DIY - Vacation Momentos

If you're like me, you like to bring stuff home from trips.  I tend to save almost every stinking little thing - from boarding passes to the little luggage stickers.  Do I do anything with those?  Let's just say I have good intentions!!  I do like to dream about projects for the more fun stuff you find on vacations - like sand and seashells.

My first project was a photo box that I found on Pinterest:

Image Source

My supplies - I got the glass block from Hobby Lobby ($6 after the 40% off coupon); shells and sand from Mexico :)

I got a Cricut for Christmas, and the main reason I wanted it was to be able to do all the fun vinyl projects that are floating around Pinterest.  So, I already had the transfer tape, and I bought some white vinyl. 

 I cut out the letters and put the transfer tape on them and centered it on the block towards the bottom where the sand would be, and would allow for the picture that I wanted to put in it.  There was something about the vinyl that I bought that made it extremely difficult to get all of it off my Cricut cutting mat. It just took a little extra time and effort - otherwise this project could have been done in about half an hour total.

Then I started putting the sand in the block.  You can kinda see how clumpy the sand is, which I think adds to the character of this project.  I also put a few shells on top of the sand. I put in enough that you could see the letters over the sand, and still would have more for the other projects I wanted to do :)

I picked out a few pictures from the trip to print off, and then realized that my block was considerably smaller than a 4x6 picture.  So that helped me pick out which picture I could put in it - whichever would be easy to trim and still look good.  

And here's the final product!!

I love how simple and inexpensive it was to make (when you factor in that I already had the transfer tape and got to use the 40% off coupon for the vinyl and block), and I'll get to enjoy it on a daily basis :)

Project 2

I loved this globe with sand and shells and a candle that the hotel had sitting out, so I decided that I would make one when I got home :)

Again, I bought my globe at Hobby Lobby (it's semi dangerous that I live only 2 miles away haha!).  J picked up some shells in the ocean that seemed to have been recently vacated by the wildlife.  When I pulled them out of the plastic bag they traveled home in, they still smelled fishy and had some lovely algae or something growing on them.  I soaked them in a 50/50 water/bleach mixture for a while and then scrubbed them with a toothbrush and they came out looking pretty good.

 And viola!! The finished project.  I played around with how I wanted to put the shells in it, and opted for the simple big shell with a candle in it.  But I have options for when I want to switch out the shells.  This one couldn't have been easier!!