Volunteer Gifts

I have 12 terrific moms who volunteer regularly so I wanted to do something a little more personalized this year for a thank you gift. I am pretty happy about how these turned out...

The letter is the initial of their first name.

 How did I make them? The nice people from Silhouette America sent me a Cameo. Oh my word, I love this machine! I found it very easy to set up and use. It looks like a printer but it actually is your own personal fancy cutting tool! For this project I used vinyl but this machine can also cut paper, cardstock, and fabric! I have a future post planned to show you how it can cut printed materials.

For my first project I bought the Silhouette Vinyl Starter Kit. It had a sampling of vinyl colors I liked and some tools that were helpful. I especially like the short instructional DVD since I am a visual learner!

Also on Amazon, I found a 12-pack of acrylic tumblers. I recently saw some at the Dollar Tree which would be more economical but these are better quality.

I then used the included Silhouette software to make my design.

You can use any fonts you have installed on your computer and the circle is a basic shape available on the left side under ellipse. A $10 gift card to the online shop comes with your Cameo so you can go shop for additional images. The site also gives away a FREE shape of the week! Need a new blog to follow? There is also a Silhouette blog featuring project ideas.

Next, I loaded the vinyl into the Cameo. You do not need the cutting mat for vinyl. Different media might require the mat or a change of blade size but both are easy to do.

The vinyl is already adhesive so after it is cut you smooth transfer paper (think clear contact paper) over it so you are able to lift and position your design without touching the sticky back. I found it helpful to cut the circles apart while on the transfer paper so I didn't accidentally rub and get an extra neighboring circle attached.

I found cute ribbon and bags at Micheals to complete the look. I added a half sheet of tissue paper to each cup which looks cute in person but the letters disappear in this picture. I first tried green tissue but it was the wrong green and I didn't have black. If I had known I was going to end up using pink tissue I probably would have made the letters black instead of pink. Of course this imperfection is driving me a little crazy but I am going to let it go. Any minute now...really.

I am off to go complete report cards which go home with the kids on our last day, Thursday!!!!!

I have been so crazy busy I have not been in blogland but I heard Erica Bohrer gave my Me on the Map project a shout out so thanks girl! That means a lot coming from someone as talented as yourself!

Would you like to share what you do to say thank you to your volunteers? Link up below if you'd like.