Happy Snow Day

On Monday, I made a rare stop at Burger King for lunch.  I rarely eat fast food but I could hear my stomach growling over Haydn's Symphony in C, so decided to get off at the next exit for some lunch.  When I pulled up at the window to pay, the cashier handed me a dollar bill and told me that it was from the lady in the truck in front of me. He said "The Lady in the green truck told me to give this dollar to you and tell you to have a happy snow day." It just so happened that the forecast was calling for 3 inches of snow later that day. I handed the dollar back to the cashier and told him to pass it along to the man in the truck behind me with the same message. Hopefully it brightened his day as much as it did mine.  This lady has no idea how much her act of kindness actually meant to me.  Lately everyone that I have had to deal with has been crabby, surly and some of them down right mean, but this little act of kindness made me realize that there still are nice people who care about others. Hunger aside, I was actually glad that I took the time to stop for lunch that day.

Like everyone I'm getting a little tired of the cold, snowy weather and can't wait for it to end.  I am taking advantage of this time to work on some craft projects and really try to learn all of the features of the Silhouette Cameo. We have a plastic memo paper holder (attached to our fridge) that has become faded and worn over the years.  The decal on the front of holder has country themed designs in slate blue and mauve.  Not only are the colors dated ( from 1990's) but the decal is faded.  I contemplated throwing it out but I couldn't bear to part with it because it is useful and Michelle sold it to us for a 2nd grade school fundraiser.  This became a snow day boredom, makeover project.  I used the Cameo to print and cut some cute little owls that I found on Miss Kate's Cuttables for 50 cents. I printed the owls on white card stock with a HP Laser printer and then sent them to the Cameo to cut. 

Finished Memo paper holder.  

I should note that the flower stickers on the owls are not actually on my memo paper holder, I just placed them there for copyright purposes so I could share this project with you.


Directions for Owl Memo Paper Holder:

Plastic Memo Paper Holder or something else that needs a makeover, this would also make a cute card.
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder
Embossing machine- I used the Sizzix Boutique
Pale pink, white and scraps of pink card stock
Ranger Liquid Pearls- platinum, blue, pink and white. The blue, pink and white were part of a set purchased at Michaels
Four self adhesive gold beads
Mod Podge and foam brush
Cutting machine that has print and cut capability- I used Silhouette Cameo
Owls sitting on a branch design downloaded from Miss Kate's Cuttables


1.   Unzip the owl zip file from Miss Kate's Cuttables.  Import the image to the cutting machine (Cameo) and resize if desired.  I sized the owls at 3 1/2 inches wide.  The next instructions are for Cameo users. Set the page size to letter; click show registration marks (make sure the image is inside the grey area); open the Trace window- turn off the high pass filter, move the threshold until the image is completely yellow, click trace outer edge; open the cut window and click cut- thick red lines should outline the image.  Click the printer icon and print the design.  Place the printed card stock on the left edge of the Cameo mat and load into the machine.  Click send to Silhouette. Turn on a light is the room is not well lit so the Cameo can detect the registration marks. I rotated my desk lamp to provide more light for the Cameo.  Carefully remove the image from the mat. The hearts each cut separately from the owls.

2.  Cut a piece of pale pink card stock approximately 3 1/4 inches high by 4 1/4 inches wide.  Use the Swiss Dots embossing folder to emboss the card stock.

3.  Liberally apply Mod Podge to the back of the pink card stock with a foam brush.  Cover the front surface of the memo paper holder with the card stock. Smooth out any air bubbles with your fingers. Apply Mod Podge to the back of the owl design and center on the memo paper holder and repeat the process for the hearts.  Cut four small triangles by snipping the corners off of a scrap of pink patterned paper.  Glue the a triangle in each corner of the card stock. 


4.   Apply Mod Podge over the entire surface and set aside to dry.  After the surface is dry, attach a gold bead to each corner.  Apply a dot of platinum Liquid Pearls to the ends of the branches, a dot of blue to each of the blue owl's feathers (on his head) and a dot of pink to the pink owl's feathers. Apply small dots of the white Liquid Pearls to the center of each heart.