TUTORIAL: Stamped Wooden Utensils with the Silhouette Machine and September Deals!

If you have ever wanted to design your own stamps then you are going to love the new Stamping Starter Kit from Silhouette America!  It is totally rad! Silhouette gave me a kit to play around with to create my very own custom stamps and holy cats, can I tell you how addicting this is!

For those of you who have followed along on my blog for any length of time, you know how much I love throwing a good party.  Well, designing my own stamps took party planning up a notch as now I'm able to coordinate a party theme's design onto those fun eco-friendly wooden utensils you see all over Pinterest, Etsy, and blogland in general! Then, just pick a coordinating color stamp pad and you can really get your party's colors picked up in even your utensils...so cool! I'm thinking chevron stamps, honeycombs, snowflakes...ahhh, the list goes on and on.

This is what the Stamping Starter Kit looks like. Everything you need to create your own stamps comes in one pretty little chevron box.

You get a special stamping cutting mat, a few sheets of their special stamping material you need to cut your stamps out with your Silhouette machine, 3 different sizes of acrylic blocks to place your stamp clings on to, ink, and a card for 10 free shapes!  You can also use the fonts and images from the Silhouette online store to create your own unique stamps just make sure they images/fonts aren't too narrow since then they may not cut well through the special stamping material!

I used the "dots" shape that came with the Stamping Starter Kit and cut it down to a thinner size cling to make stamping on my wooden utensils a breeze. 

Just place the cling onto the acrylic block using the guidelines to keep it straight and press your stamp into an ink pad to make it come to life, so easy I tell you! To clean your stamps, just use a baby wipe or a wet paper towel and the ink comes off and looks like new again.

And now, thanks to Silhouette, I can match my utensils to any party theme, wooo hooo! 

If you are interested in getting a Stamping Starter Kit for yourself (or maybe even a friend!) you can Click Here Now to get Silhouette's September Deal which runs from today, September 4 through September 13, 2013.  You can get a bundled deal with a Cameo or Portrait cutting machine or just the Stamping Starter Kit alone for a reduced price by using my Coupon Code: CARROTS. Get this deal while it is here cause once it's gone it's gone!

Happy Stamping my friends!

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: Chalkboard Paint Dipped Wooden Spoons

I was packaging up a gift to send out to my littlest seester and her husband a few weeks ago (more on that fun gift in another post!) and decided that there was a definite need for some cute wooden spoons in their housewarming gift.  

Enter in those cute dipped spoon that have been so trendy in blogland. I love the idea but wanted a bit more functionality out of them, like say dipping them in chalkboard paint so you can write cute little sayings on them, hello! now that's right up my alley!

These are super easy and I love how you can personalize them for gift giving :-)
Here's how you can make a few of these babies...

Chalkboard Paint Dipped Wooden Spoons

Chalkboard paint of your choice (I like Martha Stewart's line but you could always make your own like the tutorial found here.)
Wooden spoons
Painter's tape or Washi tape
Foam brush
Chalk

Martha's paint is pretty rad (remember how I used it here and here), she has some fun color options beside the standard black...which would also look pretty cool on these here wooden spoons. I chose the green as it went with my housewarming gift colors :-)

All you do is mark off the boundary of the paint dipped end with your washi (or painter's) tape. Measure if you want the colors to be even steven throughout your spoon collection! Paint one coat, wait an hour to dry...a mason jar works great as a wooden spoon holder...and then paint an additional coat of paint (that's two coats peeps!)

Let the paint cure for 24 hours and then grab a piece of chalk to condition your new chalkboard space. Wipe it off and then pick some fun words to scribble on your new dipped wooden spoons!

Enjoy gifting these beauties or keep a them for yourself....I may or may not have made a few for me too, hey they are too cute not to keep! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,