SANTA! I Know Him...

Wait. What? It's SEPTEMBER. But oooh--weee I LOVE me some Christmastime. And, really NOW is the time to start thinking about it, believe it or not. Especially if you are a crafter and like giving homemade gifts to your friends and family. Do a craft or two each weekend between now and Christmas and you'll be stocked up! 

I did my first Christmas craft of the season recently - my Santa Tray! This has consistently been my BEST-SELLER EVER in both my Design Bundles and my Etsy shops. It was so much fun to design. I wanted to try out some glitter vinyl that I found at one of the local vinyl places. This Santa Tray is so easy to put together. There are so many ways you could pair different colored vinyl for this project. I have another tray that I might paint all red or all green and use white glitter vinyl for the design. The round I used for this project -- I didn't paint it or do anything to it at all except rub it down with rubbing alcohol. I liked the way it was, nice and simple. 

This project was fairly easy and didn't really take a whole lot of time, simply because the design part is already done! For this project, you will need the following supplies:

• Tray of choice - Hobby Lobby has a TON of them in their unfinished wood section!
• Rubbing alcohol and cotton balls or rounds
• Vinyl -- I used permanent glitter vinyl
• Transfer Tape - DO NOT USE DOLLAR STORE CONTACT PAPER
• SVG, designed by yours truly -- and can be found here or here

I measured my tray, opened the design in Design Space, and resized it to fit the tray. I left about an inch or so all the way around so it would be easy to adhere. 

Full disclaimer: Glitter vinyl is OK to work with, but it is definitely not as good as regular vinyl or HTV. The teeny snowflakes gave me a run for my money, but I worked it out eventually. I had intended on using a light blue for the snowflakes, but it turns out I didn't have that color as I had originally thought, so I just made them green and red. Still looks cute, but I think light blue would've looked better, just sayin'. 

I made sure that all of the green items were attached in DS before I hit "Make It" so that everything would stay exactly where it is, and it's SUPER easy to adhere to the round that way. (My download includes the multi-colored one that you see here, and also a solid color one. The multi-colored one actually comes pre-attached according to color. The black one is all ungrouped, and you can leave it that way or change each individual item to whatever color you want and either attach it then, or you can leave it separate and piece it together yourself, depending upon the look that you are going for.) I used contact paper to pull it up and place it on my tray. NOTE: DO NOT use the Dollar Store contact paper if you are using glitter vinyl -- holy hell, what a nightmare. I can't speak for it on regular vinyl, but it did not go well on this glitter vinyl. I ended up using my Cricut go-to. It works fine. And I've used the same big piece for literally over a year now. 

Once my green items were all on there, I cut the red and lined it up with a REAL transfer sheet this time (NOT THE DOLLAR STORE CRAP!). And ta-da! My Santa tray is all done and ready for Christmas. And trust me, I know it seems early, but you will be SO HAPPY that this little project is all done and ready once the big man wiggles his big butt down your chimney. :) It'll be here before you know it! 

 Wanna make one yourself? You can get the SVG right here on my website. Or head over to Design Bundles and see if it's on sale there...I like to run sales over there from time to time! :) While you're there, check out the amazing bundles they have right now! If you're a crafter, you need this in your life, trust me.