let us not mention the fact that he lost his ring twice over the last 2 weeks. First time, he fell in the snow, and it flew off - we had to wait until the snow melted outside to find it. And more recently, he lost it at the dog park while throwing a frisbee - we had to go back to find it. We were VERY lucky to have found it, both times.)

Anyway, next, I wanted to monogram my phone! This turned out much better, I think. I am totally pleased with how the back of my phone turned out. I keep a clear case over my phone, and this will be completely visible, even with the case on.


I love my Silhouette Portrait, I feel like I can do so much with it! Pretty much anything I can think of to make with it will make fabulous gifts and fun trinkets, not to mention make my smash booking and junk journaling so much better!