Let summer begin

 Let's talk cars, or rather car air fresheners. Many moons ago when I first bought my heat press and sublimation printer I bought a few of these air freshener blanks to make my own. Of course me being me I think I made one and lined it up wrong and didn't bother using the blanks again.  With summer on the way I decided it was time to brighten up the car and change the scent too. 

I grabbed what was needed, downloaded and printed out with sublimation ink and grabbed my blanks. Errands had to be run and grandchildren picked up from school so it was later in the evening before the project got finished.

It made things so much easier to just have it all prepared and ready to go. Maybe that's the key for me, being prepared and not feeling to overwhelmed. 

All that was left to do was line up the images either side of the blanks and attach them with heat tape.  This was a little fiddly and took a little while but well worth the couple of minutes playing to get them lined up.

Into the heatpress for 50 seconds a side and they came out beautifully, I grabbed the palm tree one and infused it with parma violet oil and it smells devine.  And really did the job of brightening up the car.  So come on summer we are ready for you!

The print files were from Design bundles here and here and the air freshener blanks were from Amazon.

They are great for rooms and wardrobes not just cars.  I have had a wonderful branded one in my downstairs bathroom for a while now and will replace it soon with one I make up. Fragrance oils, perfumes and essential oils are all useable.  Of course be careful to not get them on your skin and keep away from children etc.  Fun fairly quick project.

Day 1 of crafting not endlessly surfing complete.

Advent filler ideas and mugs

Still on Advent train of thought this evening. Of course, I didn't think to take photos of the contents until after I had packaged them up, that would have been way to easy to show you lol. Thought I would share a little list of things I thought could work well in an advent calendar like this or as stocking stuffers even.  The girls I made these for are 5 and 8. What might be age-appropriate for them may not be for other children though?

The first thing that came to mind is a little sweet element for each day/ I started with an assortment of mini candy canes, largish chocolate coins and wrapped chocolate balls that look like brussels sprouts. It's a big joke with the girls threatening to give them sprouts for dinner as they say they don't like them so had to get them in somewhere over Christmas.

Other things that went in were

lip balm

pom pom key chain to put on their bags

puzzle pies

stickers

small candy cane-shaped glow stick

erasers

hair bobbles

other things that would work are

handwritten seasonal jokes

an IOU for an activity that day

small pens

warm socks 

Once you start thinking the sky is the limit. You are only limited by the size of your chosen container for these things.  Use envelopes and have an activity every day instead of little gifts.  My son's favourite advents were the ones where we had an activity every day.  Things like write cards, bake for Christmas, hot chocolate and a film. It was a lovely way to build up towards the season.

This evening I sublimated 3 mugs.  This design was one of them.  Isn't the robin so handsome?

Love the sentiment that goes with it too. Always love watching the robins in the garden.  We look after my daughter's pup while she is at work and even he sits at the window watching the birds now.  Not sure he is watching with the same intents we are mind!

All in all, it's been a pretty good day today.  Tomorrow looks busy but OK.  If I can fit some crafting in I will be happy