Canister Labels

The other day I went looking through my baking items and found one of my peppermint baking bars nibbled all up and down the sides. Breath. Do not freak out. Aahhhh!!

Naturally the next step is to re-organize the closet and put just about everything in a canister. 

I love creating designs in Silhouette Studio and this would be a great chance to see what I could come up with. As well, this would be my first time cutting vinyl. *So excited*

First thing is first: Deciding what will all go into canisters so I know how many labels to create and what size to make them.

Choose the colors: For Christmas we got a little bit of spending money from family and I told Paul it was time for a change in our kitchen decor and colors. The vinyl for the labels will match the new colors so well.

Items needed:

Canisters {purchased at Wal-Mart}

Vinyl in color{s} of choice

Clear Contact Paper

Small clear Omnigrid rulers
Cut file*

Tip: For something a little more worthy of the counter top check out this

Oggi 4 Piece Stainless Steel Canister Set
or

Oggi 4-Piece Locking Acrylic Canister Set

I used the 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square ruler from this Ruler Value Pack
 and the 1" x 6" ruler from this Basics Ruler Set

First wash the canisters. After they dry use rubbing alcohol to clean the surface where the vinyl will be placed. 

Design the labels or purchase a cutting file. Here is the label design* I came up with for my canisters. I love how they turned out and they were actually pretty easy to create. Give it a try, after seeing your first design come out you will be hooked.

Cut the design into the vinyl then weed out the parts that you will not be using. Since I am not a very avid cook I also have solid labels for the backs of the canisters and I will be putting the expiration dates on them to remind myself when it will be time to switch out the contents.. A dry erase marker can be used on the vinyl so this will work out perfect.

Tip: on some of my vinyl pieces that had a lot of negative space I cut a bunch of 3/8" circles so that Lady A could use them as stickers. We ended up using the green dots on a simple white bedroom clock. After we used the dots on our clock project I weeded out the rest so they would not get in the way of transferring the labels.

Tip: on smaller vinyl images and ones that are not to intricate I use normal clear contact paper that comes in a huge roll. While it is not as 'sticky' or as thick as transfer paper, it works great on these smaller projects and costs a lot less.

Bring the vinyl up with the clear contact paper. Then center on the clear ruler to the height that you want the label and let your clear contact paper stick to the ruler. Line up the ruler to the center of the canister and simply press the top of the label onto the canister, making sure to start from the center and smooth out the label so no air bubbles get trapped. Remove the ruler and press the rest of the label down, then remove the clear contact paper

It gets just a little bit trickier when placing the labels with words. If the lettering lays over the clear ruler at all they will want to stick to the ruler. Expose the bottom of the label so that it can still be lined up on the ruler. Leave the vinyl baking where the lettering is. Follow the same process as above for centering and placing the labels but be sure to remove the vinyl baking when the ruler is removed.

Finish pressing/laying the vinyl into place and remover the clear contact paper.

TaDa!! Nice wonderful canisters labeled and ready to go in the closet.

The colors turned out great as well and will match the rest of the kitchen. 

*Eeek*

If you have a Silhouette machine but are maybe a bit intimidated by it like I was {this is my first electronic cutter of any kind} I would suggest watching the introduction DVD that comes along with it. Seriously, it helped me so much, with just enough instruction on how to use it and a lot of the different features ~ now there has been no stopping me.

*Download files are not to be sold, redistributed, or altered without permission. Items using this cut pattern are not to be sold. Please send your friends and family to my blog if they want a copy as well. Thanks! I am excited to see what everyone come up with.

Giveaway ~ Getting Organized

Well I think it is time for a giveaway!!!

I have a craft corner in our living room {yea for apartment living} and with a toddler whose sticky little fingers find everything that is not put away or high enough out of reach, I have to keep my corner organized and straightened. This means having an easy way to pick things up and put them away.

We all know that it takes a bit of time to set up when we want to start a project, then cleaning up just to bring it all out again when we want to continue working on our projects.

*Giveaway is for an empty roll-up. I have sewing  supplies in the first two pouches, stuff for party decorations in one and in the last pouch, items for an image transfer project I'm working on.

This is the perfect way to stay organized when I have to clean up. With four pouches I can keep all my standard supplies available, those needed for a specific project, bits n' pieces for my projects and whatever else I need. The pouches also come off and on so you can place it right on the table with you and not take up all the space for unrolling the bag.

Now, while I am working on a project that will take more than one nap time to complete, I won't have to put everything away in their different places then take the time to pull everything out again when I want to finish my project, just roll it up and put it in a corner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I also have one for the restroom. It's great to use right now but I love it when we go on trips like the one we took last weekend. Pouches for cleansers and lotion; make-up; toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and the like; and whatever else might be needed like medication, q-tips, cotton balls, etc.

These bags are normally $30 but if you would like to purchase one at a discounted rate {$22 + shipping, tax is included} shoot me an e-mail. To get this rate we need to reach a group order minimum, once we do, invoices will be sent out. The discounted rate ends Saturday, March 30th, so act fast. The more orders, the bigger the discount for all of us so be sure to share this with your family and friends.

*Giveaway is open to US residents only.

*UPDATE: The winner of the small space organizer is Vonda. Congratulations!!

Weathering the Storm ~ Checklist

Since living in Connecticut we have gone without power more here, in 1 ½ years, than we have living anywhere else. I’m not sure I could call myself an expert just yet but we are getting pretty good at weathering the storm.

