Bunco Water Bottle – White Elephant Gift

Outside my window the first snowflakes of the season are slowly floating down.  It doesn’t look like it will amount to much, but the snow, combined with the drop in temperature we have experienced lately are just more reminders that fall is on its way out and winter will be here much more quickly than I am comfortable with.  Life is crazy busy right now and there is so much I would like to get done before the weather sets in.  *sigh*  I don’t think it’s all going to be finished.  But.  When I do find a little time to get ahead of things I like to take advantage of it.  Today is one of those days.

My mom started a Bunco group years ago – back when it was really trendy in our area.  I can’t remember if I was in high school or college at the time, but that group is still going strong 15-20 years later.  After I moved back home last year I subbed at Bunco a couple of times and when a spot for a regular member opened up I was asked to join.  The game itself isn’t hard, nor do I think winning one of the prizes is really the point – though sometimes they do have some great prizes!  The appeal, for me, is to have a reason to leave the kids at home and have some dinner and a few laughs with a great group of women I may not regularly spend time with otherwise.

We had our latest Bunco Night this past week and it caught me by surprise when they started talking about Christmas party plans for the next get together.  A white elephant gift?!  It’s been years since I had to bring one of those to a party.  And while I love the idea of a fun and quirky gift, I also like gifts to be useful so I came up with the idea for a Bunco themed cup of some sort.  I drug my husband along to TJ Maxx with me last night during a super-rare date night in which we had a little time to waste between dinner and the movie and was happy to find this great water bottle – and for only $4 too!

One of my favorite tricks when I want something customized and unique is to add a quote or lettering in vinyl.  It’s a pretty simple thing to do with a die cutting machine and I have a Silhouette which I love to put to work on projects like this one.

I chose to add the words Bunco Diva and a few dice shapes to round out the design.
*In case you are wondering, the font for the lettering Lounge Bait (found it free HERE) and the dice are dPoly Block Dice dingbats (found HERE).  And did I mention to be sure to use OUTDOOR vinyl?  By using outdoor vinyl and making sure you get the vinyl on really well, these can be washed on the top shelf of the dishwasher without any problems.

I would have added some feathers, as I was in that kind of mood 😉  but as I didn’t have feathers on hand I went with a fun glittery bow.  Now I just need to decide what to put inside the bottle – any ideas?  I may just end up stuffing it with chocolate if I don’t come up with a better idea before the party.  For now, I’m patting myself on the back for being on the ball with this single Christmas project – and we will just ignore the fact that there are at least 50 more things on the list that will need attention, won’t we?  What’s on your project list?  Have you started any Christmas prepping yet?

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. From Wine to Whine // 2. Creative Ramblings // 3. Adventures in All Things Food // 4. unOriginal Mom // 5. Small Stuff Counts // 6. Alayna’s Creations // 7. Single Yet Married Mom // 8. Comfort and Yum // 9. Tori Grant Designs // 10. Cutesy Crafts // 11. The Crafting Nook // 12. Whatcha Workin’ On? // 13. Architecture of a Mom // 14. Havalah // 15. Create & Babble // 16. A Time For Seasons

Linking to:  Made By You Monday, Snickerdoodle Sunday, Merry Monday, Tip Me Tuesday, Lou Lou Girls,