I am part of a Mommies group on Facebook. It is a fantastic place to go to find advice and share funny stories about being a mom. Because there are plenty. There are also plenty horror stories and plenty of opportunities to just cry. This is the place to do it.

Anyway, I digress. Someone asked a while back about a great baby shower gift and one of the moms said that someone gave them a box of stuff to keep in the car. A survival kit, if you will. I am not sure if it was intended for things that you forget or in case you get stranded. I was more leaning toward forgetting things because I am constantly forgetting things. Plus, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to run a quick errand after work and didn’t go because I didn’t have a diaper or wipes or whatever. So a while back, I had a baby shower for a co-worker and I threw one together. I have another baby shower coming up for a close friend from college so I decided to do another one and pretty it up.

In the process, I used vinyl on my Cricut (which I am about to sell and get a newer one – SO. FREAKING. EXCITED) and the whole vinyl thing was WAY harder than I had anticipated and all the videos I watched and tutorials I read were so perfect. “You just cut it out, place it on and voila! It’s perfect vinyl – no stress!” They didn’t mention the beads of sweat that will drip down your face (well, maybe just me because I am 7 months pregnant), the toys that will go flying, the swear words that will go flying…I was so frustrated. So since I want this blog to be real life, I decided to do a tutorial with literally everything that can go wrong. Because that is the story of my life – what can go wrong, will go wrong. ALWAYS.

Anyway (again), here is what I put into the box:

*2 pacifiers
*Pacifier clip
*Pack of wipes
*Receiving blanket
*A few bibs
*A pack of diapers (I opened them up and put them in various places in the box)
*An outfit
*A sippy cup
*A small bottle of baby wash, baby shampoo, lotion, baby powder, Desitin
*A box of liners for changing tables
*A pack of teethers
*A box of infant Ibuprofen
*A washcloth (not pictured…I forgot)

Now, if you don’t want to pretty up the box, stop reading here. Just toss it in a box. I took the hangers out of the outfit and the blanket because it was easier to pack. I also separated the diapers and put them throughout the box. I ended up using an 18 qt box (it was about $5 at Target). I printed out her registry (including things she had already received) to see what type of stuff she wanted – brand of diapers, teethers, pacifiers, etc – because if she already received it, she’s not going to keep it in her car – she’s going to use it. This way, I knew what brands she wanted.

Onward and upward – here goes the vinyl incident. Just so you know, I was successful, so stay with me here. 🙂

I used black and gray because that’s what I had at home and I’ve been told my DIYing is out of control, so I was trying to avoid spending more money. I also had transfer tape which is supposed to be helpful. Unless of course, you’re me.

So when I plugged the design into Craft Room on the Cricut, I was ready to cut. Well, it cut right through the vinyl and the backing. It’s not supposed to do this. This is not how the happy, fun YouTube videos went! I asked for advice from a crating expert friend (thanks, Kelly) and she confirmed what I thought – no, it’s not supposed to cut through. Even though I used the settings that the nice YouTube lady told me to use. So I pulled back on the blade pressure and depth. They told me to use the 3 setting on all. I ended up doing 1 on depth, 1 on pressure and 3 on speed. I had a cheaper brand vinyl and a more expensive brand vinyl. I gave up on the expensive brand because it wasn’t working with the transfer tape either. UGH!

I ended up using the cheaper vinyl and it worked better – go figure. So after I figured out the settings, I cut it. This is what it looked like:

Oh, hello “fat pregnant summer hand that you can’t fit wedding rings onto anymore.” But look at those prenatal vitamin fingernails! 😉

The next step is weeding – this means you get rid of all the unwanted vinyl. You go from the above picture to this:

Now, you want to add your transfer tape. I cut a piece bigger than my words – it makes it much easier. I took off the backing and put the sticky side down onto the words above. Then I took the “scraper” that came with the transfer tape and rubbed the crap out of it on the flat floor. Just keep rubbing. Since I am a counter, I did about 50 rubs each direction:

Oh, then D popped in and helped….

He should’ve used a steam roller….

You’ll notice the hair dryer. Let me explain…..after you rub the crap out of the transfer tape, you have to remove the back of the vinyl letters so that the letters stick to the transfer tape. I was actually successful on this step without getting angry and throwing things. SCORE! So, place the transfer tape onto your project. I went to peel the transfer tape off (after rubbing the crap out of the transfer tape onto the project) and the letters were stuck to the transfer tape. Of course they were. My vinyl expert, Kelly, told me to use a hair dryer. So I heated it up and while it was still hot, I rubbed it a little more with the little popsicle stick. I slowly peeled back one corner to make sure it stuck, but AFTER IT COOLS! I am not patient so this was hard for me. Enter: facebook to kill time. Such a time suck. Love it. Once it cooled, I saw that the letters were sticking. VERY SLOWLY, I peeled back the transfer tape. Not going to lie, when I got to the end, some of the letters were not sticking to the lid of the box, so I just pushed them down with my fingernail and flattened it out as I took off the transfer tape. Perfect transition.

At the last minute, I decided to add a little car. Done! I slapped on some ribbon and a bow. I am so excited to give this to her!

This project was brought to you by the distraction of a pop up tent and tunnel and The Hulk and Ironman Show on Netflix. Seriously. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

You can really make this project your own. Have fun with it!