When we first moved to CT, before we even had a place to live, we were crashing in a friends basement and lost power that weekend. When Abigail was two weeks old we lost power for nine days from Hurricane Irene. Last fall we went without power again and this time, I would say, was the hardest. We were on well water so when the power went out the water stopped as well, the stove was electric as well and Abigail was a rambunctious one {1} year old.

Paul and I love to camp so we had a number of items already that could help in a power outage situation. So, now I am going to share with you my list of things to have ready and other things to prepare right before the storm. I have also included other tips, some that we thought up and acted on before the storm and some that we figured out the hard way. I'm sharing my list but I think I will keep to myself which ones were added after the storm. Wink, Wink!

Click here and download the files for yourself. I will be printing off my list and put it in my Moving Binder, that has now become our home binder since we have moved.

This is her third {3rd} once-in-a-lifetime/record breaking storm. She had no idea what to do with so much snow. The older kids in the neighborhood were in heaven ... once they could go outside and play in.

Here are some of my other binder printables

Our Budget Binder

Start a Yearly Savings Plan with this printable

Check out our Moving Binder

Our Moving Binder

After first getting married Paul and I stayed in the same place for 4 1/2 years. It was just a little Town Home but it was perfect for us. After Paul graduated we started moving and haven't stopped. We are moving again at the end of the month, this will be our 5th move in 2 years. Our biggest move was in my third trimester, from Utah to Connecticut, and the last three moves have been with our baby.

I have come up with a couple of tools to help me stay organized during my moves. Here is my moving binder and box labeling tabs.

Here are the sections for my binder:

Home 4 Sale {Out with the Old...}

Home 2 Buy {In with the New...}

Moving Costs

Moving Checklist {Out with the Old...}

Moving Checklist {In with the New...}

New Area Info

Contact List

Receipts

 

Every section has a opening page and a few more blank pages for all my notes. I have filled in a few spots for the basics but left plenty of room for you to fill in your own list of "To Do." The Moving Checklist has one page of suggestions and a completely blank one, this way you can print off as many as you need and fill it in with your own list.

For the receipts section I included a pencil pouch to hold my receipts.

There are a few things that are necessities when moving into a new place and having to search through a bunch of boxes looking for those few items can get a little frustrating. So I have developed a list of things that we need to have 'First on the Scene' when we get to our new place. There are also box labels included. These can simply be printed out on a sheet and cut out using the trim marks or printed onto label sheets. They have an assigned room and space to include a description of what is in the box. We all have different spaces and places so there is a blank sheet of labels as well so you can print out as many as you need for what ever the size of your move. If you choose to print and cut out the labels you can place them in the pencil pouch to hold them until you are ready to tape them to the boxes.

If you want to download my pdf's simply click here. In short there are 9 binder pages with 2 blank 'To Do' lists, 5 box labels sheets with rooms listed and 1 blank box labels sheet.

UPDATE: The moving binder and pages worked out great!! Everything was kept together and right where I needed them. I must say my favorite part was the boxing labels. For every box I put a label on top of the box, back left corner and another on the front of the box, top right corner. This way, however the box was packed in the truck, one of the corners would be visible so we could now what was in it and where it needed to be put in the new place. LOVED IT!!! This will be used every time we move from now on.

***UPDATE***

{4 June 2013}

I am really feeling the love. This has been my most popular post and a huge number of you have downloaded my Moving Binder pages. {I didn't think it would be this big of a hit.} 

I went back over the box labels and added some color, so now your boxes will be color coded as well. YEA!! There are even separate colors for three different bedrooms and bathrooms and two blank colors. Here is the link for the new labels and pages. If you want the original, click on the link further up the page.

Happy Move!!

Here are some of my other binder printables

Our Budget Binder

Start a Yearly Savings Plan with this printable

Here is my Checklist for Weathering the Storms 

Mega Bloks Box into a Tote

While we were out in Pennsylvania visiting family for Thanksgiving Abigail was introduced to Lego's, she loved them! Her first tantrum we ever experienced was one night when we took the Lego's away to get ready for bed. We were all thrown for a loop, this was not a regular thing for Abigail, we couldn't help but just sit and watch.

Since she seemed to have such a love for them and they are the perfect size for her little hands, she got some for Christmas. Lately she has also been trying to stack items, put lids on stuff and put anything that fits - into something else. This little bucket of Mega Bloks does it all: building blocks, lid, room to put more stuff in.

To help keep the lid with the bucket I came up with a way to attach it.

Now, I'm sure I could have just taken a photo of the finished project and you could have figured out exactly what I did.....but I got a new camera for Christmas and so I have step by step photos. Tee~hee~hee.

The Mega Bloks bucket has holes on both sides where the zip ties were placed to keep it closed at the store.

I used 16" {inches} of 1/4" ribbon and a couple of random beads.

String the bead onto the middle of the ribbon. Fold the ribbon and put the two ends together then lace through the hole in the lid and the bucket from top to bottom.

Once the ribbon is laced put the lid in place so that there will be as much slack as possible. I singed the ends of the ribbon but you can use some type of fray glue. Then tie a knot with the ends of the ribbon.

The beads on the ribbon help keep the ribbon from just slipping all the way through the holes and keep it all attached.

Boom!! Now the lid will stay with the bucket and she has a handle to drag it all over, bang it into walls and ram the corners.