Personalized Team Sunglasses for Ragnar!

It's always fun when I can combine two of my favorite hobbies: running and crafting! I just got back from one of my favorite races: Ragnar Trail Tahoe in Soda Springs, CA, where I ran a 129 mile relay with eight of my favorite ladies over two days. Before I left for our trip, I had to make a little somethin'-somethin' for my girls to keep us looking fresh despite the dirt, sweat, and lack of sleep.

Enter these adorable teal sunglasses! I got these babies on Amazon.com, 10 for $22. For less than $2.50 a pop, I have to say I am way impressed with the quality on these. They feel thick and look just like the old school Ray Ban wayfarers. Not the flimsy give-away pairs you get at fairs. And the teal color? Love!!

And of course I had to personalize them with vinyl. Team "What the HILL are we Doing!?" had eight runners and a volunteer (who couldn't run this year due to an injury!), so this ten pack was perfect. We even had a friend hop in at the last minute to take one leg of the relay in the middle of the night, so that tenth pair is waiting for her as a huge thank you!

I used my Silhouette Cameo 2 for this project with Oracal 651 vinyl in hot pink.

So how did I do it? First, I used a side image of the sunglasses in my Silhouette software to figure out what shape I was working with so I could make a quick mock up. I had about a 1/2 inch of height to work with and about 3 inches of width on each side.

I actually tried the sunglasses on in the mirror first before deciding on where to place the lettering. It made the most sense for each person's name to be reading from the eyes going towards the ears. It just looked weird to have a name on the other side. I also figured out that the lettering had to be as close to the eyes as possible in order to be seen and not swallowed up by hats or hair.

The font I chose is an easy-to-read (and weed!) typewriter font called "LW Perfect Font," purchased from the Silhouette Store (NOTE: this one is for personal use only!). Font size 27.5 fit perfectly to get our team name on one side of the sunglasses and each girl's name on the other side.

After typing out the team name and each person's name, I put a box around each to make weeding a bit easier. See that in the picture below? Anyone who has tried to weed a giant blob of text can attest that peeling it up in one piece can be dangerous -- one slip up, and the sticky side of your scraps can ruin the whole thing!

Since I'm using Oracal 651 vinyl, which is a bit thicker than the Silhouette brand, I set my blade to a level 2 (even though the settings will tell you to choose 1), selected vinyl as my material, and sent my vinyl through the machine on a cutting mat.

I pulled up each box around each name using the hook tool, weeded out the center of every hollow letter, and made sure that each tiny dot of every exclamation point and question mark stayed on the paper backing. Such a zen activity. Actually, it's only zen if everyone else in the house is asleep. I don't recommend weeding at the kitchen table when your toddlers are looking for snacks. Save this task for your post-bedtime glass of wine!

I put a sheet of clear transfer tape over the whole thing, then cut out each name and phrase.

Here came the tricky part: lining up the lettering and making it stick! These sunglasses are shiny, and shiny surfaces often don't adhere right away to vinyl. It took some coaxing for the vinyl to stay in place as I peeled up the transfer tape, and I was worried the lettering would just slip right off. But I'm happy to report that once it was on there, it stuck!

As we all got set up to camp out the night before the race, I handed out the sunglasses to the ladies. They were a hit! I actually ended up running in mine and hanging out in them all weekend. We had a beautifully designed tank done by one of our teammates, Brittany Garner; so between the tank and the sunglasses, we really looked like a team.

Now for the race report. I've got to say that it was tough this year! The running was breathtakingly beautiful, but the elevation and sun exposure was quickly sapping our team. Nine hours into the race, and it looked like we had gone from 8 runners to only 5 who were capable of continuing on. But, man, I am so proud of us for pulling through and finishing it, and in a decent time, too! At the end of the race, I was making lists of what we should pack differently for next year while my teammates gave me some serious side-eye at the suggestion of ever coming back to this death march. But as we each got home, kissed our babies, took long showers and got some sleep, it was clear that this would not be our last Ragnar. But what should I craft up for the team next year??

How cute are these team shirts?? Lucky we had Brittany from Brittany Garner Design to whip these up for us! I'm obsessed with my Mother of Wildlings mug from her shop.